All right, it's good to be back
to see my brethren. I look forward to being here
today. I had so many different messages
I was thinking about and wrestling with about what I should bring.
And the Lord uses different things, doesn't need to weaken us in
our flesh so that I have no confidence in myself and I have to lean
on him praying that it's the word that he's given for this
hour to you, brethren. And so I'm thankful for your
prayers that I do have that boldness and proclaim the word of our
Lord in faithfulness and truth by the strength of Christ. Let's
turn to Luke chapter 12. This is on Luke chapter 12 and we're just
going to look at five verses toward the end beginning in verse
49. Our Lord describes the gospel
here as fire. He likens it to fire which he
sends upon the earth. Now the gospel declares, it proclaims,
it reveals who Christ is. It reveals why he came. It reveals and declares what
he accomplished in his coming. And that is our confession. When
the Apostle John said in 1 John, that he that confesseth that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that's not just saying
that we believe that Jesus came in the flesh. That's revealing
who he is, that he is the son of God, why he came, because
we cannot save ourselves. And he has a people whom he's
promised and made himself surety to come and save. And it declares
what he accomplished, what he did and does accomplish in us,
just as we heard this morning. And so that's our confession,
which is given to us by the spirit of God. The gospel also reveals
that Christ suffered. He suffered in redeeming his
people. He suffered while here in the
flesh, teaching his people, healing his people, revealing the Father
to the people. He suffered as he walked, ministering
to the people and on the cross, in the garden, on the cross.
He suffered for his people and the gospel When it's declared
faithfully, it puts a division among the people. It makes a
division among the seed of Christ and the seed of the serpent.
It makes a division. And so there's no middle ground. Some people will believe it and
some people won't. People can be very okay with
religion. People don't have a problem with
religion. Some like it, some don't. That's not a big deal.
but the gospel divides. The Lord makes known them that
are his. It reveals those for whom Christ
laid down his life. And so in that a man shall be
set against another man. Even in his own household, they'll
be divided over Christ and the hope that one has in Christ versus
the hope that one has in their own works and in themselves. So Christ is either your savior
or you cannot be saved at all. And that is offensive to the
world. Because what we're saying is
that Christ alone is salvation. That's the Savior whom the Father
has provided and your works do not compare to his. They're not
the same thing. Christ's work is exalted. Christ
is exalted and we are put down in the dust. We are stripped.
The gospel strips man of the vain confidences that we would
have, that we would bring to the true and living God. It makes
us to see that Christ is all, that I'm nothing and Christ is
all. And the scriptures show us that
there is salvation in no other but the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither
is there salvation in any 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, by him alone. And you either believe
that Jesus Christ is the savior, that he's my savior, that he
gave himself for me, or you will die in your sins. And therefore
stand before the throne of God, bearing the wrath and punishment
for your sins. Either Christ bears them for
his child or you bear them in yourself. And there's no middle
ground. So to make this gnome, 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? And he's speaking here of the
gospel, the gospel, which he sends forth, which he declares,
which he gives to his children and reveals in them to preach
and proclaim. This is the word of his grace.
which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance
among the saints in light. This is that word of grace, not
what you need to do for God, what God has done for you through
his darling son, Jesus Christ, to put away your sins, to make
you righteous, to present you faultless before the throne of
God. That's what he does for his people. That's what he reveals
and manifests in his people. Now that phrase there, and what
will I if it be already kindled, some say it's better understood,
I wish it were already kindled. I wish it were already started. There was an old writer named
John Tratt who worded it this way to try and capture the power
of that phrase in the original, which is, the sooner this thing
starts, the better, because I know I know the good that comes when
the gospel is preached. I know that it's going to prosper
in that which I send it forth. Now, why is the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ likened to fire? What does fire do? It burns up. It turns to ash
all that is consumable by fire, all that cannot withstand that
fire. It's destroyed. Fire tears things
down. It destroys things. And what
it's destroying is the vain confidences of man. Those imaginations that
we have of an idle Jesus, of an idle God that we set up in
our hearts and in our minds, and well, maybe, maybe God is
like this, or maybe, and this is my opinion, or I think the
gospel comes and just runs those things right over and just puts
those things down. It just burns them up. and brings
them to nothing. The scriptures liken our works,
what man makes, what we do, in religion even, what we do, to
being wood, hay, and stubble. That's talking about man's works,
my works. It's talking about my religion.
It talks about how I go about to please God. It's talking about
what I think or my opinion. It's talking about Our law keeping,
our knowledge of scripture, our knowledge of doctrines, what
I believe, my denomination, my church, my face, my place, my
politics. Whatever you're trusting in,
it boils us all down to nothing. It just puts them in one big
pile. The gospel comes, it puts them in one big pile, and the
Lord with the gospel just puts a match to it and lights it up
until it burns down to nothing and is made ash and just carried
away in the wind. It amounts to nothing. Why would
God do this with his gospel? Because we do not save ourselves. And by nature, we think it's
what we do. We're looking to ourselves. And
we think it's by what I'm striving to do, what I'm bringing to the
table, that's gonna make the difference. And the Lord is showing
us, I save by my son. I save by my son, Jesus Christ,
whom I have sent to save my people from their sins. In 1 John chapter
4, the Apostle John said in verse 9 there, that in this was manifested,
revealed the love of God toward us, because that God sent his
only begotten son into the world that we might be saved through
him. If there was an easier way of
salvation, God would have done it. Why would he subject his
darling son to such suffering? If there was a law that could
have been given to make us righteous, God would have given it, Paul
said. But he didn't, because there is no law that we can do
to make ourselves righteous. When Jesus Christ took upon him
the flesh, when he laid aside his glory and came here in the
flesh, it was declaring all men sinners, all men ruined. so ruined,
so wrecked by our sin, so lost, so shut up in prison, so trapped
in the pit, that we can't get ourselves out. Christ had to
come. Christ had to come and accomplish
our redemption by himself, because without him, we cannot be saved. We cannot be saved, and that's
what it reveals. In verse 14 of 1 John 4, it says,
and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son
to be the savior of the world. And what world he's talking about,
we like to think that he's talking about every individual without
exception, but that world is the world of his elect people
scattered throughout the world from every kindred, tongue, people,
and nation. And what he's saying there is
that there's not a gospel or a savior for this people over
here, There's not a different Savior for this people over here.
There's not a God for this people in this country over here. There
is one Savior for all the world. There's only one Savior given,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can be certain that we're
not the Savior. Just as there's not another Jesus
or another God that saves, we're not the Savior. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Savior of his people. One Savior, our Lord said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father, but by me. He is the Savior of the world.
Not every individual, but there is one salvation, one Savior,
one name given, the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a judgment
coming. And that judgment proves every
man's work of what sort it is. Is it gold, silver, precious
stones, which are the things of Christ? Or is it wood, hay,
and stubble? Are we trusting in what we do
for the Lord or what Christ has done for us? Where's our hope? Where's our confidence? If it's
not heaven born, if it's not made of Christ and revealed in
you, then it will not stand the fires of God. It will not stand
the proving of God. And he proves it, and he proves
it with this word, with this gospel, to reveal in them those
that are his. He saves them that believe. Who's them? Them in whom he's
revealed his faith. Them in whom he's revealed that
faith. That's the distinguishing mark. We look for, I think a
lot of people look for I guess a lot of so-called churches today
emphasize your works and what you're doing so much because
they think of faith as not being of the Lord, but faith is a work
of the flesh. And so that's just not good enough
for them. But where there's faith that looks to Christ, there will
be works, there will be a hope, there will be a teaching. The
Lord strips us and brings us low in ourselves that we might
find our all in Christ continually, keep looking to him. He's able
to do that. He's able to humble us. He's
able to bring us low, to teach each one of his children, look
to Christ, look to him, keep looking to him. And so it's not
our works. Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 64, six,
he said, but all we are as an unclean thing. All of us are
as an unclean thing. And all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. He didn't say all of our sins
are as filthy rags. He said, all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities
like the wind have taken us away. So that all that is made of man
is going to be shaken. Shaken. In Hebrews, where our
Lord uses the word fire here, Hebrews talks about it as being
a shaken. shaking so that the gospel comes
and shakes. It says in Hebrews 12 verse 26,
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 so that voice there is the
gospel. It's the voice of our savior.
It's declaring what he has done for us and his voice, his gospel
shakes those hopes of man, that which is made It says, this word,
verse 27, yet once more signifies 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 that which is made is
talking about my works, my words, my confession, right? If it's
of the flesh, if it's not of the Lord, it's going to be shaken
and fall apart before the gospel. because that's why he sends it,
to reveal. Is your hope Christ, or is your hope what you're doing?
Is your hope what he has done, who he is, or is your hope in
your religion and in your works? Where are you looking, to Christ
or to self? When we look within, rightly
so, when we look within, if we tremble, that's good. You shouldn't
find any hope or peace in yourself. It's made to show us that all
our hope and peace is in Christ. That's where you're gonna find
peace and hope and comfort, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our
Lord gives us great hope and comfort in himself. He's the
safe haven for his people. And he says in verse 50, Luke
12, 50, but I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how
am I straightened till it be accomplished? This word here
is the word of our hope, brethren. This word here is the word of
our confidence, which speaks of his suffering for the sins
of his people. This is our hope. Again, not
in what I've done for the Lord, but what the Lord has endured
and the price he's paid to redeem me. And it speaks of his suffering. He said, I have a baptism to
be baptized with. This is the work, he's speaking
of the work which he accomplished for his people and he describes
it as a baptism because it was overwhelming. It was tremendous
what he endured for us. When we're baptized and we're
put in that water, that water is overwhelming. It goes over
all, it goes over the head, over every part of the body, on the
left, the right, the top, the bottom, in front, behind, we're
immersed in it and Christ was immersed suffering for his people. He endured the wrath of God that
we earned. He endured it for his people
to put it away when he as our substitute took our place on
the tree. When he bore us and our sins
in his own body on the tree and God poured out his wrath upon
him. And he's described as the surety of his people. That means
that that he willingly said, put it on me. What they can't
pay, and we can't pay nothing, nothing, he said, put it on my
account. I'll pay it all. And he paid the debt of righteousness
that we owe unto the Father. And he paid it in full, satisfying
the justice of God, which was against us, that God might be
just and justifier of them that believe in Jesus. When the Lord
raised him from the dead, he declared Christ just and all
that believe in him justified, for trusting him, believing him.
And so he compares his suffering in our stead as a baptism because
of the abundance of it, the largeness of it, the overwhelming of the
wrath and punishment of God, which was our due, which was
for us. But he received it. He propitiated
the wrath of God, meaning that he turned the wrath of God, which
was against us, against himself. that we might go free in him,
in him. Now Psalm 69 speaks of this,
this immersion of Christ bearing the wrath of God for his people.
Psalm 69, let's turn there and just look at a few verses here.
This is Christ as our high priest and the offering which he made
unto the father for us in perfect righteousness. Psalm 69, we'll
begin in verse one. This is to show us that sense
of the overwhelming baptism that Christ endured, the sufferings
that Christ endured for us. He said in verse one, save me,
O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep
mire, right? The filth and the shame and the
guilt of his people. I sink in deep mire. where there
is no standing. I'm coming to deep waters where
the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying. My throat
is dried. Mine eyes fail while I wait for
my God. You think of the faithfulness
of Christ there, waiting upon God, never doubting, never turning,
never complaining, bearing patiently the wrath of God, which was against
us, against himself. bearing that. Verse four, they
that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine
head. They that would destroy me, being
mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. And you think about that, we're
numbered, right? All the numbers, all the hairs
of our head are numbered. And that seems to signify all
the world was against him, right? In Adam, we're all enemies by
nature. We all were his enemies. And
this is talking about his seed and the seed of the serpent were
all against him, were all his enemies there against him and
treating him wrongfully. And the end of that verse there
says, then I restored that which I took not away. When he paid the price, which
was our due, when he paid that which we cannot pay of ourselves,
that we could never settle that debt, Christ paid. Christ paid
it for his people. He satisfied justice. He's talking
about when 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 our Lord
is taking us upon himself, bearing us up and carried our sins away
forever. Put them away forever so that
they have no more bearing upon us. We stand complete in Christ. You know, he's our inheritance.
Our inheritance is not in that body of death anymore. We have
no part in that inheritance. Our inheritance is in Christ
Jesus so that we stand complete in him and your sin has no more
bearing. You that are in Christ, your
sin doesn't determine your inheritance. Christ does. Christ determines
our inheritance. We stand complete in him. So
what you do or don't do, that's not what's determining whether
or not you're getting your inheritance. It's Christ. and he's the husbandman. You know, I have chickens now,
and so I'm a husbandman of chickens. And what's interesting about
that word husbandman, and you think of Christ as a husband,
that husbandman takes full responsibility for the care and well-being of
those animals. That's his responsibility. I
have my chickens in a pen. If I let them out, then they
can eat grass and bugs out there, but if they're in that pen, And
I don't go in there and give them their food. They ain't getting
food that day. Just whatever hops through the gate there,
that's it. But I've taken full responsibility to clean their
coop and gather their eggs and provide for them and check them
and protect them. And that's what a husbandman
does. And that's what Christ does. He's the husbandman. He's
the husband of his bride. And he's taken it upon himself
to do everything, provide everything that we need to stand before
the throne of God faultless. And he's providing right now,
here and now to this day for us. And so he said, Oh God, thou
knowest my foolishness and my sins are not hid from thee. Let
not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for
my sake. Let not those that seek thee
be confounded or confused for my sake, O God of Israel. It's
like when he came in the flesh here and said, and blessed is
he whosoever he is that is not offended in me, right? Because we don't understand,
right? When Christ was made sin for us, when he hung on the cross
for us, that had to be so confusing and humiliating for the disciples
who believed him. But he strengthened their faith.
He kept them so that they weren't turned away because Christ went
to the cross. He delivers us from that offense.
He delivers us from that shame to see that he went there for
me, for my sins. He bore that for me to put them
away to make me righteous before the true and living God. Because,
verse seven, for thy sake I have borne reproach Shame hath covered
my face." And so this is the Christ of God performing that
work, the servant of God, which the Father sent him to do, doing
it perfectly in perfect righteousness, willingly, faithfully undertaking
everything we needed him to do to put away our sins and to give
us an inheritance of life and understanding and knowledge and
hope and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done this for us,
brethren. And so he reveals this to us. He gives us faith. That faith
that we have, as I said before, is not of this flesh. He reveals
those for whom he's died by revealing faith in them. All men have not
faith. Those that have that faith which
looks to Christ and trusts him, it's because Christ gave it.
Faith is the gift of God. And those for whom Christ died,
he reveals that faith. He gives that faith which looks
to Christ. And so all vain religion we see
here, everything that we would pick up, all the baggage that
we carry, everything that we come with thinking this is my
righteousness, the gospel tears that down. It chews through that
and just burns that up so that that we come to see that Christ
is all, and we have no other hope but the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our Lord, by his gospel
word, divides men. He divides men. He testifies
by the gospel those whom he loves and died for. He reveals it through
the gospel, is gonna reveal in them that are his and them that
are not his, As we see written in Romans 9 13, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. He makes it known those whom
he loves and those whom he hates, Romans 9 13. Both Jacob and Esau
had plenty. In this world, they looked like
blessed men. They both had plenty. In fact,
when Jacob came out of Paddan Aram from Laban, He gave his
brother an offering to make sure that his brother was appeased
and would receive him. And Esau said, brother, I've
got plenty. I don't want this. Which was
really a type of the natural man rejecting the blessings of
God. I got plenty. I don't need that.
But also we see in the natural sense, he did pretty well in
this life. Where do you see the curse of
God then? He did all right. He was a wealthy man. plenty
and abundance, he seemed to be blessed of God. He was only blessed
in carnal things, only in things of this world. When we look at
Esau, Esau was a seemingly decent fella, right? He looked like
a pretty good guy, a pretty decent fella. And we would think that
everything was all right. And when we look at Jacob, we
look at him and say, he's kind of a tricky guy. He's a pretty
crafty fella. And I don't know about Jacob,
but God revealed himself to Jacob. And that's where we see the blessing
of God. He revealed himself to Jacob
in revealing Christ to him, and showing Jacob that he's a sinner,
and showing Jacob his need of salvation, and showing Jacob
that he's not a decent guy, that he is a sinner, and that the
only way of salvation is through Christ. He made him because Esau
saw the same things that Jacob saw. They grew up in the same
tents as one another. They saw the sacrifices. They were in the services. But
God revealed himself in a special way to Jacob. And Esau, he left
to himself. He left them to himself so that
he was content with the things of the world. He wasn't troubled.
by his sin. He wasn't troubled by the need
of a Savior. He didn't hunger and thirst for
righteousness. He had a righteousness. He was
content. He had enough. And that's what we see there.
And so we see in this the truth of God written in 1 John 4, 19. We love him because he first
loved us. That's why you that love God,
love God because he first loved you. Without the love of God,
We don't love God. If we don't love him, you could
say it's because he doesn't love us. Now let me just add a little
something to that in this sense that we go to hell. If we go
to hell, it's for our own sins. It's because we don't, we're
enemies of God. We're enmity against the true
and living God. If we go to hell, it's because
of our own sins. But if we love God, it's because
he has blessed us. It's because he has helped us.
to save us fully, completely, to do for us what we cannot do,
to take us, Jacobs, from our looking at the flesh, from our
love of this world, and delivers us from that death, and revealing
Christ to us, and making us to know that he's the salvation,
that he's the savior, that he's all that we need, and he gives
us that special blessing in Christ, just as he did to his children,
his seed. You look at Abraham. Abraham
had other brothers, but only Abraham came out and entered
into Canaan. And we look at Isaac. Isaac believed, but Ishmael didn't. And Jacob believed, but Esau
didn't. It was God that made the difference. It was God that
revealed himself to them. And so we're given something
to see of this division here back in our text in verse 51.
The Lord asks, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth?
I tell you nay, but rather division. There were some disciples there
that had been with Christ nearly the whole time that he had begun
his ministry. And they saw the popularity of
Christ. They saw him doing miracles.
They saw the people just wowing over him and following after
him. And the crowds were getting bigger
and bigger. Bigger and they thought that
you know, we're in at the ground floor We're in it right at the
beginning of this thing and and and soon the whole world's gonna
believe on Christ and we're number one We're gonna be on the left
hand and the right hand right next to Christ and all men are
gonna receive us All men are gonna welcome us into their homes
Surely everyone's gonna know that this is the Christ and they're
gonna believe him and follow him This is the king and he's
gonna set up a kingdom and we're gonna be well-received in this
world. And Christ said, not so, not
so. I didn't come to create peace
on the earth between all men. Peace between my seed and God
the Father, absolutely. There's peace there that we can't
make, that only Christ can make. He makes that peace. But the
peace or the division here is between men. There's a division
over them that hear the gospel and believe it, and them that
hear the gospel and don't believe it. There's a division. It's gonna be made known, them
who hear and them who do not. And so the gospel here, this
goes back to the promise that our Lord made in the garden. In Genesis 3, 15, when he said
to the serpent, and Adam and Eve were standing right there
to hear this gospel preached. And he said, I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, the woman being a picture, Eve being
a picture of the bride, the church of God. I'm gonna put enmity
between thee and my bride, my church, and between thy seed
and her seed. It shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel. We all at one time, you that
believe, we were all enemies of God at one time. We, as it
said in Ephesians 2.2, We walked, in time past, we walked according
to the course of this world. We walked according to the prince
of the power of the air. We were among them with the children,
which is the spirit over all of them, of the children of disobedience.
We were all part of that body. We were all part of that. We
were all enemies of God at one time. And Christ had to come
in and separate us from that seed, to deliver us from that
body, that body of death, and take us to himself because we're
his seed, we are the seed of Christ. And so understand that
our God has a chosen people, a chosen people whom he loves,
whom he saved. There's a seed of the serpent,
we see that in Cain, who slew his brother Abel, because Cain
came with a sacrifice, a sacrifice of fruit, grew with his own hands
out of the cursed ground. And he thought, this is good
enough. Surely God will receive me for this work. What's different
between what I did and what Abel did in coming in the blood? And so he slew his brother Abel
because God received Abel and he rejected Cain and his works. And then we see it again in Ham. right, and Noah's son Ham, who
mocked his father. And then we see it with Ishmael,
the seed of the serpent, who persecuted his brother Isaac.
And we see it in Esau, who despised the birthright, and when he sought
the blessing, he was rejected, though he sought it with tears.
Because they're the seed of the serpent, they do not hear, but
Christ reveals them that are his, them that were promised
him before the foundation of the world, he reveals them who
are his, by the preaching of the gospel, by the pouring out
of his Holy Spirit, by manifesting faith and hope and grace in them
that are his for whom he's done this blessed work, this blessed
work of salvation to reveal Christ in them. And so he puts away
that enmity. He puts away that enmity and
puts love and grace and faith in its place where we seek him
and rejoice in him. It says in, Let me just read
a verse here in Ezekiel. I was thinking of this when you
were preaching this morning. In Ezekiel 16, verse 36. He's gonna show us, I'm sorry,
verse 63. So Ezekiel 16, verse 63. that thou mayest remember and
be confounded and never open thy mouth anymore because of
thy shame. When I am pacified toward thee
for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God. And so the
Lord showing there that our salvation is for Christ's sake. It's to
shut our mouths, to stop our boasting of what we've done,
that we might find our all in Christ. that he's exalted, not
only in our hearts and minds, but even in the words that we
speak to others, saying and declaring not what we've done for the Lord,
but what the Lord has done for me. And that's what we declare,
and that's our hope. And that's what we declare that
of what Christ has done for us. And so our Lord saves sinners,
giving us his spirit, creating in us a new man. What we've done
for him in religion, what works we bring, what matters is a new
creature. And the new creature is something
that we don't make. Christ alone makes the new creature. Christ alone makes a new man
in his people and reveals himself to that new man, which he's formed
and made of his own grace and power. And so he strips us of
a confidence in our works, of a confidence in ourselves, and
what we bring to the table that we might find our all in him. The reason why men hate this
word is because the gospel declares us all sinners. There's none
of us righteous. We look at, well, I'm not as
bad as that person, but the gospel says you're all sinners. We're
all sinners. We all need a savior. We all
need salvation. We cannot save ourselves. The
gospel declares that all are lost and ignorant. and cannot
get ourselves found and get ourselves out. It's Christ who must seek
us out and deliver us from darkness. It's Christ who opens the prison
doors and says, sinner, come out, come into the light, show
yourselves. It's Christ that brings us to
that light. It's Christ that reveals hope and life and salvation
in us. The gospel shows that all by
nature are unwilling to come to him. He said, and ye will
not come unto me that ye might have life. None of us will come
to Christ. The gospel declares that all
men are unable to come to Christ. He said, no man can come to me
except the father which hath sent me, draw him. And so we have no heart until
the Lord gives us a heart. You that have a heart, give God
the thanks, give him praise for that, because without his grace,
without his power, there's no desire, there's no interest.
And we wouldn't want to hear that we're all sinners. We wouldn't
want to hear that, no, our religion doesn't save us. What we do or
don't do doesn't make the difference. The one who makes the difference
is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we need. That's the
salvation we need, is Christ the Savior. We're drawn to him.
We're called to him by his grace and power. For he saith unto
Moses, 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 willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. That's the difference right there.
It's what God has done. It's what our Lord has done in
faithfully serving the Father, doing what the Father sent him
to do. Anything that God requires of
us, he doesn't look to us to do it. Anything that God requires
of us, he looks to his son. He's the husband. He's the husbandman. He's the provider. He's the one
who saves his people entirely. And we look to the son for everything
that we need. He does. When the gospel comes,
it does prove us. It does strip us. It does make
me to see how insufficient I am. It does make me ashamed of my
sin. It does show me my need of him,
and I'm thankful for that. I wasn't always thankful for
that, but I'm thankful for that. I was thinking of Brother Adam
up here, leading the singing of the hymns, and I did that
for years here, and I pray for you, Brother. I feel for you,
because I know what it is to stand up before your brethren
week after week. And Greg does it sometimes too.
And I know what it is to, if I could have during those years
and just sat in the back and did nothing, I would have done
it. But I'm so glad that the Lord
put me up here to stand before my brethren because it showed
me the hypocrisy of my own heart. It kept putting in my face, I'm
standing before my brethren, I'm singing these hymns and I'm
wrestling. with sin that I have no power
over. And so the gospel proves, it
proves all of us. And we see our works left and
right getting burned up. I'm getting put on my face all
the time. Now as a pastor, the same thing. I'm thankful to be
in the world all the time, but it just shows me more and more,
John 15, five, that without me, you can do nothing, nothing. And it's good to be stripped.
It's good. Thank the Lord for it. And he
does humble us. He has a way of stripping us
and proving us, proving others around us all through the things
that he puts us through. Keep looking to Christ. Keep
pressing to Christ. Don't ever stop because he is
the Savior. He is salvation. And this word
burns us up too. It's not just the wicked. It's
the ones who are redeemed by Christ that also have their fleshly
hope burned up. That's why Paul said we have
no confidence in the flesh. That doesn't happen like that.
That comes through that constant proving. And every time Paul
had confidence in the flesh, I'm sure it came up because we
have this old lustful flesh, it got burned up again. And he
was made thankful for the thorns and made thankful for the humblings
and made thankful for the strippings. And that's what the Lord does
for us. So when you are humbled and stripped and brought low
and tripped up again, and you fall on your face, thank the
Lord and cry out, Abba Father. Help me, Lord, because I don't
know how to fix it. I don't know how to save myself. I don't know
how to keep myself up a father. You promise that you provide
and do the same for your brethren and love your brethren. Rejoice
in the Lord. Thank God for your brethren and
draw near, draw near to one another. It's the Lord does it. He has
a way of proving in ways we would think that now never. But no,
it's all for our good. It is for our good, brethren,
to keep us looking to Christ. And that thing, just in closing,
verses 52 and 53 of Luke 12, for from henceforth there shall
be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against
three. The father shall be divided,
so there's five of them. The father shall be divided against
the son, and the son against the father. The mother against
the daughter, so there's four, and the daughter against the
mother. the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. So that's
the daughter that's married to the son. Those are the five there,
and they're divided, two against three and three against two.
It's what the Lord does with that gospel word. He divides
and separates in ways that he does by his gospel word, and
be thankful. Trust the Lord, always look to
him, because the gospel is a fire that burns up man's works, proves
our work, shows that which we're trusting in, which we've made,
And next thing we know, poof, they just blow up. And they're
gone, and we're left hanging on to Christ alone. And that's
good. It's good to be before the throne
of God on your face. And I don't say that lightly
because I know it's painful, but it's always good. It's always
good, brethren. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts.