Luke chapter 3, chapter 3. Let's ask the Lord for a blessing before we begin. Our God and our Father, we pray for your spirit. We pray, we pray for to behold the salvation you've provided in your dear son. Lord, give us faith and increase our faith and bring us to his feet to honor and glorify him. Forgive us, Lord, of our wandering minds and our unbelief and all our sin. For Christ's sake, for the righteousness that he's brought in for his people. Lord, please forgive us. In Christ's name we ask it, amen.

All right, Luke 3.15 says, and as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, they were expecting Christ, most were, but they were expecting a political deliverer. They were expecting him to come and just deliver them out of Roman bondage. So when John came preaching, John the Baptist, they mused in their heart, they considered whether he's the Christ or not. And John made sure they understood that he was not. He said in verse 16, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand, and he would truly purge his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

Now, let's begin here by seeing the difference in John's baptism and the Lord's baptism. In verse 16, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water. He says, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, the way John baptized believers in water, like we baptize believers in water, pictured what Christ accomplished for his people. That's what water baptism pictures. A believer is confessing he's resting in Christ and what Christ accomplished.

John declared, Christ is one mightier than I. The Lord Jesus is the power of God, and he makes us know he's the power of God. When he saves, 1 Corinthians 1 says, he becomes the power and wisdom of God unto us, the power of salvation. He's God in the flesh, we're not. He's mighty, we're not. He's the mediator, the one mediator between God and men, we're not. He's mightier than I, and he accomplished the salvation of his people. He came for a particular people and he accomplished saving us and you and me don't contribute to that in any regard.

Now, by the baptism of our Lord Jesus, by the baptism of our Lord Jesus, he gives a sinner this new heart to own our savior as being mightier than I, to own him as being all our righteousness, all our holiness, all our salvation. He gives you the heart to confess that so of him. John said in verse 16, the latchet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. We're proud by nature and that's all our flesh is. When the Lord gave those seven sins that he hates and he began and said, the first one is pride, all those other six, come from pride. That's why he hates pride. Pride won't let us bow and give the glory to him. Pride won't let us confess our sin. Pride won't let us own that we cannot do anything to save ourselves. The Lord has to make us willing in the day of his power and give us faith and bring you, give you a new heart that's contrite so you have this spirit John had. I'm not worthy to even Loose the latchet of his shoe. He brings you down to Christ's feet.

So, what is water baptism? What is believer's baptism? Well, first, it's a public confession that we're the sinner. It's confessing we are the sinner. Look at in Matthew 3 and verse 6. It says that they went out to John and they were baptized of him, Matthew 3, 6. They were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, that doesn't mean that they stood up and gave a big long list of all their sins they could think of, and then they were baptized. The act of being baptized is a public confession before all that we are the sinner.

Look with me over here at Luke 7. The Spirit of the Lord teaches us that we confess our faults to one another. We confess to one another that we are sinners. And if we've wronged one another, we confess. We say, it's my fault. Forgive me. Have mercy on me. But as far as confessing the details of our sins, we don't have but one high priest. That's the Lord Jesus. We go to Him and pour out our heart to Him. He's the high priest. We don't have a high priest in this earth. No preacher, no other man. Christ is our high priest. But this act of baptism, water baptism, is a public confession that we are the sinner. We are taking sides with God against ourselves.

Where do we get that? Right here, Luke 7. Luke 7, verse 29. And all the people that heard and the publicans justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized of Him. You see that when the Lord's given you a heart to see that you are the sinner and Christ is your only salvation, when you are publicly baptized, you're saying publicly what you've already said to the Lord in your heart. David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou might be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. The public act of water baptism is confessing that. We're confessing that we agree with God that we are the sinner. Unable to contribute and incapable of contributing anything to our salvation. So that's water baptism.

Now it pictures what Christ accomplished. Pictures what Christ accomplished. He said, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straight until it be accomplished? He wasn't talking about his water baptism. He was talking about the cross, the cross as the substitute for his people.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless, holy, just Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin and never sinned, he willingly gave himself and was made sin for his people. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of all his people. The Lord made him How do I say this? Lord made him worthy of the fire of God's justice by making him bear the sin of his people because God's manifesting that he's righteous.

So having made him sin for us, God justly baptized or immersed him in the fiery judgment of God's holy wrath. The fiery judgment that all of us deserved Christ was immersed in that on the cross, immersed in it. That's the baptism. That's why he referred to the cross as a baptism. He was immersed in this fiery judgment of God that the law demanded in order to save his people.

And we were in him when that happened. And we were baptized in him when that happened. And we bore that fire of God's wrath in him. And he delivered us from that curse, justified us.

If anybody questions whether the Lord was made sin and made a curse, here's the proof. He died. He died unto sin once. But that's the only way he could have done that is because he was bearing the sin of his people, bearing the curse, and then his lifeless body was immersed in a grave, buried in a grave.

That's why water baptism is immersion. We're confessing that we were in Christ, we were immersed in that fiery justice of God.

He's gonna baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. Well, he did it first at the cross. We were baptized in the fire of God's wrath. Our bodies were, our body of sin was buried with Christ in that grave. He accomplished our death. He accomplished it. And we're confessing when we come up out of that watery grave that we are alive in Christ. When he came out of that grave, we came out. When he arose, we arose in him. And we're confessing that we're alive under God, never to die again, and that we're committed to the Lord Jesus from here on.

Walking in newness of life, walking by faith in him, not by sight, Constrained by his love, not by the letter of the law and promises of rewards and fear of hell and all of that. We're walking by faith, committed to Christ, moved by his love for us, constrained in our heart.

Go with me to Romans 6 and let's just see this. Romans 6, verse 3. No you not. that so many of us as were baptized into or unto Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore, we're buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. And that word there means, freed, means justified. He's dead, the law can't exact anything else of him. He's freed from sin.

Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus our Lord.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it unless thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness under God, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. That's what we're confessing in believer's baptism.

Now, let's go back here. What does it mean when it says he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire? Well, on the day of Pentecost, the Lord had promised that he was gonna send the Spirit Holy Spirit fulfilled the prophecy in Joel. And so he told his apostles and his disciples to wait. Now you can find this in Acts 2 if you want to look there with me.

In Acts 2, in verse 3, it says, and there appeared that a rushing mighty wind came and it filled the house where they were sitting. And it says, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. See that? Like fire. And it sat upon each of them. And it says, and they were filled, all filled with the Holy Ghost. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Men out of every nation, different languages were there. Verse six said they heard them speak in his own language. Every man heard him speak in his own language. Verse 11, they said we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. They were preaching the gospel in the languages of those people.

But you see there, the Holy Ghost filled them, and it was like fire. It was like fire. And the Lord saved 3,000 more people that day, filled them with the Holy Spirit.

But that wasn't the only time that happened. Go with me to Acts 11. Acts 11. The Lord called Peter to go preach to some Gentiles. And here's Peter telling what happened. He said in Acts 11 verse 15, and as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave them the light gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, they received them as brethren. He said the Lord purified their heart through faith by the Holy Spirit.

Now, go back with me to Luke. I want you to see in what John says here, I want you to see how it is the Lord baptizes us with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Verse 17, he said, whose fan is in his hand, The fan in the hand of our Savior is the preaching of the gospel that gives him all the glory for salvation. That's the fan, the fan. And he says here, his fan is in his hand and it says, he will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

Now the threshing floor, is where they came and they brought the wheat, stock and all, and they just piled it in there on the threshing floor. And the threshing floor would bounce like a trampoline, and they would bounce that threshing floor, and it began to make that chaff and that wheat separate as it bounced through the threshing. And they had a fan, and they would be waving that fan, and the chaff was lighter, so the chaff blew off. and all they'd be left with is the wheat. That's a picture of what Christ is doing through this gospel. He's fanning the threshing floor, right here at the threshing floor, right here. And this gospel comes to a center like that violet threshing of that wheat bouncing up and down on the floor, that's how it come. And the Lord gives life in his people by the spirit And that's heavier, the wheat's heavier, the kernel's heavier. And when he makes you heavy from seeing your sin, you're gonna bow down. Whereas the chaff has no weight to it. Men trust in their will and their works and some goodness in them, there's no weight to that. Like the chaff, and the gospel just fans them and blows them away, blows them away. That's what our Savior does. He gives a new heart and separates.

Us personally, He does this too. Not just overall, He does it in each of us. Because our old man of sin is nothing but chaff. But when He gives you a new heart and a new spirit, He separates the chaff from the weed. He makes you to see that He's done a work and it's all Him. And He burns up our own personal chaff. That's called granting you repentance. He makes you stop trusting in any of those works you did that you thought was gonna justify you and make you holy. He makes you trust Christ only. In the new birth, we're made to be in the Spirit. Remember John said that in Romans 8? This is a good way to word it. You're baptized in the Spirit, in the Holy Ghost. And Paul said in Romans 8, When we're born again, if the Spirit of Christ is in you, you're not in the flesh, you're in the Spirit. You're in the Spirit. And that's so of those born of Him.

And so He purges us. He will thoroughly purge His floor, will gather the wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable. On the cross, He purged all our sin. He put away all the sins of His people. Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down. He accomplished that for his people. And anybody who wants to argue about who he did that for, I'll say it this way, everybody he did that for is gonna be born of him, and they're gonna be given faith, and they're gonna be saved. Not one's gonna be lost, because he purged their sins. He purged their sins.

And through this gospel, with that fan that's in his hand, And through this gospel, he's gonna purge our conscience by the Holy Spirit, making us see his blood really did put away our sin and really did make us righteous and accepted of God. He said, remember how David said, purge me with hyssop? Right after he justified God and owned himself to be the guilty sinner, he begged God, purge me with hyssop. And he said, and I shall be clean, wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. That's what the Lord does through this gospel and through his spirit. He brings you to beg God, wash me, Lord, because you see, you can't do it. Before, he was boasting about how you could wash yourself and sanctify yourself, but when he does this, he burns that chaff up and he brings you to beg him, Lord, purge me, wash me, I can't do it.

He said, I'll turn my hand upon thee and shall purge away thy troughs and take away all thy tins. He gonna burn up our personal chaff. And by this might of His, by His gospel, by His power, by the fan in His hand, by the Holy Ghost, He grants you repentance from all your dead works. What are they? Anything that you produce. Anything of your will, anything of your works, that's the dead works. Anything you thought was in the plus column that you did, that commended you to God, He burns that up. because none of it commends us to it. It's all free grace. It's salvation by grace.

I want you to see this. Go to Hebrews 9. I know I show this to you a lot, but I want to make a connection here. Hebrews 9 and verse 14, he says, Hebrews 9.14, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Now what happens when he does that? Look at Hebrews 10. He's talking about how the Old Testament law and those lambs and that blood didn't never put away sin, but if it had, look what he says it would have done. Hebrews 10.1, having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect, perfect. See that word, perfect? Note that word. Now look, for then, if that been the case, then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin. See, the Spirit of the Lord is gonna burn up all our chaff and He's gonna create a new heart and give you faith and make you hear what Christ accomplished. Look here, verse 10, He makes you to know by Christ's will we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. Verse 14, He makes you know He's also your righteousness for by one offering He's perfected forever them that are sanctified. And verse 15, the Holy Ghost bears witness to us. Verse 17, God says, their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Now we're remission of this, there's no more offering for sin. He says you have welcome access to holy God because Christ made you holy and he's made you perfect, justified, righteous. And when your conscience is purged, you know this, you stop offering dead works to God. Because you know, your conscience is purged, guilt's gone. He's forgiving you. You're righteous. There is no record past, present, or future of sin. You're as perfect as Christ is. As He is, so you are. And when you know that, that's why I say you stop. You can't serve God until you realize or are made to know that you're righteous in Christ. That you died in Him, and you arose in Him, and you accepted of God. That's the only time you can start serving Him.

Everything we do is a dead work trying to make an offering to God for our sin. Everything we do. But when He purges your conscience, He said, would those works not have ceased to be offering if their conscience was purged? And when He purges your conscience, you stop offering dead works. That's when a sinner requests to be baptized in water. because you want to go confess before everybody what Christ did for you at the cross and what he's done for you in your heart. Trust in him alone.

Now in the last day, the Lord's going to gather his wheat, those he gave faith through this gospel, he's going to gather his wheat into the garner. When he gives you the new birth and gives you faith to rest in Christ, he gathers you into his church, into his kingdom. into his family, you're born into his kingdom. And in the end, he's gonna gather you into glory with him, because that's what he promised. But the chaff, those that reject Christ for their own will and for their own works and still are trying to say they contributed or did something, he will burn with fire unquenchable.

Now get that. When a man dies, that's not the end, brethren. That is not the end. And for the person who is chaffed, who meets God without Christ, and he's cast out, that is an unquenchable fire. Because you and I can't satisfy God's justice. That's an unquenchable fire. But Christ did it for his people. I pray, Lord, give us the heart to believe him today. Trust him today.

Which one are you? Which one are you? Has He given you a new heart and faith to repent from everything you are in your nature and every dead work you've ever done and to trust Him only? Or are you going to walk out of here not confessing Him, not believing Him, not wanting to confess Him publicly in water baptism? See, these are going to be the two reactions when the Gospel is preached. Some are made to bow and believe by God's grace, by the Spirit, and some go on rejecting Him.

Here's what happened, look, verse 18. And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people, but Herod the Tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, he shut up John in prison. He rejected John, rejected Christ, rejected the gospel. See, though, which are you? You that believe God's done a work in you and given you faith and made you to see you were in Christ at Calvary, when he went in that grave, when he came out, and all your salvation is the Lord alone.

But everybody that doesn't just, when the gospel goes forth, if the Lord You know, if we really could hear the gospel, and really could believe, and really could repent, then when the gospel was forth, everybody would hit their face. They would all confess Christ is all.

But the fact that the response by the majority is just like Herod. They hear the gospel, we're approving them. They hear the gospel saying they're sinners, they're committing wickedness. And not just in your foul sins that we consider sin, but in your best works, they're evil. And they go on rejecting him.

Brethren, do not pass through this life without Christ. Do not meet God without Christ. Every man is saved by works. And every man's damned by his works. We're damned. A man's damned by his own works, trusting his works rather than Christ's, because all our works are evil. But a man's saved by the works of the Lord Jesus, because all his works are righteous. You want to be found in him, in him only. Don't come to God trying to bring him your chaff. He won't receive it.

I pray God will bless us with that. Lord, thank you for this word. We pray, Lord, you'd bless it to our hearts. Pray you'd bless it to the hearts of your people. And Lord, we beg of you to speak this word into one of your lost sheep. Give them faith and repentance. Burn up all their works, Lord, and just make them see that You indeed have saved your people, justified your people. You alone are our salvation. Make them hear it, Lord. Make them come and take sides with you and confess themselves the sinner.

Lord, help us all to do that every time we hear the gospel. Make us willing to continually own our sin before you and confess it to you. and praise you and glory in you for giving us your dear son, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness in him. Lord, keep him being our only hope of salvation. Lord, keep us looking only to Christ. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for giving us hearts to believe you. In Christ's name we pray, amen.