All right, brethren, let's be
turning to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. And we'll be picking up in verse
49, looking at five verses. And in this text, our Lord describes
his gospel as a fire, a fire which he sends upon the earth. Now the gospel declares in the
gospel, it declares who the Lord Jesus Christ is, who he is, why
he came, and what he accomplished in his coming. And by the grace
of God, he makes that to be our confession. He makes that to
be our hope. He gives us faith in that doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we love him for it. We love him
for what he did for us. Now the gospel, as we'll see,
also reveals the sufferings of Christ. The bruising of his heel,
the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he suffered in
his work of redemption, in his coming here in the flesh, and
all that he suffered from man. It reveals his sufferings up
to his suffering on the cross and his death. His suffering
under the wrath of God and his death for his people and the
gospel in declaring the gospel faithfully. It divides men. We'll see that it divides those
to whom this word comes. Some will believe and some will
not believe this word. So that in hearing it, a man
will be set against another man. One will say, I hear. That's
the Christ. This Jesus of Nazareth, he is
the Son of God, the Savior, whom God the Father sent into the
world to save his people from their sins, and he accomplished
it. That's my hope. That's my hope. Another will
say, no, no, that's not it. I don't believe that. I don't
agree with that at all. And they'll be set against one
another because of the truth set forth in this gospel word. Christ Jesus, is either your
Savior, Christ Jesus is either your Savior, or you cannot be
saved at all. If you're saved, if God receives
you, it is only by the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is offensive
to those who worship an idol God. That's offensive to those
whose hope is fixed in dead things, dead religion, vain religion.
They don't see it as vain religion, but if they die in that vain
hope of what they're doing to save themselves, they will die
in their sins. They will die in their sins and
bear the judgment of God against them, which they've earned by
their works. There is salvation in no other
name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. If we're to be saved, it's by
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. So to make this known to us,
our Lord says here in verse 49, Luke 12, 49, I am come to send
fire on the earth. And what will I, if it be already
kindled? He's saying, I'd prefer it was
already started. I'm looking forward to establishing
the gospel, that it be put in the mouth, in the heart and in
the mouth of my people, and they declare it, because it's a fire.
It's going to prosper in that which I send it to do. And so
it's described as a fire because it's going to spread over the
earth like a burning fire. We see many fires, wildfires,
out in California and in Canada, and it just spreads and spreads
and spreads. That's how this gospel goes forth.
It just spreads through acres of people. And it reveals them
that are the Lord's and those who are not His. Why is the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ likened to a fire? Because a fire burns
everything in its path. It destroys those things which
can be consumed by fire. It destroys those things. It
sets them ablaze and brings them down to nothing. You think about
yourself. Each of us think about ourselves.
And you think about all the religion we've gone through in life. And
all the baggage, all the trinkets of religion we've picked up.
I like that. That's cool. I like that shiny object. I think
I'll take that. I'll take a little bit of this
and a little bit of that. And it's all this baggage, which
is garbage. It's fit for the dung heap. It's worthless things that cannot
save us. And yet we fixed on this, and
we fixed on that, and we took this and that. And the Gospel,
when you hear it, burns those vain hopes up. It destroys them. It puts them down. We're told
that by the Gospel, the Gospel casts down vain imaginations,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. So that I, as your pastor, I'm
continually corrected by the gospel. I'm continually taught
by the gospel. I see still the deadness of religion
in dark recesses of the heart, which is rooted out by the light
of the gospel, by the fire coming in and saying, that's garbage. Get rid of that. Throw that out. Toss that. It's got no place
here. So we're all taught, we're continually taught by the Lord
in the face of Jesus Christ by this gospel and by his blessing,
this word to us to give us life and hope and faith and satisfaction
in him. Because God, our Father, is satisfied
in him. And he shows us this. He keeps
us by his word. He grows us by this word. He
takes things out of our hand by this word. And he puts in
good things, good things, precious things, things that are lasting,
gold, silver, precious stones that cannot be shaken by by this
world or anything. And so we see a man's works. These are the works of the flesh.
And in scripture, our works are likened to wood, hay, and stubble. Stubble, little bits of wood
and hay that just light up. and go up in flames and are destroyed
quickly. So that all that we trust in
by nature, our works, right? There was a time when we trusted
in what we did and what we didn't do. What we said and what we
didn't say. And we thought, that's my righteousness.
And we trusted in this religion. And we trusted in doing things
this way. And we had confidence here and
there in things that cannot save. We trusted in the ordinances
to save us, or we trusted in our knowledge of doctrine and
scripture, that that was what saved us. But we're brought to
see that Christ is our salvation. We're brought to see that he
is all, and to trust in him. And so all these things that
we were hoping in, our wisdom, our law keeping, whatever it
is, No matter how religious, what we were trusting him, we
see it for what it is now. It's stubble. It's wood. It's
hay. And it gets destroyed by the
gospel. Praise be God. He destroys it. Why would God use his gospel
in this manner? Because God saves. Not you, not
me. God saves whom he will. And he
delivers his people from trusting things that cannot save them.
Things that would sink them down like having a rock tied around
your neck and thrown into the ocean. He takes those things
and delivers us. He removes us from that condemnation. John said it this way. in 1 John
4, 9, and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. You that live upon the Lord Jesus
Christ have a good hope, a sure hope given unto you out of the
love of God revealed in your hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our Lord sent his son
to come and accomplish for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He did it. He did it. And then
in 1 John 4, 14, And we have seen and do testify that the
Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, meaning
all his people scattered across the world. There is but one Savior. That's what he's testifying there.
There's one Savior. There's one salvation. There's
not a salvation for you here in America or Western Europe.
There's not another God or another Savior for those in Asia. There's
not another God or Savior for those in Africa. There's one
Savior for the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're saved,
it's by the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me, by Christ. He is the Savior. Brethren, so
he's warning us there's a judgment coming. There's a judgment coming
which will prove every man's work. It'll destroy our works,
our wood, hay, and stubble that we're trusting. It's going to
prove it, and it's going to burn up, and it's going to fall away
like tattered ashes. And that garment that we come
in, in our works, by nature, thinking, this is my righteousness.
This is going to get me acceptance with God. It's going to be proven
in the judgment. And if it's not Christ's work,
it's going to just burn up. And the ashes are going to fall
off the way that Adam and Eve's fig leaf religion was going to
do, as it dried up and withered and just crumbled away like a
leaf. It just falls apart. And so it's not our works that
save us. It's not what we can do or don't
do or try to do. It's a new creation that the
Lord Jesus Christ reveals and makes us a new creature in him,
trusting him for righteousness, trusting him for salvation. And his work produces the fruit
of righteousness in us. It's his spirit. It's his work.
It's his power and grace. Therefore, all that men make
is going to be shaken in that day. All that we make and trust
in and think, this is my righteousness, it's going to be shaken. We read
in Hebrews 12, where Hebrews 12 describes this fire as a shaking,
a shaking by the Lord. And it speaks of a voice, whose
voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying,
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And what he's talking about is
the law. Under the law, it gave us a pattern
of things in heaven. It gave us a pattern of those
things. That's just the wind moving those garlands around
my thing. But it gave us a pattern of those things in heaven through
the law. But that was shaken. When Christ
came, that was shaken and brought down so that we're not under.
the law anymore. We're not under those things.
We see Christ. We see Christ and we come to
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this word yet once more signified
the removing of those things that are shaken as of things
that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. And so, What's made? What do you mean by made? Anything
that we make by our works, by our words, by our will, by our
decision, by our doing, by our coming down the aisle, anything
we make all crumbles and falls before Christ. who is preeminent,
made preeminent in our hearts through the gospel, through the
hearing of faith, by the application of his spirit, making it effectual
in our hearts, so that we are new creatures in Christ. That
veil that was over the heart is cut off and removed, and we
see the light of Christ, the glory of God in the face of Christ,
and we come in him. We come in Him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And that's the
adorning of his gospel. That hope which is given to us
of Christ, that faith which believes Christ, that love to him. That's
how we adorn the gospel of which our Lord speaks to us and teaches
us and blesses us in. For our God is a consuming fire. The old way of doing things is
gone. It's gone. I have no hope, no
confidence in vain dead religion. I don't need to wear a robe.
I don't need to come down the aisle holding a stave with swinging
incense after the pattern here in the Old Testament. Those things
don't save. Those things don't sanctify.
Those things don't help us at all. But they're just a pattern
of things. And Christ is the substance of
those things. We have the very substance of
him who speaks to us from heaven and reveals himself to us in
glory, in power, in grace. So our Lord is telling us this
to fix our hope and our comfort, not in what we do, but in what
Christ has done. Believe him. Trust him. He is
the very righteousness by which you enter into the presence of
God and are received of him. and embraced by him in Christ. Christ is the ark, as when God
said, come into the ark, because he was there in the ark, and
that's where we fellowship with Almighty God in Christ, in Christ. He says, verse 50, but I have
a baptism to be baptized with, right? I want this fire to be
started, but I've got a baptism to be baptized with. I've got
to establish this gospel. I've got to make it so. by my work. By my work, I have
a baptism to be baptized with, and how I'm straightened till
it be accomplished." This has to happen first, and then that
fire is going to go forth. This must be done first. And
so this is the foundation of our hope and confidence. This
is it. What he's talking about here, this suffering here, is
why we hope in him, why we are just to believe Christ. Why the
Father justifies those whose hope is in Him? Because it's
so. It's so. This is the salvation
of God. This is the Savior whom the Father
hath sent. This is why God may be just,
to be merciful to you that come to Him, trusting Christ. Because Christ established that
work. This baptism that he was baptized
with is the work of salvation for his people. It's what he
accomplished for us on the cross when he, as our substitute, took
the place of our punishment, took our place bearing our sins
in his own body on the tree to put it away. When he is our shorty,
settle the debt that we owe. settle the debt unto the Father
that we owe to God and he compares his suffering in our room instead
to a baptism because of the immensity of it because of the overwhelmingness
of it the force of it which was coming upon him to bear for his
people in their place and It's a baptism because it goes over
the top of the head. It's immense. It's on every side,
knocking him around, hitting him. He's bearing it for his
people. In Psalm 69, turn there to Psalm
69, and we see the words of Christ as our high priest making an
offering of himself to the Father for our forgiveness. for our
life, for our salvation. Psalm 69, and in verse 1, he
describes this baptism, this suffering which he bore for us. Save me, O God, verse 1, save
me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink
in deep mire. That's our sin. That's the blackness
and filth of our sin and all our trespasses and transgressions
and iniquities right there, that deep mire where there is no standing. It's so deep I can't even stand.
I am come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. If you've ever gone, I know in
Missouri we're landlocked, but if you've ever had the pleasure,
I call it a pleasure, of going to the beach. In Jersey it's
called the shore. You go down the shore or you
go to a beach somewhere and it's a rough day in the surf and you're
trying to ride those waves, body surf or something like that.
They'll get you. At some point, it's going to
be so forceful, it's going to knock you down, you're going
to be tumbled over under that water, smashing your face and
chest onto the sand, the grit, the gravel, the broken shells,
and you're just rolled around and tumbled at times. That's
what the picture is here. That's what Christ bore for us.
That beating that we rightly deserved. I am weary, he said,
of my crying. My throat is dried. My eyes fail
while I wait for my God. We give up. We tire. And we finally say, I can't do
it no more and just go on the best we can. Christ never failed. That's love. Love never fails. It never comes to the end. Christ
was faithful unto the Father, waiting upon Him, believing Him,
trusting and doing everything that we come short in. Christ
did it fully, perfectly, to the uttermost for us, brethren. They
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine
head." Right? All of the nations, all the peoples,
Jew and Gentile, were united against Christ, against the Christ
of God. and were angry with him, and
fighting against him, and put him to death. Why? All he did was good. All he did
was what the Father sent him to do for the salvation of his
people. But we hated him without a cause.
They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully. That
pierces my heart. When we were enemies with our
Savior wrongfully, who came to do nothing but good for us. And
we fought against him with fists held high. resisted him and denied
him. They're mighty. Then, he says,
in that time when we were enemies against God, then I restored
that which I took not away. Christ satisfied justice for
you, sinner, you that believe in him, you that trust him, you
that have no righteousness. Christ restored that which you
took away, that which you did. And what I did, he did, he made
up for it. He paid the price. He was the
ransom to deliver your soul and my soul from the pit and take
us out of it. And not only take us out of it,
but give us life abundantly in him, by him. And he's speaking
here of what we read in 2 Corinthians 5.21. but God made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So that the Lord Jesus Christ
bore our sins away, took them away, put them away forever,
buried where they'll never be found, never be found. And he
said, oh God, thou knowest my foolishness and my sins are not
hid from thee. I can't even explain that. But
he took them, and bore them, and put them away forever. Let
not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, those who seek
a righteousness, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
and would be reconciled to God, let not them who wait on thee
be ashamed for my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. It reminds me of what
he said when he was here in the flesh and said, and blessed is
he whosoever shall not be offended in me. For my words, and for
my works, and for what I did on the cross when I hung there
bearing the wrath of God in the place of my children. Don't be
offended. Don't be offended. Go without
the city. Go to him who bore the shame.
Trust Him, believe Him, fall upon Him, cry out to Him for
mercy, for He's a merciful Savior, willing to save, able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto Him by faith which He gives
you. He calls and He draws and brings
you to Himself. You that see and behold that
Christ is the Savior, believe Him. Cry out to Him for mercy.
Wait no longer. ain't gonna be anything else
he's telling you his word he's revealing himself to you come
to him come to him believe him cry out to him he saves all who
call upon him he tells us verse 7 because for thy sake for the
Lord, according to the will of his Father, I have borne reproach,
shame hath covered my face." That's why. That's why we see
him doing what he did, because he was accomplishing the will,
the eternal will and purpose of God to establish this gospel,
to establish us in the covenant of grace that this good news, this gospel,
might be declared and go forth as a fire across the earth, burning
up the dead works of men, that we might come to the true and
living God in the precious one, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom
we will not be denied, in whom we will not be cast out, in whom
the Father is well pleased, in him, in him. And so, now, not
only does this word burn up our false hopes and lies that wood,
hay, and stubble, but the gospel also divides men. It's declared
it divides. It divides very men. And because
God testifies by this word those whom he loves and died for. He testifies those whom he loves
and died for. He's going to manifest it through
the preaching of the Word and the giving of the Spirit. He's
going to manifest those whom he loves and those whom he hates,
meaning those whom he leaves to their own devices and does
nothing for them. I know it sounds harsh, but it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What does
he mean by that, Jacob I loved and Esau have I hated? When you
look at Esau and Jacob, both of those two boys are the same
parents, same grandparents, same great-grandparents, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. Well, Abraham and Isaac. Both
those boys, Esau and Jacob, had much in this faith. Esau inherited
the land of Edom. He did well. He said, I have
so much, brother. I don't need your sheep and your
bulls and goats. I don't need the gifts that you
sent to me. I have everything I need in this world. That's
all he cared for. It was a rejection of the blessings
of God. That's what it pictured there.
But he was fine in this world. And when you look at Esau, you
say, he was a reasonably decent fellow. I wouldn't mind having
Esau as a neighbor. That's what you see when you
look at Esau. He was a capable man, a competent man, a wealthy
man. And he was pretty good, pretty
good guy. And you look at Jacob, and you're
like, this guy's kind of crafty. He plays some games. He'll pull
some fast ones over on you if you're not careful. But who did
God bless? Who did God reveal himself to?
Jacob. Jacob. And that's what we're
talking about. It is the spiritual blessing
of God so that God went and revealed himself to Jacob. Esau grew up with Jacob in the
tents of Abraham and Isaac. He saw the sacrifices. He heard
the words. But he had no heart for God. He was left to himself. And that's
the hatred. He was just left to himself.
And it shows us that without God doing a work to save that
sinner, to make his word effectual in our hearts, We're just Esau's. We might be decent people on
the earth, but we have no hope of eternal life. But though we
in ourselves see what we would not see, if God has revealed
himself to you, that is the blessing and love of God for you. That's the blessing and love
of God to do for you what We can't do for ourselves. And that's
really the power of what the Apostle John meant when he wrote
in 1 John 4, 19, we love him because he first loved us. And that's more than, well, he
loves me, so I love him back. No, no. That's, I wouldn't love
him except he loved me first. And his love produces love in
my heart. His love produces a hope in me.
His love produces faith in me. He gives everything I need to
know him. It's of His power. We give Him
all the thanks and the praise. And there's a hope there. And Esau didn't have that hope,
but Jacob did. Jacob did. Why? Because God went
and revealed Himself. And you that hear Him and know
that Jesus Christ is the Savior of God and there's no other Savior,
there's no other salvation, that's a blessed hope. Keep coming to
the Father in Him. Keep coming. Keep coming. Venturing
upon Christ wholly. You that believe, you that have
faith in Him, that is the gift of God. That is His revelation,
that He died for you, that He accomplished salvation in your
heart. That's what He does. He gives faith. You don't need
to then start looking at your works and wonder, well, am I
an Esau or Jacob? If you believe Christ, Continue
in that, walk in that faith, because that is the manifestation
of His grace wrought in your heart. You believe Him. You believe Him. All I know is
I was a sinner without any hope, but now I believe. He's all my
hope. That's of God. God does that.
He puts that there. He gives that heart. And he asks,
our Lord asks in verse 51, suppose ye that I am come to give peace
on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. I suspect that
Some, if not all, the disciples there thought, this Jesus is
just getting more and more popular. And everyone's going to believe
on him. And we're early adopters. And so we were in there early.
And everyone's going to receive us. There's coming a day when
we'll be welcome in anybody's house preaching the gospel. And
Christ is saying, no, no, not so. This gospel is going to divide,
man. It's going to reveal them that
are of the seed of the promise seed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and them who are the seed of the serpent, which goes back
to the promise made in the garden when the voice of God himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head. And thou shalt bruise his heel.
He suffered. Christ suffered for it. But he
overcame and destroyed the works of the devil, just bringing it
all down to nothing, and delivered his people from that captivity
into the kingdom of life, where he always purposed us to be,
and did it to glorify his son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the promised seed. And we're born again of that
seed of Christ, you that believe. It's because you've been given
life and faith and hope. It's living faith that believes
Christ. It's a new birth. So that the
old way, trying to come to God in dead letter religion, is done. We don't want no part of it anymore. We want Christ. We want Christ. And he's our life. He's the one
whom we feed upon. And our thirst is quenched in
him. And you that hear, keep hearing
it. Keep believing it. You that believe,
keep believing. Keep venturing upon Christ. Hearing that word because he's
just burning up all the vain things that don't save. And he's
putting in its place precious stones in gold and silver. And he's sealing you up in Christ. to the praise and glory of his
name. We see the seed of the serpent, right? There's Cain,
and Ham, and Nimrod, and all those fellows. They just were
content in the earth. They were great men in the earth.
They were giants in the earth. But they have no inheritance
of lasting things. They have no inheritance in Christ. And so the seed of the serpent
remains in darkness. It continues in hypocrisy. and
vain dead letter religion, which the Lord, by his gospel and grace,
delivers us and separates us from, to the praise of his name. And so men can be entirely disinterested
in religion. It's good for some people and
not good for other people. People can just pass on religion
here and there all the time. But the gospel, when they hear
the gospel, They're not indifferent to it. They either love Christ
or they hate him. They either love you for preaching
the gospel to them or they hate you. All right? There's no middle
ground with the gospel because the gospel reduces us all to
the same. You could be a wealthy, fine-looking,
upstanding person, intelligent and everything, and you're reduced
down to you're on the same level as the drunkard in the gutter.
It reduces us all to sinners. It makes us all level, all in
need of the Savior, all need washing. Everyone needs the blood
of Christ to be saved. And men don't like that because
it makes us all the same. I've done nothing but that which
I ought to do. I haven't gained anything by
my works. Who am I to boast in myself? And so all our sinners,
all are laid bare as lost, ignorant people, all are shown that we're
unwilling and unable to come except the Father which sent
the Son draw us. We're all coming as mercy beggars,
begging him for mercy and grace. And that's what he puts in us,
and he makes us content to be that way. to come as mercy beggars. It's him testifying. You're mine. You're mine. Keep coming, sinner. Keep coming. It's what he does.
And that one who says, no, I'm pretty good under the law. I
don't need that much help. You're lost. You're lost. And
if you continue in that, then you're lost. But thanks be to
God, we have a pattern in Paul who the Lord had to bear long
with him, so some people do. He does that to bear along with
many. He bore along with me. And many of you will probably
say the same thing. He's bearing along with me, separating me
from dead things. Thank you, Lord. And he does
that, and he makes us thankful in him. So that's the offense
of the gospel, that all are sinners and capable of saving themselves
You need the grace of God, and he's provided it fully, richly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
runneth, nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that's what he's declaring
and revealing in Christ, who suffered and died and rose again
for the salvation of his people, to deliver us from that wrath
and to give us life in himself. That's what he does. And so powerful
and certain is this salvation for Christ's seed while being
hated by so many, by the seed of the serpent. The Lord said,
verse 52 and 53, for from henceforth there shall be five in one household,
three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided
against the son, and the son against the father. The mother
against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother.
And the mother-in-law, right, the wife of the son in the house,
right, the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the
daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. Five, five people right there,
and there's a division. But it shows us that even the
thickness of blood, the family's blood, Christ overcomes. and it separates those bonds
and is able to deliver us from the seed of the serpent, right,
from that inheritance and that body of death and establish us,
fix us in the body of Christ, that our inheritance be found
in him, established by him to the praise and glory of his name. So the gospel is a fire and it
burns up the vain things we're trusting in. but it puts in its
place that which is precious, life, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whereby we praise God. And he tells us, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Amen. Dear Lord, we
thank you for your grace. Lord, we tremble before your
word, knowing that it is a fire and that you divide us, not by
our works, not by our looks, not by our wealth, not by our
intelligence and what we have, but you divide us as it pleases
you, as you've chosen and determined before the foundation of the
world, without us doing any good or evil, but because you would
be merciful to whom you would be merciful, and compassionate
to whom you would be compassionate, and gracious to whom you would
be gracious. Lord, by your grace and power, let us be found in
that number of your saints in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
wash us of our sins. Whatever we are in this flesh,
Lord, have mercy. Deliver us from it and fix us
in Christ. Let us not look to things that
we can't solve or know, but let us look to Christ and to believe
Him and to call upon Him and that You would bless us in Him
with life and salvation evermore. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen.