The Dividing Line Luke 12:49-59

Josh Slater

Key Words

Keywords

Julius Caesar, Roman Empire, dividing lines, Jesus' mission, fire on earth, division among households, peace and division, sinfulness, wrath of God, purification fire, unity in church, settling accounts, eternal judgment, repentance, salvation

Tue, Jan 28, 2025 10:42AM • 38:19

Worship you this morning. We pray that our hearts and our minds would be

sewed up and focused on you and you alone this morning, in Jesus name, we pray amen. Go ahead and have a seat. We're going to be in Luke, chapter 12, verses 49 through 59 this morning. But before we get there, about 50 years before Jesus was born, roughly 50 years before Jesus was born, there was this guy. This guy's name was Julius Caesar. And before Rome was an empire, it was a republic, which meant that it was run by a Senate. It was run by a group of guys who were voted by the public to represent them. All that changed with Julius Caesar. He's a pretty famous man in the history annals. And what happened was, Julius Caesar was a general for the Roman Republic, and he had created quite a stir in Gaul, which is modern day France anyway, he had conquered a lot of people. He had built an army. And there came a point where the Senate was basically telling Julius Caesar what you need to do is you need to abandon all of that, come back to us and submit to the Senate. And Julius Caesar did not really like that idea. He didn't like that idea. And so what he did was he stood on the shore of the Rubicon, which is a river that runs in northeast Italy, and he's standing at the river. And essentially the Senate said, If you cross that river with your people, you will pay with your life. That's what they told him. And Julius Caesar looked at the edict from the Senate, and he looked at the Italy, and he looked at it, and he says, I want to rule this. And so what he did is he said this, allegedly, we don't really have a whole lot of history about it, but at that Rubicon River, he said, The die is being cast, and I'm going to cross that river. And he crosses that river. And what happens after Julius Caesar crosses that river is he begins a civil war within Italy, and the Roman Republic becomes the Roman Empire when Julius Caesar becomes the Emperor of Rome.

That is a mark in history that changed history forever, because without the Roman Empire, the spread of Christianity wouldn't have happened the way that it did. But that's not what I wanted us to think about. We can think about the providence of God in that, but I also want to think about the dividing lines of history. One of the big dividing lines in history, in the the Bible, is when Pharaoh or when Moses goes to Pharaoh, right, and he says, Let my people go. And Pharaoh decides not to let his people go. And then God sends the 10 plagues, and God rescues the Israelites out of Egypt through those 10 plagues and through the crossing of the Red Sea. Another dividing line in there is the

is, well, Jesus is the, the most perfect dividing line. But another dividing line in history is when Martin Luther nails those 95 theses to the Wittenberg door. And if you don't know what happens, then that's what starts and begins the Protestant Reformation, where the church begins to split. There's a schism in the church, from the Catholic Church to the Protestant church. Another dividing line in history is the Declaration of Independence, when that was signed in 1776 saying that we're no longer going to be under the control of England, but we're going to be our own nation. Another dividing line in history was when Hitler decided that he wanted to enter into Poland and begin World War Two. And then another dividing line during that time was when the Japanese decided to bomb Pearl Harbor in December of 1942 was that when it was 41 my bad, I'm sorry I wasn't alive then 1941 December 7, though, right? That's the right day. Yeah, look at that. I got two thirds of that, right.

So those were dividing lines in history. And no person in history, no event in history, has been more of a dividing line than Jesus. Okay? Jesus is the ultimate dividing line. And so we can look back in history, and we can look back through the the annals of of humanity. And we can say these were market events in life, but the most important and the biggest market event in life was when Jesus of Nazareth was born, when Jesus of Nazareth lived, when he died, when he was buried, and most importantly, when he resurrected. That is the dividing line in history. Nothing is as divisive as Jesus, and we're going to look at this this morning. So just to give us some context for those of you who are trying to catch up with where we are in our series in Luke, we began Luke chapter 12 before Christmas, and we took a break for Christmas and looked at the book of Ruth, but when we looked at the book of Luke chapter 12 before Christmas, we looked at Jesus telling the the disciples to not be hypocrites, to to check their hearts, to not let the leaven of the Pharisees become their lives, right? And then to fear God, and then to acknowledge him.

As Messiah. We saw that. And then when we got back from Christmas, we looked at the first of a parables. And the first parable we looked at was with the rich fool who made a name for himself on this earth. He developed, or he had a bumper crop, and he stored up for himself the riches of this earth. And then on the night when his new barn was built and everything was accomplished that he set out to accomplish. To accomplish. The Lord took his life right, meaning that the things of this world, though they may be important, they're not the most important that God holds our life in his hands. Then Jesus tells His disciples to not be anxious that God is taking care of them. Look at the birds of the air that are provided for Look at the lilies of the field that are dressed in splendor. Focus on the Lord, and He will take care. Know where your treasure is, because where your treasure is, your heart will be also. So your anxiety that comes from the things of this world will be, will be reoriented when you focus on who God is and what he does. And then he talked about last week, the final week was Jesus telling us that he's coming back, and because he's coming back, we need to be ready for him, that there is a time in our lives where we need to make a decision to repent of our sins and to trust in Jesus. So there's that now Jesus here is not pulling any punches. In fact, as intense as all of those things have been, don't be a hypocrite. Don't have anxiety. Don't be foolish.

As intense as all those are, Jesus is going to ramp it up in this next few verses. And in fact, I'm going to read the whole section for us real quick, and then we're going to dive in.

Here's what happens in verse 49

Jesus is speaking. He says, I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze, but I have a baptism to undergo, and how it consumes me until it is finished. Do you think that I come here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you. But rather division. For from now on, five and one household will be divided three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother in law against daughter in law and daughter in law against mother in law. He also said to the crowds, when you see a cloud rising in the West,

right away, you say a storm is coming, and so it does. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say it is going to be hot, and it is hypocrites. How you know how to interpret the appearance of the earth in the sky. But why don't you know how to interpret this present time?

Why don't you judge yourselves what is right as you are going with your adversary to the ruler, make an effort to settle with him on the way that he won't drag you before the judge. And the judge head you over to the bailiff, and the bailiff throw you into prison. I tell you,

you will never get out of there until you pay the last penny.

Jesus is telling us who he is and what he came to do. And in those first couple of verses, in verse 49 and 50, we read, I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already ablaze, but I have a baptism to undergo and how it consumes me until it's finished. Now, Jesus has told us, in the gospels, in multiple gospels, the reasons why he came. And I want us to understand that, that there's not a single reason Jesus came, but Jesus came for multiple reasons. And in Luke, chapter five, verse 32 it says, I have come. Have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. In John 1010, it says a thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance. In Mark 1045, it says this, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. John 1247, it says if anyone hears my words and doesn't keep them. I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. In John 1837 it says you are a king. Then Pilate asked you say that I am a king. Jesus replied, I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. So those are reasons why Jesus came. The problem is, is that we can't boil down Jesus's coming to one thing. We can't take all the things we like about Jesus and just say we're going to focus on that Jesus came to judge the living and the dead. His Second Coming is going to be for him to come and judge the living of the dead. Yes, he came to call sinners to repentance. Yes, he called. Came to call sinners and not the righteous. Yes, he came to do all those things. And we love those things. We love that Jesus came to to show us the heart of God. We love that Jesus came to show us the goodness of the Father. We love that Jesus came to show us the love of God. And yet sometimes what we do is we.

We take all that, and that is what we focus on, when, in reality, what we need to focus on is not just that, but we need to see Jesus as a whole person. We have to have a well rounded view of who Jesus is. Jesus comes to show us the heart of the Father, but he also comes to show us that we are wicked and that we are sinful. He comes and it says, there in verse 49 that I have come to bring fire on the earth. When he talks about fire, what does fire do? Well, does two things. One, it destroys. Fire destroys it is often times in the Scripture, it is talking about, when we hear about fire, it is talking about the judgment of God being poured out on the enemies of God. That's what we read in the scriptures, that that's often what it's talking about. But it's not always talking about judgment. I think that when Jesus is talking about this fire that is coming, he's talking about it on two, on two fronts, one. He's talking about the fire that is to come to bring judgment on his enemies, but also he's talking about the purification fire that is coming to those who follow after Him, that there is going to be a purification that happens to those who have submitted to him. There's going to be a purification that happens to those who have given their life to Jesus. You see, Jesus's first coming was for salvation, but his second coming, the coming in which we are anticipating the the time and the gap that we are living in right now, where we are looking forward to his coming is no longer for him to bring salvation, but it is for him to bring judgment. But during this time, for those of us who trust Jesus, He is bringing us to through purification. He's trying to shape us into His image, there's a refining fire that is happening here. Follow followers of Jesus will face the refining fire, where followers or deniers of Jesus are going to face the judgment fire. That is one of the dividing lines that is happening there, that there is only two ways to live this life, one in submission to Jesus and one in opposition to Jesus. And we need to know where we stand on that dividing line. Are we looking at Jesus, saying, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and noone comes to the Father except through him. Or are we looking at Jesus and saying, you know, what you say is good over here, but what I want you to say you're not saying so I'm going to stay with my own thing, because that's what we want to do, right as believers or as humanity. We want to make rules for ourselves. We want to make a God in our own image, and we do that too often with the God of the scriptures. As we we take the things that we like, we we treat the scriptures as a buffet and say, I like this. I like a lot of this. I like a lot, a lot, a lot of this, but all this judgment stuff, I don't want to have anything to do with that. But the reality is, is that we cannot put God in a box. We cannot say, God, this is how you're supposed to be. You're only supposed to be loving when we'll see just a second. Oh, well, actually, we'll talk about it right now. When Jesus says that I have a baptism to undergo, what is he talking about? He's already been baptized, right? He's already been baptized by John the Baptist. What is this baptism that he's about to undergo? It's his crucifixion. It's his death. The baptism that he has to face is his death. Now, why is that such a big deal for Jesus? Because it's not just Jesus physically dying. That is not the only thing that he understands that's going to happen on the cross. You see, since, since Luke, chapter nine, verse 51 we've seen that Jesus has set his mind resolutely on the cross. He is, he is focused and determined to go to Jerusalem. And we'll see that theme over and over again in the scripture or in Luke that he is determined to go to Jerusalem. His eyes are fixed on Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is where he's going to face the crucifixion. And why is that important? Because that's where he dies. But not just that. It's not just the physical pain of the nails in his wrist. It's not just a physical pain of the nails in his feet. It's not the beating that he has to endure that he's he's consumed by. It's the fact that on that cross he has to bear the weight of the full wrath of God, for those who would repent and believe in Him,

the full wrath of God, the the the anger of God at sin Jesus is going to bear on that cross. So yes, he's going to hang there and he's going to suffocate. Yes, he's going to hang there and he's going to be in pain. But the wrath of God being poured out on the Son of God, on account of us, is what he is going to have to endure, which is way worse than any of the pain that he's going to have to endure

we deserve that wrath.

We deserve God's judgment. And yet Jesus came so that we didn't have to endure it. He endured it on our behalf.

What a blessing it is to know that the God that we serve sent his Son so that we could have life that we wouldn't have to bear the weight of that wrath. And on that cross, through his obedience to the Father, on that cross, He is resurrected after three days, and sin is conquered because of his obedience.

But the glory of God on display.

Through Jesus's sacrifice

is painful. It's hurt. It's it causes him pain. It's a baptism of fire, and he's longing for that day so that he can overcome the sin that so easily ensnares us,

so he can be the ones who reconcile us to himself.

Judgment comes to those who don't know the Lord. Judgment comes to those who do not submit to the Lord. And that judgment is going to be the wrath of God being poured out on us.

That right there should

scare us, should, should. And not only that, but it should show us the beauty of Christ's sacrifice. It shouldn't just be like we we have a fear, right, but that we get to see the glory of God on display, because Christ did that on our behalf. You were a sinner. I am a sinner, and Christ bared our punishment for our sins so that we can be brought into relationship with the Lord.

Then Jesus says in verse 51

do you think that I came here to bring peace on the earth?

No, I tell you.

But rather division. From now on, five and one household will be divided, three against two and two against three, they will be divided. Father against son, son against father, mother against daughter, daughter against mother, mother in law against daughter in law and daughter in law against mother in law.

This is the great divide. Now, one of the things that we wrestle with I don't know if you're wrestling with it. I wrestled with it for a little bit, and I even talked to Levi about it the other day, where it says that, do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you division. Hold on. Cuz, just earlier, when we read through the Catechism, we read Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six, right? And what does it say? It says that he is the prince of peace. Okay, hold on, what's going on here? And then also in Luke chapter one, verse 79 Zechariah prophesied that Jesus is going to be the the our guide into the feet of the the path of peace.

And all of these peace, though, this peace that he's talking about here is not peace on this earth. This is peace eternal. This is a future peace. But not only that, it's also a peace that those who follow Him, those who who submit to Him, have with God see really through all the turmoil and all the difficulties that we face on this earth, they're nothing compared to the wrestling that we have with God as enemies of his what we need more than peace on earth and goodwill towards men is we need peace with God. Because again, if we don't have peace with God, then we are going to face his eternal judgment. We are going to face his eternal wrath. And so Jesus came to bring peace eternal but right now, the way that Jesus lives, the way that Jesus teaches, the way that Jesus shows himself to the world, he's going to cause division. Why? Because people don't want to submit to Jesus. People don't want to give their lives to this man. People don't want to say that, that what Jesus teaches is right and what we think is wrong. We talked about this in Sunday school, about the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of the world, right, that the wisdom of the world has the way that they want to do things and they don't want to do it the way that God wants us to do it, and what happens is, when we run up against that, when somebody sees you living the life of Christ, when somebody sees you pursuing God, then what they're going to say is you're a bigot,

or that you're deceived,

or that the life that you're living goes against how I believe. And what's interesting to me, and I know that I don't preach a lot of politics or anything from the stage, and this isn't meant to be political, but what's interesting to me is that the only religion we do this with is Christianity, right there a lot of all of the other religions get a pass. Yeah, we can talk about the Muslims, and though they have a harsher stance against homosexuality and and things like that, they get a free pass. But when I stand up as a Christian and say, God says that marriage is between one man and one woman for life, then I start to get well, you're a bigot. Why are you believe that? Why do you believe that old book? And yet, in in Islamic countries, if there's a gay couple or a homosexual couple, what's happened? They're going to get stoned to death. They're going to get killed for their beliefs. And yet, Christianity is the only one where we get pushback. Why is that? Because Jesus brings division, knowing that He's the Son of God, knowing that there's something special about Jesus, which, again, is a dividing line in history, puts there, puts a distance between him and the world we can we can be okay with the non truth of other religions, but when it comes to the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ, we're like, they just want to push back against it, I'll tell you that if there was a a Muslim baking company that didn't want to make a cake for a homosexual couple, they probably wouldn't have gotten in as much trouble as that. Chris.

Christian one did in Colorado, right? But because they were Christians, they were standing up with their values. They're seen as the oppressors, and they're seen as those who run against culture. Now the Muslims, it's part of their culture. It's okay, but for the Christians, no, you gotta assimilate. I just think that we really have to understand that if we're going to follow Jesus, if we're going to put our hearts and souls into pursuing him, into knowing Him, into loving Him, we are going to face the same kind of division that Jesus faced. Jesus, there were people who love Jesus, right? When Jesus lived, there were people who who fond over Jesus, thought he was the greatest thing. Well, they didn't have sliced bread, but thought he was the greatest thing, right? And

then there were those who were enemies of Jesus, who crucified Jesus, right? Those were the people Jesus didn't. There were no neutral people to Jesus. There were those who loved him and those who hate them. And if we're truly, adamantly and wholeheartedly pursuing Christ, there are going to be those who love us and those who hate us. There are going to be those who support us and those who want to fight against us, because following Jesus is going to cause a divide.

And he talks about and so what makes Jesus so divisive? Jesus that has no problem calling out sinfulness, right? He has no problem saying that you're living in sin. He has no problem saying that that living with a spouse or living with somebody who's not your spouse is sinful. He has no problem saying that greed is sinful. He has no problem saying that your desires to to fulfill your bank account is sinful. He has no qualms against saying that your heart is sinful. It's bent towards sin. And what do we hate? We hate being told we're wrong. We hate being told we're sinful. We hate it. And so that builds up within those who hate God that even more hatred don't tell me how bad I am, tell me how good I am. That's the culture that we live in right now. Right is that we want people to Pat us on the back and tell us how good we are. Oh, you did great. It's that participation trophy generation, right? We were just watching our kids, or Declan play basketball yesterday, and everybody was like, Y'all all did good. They did not.

They did not do good. They they're second graders who have never played basketball before, and so they, they did not do good. But we want to pat them on the back and say, Oh, good job. You know, try your hardest and you'll get this trophy. The reality is, is that we need to be told that we're sinful. We need to be told that we're broken, because we cannot understand the trueness of the gospel if we don't understand how broken we are,

we cannot know the goodness of God. If we do not know how sinful we are,

we cannot know that how much God cares about life if we don't stand up against people who want to destroy life.

So Jesus makes that divide. He says, My coming is going to cause division because I'm going to teach the truth. I'm going to teach the heart of God, and people hate God.

Truth causes people to scatter like roaches or to fight back like a pit bull.

The difficulty is for us is, if we want to stand on the truth of God, then we're going to face those same things

that quote that he talks about the the mother hating the daughter and the father hating the son. That comes from Micah, chapter seven, verse six. So it's a prophecy of what's going to happen, and we see that today. We even have families in our church who are hated by their family because they believe in Jesus, because they hold to a godly standard. I had a friend and a couple back in North Carolina. I won't tell you their names, but they were a couple. They were dating and they wanted they were both believers. One was a new believer. One had been a believer for a little while, and they wanted to get married, but her family said, before they get married, why don't you guys live together? It's going to be okay. Why don't you test it out and make sure? But her family weren't believers, and they said, no, like, we're not going to live together until we get married. And there was a lot of tension and anger between that family because she wasn't doing what they thought was right because she was taking a stand on her belief in Jesus. They hated that decision, and I'm still not sure they really like the dude. He's a great guy, but I'm not really sure they still like him. And I think that that's that's part of the problem is that we don't like when Jesus tells us what to do. We have an authority problem, right? Jesus, don't tell me how to do that. Don't tell me what to do with my life. It's my life. I'll live it the way that I want to. But

Jesus says, If you're going to follow after me, then you're going to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow after me. But if you're going to live for yourself, that's fine. Live for yourself. But let me tell you, there's judgment coming. It's going to cause issues. It's going to cause difficulties. It's going to cause division, and it may cause division in your families. I know that there are stories, a plethora stories, of believers who have come to faith in Jesus and other countries whose families have cut them off.

And even worse than that, some of those.

And women who have believed in Jesus have been killed for their faith

by their family members, executed by their family members because of their belief in Jesus.

And for us, we need to know those stories. We need to hear those stories, because what happens with us is sometimes we want we let little, minor inconveniences cause us to abandon the gospel. But these men and women who are dying for their faith know the beauty of Christ. They know the cost. And in fact, the people that Jesus is speaking to right here, those who he's telling your your father and your mother are going to hate you. They knew the cost. They were they were mostly a Jewish people who Jesus was talking to. And if you don't know anything about first century Judaism, like they did everything together, their their their culture, their money, their economy, everything was built upon them being together because they were enemies of the Roman Empire,

and to be cut off from your family meant you were cut off from your food supply. You were cut off from marriages. You were cut off from everything. Your whole life was destroyed to follow Jesus. So the question that faces us today is like, what are we willing to give up to follow Jesus? Like, what are we willing to lay aside and say, this is more following Jesus, knowing the Lord is more important than this? Is it our anger towards other people. Is there our unforgiveness? Is it our desire to be liked? What do we have to lay on the altar of the Lord to say that that is more important than following Jesus? What do we have to lay down and say, Jesus, I want more of you. I want to love you more. I want to follow you more. I want to be more devoted to you. What is

it going to cost us? It may cost us everything,

but I'll tell you this. It's worth it.

We're standing at the great fault line of the divide and saying, Am I going to pursue Jesus or am I going to live a life doing whatever I want to each one of us stands at that at that canyon, and says, What do I want to do? Do I want to follow Jesus, or do I want to live my life? And today is the day that we get to decide that today is the day that you get to decide what's most important.

I would tell you that Jesus is most important

to follow along with this great divide thing. I want us to understand that when Jesus talks about division, that division from the world we should expect, and that's why unity within the church body is so important. That's why unity with one another is so important, because the world sees us as divisive. The world sees us as the enemies. And so we have to come together, gather together, to worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords, to know that we are on mission together to to promote the kingdom of God, to proclaim the good news of the gospel. That's what we come together for. And so for us, unity within the church body is of utmost importance, and not just FBC Louise, yes, it's important for us to be unified. But we have brothers and sisters across this county and across county lines, who are loving the Lord and doing the work of ministry, and we need to get behind them and support them. We need to be unified around the things that are the most important. Yes, sure, we'll have differences of opinions. Yes, sure, we'll see things differently. But do we understand the main thing is the main thing? Do we understand that the glory of God is important? Do we understand that the proclamation of the gospel is

is demanded of those who want to follow after him, and if we do that, then we can work together. So division happens in the world. It should not happen in the church. Verse 54 says this. He also said to the crowds, when you say, see a cloud rising in the West, right away, you say, a storm is coming, and so it does. And when the south wind is blowing, you say it is going to be hot and it is hypocrites. You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky, but you you Why don't you know how to interpret this present time Jesus is telling his those people listening to open their eyes. They didn't have Doppler radar, right? They didn't, weren't able to see what was going on in the skies, but they they could look over and they could see a cloud coming, and they go, it's going to rain, or they could feel the heat coming. They go, it's going to be hot, right? It's kind of like when you're outside and you're like, Oh, my back's hurting, it's going to be cold tomorrow, right? Or, Oh, my knees hurting, it's going to there's a storm blowing, and that's, that's the type of thing. It's a little more apparent for them, because their weather was pretty predictable in that way. But they they could see that stuff. They could predict when it was going to happen, which I think is amazing, right? But Jesus is saying, though you can know when this when it's going to rain, and though you can know when it's going to be hot and there's going to be a drought, what you do not understand is what is standing right in front of you. You can't understand what is happening right in front of your eyes. What should have they seen? They should have seen that Jesus is the Messiah. They should have seen that he is the Lord. They should have seen what he had done. What had he done? Well, he had fed 5000 people with two fish and five loaves. He had raised people from.

The dead. He had spoken the truth about God. He had taught so strongly that those who knew the scriptures were dumbfounded.

He spoke with authority, he spoke with presence. He spoke the truth of God. He performed miracles, and they're so blinded

by their hatred of him that they don't get to see it. And Jesus is saying, open your eyes. See what is before you.

How blind are they?

And how blind can we be?

You know, we have the full account of the Gospels. When Jesus is teaching here in Luke, they haven't seen the resurrection.

They didn't know about Paul.

They didn't know about all the good that Christianity would do without throughout the world. They didn't know the history of Christianity.

And yet, there are many of us today who look at this stuff, and we go and you know what, all that Jesus stuff, that's all fairy tells us all made up, and Jesus is looking at us saying, Don't you see the goodness of God in the lives of His believers? Don't you see the goodness of God and the grace of God on full display? Don't you know that if it wasn't for Christians, we wouldn't have the scientific advancements we have today? Don't you know without Christians, we wouldn't have the medicine that we have today? Don't you know that without Christians, we wouldn't have had the orphanage boom that we've had. Don't you know that if it wasn't for Christians, these things wouldn't happen, and the reason why these things happen is because Christians are following Jesus and they're giving up everything for it.

I mean, we can all see the brokenness of the world, believer and non believer alike. We can see that things aren't the way that they're supposed to be. That, in fact, that's one of the big arguments that non Christians have against God, as they say, but, but why is there so much evil in the world? Why is there so much brokenness in the world? What's evil and what's broken?

Everything? People are hurting.

Death happens all these things, and so

they they can diagnose the problems. Those on the outside can diagnose the problems, just like the Jews that Jesus was speaking to, they could diagnose what the weather is going to look like. And yet they don't know the remedy. And the remedy to the brokenness of the world is a belief in Jesus. The remedy is the future kingdom that God has established or is going to establish. The remedy is the fact that if people believed in Jesus, the world would be a better place.

The remedy is us as the kingdom of God, going out and helping those who are hurting,

being a blessing to those who are struggling. That's the remedy. And so we need to be the ones who are helping to open their eyes,

knowing that Christianity is not a blight on history. It is a bright spot, that the kingdom of God is what we are all aiming towards. And

it's so easy to be so distracted by the things of this world that we forget about the fact that we have been called as disciples of Christ to go and make this world a better place.

Your life should be a testimony to the goodness of God.

Your deeds should be a testimony to the grace that you have received.

We have been called, and I talked about, I've talked about this all the time, that we have been called and we have been saved to do good works. All

you have to do is read Ephesians, chapter two, verses one through 10, that it is by grace alone that we have been saved, through faith alone in Christ, Jesus, and we have been called and saved to be Christ, workmanship in this world,

to go and do good deeds to those who are hurting, those who are sick, those who are broken.

And it's so easy for us to be so passive in all of this, and yet Christ says, Go and do good works. Go and be a blessing.

Verse 57

Why don't you judge for yourselves? What is right? Are you going with your adversary to the ruler? Make an effort to settle with him on the way, then he won't drag you before the judge. The judge won't hand you over to bailiff, and the bailiff won't throw you into prison. I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.

Jesus telling us here that we have to settle accounts.

What does that mean? Well,

we can say this a bunch of different ways. You have to pay the piper, right? There's going to be a price that needs to be paid. Uh, Jesus uses accounting terms a lot in his in his teachings, and that's what this is. It's an accounting term. And essentially, what's happening here is Jesus is saying that when we there's going to be a day where the price needs to be paid. That price

is the debt that your sin has owed, the debt that your sin has accumulated.

And either you will believe in Jesus, and he's already paid that price. Remember that wrath of God that He endured on the cross, he's already paid that price.

Or you will have to endure the wrath of God.

And how long do you have? I don't know.

You have until your last breath. In fact, I heard a story this week.

It was talking about this, this guy who was going put it skydiving,

and he, he says, What happens if I pull in my first my first shoot doesn't deploy? How long do I have to pull my second shoot? He said, until you're dead. That's how long you have. And that's kind of like the the thing that we have to understand is that you have until you die, to help settle accounts. And it's not you that settles account. It's Christ that settles accounts on your behalf. But all you have to do is believe and trust that Christ is the Savior, that he did die for your sins, that he did rise again, and that you will live eternally with him. That's that's where we're at right now.

Do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe that he came to die for your sins? Do you believe that following after him is going to be

what he's called you to do? Do you believe that? Do you believe you're a sinner in need of salvation? Because for many of us, what happens is we believe that we're better than we are. How many of us do that?

The reality is, though you're not as good as you think you are,

you're a sinner. You have disobeyed the Lord,

you have rebelled against God, you have chosen to sin. You have chosen to spit in the face of your Creator,

and what he what you deserve is death. What you deserve is wrath.

The good news is, is that through Jesus, you don't get what you deserve. When you believe in Jesus, you get grace, you get mercy. Your account is settled on his behalf. And

that's the beauty of the gospel,

that each and every one of us

deserves to endure the wrath of God, but

the Gospel says

that through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, you don't have to

the account that is settled

is that when We believe in Jesus, our debts have been paid. I

don't know about you, but that's good news.

Not only is it good news, it's the best news.

And today, I want you to know that if you haven't given your life to Jesus,

the dividing line of history in your life is right now you have heard the gospel, respond to it. Let's pray, Father God, we are so thankful for your love. We're thankful for your grace. We're thankful for the fact that you have called us and saved us, Lord. And if there's anybody in here who hasn't believed that, hasn't put their faith in you,

I pray that they would just give their lives to you today, they would call out to you,

ask for forgiveness,

and chase after you all the days of their lives. We pray

all this in Jesus name Amen. Alright, we're going to sing the last song, but I want to do something I don't normally do. I'm going to stand down here if i.