Jesus divides

Luke chapter 12 please, and we'll read from verse number 49. Now this reading might seem a little strange, I hope it does. Luke chapter 12 and verse 49 says this, the words of the Lord Jesus, I am come to send fire on the earth and what will it be or what will I if it be already kindled but I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straight and to let be accomplished suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you nay but rather division for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided three against two and two against three father shall be divided against the son the son against the father the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and he said also to the people when you see a cloud rise out of the West straightway you see there cometh a shower and so it is and when you see the south wind blow you see there will be heat and it cometh to pass ye hypocrites ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth but how is it that you do not discern the time ye and why even of yourselves judging judging not what is right when thou goes with thine adversary to the magistrate as thou art in the way give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him lest he hail thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and the officer cast thee into the prison I tell you I tell thee thou shalt not depart offence till thou has paid the very last might that's our reading we trust the Lord will bless it to us and I'm just going to get a drink of water the subject of my short address to you this afternoon is really contained within the verses that we've read and it's this Jesus divides Jesus divides that doesn't sound particularly good news the gospel says or the gospel word means good news and yet here is a message that is entitled Jesus divides well here's a little illustration taken from your fair land I don't know much about your geography but I know this that there is what they call the continental of the Great Divide I'm sure you know all about it and the continental of the Great Divide runs right down doesn't it through the whole continent from the Rocky Mountains down and I suppose you would have learned in school that that Great Divide has a significance for your rainfall the rain that falls in the west of the Great Divide that imaginary line so to speak it all flows west and all goes to the Pacific the rain that falls on the east of the Great Divide goes into rivers that all go east and to the Atlantic you see the ultimate destination of the rain that falls is determined upon which side of the divide it falls west of the Great Divide the Pacific east of the Great Divide the Atlantic and that divide goes right down the continent and that really is a picture of what this is saying in this section that the Lord Jesus Christ spiritually is like that Great Divide in your land whatever side you are on in relation to him will determine your ultimate eternal destination without exception the rain that's falling over New Jersey at the moment isn't going to land in the Pacific never you see it determined by which side of the Great Divide it landed and when it landed in one side of the Great Divide it traveled in a distance determined by where it landed out to a destination determined by the direction that it traveled and there was absolutely no exception spiritually it's the same the Lord Jesus Christ is the Great Divide for time and eternity determined determining whether we will travel a journey in life out into eternity toward heaven or whether we will travel in our journey toward what toward hell and toward judge excuse me judgment and towards separation from God and where we stand in relation to Christ determines that journey and destination without exception so here's the question I know you're sitting but metaphorically where are you standing in relation to Christ there are only two positions to have in relation to Christ you're either for him or you're against him you either trust him or you don't you're either saved by him or you're not he's either your Savior and Lord or he's not you cannot have a third position there's not a third way there's third ways in politics there's no third way spiritually it is either yes or no for or against so I ask you again where are you standing in relation to Christ a lot of youngsters here and those I can't see all of you I can see most of you even those of you big hats on I can see you I was seven when I get saved I've told you that before and even at the age of seven I knew I needed to trust the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved for all eternity I didn't know much more than that but I knew that and because I knew that I decided to trust him because he had died for me and across and risen again from the dead and that was enough to know in order to be saved that was enough and it's enough tonight you might be 70 or you might be 7 or you might be some other age but if you're understanding what I'm saying then you're old enough to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior young or old what side of Christ do you stand upon the Lord Jesus speaks of this he's speaking to thousands of people he's preaching a sermon that we won't go into that had not three points but five points shock horror a preacher with five he five points in his sermon and he preached it to that audience that day and he was bringing home spiritual truth to bear upon the people and not everyone was pleased to hear it surprise surprise but they listened and his first point really was just this turn away from the influence of false religion that's what he preached I won't take you one step nearer to eternity with God in heaven turn away from false religion and then secondly he preached stop fearing man fear God don't fear man who can destroy the body but fear God who can destroy both body and soul and hell fear God who will determine your eternal destination and your spiritual welfare fear him don't fear men now maybe I'll be that some of you are sitting there and you're not saved and the reason you're not saved is that you're afraid of what people will say or you're afraid of the unknown or you're afraid of losing things in your life because of this decision well at least you understand that this decision will have consequence and it will and you may lose things but you will gain that which overshadows all you may lose if you gain Christ stop fearing men then he preached that you need to confess Christ before men as your Lord and Savior he's preaching this he preached that you need to reject the love of material things and pursue the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ and lastly he preached that this is a matter of absolute urgency for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect that was one of his points and so he's preached his sermon now he comes to the crunch point decision time that's always really the end of all gospel preaching or within all gospel preaching there needs to be a decision and there needs to be the requirement of a decision decision time the Lord Jesus knew that and so he gave the people the information they required he gave the people the the challenge of the information but he didn't just leave it there he brought them to the point of decision and that's where we entered into our text and so he brings the decision to bear upon them in this way now follow this with me I know it's the end of a day and most of you have been sitting for a long time but you've not long to go now so follow this with me if you would he said this I have come I am come to send fire on the earth the Lord Jesus was using that language to describe his mission here upon earth it's graphic language elsewhere he will say I am come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly but here there's a different aspect to his coming he says not that I am come to seek and to save that which is lost that's another aspect but he says not that I've come to be a light that's another aspect he says I've come what I have come to send fire on the earth he's speaking about his message his message his mission and he's speaking about the gospel and he's saying this will be kindled at the cross it hasn't been kindled yet he says but it's going to be kindled at the cross and it will spark a light and it will spread across the whole world like wildfire I was in Halifax last weekend and I landed and there was wildfires in Halifax I didn't know that but it's a big emergency and rightly so people were losing property and authorities were you know they were under so much pressure trying to contain the wildfires because the fires had got out of control and they were spreading at up speeds of up to a hundred miles an hour you can hardly envisage that well I can't because you know our country's so full of rain that fire doesn't spread anywhere but you know these wildfires were going at a hundred miles an hour and they were spreading all over the place and taking everything in their path the Lord Jesus said I have come and there's something going to be kindled at the cross so he speaks about and it's going to spread like wildfire across the world and it did it did and the gospel spread from city to city it spread from town to town it spread from nation to nation it's come across continents it's been unstoppable it is encompassed the globe the Lord Jesus said my mission is to send this fire across the world and it's come and it's come as far as here right throughout your nation that's come here tonight and this purpose this mission that he speaks about he says this mission is only possible because he says I have a baptism to be baptized with and he says how am I straightened until it be accomplished he's anticipating an experience that he will undergo that will set this fire and set the world ablaze he uses this analogy of a baptism in other words he's going to be immersed in something he's speaking about being immersed in the flood of suffering and the flood of pain and judgment and wrath that will experience that he'll experience at the cross of Calvary and he's anticipating this and it's gripping his soul and it's such a major thing it was the purpose of his coming he came to suffer and to bleed and die in order for this message of the gospel to spread across the world so the very heart of the message but you see this message is all about the cross and this message is all about forgiveness and salvation and judgment and the truth of it is just this that the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven and he'll preach it elsewhere he came from heaven to die upon a cross to be immersed to suffer to be completely overwhelmed by the judgment of God against sin he came as a Savior he came to give himself and sacrifice to pay the price of sin so that sinners like you and me can be forgiven and such was the value and worth of his life and his death and his resurrection that God is able to come out in the gospel not just to a single location but all over the world with this message of forgiveness and salvation that is accomplished and received through trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior the gospel and the gospel is built it's not a message that some man-made philosophy it's not a message that comes and goes with fashions it's not some philosophical thinking that comes back to Greeks or Athenians or Romans or whatever this message is based upon the reality and the history and the three-dimensional experience of Jesus Christ on that cross the gospel is a message based upon an experience and and the cross is something that was marked by the blood and the gore and the violence and the suffering of crucifixion and the wrath of God falling upon his son and causing him to suffer and to bleed and die the price of salvation that's offered this evening is immeasurable and it was only Christ that could pay it and he paid it in full and he paid it in blood and the gospel is a message that's built upon the firm righteous foundation of the finished work of Christ at the cross it's not full of holes you can't argue it away you'll not find errors in it you'll not find a weakness in it it's solid it's real it's historical it's fact it's accomplished and it spreads spreads and as it spreads it divides and so he says this suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth oh we sing about at Christmas I'm not gonna sing it to you but peace on earth peace on earth well there will be peace on earth but before that ever could be peace on the earth the required to be this first upon earth he says I am come to bring division what's the division the division happens when the fire spreads you know up there in Halifax in these wildfires it was quite important which side of the fire you were on but as the fire came through at a devastating effect that's what the gospel does let's not think that the gospel is some religion that we can pay mental assent to or smile at the gospel is a message of devastation it devastates our pride it devastates our self-righteousness it takes away from under our feet all our religious hopes and all our feelings of superiority and satisfaction and it absolutely devastates it it brings home the reality of our standing before God and brings the truth of our sinnership to us that we're sinners and we are we are without any not that we've got no value that's not correct we were without any standing before God on our own merits that's a devastating message to hear but it also divides the Lord Jesus said this it divides families it's divided my family I have a brother who's not saved he says the father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father the mother against the daughter the daughter against the mother the mother-in-law get what's he say he said even the closest relationships that you can have upon earth the family are divided by the gospel salvation is not a family affair salvation is not a group thing salvation is individual response to the gospel and because your dad is saved doesn't mean you are saved and because you are saved doesn't mean your dad is saved and so you can come on the gospel divides because it's an individual response to the gospel that's the response that's required and you cannot decide for someone else if I could decide for my brother I would decide tonight if I could pay for his salvation I'd give you everything I've got but he can't pay for it and I can't pay for it and I can't decide for him he needs to decide for himself and until he does the gospel is dividing my family some that are saved and some that are not and I suspect the gospel is dividing some families in here you may have sat at the back that's okay but you're not outside of the reach of my voice nor of the challenge of the gospel if you and your family are divided by the gospel this is for you and he brings that devastating divisive effect of the gospel to be not to scare us not to intimidate us but to waken us up so that we might decide for Christ to remove complacency to think that all's well because I'm brought up in a family where Christ is honored or brought up in a family where everyone's saved and I'll get saved some point this is urgent this is your decision and if you don't decide for Christ you'll not only be separated in time but you'll be separated in eternity that's a sobering thing to say but it's true it's true so the Lord Jesus Christ is going to tell two stories to bring to bear upon people the urgency of the opportunity and the necessity of acting now so he says this you will all get this here he could have told this story in this area he said to the people in verse 54 when you see a cloud rise out of the West straightway you see there cometh a shower and so it is he says you know by looking at the sky you can work out by looking at the sky you can read the sky you know of rains coming you're all talking about rain coming at the moment the fact it's not coming and as soon as you see the signs in the sky you'll know you'll know some of you can taste it in the air the old fishermen back in Scotland used to be able to taste the weather out in the sea and they knew what was coming I don't know how they did it they just knew and he's saying that's true that's accurate and then he says when you see the south wind blow you say there'll be heat he says you're reading the weather by the signs in the sky and you're doing it accurately and you're right and you're basing your life you're basing your farming you're basing your day upon what you see in the sky you're reading the signs and you're responding here upon earth just put that in your mind I wonder if you and I spend more time worrying about the weather than we do about our soul is that so are we experts in the weather and completely ignorant and the spiritual realities all around us you see evidence in the sky but what about the evidence in the Word of God and in the lives of those round about us would you not read that and respond to that as you respond to this and then he's got a second little story to tell not just so much the weather in the sky but he says look ye hypocrites you discern the face of the sky and of the earth but how is it that you do not discern this thing he says listen you hypocrites you read the sky you know what's going to happen and so you act accordingly he says that you cannot look around yourself and understand that time is short the spiritual realities that you face then he says this listen why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right when you go to thine adversary with your adversary to the magistrate he says listen you've got a problem with someone else and you're going to the court to get it sorted what's the wise thing to do speaking as an ex-lawyer I can tell you this is true you're far better getting the thing sorted before you get to the court far better getting this sorted before you get to the court you take a big risk if you go to that court that things aren't going to go your way and so the wise thing to do before ever you put your case in the hands of the judge is get it sorted out before you get there can I tell you this the wise thing to do spiritually is to get your life sorted now before ever you face a judge in eternity you don't want to put your case into his hands we do not want to live and then die and find herself before the the throne of God the great white throne and receive his righteous judgment upon our life which will be that we are sinners without forgiveness and therefore we need to experience the righteous wrath of God throughout all eternity the time to get yourself right with God is not then that's too late it's now you're on a journey toward that judgment get right with God now now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation so here is my little challenge at the end of my message Lord Jesus Christ came in a mission that mission was to suffer and bleed and die on the cross to provide salvation for guilty sinners the news of which spread across the world like wildfire and every time it's preached and every time it spreads it divides let me ask you again upon which side do you stand are you for Christ or against him this is urgent read the signs this is urgent get right with God while you can before you ever meet him in the great eternity and experience his judgment Jesus divides and I wonder this evening what an end to the conference it would be some soul here decides that that division will no longer exist I'm going to trust Christ and I'm going to trust him now simply accept him in my heart right now and take him as my Savior and be saved for the great eternity I trust you will don't put it off don't delay trust him where you are trust him now and receive him as your personal Lord and Savior