I've entitled the message for
tonight, The Immersion. The Lord said in verse 49, I
am come to send fire on the earth. In the context, he's speaking
of the fires of division and persecution. Look in verse 51. He says, suppose you that I'm
come to give peace on the earth, to make it to where everybody
gets along and everybody's one happy family. Do you think I
came for that purpose? I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth, there should
be five in one house divided. Three against two and two against
three. When the gospel of Christ is
preached, it divides men, separates men. The Lord promised us it
would be that way. The gospel of Christ is intolerant
of all that is opposed to it. Now, I want to be Oh, may the
Lord enable me to be a tolerant person. Anybody that has anything to
do with me, they're going to tolerate me. They're going to
tolerate me. And I want to be that same person,
someone who loves people, who's quick to forgive, who's quick
to take the lowest seat in the house. I want to be like that. That's the person I want to be.
But I don't want to be tolerant in this sense, tolerant of that
which is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't want
to be tolerant in any manner toward that. You see, our God,
the scripture says, is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. That's God's testimony concerning
himself. He is a jealous God. The fire of the gospel burns
up all that men hope in. All their fleshly hopes. And
this creates hostility. You see, grace and works cannot
peacefully coexist. There will always be division. The Lord promises that. Now fire,
the Lord says, I've come to send fire upon the earth. Fire is
representative of the judgment of God. Now you think of the
way the word is used in scriptures. We read of the fire of hell. God's punishment of sin is described
as fire. We read of the fire that destroyed
Sodom and Gomorrah. Can you imagine that fire coming
down from the heavens and destroying, wiping out that place? I think
of the fire that came down from heaven during Elijah's sacrifice. Remember, Elijah said, if God
be God, serve him. And if Baal be God, serve him.
And here's what we're gonna do. Both offer up a sacrifice. You
offer up your sacrifice, I'll offer up the sacrifice. And they offered up that sacrifice
of theirs and they jumped and leaped in pagan ritual trying
to get fire to come down from heaven because Elijah said, the
God that answers by fire, he'll be God. So they started praying
and cutting themselves and so on, trying to get their God to
answer them, and he didn't do it. And Elijah began to mock
them. He said, where is your God? Is he asleep? Is he off
somewhere else? Is he on a journey? He began
to mock them. And then he prayed to God for
the fire to come down from heaven. And can you imagine what it must
have been like to see that fire come down upon the sacrifice
that he'd prepared, that he doused down with water. The scripture
says it consumed the fire and the stones and the dust and licked
up the water. And all of a sudden nothing was
left. God was completely satisfied. And the Lord says, the fire that
I send has already been kindled. You know, this fire that comes down
from heaven and accepts the sacrifice, sets men's hearts ablaze with
love to him. Fire puts out light. Fire causes heat. Fire burns
up dross. And fire purifies. It puts out tremendous energy. And it makes rapid advancement. Those are the properties of fire.
And you know fire is needed for today, isn't it? Oh, for the
fire of God's Spirit to cause us to be consumed with a zeal
for His glory. Now, like I said, I want to be
a tolerant, gracious man, but I want to be intolerant of that
which is contrary to the glory of Jesus Christ and his salvation. Now, this is a fire that continues
to get hotter too. Beloved, the gospel is not a
cold thing. It's certainly not a thing of
lukewarmness. It's a fire that Christ came
to sin. This is an amazing statement.
I came to sin fire on the earth away with our coldness. May we be white hot in love to
Christ and in a zeal for his glory. He's worthy of that, isn't
he? He's absolutely worthy of that. Now, fire. The Lord said, I am come to send
fire on the earth and the fire of God's wrath was to come down
upon him. the fire of persecution against
his gospel, and to set on fire the hearts of his people with
love and zeal for his glory. Now let's read this 50th verse. He says, but I have a baptism
to be baptized with. Now he'd already gone through
water baptism. We can read about that in Luke
chapter four. I love to read of his baptism. When he was baptized, the scripture
says, the heavens opened and a voice came from that excellent
glory. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Now, baptism, it's so beautiful,
the simplicity of it. We declare the gospel in this
simple ordinance of baptism. Here's my hope. Here's all my
hope. that when Jesus Christ lived,
I was in him. When he lived, I lived. When
he kept the law, I kept the law. I don't try to keep the law.
I've kept it. Big difference. I've kept it.
When he died under the wrath of God, I was in him. My sins
were paid for by what he did. When he was raised from the dead,
I was justified. And this is all my justification,
who he is and what he did. Baptism is so beautiful. And
I love the way the Lord himself was baptized. We're confessing
our union with him when we're baptized. And when he was baptized,
he confessed his union with us. Baptism is so beautiful. But when the Lord is speaking
of baptism here, he's not talking about water baptism. The word baptism in the scriptures.
I think it's interesting that the translators, for whatever
reason, and I don't think it could have been a good reason,
decided not to translate baptism. That's a transliteration. That's
what it is in the Greek. It's called baptized. They decided
not to translate baptism because the translation of the Greek
word that signifies baptism is this, immersion. immersion. That's what it means. I have
an immersion, to me, immersed under. What he's referring to is when
he was to be immersed under his father's wrath. That's exactly
what he's talking I have a baptism to be baptized with. I wish I
could talk about this the way it ought to be talked about.
Pray for me that the Lord will enable me to speak on this subject
the way I ought to speak. I covet your prayers. Our Lord
said, I have a baptism to be baptized with, to be immersed
under the wrath of God. And He said, the Son of God said,
the all-powerful One, the Holy One of Israel said, how is my
soul straightened until it be accomplished? Truly, The scriptures calls him
the man of sorrows and acquainted. Oh, how acquainted
he was with grief. Turn with me for a moment to
Lamentations chapter one, right after the book of Jeremiah. If you have an opportunity to
read Lamentations, remember To read it, yes, it's Jeremiah's
words, but it is more than anything else the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ from Calvary's tree. All five chapters read them in
that light. But look what he says in verse
12. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by, behold and see
if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow. which is done unto
me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against him. He hath spread a
net for my feet, he hath turned me back, he hath made me desolate
and faint all the day. For the yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand." Now somebody says, well how can that be Christ
speaking? because my sin became his sin. And he spoke of the
yoke of my transgressions, not the yoke of Todd's transgressions,
the yoke of my transgressions. He literally became guilty of
them. They're wreathed and come upon
my neck. He had made my strength to fall. The Lord had delivered
me into their hands from whom I'm not able to raise up. Now,
there is a place called hell. And I wish I could only speak
of that place with tears in my eyes. There is a place called
hell. And sin is so infinitely evil
that men will spend eternity there because they can never
make satisfaction for sin. Now, the only way I know how
to illustrate this, you think of one of your children, one
of your grandchildren. who are so dear to you and who
you love so much. What if someone took your child
and murdered them and abused them and tortured them? Somebody that's dear, so dear
to you, your child, your grandchild. Would there be any satisfaction?
What if they said, I'll give you a million dollars? Would
that satisfy with you? And you say, well, okay, okay.
What if it was a hundred million? Well, that's enough. Okay. No,
there would be no satisfaction. Now here's the reality. You and
I, it wasn't just those fellows back then. You and I have been
guilty of putting to death his dear son. You say, I didn't do
it. Yeah, you did. And if God left
you to yourself, that's exactly precisely what you do. That's
what God sees. And that is why hell is eternal. Sin is an infinite evil and God
will not be satisfied by the death of the sinner. But his son, when he died, he
made complete satisfaction. because of who died. There's
something different about his death because of who he is. His
death rendered complete satisfaction to the justice of God. Now, I
realize that the fear of hell never led one person to repentance.
Did you know that? You know, I hate to hear a hellfire
and brimstone preacher like he's trying to scare people to death
with hell and the way they are. It just irritates me because
I think you don't even know what hell is, you don't know who God
is, and all you're doing is trying to manipulate people. Hell fire
preaching never motivated one single person to true repentance. But Christ bore the full equivalent
of hell. God showed him no mercy, no pity. He was made a curse. He experienced
pure justice. He was made sin and how his holy
soul recoiled at being made sin. He was cut off. He was not allowed
communion with his fathers. He experienced what a damned
soul experienced only much more acutely. You see, because of who suffered. His
suffering was infinitely greater than the suffering of any man
to ever live. Now listen to me. There are men,
I don't have any doubt, there are men who have suffered physically
more than Christ did on the cross. No doubt about it. Men who had
more prolonged deaths and tortures and so on. And I wouldn't in
any way want to minimize his physical sufferings. Who could
describe them but his soul sufferings. I think of how he longed for
the approval of his father and he no longer had it. You know
when you love somebody you want them to you want their approval
when you love them. He no longer had the approval
of his father. He had nothing but his awful
frown, his wrath against sin. That's the immersion that he
so dreaded and said, how is my soul straightened until it be
accomplished? Every day he walked upon this
earth. No wonder he was a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief. He knew what was coming. No man has ever suffered as this
man. You believe that? No man has
ever suffered as this man. But notice what he said in verse
50 and what a wonderful statement this is. He says, I have a baptism
being immersed under the wrath of God. I have a baptism to be
baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished? You see, something was accomplished
by his death. What was his cry from the cross
that he, the scripture even points out he said it with a loud voice? It is finished. The immersion of Christ. Now, one of the things that I
think is so glorious about the immersion of Christ, you know,
this is the subject of the eternities. Way back before time began. Before
there was any creation. Before there was a star, or moon,
or angels, or anything. You know who Christ was? According
to Revelation 13, verse 8, He's the Lamb slain. Literally, the
Lamb having been slain from the foundation of the world. You know what that makes me do? Before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. And the only reason He was slain
was this one reason, sin. And before time began, He was
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And what does the
scripture point out that's going to be spoken of and sang of in
glory? Worthy is the lamb that was slain. I love to think of being in heaven. I was thinking about that while
you were singing that song, Matthew, to no longer be a sinner. To no longer deal with what I
deal with. this body of death, the flesh, all the conflict that
comes in this life. I was thinking, I won't have
to deal with that anymore. I'll be free. And I won't even
remember what it's like to sin. I won't remember what it's like
to have an evil thought. I won't remember any of that.
I'll be just like Christ, perfectly conformed to his image. You look
forward to that? But while I won't remember what
it's like to sin, here's one thing I'll know. I'll look upon
the scars in his hands and in his feet, and I'll know the only
reason I'm there is because of him. I'll know that beyond the
shadow of a doubt. Oh, don't you think it's glorious
that he has kept his scars to let us know what he accomplished. Now, his immersion was predestinated. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. In Acts 2.23, Peter said on the
day of Pentecost, him being delivered by the determinant counsel and
foreknowledge of God. you have taken and with wicked
hands have crucified and slain. The early church said for truth
against thy holy son, Jesus, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the Gentiles and the people of Israel. That covers everybody.
We're gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done. His immersion was voluntary. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Everything he did was voluntary. He said, no man taketh it from
me. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father. What he did, he
did with full consent. Now I know he did say, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. This cup of wrath
that I'm getting ready to drink dry. If it be possible, let this
cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but
thine be done. You see, if the Father's will
was done, His will was done. That's why He said what He said. Now, his death was voluntary,
and the immersion of Christ, being immersed under the wrath
of God, was substitutionary. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. When he died, he died for the
elect. He died for those the Father
gave him. And it's so important for us
to understand that because, remember, his death was an accomplishment.
That's the point behind his death for the elect. And didn't He
die for all men? Well, if He did die for all men
and all of them weren't saved, you're taking away the only hope
I have, because the only hope I have is that Jesus Christ died
for me and put away my sins. And if He can die for somebody
and that person wind up in hell anyway, you've taken away the
only hope I have. I say that a lot, don't I? Well,
I'm going to keep saying it a lot. That's why we glory in the success
of his death. It was substitutionary. He said,
I lay down my life for thee sheep and other sheep I have which
are not of this fold. Them also I must bring and there
shall be one fold and one shepherd. The immersion of Christ was punitive. It was punishment. You know, I hate it the way I
think, but every, oh, I wish I'd quit thinking this way, and
I don't reckon I will till I'm dead, but every, I'm always thinking
the Lord's punishing me. He's getting me for what I've
done, for what I've thought. I shouldn't think that way because the believer
is never punished. You see, Christ was punished. His death was the absolute justice
of God and wrath of God against sin. It was pure punishment. It wasn't an effort to reform.
It was the punishment due evil. It was punitive. The immersion of Christ, I love
this too. It was the fulfilling of the
scriptures. Everything He did, He did that the Scriptures might
be fulfilled. When they pierced His hands and feet, well, it's
said in Psalm 22, that would happen. The same thing with Him
parting His garments and casting lots for His robe. And Him saying,
I thirst. Everything He did, He did that
the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Oh, I love the Word of God. His immersion was the greatest
act of obedience that there ever was. He became obedient unto death,
even the dead. of the cross. Wherefore God has
also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father because his immersion was the greatest act of obedience
the universe has ever seen and ever will see. And thank God,
his death, his immersion was an accomplishment. He said, how
is my soul straightened until it be accomplished? He accomplished
the great work of glorifying his father. He said, right before
his death in John 17, 4, I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. And what
was the work the Father gave him to do? It's on the opening
pages of the New Testament. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. When he died,
that's changed to he hath saved his people from their sins. I'm
already saved from my sins. That's what he accomplished.
My sins that are ever before me have been put away. They're
gone. They are no more. He said it
is finished. I love to think of his first
words recorded. I must be about my father's business.
What were his last words? Finished. Mission accomplished. I did what I came to do. Now, in closing, I want to give
you the different ways this word finished is translated. Just real briefly, and that gives
us some idea of what the Lord meant when he said, how is my
soul straight until it be accomplished? And when he said, it is finished. Now in the King James Version,
one Translation is accomplished and that tells us that whatever
he intended to do, he did. You believe that? Whatever it
was he intended to do, mission accomplished. That's precisely
what he meant when he said, it is finished. He has appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and he did. He accomplished
his person. But this word is also translated
in Matthew chapter 11, one, end, end. The end. He's made an end of
sins according to Daniel 9. That means there are no more.
The end. Chapter over, book over, story over. The end. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. This word is translated in Revelation
20 verse 17, expired. expired. Now, when I get milk,
I always look at the expiration date. I've learned to do that.
If it's over the expiration, well, actually, it's even close
to the expiration date. I try not to get it. I go back to the
back of the bin and try to pull out a, but when something's expired,
that means it's no good anymore. You know, when the Lord died,
what happened? where the earth quaked, the rocks
rent. But here's what I like thinking
the best. You know the moment he died, the veil in the temple
that signified separation from God was ripped in two. That old covenant, it's expired. It's over. It's finished. The word is also translated in
Romans 5, or Revelation 15, 1, filled up. Nothing can be added
to, finished. It's filled up. Nothing can be added to it. You
know, I got to thinking about the church. You know, the true
church never grows. We want to be in a growing church.
Well, I want to be in the church that never grows. And you know something else about
the true church? It never gets smaller. That church is dying
out. I'm not interested in that. I want to be in the church that
never gets smaller. You see, it's filled up with the names
of all of God's elect, and he saved every single one of them. It is finished. And then in Acts chapter 13,
verse 33, the word is translated fulfilled. Scripture's fulfilled. All the purposes of God and the
decrees of God fulfilled. It is fulfilled. And then in Matthew chapter 23,
a version of the word go is used to translate this word. It's finished. Lights turn green. Go to the Father. Don't wait
for anything to happen. Don't wait to get better. Don't
wait till you come to understand more. Don't wait to your experiences.
No, go to the Father right now because it is finished. Go. Light's green. This doesn't keep anybody out.
If you come, you'll be received. In Matthew chapter 17, verse
24, it's translated from the word pay. It is paid. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. It's paid. Debt's been paid.
I am debt free. I feel sorry for people who believe
in some kind of judgment for a believer after death, where
they stand and they're rewarded according to their obedience,
or they lose, maybe get worse. Boy, I'd hate thinking something
like that. I don't like thinking about stuff. I like paid in full. And then in Luke chapter 2, verse
39, the word is translated performance, performed. His performance. You know, people have such a
performance-related way of thinking. How am I doing? How am I doing?
Am I living good enough? And you know, I want to live
to honor Him. I really do. I want to walk in
a way that honors His gospel. But you start thinking, how am
I performing? How am I doing? Well, His performance is my performance. You want to know how well I performed?
Well, how well did He perform? That's how well I performed. Now, when he was in the garden,
he said, Father, if it be possible, you think of the, this is the
son of God speaking, and he wasn't looking for an easy out, but
he was overcome. He said, my soul is straightened. When he was in the garden, he
said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup of being immersed
in your wrath passed from me. But he knew it wasn't possible.
He was immersed under the wrath of God and he accomplished something
from that. The full glory of his father. The complete manifestation of
who God is and the complete salvation of his people. What a word. Accomplished. Finished. Ended. Expired. Fulfilled. filled up, go, paid,
performed. That one at God's right hand
is not a man of sorrows now. He was, but he's not anymore. And when he returns in glory,
we're not going to see a man of sorrows. We'll see him as
he is. And one glimpse of seeing him
as he is will change us into his very image. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we're so un-understanding of what your
son went through for our salvation. We have glimpses here and there,
but we're too, such knowledge is too wonderful for us. It's
high, we can't attain to it. We believe, but Lord, how thankful
we are for what he did on our behalf. Lord, we give thanks. And Lord, we truly rest only
in what he did for us. And we know that we can rest
in what he did because of who he is. Lord, he's thy son. He's thy equal. He's the almighty
God, the everlasting father and the prince of peace. And Lord, as it pleased you that
in him should all fullness dwell, Lord, it pleases us that in him
should all fullness dwell. Bless your word for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.