Turn back in your Bibles to Luke
chapter 12 as we consider these very important words of our Savior. You know, sometimes you hear
the reading of Scripture if you are a Bible-believing Christian
or even just curious about Scripture. You just wonder, what in the
world is He talking about? Don't you? You can be honest.
I've told people before, when you read the Bible, you are a
third party generally to a dialogue that's taking place between two
other persons who are remotely distanced from you by at least
2,000 years. You should not expect to know
everything that that conversation is inferring or implying right
away. Sometimes you just gotta wait
for an understanding of those passages. And I think that's
the case also here with our text before us. So if you have your
outline, it'll help you. Let me make some fundamental
observations that I think will be critical and poignant to this
message. Misinterpreting God in life, meeting with failed expectations, running up against unsuspecting
obstacles, blindsided often by events that will take place in
your life, unintended consequences, or being distracted by unsolicited
and unwarranted influences, delayed by unseen forces, just in flux
by events that you didn't anticipate, and then finding yourself really
struggling with what in the world is going on. reaping the fruit
sometimes of an unexamined seed that is sown, self-deceived and
unaware of it. The condition that I'm talking
about describes the people that are in front of us. There are
a group of people who thought they really knew God and they
actually thought they were in a right relationship with God,
only to come to find out that they were experiencing obstacles
and adversities and troubles that they couldn't reconcile
in their own mind. But see, they believed that they
were right with God and they're okay with God. And under that
assumption, they couldn't rightly conclude that they were actually
in trouble with God. And the Lord Jesus comes on the
scene and things actually get worse for them because they are
now confronted with a man who actually is the fulfillment of
all of their Old Testament prophecies. But they're scratching their
head because they can't even remotely identify with this person. He's doing things that do not
comport with what their view of Messiah should be. and he's
increasingly operating in conflict with their system, with their
theology, with their practice. And it's going from bad to worse.
Not only is this alleged Messiah who is in the midst of these
people agitating to them, but he now is responding to their
lack of perception of what is taking place at this time by
warning them. over and over and over again,
you are in trouble. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in a situation
where you thought you knew what God was up to? Let me just make
it plain for those of us who have a government education.
Have you found yourself in a situation where you thought you were doing
the will of God? and you thought that you were
right with God in what you were doing, but in reality you woke
up one day and found yourself backwards when it came to the
will of God. You had come to discover that the struggles and
the pains and the adversity that you are experiencing, the providential
reverses in life, were really signs that you couldn't pick
up on because you were too stupid to figure it out. You were under
the assumption that you were right with God. That's the condition
of the people in our text. They are under the assumption
that because they go to church and they read their Bibles and
they study theology and all the other stuff that they are right
with God, but. They're not, and what they don't understand is
daily they are increasing culpability on themselves so long as they
is that they are not taking time to understand the signs. Now,
we who are people of faith, we say that we walk by faith and
therefore not by what? That's what we say, but it's
not true. It's not true. We look for signs all the time.
We look for certain evidences of God's approval and acceptance
of us. We look for those providential acts that would affirm that I'm
in the right way, that I'm kind of doing the right thing. At
least I'm in the ballpark. I don't want to be in the wrong building,
Lord. I might be in the wrong seat, but I don't want to be
in the wrong building. Are you guys hearing what I'm saying?
That's when you're sensitive. But you can be, as a religious
person, so self-righteous So self-deluded that you could actually
be watch this now an enemy of God and Don't know it Hence the
title of our message Agree with your adversary When God visits
Agree with your adversary when God Visits, isn't that what our
Lord basically in this strange in this strange context of speech
is here rendering before his auditors as he closes out on
some very ethical aspects of life and then he deals with Ecology
of all things will tie it together and then he closes out with this
strange phraseology in verse 57 and 58 yay and why even Yourselves judging not what is
right. Do you see that? So our Lord
is assessing that the people who profess to be of God don't
have the capacity to judge righteously Why even of yourselves? Do you
not have the ability to judge right now when you go with your
adversary to the magistrate as you are in the way? Give diligence
that you may be delivered from him lest he held thee to the
judge and the judge deliver you to the officer of The officer
cast you into prison. I tell you, you shall not depart
this till you have paid the very last mite. That's how our Lord
closes out this discourse. Who is he talking to? He's talking
to the religious people who think that they don't have a controversy
with God, but they do. Point number one in your outline,
a fire kindled long ago. You see, I started out in verse
49, and I want you to read it with me again so we can grasp
the context. I am come to send fire on the
earth. Do you see that? That's amazing,
isn't it? Because the Jesus that is depicted
in our present day scenario isn't viewed as a Jesus that is creating
conflict. And yet the metaphor here is
of that precisely. He says, I am come to send fire
on the earth and then to be even more explicit. You know what
he says? I didn't come to bring peace. So again, we are dealing with
a radically different Jesus in the 21st century than the Jesus
of first century Rome. And our Lord is speaking here
in verse 49 of something that He is keenly aware of, of which
I want you to be aware of as well, and that's this. The people
to whom the Master has been ministering now for three and a half years
are people who are under God's judgment. They are under the
wrath of God. And God has sent His solution
to them in the person of Messiah, And they fail to receive the
only solution by which they might be brought from under God's wrath. Well, they fail to receive it
because they don't believe that they're under the wrath of God.
They've been baptized. They've joined the church. They've
learned the doctrines. They've said shibboleth or sibileth,
either way you want. And they passed the human test.
And yet here comes Messiah saying to them, listen, you are in trouble. You are in trouble. And when
did this trouble start? You notice he uses the language.
I am come to send fire on the earth. And then he goes on to
say, and what will I, if it already be what? Kindled. Now, those
of you who read your Bible for past time, and I would suggest
that you all do it, you will know that the term kindled is
an old Hebraic phrase that God used all the way back when he
called his people out of Egypt to describe his anger against
them. When the Lord uses the phrase
kindled, it's a fire that gets started, right? To kindle a fire
is to start a fire. The first time this phrase is
used concerning Israel is in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter
32, where God has prophesied through Moses to the children
of Israel in the wilderness that because of your unbelief, A fire
is kindled against you by me. And I'll tell you what I'm going
to do because you do not believe me. I'm going to scatter you
to the four winds. I'm going to burn up your cities.
I'm going to destroy your property. I'm going to bring judgment on
you because you have departed from the living God and have
begun to worship idols. You guys see that in your outline?
That's Deuteronomy 32. You don't have to go there. You
can recall in your own mind if you read your Bible carefully
that one of the themes running through the prophetic voices
of the prophets in the Old Testament is this. My people perish for
lack of knowledge. That the wrath of God was always
up against national Israel because national Israel perpetually rebelled
against God's revelation. The prophets used the phrase,
a fire is kindled in my wrath over and over again. And the
expression of the language rests in the book of Jeremiah. It rests
in the book of the Psalms. It rests in the prophet Amos
and Hosea. And one of the minor prophets,
Amos, I believe, says, Israel, O Israel, prepare to meet your
God. And what I'm getting at is this.
The language that our Lord is using here is not inconsistent
with the attitude and language of the prophets that went before
him. The people of God are facing Messiah, facing the Savior. And
as the Savior is moving closer and closer to his appointed time. Remember, he did three and a
half years ministry with them from his baptism He preached
and he taught and he healed and he manifested his father's glory
for three and a half years. Where was Christ going? To Calvary. As he gets closer and closer
to the point of his purpose, he makes clear to the people
of God, you are in trouble. You are in trouble. As he gets
closer, he intensifies the prophecy. He makes it even more clear that
they are missing the point altogether. Why? Because he understands what's
in their heart. right now in this present situation
the Lord Jesus is aware that the people to whom he is preaching
listen to me like Ezekiel says in the book of Ezekiel chapter
33 they come to you Lord as if they are your people and they
hear your words like religious people do but you are as to them
a very lovely voice as one that can sing and play well on an
instrument in other words they actually have no intentions on
obeying the word of God And the Lord Jesus knows this as he heads
to Calvary. And when you care about people
and you see them persisting in ways that are not right, if you
love them, you tell them. And that's what our master is
doing here. I want you guys to understand the context as we
work it through. Our master is headed to Calvary. He knows that
a fire has been started. Israel should have been clear
on this this Hebraic phraseology because when God gave them that
law in Deuteronomy 32 this was 1800 years before Christ it was
40 years before they went into the Promised Land in the Promised
Land God had to destroy them and send them to the four winds
they were scattered by the Babylonians in 587 BC they were dispersed
by the Assyrians in 710 BC. Scattered, the prophecy came
to pass. They were brought back together.
After a 70-year judgment, only a portion of them comes back.
And for 400 years, Israel lives in a half-hearted relationship
with God until Messiah comes. Are you following me? Here comes
Messiah, the answer to their problem, the one their book prophesies
of. He comes unto his own, and his
own receive him not. The world was made by him, but
the world knows him not. The light of the world is present
among the religious people of God who call themselves Jehovah's
Witness, and yet Jehovah shows up. and they can't bear witness
to the reality of who Christ is. Now, you know there's a problem,
don't you? We got a problem, don't we? And see, our Lord is
warning them, according to verse 49, because He knows what's going
to happen. They are going to take the only
light of the world and crucify Him in just a couple of years
in rejection, rejection. of the revelation of God in Christ. Now, if someone were to tell
you by observing your life that you don't know God, that you
are not really a Christian, that you are ignorant of the truth
of the gospel, and that if you had an opportunity, you would
kill Jesus Christ too. That would make you mad, wouldn't
it? But what if it were true? What if your life is not consistent
with the biblical testimony of what it means to be a Christian.
If that were true and somebody warned you with the very stinging
terminology that I just used, wouldn't they be loving you?
Wouldn't they be loving you? Even though it hurts, wouldn't
they be loving you? I submit to you then as we work through
this first point of our Lord saying there's a fire already
kindled that he's warning them that this fire that's going to
burn you and no short order is of your own doing. That would be a warning to those
who are wise enough to know. Maybe I need to examine this.
Maybe I need to work through this. Maybe, you know, maybe
this mad preacher has something going on here with this phraseology.
A fire kindled Long ago, and you see the underlying proposition,
rejection of the truth exposes men to what? God's judgment. Rejection of the truth exposes
men to God's judgment. And I ask you the question as
I opened up with this phraseology, misinterpreting God, misinterpreting
life, meeting with failed expectations, running up against unsuspecting
obstacles, hindered and blindsided by unintended consequences, distracted
by unsolicited and unwarranted influence, delayed by unseen
forces, disturbed by a lack of control of your surroundings,
unwittingly reaping the fruit of an unexamined seed that you
have sown, self-deceived, unaware of it. So is the condition of
these people in our text. But let me ask you the question.
Could this be possibly true of our nation? Could our nation
actually think that it's the people of God when it's really
a people under the judgment of God? Could this be true of the
21st century contemporary church that actually thinks that it's
doing God's will and it's pleasing God, but in fact of matter, they
are too under the wrath of God. Is it possible? Let me ask you
one more question. Is it possible that this portion
of Scripture depicts you and me? I just want you to think
that through. See, our Lord is warning us here. So I bring you to point number
two to unpack this probing thought a little bit more. Every man
is born into what? So I know that this is not the
philosophy of the world, but this is biblical philosophy.
Men and women, when we're born into this world, you are born
into trouble. I know you know this by now that we don't live
in the Garden of Eden, right? Everything got thorns and thistles.
Everything has consequences to it and there's a lot more pain
in life than there is Blessing or joy, isn't that true? This
is the world that we live in Job said it in Job chapter 5
verse 7. Please hear me man That is born
of woman is born to trouble like the sparks that fly upward. I
know that's true I know from the moment that we're born, we're
struggling with physical issues, psychological issues, sociological
issues, emotional issues, spiritual issues, economic issues, issue,
issue, issue, issue. We got issues. Is that true? We got issues. Now, what I'm
doing is exercising your senses in the opportunity to confess
and tell the truth. That's what true believers are,
people who confess. Now there are people who are
walking around who will say that they don't have any trouble.
They are liars. They are liars. They are liars. We all have trouble.
Can I share with you something else? Our master was born into
the same trouble. As soon as he took on a human
nature and was conceived in the womb of Mary, his mother, by
the Holy Ghost, his mama had trouble. And as soon as our master was
born, just a little baby, Him and his mama and his stepfather
had trouble. They couldn't even find a place
to have the boy born in a decent way. That's trouble. How many
of you had a baby in a manger on the street, in the backseat
of a car, in a taxi? Well, my daughter had hers at
home this last time, so I guess she could raise her hand like
this. But it was at home. It was in the comfort of her
own bathtub. I mean, you know. Our master willingly accepted. the trouble that comes with being
a human. Did you hear me? He willingly
accepted the trouble that comes with being a human. He allowed
himself not to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth or to be born
to privilege or to be born to aristocracy or to be born to
any of the echelons that often are able to avoid some of the
ravages of what it means to be poor or middle class. He suffered from the moment that
he was born, entered into this world, and he struggled two years.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine being two years
old and the whole nation is under indictment by a jealous peon
despot king to kill everything two years old and under because
he's hunting you down? Are you with me so far? Your
mom and daddy got to run to Egypt and hide until God kills him. Then you come back and you live
in obscurity until you're 12 years old because God has laid
his hands on you, chosen you, called you, purposed you, destined
you, predestined you, ordained you to go in and tell the rulers,
you're in trouble. I'm only 12, but I'll be back
in another 18 years. And so he hides again until his
baptism. And at his baptism, he's driven
into the wilderness by the Holy Ghost and the devil tempts him
and tries him. And the text says the devil leaves
him for a season only to come back incarnate through the rulers
of the church to harass our master for three and a half years as
he is coming to redeem the very people that are giving him hell.
Are you with me? He is willing to take on the
trouble that you and I have experienced. He's willing to take it on in
order that he might be a credible witness to you and me that our
life is filled with trouble. Now here's the problem. I want
you to get this now. I think it's fairly easy to prove to
the world that we are a people that are struggling with trouble.
One of the great words that we sort of in a very euphemistic
way grasp after is the word peace. I'm talking about universally
around the world. Men, artists, musicians make millions and millions
of dollars under the philosophy of peace. Peace songs kind of
resonate like in waves over periods of time of war and conflict and
famine and suffering. We want peace, isn't that right?
We want peace. And so, oh, just to even hear
somebody talk about the possibility of peace simply means we're in
trouble. Are you hearing me? It simply
means that we are in trouble. We are not at a state of peace.
We have troubles. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
letting us know that these troubles that come into our life are troubles
by which opportunities on the part of the enemy can get you. I wanna call your attention to
three enemies briefly here that you need to watch out for in
the midst of the trouble that you go through. Because this
is the stuff that's going to get you in the worst trouble
if you don't learn these things. There are three enemies that
the human race has to deal with. Every human being. The first
of these enemies is the most crucial enemy. This is the enemy
that will send you to hell. This enemy is yourself. This is the one that's going
to send you to hell. Your own soul. Your own nature. the enmity of our fallen nature.
Romans chapter eight, verses six and seven, you don't have
to go there. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's at
variance with God. The unbeliever does not submit
to God. He doesn't submit to God's law,
he can't. As such, that fundamental predisposition
in us when we're born is that the real enemy to us is us. You know what, when you grow
up and you take enough hard knocks, some of us have, don't you come
to discover that I've been blaming this person, that person, this
institution, that company, this philosophy, that ideology, this
church, that church, when the problem is me. When you sit in that little cage,
proverbially, whatever that cage is that has you bound now and
nobody else to be able to talk to, now you got to talk to yourself.
you realize whoa I don't even like me the Word of God will make it
very plain James chapter 1 verse 14 God does not tempt any man
neither can he be tempted but when a person is tempted it's
because they're drawn away by their own what lust that's the
thing that's getting you in trouble now that's the first and most
most prevalent and ominous enemy that you have to watch out for.
If you're going to be a wise man or woman, be careful about
yourself. Listen, you don't think right.
You may think you do, but you don't think right. You are getting
into trouble every day. You are sowing bad seed that's
going to come up and reap its inevitable consequences in your
life because your thoughts are not thoughts always after God.
You don't think God's thoughts after him all the time. Can I
get a witness? I tell you, honest folk ain't
going to hell. Listen, you don't think God sucks. So if you want
to actually blame other people for the problems you're going
through, you've missed the boat. It's you and it's me. That's
the first enemy you have to watch out. Second enemy, particularly
for the people of God, he's not an enemy so much of the world. They love him. But unfortunately,
the professed people of God love him too. And that's Satan. It's
in your outline. Be vigilant. be sober because
your adversary, the devil, goes about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. You guys got that? This is how
deluded our present generation is. This is how deluded our present
generation is. We don't believe in the devil.
Now watch this. This is how the devil has been
able to, as it were, syncretize himself. with the consciousness
and the soul of the human race. He's become one with them so
much so that they can't see him. He looks just like them. Are
you hearing me? So the second enemy that we have
to worry about is the devil. This diabolical entity that God
created long ago that fell from heaven because he wanted to exercise
his own will. Here's how you know that you
are subservient to him being governed by the devil. I want
you to get this. This is free. It ain't gonna cost you nothing. Now watch
this. Because everything is about you
and your will being done. I'm kind of picking up where
I did last week. The devil will help you always to achieve your
will. Because he knows every human
being that he can get to do their own will, they have joined his
army in rising up against God. Are you guys following me so
far? If in the daily choices that you make, your choices are
not based upon the word of God, if they're not rooted in a fundamental
motive of love for God, so that you, like we learned last week,
you don't have as your basic modus operandi, Father, your
will be done, you're gonna either serve your own will, which is
consistent with the devil's will, or you're gonna serve God's will.
Here's the problem with the nation of Israel. They were doing their
own thing so that when Jesus showed up Here's the one man
out of the whole human race that's doing the will of God and they
couldn't identify with it Because they were not doing the will
of God. This is why Jesus said in John chapter 8 listen I am
a man who is telling you the truth and you don't like it watch
this because you are not of God if you were of God you would
hear me and You see how he closed the gap between their view of
things and his view of things. And he helped them understand
that the reason why you disagree with me is because you don't
know him. That can make you mad, right? But it's true. The second adversary,
therefore, then, is the devil. He is a real force. He is so
absolutely effective in the world that most people laugh at him,
except for those who sell their soul, because he has some fundamental
gifts and goodies that he will give you if you really want to
see him. If you want to know the devil, ask him to show up
in your life, and he will. If you want to know the devil,
ask him to show up in your life, and he will. And then ask him
what is his proposition to you, and he'll show it to you. He
will give you the only three things that he gives to the whole
world as a proposition, as an offering. Now watch this. He
will give you the desires of your flesh. He will give you
the desires of your mind. And he will give you a prideful
disposition. All that's in the world is the
lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life
And these are the three propositions that he rendered to our master
in the wilderness remember Turn these stones into bread if you're
hungry Jump off this pinnacle and I will save you if you be
the son of god Bow down to me and i'll give you all the kingdoms
of the world. Are you guys with me? Now watch this. I want you
to follow this i'm going to help some of you You wonder why people
rise to stardom like a meteor and become prominent in the world
when their natural gifts don't even come close to the success
that they've attained to? It's because they sold their
soul to the devil. Do you want to be successful
contrary to the Word of God? Ask the devil to show up. And
he will show up in ways that are consistent with your own,
your own idiosyncrasies. He will so harmonize himself
with you and work in the providential schemes of your life to open
doors for you and advance you in your own agenda so that the,
listen, the euphoric experience of your success will be so inebriating
that you will say, this must be of God. It happens everywhere all the
time. Everywhere all the time only He gonna come to get his
pay at a certain point Because the wages of sin is what? The
third enemy and this is gonna surprise you That the whole world
faces and They could not believe this for nothing is God God is the adversary of the whole
human race All I know you have been taught God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life But you're still living
miserably and experiencing difficulty and conflict and pain so long
as you're doing your own thing But God is the adversary of everyone
who lives willfully and who lives in submission to the devil Why
would God be your friend if you're his enemy? I know this is not
your normal religious prism, but I want to help you so that
we can understand the text today. The problem with the world is
it does not take into consideration that God must be an adversary
to the human race so long as the human race denies the glory
of God, denies the truth of God, denies the ways of God, denies
the work of God. See, we have a beautiful picture
of the antithesis between the world and God in Christ and national
Israel. We believe Christ to be what?
God. National Israel serves as a model
for us of people who thought they were right with God, but
we're not The human race is in that same condition. I believe
our nation is in that condition I believe our churches are in
that condition. I believe that people who are
under the assumption that The very reason for which they exist
is for them to be happy and free to do whatever they want to do
and God Exists to make that happen for them are under the wrath
of God what I believe I believe you need to take into consideration
according to the scriptures that this may be so and if I'm right
I'm warning you am I not let me see if I can help us make
this good go with me in your Bible to the book of lamentation
I'm only going to look at two verses with regards to this point
and then we'll go to our third point the book of lamentation
now if I were living in the days of Jeremiah 50 years before his prophecy that
Israel was going to be utterly devastated and scattered to the
four winds and Jerusalem would be burned to the ground, Lamentations
chapter 2. And Jerusalem would be burned
to the ground and her kings led in chains, in bondage, Their
eyes burned out and then made to grovel naked with their butts
out before all of the Babylonians. If I were living in that age
and preaching what Jeremiah preached, I too would experience what Jeremiah
experienced, and that is the people would hate me and throw
me in a pit where there was no water. Fortunately, I don't live
in that era. I live in an era in which in
our country we are so apathetic that they don't even really care
about the truth. That'll change in a few years.
faithful prophetic preachers will suffer for the truth. Lamentations
chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. I want to show you how what Jeremiah,
what Amos, what Hosea, and what Isaiah had said came to pass. And I want you to hear it in
your own language. Are you there? How hath the Lord covered the
daughter of Zion with a cloud, here's the phrase, in his what?
This is Jeremiah in his lamentation. You know what it means to lament?
To weep. To cry. Painfully cry because
something is happening to you that's horrible and you don't
like it, but you can't stop it. Watch this. How hath the Lord
covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger and
cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel and
remembered not his footstool in the day of his... What's the
word again? Anger. The Lord hath swallowed up all
the habitations of Jacob, and he hath not had pity. He hath
thrown down in his wrath the stronghold of the daughter of
Judah, and he hath brought them down to the ground. He hath polluted,
here it is, the kingdom. the princes thereof Jeremiah
is describing how God in his sovereign Providence brought
the Babylonians to utterly demolish the nation of Israel and Jeremiah
is watching it before its very eyes and here's what he describes
in the next three verses he had cut off in his fierce anger all
the horns of Israel that means the rulers the word horn is a
symbol of strength and it means the rulers have been cut off
they've been destroyed and He had drawn back his right hand
from before the enemy now when God takes it washes when God
takes his hand off the enemy and Not protect the withhold
the enemy from you. You are now disposed to your
enemy. That's the language here Are you guys following me? Listen
to what he says and He hath burned Against Jacob like a flaming
fire which devoured round about see the flame now. Do you see
the flame? I Look at verse four. He had bent his bow like a what? God has bent his bow like an
enemy against his own people. He stood with his right hand
as in what? Oh, now the prophet is saying
God's your adversary and God's your enemy. Do you guys see that?
Well, now let me help you understand something. If God gives you over
to your enemies and if God gives you over to your adversaries,
God's your adversary. Because we know God to be the
first cause of everything, right? And I know no evil can come upon
me unless the Lord lets it come. I know nothing can hurt me unless
the Lord himself has sovereignly decreed it. I know no adversary,
no devil, no enemy can actually get a hold of me unless the Lord
himself gives him permission to do it. How do we know that?
The book of Job. Are you hearing me? So when I
use the phrase God is our adversary, I'm not being ludicrous, absurd,
or I'm not just trying to do something fanciful or novel.
I'm here to let you know when adversity comes, it comes from
the throne to let you and I know we're in trouble, to let us know
we are in trouble if we believe God is sovereign. Jeremiah says
God did this. Go with me now in your Bible
to Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel 33. One more Old Testament passage
before I go on to my next point. I know some of you are in suspense,
but stay with me. You need to understand why we
are treating this portion of our consideration. Ezekiel 33. This here is another portion
of scripture that is not often emphasized today in our evangelical
church world, because as I said before, the assumption is that
God loves everybody. God wouldn't hurt a fly. You can live like hell, do whatever
you want to, and God's still there at your beck and call to
serve you. Right? That's the essence of
it. But here's what God told his
preacher in Ezekiel 33 verses 1 through 7. Here's what he told
him. He says, now you preacher are
my mouthpiece. Don't get your head swollen.
But your job is to tell the people precisely what I tell you. Your
job is not to rearrange, reconstruct, modify, diminish, augment, expand
upon anything that I say. Your job is to open your mouth
and proclaim precisely what I say. That's your job. That's your
job. You're not a mediator. You're
not a conciliator. You're not a counselor between
me and them. I can speak to my own creatures,
myself, very plainly. I don't need you to interpret
this for me. Just tell them what I say. Are you guys hearing me?
So the job of preaching, as the job was the prophet, was not
popular in that day, and it's not popular today. And this is
why many of us who are preachers of the gospel, we say that there's
not much preaching going on today. Did you hear what I just said?
We say there's not much preaching going on today. Today there's
a lot of philosophizing, emotionalizing, and psychologizing going on.
Not preaching! Not authoritative proclamation
of the Word of God, standing in the behalf of God, daring
to tell men and women, thus saith the Lord. That's not much going
on today because people don't feel churches. Where people actually
take God that serious So most people come to church
to get away from the truth Ezekiel 33 verses 1 through 7
and the word of the Lord came unto me saying son of man speak
to the children of your people and Say unto them when I bring
the sword upon a land now notice how the sword comes when God
brings it You notice that God didn't say whenever a sewer comes
upon the land, whenever in some strange, mysterious way you find
yourself in trouble, whenever in some unusual manner that I
don't know about, I had nothing to do with, don't blame me for
it, the enemy gets in. No, God doesn't talk like that,
does he? You know why he doesn't talk like that? Because he's
God. And when you're God, there are certain responsibilities
that are yours that you cannot be extricated from. Can I tell
you what that is? You are the one who rules over
everything and nothing can happen without you decreeing it. That's
why the humanist and the atheist have a problem with God that
I agree with. The humanists and the atheists
will argue with silly religious people who will try to make God
almost God by saying that God does almost everything, but God
cannot stop men from doing whatever they want to do. I mean, he's
kind of God, you know, kind of God, but he doesn't have the
power to overcome your will. He can't change your destiny
without you giving him permission. Are you hearing me? See, and
I know that this is what we call reverse theology, just like reverse
psychology. And it comes from the devil,
which means you really are God and God's a slave. And he's waiting
at your beckoning call to give him permission to do what he
wants to do in that blasphemous that the God of the universe
who lifts his hand to heaven says, I do whatever I want to
do. And who's going to stay my hand? Who's gonna stop the God
that speaks things into existence that are not? Who decrees a thing
and brings it to pass? Who speaks those things that
are not as if they were? Who sees the end from the beginning?
Can't lie, change, or fail. That's the God of the Bible. I do all my pleasure and fulfill
all my will. Let me help you believers. There's
not one will or decree our pleasure our purpose our plan that God
has determined to do that He won't do Not one creature in
the universe will ever stop God from fulfilling his will God
will do all his pleasure Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? He will never ever want if God
ever failed at anything he attempted to do the vast regions of these
billions of galaxies which has man's mind blown where there's
one creature out there that's able to execute his own will
over against the will of God that one creature is God himself
are you hearing me he's got himself see so we have a really strange
view of God today well he's just kind of waiting for you to let
him save you Why we don't use that kind of
terminology around here. We understand the inference. We understand
the implication We understand the blasphemous nature of that
kind of reverse theology Here's what I know and I know the Word
of God says it's God you can do all things you do whatsoever
you want to do Are you with me so far? This is called confession
by the way true believers know how to confess I'm gonna tell
you about God and I'm gonna let the chips fall where they may
I because I don't want to be in trouble with God listen I
might struggle with my own enemy enemy and I might wrestle with
the devil but I'm not gonna fight with God listen to it verse 3 I'm sorry verse 2 son
of man if When you speak to the children of your people, saying
to them, when I bring a sword upon the land, if the people
of the land take a man of their coast and set him for a what? Watchman, that's what a preacher
is. If when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows
the trumpet. The trumpet is the word of God.
It's the word of God. Paul said, how can the people
respond unless the trumpet give a clear and certain sound? Am
I making some sense? Verse three, if he sees the sword
come upon the land, he blows the trumpet and what? Warn the
people. Verse four, then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet
and take not warning, if the sword come and take him away,
his blood shall be upon his own head. Makes sense, doesn't it?
Here God sets a watchman up on the wall to look for the enemy
of the society of the people, the welfare of the people, the
commonwealth of the people. And the enemy, the watchman turns
around and blows the trumpet. Hey, the enemy is coming. And the people keep watching
their movies and their DVDs and listening to their music on iPods
and going about their business and clubbing and partying and
doing all this other stuff. When the enemy comes, guess what? That watchman will be in the
cove of God's protection, crying out because the people did not
take heed to his warning. But those people will experience
the judgment that they were warned against. The watchman has done
his job, right? Look at the next text. Look at
it now. Verse five. He heard the sound
of the trumpet. He took not warning. His blood
is upon his own head because he did not take warning, which
shall deliver his soul. Verse six. But if the watchman
see the sword come and does not blow the trumpet. Oh my goodness. And the people be not warned.
the sword come and take away any person from among them he
has taken away in his iniquity but his blood will I require
at the watchman's hand do you guys see that stay with me now
that's exactly what Jesus is doing in our text he's headed
to Calvary he knows these wicked people are going to deny his
message and he's warning them he's blowing the trumpet letting
them know now the judgment is coming he's loving them Are you
with me so far? He's loving them. He's letting
them know you are in danger. But I want you to see this next
phrase in verse seven, because it's important. Verse seven,
so thou son of man, I have set you a watchman upon the house
of Israel. See it? See the parallel between
the preacher and the watchman? Therefore watch this ladies and
gentlemen, you shall hear the word at my mouth That's the job
of the faithful preacher is to listen to God's Word and Warn
them. Do you guys see that and tell
it now? I want you to see these last
two words. Are you ready from? me Who are the people being warned
from God Do you see that? Who then now is the adversary
of the people? I? God is. Listen carefully to
me. Here's what God does. He blows
the trumpet. He warns the nation. He warns
the church. He warns the sinner. He blows
the trumpet. He blows the trumpet. He warns
the nation. He warns the church. He warns
the individual sinner to let him know he's not right. The
judgment is coming. The sinner does not listen. The
church does not listen. The nation does not listen. The
judgment comes. Is that true? the judgment comes we have three
enemies go back to our text Luke 12 self Satan and God and our Lord Jesus Christ treats
this subject very much in heart I know the way I'm dealing with
it because he realizes how in a few months according to our
text the whole nation is going to turn against him and Kill
him. We know this by verse 50. Do
you see verse 50 Luke 12 50? But I have a baptism to be baptized
with you guys see that I Have a baptism to be baptized with
now some of you've been asking about baptism This is not a text
by which we unpack our developed that other than to say when Jesus
uses the term baptism here You know what? He's talking about
his suffering and his death. I He says, I have a baptism to
be baptized with. The word baptism is a word that
was used analogously to ships that sunk in the sea. It was
analogous to those things that were placed underneath the water,
so immersed under the water that they were overwhelmed. And when
he uses the term baptism for himself, what he's saying is
here in a short period of time, what's going to happen to me
is that the whole of the nation is going to turn against me and
everybody's going to hate me and you're going to lead me to
Golgotha. You are going to reject me and
hang me between heaven and hell and open hostility and antipathy
to who I am and who I represent. I will suffer at your hands. You will tell the world you reject
Messiah. That's what Israel did, didn't
they? Christ is prophesying this ugly day when his own people
would prove to be his enemy. He's letting us know that it's
so very important for us to be careful not to think that we're
all right because we have a form of godliness. Are you hearing
me? So let's consider now the the
text in its in its point. There's very important Notice
what it says Christ's baptism a sign of our being enemies of
God you see that Acts chapter 2 verse 23 go there for a moment.
I want you to see this verse one more time. I was listening
to an individual He was a proponent of Israel and in fact, he was
a Jew he was a Jewish author and writer, and he wrote a book,
I guess he was trying to cater to the Christian church, and
he was trying to let the Christian church know that there's a great
deal of similarity between Judaism and Christianity, so that there
really shouldn't be any kind of variance between Jews and
Christians, that we really all, watch this, we really all serve
the same God. We actually serve the same God. And I know a lot of professing
Christians think that about Jews, and Jews think that about Christians.
But I want to help you understand something. that Judaism and Christianity
are mutually exclusive. The two cannot be integrated
whatsoever. Judaism is a system of works. Christianity is a system of grace. Judaism looks for self-righteousness
as the basis for approval before God. Christianity looks to Christ's
righteousness as the basis of acceptance before God. And the
two can never meet. When a Jew actually comes to
know Christ, he will drop his Judaism. Pass out, you know that. Twelve
disciples that turned the world upside down. One of them named
Saul of Tarsus, who says, I put those things behind, pressing
toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I count
all things done for the excellency of the knowledge of God in Christ.
That's what he said. When God revealed his glory to
me in the person of Christ, from that point on, I didn't know
any man as a Jew or Gentile. I saw them as sinners needing
a savior who can make you a new creature in Christ. Oh my goodness. You want to know a Jew who abandoned
his Judaism for Christianity? He's the brother that wrote 80%
of the New Testament. We love him too, don't we? I
become all things to all men that if by any means I might
save some. You can't mix works with grace
and call it grace. And Christians get silly. Well,
we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Well, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob were not Jews. Judaism, in the official sense,
started with Moses. Set up the law, the covenant,
and the people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were believers. God
saved Abraham before he was even circumcised. He was just like
me, grew up in the hood, straight Gentile, idolatrous Gentile.
Abraham lived on grace all the days till he hit the dust. He
was able to walk the land, but he couldn't possess it. That
was for his children. Are you guys following me? Listen
to me. They were saved by grace. Wasn't
no temple, wasn't no priesthood, wasn't no sacerdotal system.
It was just grace. Are you hearing me? But none
of that structural system that Moses elaborately built under
the instruction of God plopped down upon the Jewish people.
That was there to constrain a million and a half people until Jesus
came to let them know that the purpose of the law was to lead
you to Christ. And once you get to Christ, let
that law system go and walk by faith through grace and obedience
to the gospel. It hurts because what you and
I are seeing in our present generation, especially among religious, am
I boring you? I'll be done here in about 10 minutes. In our present
religious generation, we are actually heading back to legalistic
works religion right now. It's going through the door of
mysticism and paganism and emotionalism. We're headed back to legalism.
See, because when you abandon the full free sovereign grace
of God in Christ, you now got to work your way into God's favor.
Even if it means pumping yourself up emotionally, getting all excited
and stirred up and fluttered, asking for revelations and visions
and prophecies, when God has already given us the revelation
and the vision and the prophecy. Christ is the revelation of the
invisible God. Christ is the glory of the invisible
God. Christ is the Word of God from
Genesis to Revelation. If you reject Him, you reject
God's revelation. Let me jump to my point to make
sure we get this. In Acts chapter 2, 23, here's
what the apostle Peter said. He's a Jew now, speaking to Jews. They come asking the question
in verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by him in the midst of you, You yourselves know that
means the jews knew who jesus was and what he did right watch
this ladies and gentlemen and forever Resolve in your mind
that the jewish people Knew and were culprits in the death of
christ Just in case we wouldn't know the jews didn't do it. The
roman centurions did it pilate did it? Hold on So because you're smart Christians,
you don't fall for that kind of sleight of hand. We know that
Caiaphas and Ananias, with a band of soldiers led by Judas Iscariot,
found our master praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and led
him to their mock court system, condemned him, and then told
Pilate, who wanted to let him go, kill him. Pilate said, I don't find any
fault with it. The Roman man said, look, if we're talking
about the law, ain't no law here. I've just examined the man three
times. The man's righteous. Man, why don't y'all go eat something?
I mean, it's late in the morning. Go eat something. They said,
no. His blood be upon us. Now, how
you going to twist that and say the Jewish people were not culprits
in his death? Now, Peter received the Holy Ghost because he was
an apostle. He was authentically a prophet
of God, was he? Is Peter speaking by the Spirit
right now? Is he? See, this is not my interpretation.
This is God's interpretation based upon his servant Peter,
right? Listen to the language. Here it is. Are you ready? Who
is he speaking to? You men of Israel, verse 22.
Verse 23, him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Who led him to Pilate? God did. Who led him to these
Jewish rulers? God did. Why? Because he was
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But watch what
God says. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. Do you guys see that? You have
taken by wicked hands, crucified and slain. Who did that? The
Jewish people. God appointed it, they did it. Here's my point, going back to
our text. Christ knew this day was coming
and he told them, don't do this, don't do this. This will be to
your demise if you do this. But they did it anyway. So my point of observation in
our Luke text as we go to our last point and close is this.
In all of the ominous language that we've had to consider as
we've had to have a mirror raised up to us to look at ourselves
and to contemplate where we stand with God, the one thing you must
extract from what we have talked about thus far is this. It's
quite possible that I could be in the same place as those people.
It's quite possible that I could be ignorant of God. It's quite
possible that I could be God's enemy and he could be my adversary.
But what I do know is today I've been warned. Am I telling the
truth? Today I've been warned. Our Lord
Jesus Christ was warning them. And he now brings these people
who are in a horrible predicament to the one point of solution
of which now this strange language is used over in verse 50 and
so. And that's this. What do you
do when your adversary comes against you and your adversary
is God? What do you do when God as your
adversary is warning you time after time after time through
the blowing of the trumpet, through the proclamation of the word,
through providential circumstances and reverses in your life and
difficulties? What do you do? You agree with
your adversary. Could I talk to you about that
for a minute? This is our last point. Our last point. When our Lord said over in verse
50, verse 58, when you go with your adversary, we've been talking
about adversaries, haven't we? To the magistrate, as you're
on your way, you're not there yet. Are you following me? But you're on your way. You haven't
terminated at the legal courts yet, but you are on your way. You haven't actually come to
the court of strict, righteous, merciless adjudication. But you are on your way. And
as you are on your way, you're not by yourself. You have an
adversary with you. Thank God for this adversary.
We call him a friendly adversary, a good adversary. See, stupid
people need adversaries. I do. I need someone to oppose
me when I'm thinking wrong. I need someone to stop me when
I'm thinking wrong thoughts and ready to do wrong things. I need
an adversary. See, this adversary is a friendly
adversary who actually wants these people to go the right
way. After all, they are in the way. See, the metaphor that he's
using is that of a debt controversial situation. Need to help you.
Especially our young people today who are incurring as a consequence
of the frivolous Sinfulness of our leadership in this country
17 trillion dollars of debt that's gonna keep you slaves Until your
great-great grandchildren if God doesn't wipe us out with
a war and start all over again. I'm telling you the truth Long
ago When a person got in debt and they couldn't pay their debt
guess what happened to you You went to jail, buddy. It's called
debtor's prison. We would solve a lot of problems
today if we had a debtor's prison. Now, I want you to follow the
logic because I'm getting ready to preach to you the gospel now. But because
we have a false system of what we call credit, by which you
can be made to appear to be viable, but in reality you are a slave,
You are the deluded in thinking you're free and possessing economic
wealth when in fact the matter you are owned by somebody Now
what Jesus is teaching is this That credit that debt system
of which in that first century had its solution and taking the
person who has a debt And he doesn't want to pay his debt
And the person he owes is his adversary The adversary of the
person that owes the debt is talking to the debtor and saying
to the debtor, you must pay me. You've got to pay me, man. I'm
going to take you to court because you've got two problems. The
first is you owe me. That's a real problem. Second,
you don't want to pay. Now, you know what the Bible says in the
book of Psalms, chapter 37, verse 21. I want you to hear this.
A wicked man borroweth and does not repay. A wicked man borrows
and does not repay. Are you following me? Don't go
to sleep. Watch this. This is why God told Israel,
don't you borrow money from the nations. Because once you get
into a system where you're borrowing money, you're going to be a slave
to the lender. And as a slave to the lender,
you're going to lose all your principal worth. And when people
live in a credit system where they are slaves to the lender,
they don't get to operate out of the freedom and integrity
of their own character. You're a slave. And God told
his people, don't be slaves. Now, I just want you to follow
this now. Don't get into debt. Because if you get into debt,
it's very possible that you can't pay. Are you hearing me? I know that I grew up poor. Poor
people can't pay their debts. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? God says don't get into it because
first of all, there are many of you who can't pay. Secondly,
there are some of you who are so corrupt in your nature that
you won't pay. That's good. This is why he said
in the Beatitudes, watch this. This is why he said in the Beatitudes,
now listen, when somebody come to you and borrow money from
you, Listen just give it to him I'm going somewhere Just give
it to him because two reasons one they may never be able to
pay you again never never Secondly, they may be wicked and will not
pay you Here's the third ultimate reason that he says give it to
him and don't ask for it back Because when you get in trouble
and you have to borrow something, you may never be able to pay
it back either. Are you hearing me? Pastor, what are you getting
at? You are a debtor to God's law. You owe God. You are a debtor
to God's law. You owe God. God demands perfect
obedience from you. God demands perfect righteousness
from you. God demands perfect love from
you. God demands perfect faith from
you. The whole human race is a debtor to the law of God. The
law of God said that you and I owe God. We owe him righteousness. We owe him obedience. We owe
him love. We owe him faith. You know what
your problem is? You can't pay. Am I making some
sense? You can't pay. You can't pay
the price that sin requires. The wages of sin is what? Romans
6, 23. And see, so the whole human race
is a debtor to God. God in his mercy comes to them
according to this debt situation with an adversary that is leading
the human race to the judgment seat of God. You and I are not
there yet. But we're on our way, are we
not? And every day, either the Spirit of God is striving with
you in your conscience to let you know you're not right with
the person that you owe, or the Word of God is exposing you for
those of you who are closer, or the preaching of the Gospel,
which is what happened to you today. You got caught today. The adversary is letting you
know today you're in trouble with God. But here's the good
news. You and I are not at that court
of adjudication where God is going to exact the very last
mite from you without mercy. Are you hearing me? Without mercy. See, the day is coming when God
will judge the world by Jesus Christ. It is appointed unto
men once to die and after this to what? See, this is the crazy
stuff that true believers believe in. I heard a guy the other day
talking about Christ is not coming back The world's not gonna end
men won't face the judgment. I guarantee you men will face
the judgment And watch it and people die every day 500,000
and they face God and you know what happened every day God strove
with them by his spirit as an adversary To get them to do one
thing. Are you ready agree with God? Pastor, agree with what? Glad
you asked. Right here. Agree that God is
holy, that God is righteous, that God is just. Agree that
you are unholy, that you are unrighteous, and that you are
totally sinful. Agree that all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Agree that there's not a just
man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not Agree that
there's none good. No, not one. There's none that
understand none that seeks after God There's none that are profitable
to God agree with God agree with God that it would be right. I
to take you and throw you into hell. Agree with God. Agree with
God that you and I deserve the punishment due to us because
we have violated God's justice. Agree with God. And then agree
with God that when he sent his darling son into the world as
a substitute for sinners, that the only way my debt can be paid
is by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Agree that the
way to God is through Christ. Agree that Christ has a righteousness
that he can give you that will cover all your iniquities and
sins and make you right with God. Agree with God and be saved
by the grace of God in Christ. Agree with God. Agree with God. Agree with God. Agree with God. Agree with God while it is today. Agree with God while you still
have breath in your life. Agree with God while you still
have a sound mind, while you can reason, while your heart
is pumping. Agree with God. That's what it's
meant to confess. I confess Him as Lord. God's
right. He's gloriously right. And I'm
all wrong. And there is no way to the Father
but through the Son. And a man can't be saved apart
from faith in Christ. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ. God's answer to our problem is
Christ. Agree with God before you find
yourself at the judgment hall of God. Agree with Him. And guess
what? I agree with Him. Don't you agree
with him? I agree with God. I agree with
God.