Luke 3:17-20

Luke chapter 3, I want to read verses 15 through 20. Our focus is going to be on verses 17 to 20. Luke chapter 3 beginning with verse 15. And as the people were an expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not, John answered saying unto them, Oh, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to Unleukes, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. He will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. In many other things, things in his exhortation preached he unto the people, but Herod the Tetriarch, being reproved by him, for Erodeus, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all that he shut up John in prison. May God bless to us the reading of His holy and sacred word this morning. there was a newspaper article about an old carnival headliner named cannonball. In his younger years, he was blasted out of a cannon some 1,200 times during his carnival days. When asked why he did this, he said, well, have you ever heard the applause of 60,000 people? He said, then you’d know why I… did it. Many religious leaders of Jesus’ day loved the approval of men. Everything was done to be seen of man and for the praise of man. Nothing has really changed down through the centuries. Preaching today seems also to focus many times. on pleasing men, whatever gains a crowd, whatever makes one popular with the masses, whatever is soothing and pleasing to the hearer is the focus of the preaching. But our text here provides a direct contrast with that. For we read here about the faithful preaching of John the Baptist. His preaching was such. that it landed him in prison. Instead of being universally praised and honored, we find that his approach to preaching was something that caused hostility. I think he certainly had the same view as Paul did in the book of Galatians. If I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. So John is not pleasing that. I want to talk about faithful preaching from this past. passage of scripture this morning. Now you have an example of faithful preaching in verses 17 and 18. Whose fan is in his hand, he will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And many other things in his exhortation preached he under the people. Now here we have the faithful preaching is Christ-centered. when he speaks about he here whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge the floor he’s talking about the Christ. He’s talking about Jesus, the Lord. You’re given a small sample here of John’s preaching a snippet, if you would, of what he has said. And since his divinely given task is to prepare people for the Lord, he proclaims Christ in his preaching. He focuses on the Messiah, the Savior, his person, and his work. As John tells us in his gospel, he proclaimed, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away, the sin of the world. That he would be the Lord, the Redeemer, the judge of men. That’s what he portrayed Christ is doing and being. Now, you will search in vain. If you look through John’s preaching, if we could gather all the portions of John’s preaching from all four Gospels, put them all together, you’ll never find anything about self-improvement. You never find anything about it. If you hope to look through his preaching, you’ll search in vain for something about self-improvement. How to make yourself maybe more acceptable before God or men. You won’t find anything about self-worth either, how important and valuable you are as a human being that you’re special. You won’t see anything about social programs where the focuses on improving man’s earthly life without mentioning anything with to do with the spiritual state. John focuses on the spiritual state. There’s no pop psychology here. You know, he doesn’t bring up the needs pyramid. and now if you have all your needs met, then you can be of help to someone else. It doesn’t talk about any of those things. Faithful preaching is this. We preach Christ crucified, as Paul says in 1st Corinthians 1.23. Sadly, there are many today who would be glad if we would preach anything but Christ crucified. People prefer the flowery sermons, palms by Browning or Tennyson. would he catch phrases, soothing words to be spoken? That’s not the message we find here that John preaches. Christ crucified. That points out several things to us. First, it tells us that God is a holy God. That Christ would have to die. Someone would have to die as a substitute for the people of God, his elect, in order for them to be saved, indicates there’s a holy God. who does not bypass his justice without that justice being met. Christ wouldn’t have had to endure the curse of the cross. Also, we see that God requires blood atonement in order to forgive sins. He doesn’t merely pass over sin. He doesn’t say, well, I’ll just forgive you. Else Christ would not have to be the Lamb of God that comes as a sacrifice for sinners. that he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of his peace, or our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, we are healed, as Isaiah 53 indicates to us. That man also cannot get to heaven by his good works. When we talk about religious efforts, when we talk about good works, if man could get there by that purpose, then Christ crucifference. I wouldn’t have to be preached. Just do better. Keep the law. Make up for your bad points by doing good. That’s what the message would be. But that’s not the message of Scripture. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. The Christ had to die means you can’t get righteousness by keeping the law yourself. Daniel Webster, the famous politician, orator, Webster, dictionary maker. Webster once spent a summer in New Hampshire with family relatives. Every Lord’s Day, he went to a little country church in the morning and the evening. Webster’s niece was puzzled by this. She couldn’t understand why he showed such an interest when he could hear more interesting and intellectual ministers in Washington, D.C. Webster replied. He said, in Washington, they preached to Daniel Webster, the statesman, and the politicians. politician. He says, however, this man has been telling Daniel Webster the sinner of Jesus of Nazareth. That, he found interesting. When we preach Christ, we have no reason to stammer or to stutter or to hesitate or apologize. This is the only way of salvation. And so we find, first of all, his preaching is about Christ. Now, faithful preaching portrays Christ here as the divider of men. Scripture often employs farming illustrations. You’ve run across this quite frequently in Scripture. Here John speaks of a farmer threshing, winnowing his wheat, when speaking of Christ. Christ is like this is the indication to us. Christ is the farmer. His floor, if we can put it this way, is the nation of Israel. which outwardly profess to be the people of God. By the fan, it’s meant the gospel. When Christ is proclaimed, then the gospel is preached, there is a separation among men. The chaff is separated from the wheat. The fan is presently in his hand. You notice he doesn’t say this is something in the future. Now this separation is taking place. Oh, there will be a separation in the future too. But right now, it’s already begun. It’s taking place before their very eyes. Let Christ be set forth in the gospel. And there will be a separation between an Israel after the flesh and an Israel after the spirit. Between carnal Israel and a true Israelite. That separation will take place. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. neither because they are the seed of Abraham or are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Jesus declared that he was a divider, men. Look at chapter 12, if you would, in verses 51 to 53. Here’s what Jesus himself said about being a divider of men. He says, suppose ye that I am come to give peace to the earth. I tell you, nay, but rather division. Suppose ye that I am. come to give peace on the earth, I tell you, nay, rather, division. For from henceforth, there shall be five in one household divided. Three against two, two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, and the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-law against her mother. What’s this all about? Well, friends, when the gospel is preached, and men come to faith in Jesus Christ, it divides people. Some are of Christ and some are not. Ultimately, this separation, separating of people will be seen fully on the day of the final judgment. We read about then the wheat being the elect will be gathered in the Christ’s garner, the storage bin of heaven, if you would. And we read about the chaff is going to be burned in unquenchable fire. I take that as to be hellfire at the end. But let me make a couple of observations here. God has an elect people, but presently, they are mixed in with the people of this world. The chaff and the wheat grow together for a period of time before being separated. The chaffes and the wheat grow together for a period of time before being separated. The chaffs, serves the purpose of aiding the ripening of the wheat. And therefore, God’s eternal purpose for an individual is hidden from the beginning of the world. We don’t know who is going to be saved by God. We just don’t know. And for a period of time, it’s not seen. But it is revealed when the gospel was preached and someone comes to faith in Christ. Then we see who it is that is truly. of the wheat. And those who reject Christ then are the chaff or the reprobate. Now notice that the preaching of Christ in the gospel is the means separating the elect from the non-elect. It’s the fan. We preach Christ to all men everywhere, because we don’t know who the elect are. I think it was Spurgeon said if God would put yellow stripes on the elect, I preach just to the elect, but I don’t have any yellow stripes. So we preached to all men. We don’t know who God is going to say. God has not seen fit to tell us. We preach Christ, realizing that the gospel, however, comes as an aroma of life unto some and as an aroma of death, under death to others. It separates men. We don’t expect everybody we preach to be wheat. There’s going to be chaff that we’ll hear. But God’s elect will embrace Christ as he is presented to them in the gospel and it will be as sweet as honey to them. Whereas those who are non-elect they will despise and reject Christ and the gospel will be foolishness to them. It will be nonsense. We preach confidently, however, that through the preaching of the gospel, God will unfailingly call his elect to salvation in Christ. But the word always accomplishes the purpose for which it is set. Christ separating you from the world as wheat comes at a cost. Because you may be hated. You may be despised by your own family members. A man’s enemies may be of his own household. Your former friends may turn against you. I think I’ve told you this before. There was a young man in the seminary who was a converted Jew, and his parents and family had a funeral for him. As far as they were concerned, he was dead to them. I wouldn’t have nothing to do with him anymore. I remember when I was growing up how many of our relatives thought the Worth family were a bunch of religious fanatics. They didn’t understand. As my parents try to witness the people and the relatives and that, they thought these people were crazy people. Religious fanatics. You shouldn’t treat the preaching of the gospel then lightly. It has eternal consequences. He that believeeth not shall be damned. We read about the unquenchable fire here, sadly. For some. The gospel lays before you the way of life and the way of death. The state of your eternal soul is at stake so that you cannot be indifferent to the gospel. When it is proclaimed. So faithful preaching portrays Christ here as the divider of men. Notice something else that faithful preaching exhorts people about Christ. Verse 18 indicates to what, he spoke many other things to them, but in this preaching he exhorted people. Now to exhort someone is to beseech them, to entreat them, to admonish them, to pursue a course of action. The word rendered here with regard to this preaching here would mean that in the proclaiming of the good news concerning Christ, an exhortation was put forth. No doubt John used many and varied teachings with regard to Christ and salvation in him besides the few that we find in Scripture and here in 17. No doubt he used every kind of argument. Employed every opportunity. to press home the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what did he exhort or urge his listeners to do? What’s the exhortation? Well, what have we already found out? Repent for the kingdom of heaven heaven and his hand, and behold, the Lamb of God, which take of the way the sin of the world. Repent of your sin, believe on Christ. That’s to the message. Let us understand that when the gospel is spoken, it comes as a command. There’s an exhortation with it. It’s not just a nice story about Christ dying and so forth. There’s a command for the individual to deal with that situation. What are you going to do with Christ? It is the duty of the preacher to call upon you to respond to the message of Christ and the gospel. The gospel is not just an announcing of the good news, but an exhortation. Obey God’s command in the gospel. What is that command? Well, Acts tells us God commands all men everywhere to repent. And the command is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be sick. Repent of your sins, or you’re going to perish and end up in eternal hell. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you want forgiveness of your sins based upon his substitutionary death and his perfect righteousness. Not to obey God’s command in the gospel reveals a rebelliousness and a defiance against God. So the preacher exhort you, knowing the eternal consequences of you rejecting the message, he reasons with you about righteousness, temperance, the judgment to come. He urges you to flee from the wrath to come when the word of God is proclaimed. He calls upon you to come to Christ who can give you rest from the burden of your sins, who receives sinners of all sorts and all kinds. So when you hear the gospel preach, it puts an obligation upon you, which you ignore to your own peril. I once did a funeral for one of the members of our church many years ago, his wife attended a large PCUSA church in Pittsburgh. And on his deathbed, the man made me promise that I would preach the gospel to his relatives and family at his funeral. You know, I’m surprised I didn’t have to sign on the dotted line. He urged me. Most of his Family members and relatives were unsafe. They were in a Greek Orthodox religion, which he had come out of when he came to faith in Christ. Well, the wife arranged for the funeral service to be held at this large Presbyterian church down in Pittsburgh, which was liberal and character. And the assistant pastor of the church did the music and the announcements and so forth then. And soon I was preaching. and knowing my obligation before God, and certainly what George wanted me to do, I proclaimed Jesus Christ. And God’s command that they repent of their sins and they believe on Christ. Even quoting from this man’s letters that he had written to me about his salvation and things of this nature, I try to use his own words as much as I could in dealing with his family. And I warn them of the eternal consequence. is rejecting the gospel message and when I finished, the assistant pastor of this prestigious church decided he was going to blunt the message that I had proclaimed concerning Christ and the command that I had given it. He spoke about God having his people in all the nomination, sort of a, you’re okay, there’s nothing to worry about. Then it angered me that the gospel would be blunted when it comes to me. is a command to people who need to think about eternal matters and you would take that away. Like snatching the seed away. Like one of Satan’s agents. The snatch the seed of the word from people who needed the gospel of Christ. My friends, that concept, everybody’s okay. Nobody can go to any church you want to. That’s far from the preaching of John the Baptist. That’s far from what we find in Scripture. Remember the Jews were religious people. And yet Christ comes as a divider, even among his own people, all his nation here. Because most of them were only in name only. Followers are the Lord. They did not have a change of heart. They weren’t circumcised in heart. They may have been in flesh. So you have an example of faithful preaching. Faithful preaching is Christ-centered? Faithful preaching portrays Christ as the divider of men. Faithful preaching exhorts people about Christ. Then secondly, you have an example of a negative response here to the faithful preaching. Here in verses 19 and 20. But Herod the Tetriarch, being reproved by him for Herodius’ brother, Philp’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, added yet this above all, that he shut up, John in prison. If you look at Matthew chapter 14, you see some more detail on this. Why this happened. Matthew chapter 14, let me read just the first five verses here. At that time, Herod the Tetriarch heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servants, this is John the Baptist, he’s risen from the dead. Therefore, mighty works do show themselves. show forth themselves in him. For Herod, going back to the past, had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodius’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife. For John said unto him, it’s not lawful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. People don’t like the law. being used to point out their sin. King Herod showed an interest in John and desired to hear him preach. There’s no doubt that John preached unto him the gospel, but in doing so, he pointed out the sin of King Herod. And I guess when we realize that if you’re going to preach the gospel, which talks about the Savior of sinners, you have to preach about who a sinner is, what a sinner is. and you’re a sinner, and therefore you need Christ. By the law, one gains a knowledge of sin. It’s not lawful for you to have erodeus, your brother’s wife. There’s no mystery here. In God’s sight what sin is. He tells us very specifically. This is sin. The thou shalt not serve. Very clear. The law sort of God’s plum line. He measures your wall. See if it’s bowed or bent or what? or if it’s straight, and the law finds us all bowed and bent. The faithful preacher shouldn’t be afraid to use the law to expose men’s sins in order to point them to Christ, which is the purpose of the law, to be a tutor, a schoolmaster, to show us Christ. So John reproved Herod for all the evils which he had done, and one of the great evils he had done, was to take his brother’s wife. Herodius. Philip was still living, and Herod had stolen away from his wife away from him. Now, when you think about all this, you have the idea of theft, you have the idea of adultery, incest, covetousness, all, you know, how many violations of the law is he going to do in just this once in? John boldly reproves the king. According to Leviticus 18, Herodic, Herodius, was a forbidden marriage. Philip was Herod’s half-brother, same father, different mothers. Notice how John used God’s law to rebuke a Gentile. Some people miss this, but it’s interesting. Herod here is not a Jew. He’s a Gentile. And yet, he uses the law and says, it’s not lawful for you to have it. Also notice that no one is exempt. No one gets a pass. In our society today, it seems like if you are an elite person, if you are in political power many times, you get a pass. You can do almost anything and you can get away with it. But the average Joe, who did these things, they’d go to jail for. John the Baptist here is not going to say, well, you’re the king, you know, I can’t say anything. He’s going to tell him, hey, you’re a sinner, you’ve broken God’s law, and God holds you accountable for it. That’s what he does. Obviously, the Herod and Rodius’s reaction is, is that they are provoked. They are angry. They didn’t profit by John’s preaching. They didn’t believe. They got angry and decided that what they would do was curtail the preaching. Put him in jail so he cannot preach. So people don’t like the law of God being used to reprove their sin. People will seek to silence them. Faithful preachers. He’s imprisoned by Herod. who takes out his revenge on John by throwing him into prison for daring to point out his wrongdoing his sin. Herodius’ wife is most incensed that we know from the storyline elsewhere that she ends up getting his head chopped off. People add to their sin by attacking or persecuting the faithful gospel preacher. And God does not take that lightly when you touch one of his anointed. Sadly, this attempt to silence God’s faithful preaching is a very common ploy. It happens all the time. We read about Elijah. He has a death sentence put upon him by Jezebel. You read about Maciah, who is imprisoned by King Ahab when he tells him the truth. When Jeremiah is imprisoned by Zetachariah, Zechariah is murdered. Peter is in prison. Stephen is stone to death. Paul is imprisoned and then later at one point he’s even stoned and left for dead. At least God spared his life and he didn’t die. The Word of God forewarns us not to marvel that the world hate us. They cannot stand for sin to be pointed out. So you can expect to suffer if you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The reward of God’s servant is often not in this life. It is often in the life to come. And so we have to keep that in mind. So you have an example here of a negative response to the faithful preaching of the gospel. Let me close. The old carnival headliner, Cannonball, did what he did because he wanted to hear the applause of men. And many preachers today, that’s what they’re concerned about. They want to hear man’s applause. The faithful preacher is concerned about what God thinks, and about honoring the Lord. And so he is not focused on approved approval of men or soothing and pleasing messages. His duty is to preach a Christ-centered message, to portray Christ as the divider of men by means of the gospel, and exhort people about Christ to repent and believe. Let us close with Word of God. Thank you.