Let us turn to God's Word in
the portion of Scripture we read and drawing your attention for
a while to the words that we have here in Matthew, the Gospel
according to St. Matthew chapter 3 and reading
verses 11 and 12. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand,
and he will truly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the
garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Here then we have the Baptist, John the Baptist, the forerunner
of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking and speaking of the ministry
that Christ is to exercise and we see how he speaks of that
as a winnowing ministry. He says that he shall baptize
with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hands,
and he will truly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the
garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now, earlier today, this morning,
we were considering words that we find later here in chapter
9. and there at the end of that chapter verse 36 following we
considered something of what he said concerning that great
harvest that the Lord draws the attention of his disciples to
and then gives them instruction when he saw the multitudes he
was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and
were scattered abroad as a sheep having no shepherd then saith
he Unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers
are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of
the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. And we sought to say something
with regards to the situation that moves the Lord Jesus. He was moved with compassion
when he saw the greatness of that work The harvest truly is
plenteous, he says, but not just the greatness of the work that
he was to accomplish, but also how it was the sight of the multitudes. They fainted and were scattered
abroad, he says, the sheep having no shepherd. How the Lord is
moved then, and we remarked on the reality of his human nature
as we see it here how he is touched in his in his inner being in
the very depths of his soul and then he gives instruction to
his disciples pray ye therefore he says the laborers are few
pray ye therefore the lord of the harvest that he will send
forth laborers and we spoke of the the primacy of prayer, the
necessity of prayer but also associated with that there must
be the ministry, the preaching of the word and the whole context
of course as we said at the end this morning is one in which
the Lord is concerned about preaching we have Christ himself preaching
in verse 35 teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel
of the kingdom healing every sickness and every disease among
the people. The whole chapter speaks of his
ministry and the miracles, those confirming miracles that mark
him out as a man who is truly a teacher sent by God. And then
in the next chapter he calls unto him the Twelve and gives
them power over unclean spirits to cast out and to heal all manner
of sicknesses, all manner of diseases. And we have the names
of the Twelve and then we're told how these 12 are sent forth
and Christ says go not into the way of the Gentiles and into
any city of the Samaritans enter you not but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. It's later of course in the days
after Christ has accomplished his work and risen from the dead
and ascended to heaven it's later that this gospel will go to Gentiles
and we see that in Acts chapter 13 after Paul's preaching at
Antioch in Pisidia and when the Jews refuse that message he turns
with Barnabas to the Gentiles but the ministry of the twelve
here is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel it says but
it's a preaching ministry Verse 7, as you go, preach, saying,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. All the emphasis that we see
time and again upon this preaching. And we finished our reading just
now, here in chapter 4, at verse 17, from that time Jesus began
to preach. and to say, repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. But there this morning we were
thinking of that great harvest that is to be gathered in, as
we have it in John 4, the fields white unto harvest. But as Christ
does indeed gather in that harvest, and we know that the Shiloh unto
him shall the gathering of the people be. But as Christ gathers
in the harvest, so also there is a winnowing. There's a great
harvest, it's to be gathered in, but then it's also to be
winnowed, and That really means that the ministry must be a separating
ministry. And that's what we have here.
This is the imagery that we have concerning the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the 12th verse, whose fan is in his hands.
And he will truly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the
garden. but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That wheat must be beaten. Having
been gathered in, it must be beaten with the flail. It must
be so in order that the grain might be separated from the husk
and then when the grain has been separated it must be further
winnowed so that the chaff is removed from the grain. What is the chaff to the wheat? asked the prophet Jeremiah. And here we have the ministry
of Christ, his fan. in his hand. What is a fan? Well,
it's said to be some sort of large implement like a shovel
that might be used in order to toss that mixed heap into the
air and hopefully the wind will blow the chaff away. The light chaff will be blown
away as it is tossed and then the pure grain will fall to the
ground. He will throughly purge his floor,
it says. Now, we know that ultimately
the separation is not going to be made until the last day. It will be at that day, the day
of judgement, when the final separation is made and The Lord
speaks of that day. He uses a different figure. He
speaks of separating between the sheep and the goats. Those solemn words that we have
in chapter 25 of this Gospel. Verse 31, When the Son of Man
shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him,
then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory. Before Him shall
be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from
another. as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
the left. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, Come ye, blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Oh, there is the final separation
and the Lord Jesus is that one who is to come as the judge.
He is appointed to be the judge of all. As the Lord Himself says
in John 5, The Father judges no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son, and hath given him authority to execute
judgment, because he is the Son of Man. or the Lord Jesus, that
One who came, the Son of God, manifest as the Son of Man, a
real man coming to redeem men, and to return now as that One
who will sit to condemn those who are the goats, those who
are the unbelievers. And here in verse 12 we do well
to notice the future tenses that are being used. His fan is in
his hand, he will surely purge his floor and gather his wheat
into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable
fire. And the terms that are being
used in this verse we cannot escape that they're terms that
really apply to that great day, the great day of judgments. Now on another occasion the Lord
speaks a parable, the parable of the tares and of the wheat
in chapter 13, that chapter that's full of parables. And what does
he say concerning the tares and the wheat there in chapter 13
verse 30? Let both grow together until
the harvest And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles
to burn them. But gather the wheat into my
barn. Then there will be that full
and final separation. Or the ungodly. The ungodly will
not stand in that day of judgment. We can go back to the book of
Psalms and the first Psalm. The ungodly are not sober, but
are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous, says the Psalmist. Oh, there
is a great work of judgment that is yet to come. And how these
things are spoken of, they're spoken of in prophetic scripture. We have the language again of
the prophet Isaiah there in Isaiah 41. And at verse 15, Behold, I will
make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou
shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make
the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fund them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them,
and they shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall glory in the
Holy One of Israel." The day of judgment that is yet to be,
what a fearful day. Oh, what a work of judgment is
that that the prophet is speaking of there in the Old Testament
Scriptures. And here, In the verse before
us tonight, we read of this unquenchable fire. He will burn up the chaff,
it says. He will burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire. That's not annihilation. That
is not annihilation. There are those, they might call
themselves evangelicals, some. and they don't like the idea
of eternal sufferings and they come forward with the notion
of annihilation for the ungodly but that's not the teaching of
scripture when the Lord makes that final
separation we saw the separation there in chapter 25 between the
sheep and the goats and what does he say to the goats? Depart
ye cursed into everlasting fire reserved for the devil and his
angels everlasting fire where there were and dieth not and
the fire is not quenched. We have to recognize then that
here there is certainly some allusion to that great day, the
final day, the awful day of the Lord, the day of the judgment
of our gods. There's some allusion to that,
however. Surely the reference here is really to the imminent
work that the Lord Jesus Christ was just about to commence. The
language might take us forward to the last day, but when we
examine the words more carefully, we have to recognize that It
is something more imminent than that that's being spoken of.
It's speaking not so much of the day of judgment but the day
of grace. What does the Baptist say as
he is the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, preparing the way
before him? And that's how he's introduced
at the beginning of the chapter. What does he say? Verse 10, Now
also the axe is laid unto the roots of the trees. Now! Now he says. And again, when he speaks of
the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see, clearly this is what he,
this is the one that he is speaking of. In verse 11, I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, he shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in
his hand. It's something that he is about
to undertake. He's prepared to do this task
of winnowing. The fan is already in his hand. The work is about to begin. And so we're told in verse 13,
Then cometh Jesus. from Galilee to Jordan unto John
to be baptized of him. And John speaks of baptizing,
you see verse 11, I indeed, he says in verse 11, I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance, he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. And then comes Jesus and submits to John's baptizing and
so looking at these verses 11 and 12 we're to recognize that
it is speaking of that work that the Lord Jesus Christ was about
to undertake and so first of all tonight I want to say something
with regards to the nature of that ministry of the Lord Jesus
this winnowing ministry it is a a searching ministry, it's
a sifting ministry whose fan is in his hands and he will truly purge his floor
and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire all what what a sifting is going
on here, what a separating and we can think of the vision that
John has in the Revelation where there in the opening chapter
he sees the glorified Christ. He sees a vision of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this day of grace. And we have that description
in the chapter there and amongst other things we're told concerning
his eyes they were as a flame of fire. all those eyes of the
glorified Savior, so piercing, so searching, all seeing eyes,
how He beholds all things. And that's speaking of the glorified
Christ in this day, the day of grace in which we're living.
And time and again when we read in the New Testament, certainly
when we read through the Gospels, we see remarkable things concerning
the Lord's own ministry. Remember the words that Simeon
speaks to Mary, the mother of the Lord, there in Luke chapter
2 and verse 34, concerning this child. He says
to the mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising
again of many in Israel, and the sign that shall be spoken
against. That's speaking of the ministry that this child is going
to exercise. And he comes not only for the
rising, but for the fall. There's a negative aspect to
the ministry, the fall and rising again of many in Israel. And when the Lord Himself is
exercising His ministry, He doesn't hesitate to speak of these things. Again, look at the language in
the Gospel in Luke chapter 12. In Luke chapter 12 and there
at verse 51, He says, Suppose ye that I am come to
give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall
be five in one house, divided three against two, and two against
three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son
against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the
daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against the
daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. On
another occasion he says, suppose you that I am come to send peace
on earth. I say, no, but rather a sword. And here we have it,
you see. What does his ministry do? It
separates. There's division. There are people
on either side. This is the nature of his ministry
and we see it of course in the course of how John unfolds it
in his gospel, there are several times where he does speak of
division and the division for a reason because of him. Or there
was a division amongst the people because of him, because of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his person, who he
was. or it says there was a division because of his teachings, because
of the things that he was saying, the nature of his ministry. And where is it that the Lord
is exercising this ministry? Well he comes to Israel, he is
sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In a sense he
is doing his ministry in the midst of the Old Testament church.
because Israel in the Old Testament is a type of the spiritual Israel.
And the spiritual Israel, of course, is the church. And here,
in the text, we read of his floor. We read of his floor, whose fan
is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor. and gather his weight into the
garden, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. This floor is church. That's where the Lord ministers. Again, we have the language of
the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 12 and verse 10, O
my threshing, he says, and the corn of my floor. Strange, isn't
it, how the Lord speaks of his church? My threshing, the corn
of my floor. There's that sense in which we
have to see that threshing and winnowing is a mark of a true
church. And I say that again and I think
it's a significant thing for us to recognize what the church
is and what should be the ministry amongst the people of God. Threshing
and winnowing is a mark of a true church. Amos 9 and verse 9, No,
I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all
nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not one
grind fall to the ground or the Lord will preserve His people
in the midst of all that searching and all that sifting again when
the Lord is addressing those seven churches in the book of
the Revelation the seven churches of Asher Miner see how He addresses
the church of Thyatira Revelation 2.23 all the churches shall know
that I am he that searches the reins and the heart that's how
the Lord deals with his people he searches the reins and the
heart he sifts them through and through and the Lord has his
instruments you remember what the Lord says to Simon Peter
who was to deny him Satan hath desired to have you that he may
sift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith
fail not when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren those
words in Luke chapter 22 and the Lord uses the plural pronoun
initially speaking to Peter yes but he's not just speaking of
Peter Satan hath desired to have you He doesn't say to Simon Peter,
Satan, I've desired to have thee, singular. No, he says he's desired
to have you. That's every one of the disciples.
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, here is one
of the disciples who at this particular juncture is in the
grievest and the greatest of dangers and the Lord is praying
for him but you see how even Satan is made to serve the purpose
of God that's the strange thing though God being not the author
of sin all but the sovereignty of God and how often Satan overreaches
himself, he might come into the church and cause havoc in the
church and yet it's all overruled by God this is the wonder of
God and the ways of God but God does his work in his floor amongst
his people in the church now we certainly recognize here that
John the Baptist ministry was very much a searching and the
sifting ministry itself, how fearless he is. Verse 7, When
he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism,
he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who were sworn you
to flee from the wrath to come, bring forth therefore fruits,
meat for repentance. Think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father, For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. How bold he is in his ministry. This is the voice crying in the
wilderness. Prepare you the way of the Lord
and see how There in verse 3 we are referred back to the words
of prophecy in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 14. And we're told there
in that chapter something of what the Baptist was to say in
the course of his preaching. The voice said, Cry. And he said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass. And all the
goodness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the Word of our God shall stand forever." That's
something of the ministry of John the Baptist. Men must be brought to see what
they are. All flesh, grass, withering,
fighting. A very negative ministry in that
sense. But if all of this was true with
regards to to the Baptist, how much more so when we think of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He says here in verse 11, He
that cometh after me is mightier than I. whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire." Well, that's the Lord's own ministry. And now, in the
course of his preaching, we see the Lord time and again doing
that. We've been referred many times to that long sixth chapter
of John's Gospel and the content of that chapter. dear Sidney
Norton would call it the chapter of the great diminishings remember
the multitudes at the beginning Christ feeding the five thousand
and they are so impressed they want to take him and make him
a king and then the Lord begins to sift them through and through
and so when we come to the end of that chapter he says this
Verse 64, There are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should
betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given
unto him of My Father. Now what is the Lord doing here?
He is proclaiming God's sovereignty and salvation. That no one No
one can come unto me except it is given of the Father. Salvation
is of the Lord. To Simon Peter he says flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which
is in heaven. And then we read from that time
forth many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. All divine sovereignty is an
offense to men. it's an offense to me and Jesus enters to the twelve
will you also go away and Simon Peter answers Lord to whom shall
we go thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe and
are sure that thou art that Christ the son of the living God or
the Lord's own ministry What is he doing? It's a searching
ministry, a sifting ministry, a winnowing ministry. It's that
ministry that Jeremiah speaks of, Jeremiah 15, 19, If thou
take forth the precious from the vial, thou shalt be as my
mouth. And Christ is that one who is
the very mouth of God, the true prophet of the Lord, and he takes
forth the precious from the vial. The nature then of the Lord's
ministry is what's being spoken of. And in the second place,
in the second place to say something with regards to the necessity
of such a ministry. Why was it necessary? Two reasons. Firstly, there needs to be the
exposing of the false professors. There needs to be the exposing
of that that is not true. but spurious and John is exercising that sort
of ministry when he says to those Pharisees and Sadducees verse
9 think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father and observe the words think not
to say within yourselves They were so ready to congratulate
themselves. We are the sons of Abraham. They
were poor deluded souls. Remember again the Lord in Luke
18 where he speaks of those two men going to the temple at the
hour of prayer, the Pharisee and the Publican. or the Pharisee
so highly esteemed than the publican in the employ of the Romans and
abusing his position, feathering his own nest as it were as a
tax gatherer for the occupying Romans so hated, so despised
the publicans and the Pharisee so highly regarded. And what does the Lord say concerning
the Pharisee? He prayed thus with himself. All this seems to be a mark of
the Pharisee. He prayed thus with himself. And as John says
here in verse 9, Think not to say within yourselves.
You see when that Pharisee prayed thus with himself, That's as
far as his prayer goes. His prayer does not reach the
ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. He's congratulating himself all
the time. He never comes as a poor sinner,
begging, beseeching God for his mercy. That's a Pharisee. Or
a religious man. But it's not just the Pharisees.
How solemn are those words that the Lord speaks time and again
to those seven churches. You'll remember how the Lord,
you see, winnows His own floor and how the Lord speaks to those
churches. We've already referred to words
addressed to the church at Thyatira, but then again look at the language
to Sardis. There in Revelation 3.1 Thou
hast a name that thou livest and art dead. A name to live
and yet no spiritual life at all. Or there were some in Sardis
as he goes on to say in verse 4 but how the Lord, you see,
sees things as they really are those eyes all seeing, all searching
eyes like a flame of fire what is a hypocrite's faith?
it is just like the chaff that's the faith of the hypocrite, it's
light and empty it's useless and worthless toss, chew and
throw and carried about with every wind of doctrine, we read
of so. That's the faith of those who know nothing of real religion,
tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine. Well,
we need to be those who are firmly established in the great doctrines
of the faith, that faith once and for all delivered on to the
saints, as Jude describes it there in his short epistle we're
to contend earnestly for that faith not to be those who are
tossed to and fro the ungodly are like the chaff which the
wind driveth away and what is the Lord doing then as he sifts in this manner he's
exposing false professors, those who say that they are believers
but that's all, it's just a profession, it's just words, there's nothing
real and at the same time, and this is the other aspect of the
ministry of the Lord it is a ministry that is encouraging to true believers
where faith is real where faith is real there is this desire
that that faith might be sifted and test it. Isn't that the faith
of David? David, the man after God's own
heart. How does he pray at the end of
the 139th Psalm? Search me, O God, he says, and
know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting. And what was true of David was
also true of Job. Oh, you've heard of the patience
of Job, the endurance of Job. What a man is Job. And what is
Job's desire? Job 31.6, Let me be weighed in
an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. He wants
to be weighed in an even balance. He wants God to know what He
is. And this is all that God is doing
with him. The mystery of God's ways, God's dealings with that
man. Again, the psalmist says, Examine me, O Lord, prove me,
and try my reins and my heart. All where faith is real. That's
what it desires. It wants He wants to have that
assurance that there's something in the soul that is wrought of
God. A real work, a real work of the
grace of God in the soul of a man. The Puritan John Flavel says,
false grace is shy of God's eye. It cares not to be examined. Doesn't want to be examined.
Doesn't like that. Everyone that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought of God's." All the words of the Lord Jesus here
in John 3, 20 and 21. There's the contrast. There's the contrast. The false
is exposed. But that that is true, it wants
to be examined, it wants to be made manifest as something that
is genuine. And this is the ministry then
of the Lord Jesus. He threshes His people, He winnows
His people. John says concerning His ministry,
I indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance, but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy
to bear." What is my ministry compared to his ministry? And
remember John was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets.
Not a greater arose than John the Baptist. But yet he says he's not worthy
to bear Christ's Jews, he shall baptize you with water and the
Holy Ghost he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire whose fan is in his hand and he will truly purge his floor
and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire and he has a good ending view
you see in all of this ministry he has a good end in view even
though it might seem to us to be so negative yet there must
be the negative in order that we might really understand the
significance of the positive Deuteronomy 32 39 see now that
I even I am and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive
I wound and I heal Neither is there any that can deliver out
of my hand. All is found is in His hand.
He will do that work. He will do that work. Then cometh
Jesus. Or that the Lord might come and
that He might deal with me, that He might deal with you, that
He might test us and try us through and through. and that we might
be those who by His grace are the more and more established
in that glorious faith of the Gospel of our God and Saviour. Oh, the Lord then be pleased
to own and bless these things to us. Amen.