Are You The Chaff Or The Wheat?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scripture segment, we are in the gospel of Matthew, we are in Matthew Chapter 3, and we’ve going to pick up with Verse 12. And here we have John the Baptist speaking, he’s referring to Jesus, and he begins: “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Now Dave, unquenchable fire, chaff, he’s not talking about the redeemed here, but those who have rejected salvation that only he can provide, or has provided.

Dave:

Yeah. It’s pretty clear that the fire in Verse 11, is not the same as the fire in Verse 12. Because, Verse 11 he says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire…” Well, if you’re baptized with the Holy Ghost, you must be a believer, you must be redeemed. But they are going to be baptized with fire also? Well, their works certainly will. And there will be some purging, and at the judgment seat of Christ some will suffer loss. They will not lose their salvation, as Paul says…but 1 Corinthians Chapter 3, every man’s works will be tried by fire. I think that’s what it’s talking about there. But now the chaff will be burned up with unquenchable fire, that’s someone else, this is not the redeemed. This is not those who are baptized in fire, but these are those who never were saved, and they are heading for judgment. So this would be the fire, the lake of fire. But we have to be careful that we don’t confuse the subject of these two verses one with the other.

Tom:

Verse 13, “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Dave, this has always been a puzzlement to me why Jesus would be…why he would even be baptized. John’s baptism was the baptism of repentance, and certainly there was nothing for Jesus to repent of.

Dave:

Yeah well, let’s take a look at that. Jesus comes to John, to Jordan, to be baptized of him. One question you could ask is, How does he know that this One is sinless, because that’s basically what he is saying. Well I’m calling people to repent of their sin, but you don’t have any sin to repent of, I ought to be baptized by you. Well, they were cousins, they were related, and we don’t know how much time they may have spent together as boys, who knows? But surely, John the Baptist knew who Jesus was, and I think he knew in his heart that that was the one to whom he referred when he said, There is One standing among you whom you know not, but He is greater than I, and so forth. So, why then would Jesus—as John the Baptist says, Wait a minute, I don’t want to baptize you, you ought to baptize me…then why would Jesus come to do this? Well he tells you in Verse 15: “Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer [that’s old English], allow it to be so now: [This is not an eternal matter] for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Well, the Jews were told to repent of their sin and be baptized, and Jesus, he is representing the whole human race. He has come—why would He be on a cross? He didn’t deserve to be up there—because he’s taking our place. So, not only on the cross, but in the baptism…here He comes to be baptized. Well, He has nothing to repent of, He had no reason why He should have been on the cross, but He took our place.

Tom:

As the Son of man.

Dave:

Right. So, as the representative of the human race, He’s being baptized by John the Baptist. But it wasn’t anything the He needed, of course, because He was sinless. In fact, He could say, Which of you convinceth me of sin? They knew He was sinless. But there are some things in the Bible that…a little bit difficult. Well why, why is He being baptized? Well, He is representing the human race. He represents the human race, not just on the cross, hanging there for sin, but in other ways as well.

Tom:

Verse 16: “And Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Dave:

Well Tom, as you know, when we get to John’s gospel Chapter 1, John the Baptist says, I knew him not. In other words, I didn’t know He was the Messiah when he said, There is one standing among you.

Tom:

This is John the Baptist.

Dave:

Right, John the Baptist. I don’t think he knew at that time. I think he must have had some inkling of this, but he hadn’t yet seen the sign that would fulfill it. So, when he comes out—and then John the Baptist says, But He who sent me to baptize with water, and the same said unto me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him like a dove, the same is He, and He will…and so forth. So, Christ is fulfilling all righteousness, but he’s also, he’s coming there because this had to be…how is John going to know who the Messiah is? Well you would say, He aught to have…He was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb, wouldn’t that be enough? He should just know. Well, but you see, as we said earlier, Tom, and I think we emphasize it, and we ought to continue to emphasize it, you can prove the Bible. This is not just a mystical experience, this is not Muhammad, that’s horrible, we won’t even get into that. I mean, he thought he was possessed of the devil, he didn’t know what it was that was happening to him, and so forth. And John the Baptist is clearly told: I am going to show you who this is. When He comes up out of the water the Spirit will descend upon him like a dove, and you will know that this is the One. So, a number of aspects of this that were essential: and the voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son. Well, but if you go to unity (meaning the unity of the school of Christianity), you’re a stranger, you’ve never been there before, everybody recites: I am a child of God. Well no, Paul tells us in Galatians, You are the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, you’re not born a child of God. To become children of God through faith in Christ, and it’s because of who he is and what he has done, and so forth. So John the Baptist, not only does he know his heart, but he is given a sign to make certain. And yet Tom, as you know, and we haven’t come to that…John the Baptist, who had all these signs: filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb…he comes to doubt. And in Luke, he sends some disciples asking Jesus, Are you really, are you the One, or do we look for another? We learn so many lessons, Tom, about…you can be absolutely certain, you know for sure, and yet you can still doubt. And after all the signs that the Israelites saw in the wilderness, and we won’t recite them—wow, they still rebelled!

Tom:

Well Dave, even in this day, how many of us has said, Well, God, why is this happening to me? All of a sudden, the strong faith that we had takes a jolt because God isn’t meeting up to our expectations, that’s a problem.

Dave:

Right.