Well, this morning we shall be studying once again out of the Gospel of Luke, the 12th chapter. Luke, chapter 12. Before we look at some words that came forth from the lips of our Lord and Savior, let us pray and ask for God's help. in understanding His truth and working it out in our lives. So let us pray together. Lord Jesus Christ, we cling to Your words. We cling to that promise that You have given us, that if we being evil know how to give good gifts unto our children, How much more shall the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? O Father, please, give us the Holy Spirit that we might properly understand the words that He has had recorded for us. O Holy Spirit, You know the lives of Your people here this morning. You know that word that is needed at this time. And so come, have dealings with us. We believe in you. We believe that your church is the dwelling place of the Spirit. And so again, come. Make us to be aware of your presence. Might we experience the power of your truth. We ask it for the name's sake. and for the honor of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Yes, yes, yes. I was warned, I was warned, I was warned. But I never imagined it could be so difficult. Have you ever said something like that? Or rather, have you ever experienced the truth of that statement? I was warned, I was warned, but I did it anyway. I just never dreamed it could be so difficult. Again, ever had that experience? Well, perhaps if we reflect on our lives and look back, maybe we can come across one or two of those incidents. Go back, for some of us go way, way back to high school and college days. Now, I realize some of you can't do that because you haven't made it to high school yet. But for the rest of us, you remember you had to have so many credits to graduate. And so you looked over, looks like you fall a little short, so well, you take an elective. You'll take an elective. Now why do most students take electives perhaps? Well, because it's a subject they're really, really interested in and it really fits in with their major. But other than that, by and large, a person takes an elective because hopefully it's easy, won't cost me much time or energy. And so you sign up, you need a couple of credits. And you look over the catalog. Seems easy enough. Won't be a lot of work. Easy pick up. You sign up. But then a little later you talk to some of your friends and they say, you don't want that. You better drop that course before it's too late and you get penalized. You better drop that course. Oh, come on. It can't be that bad. Only a couple hours a week. So you jump in. And you are overwhelmed. You've got at least a dozen short little papers to write on various subjects. Add to that, you've got this mountain of reading. Plus, we'll add more to that. When you go to class, you better participate in the discussion on a particular subject, because that teacher, who is a monster, sits up there at the roll book and marks down if you contribute or you don't, and it affects your grade. You were warned! But you couldn't imagine that you'd be so overwhelmed with worry. And so maybe you had that experience. Or while we're still back in high school and college, let's think about a sport. A lot of people like to go out for sports. And so I remember my freshman year in high school going out for football, and there was a bunch of us. It was a big, big school. And so on the first day out on the field in our gym outfits, the coach says, gentlemen, I want you to understand something. Football is not for everyone. And this school offers a lot of variety of sports. And I say that because about half of you is going to drop out. And so that first day, calisthenics, calisthenics, calisthenics, run, run, run, run, run. And within two or three days, we were cut down, in fact, so much so the coach had to make no cuts. But they were warned. They were warned. Oh, maybe it has reference to that job you wanted so badly. It looked like a piece of cake. But you're swamped with work, and you can't wait to transfer out of that department. But let's really be serious now for a moment. Real serious. What about your professed faith in Jesus Christ? That professed faith. Oh, you love that faith. You have the forgiveness of all of your sins. You are covered with the righteousness of Christ. You've been given the Holy Spirit. And oh, the study of God's Word, how rich and how exciting. Oh, how great God is and His wonderful works. It makes your heart race with goodness and the fellowship of the saints and you love your church. But again I ask, how is your walk with the Lord? Are you growing? Are you developing? Is your walk with the Lord a piece of cake? If you answer truthfully, it's not a piece of cake. The walk with the Lord involves a lot of difficulties. to walk with the Lord, you have to grapple with oh, so many temptations. You did not realize the wickedness that remains in your heart. You did not know you would face so many temptations and so many tribulations. And you didn't know about God hiding His face. You didn't know about that chastening hand. In those nights you didn't sleep, you simply gave yourself to prayer, God help me, God help me, God help me. That's the Christian life. But you were warned about it, weren't you? You were warned about it! Did not the Lord Jesus himself on more than one occasion warn us? Did we not hear the apostles warn us? Did it not say that through much tribulation we entered the kingdom? Does it not say that all those who seek to live godly in Christ Jesus shall experience persecution? We were warned that with much difficulty we enter into that heavenly kingdom. Our Lord Jesus warned us about that, didn't He? And for this morning, we pick up one of those warnings that He has given to us out of this 12th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Now, as regards the particular text that we should look at, the setting, we find our Lord Jesus Christ still in the midst of a very large crowd of people. And amongst that crowd, there are some very upset religious leaders. We found this out when we first entered into this 12th chapter. Before you go back at the tail end of that 11th chapter, and the Lord Jesus Christ, he is with some scribes and some Pharisees, and all he does is tell them the truth. and they go into a rage. You notice verse 53 of the 11th chapter, "...and he said these things to them. The Pharisees began to assail him vehemently, and across examined him with many things, lying in wait for him, seeking to catch him in something that might say that they might accuse him." And so amongst the crowd you have these hostile religious leaders. But then you have this large crowd of people, very curious people. I mean, they've heard about Jesus, so they want to hear for themselves, and probably they come with some friends or themselves, and they've heard about his healing ability. And so they are there pushing and shoving. And then in the midst of all this, someone shouts out, Teacher! Tell my brother to divide the inheritance. And like so many people, they simply want to use Jesus for their own personal benefit. And so that brings forth a lecture on coveting, a lecture on anxiety, a lecture, he's addressing primarily his disciples, about this matter of being watchful and this matter of being faithful to him. And so that brings us down to these words, verse 49. I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled. I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished. Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on, five in one house will be divided, three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son, and son against father. Mother against daughter, and daughter against mother. Mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Thus far we read in Holy Scripture. And so does it not strike you right on the surface of what I have read? This is something quite unusual, isn't it? It just doesn't seem what you're used to hearing, especially when it comes to this matter of some kind of evangelistic message. You notice again what Jesus says? I came to send fire on the earth. And so we can see, first of all, he is making a declaration. with reference to part of the mission for which he came. A declaration about his mission. What is that mission? Well, I came to send fire on the earth. Well, we're not used to that, are we? But you notice you have that little statement, I came. And that statement comes forth from the lips of Jesus a number of times. And it's used by him because it's bringing out the fact that he is a very unique person. He is the Son of God. He is the God-Man. He is the Messiah. And he came, right? Well, he was sent. And so we read other places. He says, I came not to do my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. And what's he saying? I came from heaven. And so you see this mission of Jesus, does it not involve quite a few things? Does he not say, I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance? I came that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. I came to seek and to save that which was lost. And of course, those words we so enjoy from the Apostle Paul, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. But what does it say here? I came to send fire on the earth, and earth would have reverence to the area of mankind, to humanity, to men, women. I came to send fire. And that word send is the word that carries the, to cast something down, to throw something down. So he's throwing down fire. Well, we all know about fire, don't we? We do a little cooking with fire. In New York, they may not get to do that anymore. They're taking away the gas stoves, they say. But we know about fire for cooking. We know about fire for warmth. We know about fire for light. We know about fire for forging things, for purifying things. I came to send fire, so do we take it in a literal sense? Here's the Lord Jesus and he's going to throw fire down here on earth and throw fire over here and start a bunch of fires and living in areas that we know about fires. We know what happens up north when the lightning strikes the forest. Terrible fires, destruction. But I don't think we ought to take it in a literal sense. Maybe a figurative sense. You recall the Apostle James, that third chapter that's always so convicting when you read it, he's speaking about the tongue, and he says, is not the tongue like a fire and how a little kindling can destroy a forest? And so he's using in a figurative sense, fire can destroy, fire can ruin this tongue, the ill use of the tongue and destroy a man's reputation, ruin him. And by and large, when Jesus spoke these words, the Jews identified fire with judgment, God's judgment. And so maybe lately in your devotions, you've read through the book of Amos. And you remember how that first chapter or so starts off? God says, I'm going to send a fire upon the wall of Edom. I'm going to send a fire over here upon this nation. I'm going to send fire over here. Is he sending literal fire? What he's sending is a judgment. A judgment upon those nations. And so here, remember Jeremiah, the Lord says, is not my word like a fire? and like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces. And does he not say to Jeremiah, my word in your mouth shall be like a fire? He was going to pronounce judgment, judgment upon the men of Judah. And so here I would think I came to throw down some judgment on the earth. And I think this fire has reference to the gospel. The gospel. Oh, you say, come on. The gospel is all good news. Yes, the gospel is good news about what God has done in His Son for sinners. But that gospel is also a judgment. Why would a man ever cry out to Jesus for mercy, except first of all, his sin had been exposed, a judgment had come upon him? You remember Paul said, I had not known sin except the law said you shall not covet. When the gospel comes to a person, That person either responds in a positive way or he does not and a judgment is upon him. Only two kinds of people in this world. The saved and the lost. And so here I come to send fire. I come to send fire. And when the gospel goes forth, it brings a judgment upon a man. And you remember, you have John. What did he preach? Repentance! And Jesus did the same thing. He preached that men ought to repent! Well, what's involved in a message of repentance? Well, that means there's something wrong with you. If you've got to repent, that means you're not right with God. And you need to repent. You need to be redeemed. You need to be saved. The old catechism? Repentance is a saving grace. Whereby our sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth with grief and hatred turn from his sin unto God, and he seeks after obedience. That's what's involved in repentance. The sinner becomes aware of his sin. Oh, I like to look at other people's sin. No, the gospel makes me reflect upon my sin. And I'm miserable about my sin. Until a man becomes aware of his sinfulness and that he's under the judgment of God, he's not going to turn from his sin. And when the gospel is preached, a man becomes aware of it. God, help me, help me, help me to turn from my sin. I have no strength in myself. And the man who turns from his sin is the man who says, God, I want to obey you. God, I want to obey you. And this repentance is something that goes on all the days of the life of a saint. Every day there's some form or fashion of repentance. And I simply assume that every day you cry out, God, I want to obey you. I want to do what is right. Jesus said, I came to send fire upon the earth. And so there is this preaching of the gospel. It's very upsetting. The fire, it is a judgment, but the fire also can give light, understanding, and purification. And this is what the gospel does to us. I have come to throw down fire on the earth. And so, you notice he says something here how I wish it were already kindled." And so he's expressing a desire that his mission was already accomplished. He has this desire that his mission would already be accomplished. You notice, I wish, I wish it was already kindled. Yes, you see, all the kindling wood's being gathered together, and it seems like in certain places there's a little flame over here and over there, but yet there needs to be this breaking forth. How's it going to be brought forth? Well, you notice, I have a baptism to be baptized with. and how distressed I am." Well, it's accomplished. What is this baptism? Well, we've already read early on in Luke, and you can read it in Matthew. He's already undergone water baptism. The Holy Spirit has come down upon him without measure, so it's not that water baptism. It appears to be that this baptism is a reference to his death. Like some people wanted to know if they could sit on the right hand, the left hand. He says, that's not for me to give. Can you be baptized with the baptism I am? They say, yes. In other words, you're going to have to go through some suffering. And here is the suffering. And you notice what he says. Oh, I wish it was already kindled. which it was already done. And so this matter of the death of Christ, it was a burden to him, it weighed heavily upon him. And here you see we get a little picture window into the emotional life of our Lord. True man! But he had emotions, and he had these feelings, not perverted like ours are, but pure emotions. I wish it had already come. Perhaps we might think of it like a woman's pregnancy. She's going to be delivered. And she looks forward to that little one. But before that, there's the labor. She doesn't look forward to that labor. No, she wants that labor to be over with. And then that little one laid upon her breast. Then she'll rejoice. And so here's the Lord. I know what I've got to do. And I can look beyond, and I can see the joy, and I can see the fruit, but first, there's that awful, awful suffering. And you see a little picture of this. You remember in the garden? Throws himself on the ground. Father, if it's possible, let this come pass from me. Yet not my will. And previous to that, he had three of his friends come away and pray with me. You see, when you're in trouble, you've got heavy, heavy burden, you'd like to talk to someone about it. You'd like to have one or two of your friends pray for you. His friends fell asleep. And let's be honest, we have people who ask us to pray for them. We're going through a difficult time, but how often have we fell asleep? And so here's the Lord. Casts Himself upon the garden. Lord, if it's possible. You see, He knew what was coming. He knew it from all eternity. He was quite familiar with the prophet Isaiah. Consider these words. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak. A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. The Lord has opened my ear. And I was not rebellious. I did not turn away. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. He knew that applied to him. And you read the Gospels, and you see it happening. As I said, he was familiar. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Yet, though there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. when you made his soul an offering for sin. He knew the words of the psalmist, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He knew what was coming. And he's in distress. Distress. Oh, till it is accomplished. He expresses that desire that it would come and that it would be over. But we move on from that desire, and you notice he speaks about a division. Jesus Christ, one might say, was the most divisive person that ever walked upon earth. You read again and again, there was a division because of him in the Gospels. And face it, B.C., A.D., he divided everything. And so notice what he says here. He says that I'm going to cause a division. Do you suppose that I came to give peace to the earth? I tell you not at all, but rather division. And see, the Jewish mind, the Messiah would come and there would be this great peace in Israel, that Israel would be delivered from their enemies, and of course those terrible Romans would all be put down, and there would be peace over the nations! Jesus is that kind of a worldly peace I did not come to bring. Yes, He's the Prince of Peace. Yes, it speaks at His birth about peace, goodwill, what have you. Yes, He blesses the peacemakers, but the kind of worldly peace that they were thinking about, no! But he does give peace to his elect people, doesn't he? This morning, Mr. Cornell read about justification. And Paul makes the statement, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so every true believer has peace with God, and that's what you know is an objective type of peace. In other words, by nature, a man is under the wrath of God, the displeasure of God. But through faith in Christ, the imputed righteousness, the wrath has been satisfied. And so now God is at peace. It's an objective peace. You don't feel it. You may rejoice as you learn about it. And it's the peace you can never lose. You can really mess up, but you still have that peace. I'm not recommending you mess up. But there's another kind of peace, subjective type of peace, that peace we experience in our hearts. Mr. Cornell read out of that fourth chapter of the book of Philippians, be anxious for nothing, but with everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God. What destroys this inward peace for most of us? We're worry warts. We imagine this, we imagine that, it's always the worst. And we lose that peace. It can be restored through prayer. Through prayer. But this is a peace that we can lose. It's a peace that may come and go. But being right with God and the peace of God objectively, we never lose. And so you notice, I didn't come to give that earthly peace, but rather division. Division. And we've already read in the Gospels a lot of times, especially John, there was a division because of him. There was a division because of him. And you read some of the apostles when they would go to certain towns, one of the cries went up, here are these men who have turned the world upside down. They've come to our city and they're just disturbing everything. And so that gospel brings a division. You remember Stephen, he preaches, tells the truth, and they gnash upon him with their teeth. There's a division there. He simply told them the truth. The gospel in one sense doesn't cause the division. The gospel sets forth the truth. The division and all the turmoil. My sinful heart, the sinful hearts of men cause divisions and separation. a division. And that's very interesting. And I'm sure that you've thought of this. You look at a parallel passage over in the Gospel of Matthew. And we pick it up in chapter 10, verse 34 and following. Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. A sword! Well, a sword, what is that? Well, it's an instrument of warfare, isn't it? A sword. It cuts, it separates, it divides. And so he came to bring a sword. And then we go back to Luke, and he says division, and then he gives a little example of what he's talking about. He says, in the home, And that has been established by God. That is the most loving, intimate place there is, or should be, the home. But notice, from now on, five in one house will be divided, three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And so from what I've read, historically, maybe some occasions today, if a Jewish person, a Jewish son became a Christian, that Jewish family had a funeral, he was dead. He had no part of their lives. And I would assume there might be some other religions that do the same thing. So he brings a division hostility even into that most intimate of relationships. Well, let's consider a story. Try to illustrate what Jesus is talking about. And so let's imagine that there's this huge, huge family over in California. I better look this way. They call it the left coast. And this family is as liberal as can be, as humanistic as can be. Ungodly people. But a son and his wife, due to a work situation, they have to leave California. And so they go to one of the southern states. Let's say they go to that Bible Belt area. They go to South Carolina. So they move there, he's got his job, things are going pretty well, they don't know anybody, but they get introduced to some couples and they invite them to church. And so they go to church. And lo and behold, they get converted. Soundly converted. They're growing in the faith. They love their church, they love the fellowship of the saints, they love to study the scriptures. Oh, well, December's coming. Christmas time, you know. And back in California, it's just a long, long, long tradition. The family get together on Christmas Day and do a lot of celebrating. So the couple's invited back. So they go back. They go to the house, large house. It is packed with relatives. Hi, how are you doing? This, that, and the other thing. And finally they say, you know, we've become Christians. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, those who hear it kind of a, oh, that's nice. Hope you're real happy. Mother might even say, well, you know, your father and I, We really need to start going to church. And so the celebration goes on, fantastic meal, people after the meal kind of sitting around half asleep, and conversations going on, kids playing all over the place, and then there's old Uncle Henry. Uncle Henry, the little crass. Well, Uncle Henry, he's really been enjoying some Christmas cheer, a lot of Christmas cheer. And so he looks up at the Christians and says, hey, none of us go to church, none of us believe in Jesus. Does that mean we're all under the wrath of God and we're going to die and go to hell? Is that what you believe, Christians? And over here, here's your cousin, George, and George, he's a gay man and he's got his partner. Is he an abomination to the Lord? Tell me, Christian, is that what you believe? What's a Christian going to say? What would you say? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is illustrating the kind of situation we may find ourselves in. Now, it doesn't mean that everyone's going to find themselves in that situation. You may. You may not. The thing is, we have to follow the apostle. We're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And not being ashamed could cause a lot of division, a lot of hostility. I don't know how that couple answered. But I would imagine this, that as they fly back to South Carolina, they say, you know, next year before Christmastime, let's make some plans to stay right here in South Carolina. You know, Proverbs says, a prudent man sees the danger and he avoids it. And so Jesus came to bring about a division, a separation. It goes on here now. Some of us know about that. But you know, I don't know when, but there's a great, great, great division coming. A great, great separation. It's going to be a separation between the lost and the saved. And the lost They're going to learn about that judgment. They're going to experience that judgment all of their days. But then the saved, they're going to be separated, separated into a glorious kingdom. And there, no more hostility, no more sickness, no more temptation, no more sin, That is the glorious, glorious separation. But until that time, we must remember, there will be opposition to our faith. It is through much tribulation that we enter into the kingdom. But we do have that assurance. He that has started a good work in you, he'll carry it on to the day of Christ. And not one, not one sheep shall be lost. No one can snatch us out of the Father's hand. Amen. Let us be dismissed in prayer. Now the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee. and give thee peace. Amen.