And the Lord's testimony regarding
John the Baptist was among them that are born of women. There
is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. That's quite
a commendation, isn't it? Now, like many of you, I grew
up in the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky,
and I heard hundreds of preachers. Hundreds, I remember the Bible
conference they had up into the mid 80s, he would have 1820 preachers
during one Bible conference. I mean, three at once. Sometimes
you'll try that sometime. But a lot of preachers and there
are many preachers that I heard that I thought this man is special. The Lord's hands on him. This
is a true prophet. This is a true preacher. Somebody
that God has blessed. And with regard to many of those
men, a lot of them aren't even in the
ministry anymore. They don't even preach anymore.
Or they've gone off in a bad direction. Now, I felt sure this
man is somebody that's special. And I was dead wrong. How many
times have I found that to be the case? I've got preachers
coming into my mind right now that I was so impressed with.
And some of them have run off with secretaries and all that
kind of stuff. I mean, just horrible things. Well, here we have the Lord's
recommendation of a man. I might recommend a man. won't
mean a thing. As a matter of fact, it might
be bad. But here we have he who cannot err, giving his appraisal
of a man. And he says regarding this man,
John the Baptist, them that are born of women, there has not
risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Now, that makes
me want to hear what this man had to say, don't you? What was
John's message. That's what I've entitled this
message. What was John's message? Now, would you turn back to Luke
chapter three? Verse 15. And as the people were in expectation,
they were in suspense and all men mused in their hearts of
John. Whether he were the Christ or not, they were hearing a message
that they'd never heard before, and they were watching a man
conduct himself in a way that they had never experienced. And
they thought, could this be the Christ? Could this be the promised
Messiah? They'd never heard anybody like
this. They'd never seen anybody like this. Well, John says, let
me put that to rest. Verse 16, John answered. Saying unto them, these people
that were musing whether or not he was the Christ, he said, I
indeed baptize you with water. He was called John the Baptist.
But one mightier than I cometh, the lachet of whose shoes I am
not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, I indeed baptize you with
water, but the Lord Jesus has a greater
baptism, a more important baptism than the baptism of water. Now, this is not to take away
from the importance of water baptism. Water baptism is very
important. What does baptism mean? Well,
it means immersion. Submergence. And emergence. You immerse down in the water.
You're completely submerged and you emerge back out of the water. This is the believers public
confession of Christ, this thing of baptism. Let me show you that
in Mark, chapter one. John said, I indeed baptize you
with water. Verse five, and there went out
unto him all the land of Judea and day of Jerusalem and were
all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, I've said this before, that
doesn't mean before they were baptized, they confessed their
sins. They started telling everybody
what they did and had a big confessional and let everybody know what they
were doing. They were baptized. Man, I would want to be in on
that, would you? I mean, that just would be a horrible thing,
and I know some people do it. You need to confess your sins
before you're baptized. You need to come clean. You need to let
everybody know what you do. You're just pouring your filth
into the filth of somebody else, and that's just wrong. That's
all it is. The act of baptism was the act
of confession. When I'm baptized, here's what
I confess. I'm so sinful in and of myself,
I'm so sinful that the only way that I can be saved is if I was
in Christ. And when he lived, I lived in
him. And when he died, I died in him and my sins were paid
for. And when he was raised, I was raised in him. This is
all my salvation. And that's what we confess in
believers baptism. We confess that he is our salvation. Look in Romans chapter six. I
would never want to take away from the importance of water
baptism. Verse three. No, you not that
so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
into his death. When He died, we died. We were
in Him. We were immersed in Him. When
He died, we died. Therefore, we are 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. Now, when I'm baptized by water,
baptism by mercy, that's the only baptism the Bible recognizes. There's no such thing as sprinkling.
That's not baptism. Baptism, by definition, means
immersion. When I'm baptized, I confess
before everybody that my salvation is utterly and completely in
Christ living for me, Christ dying for me, Christ being raised
for me. That is all my salvation. That's 100 percent of it. And
that's what you confess when you confess Christ in believer's
baptism. And here's the importance of
believers baptism. If I see two people living together
without being married, there is a failure to commit. They say they love one another,
they may love one another in some sense, but there is a failure
to commit to one another. When you commit in marriage,
you're committed for life. That's a commitment on your part. That's why you're doing it. You're
saying, I'm going to be with you for ever. I'm not going to
let anything prevent that from happening. That's what happens
in marriage. There's a true commitment to one another. Now, when I see
someone who professes to believe, I believe the gospel, but they
do not or are not baptized, they don't confess Christ in believer's
baptism, what this is, it's a failure to commit. It's that simple. It's a failure to commit. If you really believe, you commit
yourself to Him, and baptism is very much like the marriage
ceremony, in that sense, very much. So I would not in any way
take away from the importance of water baptism. If you haven't
been baptized, you're walking in disobedience to the Lord Jesus
Christ and you're called upon to confess him in believers baptism. Now, we see water baptism is
important, but look what John said or John says in Luke chapter
three. He says, I indeed baptize you
with water. Verse 16, I indeed baptize you
with water, but one mightier than I cometh. Now. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He speaks of him who is mightier than I. He's almighty. He's omnipotent. And notice when
he speaks of him, he says, the latching of his shoes, I am not
worthy to unloose. You see, you can't know him without
having a genuine sense of personal unworthiness. Now, when people
have a high opinion of themselves and their own righteousness,
Here is why. They've never really seen him. If you ever see who he really
is, you cannot help but see yourself as you really are. Sinful. Sinful. I think of Peter, when
he found out who the Lord really was there in Luke chapter five,
he said, Depart from me, Lord. You don't want to have anything
to do with somebody like me. Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful
man. When Isaiah saw him, he said,
I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Everything
that comes out of my mouth is unclean. I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Daniel, you want to talk about
an exemplary man, Daniel. I love reading the book of Daniel,
the heroics of Daniel, and listen to Daniel's testimony. He said,
when I saw him, my comeliness turned to corruption. You know what Paul said about himself? He said, I'm the chief of sinners.
Paul, the Apostle, my hero, as far as men go, he said, I'm the
worst man to ever live. Now, how could Paul say something
like that? Because you look at Paul's life and you look at my
life. I think Paul would come out on top, don't you? Yet Paul
had such a clear perception of the Lord Jesus Christ, it made
him say with regard to himself, I am the very chief of sinners. And anybody who sees Him in His
glory, in His holiness, who He is, they're going to say the
same thing about themselves. Now, when John is preaching,
when he talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, I'm not
even worthy to untie His shoes, to untie His sandals. I'm not
worthy. Now, that is his attitude. He
says, One mightier than I cometh, the latched of whose shoes I'm
not worthy to loose. Now, he gives four things that
the Lord Jesus Christ will do, this one who's almighty, this
one who is utterly worthy. He says, first of all, number
one, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And with fire. Now, this is a baptism that's
more important than water baptism. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Verse 17, whose fan is in his
hand. And he will throughly purge his
floor. That's the second thing he'll
do. He'll throughly purge his floor. And here's the third thing.
He will gather the wheat into his garner. And here's the fourth
thing. But the chaff he shall burn with
fire unquenchable. Now there is the message of John
the Baptist. He'll baptize you with the Holy
Ghost and with fire. He'll thoroughly purge his floor. He'll gather the wheat into his
garner, but the chaff he'll burn with fire unquenchable. He will baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Now, we've been talking about
baptism. Baptism by immersion. Did you know that you can have
a right understanding of water baptism and you can know the
right mode and have the right doctrine regarding water baptism
and still miss Christ altogether and perish with all the other
Pharisees? That's a sobering thought, isn't it? You can be
baptized and lost, but you cannot have this baptism being baptized
with the Holy Ghost and with fire and not be saved. Now, what is he referring to
when he's referring to this baptism of the Holy Spirit? He shall,
the Lord Jesus Christ, shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire. Now, some believe that this refers
only to what happened on the day of Pentecost, which you turn
to Acts chapter one for a moment. This is when our Lord is getting
ready to ascend back into glory. Verse four, and being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the father. Which,
saith he, you have heard of me, for John truly baptized with
water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many
days hence. And here is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. Look in chapter two, verse one. And when the
day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place. What's a good place to be in
it? With one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them
clove and tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them.
This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. And they were
filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues
as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, here we have the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. And we have this great message
that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, where 3000 people
were brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through
that message. But this didn't only take place
at Pentecost, turn to Acts chapter 11. Verse 15. Now, Peter is relating to The
disciples, what took place in Acts chapter 10, when he was
preaching the gospel to those Gentiles. 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, what was I that I could withstand God? When they
heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God,
saying then, hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life? You see, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit took place when they heard the gospel. And you know what
they did when they heard the gospel? Two things, it said in
this passage of scripture. They believed. And they repented. They were granted repentance
unto life. They had a change of mind regarding
what they used to believe. They said, I don't believe that
anymore. I don't believe in salvation by works in any way, in any degree. I believe salvation by grace.
They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that is the evidence
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Look in Galatians chapter 3 for
a moment. If you repent, if you're granted
repentance, if you have a change of mind regarding how God saves
sinners, you don't believe it works anymore. You believe it's
grace. If you actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your
salvation before God, you have had the baptism of fire, the
baptism of God, the Holy Spirit. And look what Paul says here
in Galatians chapter 3. Verse 1, O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Before
whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified
among you, this only would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit?
By the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you
so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are ye now made perfect
by the flesh? Have ye suffered so many things
in vain, if it be yet in vain? He therefore that ministereth
to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, and this
is a reference to miracles of salvation, doeth he it by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Look in verse 13 of
the same chapter, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of
the law being made a curse for us, for it's written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. This is the baptism of
God, the Holy Spirit. Now, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit does not only refer to Pentecost. or the new birth,
but it refers to all of the saving operations of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, if you have any love to
Christ, where did that come from? Came from God, the Holy Spirit.
Do you have faith? Where did you get that faith?
God, the Holy Spirit placed it within you. Did you have a new
nature? You were born, you were birthed
of the spirit of God, you were immersed into the spirit. Now,
water baptism is good, but you can be saved without
water baptism. The thief on the cross was. He was never baptized in water,
and he was saved. Now somebody thinks, well, maybe
I don't need to be baptized in water. You better have just as
good an excuse as the thief on the cross did. I mean, I think
he had a pretty good excuse, don't you? Every believer is
called upon to confess Christ and believe his baptism, but
baptism doesn't save you. You can have the proper baptism
and be lost as a goose. But if you have this baptism,
the baptism of God, the Holy Spirit, the new birth, the new
nature that's evidenced by these two things, faith and repentance,
you've had the baptism God, the Holy Spirit, except a man be
born again, birth of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven. Now, let's go back to Luke chapter
three. So he came preaching of him who baptizes in the Holy
Spirit. And look what he says next. Verse
17. Whose fan is in his hand, speaking
of the Lord Jesus, And he will truly purge his floor. Now, this is speaking of the
threshing floor, and it's. An analogy, obviously. The threshing
floor is where the wheat is separated from the chaff. The chaff is
the stock of the grain. It's no good. There's no it can't
do any good if you eat it. You get no nourishment from it.
It's just chaff. It's the grain that does you
good. Now, he shall thoroughly separate
the grain from the chaff. And here's what he does. I love
this. It says he shall throughly purge his floor. Now, here's what the Lord Jesus
Christ does. He purges us. He purges us. What does it mean to throughly
purge or to purge? It means to purify. It means
to make clean. It means to make pure. This one
who is almighty will throughly purge his floor. Now, I want
to ask you a question. Do you need purged? Are you dirty? Are you unclean? Are you sinful? Are you completely
unable to clean yourself. And you know that if He doesn't
purge you, you're going to remain filthy. You're completely dependent
upon Him to purge you. Well, with regard to everybody
who that describes, listen to the Scripture. Hebrews 1.3 says,
He by Himself. He by Himself purged. cleansed, put away our sins. Now, I've got two questions with
regard to that verse of Scripture. He by himself purged our sins.
Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. Here's two questions I have.
Number one, whose sins were purged? Because I want to know if I'm
one of them. And number two, how? How did he purge our sins? How does the blood of Christ
actually wash away our sins to where they're no more? Well,
whose sins did he purge? Everybody who's purged. Everybody
that was cleansed. Everybody that he died for. Everyone
who believes. Everyone who needs purged. He purged their sins. And what did he do? He purged
them. Would you turn with me for a
moment to Hebrews chapter nine? Now, if you are a sinner who
needs purged, he did this for you. Yeah, I love being able
to say that. If you're a sinner who needs
to be purged, he did this for you, I guarantee you, he died
for the ungodly, the scripture says, when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, that
would describe you. He purged you. I look here in
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 22. How are sins purged? Verse 22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood. And without the shedding of blood
is no remission, but by the shedding of blood, there is remission. And there's no remission without
the shedding of blood. If the Lord Jesus Christ didn't shed
his precious blood, you're going to remain in your sins. There's
nothing you can do to make yourself clean. But when he died on Calvary's
tree and shed his precious blood, let me remind you, why did he
die? There's one reason for death,
isn't there? What's that one reason? Sin. That's the only reason for death. The sins of God's elect were
placed upon him so that he actually became guilty of those sins he
bore. I don't even know if this is a
proper analogy, but you think of the last sin you committed
It made you feel so ashamed. It made you feel so evil. It
made you feel so dirty. It made you feel so vile. You
thought, how could God have anything to do with me? You're even afraid
to come into His presence. Now, that's wrong. Because you
ought to come straight. That's when you need to come.
Right there. Right there. But you think of
the way you felt. He felt that much more acutely
than you ever felt it. His shame and guilt and humiliation
before God. Our sins became his sins. He became guilty of them. That's
why he didn't open his mouth. He didn't try to defend himself.
Now, I know this. If I didn't do something, I'm
going to defend myself. I'm not going to plead guilty
if I didn't do it. He didn't defend himself because
he's guilty. He opened not his mouth. My sin
became his sin. And when he bowed his head and
died suffering the wrath of God, all my sin was purged and put
away." Now, that's how sin is purged. He shall throughly purge
his floor. He'll put away all sin. And that's what he did. That
means my sin is no more. It means I don't have any sin.
And I'm acutely aware of my sin. But I don't have any sin. It's
been purged. That's what he came to do. He
came to purge. And that's what he did. If he
came to purge your sins, you know what that means? That means
your sins are purged. They're cleansed. They're put
away. You have no See, isn't that wonderful? Oh, the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no gospel like this gospel.
I turn back to Luke chapter 30. Here's the third thing he did. He will throughly purge his floor,
verse 17, and will gather the wheat into his garner. And this is what happens in the
preaching of the gospel, the wheat. is gathered into the garner,
the barn. These people whom he thoroughly
purged, he gathers them into his garner, the church, and being
gathered in, they're secure. They're safe. They're safe. Now,
when I'm talking about the church, I'm not talking about this local
assembly. Now, I love this local assembly.
No doubt about it. But this local assembly, has
wheat and it has tares. Every local assembly. You can
be a part of this assembly, and that doesn't mean you're joined
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking about the Church
of God's elect. I'm talking about the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.
That's where this church role is. Their names are written in
heaven. Human church roles for they don't
they don't mean anything, do they? Matter of fact, they're
not in the Bible. Here's the one church role that counts.
Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? Now, if I'm in
this church, I'm safe. I've been gathered
into the garner and I'm secure and I'm saved. There's no way
I can be anything but saved because I'm completely saved. That's
what that's right. He'll gather the wheat into the
garment. Now, once again, I'm not talking
about or implying that being in a local church is not important
because it is. Sheep need to be in flocks, don't
they? And they need to have a pastor.
They need to have a shepherd. Nobody makes a good pastor to
themselves. Sheep need to be in flocks. Fellow sheep having
fellowship. I like that. Fellow sheep Having
fellowship around the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But. Being in the garner is consciously
abiding in him. That's that's my security, that's
my salvation, being in his garner, the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And here's the last thing John said in verse 17. But the chaps. That's the stock. There's no
nutrient in it. There's no life in it. But the
chaff he will burn. With fire unquenchable, and this
is a reference to hell. Now, of all the things that I
probably would rather not talk about. Hell is what I have the
most difficulty talking about. It's hard to talk about it. I
remember one time I read regarding Robert Murray McShane had asked,
I think it was Andrew Bonar. They were both Scottish preachers.
And he said, what did you preach on yesterday? And Bonar replied,
I preached on hell. And McShane said, did you do
it with a tear in your eye? And that's the way it should
be. What a horrible thing to think about. Hell. But everybody knows innately. That God. Is going to reward
the righteous. And punish the wicked. The righteous
will be in heaven. The wicked will be in hell. Now there's something in your
conscious. Conscience that says that so. That's so. Deep down on a grassroots level,
you know, that's so I don't have to talk into it. You know, that's
so God will reward the righteous and put them in heaven. And God
will punish the wicked and put them in the hell. Now, we've
already seen who the righteous are in this part about purging.
You see, if Christ purged your sins, you know what that means?
That means you're righteous. That means you have no sin. That
means you stand perfect before God, you have the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're going to be rewarded heaven. But the chaff, the wicked will
be burned with unquenchable fire. Now, what this is a reference
to unquenchable is the fact that hell is eternal. There's no annihilation. It lasts
forever. And even now, I almost, oh, how
can it last forever? And when I think of something
like that, and when I think a thought like that, it demonstrates to
me how little I see of the evil of sin. Because if I saw sin
as it is, I would know exactly why hell is eternal. There's
no way you can satisfy God's justice. With God, the punishment
always fits the crime, and that's why hell is eternal. Now, I've
heard people say, how can a loving God send somebody to hell? A loving God doesn't. But a just God does. And you
know that so. The justice of God is what fuels
the fires of hell, and the punishment is everlasting. There is no annihilation. Now, your conscience tells you
this is so. The Bible teaches it. Old Testament
and New Testament. And nobody spoke of it more than
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I think it's interesting
in the writings of Paul, not one time does he use the word
hell. I think perhaps he thought the word was so terrible he just
couldn't bring himself to use it. He talked about destruction
and everlasting destruction. But who is the one who spoke
most of hell? The Lord Jesus Christ. himself. It's called outer darkness. It's
called the flame. It's called hellfire. It's called
eternal vengeance. It's called the bottomless pit.
It's called the lake of fire. It's called the second death.
It's called everlasting destruction. The Lord described it as a place
where the worm does not die. And the fire is not quenched. Hell is not a place of reform. It's a place of absolute punitive
justice where God punishes the wicked. It's the pain of loss. Oh, what I've lost through my
unbelief. What I've lost through my sin. What I've lost through my willful
rejection of the gospel. What I've lost in not living
up to the light God gave me. Oh, what I've lost. It's the
pain of loss and it's the pain of sins. The rich man said, my
soul is tormented in this flame. It's unquenchable. And it's eternal. Is that speaking of literal fire?
Perhaps, I don't know. I don't know. But here's the
most amazing thing about hell. When we think of hell, the horror
of hell, the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree bore all that
hell is. And he did something that you
and I could never do. He actually satisfied the justice
of God. And God said, after putting hell
on His Son as the sinner's substitute, He said, I am satisfied. And everybody that Christ died
for, everybody who looks to Christ, God says, I am satisfied with
them. I can't ask for anything else. They're perfect. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now, it's a horrible thing to
think of hell, isn't it? It's a horrible thing. I just
it makes my blood curl. But remember this, and I'm saying
this to everybody here, you've heard the gospel. And if you
go to hell, it'll be because you refused to bow the knee to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you preferred your own filthy
righteousness to His perfect righteousness. Now, if you go
to hell, it's all your fault. 100%. But if you go to heaven,
It's all his fault, isn't it? 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 above
this all, that he shut up John in prison. And John was later
beheaded. This man, this faithful servant
of God, the greatest prophet, of them that are born of women.
And now we have some idea of what his message really was.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire, the purging, the putting
away of sin, gathering his weight into the garner, the security
of the church, and burning the chaff with fire unquenchable. Let's pray together.