The Axe And The Fan

Q: What does the Bible say about repentance?

The Bible emphasizes repentance as a heartfelt sorrow for sin and a turning to God for forgiveness. In Scripture, repentance is depicted as more than mere remorse for specific actions; it is a deep-seated acknowledgment of one's sinful nature and a turning away from sin towards God. John the Baptist proclaimed, 'Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matthew 3:2). This call to repentance is foundational to the Christian faith, emphasizing the need to recognize the gravity of our sinfulness, as expressed in Romans 3:10-12, which declares that 'there is none righteous, no, not one.' True repentance involves not only feeling sorry for our sins but also a desire to turn from sin itself, which reflects a genuine transformation of the heart that only God can effect.

Q: How do we know that Christ is the only way to salvation?

The Bible clearly states that Christ is the sole source of salvation, emphasizing that no one comes to the Father except through Him. The uniqueness of Christ as the only way to salvation is affirmed throughout Scripture. John 14:6 declares, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' This underscores the belief that salvation cannot be achieved through works, ritual, or any means apart from faith in Jesus Christ. The message of the Gospel is that Christ alone bears the responsibility for our redemption, as stated in Acts 4:12, where it is affirmed that 'neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.' This central truth is a cornerstone of sovereign grace theology, reinforcing the necessity of recognizing Christ's supremacy in all aspects of salvation.

Q: Why is the message of repentance important for Christians?

The message of repentance is vital for Christians as it emphasizes the need for continual turning to God and recognizing our dependence on His grace. For Christians, the call to repentance is not a one-time event but an ongoing necessity in the journey of faith. As followers of Christ, we are called to constantly reflect on our lives and recognize areas where we fall short of God's glory. The act of repentance is foundational to maintaining a right relationship with God, as it aligns our hearts with His will and acknowledges our dependence on His grace. 1 John 1:9 reassures us that 'if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' This illustrates the importance of repentance as a means through which we experience God's mercy and restoration, reinforcing the reality that we are continually in need of His grace throughout our lives.

Q: What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Salvation being all of grace means that it is entirely a gift from God, not based on human merit or works. The concept of salvation being all of grace is a fundamental tenet of Reformed theology, rooted in the understanding that salvation is entirely the work of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 states, 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.' This highlights the truth that no human effort or righteousness can earn salvation, as it is fully bestowed by God's unmerited favor. The doctrine of sovereign grace teaches that it is God who elects, calls, and saves His people according to His sovereign will, ensuring that all glory for salvation belongs to Him alone. This assurance of grace fosters humility among believers, as they recognize their complete reliance on God's mercy.

Q: Why is the proclamation of God's Word crucial in preaching?

God's Word is essential in preaching because it is the only means by which God transforms hearts and brings about salvation. The proclamation of God's Word is central to true preaching, as it alone possesses the power to penetrate the hearts of listeners and convey the truth of salvation. Isaiah 55:11 states, 'So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.' This verse affirms that God's Word is effective and transformative, effectively revealing sin and pointing to Christ as the sole source of hope. The focus of preaching, therefore, should not be on persuasive techniques or personal stories but on the faithful exposition of Scripture. When preachers faithfully declare the truths of God’s Word, they are inviting the Holy Spirit to work in the hearts of their hearers, resulting in the regeneration of believers and the bold declaration of Christ.

Thou art, then sings my soul,
my Savior God to Thee. How great Thou art, how great
Thou art. Then sings my told, my Savior
God, to thee How great thou art How great thou art I always think of Brother Joe
Parks when we sing that song. Chose that quite a bit. OK, go back to Matthew three
with me, and once again, I merely want to do a running commentary
of these verses. Just comment on these verses
briefly, that's all I ever really want to do. Is. Repeat what God has already said. And the best and really only
commentary on God's Word is God's Word, not my opinion, not man's
opinion. So we'll look at several verses
of Scripture, but let's read verses 1 through 3. In those
days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is he
that was spoken or prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in chapter
forty, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John was a true God-sent preacher. Christ said that. Say that a
forerunner. The one who went before the Lord
Jesus Christ whose mission. Whose ministry it says here.
Was to clear all obstacles that prophecy said prepare ye the
way of the Lord make his pads straight. That is his ministry
is preaching was to clear all obstacles out of the way that
get in the way of. Christ and point men and women
to the Christ. That was his purpose because
Christ is salvation. He and he alone is salvation. Nothing plays any part in salvation
but Christ. He's salvation. need to get to
him. We need to look to him and see
him. And he must have the preeminence.
Anything that gets in the way, anything that is in front of
him, everything and everyone that is set up as having anything
to do with salvation is stealing some of Christ's glory. and must
be taken out of the way. That's what this meant. That's
the purpose of the true preacher. That was the purpose of John.
It's the same purpose of the true preacher today. Is to set
forth and declare and point men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ,
not to himself, not to the denomination, not to anything, not to baptism,
not but Christ himself. And the message of every true
preacher is still the same. Notice what John came preaching.
He was a preacher. Scripture says, God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. First
Corinthians one twenty. It doesn't mean that preaching
is foolishness. No, unto those which scripture
says are saved, this preaching is the is the power of God and
the wisdom of God, preaching of Christ. But it's what the
world calls foolishness. That passage says the world,
by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. The world esteems what I'm doing
right now as old-fashioned and needless. It's for the ignorant,
the uneducated, and so forth. That's not what God says about
it. This is what God uses, not the preacher and not his preaching,
per se, but it's the message, the preaching of the message. All right. What is the message?
It hasn't changed. Look at verse two. It says, John
came preaching, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. Now isn't that an old-fashioned message? Do you ever hear that
anymore? Do you ever even hear the word?
Now, it's out of vogue, it's out of fashion, is it not? Well,
this is the message. It still is the message. Repent
ye. No prophet, listen to me very carefully, and please search
the scriptures and see if what I'm saying is so. No prophet
or apostle or any God-called preacher ever went around telling
everyone that God loves them and Jesus died for them. Never, not once, will you find
in God's Word any prophet or any apostle standing up to preach
and telling everyone God loves you and Jesus died for you. I
want you to accept him as your personal savior. That's not in
the Bible. Never. If we had time, we'd look
at Jeremiah 23, verse 17, which the false prophets said that. The false prophets went around
telling everyone, peace, peace, when there was no peace. God
wasn't at peace with them. The false prophets went around
telling people that hated the God of the Bible. that didn't
worship him. They went around telling everyone
nothing, no evil shall befall you. In other words, God has
a wonderful plan for your life. That's what the false prophets
said. Look it up. Jeremiah 23, 17. You see, listen
to me. The scripture says love cast
out fear. Perfect love cast out fear. What's
the beginning of wisdom? What is it that men and women
must have? The first thing in salvation? What's the scripture say? The
fear of the Lord. And love casts out fears. You
go around telling everyone God loves you, wondering what they
got to worry about. That wasn't the message of the
prophets or the apostles or any true preacher, and it's still
not the message of any true preacher. What is it? Repent. As old-fashioned
as it sounds, as unpopular as it is, it's still the message. Repent. Flee from the wrath to
come. Look down at verse 7. He said
to the Pharisees and Sadducees, those were the religious leaders.
He said who have warned you to flee from the wrath to come what
wrath. What wrath. What to listen to
preachers today what wrath you're talking about God loves it when
you're talking about wrath Romans 1 verse 18 says that the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. How the whole book of Romans
starts at John 3 which most people only know one verse in there
verse 16. Don't know verse eighteen don't know verse thirty six verse
eighteen says that he that believeth not is condemned already not
accepted not but condemned in verse thirty six says he that
believeth not the son the wrath of God abided on him not the
love of God the wrath of God. So the message still is the same
repent. What does repent mean? What does
repent mean? It means much more than most
know or think. Basically, it means to be sorry
for sin, to have sorrow, personal, heartfelt. Heartfelt. Sorrow over sin and a heartfelt. Repent has something to do with
change, doesn't it? It means change, turn from, that
is to be turned completely away from something, repent. And repent
means to have a heartfelt desire to be changed from what you are. Now listen, an old wise preacher
years ago said this about repentance, and I don't know who it was, but
it's not important who said it, but it's good. Repentance is
three things, basically. Number one, repentance is repenting
of your sin. Not sins, but sin. That is, what we do as sins are
because of what we are. Sins are the product of, the
result of what we are. The scripture says, there is
none that doeth good, no, not one. There is none righteous,
no, not one. This is the nature that we have.
This is what makes us do what we do. What makes us lash out at somebody?
Because we're full of sin. It's our nature. We're not good
people by nature. What makes us If we had a gun
in our hand, you know, somebody pull out in front of us in the
car, we're going to just blow them away. That's not you. Anybody guilty? What makes us do these things?
Those are sins. It's this nature that we are
stuck with, which Paul talked about in Romans 7. He said, Oh,
wretched man that I am. What a sinful man I am. Paul
said the things I want to do, that's not what I do. And the
things that I don't want to do, that's what I do. What makes
me do this? The old wretched man that I am.
It's just sinful nature that I inherited from my father Adam.
And we've got to repent of that and come before God. It's repentance
toward God. It's not to a man. It's not to
a priest or a soul winner or to one another. His repentance
toward God. We repent toward God. Why? Because
it's against him and him only that we sin. That's what David
wrote in Isaiah 51. He said, God, you're going to
be clear when you judge me and just when you judge me and clear
when you speak. Because against you and you only
have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. It's against God. It's goodness. Kindness and mercy is great.
And this preacher said, you haven't repented. We haven't repented
unless we repent, or that is, feel sorry and confess our sins,
what we have done. So we're sorry for what we are. Lord, forgive me. I'm a sinful
man. That's what Peter said. Lord,
depart from me. I'm a sinful man. And we repent
and feel sorry for what we've done. Sorry for what we've done, sorry
for what we are. Sorry for what we've done. This is what it says in verse
six, it says these people came baptized of John confessing their
sins. Confessing their sins, sorry
for what we've done. All the consequences of our evil
actions, huh? It's awful. Wouldn't you like
to erase? Well, and this old wise preacher
said, you haven't repented unless you've repented over your self-righteousness. Sin, what we are, our nature
that makes us do what we do, what we've done, and our self-righteousness. And everybody does this. They
think they can atone for what they've done and what they are
by turning over a new leaf or by doing that, by quitting that
and quitting this and so forth and joining the church and this
and that and the other and so forth. There's only one way that
God Almighty puts away the sin. One way. Not by us doing penance. Not by us turning over a new
leaf. Not by us restoring things a thousand fold. It's by Jesus
Christ dying and shedding his blood for the remission of those
sins. And by Jesus Christ imputing,
charging to us his righteousness. Because there's none right. We
can't. We can't. We're going to be sinners till
the day we die. God is holy. We're sinners. And only one way
that God, who's holy, can look on a sinner is if he's wrapped
in this wedding garment. You ever read about that? A wedding
garment? That's a robe of Christ, the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is holy now. So that's good
what that man... You remember that. Now this was
spoken primarily to religious people. You know that? Most Jews were religious. They
were born Jews and they took pride in the fact that they were
born Jews. And they thought that they were
God's people because they were born Jews. And quite a few of
them were scribes and Pharisees and so forth. The scripture says that which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. And the Lord's harshest words.
Or for those religious leaders of this day, and it was the religious
people that killed Jesus Christ as religious people. It was an
argument not long ago between Hollywood and the public and
so forth about who killed Jesus Christ. They were afraid of anti
Semitism that worked. Backlash against the Jews. Well,
yeah, the Jews killed him. And so did Herod and Pontius
Pilate and all the people and everybody. The whole world killed
him. If we'd have been there, we'd have killed him, too. But
primarily, it was religious people that killed him. Pharisees, scribes, religious
leaders, chief priests, and so forth. They were at the forefront,
weren't they? They killed him. Why is that? Because Christ said,
I have come and I expose sin. The Holy One of God, the Holy
One, the only one. There's only been one holy man
who ever lived. There never has been another
one since. And his name was Jesus Christ. And he walked this planet
and exposed his holiness, exposed the sin of all man, mankind. And these self-proclaimed holy
people, with all their religious piety and their robes and all
of this, they despised him. And that's because they thought
all their religion and all that was meriting them, gaining them
favor with God. All that they were doing for
God was gaining them favor with God. When God said from the beginning,
this is the reason God slew a lamb when the first sinner was sent,
slew a lamb, an innocent lamb, and covered these sinners, to
tell them there's but one way that I'll forgive sin. It's by
the blood of the lamb. No other way. You need one thing. John, remember I said John preached
to clear away the obstacles. There's only a couple of things
needed to worship God. You don't need statues, crosses.
You don't need all this stuff, robes and all this stuff. You
don't need all that stuff. You need a Bible and a preacher
and somebody here. That's how it all started, back
with Ezra the scribe, who stood up behind a pulpit of wood with
God's word, declaring what God said. And that's what God used. And it's the same today, hasn't
changed a bit. And the message is, repent. Anything, all this trapping of
religion, gets in the way of beholding the Lord Jesus Christ.
It gets in the way. People will begin to trust things.
and not Christ. People will begin to trust the
man or the baptism or whatever and not Christ. Anything that
gives man the glory, anything that gives man the glory is an
abomination to God Almighty. And these things, Christ said,
they do it in God's name. And that's what makes it even
more monumental, in God's name, and yet man is getting the glory. So, the preacher says, repent. Why? Because the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. What does that mean? The kingdom
of heaven is at hand. What does that mean? The king who has dominion is
at hand. It's before God. The Scripture
says, Thou God seest me. It says, The eyes of God, his
eyelids behold, his eyes try the sons of men. God is at hand. The King who
has all dominion. Here's what Daniel said, The
God in whose hands thy breath is and all thy ways, thou hast
not glorified. The King who has dominion. is
at hand. He's not a God of far off. He's
that stupid song that was sung not long ago, from a distance.
God is watching. No, sir. In him we live and move
and have our being. The scripture in his hands, everything's
in his hands to dispose of as he would. The thoughts and intents
of the heart, everything, not from a distance. It's at hand. at hand and soon to return. That's what that means too, soon
to return. He who has all dominion over
all flesh in heaven and earth is soon to return. The King is
soon to return. And so he says in verse 7, flee
from the wrath to come. Flee from. Scripture says this
quite often. Flee from. Flee from. Flee from. Paul said idolatry. Flee from it. Get away from it.
Get as far away from it as you can. Idolatry. Religious idolatry. All the stuff in all the modern
religion. Flee from it. God despises it. Flee from this
world. Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, remember?
He's leaving the city of destruction in Pilgrim's Palace. He's leaving
the city of destruction. This is a sinking ship. Don't
be polishing the grass. Flee from it, regardless of what
everyone's saying to you. Flee from it, from the wrath
to come. Flee from the wrath to come.
When you flee from something, you've got to have someplace
to go. When you flee from, when you're running from something,
you've got to have somewhere to go, don't you? What does the
Scripture say? You flee too. to the refuge. There's only one
refuge, Jesus Christ. Flee from the wrath, come to
Jesus Christ, the sinner's refuge, the city of refuge. I'd like
to have another hour to speak on the cities of refuge. Who
is the Lord Jesus Christ? The sinner's only refuge. God
is angry with the wicked every day, Scripture says. God hateth
all workers of iniquity. God's not in love with His planet.
He's going to burn it up. And this is the message of the
truth play. Christ. In Christ God is not
angry the love of God is in Christ Romans eight thirty nine is in
Jesus Christ outside of Christ God is a consuming fire Hebrews
ten twenty nine. In Christ God is pacified God
like the ark. Like Noah in the ark, the people
that were on the ark, that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The love of God was in the ark. May I use this silly little analogy? These bumper stickers, smile,
God loves you, there wasn't one on the outside of the ark. People
were drowning at the hands of God's wrath. If there was one
on the ark, it was on the inside. It was for those who were in
the ark, safe from the overflowing scourge of God's wrath. Smile! God loves you. You're in Christ.
On the outside, no. God's angry. This is the message. Flee. This is the fear of the
Lord that's the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom to know who God
really is, wisdom to know what we really are, and wisdom to
know that there's one refuge. One way. One hope. And that's Jesus Christ. Flee from the wrath, come to
Christ, the sinner's refuge. In verse 8, look at this. He
said to these religious people, he said, bring forth therefore
fruits need for repentance. Fruits. Paul wrote in Galatians
5 of the fruit of the Spirit. Remember that? The fruit of the
Spirit. And fruit, that is what the Holy
Spirit produces. Fruit is produce. It's what the
Holy Spirit produces in all of God's people. All of God's people. They have
all of these things to a degree. It's like a little seed, OK? An apple seed. Let's take that
as an example. An apple seed. It has everything
in it to make it a full-grown apple, does it not? Everything's
in it, to a degree. But it has to grow and blossom
and grow into the measure of the stature of the fullness of
an apple. Well, every believer, every child of God is born from
above, born by what? Incorruptible seed, the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Born again, not something
you do, it's something God does to you. Like our ladies who have
these children, the father impregnates the mother and she travails in
birth until that child comes out. The child didn't have anything
to do with it. And neither do we, of our new
birth. It's of God. God the Father chooses us. God
the Father sends his Son, who is the Word, the seed. And Christ travailed on the cross
to give birth to his people. And the Holy Spirit is, as it
were, the attending physician who brings us forth from darkness
into light. And this seed, what I was talking
about, is the fruit of the Spirit, what God produces. This is all
of God. He gets the glory. Salvation
is all of the Lord. He gets all the glory for it,
from first to last. He's called the author, and what?
The finisher of the fact. And the fruit of the Spirit is
this, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. All of these fruits are the fruit
of the spirit. He tells these, now so John's
up here preaching and he tells these Pharisees who have an outward
form of religion, who look the part and our Lord said they do
what they do to be seen of men. That's what the Lord said. Pharisees
said, you beware of the scribes and the Pharisees. They're a
bunch of hypocrites. They do what they do to be seen
of men. Their whole religion is to be
seen. That's why they wear what they
wear. That's why they do what they do. Pray on the street corners
and do all that they do to be seen of men. He said, you beware
of it. Don't you be like them. He said, when you pray, get in
your closets. You're not praying to be seen. You're praying to
be heard. Who by? Not men. God. And don't do anything, he said,
let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Don't
do your alms to be seen of men. And so John's saying to these
Pharisees, bring forth fruits. Let me see your profession. Let me see. Because a tree is
known by its fruits, our Lord said later on. Love, joy, and
so forth. Goodness, meekness, temperance,
faith, long-suffering, fruits. Bring it, he said. Show me. Like
James said. You say you have faith without
works? Show me. Show me. Now he says that look at verse
nine he says don't say that we're Abraham say we have Abraham our
father I'm a Jew I was born a Jew I'm a Baptist I'll have you know
I was born a Catholic I was born a good Catholic my daddy was
a Catholic my mother was a Catholic my dad was a Baptist my mother
I'm a I'm a son of a Baptist preacher Paul over there in Philippians
said All of these things, he said, was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee, born of the tribe of Benjamin. He said, that's
nothing. That's nothing. It's nothing. John said, God can make a Jew
out of a rock. Make a Jew out of a rock. I told
you about that man. I used to work on the railroad
all the live long day. There's a man. who like to read
his Bible, so everybody read it there in plain view, so everybody
could see him. That's exactly what Pharisees like to do. I was a young believer at the
time, and anyway, just bold enough to confront him, I went in there
and he was reading, sitting there reading, and I thought, I'll
see what he's reading. And I said, I couldn't help it, I thought
about Philip and the eunuch. You know, Philip and the Ethiopian
eunuch, where the eunuch was reading the Bible, and Philip
went up to him and said, do you understand what you're reading?
And I wasn't trying to be smart, really, Ron, I wasn't. I was
hoping maybe this is a eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch. And I said,
do you understand what you're reading? He turned on me. He said, I'll
have you know, I'm a spirit filled, tongue talking, born again Christian. I said, well, I didn't know. Excuse me. But I did go on to
say, you didn't answer my question. Do you understand what you're
reading? This is what they do. I'll have
you know. Do you know who I am? And this
is what John said, repent. What do you mean who you are?
You're nothing. Paul the apostle, arguably the
greatest. God can make a Baptist out of
a rock. That's nothing. Repent. That's
self-righteousness. Repent of that, our high thoughts
of ourselves. The higher thoughts we have of
ourselves, the lower thoughts we have of God. The higher thoughts
we have of ourselves, the lower thoughts we have of Jesus Christ. Verse 10, he goes on. I've got
to go on. Now the axe is laid under the
root of the tree. The axe. What's the axe? The axe is laid to the root of
the tree. What's the axe? Well, I'm using it right now. Do you men have an axe? A double-bladed
axe? Anybody? I was just using one
the other day. It's the same, as the Scripture
says, as the sword and the hammer. You remember reading that? Jeremiah's book, is not my word
as a fire and a hammer. It's God's word. The axe, the
hammer, the sword, it's God's word, which breaketh the hard
heart. The only thing that will break
this hard, impenetrable heart of man is God's word. And this
is why that's all we do here. This is why that's all a true
preacher does, is use God's Word. Not our silly slogans, not all
of these business, these clever tactics to try to win people
and influence. No, sir, it's God's Word. If
you've ever felt God's Word, the power of it yourself, you'll
know. It's the only thing that breaks
the hard heart. It exposes the roots. God's Word will get to
the root of the matter. God's word he said my word is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God's word.
How often have you heard preaching and you thought. Well I'll tell
you an illustration. I've told it to you so many times
you've heard everything I've had to say. But this man, his
wife, you remember Champanoble Clark, Ronnie, Ronnie Q from
Ashland. A couple up there, Champ and Opal
Clark. Well, Opal, the wife, attended, and the Lord revealed
Himself to her long before He did her husband. And she loved
the gospel and would go home and tell her husband and so forth,
and he just wouldn't come with her. But finally, he did. Went with her one day to hear
the gospel. And you know, after that message,
he went home, and they were sitting in a car, and he was fuming mad.
He was just grinding his teeth. And she said, Honey, what's wrong?
He said, You've been talking to that preacher about me, haven't
you? He said, You've told him everything
about me. She said, I've never said a word
to him about you. We have never had a conversation
about this. See, this is the Word of God that's the discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. God saved that old
boy. Broke his proud heart. Revealed
himself to himself. That's how it starts. Get mad. I'm not that bad. Yes, you are. You're so bad you need God to
kill his son. That's how bad it is. The axe is laid to the root and
exposes the roots and brings down the proud. This scripture
says, Every tree which my heavenly Father hath not planted will
be rooted up. That's what Christ said. Everything
that's not rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ alone will be
pulled up by the roots and cast into the fire, Christ said. What's good fruit? He says, bring
forth good fruit. Good fruit is whatever gives
the one that planted it all the glory. The husbandman gets the glory,
not the fruit, not the tree. He doesn't get the glory. It's
the one that planted it. He gets the glory in everything.
Gives all the glory to God. And I've got to quit. Look at verse 11. He says, I
baptize you with water unto repentance. Just water. Just water. That's what this is. Just water.
It's baptism and the Lord's table. We're told to do that by the
Lord Jesus Christ. But there's nothing, absolutely
nothing in these things of any value or efficacy or anything. This bread and wine does not
turn into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. No, sir. It's
always bread and it's always wine. That's just water that
comes out of the ground of Franklin County. It won't go to waste
one cent. It won't do anything for one
person. Just water. You go in, you come out the same
way you went in. It's just water. That which is flesh is flesh.
This is what we're saying. This is what John's saying. It's
just water. It's just water. Verse 11, John
says, but he, John said about himself, though Christ said he
was the greatest man born of woman, John. When they asked
John about himself, he said, I'm just a voice. Oh, but he,
now he, he said, don't behold me. Here's a true preacher. Don't
look at me. No glory. Behold the Lamb. I love this thought. John had
two disciples. John had two church members,
if you will, two church members, and they came to John. John said,
Follow him. Those two church members left
John and followed Christ. And John said, Revival's here. He lost the only two he had,
and he was happy about it. Now, there's a true preacher.
They start following Christ, not him. Oh, man. He says, I'm just baptizing
with water, but he that comes after me, I'm not worthy, he
said, I'm not able to carry his shoes. You ever heard anybody
say that? We say that. Don't say that anymore,
OK? Don't say it anymore. I've been
good. We're all the same. We're all equal, equally bad. There's but one who's above us. And we're not able, we're not
worthy to tear his shoes. That's what John said. And he
will baptize you, it says, with the Holy Ghost and with fire. One of these two things Christ
himself will immerse you in. Christ doesn't. He doesn't. One
of these two things. This is not one and the same.
This is one of two things. The Holy Spirit is talked about
as the water. And I was going to have you turn
They don't have time. I'm out of time. Over in Isaiah
44 it says God's people will be the water of his spirit. He will pour out his spirit upon
them like water and refresh them. Refresh them. Renew them. This
is what Christ will do for some. But others with fire. It says
he's as a refiner's fire and who may abide the day of his
coming. And he's called here in verse 12, he says he has his
hand in his hand. That's a winnowing. You ever
seen somebody winnowing a threshing floor? That's what this is all
about. Back when they used to bring
in the harvest, big shots, you know, of wheat. And in the midst
of that wheat was chaff, husks, and there were also tares and
so forth, right? Weeds and all that. Like, you
men get up hay. They bring it into the threshing
floor. Look at this. Look at verse 12. It says, His
fan is in his hand. He will thoroughly purge his
floor, gather his wheat into the garner, but thee chaff. Did
you catch that with me? It's his floor. It's his fan. It's his wheat. It throws away
thee chaff. Christ said, All that the Father
giveth, make. God has a people whom he gathers,
and with them are those who seem to be, but are not. And he has his fan in his hand.
What is it? It's the same as the axe, and
the same as the sword, and the same as the hammer. It's God's
Word. It went us. Who's a believer and who's not?
It went us. It winnows the threshing floor,
His floor. Christ is the winnower. And it
says, He will gather His wheat into the gardener. You remember
when, after Christ preached in John chapter 6, and all in that
chapter He was talking about His offer of rain. He was talking
about man's inability. No man can come unto Me except
the Father which has sent Him. Nobody can except Christ. And on and on he went talking
about himself. I am. Moses didn't give you that
bread. I am the bread. I am this. I am that. I am everything. You
can't do nothing. And my Father gave me a people.
I came down to save them. I am everything. He said. And at the end of that chapter
it says, from that time forward many walked no more with him. He was waiting on them. He was
waiting on them. And He turned to His disciples.
He turned to His disciples and said, Will you also go away?
There's the door. Go on. No, they're His wheat. His wheat
whom He gathered into the garden. They're not going anywhere. He
said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Say, will you go away? What was their answer? Where
are we going to go? To whom shall we go? Why, no,
we believe everything you say. You're life. You're our life. You're our everything. You're
our salvation. We're not going anywhere. We're staying right
here. He gathers his wheat in his garden. And the chaff? Isaiah says, Jeremiah 23 says,
what's the chaff of wheat? Nothing. He's going to blow it
all away. Repent, and it's still the message.
When do we stop repenting? Not until we stop sinning. Not
until we die in His perfect image, made in His perfect likeness.
This is axe, fire, pan, chaff. It seems like a harsh message. Well, it's the truth. All right. Let's go to Gabe. Come and lead
us in a closing hymn, if you would, please. Hymn number 359, and let's stand. 359. My faith looks up to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Now hear me when I pray, Take
all my sin away, O let me from this day be holy done. When in life's transit dream,
When death's cold, sullen stream, Shall for me roam, Let Saviour
then in love, Fear and distrust remove. Oh, bear me safe above
the ransomed soul.

The Axe And The Fan

What does the Bible say about repentance?

How do we know that Christ is the only way to salvation?

Why is the message of repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Why is the proclamation of God's Word crucial in preaching?

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The Axe And The Fan

What does the Bible say about repentance?

How do we know that Christ is the only way to salvation?

Why is the message of repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean that salvation is all of grace?

Why is the proclamation of God's Word crucial in preaching?

Sermon Transcript

About Paul Mahan

Comments

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