The Great Divide

As the crow flies, it’s probably
not more than 60 miles from here. It’d probably take you an hour
to drive there, various parts. If you’ve ever driven through
the Eisenhower Tunnel, they have a very small monument dedicated
to it. It merely is a stripe on the
wall. What I’m referring to is the
Continental Divide. For some time growing up, I just
assumed by the name that the Continental Divide referred to
the halfway point across the United States until I started
looking at maps and realized that that couldn’t possibly be
the case. It’s not the halfway point of the United States, it’s
the point of the United States where on one side of the Continental
Divide, all the rivers flow west and on the other side of the
Continental Divide, the rivers flow to the east. But it’s an
interesting illustration, if I may, because the rivers don’t
park on the Continental Divide. They flow one way or the other.
It is a divide. And it forms for us an interesting
image this morning, because just like the rivers that cannot possibly
sit on top of the Continental Divide, except briefly perhaps
in a lake or a pond, Ultimately, the water is going to shed one
way or the other. Christ essentially says that
that’s exactly what happens with every individual in the world. They are as upon a great divide. And Christ in coming is going
to cause, just like the mountains cause the waters to divide and
go one way or the other, Christ in coming is going to divide.
It’s a solemn passage. It’s a sobering passage, but
it’s a glorious passage nonetheless, particularly for those or exclusively
even for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you would, let’s
pick up once again in chapter 12, beginning at verse 51. Christ had been talking there.
You know that the context here is readiness. He had been talking
about readiness. Most recently, last week, we
saw that he was talking about not only a longing of the Savior’s
longing for purification, judgment coming to the world, but also
a longing to go for redemption. And we saw that right in between
those two, remember, in the white spaces between judgment and redemption,
there is God’s electing love coming out and resting upon a
people. And it is these people that are
in view here in verse 51. Do you suppose that I came to
grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division
for from now on, five members in 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 and daughter
against mother. Mother-in-law against daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. Jesus came to bring division. This is one of those passages,
one of several, but one of the chief passages that critics of
Scripture latch on to as a text that proves the inconsistencies,
the errors, the unbelievability of Scripture. Because how can
Jesus be both the Prince of Peace and the one that brings division? And because of that, many have
gnashed their teeth at Scripture and declared it to be unfit for
reading and unbelievable, untrustworthy, because it says one thing in
one place and says another in another. Let’s examine that. Jesus did
say that He was going to be the Prince of Peace, didn’t He? Isn’t
that why Jesus came? God was a God of peace. The whole
plan of redemption begins to unfold where God is trying to
get His people to reconcile with Him, to lay down their weapons
of spiritual warfare against Him. In fact, even at Christ’s
announcement, remember in Zacharias’ prayer, Zacharias declared that
Christ was going to come to be to those who to shine upon those
who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide their feet
into the way of peace. So he’s allegedly the peacemaker. Remember the shepherd sitting
in the field, suddenly the angels shining all around them and singing
glory to God and on earth peace. Well, isn’t Jesus then the peacemaker? Wasn’t the gospel message called
the gospel of peace? Acts 10.36, the word which he
sent the houses of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. The whole ministry. Remember
from 2 Corinthians, the whole ministry is a ministry of reconciliation,
of reconciling, reconciliating sinful people who are at war
with a holy God and making a peace treaty through Christ. So what
is this contradiction then? Does that nullify all of those
promises? Not at all. Both things are true
because the peace that Christ came to enact wasn’t an earthly
bliss. It wasn’t a kind of peace where
we’re all going to join hands and sway and sing in harmony. That’s not at all what he was
saying. The peace that Christ came to enact was that individual
peace with God through a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It
doesn’t nullify that at all to say that Christ also came to
bring division. You see, the prevailing Jewish
mindset at the time was that the Messiah, remember, The Messiah
was going to come as some kind of conquering hero, and He was
going to force peace. He was going to obliterate all
those that were contrary to Israel, and He was going to force peace,
and it was going to be one blissful kingdom forevermore. No wonder they didn’t understand
Jesus. Jesus came as a controversial figure. He came as a weakened-looking
figure. He came not as the conquering
hero that they expected. You see, Jesus didn’t want His
disciples living under this foolish notion that all was going to
just gradually become peaceful over time, that He was going
to take over and bring in His kingdom of peace at this time.
He wanted them to know that He would to many be a stumbling
block, that to many they would learn to hate Him And not only
would they learn to hate him and mistreat him, but ultimately
they would crucify him and then they would turn their attention
to any of his disciples. Jesus wanted them to know that.
Remember, since chapter 11, Jesus has been apprising his apostles,
especially. Of the unfolding plan. Some would
choose to be on Christ’s side. Others would clearly avow themselves
to be against him. And as such, they would persecute
those followers. When Jesus says here, do you
suppose it’s an interesting word, it means to think, are you really
are you really thinking? Are you really thinking accurately? Do you really think that I’m
coming to bring in a peaceful kingdom when you’ve heard me
walk into the temple and cast out sinners and money changers?
Do you really think that I’ve come now to set up some kind
of messianic kingdom that’s going to be without struggle, without
suffering, without difficulty and persecution? Later on in
the Gospel of Luke, Jesus will address this again in chapter
19, verse 11. While they were listening to
these things, Jesus was teaching. Jesus went on to tell a parable
because it was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom
of God was going to appear immediately. After all that Jesus had said,
the apostles themselves were still given to this idea of an
immediate and peaceful kingdom. And Jesus is trying to arrest
their thinking, trying to get their attention and get them
refocused on what the kingdom really is and on what the kingdom
really costs. See, that’s something they hadn’t
really even considered. They hadn’t considered that Christ
was going to be crucified and they certainly hadn’t considered
ill treatment for themselves. The question is, have we? Have
you? We like it like this, we like
to come together, we love fellowship, especially when there’s desserts,
right? Sunday night, life group, desserts
on hand. We love that part of it. But
do we love following Christ when it costs us a dear friend? When
it costs us a loved one? When it costs us the ridicule
at work or school? Ultimately, Christ was coming
to bring peace. I stand behind what I preached
at Christmastime. Isaiah 9.6. He is the Prince
of Peace. And there is no peace except
through our Lord Jesus Christ. But we’re no closer now than
we were 2000 years ago. There is still great trouble
in the world, and every follower ought to be prepared to walk
through a life of difficulty and heartache and trouble in
following Christ. We do the gospel a disservice
to tell a believer we do a would be believer, a disservice to
tell them anything but. To promise them a life of bliss
and peace and happiness and trouble free friendships. You begin to wonder yourself,
don’t you? I’m sure some of you, many of
us have paid the price of following principle, of looking to Christ
and following Him as opposed to yielding to the crowd. Cost
me my best friend. My best friend wanted me to marry
him. I came to him and we began to
talk. And in time, I realized that my best friend was living
with his girlfriend. I told him I can’t do it. Can’t
do it. We’ve probably spoken five words
in the last seven years. Christ was coming to bring peace, but not the kind of peace that
the Jews were expecting, not the kind of peace that the apostles
had bought into. Jesus didn’t want him living
in so-called fool’s paradise. He wanted the apostles on board.
He wanted them with a right mind. Jesus would be the Prince of
Peace. John 16.33, these things I have spoken to you so that
in me you will have peace. That doesn’t nullify all the
other promises of the Word. We know those things to be true.
When Christ says, peace be with you, as the Father sent me, so
also I send you. Jesus was sending them in a peaceful
relationship with Christ into trouble and turmoil and persecution. They knew it. By that time, they
knew it. No, he didn’t come to bring peace.
In essence, he said, if they hated me, they’ll hate you. Otherwise,
how would he have said, blessed are the persecuted? Oh, how very
happy are those that go out into trouble. Came to bring division. He came to bring division, and
he makes it quite clear what he means by that. The word used
in Scripture is graphic enough. It means as a sword cuts and
divides, Mark 15, 24, after they crucified him, they divided up
his garments. Remember, they tore them in two.
That’s the kind of division that Christ came to bring that graphic,
that substantial Luke chapter 11. He knew their thoughts and
he said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid
waste. He talked about that kind of
division, division in the hearts of people. Luke chapter 22, when he had
taken the cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share
it, divide it among yourselves. It’s that kind of a division
that Christ comes to bring. And we see it throughout Scripture.
Many times in Scripture, we see those dividing over Christ. Even though Luke opened his book
with the Prince of Peace, peace on Earth, Now he sees the Lord
seemingly contradicting this promise and Luke doesn’t back
away from it. He records it as is. And he leaves all of Scripture
to put it together. Bottom line is we can’t escape
conflict. Once we have identified with
Jesus Christ and confessed him, we are part of a war. We sign
up for war. We are enlisted. We’ve got a
target on our back. The devil is constantly our enemy
and those who are the devil’s workers as well. The only way
that a believer can end up escaping conflict is to deny Christ, to
make compromises with the world, to yield to temptation, to side
with their friends in sin. We will be misunderstood, we
will be persecuted even by those that are closest to us. But we can’t allow that to affect
our stand for Christ. We can’t allow that to affect
our convictions. Can’t allow that to sway our
positions, our lifestyle. Jesus had just warned them to
be ready. And now in the most practical
terms, he’s telling them how ready they’re going to have to
be. That they may even have to part company with their precious
families. Or those members in their families
that don’t know Christ. Jesus explains to them that they
will be delivered to a rebellious, wicked world that doesn’t know
Christ, they will meet with hostility and ultimately that hostility
may reside in their own homes. And that was a bitter pill to
swallow, wasn’t it? You know, we’ve come to expect
a vision. In Christ’s ministry, John 7, 43, a division occurred
in the crowd because of him. We’ve come to expect people to
take sides. In fact, turn at the end to the
book of Acts at the very end. It’s an interesting passage and
it really is characteristic of where most of life shakes down.
The end of the book of Acts, Acts chapter 28. A graphic passage of what I’m
suggesting here. Paul is preaching. And it says
that when they had set a day, I’m looking at, pardon me, verse
twenty three, when they had set a day for Paul, they came to
him at his lodging in large numbers, great enthusiasm, lots of people,
great turnout, full pews. And he was explaining them by
solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to
persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and
from the prophets from morning until evening. So you know what?
If you got one of those watches that goes off, you know, at noon
when you’re supposed to stop preaching, Paul wouldn’t have
listened to it. Some were being persuaded by
the things spoken, but others. Some were being persuaded by
this thing spoken, but others would not believe. You see, there
is just a graphic example of the division that Jesus came
to bring. There would be those that listen
and obey and hear and fall on knees of repentance, and there
would be those that would never come to faith. The sad thing
is when it takes place in the same family and when division
grows, Acts 28 isn’t the only place
that that phenomena occurs. Listen in your mind’s eye. Matthew
28, 17. When they saw Him, they worshipped
Him, but some were doubtful. There came the sword. There came
the division. John 7, 12, which I’ve already
read. Acts 17, 18. Some of the Epicurean Stoic philosophers
were conversing with Him. Some were saying, What would
this idle babbler wish to say? Others said he seems to be a
proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus.
There was a division. John 7, 43 later, a division
occurred in the crowd because of him. In John chapter 9, 16.
Therefore, some of the Pharisees were saying this man is not from
God because he does not keep the Sabbath. But others. But others were saying, how can
a man who is a sinner perform such a sign? John, chapter 10,
verse 19, a division again among the Jews occurred because of
these words. Division is a certainty to certainty. J.C. Riles said it this way,
Christ’s intentional aim was to plant, propagate and promote
peace in the world. But through the lust and corruption
of man’s nature, the issue and event of his coming is war and
division. Jesus would have loved to bring
peace on earth and everybody to believe the gospel and all
go waltzing into heaven, singing hand in hand. But the reality
was that wasn’t what was going to happen. There were multitudes
that would receive the gospel and there were multiple multitudes
who would oppose it bitterly. And they would have their corruptions
exposed and exasperated, their sinful lifestyles stifled because
of it, and they would be enraged at those who do receive it. You
know, in the parallel passage, it’s an interesting thing. Parallel
passage in Matthew chapter 10. Matthew says it this way. It
records Jesus saying it this way. Do not think that I came
to bring peace on the earth. Essentially the same thought.
Don’t think that I came to bring peace. I did not come to bring
peace, but a sword. You see, what Matthew does is
merely record Jesus, the implement that is going to be used. Luke records the end, the division
that comes because of the sword. Obviously, by the sword, Jesus
meant the gospel. The gospel was going to come
and it was going to be a means of dividing, separating people
out. Their principles and their practices would be at odds with
one another. Their relationships would be
broken, divisions would come, discord, fighting, persecutions
would come. All because of the hatefulness
and the wickedness of those who rejected Christ. One pastor recorded
it this way. He said the peace that Jesus
came to bring is not simply the absence of strife. It’s a peace
that means the overcoming of sin and the bringing in of the
salvation of God, and that’s why you can have the one and
the other. We can have peace with God. Remember the song,
the great old song, It is well with my soul. Everything around
me. You remember that? I don’t know
if you remember the occasion in which that was written. The
man’s whole family was lost. All of his kids were drowned
at sea, seven of them, as I recall. And his wife sent him an email,
a telegram, and said, I’m saved alone. Saved alone. And he sat down and penned the
words to that hymn. It is well with my soul. I can
have peace, even though the whole rest of the world around me is
turmoil. So we have this salvation. The
pastor went on to say, and that means war with evil and accordingly
hostility against those who support the ways of wrong. The sword
is not meant literally, but an obvious symbol of conflict. It
is a stern reminder of the fact that to follow for one to follow
the Prince of Peace sometimes means disunity and conflict.
And I, I would even say most of the time. It’s always going
to bring conflict eventually. Men’s hearts are corrupt. They
hate the goodness. They hate Christ. They hate what’s
right. They love their sin. I can remember when I first got
saved, I didn’t even have to go and preach to make my friends
uncomfortable. I’d merely show up to their parties
and not participate in all their shenanigans. And they didn’t
want me there anymore. Right? I mean, you’ve been to the same
party apparently. First Corinthians 11, 9 says
it quite well. There must be factions among
you. There must be divisions. Paul
isn’t advocating that we have church splits and church fights,
but he says there must be factions among you so that those who are
approved may be evident among you. Jesus came to bring that kind
of division. And so it’s a certainty. Division
is a certainty, just as peace is a certainty. If we come to
faith in Christ, we have peace with God our Father. There is
peace by no other way. We know that that’s a certainty,
but so is the division. But secondly, I want you to look
at another element of this. Not only is there is the division
of certainty. But the second aspect is the
locality of this division. You know, it doesn’t surprise
us, does it? It shouldn’t surprise us that
one nation that by general account takes on Christianity is going
to be at odds with the nation that doesn’t. That doesn’t surprise
us. It shouldn’t surprise us that even localities within the
nation are going to be perhaps the gospel is more diffused in
one particular locality. And that locality may be at odds
with another locality that isn’t, say, the left coast for one. And it shouldn’t surprise us
that even in our own little towns, there are going to be churches
that really, truly hold to God’s word and really, truly believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there are going to be
temples of Satan. So-called churches that believe anything but what
Scripture teaches and everything that it doesn’t. And there should
be it’s expected that there would be division there. And you know
what? It’s even understood that there
might be division within the broader spheres of the family.
Right within the broader spheres of the family, you know, the
crazy cousins. The hairy eyeball cousins, the
weird cousins that nobody wants to have over. It’s understandable
that, you know, we’ve come to Christ, but they have their lifestyle
and they can have it. But, you know, the astounding
thing that Jesus begins to say is it isn’t it’s look at the
depth of this division. It goes as far as it can possibly
go. It goes right into the basic
building block of society. It goes into the family. It goes
into the family. And I know the apostles weren’t
expecting this. This hit them like a punch in
the stomach, people. They weren’t expecting it. And
really, truly, neither do we. When we first become Christians,
right, we go to our family members and we tell them. And we wait and it hits like
a thud. Look at verse 52. The locality
of this division says for from now on, five members in one household
will be divided. Three against two and two against
three. And as I said, it goes as far
as it possibly can, because you can’t take this division down
to the individual. That’s what Jesus was talking
about when he said a kingdom can’t be divided against himself.
You can’t have God and mammon. You can’t have your sin and Christ
You can’t be divided as an individual, but you can be divided as a family.
And the preaching went out. The preaching of the disciples,
this conflagration, as it were, spread. And with their arrival,
it began to invade one family after another. This was not a
popularity movement. And he’s speaking in generalities.
Christ isn’t saying that no one family in its entirety is ever
going to come to faith in Christ. He’s not saying that at all.
Don’t we work towards that as families, don’t we look with
everything in us to teach our children and to pass on the truths
that God shown to us? Isn’t that a glorious promise
that it’s possible? Some of you come from faithful
homes who taught you and nurtured you and showed you the things
of the Lord and you came to faith in Christ. Doesn’t that give
us hope? Christ isn’t saying that every family categorically
is going to be divided, but it’s the rule. It’s the rule. It’s
it’s a generality. There will be exceptions to the
rule. But by and large, typically speaking, you’re going to have
division. One characterized it in these
simple words. As Puritan said, the expression
in these verses must not be pressed too literally. In some houses,
there are not even five persons. In others, there are many more
than five. In some families, the work of conversion begins.
The father and son are entirely of one mind. So are the mother
and daughter. Plain lesson of these words are
meant to convey is simply this, that the gospel will often produce
division in families and that even two persons who are most
nearly related may become estranged from one another. And as a result
of being converted and the other not. Few believers can look around
the circle of their relatives and acquaintances and not see
striking illustrations of this truth. Melancholy is, it seems,
it is a fact that nothing annoys some persons so much as the conversion
of one of their relatives. Do you not know that to be true
in your own lives? I mean, I do. Faith in Christ creates division
because it calls us to a different life, a different standard. calls
us to hate sin and to turn from it, to be done with it, to wash
our hands of it. And people hate the light. And
as a result of being in the light, they begin to hate you. The one who continues in his
unbelief, his detestation for Christ will grow. And as he begins
to hate Christ, he will hate and persecute you. It’s axiomatic. It’s going to happen. It’s not
merely just a possibility anymore. It’s it’s a guarantee. You begin to condemn in his unbelief
and his disobedience and a spirit of hatred. He will break out
in a persecution against you that you never expected. Say
things about you that you never dreamed he would say. JC Ryle clarified it all. When
he said the object of his first coming on earth was not to set
up a kingdom in which all would be of one mind, but to bring
the gospel, which would lead to stripes and divisions. And
so we must not be surprised if we see this continually fulfilled.
We are not to think it’s strange if the gospel tears apart families.
I’d love to see a new believer go home. And I don’t love this
part of it, but to see them come out, with their tail between
their legs. You know, they just came to faith
in Christ and they were walking on air and they walked into their
home and they came out sullen and forlorn, thinking that they’re
the first person on earth to ever face that. That’s exactly
how I was. That’s exactly how I was. I thought that they were
getting ready to nail me on a cross. Poor me. Ryle says we shouldn’t
be surprised if we see it continually fulfilled. We shouldn’t think
it’s strange. So long as one man believes in
another remains unbelieving, so long as one is resolved to
keep his sins and another desirous to give them up, the result of
preaching the gospel will be division. Count on it, he says.
The gospel is not to blame. The heart of man is. Psalm 149 speaks of it. Pardon me, Psalm
41 nine speaks of it. speaks of even my close friend
who I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
It’s that kind of division. Christ knew it. Was there ever
a better illustration of that than Judas and what Judas did
to Christ? The apostles knew this well. They were already
learning it. They were learning it the hard way. Jesus is just
giving them perspective. But you know what? It’s typical.
It shouldn’t be all that surprising to us. If you put three people
in a room, two are going to side against the one on something.
The best you can hope for is to put an even number of people
and maybe you get an even split. Even in our own family. There
is this tendency. There aren’t many of us. And
so the tendency in our particular family at holidays and whatnot
is the Christians almost always end up gravitating together.
Just having sweet fellowship together is only we can in that
difficult moment because the rest of the relationships, they
just fall by the wayside. There’s nothing there. There’s
just no substance to it at all. The best you can hope for is
to plead for their soul and to have some opportunity to proclaim
Christ. That’s what leads us to the extent
of the division. Jesus says it generally, he speaks
of it as a household, which would include not only the members
of the family, but the slaves, the servants as well. Anybody
related to the household, aunts and uncles, anybody that lives
under the roof. But Jesus wants to talk about
the extent of the division, and it is pointed. This is sharp,
and these are where so many broken hearts come, don’t they? Look
at verse 53. They will be divided. You see,
at the first, if you thought that this division, it’s possible,
I suppose it’s possible. No, it’s more than possible.
In verse 51 he merely spoke of division. In verse 52 it says
the household will be divided. And here he repeats it for a
third time. They will be divided. How? Father against son. Son against
father. Mother against daughter. Daughter
against mother. Mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.
Daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. And you know what? He doesn’t
go to every relationship that possibly exists. Because in my
case, he missed one brother against brother. I got a brother. I can’t
even talk about these things with can’t even bring up the
subject. Tell you how it came about years
ago, I was sharing and he had had a series of really bad things
happen to him, and I went to him one day just solemnly and
I said, you know, did you ever think that God might be trying
to get your attention? He rolled his eyes, went out
the next day, got broadsided in his truck. And I remember
how bitter he was to me. He asked me if I’d put a curse
on him. Isn’t that where we live, people? I remember coming home so excited
with Christ the first time, giving one family member a Bible. I
didn’t know. As God is my witness, I didn’t
know that I was offending him in doing so. And as he opened
the Bible, he took it out and he literally threw it across
the room. That’s what we come. That’s what we come to expect,
isn’t it? Division. Father against son,
daughter against her mother. There are those of you in this
room that can’t even have a conversation about spiritual things with your
parents. And Jesus says that is to be
expected. That’s how it is. In following
Christ. John Gill characterized it this
way when he said a father believing in Christ, embracing his gospel,
submitting to his institutions is contradicted, opposed, persecuted
by his own son. I’m assuming here it’s a teenager,
but I don’t know. and a mother by her own daughter. And though natural affection
has knit them together, who prior to the gospel’s arrival live
together with most peaceable kind and tender manner. Don’t
we know that? Don’t you look back on relationships
that you say, man, we were such close friends. I had such a great
relationship with my parents, such a great relationship with
my siblings. But now that Christ has come,
now that I follow Christ, it’s not that way. You know what both Luke and Matthew
quote here, or if not quote, they certainly allude to it.
One of the most solemn prophecies that was ever stated was stated
in Micah chapter seven. Listen to the words of Micah
chapter seven, when Micah is trying to paint the bleakest
picture imaginable. Woe is me, for I am like the
fruit pickers, like grape gatherers. There is not a cluster of grapes
to eat or a ripe fig which I crave.” This is a bad deal. And it gets
worse. The godly person is perished
from the land. There is no upright person among
men. All of them lie in wait in bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other
with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince
asked the judge for a bribe and the great man speaks to the desire
of his soul. So they weave it together. In
other words, the judge and the briber are in collaboration. The best of them is like a briar.
I mean, have you ever heard words so bleak in all your life? The
most upright is like a thorn hedge. The day when you post
your watchman, your punishment will come. Their confusion will
occur. Do not trust in a neighbor. Do
not have confidence in a friend from her who lies in your bosom.
Guard your lips and then get this. For son treats father contemptuously. Daughter rises up against mother.
Daughter-in-law against your mother-in-law. A man’s enemies
are the men of his own household. It’s exactly what Matthew says.
It’s exactly what Matthew says. Remember, John chapter nine.
You don’t think this was real. John chapter nine. Jesus heals
the blind man. Right. And how long did it take
his parents to disown him? Maybe 15 minutes. As soon as
the Pharisees came knocking at his door, you know, tell us how
you came, how your son became healed. They wouldn’t point to
Christ. They wouldn’t name the name of
Christ. They wouldn’t affirm Christ’s
work in their son’s life as glorious as it was. Go ask him. We don’t want anything to do
with it. Sadly, those become All too common
in our lives, don’t they? The apostles had left all. And
perhaps they were already experience experiencing this, maybe wives
were becoming embittered toward them, maybe children. Jesus wanted
them to know the reality that when you hold the standards,
when you have convictions, when you begin to follow Christ and
grow in Christ likeness by God’s grace, there will be division. It’s a certainty. Husbands will
leave wives, wives will leave husbands, estrangement will grow. Young people, I’ve known some
even of our college people that were essentially kicked out of
the house because of their faith. One pastor in closing said it
this way, he said in such a state of division, even families. The
basic building block of society, the most precious of all institutions. Even in families, the true follower
of Christ must not hesitate. Better to give up the nearest
relative and take the cross on your shoulder and be content
to lose life itself than to forsake Christ. The question whether
one loves father or mother more than Christ is put to the test
in any case which the wishes of the parents stand opposed
to the known will of Christ. That’s where it happens. It’s
where the rubber meets the road. They’ll let you go to church
all day long. They’ll let you sit in the quietness of your
room and read your Bible. But try to exercise your convictions. Try to live them out in the arena
of life. And that’s when you’ll face difficulty. There’s part of me that wishes
that you didn’t experience this. But. In that sense, the wish
goes along these lines, I wish that every member of our families
would get converted, that there would be no division, but the
reality says otherwise, and Jesus says that we need to be prepared
for it. Let’s examine our hearts to see if we’re prepared for
division. Let’s pray. Oh, Lord God, We thank You and
praise You. You have placed such a burning
desire in our hearts to follow You that, Father, as the old
spiritual goes, though none go with You, I will follow. Lord God, may that be true with
us. May we not cower in fear because
of what others, even our own precious family members say.
May we seek to follow You with everything that is in our being.
And Father, because of our tenacity in following You, may our own
loved ones, by Your grace, come to know You as well. We thank
You and we praise You in Jesus’ name, Amen. of Jesus, I love you.