Our Lord often as we know used
pictures and analogies parables metaphors In his teaching And he does so in this passage
in verse 49 of Luke 12, we'll just read verse 49 for now I
am come to send fire on the earth and and what will I if it be
already kindled? Clearly this is not literal fire
that he speaks of though our Lord does tell us that he will
send literal fire upon this earth. This is not an analogy in 2nd
Peter chapter 3 verse 10 where he says the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. in which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall
be burned up." That clearly is literal fire
of some kind. It's some type of fire. I don't
know if it's, there are different kinds of fire, but he's gonna
burn this earth up. I believe that's literal. I know
that's literal. But that clearly hasn't happened yet. And our
Lord did not say in our text, I will come to send fire. He said, I am come. And he said,
it's already burning. It's already burning. So what's
the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear him say
that? I'm come to send fire. What do you equate with that
statement? What's the first thing that comes into your mind? I don't think there's any question
that he's saying I came to burn some things up. Don't you reckon?
That may be what came to your mind. I came to burn up some
things. And I don't know, I don't guess
there's any more thorough way to destroy something. Is that
why he uses this picture? Is there any more thorough way
to annihilate something than to burn it up? Fire not only consumes, But it
sanitizes. And I believe that would aptly
describe the way our Lord dealt with the Pharisees and the Jewish
religion, false religion of his day. Wouldn't you say? He burned
it up. Their false doctrine, he utterly
destroyed. All of their truth, everything
that they preached, everything that they knew, all of their
hope, he burned it up. And it was a violent thing, wasn't
it? It caused a reaction. He sanitized the world that he
walked in here from the disease of free will and self-righteous
doctrine that they had contaminated the earth with. He said, you've
called my house as the house of prayer. You've made it a den
of thieves. And what did he do about it? There was a little fire,
wasn't there? That purged it. He drove them
out. Fire also is light. At that time,
the only light. And really it still is. Light is still some kind of fire,
isn't it? There's a little bit of fire burning in those bulbs
up there. We just figured out a way to
make it burn for a long time without having to constantly
rekindle it. Fire is light and this is consistent
with the destroying and consuming and sanitizing aspect of fire
because what is it that will destroy darkness but light? What sanitizes the infection
of false doctrine like light from God? The truth of God, the
refreshing gospel of his grace that David said is a lamp unto
my feet and a light unto my path. Think about the end result, the
final effect of God actually sending fire. Can you think of
a time, an example? Let's turn over there to first
Kings chapter 18. First Kings 18 21 I Know you'll remember this story,
but boy some of the language of it jumped out at me This past
week first Kings 18 21 Elijah came unto all the people all
Israel is gathered together and he said how long halt ye between
two opinions and If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal,
then follow him. And the people answered him,
not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people,
I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets
are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two
bullocks, and let them choose one bullock, for themselves,
and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under.
And I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on the wood, and put
no fire. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call
on the name of the Lord. And the God that answereth by
fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and
said, it is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets
of Baal, choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it
first for ye are many, and call on the name of your gods, but
put no fire under. And they took the bullock which
was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of
Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.
But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped
upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon that
Elijah mocked them and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either
he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure
he sleepeth and must be awaked. And they cried aloud and cut
themselves after their manor with knives and lancets till
the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass when midday
was passed, and they prophesied until the time of the offering
of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice nor any
to answer nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the
people, come near unto me. And all the people came near
unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken
down. And Elijah took twelve stones
according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob,
unto whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be
thy name. Israel shall be thy name. That
means God prevails. And with the stones he built
an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench about the
altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he
put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid
on him laid him on the wood and said, fill four barrels with
water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And
he said, do it the second time. And they did it the second time.
And he said, do it the third time. And they did it the third
time. And the water ran round about the altar. And he filled
the trench also with water. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel,
Let it be known this day that I'm right and they're wrong.
Know that you're God. Let's do it for His glory. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have
done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou
hast turned their heart back again Then the fire of the Lord
fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
Think about what this means. This means that God, there's
a sacrifice that satisfies God. And when all the people saw it,
they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is the
God. The Lord, He is the God. That's
the purpose of it. What did God's fire from heaven
do? It destroyed the false and caused the true to shine forth.
The Lord, He is the God. God prevails. God wins. That's
who we are. That's how we're defined as His
people. That's our name. God wins. And Elijah said unto them, take
the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And they
took them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon
and slew them there. Why did God send fire to purge
the faults, to burn up the man-made, free will, self-righteous religion
of this world? and to exalt the true. When the
false is burned, only the true remains. When the gold is tried
with fire, all of the dross is what burns up. To show everybody there that
day who God is. Is that why we're here today?
To find out who God is? And to expose what all of the
lofty religious false ideas and hopes of man really amount to.
Ashes. It's nothing. I'm pretty sure
that's why our Lord sent fire in our text. In the book of Luke
as well. Come to send fire. To burn up
the false. To exalt the true. To expose
both false and true. The fire is the gospel. And the
gospel is a person. The error of free will and attempted
redemption is rampant now just as it was then. So what do we
need? What's our prayer, Lord? Send
fire. Send fire. Send the gospel. That's what Simon Cornelius prayed
for in Acts 10. Lord, we need to hear from you. Thank God for the fire that devours
the God-dishonoring, man-deifying error of free will, man-made
best effort atonement, and man-made religion. And what does it burn
it up with? The all-consuming truth. The
truth is a fire, isn't it? It's exciting and it's all-consuming. The truth of the sovereign God
who saves whom He will. It'll burn like fire now. It'll
destroy some things. It'll cause division. It'll make
a difference. The sovereign God who saves whom
He will. The successful champion of sinners
who came and saved everyone He came to save. And when the fire
is finished, and all that's false is devoured,
you know what's left? Hope for sinners. That's what's
left. Gold. Pure gold. Not the shine
of some earthly metal that's the glory of men. That's just
a picture. but the shining forth of the
very glory of God in the face of His Son. That's what's left. The gospel is the gospel of the
glory of the blessed God which Paul said was committed to my
trust, 1 Timothy 1.11. The gospel of the glory of the
blessed God. And you know what? His glory
shines in the face of His Son and you know how that's pictured.
It was as a light that burneth brighter than the noonday sun
when Paul saw it. When the glory of God shone forth
literally from his face on the Mount of Transfiguration, they
couldn't see anything else then, could they? Moses and Elijah
were gone. And they saw Jesus only. The end of all this the end of
everything is just a culmination of what's already happening.
He said the fire is already kindling. It's already burning. What's
going to happen when it's, you know, fire will burn as long
as there's something to burn and then it'll burn out. What's
the end of it? What's going to be the final
result of all of the whole world, the universe? As the Lord our God by his gospel
truth concerning himself is now purging the earth of error He's now destroying what is false
where he is pleased to do so. And when he's done with that,
he will destroy all who are false. Matthew 1340, as therefore the
tears are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in
the end of this world. The son of man shall send forth
his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire." It's already kindled. The false is
being burned now. His people are thankful for that.
He's burning away our false, the old man, the flesh. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. We pray, Lord, send the fire now. Send it now. We
know it's bekindled already. You said so. But send it now
upon us and burn away all that's false within us. David said,
see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way
everlasting. Do that now lest we be consumed
in that last day. Consume that which is false in
us lest we be found false. When it's all said and done.
You want to see what fire looks like, like our Lord's talking
about here? Just tell somebody the truth sometime. Just tell
them the truth. Fire has an immediate effect.
It has an immediate and violent effect upon all that it touches.
Just tell them the truth. So does this fire. It's immediate,
and it's not pretty. Not at first. Now when the fire
is purifying gold, that's beautiful. But when it's consuming and destroying,
it's a terrifying thing. Just tell somebody sometime,
the truth and you'll see what this fire looks like here's what usually happens when
the truth is told look back at our text again we'll see what
it looks like verse 51 suppose ye that I am come to
give peace on earth I tell you no, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall
be five in one house divided 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. The mother-in-law
against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law. It'll cause people to hate. It creates rage. But the hatred is not the fire.
The truth is the fire. The blackening, the ugliness
is the result. There's no fire. If there's no
fire, then there won't be any division, no controversy, no
crackling, violent, disturbing result. Fire disturbs. It disrupts. When the fire comes, all those
things will happen. But that's not always the result
of fire. But it does, it'll cause a change
wherever it goes. But this brings up a question,
we'll talk about fire a little bit more, but if the fire of
the gospel will expose and destroy all that's false, false doctrine,
man's false opinions and religion, And the fire of God's wrath will
destroy all those who are false. And what is going to happen to
me? What's going to become of me? That's what we've got to think
about isn't it? If the Lord does send fire, he said I've come
to send fire. What about me? If our Lord has come to send
fire, is there any way Did I come out of this unscathed?
Did I come out of this alive? Did I come out of this at all? And if so, how? And the simple,
glorious answer is in verse 50 of our text. But I have a baptism to be baptized
with, And how am I straightened till it be accomplished? That
word straightened means pressed. If I were to tell you I've got
something I've got to do and I am straightened until I do
it, I'd be saying I can't think about anything else. It consumes my every thought
and word and deed, everything. It encompasses everything. I'm pressed until it be accomplished. Our Lord's not speaking of water
baptism here. He's already been baptized with
water. And he did so, he said, that righteousness might be fulfilled. And that's baptism with water
is a symbol of him fulfilling, bringing in everlasting righteousness
for his people. He accomplished everything. Every
jot and tittle of the law was ticked off. It was all accomplished. He fulfilled all righteousness,
but there's something else he must do if I'm to be saved. He's
got to be baptized with water. He said, thus it behooveth us
to fulfill all rights. He's got to do that. But there's
something else. He's got to be baptized also
with fire. Because not only is he our righteousness,
but he's our sin offering. He must not only do all that
we did not, could not, but he must pay for all that we do. All of our sin. And this is why and how the fire
does not burn me. It'll burn away the dross, it'll
burn away the flesh, but it won't burn the real me. Because what the fire has already
consumed, fire has no appetite for. The fire of God's wrath has consumed
the sacrifice. As the burnt offerings in the
Old Testament, as we read in the Book of First Kings a moment
ago, when the Savior, listen to what the Savior cried when
the burnt offering, the substance that cast the shadow, When the
fire of God fell upon him, he said, is it nothing to you, all
you that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger, how
will you describe God pouring out his wrath upon the sacrifice? From above he hath sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. And so the fire of God's wrath
finds nothing in me to kindle a bond because the burnt offering,
the Lamb of God, which takes away sin, has been offered in
my place. So in the same place that our
Lord said, now you think about this, think about the context.
He said, I am come to send fire, but he also said, I'm come to
be baptized with fire. He's going to send fire and it's
going to burn. But bless God there's hope because
he was burned. He came to send forth the fire
of the gospel of God's grace in a burnt offering. That's how
God has mercy on sinners because of a baptism of fire. And that gospel burns and it
will destroy some. To some it's the savor of death
unto death. But he also came to be baptized
with the fire of God's wrath. And the result is division, isn't
it? The result is life and death. That's why there's three and
two in a house. One house But there's three and there's
two. And again, this is seen in the ultimate result. Listen
to Matthew 13, 40. As therefore the tares are burned
in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. We read
this while ago, but we're going to read a little bit further
this time. The son of man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire. And there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth. Then, I'm glad it didn't stop
there, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their father. Who hath ears to hear, let him
hear. Those who are righteous because
of Christ. The word baptism is in our text.
And we talked about how he said to John, baptize me. And John
didn't much want to do it. I can understand that, can't
you? He said, I need you to baptize me. Oh, he does. He will. He
will, He has. But our Lord said, Suffer it
so to be now, for thus it becometh us, it behooveth us to fulfill
all righteousness. That's how there are any righteous
in this text that are going to shine forth as the sun because
Christ fulfilled all righteousness. And He did it for us. It becometh
us. The righteousness of God is fulfilled
in us by what he did. And because of what he accomplished
for us in life, but also in death on Calvary, we shall shine forth
as the sun. And I couldn't help but think
about we shall shine forth as the sun, that's the picture.
But what's the reality of the picture? We shall shine forth
as the sun. S-O-N. We're going to be like him. That's
what it means to shine. The glory of God shines in his
face. And that's really the only light
there is. Everything else is just a temporary picture of that. Notice the word accomplished
in our text. We're going to be through early
this morning, but may the Lord impress this upon our heart.
Look at the word accomplished. I'm straightened, verse 50, until
it be accomplished. When the fire If the fire burns
you up, in the end, if you're found to be false, if you're
found to be sinful and cut off from the vine and cast aside
and good for nothing but burning, if you're baptized in fire, it's
not going to be an accomplishment. It's going to be a tragedy. It's
an eternal tragedy. But when he was baptized with
fire, It was a win. It was an accomplishment for
somebody. He accomplished it for us. On Mount Carmel the fire consumed
the sacrifice. That was where we read concerning
Elijah on Mount Carmel the fire consumed the sacrifice but on
Mount Calvary the sacrifice consumed the fire. And all for whom he
did. All for whom he took the whole,
the totality of the wrath of God against sinners. All for
whom he did that. They're pictured in the three
Hebrew children. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They don't even smell like smoke. You know why? The fire didn't
even touch him. Because he was in there. And
he's the burnt offering. Burned, consumed in our place. But he consumed the fire. Because
of who he is, his baptism with fire is an accomplishment. It's
the accomplishment. And bless God, we don't even
smell like smoke and we never will. Thank God for the burn
offering.