Dead Sticks Make A Good Fire

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Pastor James May

DEAD STICKS MAKE A GOOD FIRE

One of the most common things that people do for entertainment and relaxation is to go to a weekend or vacation retreat at a campground. Some, like myself, do not enjoy roughing it very much. My idea of roughing it is to go camping either in a nice self contained RV or to find the nicest hotel room or cabin that I can afford and just camp out in the bed with the TV on. There was a time when I would take my young children and go tent camping but I’m too much into convenience and comfort to do that. The last time I set up my cabin style tents, I picked up a handful of rocks and threw them at the tents, then took the tents down and quickly “donated” them to anyone who would have them.

Even though I don’t camp much, when I do have the opportunity to do so there is one part of the camping experience that I really do enjoy. That is sitting around the campfire, eating, drinking, talking to friends and family and just watching the fire burn. There is just something about watching a campfire burn that is totally mesmerizing and relaxing to most people.

In order to have a campfire, you have to either bring or find some seasoned wood for fuel. Has anyone ever tried to start a fire or burn green wood? I purchased some firewood a few months ago that wasn’t completely seasoned. That was some of the hardest wood to burn that I’ve ever seen. You could use a quart of lighter fluid on it and it would still just lie there and simmer. I finally had to find some dead sticks to mix in with the green wood; then I was able to get the fire to burn.

This morning I want to bring a message from God’s Word concerning the fuel that feeds the flames of God’s wrath and judgment. There are a vast number of people who refuse to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ and will be part of that fuel that feeds the fires of hell. There are also a large percentage of those who claim to be Christian already that will be right there, right along side of those who never accept Jesus in those flames for eternity.

When I think of the judgment to come there is more sad than to think of all the unsaved who will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire with the Devil and his angels. But there is one segment of those who will be there whose condition will be far worse. That Lake of Fire will be a place of absolute and limitless torment of those who once knew the salvation that Jesus can give; who once knew the anointing of the Holy Spirit in their lives; who have heard the message of the gospel so many times; and who have once tasted of the goodness of the Lord.

Hebrews 6:4-6 will be realized in all of its implied horror when it says, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."

For those who have once known Jesus and who have walked away from him to live their lives according to the dictates of their own heart, this passage will come to their mind over and over again and they will be in utter despair for they will know that there is no turning back now. The last chance to surrender to Christ is lost past and all is lost.