Latest / HBCWestminster / 3.7.21 Luke 12:49-59 Pastor Nathan Anderson

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3.7.21 Luke 12:49-59 Pastor Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

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  My name is Nathan. I am the family pastor at Highland and so thankful that I get to spend some time with you guys now, teaching, preaching God's word. May this time be a blessing to you. And as you guys know, we have been traversing through the gospel of Luke for some time now. Pastor Danny has been bringing absolute...
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  fire every week i don't know about you guys but every week i come away and think that is the absolute best message i have ever heard on the gospel of luke i am so blessed to be listening to these messages each and every week the exacting of words the precision of dividing the word of god has blessed me
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  All while Pastor Danny has been ministering, shepherding people in many different situations in their own lives with the Lord. I am thankful. I just want to say how thankful I am for his leadership, for his humility, for his passion for God's word. Brothers and sisters, what Pastor Danny is allowing the Lord to use him and his family for in the work of the kingdom is truly special. And we are so, so blessed.
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  to have him as our senior pastor. He really, really loves the Lord, and he really, really loves his family, and he really, really loves the Lord's church, especially the church here at Highland Baptist.
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  So all that said, each time he gives me an opportunity to preach or teach, I am so grateful because I know the Lord has gifted him especially in the teaching and preaching of God's word and the ministry of the word and that people are immensely blessed as I am by the skills God has given him. The fact that he shares this pulpit with so many is no small thing, church, and reflects his heart.
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  None of this is about him. It's about Christ. All that to say, Danny, Hallie, the entire Gardner crew, we love you guys. We're thankful for you. We pray for you. Praise God that he has called you to minister at this church to these people. Alright, enough of the gushy stuff.
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  This morning we're going to continue our study in the Gospel of Luke. We're going to be in Luke chapter 12. We're going to close out chapter 12 this morning, or whenever you're watching this video. The bulk of our time is going to be spent in verses 49 to 53, but we are going to be covering 49 through the end, verse 59. Now in this passage that we're going to come to today, we're going to read one of the world's favorite phrases, or actually one of their favorite
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  words. That word is peace. If you were to count the number of times our culture says the words peace, unity, acceptance, and probably the most used currently as a hope for a better tomorrow, you'd run out of fingers and toes in just one 30-minute news brief.
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  Our culture is filled with a desire for peace in the world. There is actually entire non-profit organizations which are solely funded in order to bring about world peace. In my study in preparation for this, I found one such organization. They are called the UNDP, the United Nations Development...
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  Program they are solely funded through the UN states and are or supporting countries of the UN and on their website They have a quote which says world peace is not only needed but inevitable World peace is not only needed but inevitable That is a fairly interesting and actually quite significant claim
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  In fact, in this claim and through their website, they imply that world peace, the world peace that they say is inevitable, is such because of who they are and what they will do. Now, how is this going to happen? Well, they are very glad you asked. They have boiled down the inevitability of world peace to six things. There are six items which
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  Through their working, the UNDP's working will bring about world peace. I'm going to read them to you now. The first is keeping people out of poverty. These are direct quotes from their list of items. Number two, governance for peaceful, just, and inclusive societies. Three, crisis prevention and increased resilience. Number four, environment.
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  Nature-based solutions for development. Clean, affordable energy is number five. And of course, six, women's empowerment and gender equality. Their platform is that if these six things would but happen, then world peace would be inevitable. And as they are about making these things happen, they say world peace will happen.
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  Now, let's just stop for a moment as we consider what they are considering to bring about world peace and what is going to bring peace in our world. And let's consider some scripture on peace. 2 Corinthians 13, 11 says, Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice, strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
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  1 Peter 3.11 says, They must turn from evil and do good. They must seek peace and pursue it. Christ in John 14.27 says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Colossians 3.15
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  The peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 2 Thessalonians 3.16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord will be with you.
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  and Romans 5 1 says therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ we see from these verses that we are to live in peace to seek peace that through Christ we are justified and thus have peace in these verses we see that peace is God that he alone is the source of peace on us to pursue peace is to pursue God
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  alone Proverbs 12 20 says this deceit is in the hearts of those who plot evil but those who promote peace have joy thus to summarize all of this Proverbs and Paul
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  And Corinthians and Christ are all saying that we must seek Christ in order to find peace. This would then seem to be in direct contrast to the list of six items given by the UNDP. This is not to say that all of those six items are bad things. Some of those are enacted in very evil ways. However, some of those things, such as taking care of those who can't take care of themselves, in Timothy were called to take care of widows and orphans. This is a command from the Lord in his word.
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  Not all of those things are bad. But you might be asking yourself, why all this talk on peace? And you might especially be wondering that if you snuck a peek at the title given by the ESV over the R section today where it says, not peace, but division. Christ in this portion of scripture says some seemingly contradictory things to his other message where he says, my peace I give to you.
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  This morning we are going to be examining what Christ is saying when he states in verse 51, Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. So our question to be answered this morning is this, Did Christ come to divide or to reconcile? Our title is Division for a Purpose.
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  Our points are division for truth's sake, blinded to the truth, and the truth judges us all. With those things and that background stated, we will now read our scripture, pray, and dig in. Christ, in verse 49 of chapter 12, says this,
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  I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished. Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father 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...
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  her mother-in-law. He goes on and says, he also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising from in the west, you say at once a shower is coming and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say there will be a scorching heat and it happens. You hypocrites, you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret?
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  And God, we ask now that you would
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  Guide our thoughts. You would direct our minds, Lord, to truth. God, through this study, may we be impacted in our lives. May we be compelled now by your word to live differently, to live according to the truth that we are in your gospel, your love, and thus different, set apart. Father, guide us, direct us.
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  Convict our hearts where it needs. Encourage our hearts where it needs. Be with us now. We pray these things in your name. Amen. So our first point comes from these first four verses, 49 to 53, division for truth's sake.
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  And as I stated at the beginning, we are going to be spending most of our time in this section of our passage today. This is because the other points and portions are what I think very quickly explained and understood. However, our understanding of this portion, 49 to 53, has drastic effects on our actions. What flows out of our understanding of these verses can and should have deep and eternal impact on our lives and the lives of others.
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  And I have to admit that there is some irony here as I get ready to preach on this portion of Scripture as I stand here as the family pastor at Highland Baptist preaching on a passage which seems to have Christ's call for division among families. Honestly though, it is passages like this that reveal the importance of expository and sequential preaching because if I'm honest, this portion of Scripture is not exactly fun.
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  to preach. It's not one that you would normally just choose to go about preaching, but here we are, and here we go, and thank you very much, Danny, for this opportunity. Of these five verses, their importance, J.C. Ryle says this, the sayings of the Lord Jesus in these five verses are oddly weighty and suggestive.
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  They unfold truths which every true Christian would do well to mark and digest. So now, we set out to understand and digest God's Word.
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  Our first observation should be how these words reveal the passion and total fixation of our Lord to finish His work on earth. Christ says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.
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  that Christ was already physically baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. So what is he referring to here when he refers to this baptism and why such a graphic imagery of suffering from Christ? And I would say it seems very obvious here that Christ is referring to his imminent death on the cross, which is quickly approaching and is ever present on his mind and heart.
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  I want to pull our eyes even closer in on this section, on this verse, verse 50. I want to pull our attention to one word, until. This is a linking word and a word which both conveys a fixed and certain path and also a knowledge that there is an end goal. Until.
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  Until it is accomplished. What is accomplished? Well, let's look at 2 Corinthians 5.14, which I believe can help us to inform us on this. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. That linking word until is an expression of Christ's fixation to complete the work he has been sent to accomplish. And that working being to die a sinner's death.
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  that all may live. Verses 17 and 18 of chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians go on and says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. In verse 18, all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. It is
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  this passion to express his deep love for us which christ says he is in grace great distress about until it is accomplished so first in this section may we observe the focus of our savior on his goal to bring about reconciliation to all even though it would cost him
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  Let us next observe from this passage that despite the incredible love offered to all in the gospel, not all will believe. Christ answers his rhetorical question from verse 51 where he says, Do you think that I came to bring peace? And he answers that and says, No, rather division.
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  As I said at our outset, this portion of Scripture and this statement from Christ seems to, on the surface, be incongruent with this statement from John, which John wrote about, where he says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Now, as hard as this statement is to hear and the statements which follow it were, Christ tells them that accomplishing it, what?
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  The gospel, the offering of salvation in no other name than Christ will bring about division in families and friends. He says where there are five, he says three will be against two and two against three, father against son, mother against daughter.
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  As we saw in those verses I read at the beginning, God is the source of peace and the gospel is the means with which that peace is transmitted to us and through the saving work of Christ, finished work on the cross and the sealing power of the Holy Spirit in those whom have trusted in that finished work of Christ. I said to pursue peace is to pursue Christ. J.C. Ryle says it this way, peace is undoubtedly the result of the gospel wherever it is believed and received.
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  Here is the hard reality, though, brothers and sisters. Not all will pursue. Not all will accept. Christ, as he is talking with the Pharisees at another time, had this conversation with them recorded in the Gospel of John. Jesus said, For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind. Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him,
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  Are we also blind? Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. This is a conversation from John chapter 9, verses 39 to 41. Brothers and sisters, where the gospel is spoken and rejected, where the ears hear but do not listen, the heart grows hard. And where the heart grows hard, there is anger.
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  division. The heart hardened by the rejection of the truth now turns on the peace giver and the bearers of the image of that peace. They become determined to absolve themselves of the guilt they feel and in a twisted and desperate state they now turn from listener to rejecter and then from rejecter to oppressor. They are determined to have their sins. Now that message of Christ, my peace.
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  I give to you becomes like sandpaper on their skin, abrasive to even hear, sensitive to even the touch of truth. They take on the opposition's message. They become enemies of the very person whom offered them peace. Those whom choose rejection of the source of peace have no other option but to be in opposition to him. Hear, church.
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  we can and should feel sorrow. Sorrow for those in our homes, in our families, those whom we work with, whom have chosen rejection of the peace offered to them in Christ. But here, Christ tells us, since there is no other option, no other name by which man can be saved, then division is a natural byproduct of the gospel. J.C. Ryle says it this way, grace and nature can no more amalgamate
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  than oil and water. So we now come to the meaning behind our first point, division for truth's sake. Our world says they desire peace. They actually seek it under many different rocks, under many different empty promises from the enemy. Those lies from the enemy look and sound like this. If people would but accept you for who you were, we would be at peace.
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  They say, if you would but accept my lifestyle, then we would be at peace. They say it is because of what you believe, because you think my lifestyle is wrong, I cannot have peace. But we know it is a very simple yet eternally significant flipping of that statement, which can and does change it all. Christ says, if you would but accept me for who I am and what I have done,
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  Then, and only then, you would find peace because peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give peace as the world gives peace. Did Christ come to bring peace? Of course he did. Of course he did, church. Christ desired to bring peace and reconciliation with a lost and dying world.
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  so much so that in Philippians chapter 2 verses 7 through 8 it says this of him he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross however since the truth is there is only one way to receive this and since truth by definition is exclusive
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  excluding all other forms and definition of truth and as such a rejection of the one and only truth leads to division from those who do not accept it. So church, what do we do with this? Do we simply say since someone has rejected the gospel we no longer care for them? By no means, of course not. It means we preach the gospel all the more and care not what it leads to for us in our own lives.
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  Just as Christ loved nothing of himself for himself, so we preach the gospel, seek Christ, and leave nothing of ourselves. We do as Peter in his first letter says, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found.
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  to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation.
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  We see Christ now explains further that many will simply ignore the signs. The gospel is exclusive, God says. Christ says, I am the only way. Rejection of me will lead to opposition of the message.
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  of the gospel and he says many will ignore the signs verses 54 to 56 we see blinded to the truth we here find in this message from 49 to 59 that this uh that this
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  portion is addressed to the large crowd as we have been going through this section of luke danny has been doing a very good job of pointing us to whom each message from christ is primarily addressed to here christ lets us know that this section 49 to 59 is addressed to the large crowd gathered around him here this section we see that people back in christ's day apparently had a better grasp
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  on what will happen with the weather than our current news weathermen. As he says, you see clouds, you know there's rain. You see signs from the wind blowing and you know there will be scorching heat. It seems they were more accurate than our weathermen, but that is beside the point. Christ says to the crowd, you see a cloud rising in the west and you say at once a shower is coming.
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  A shower is coming. Christ is standing before the Jews. Christ the Messiah. Christ is telling them, the 70 weeks of Daniel the prophet are fulfilled. I'm here. The voice has cried out from the wilderness as it's confirmed by arrival, yet you do not see. Christ here is telling them and us that to reject the divine nature of Christ makes as much sense as sitting in your lawn chair, in your lawn, looking up at the sky, seeing clouds, storm clouds billowing and saying,
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  it's not going to rain you know in colorado weather can change in an instant instantly weather can change but this is especially true the higher up in those mountains you get and i have over the course of my life in colorado have done a few different 14ers and have actually only failed to summit once and it's the mount of the holy cross which is a unique one
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  fairly hard to summit, not because it's especially technical, because of how to get to the actual summit. You start very low, about 9,500 feet, and you hike up to about 12, a little over 12, and then you hike back down to about 10,000 feet, and from there you hike up to 14. So it's up, down, up, and this takes a considerable amount of time, and when we were doing this, attempting to summit,
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  We left very early in the morning, got over the 12,000 foot peak, went back down to the 10,000 and now had begun up and we're actually right about tree line at this point and then suddenly clouds moved in all over and began to feel little drops of rain and then very soon thereafter began to see lightning in the sky and if you are an experienced hiker you know what this means at that altitude. It means get down.
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  Get down fast. The signs were clear. The ominous and dark clouds were coming. The lightning had arrived. Head back. If you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself if you get struck by lightning. All the signs were there, and so we headed back down.
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  Brothers and sisters, Christ is saying the signs are all there. I am the Christ, the promised Messiah, whom you have read about for so long. To reject the signs and to continue to head towards the storm is foolishness and only leads to death. Turn around. Turn around, he says. Repent and come to the strong and safe arms of your Savior.
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  And it might be for us here easy to judge the Pharisees, easy to judge those whom in that day saw Christ working and yet rejected him. But may we stop for a moment and confess our own sin of ignoring the signs. Church, Satan desires to lull the church into a sleep, to make us ineffective by slowly lulling us into a deep slumber, a deep rest.
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  where we no longer see the importance of fellowship, where we now consider our physical lives something to be saved, as if these lives were something we owned. He desires to pull our focus off of what will actually make our neighbors safe, and it's not socially distancing from them. It is the gospel. The signs are there, church. Satan would like nothing more than to pull us into a deep slumber.
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  Which is why Paul writes to the Ephesians, wake up, O sleeper, which is an actual quote from the prophet Isaiah, whom in chapter 51, verse 17 of Isaiah says, wake yourself, wake yourself and stand up. And then again, in verse 1 of chapter 52, awake, awake, put on your strength, shake yourself from the dust and arise. Church.
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  We must never forget what our mission is. It is not to live a long life on this earth, but rather to live a life filled with a longing to live and preach the gospel. How tragic, Warren Wiersbe says, that men today can predict the movements of heavenly bodies, split atoms, and even put men on the moon, yet they are blind to God and church.
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  We are God's ambassadors. We are the message that we get to preach to those who do not know Christ. They need to hear it. Blinded to the truth, next we see that truth judges us all, 57 to 59. In these verses, a scene from the movie Lady and the Tramp comes to my mind as I see Christ talking to them about walking blissfully to
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  a judge with your neighbor thinking yourself in the right. This scene from Lady and the Tramp, the Disney classic, comes to my mind. Lady, the dog from a routine home, ends up in the dog pound, a dingy and dark place. Arriving there, she meets many dogs and wondering where she is, she's never been to a pound, is unfamiliar and they begin to explain to her and as they do, suddenly, one of the dog hunches over and calls out to the other dogs, hey, hey.
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  Youse guys, poor Nutsy's taken a long walk. As Nutsy is taken behind closed doors of which he will never return from, we see as he's walking there, we see only Nutsy's shadow. He has a collar on and the warden of the dog pound is walking with him. And as you see his shadow, you see Nutsy prancing, skipping if dogs could skip.
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  This reminds me of this picture drawn for us by Christ as he told us that he longs to accomplish his redemptive work on the cross and that there will be those whom even though they see the signs choose not to believe and because of this there will be division among families, among friends. Now Christ says not only will be those who do not believe but they will willingly walk to the judge thinking themselves
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  righteous. Here a verse from Jeremiah comes to my mind where Jeremiah says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? Anyone, brothers and sisters, anyone, everyone. If they knew they were headed to jail would do anything, anything in their power to not go. But a funny reality is exposed in these verses.
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  as God says, as Christ says, to settle with your accuser, that I think is also revealed in those verses, that verse from Jeremiah. If we know we are going to prison, there is almost nothing a person will do to escape. However, if we think ourselves innocent, we will blissfully and willfully walk to the judge, thinking ourselves to be absolved of all wrongful accusations. And to this, the Bible says, the heart is deceitful.
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  above all things and desperately sick. In short, why would you trust your heart? It will lie to you. We church must apply these truths to our lives. If we knew a storm was coming, if we knew there was a debt to be paid and do nothing, and we do know these things are true, then we should act. The storm church is God's wrath, the judge.
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  is as james says in chapter 5 verse 9 standing at the door and thus we should heed christ's warning here as well as consider the message from james chapter 4 verses 13-17 where he says come now you say today tomorrow we will go in such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make profit yet you do not know what will tomorrow bring what is your life for you are a mist
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  that appears a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. If I could summarize these 10 verses, I would say this, behold, now is the time.
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  Behold, now is the day of your salvation. 2 Corinthians 6.2 Church, Christ did indeed come to bring peace. That peace can be found in no other name. There is no organization which is capable of bringing about peace. There are no six things which will bring about peace. There is only one salvation in no other name than Christ.
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  God is the source of peace and he has offered that peace to us through the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary. Now is the time to believe. Now is the time for us to live it. Now is the time for us to preach it. If we do, Christ says, my peace I give you. If we reject it, then Christ says he came to bring fire, judgment. He came and lived a life, church. No one could so that no one could ignore it and no one would be without excuse.
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  that his peace might be available to all. But as he knows, not all will believe. He says, you know how to interpret the weather. You know how to split an atom. You can fly from earth to the moon and back, yet you ignore the signs.
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  that creation reveals. Romans says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men whom by their unrighteousness suppress the truth for what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and these things
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  In the things that have been made, so they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God and give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, and birds, and animals, and creeping things.
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  To this reality, God calls on us, church, to, as Jude says, snatch them out of the fire. We must believe the truth of the gospel, we must live the truth of the gospel, and we must never water down the truth of gospel, even if it means family, friends, loved ones reject us as they reject our Savior. Division for a purpose, standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side,
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  for the faith of the gospel. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for your word. God, I pray that you would light a passion, ignite a fire in us, Lord, that we would understand that your truth is exclusive and yet it is offered to all. God, there is only one way to heaven, but God, that way is offered to everyone. And may we preach it, may we live it. God, may we teach it to our kids that they may come to know you in a personal way.
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  an eternally altering way. God, change us from the inside out that we might live our faith to those who need to see you. God, thank you for your word. We pray these things in your name. Amen.