R.A.Torrey
1856-1928

Fire Spreads
Nothing spreads like fire. I remember hearing some years ago, before I went to live in Chicago, about an old Irish woman who had a little shanty in the city, with a little shed back of it in which she kept a cow. One night while milking her cow, the cow suddenly kicked and knocked over her lantern. The lantern fell on a wisp of straw, which caught fire and set the shed afire. The shed set the shanty afire, and the shanty next to it caught fire, and the shanty next to that, and the one next to that. Soon the fire leaped over the south branch of the Chicago river to the east side. On and on it swept. In forty-eight hours it had cleared an area of one mile wide and three miles long. There were but two buildings left in all that section of Chicago.

Fire spreads. If a fire is kindled here tonight, it will sweep all over London, all over Great Britain and Ireland. That night I spoke of at the beginning of my sermon in Chicago, a stranger from London came to hear me preach. He came downstairs in response to my invitation and told us. “I am just in Chicago today from London, and I want this baptism of fire.”

He got it! When he left the church he went to his room and wrote a letter to the Bible class of which he was a member in London. The teacher read it to the class. The fire of God came into that class. About two weeks after he had sent the letter, he got word from London that the fire which fell in Chicago had been kindled in that church in London. Nothing spreads like fire. Do we not need the baptism with this fire tonight?

II. THE FIRE OF JUDGMENT THAT WILL TRY THE BELIEVER’S WORKS
The second fire you will find in 1 Corithians 3:13,15:
“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is............ If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved: yet so as by fire.”

This second fire is the fire of judgment, testing our works at the judgement seat of Christ.

Now the judgement here is not the judgement regarding our salvation. These are saved people whose works are burnt up. All the work we do for Christ is to be put to the test, to the severest kind of test the fire test. Friends a great deal the church of Christ is doing professedly for Christ, and a great deal individual Christians are doing, will never stand the fire test.

Do you think these church fairs and bazaars and all that sort of tomfoolery by which the church of Christ is brought down to the level of the dime museum, into which so many professed Christians are putting their best energies - do you think that these will stand the fire test? Never! They will all go up in smoke. You may be saved, but you will lose your reward. You will be saved so as by fire.

A great deal of work done is good, but done not to God’s glory, but for personal ambition-the good sermon, perfectly orthodox, severely logical, beautifully rhetorical, the sermon that even good people applaud, but preached not that God may be glorified in the salvation of sinners, but that the preacher may be applauded. Do you think that will stand the fire test? Never! It will go up in smoke.

The beautiful solos sung, the philanthropic work done, the personal soul winning work done, not for God’s glory, but for the exaltation of self-will these stand the fire test? Never! They will all go up in smoke.

Oh the night of which I have been speaking in my church, the two leading singers went down into that second meeting. The leading soprano - a beautiful singer, one of the most beautiful singers I have ever heard-said, “I never thought of it before. I don’t believe I have sung a solo in my life for God. I sang it for self.”

The fire of God came upon my leading soprano and my leading contralto, and I lost them both, for they became missionaries. I would like to lose the whole choir, if I could lose them in the same way!

Furthermore, let me say, good work, done for a good purpose but done in our own strength and not in the power of the Holy Ghost, will not stand the fire test. The sermon preached to glorify God, but preached with the enticing words of man’s wisdom and not in demonstration of the Spirit and power of God -will it stand the fire test? Never! So, men and women our work is to be tried regarding its character, regarding its motive, regarding its power in which it is done. Will your work stand the fire?

III THE FIRE OF ETERNAL DOOM

We come now to the third fire. We read of it in II Thessalonians 1:7-9:]

“The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.”

The third fire is the fire of eternal doom. Every one of us must meet God in fire somewhere. Some, I hope, will meet Him in the fire of baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. Some, I know, will meet Him in that great judgement day, when the fire will try our work, of what sort it is. And oh, some, I fear - God grant it may be very few - may meet Him in the fire of eternal doom.

Were you ever severely burned? Did you ever see anyone severely burned? I have been, and I have seen such a sight.

The superficial thinker says, “Oh, I cannot believe that. I cannot believe that a merciful God is going to let men go on suffering day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, with no hope.”

Open your eyes! Look at what isgoing on right around you in London. Is not God permitting men and women who sin, especially in certain specific forms of sin, to suffer most awful agonies day after day, month after month, year after year, without one hope of relief unless they repent? And when the time of possible repentance is past - and it must pass sometime - when the time of possible repentance is past, and this goes on and on and on, ever worse and worse, a man eventually goes to Hell.

You don’t get rid of Hell by getting rid of the Bible, or by getting rid of God. Hell is here. Hell is a fact in London tonight. The only change the Bible and God make is that they open a door of hope; and when you banish God and the Bible, the only change you make is that you shut the only door of hope. The infidels are guilty of the amazing folly of trying to close Hell by shutting the only door of hope. Hell is here. It is present day fact. And unless there are repentance and acceptance of Christ, it will be an eternal and endless fact.

You say, “For whom?” Listen: “Taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel.’

First, “on them that know not God.” That is plain English for agnostics. Do you know what agnostic means? A great many people are proud of saying, ”I am an agnostic’, Well, Agnostic means “know not” or “know nothing”; it is used of those who “know not God.” So our text says God will render vengeance on agnostics.

Someone says, ‘That is not just.” I cannot help that; it is a fact. But it is just. You ought to know God; you haveno excuse for not knowing God.

The most solemn duty that lies upon every man is to find out about God, and there is a way to know God. The trouble is, you don’t want to know God. Any agnostic who wants to know God will soon get acquainted with Him. I was once an agnostic, but I was an honest one and I did not take long to find God.

Only the other night a man said to me, “I am an agnostic.” I pointed him to a way out of agnosticism, a reasonable way, and asked, “Is not that reasonable”?

He said, “Yes.”

Then I said, “Will you try it”?

He said, “No, I won’t.’

His agnosticism is not his misfortune; it is his sin. The first and most solemn obligation resting on the creature is to know and worship and serve the Creator. You ought to know God, and if you refuse to know Him, the Lord Jesus will be revealed at last rendering vengeance on you and other agnostics.

Not only to agnostics, but “on them that ...... obey not the gospel.’

Many a man is not an agnostic, but he does not obey the Gospel. There are many of you people who would support what I say about agnosticism, but you do not obey the Gospel. You do not believe with real faith, which means absolute surrender to and confidence in the Lord Jesus. You do not openly confess Him as the Gospel commands. He will render vengeance to you; shall be “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.’

Men and women, every one of us must meet God in fire. Oh do you not an to meet Him in the glorious fire of the Holy Ghost refining you from sin, cleansing the dross and filth, illuminating you with God’s glorious truth, warming the cold heart until it glows with holy love, energizing you with the power of God, and spreading wherever it goes?

Or do you wish to meet God in fire at that judgment day, that will try your work as to character, motive, the power that wrought it, and send all your works up in smoke, and leave you there stripped, saved “so as by fire”?

Or will you meet God in that awful fire of enternal doom, when the day comes that the same Christ whom you have rejected and trampled underfoot comes back again in the glory of the Father, with His mighty angels, rendering “vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel”