Three Points from Matthew 3

[00:00:00] All right, good to see everybody tonight. Once again, let's go to the book of Matthew again to chapter three. [00:00:08] Matthew, chapter three. [00:00:12] Going to be hard to follow up that song, especially brother Joseph playing so energetically and encouraging us to sing in the same way. That was good, brother Joseph. Appreciate that. [00:00:24] All right, Matthew, chapter three. I'll be honest with you tonight. [00:00:29] I have three thoughts that aren't really related very much. But in our study of chapter three of Matthew, I feel like it's necessary that we cover these three thoughts. [00:00:42] So I want to make this as interesting and informative as I can. But I do want to show you these things. So this is maybe more of a lesson than it is a message. I don't know it. I don't know the difference between the two. So we're going to look at just really just three verses in Matthew, chapter three. So let's start in verse number one. I want to read verses one through three. And then I want to read verses eleven and twelve. Okay. Matthew, chapter three, verse one. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent, ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [00:01:21] And this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight. And then if you'll drop down to verse number eleven, says this. This is. We did not. We read those few verses I just read this morning. But we did not read eleven and twelve. So we'll read that now. John says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. And he will throughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. All right, let's pray together. [00:02:20] Our father, we just want to bring this message, this text to you as we study it, as we look at what it says, as we focus our mind and hearts upon what it says. We pray that you would bless it to our understanding that these truths that are written herein about yourself and about your kingdom, about your will and your ways, Lord, that they would just come alive to us. Lord, help these truths to be spiritual food to all of your people, including myself. Lord, give me wisdom. And help me to explain these things in a way that's helpful. [00:02:57] And I pray that you would lead both in the teaching, but also in the receiving of the word of God, for we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. [00:03:08] The first thing I want you to see is in chapter three here, verse number three, we saw this morning how that this chapter three, verse three is a. Is a quotation from anybody. Help me remember. I have it written down. But no, Malachi was the other one. Correct. Isaiah, because we did look at Malachi as well. Isaiah, chapter 40, and verse number three. Okay, so as you've, you know, we've looked through the book of acts. We've seen all the different sermons and stuff. And what we've seen is there are a number of times in the New Testament where the Old Testament is quoted. Okay, so again, just as the New Testament, the New Testament believers, they were bible believing, bible christians, what do I mean by that? Is what they believed came from the scripture. And in their time, the scripture was the Old Testament. Right. And so they based what they believe on the Old Testament scriptures. [00:04:10] And this is quoted, as I said, out of Isaiah, chapter 40 and verse three. I would like you to take a peek at that, if you would, because I want to do a little comparison. So with your right hand, if you'll hold Matthew three, and with your left, if you'll look at Isaiah 40, because it's important for this, our purpose here, to see both of them kind of at the same time. [00:04:31] Isaiah 40, verse number three. [00:04:37] Isaiah 40, verse three. [00:04:43] The Bible says this, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our goddess. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Now, we saw that this morning. This is a reference to the idea of the preparatory work of repentance. [00:05:12] But what I want to draw your attention to, and this is the first of the three things I want to show you, is in verse three of Isaiah 40, it says, this, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the. What? What's that next word? [00:05:30] Prepare ye the way of the Lord. So this is, John is the voice. John's in the desert between Jerusalem and basically the. The Jordan valley. So you go east from Jerusalem, you go through past the mount of olives, and you go into basically a desert, a hill country, and you'll eventually get to the Jordan valley. You go south a little bit, and you're down at the Dead Sea. This is where John did his ministry. Listen, this is just weird, okay? Conducting a ministry far from civilization. [00:06:03] You know, there weren't, you know, there weren't telephones, no cell phones, no electricity, nothing to connect him with any of the rest of the world. And here John is in the middle of the desert conducting his ministry. And here's the thing. [00:06:15] Those who heard of him and went to him and then participated in his baptism of repentance, it says something about the seriousness with which they received his message. I mean, because it costs them something to go out there. [00:06:31] But notice in this is the verse that prophesies and tells us that John would come to prepare the way. But notice, I want to ask you this question in Isaiah 40, verse three, for whom is the way being prepared? So look at verse three and answer that question. For whom is the way being prepared? What's the answer? [00:06:54] The Lord. But notice the spelling of that. [00:06:58] It's spelled capital l, capital o, capital r, capital d, right? [00:07:06] Which is a signification of the name, the name of God, right? So you could say Jehovah, right? [00:07:17] Now everybody got that? So John the Baptist came in Isaiah 40, verse three. He came to prepare the way for the Lord God Jehovah. Everybody get that? Okay, now go back to Matthew three. [00:07:37] Read verse three again, for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah. This Isaiah saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the. What does it say, Lord? But notice it's spelled in the more common way, Lord. Now let me ask you a question. In Isaiah 43, as predicted about John the Baptist, he would prepare the way for as we saw Jehovah, right? Did you see that? [00:08:07] But in this verse, in verse three of Matthew three, he is preparing the way for whom it's applied, because he's preparing the way for Jesus. [00:08:21] And that tells us something. See, by comparing these two things, this is a clear description of Jesus as Jehovah. [00:08:32] You know, I know there's a big debate about who is Jesus. Is he the only. We talked about this, right? Is he just the son of God? Is he God? Or is, you know, is the trinity three gods, or how. You know, and there's all kinds of debates around that. But if you pay attention to verses like this, you will see that Jesus is indeed Jehovah, manifest in the flesh. John was prophesied to. To prepare the way for Jehovah. [00:09:01] And that is, in the New Testament, applied to his preparing the way for Jesus, which identifies who Jesus is. And this is not a sole occurrence in the Bible. Let me read this to you. Isaiah 45, number 21. It says this, tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And that's that capital, spelling, all caps, Jehovah. And there is no God else beside me. A just God and a savior. There is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me. Who's speaking? Unto me? Who is speaking? [00:09:53] I know you're not looking at the verses, but based upon what you heard, it's Jehovah is speaking. Jehovah says unto me, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. [00:10:04] But in Romans chapter 14, verse eleven, this very verse is quoted as saying this, for it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to goddesse. [00:10:22] And that is a reference. In Romans 1410, that is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in the Old Testament, Jehovah says, every tongue, every knee will bow to me, every tongue will confess. And then the New Testament we're reminded, oh yeah, that's Jesus. That's Jesus. [00:10:39] That's not the only place I won't go into any more. But Zechariah 1210 refers to Jehovah being pierced, which was fulfilled in Christ in John 1937. So here's the thing I want you to see, is by careful attention, and this is not rocket science here, but just by paying attention to reading your Bible, you can find little truths about who Jesus is, statements of his deity, in places that you might not normally expect it, in places that aren't maybe the go to verses. But listen, and this is why it's so important for you and for me to read our Bible consistently, thoughtfully and prayerfully, because over time, by little and little, the Lord will teach us these things as we read. Just as a regular, not a preacher, not a pastor, not even as a Sunday school, nothing like that. Just a child of God with his God reading the scriptures. The Lord will teach you these things and will show you these things. He will reveal his secrets to you. And these aren't secret. They're right there. They're right there. So that's the first thing I want you to see, is this. I told you it would be disjointed and wouldn't make sense together. Number one is Jesus as Jehovah. And it's right there written. All right, look at Matthew three again, verse number two. [00:12:08] John's message saying, repent, ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So we must ask the question, what is the kingdom of heaven? [00:12:23] What is the kingdom of heaven? [00:12:26] It's important that we answer this question because this is a concept that's repeated over and over and over and over again in the gospels. [00:12:38] Now, simply put, a kingdom is this. I got to decide the dictionary here. The territory or country ruled over by a king or queen. The area over which a monarch's rule extends. [00:12:51] A realm. Now, this is not something we're real familiar with here. Did you know that the kings of England, as an example, they would have different and overlapping realms? [00:13:03] Like, for instance, James I. Right, with King James Bible. Right. James I was actually the king of Scotland before he became the king of England. And once he became the king of England, his kingdom kind of overruled both of those, whereas before he was just the king over Scotland. In other words, this is what you call the realm. Okay? So when we talk about the kingdom of heaven, first thing we have to understand is, what is the kingdom? A kingdom is simply a realm, a sphere, the extent, you might say, of God's rule. Okay? [00:13:40] And right now, in this case, the kingdom of heaven refers to the spiritual realm over which our lord rules. [00:13:52] And I'll say more about this in a minute, but that realm includes those who, in humble faith, bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ as their king. [00:14:05] Because a kingdom has to have a second thing. Not only a realm, but a kingdom has to have a king. And in this case, the king is, of course, Jesus. That's why the Bible says in verse two, repent, ye, for the kingdom of heaven was. The next two words, is at hand. What does that mean? [00:14:22] At hand? What does that mean? [00:14:25] Here's to illustrate. Here's what it means. [00:14:29] The microphone, to me is at hand. [00:14:33] I can reach for it and grab. It's within reach, right? So here's what. Here's what at hand mean. It just means near. It's so close that you can grab it. And this is what John is saying. Now, up to this point. Listen, up to this point, the kingdom of heaven has not been at hand. You know why? Because the king hasn't been here. But now the king's. [00:14:52] The king's revelation is imminent, and so his kingdom is here. That's what this is saying. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. [00:15:06] If you look at mark, chapter 14, verse 42, listen to this. This is when Jesus is being arrested. He says, rise up. Let us go. Lo, he that betrayeth me is. [00:15:17] In other words, Judas was right there. He was coming, literally leading a group of thugs into the garden of Gethsemane. At that very moment. They were right there. And so the kingdom of heaven, when John is preaching, it is here. The king is here. That's why it was such an urgent matter that these people prepared their hearts for the kingdom. Because when the Lord passed by, if their hearts were not prepared, they might not get another chance to receive him. [00:15:54] You know, how many of you have ever met a dignitary of some kind, somebody important? They don't wait for you, do they? They fly through. You know, some people, they stand on the side of the road when the motorcade comes by. And when we were missionaries, that's, you know, we saw a few times when they would shut down the roads because we lived in the capitol for a couple of years. And if you like, that motorcade is flying by like they're just, they got the pedal to the metal. And if you are not ready at that moment, it's going to pass you by. Not that they're stopping and saying hello, but you see what I'm saying? They're passing by as fast as they can go. You and I had better be prepared. That's what John the Baptist ministry is all about. Prepare yourself for the king. Now, what's interesting about this term kingdom of heaven is that it is only mentioned in the book of Matthew. No other book of the Bible has this term the kingdom of heaven. But in Mark and Luke and John, there are many references to the kingdom of God. [00:17:01] So you got kingdom of heaven in Matthew exclusively. And then in the, and in Mark and Luke and John, you have the kingdom of God. But you also have five instances in Matthew in which the kingdom of God is found. [00:17:15] And what's interesting is the kingdom of God is also mentioned in the book of acts. We saw that in our study. In acts, it's mentioned in the epistles, it's mentioned in a number of different places. But the kingdom of heaven is never mentioned again after Matthew. [00:17:32] And as an example, you see verse number two and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The parallel passage of that is mark 115. It says this and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. [00:17:51] So in Matthew it says kingdom of heaven. In mark it says kingdom of God. And so many, many times these two terms are used kind of interchangeably. But there is one passage. Look at Matthew, chapter 19. [00:18:05] One passage I want to point out to you specifically to help us understand what are we talking about when we talk about the kingdom of heaven. [00:18:13] Matthew 19, verse number 23, it says this. [00:18:27] Then said Jesus unto his disciples, verily, I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. See that? [00:18:40] Verse 24. [00:18:42] And what's the next word? Say one more time, again and again. All right, so that tells us that verse 24 is repeating. Verse 23, Jesus is restating what he said in verse 23, in verse 24. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. You see how he switched it in 23, it says heaven. 24, it says God. But it's a restatement of the same truth. [00:19:23] This is how we know that the two are synonymous terms. Two terms referring to one thing, not just because they're parallel among the gospels, but because in this particular passage, both are used in Matthew, parallel to describe the same thing. And so here's the bottom line. When we're talking about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God, we're talking about a spiritual kingdom. [00:19:59] And this is what the Lord Jesus Christ was introducing. [00:20:04] Now, there are people, and I listen, there are people that believe they're different. And you know what? That's okay. I don't have a problem with that. [00:20:11] I don't believe that's the case. I believe they're synonymous. And most people that believe they're different believe they're different because one says heaven, one says God, notwithstanding the verse I just showed you. [00:20:24] But the problem with that is that when you talk about the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, heaven and God, heaven's God's throne, there's a lot of overlap with the meaning there. The idea is that God is ruling God in heaven, is ruling in his realm. [00:20:43] Now, look at John chapter three, if you would. [00:20:49] John three, what is the nature of this kingdom? [00:20:58] Are you in this kingdom? How do you get into this kingdom, John three? Three. [00:21:08] Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a man who has religion, who studies the Bible, goes to synagogue, and has no idea what the kingdom of God is and is not a part of it. Think about it now. Think about it. This was a man who was a part of God's ordained religion, if you will, Judaism. [00:21:36] And he is not in God's kingdom. [00:21:40] Jesus is not his king. [00:21:42] He is outside of this kingdom. He don't even know anything about it. [00:21:47] All that Nicodemus and the Jews are thinking about is an earthly kingdom where, you know, the. The Jews are the rulers of the kingdom through their king, the throne of David. [00:22:02] Totally ignorant of this kingdom. [00:22:05] Jesus said to him in verse three, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is, perceive the kingdom of God, what it is. [00:22:20] You can't even understand it. You can't even perceive it without the new birth. Okay? The new birth. The new birth is a new creation. This is, we have been made alive, spiritually alive, whereas before we were spiritually dead. In trespasses and sins. The Lord, just like the Lord, rose from the dead. So our inner man, our spirit, is raised from the dead. And that which was once dead, it becomes alive when a person is born again. [00:22:53] Then in verse five, it says this. Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. Don't get hung up on that water. We're not talking about this water here. [00:23:04] He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. So a person is admitted into the kingdom of God only by the new birth. There's no other way in there. [00:23:16] Look at John 18. We're already in John. Look at John 18, if you would. [00:23:25] Verse number 36. [00:23:29] The Lord Jesus is standing or is being examined by Pilate. [00:23:34] Verse number 35. For context. Pilate answered, am I a jew? [00:23:39] Thine own nation? And the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, because he's asked in verse number 33, art thou the king of the Jews? And in verse 36, the Lord answers and says, my kingdom is not of this world. Now, did jesus say, no, I am not a king? No. [00:23:59] Is Jesus a king? Yes. [00:24:02] But the question is, what is his realm? [00:24:06] What is his realm? His kingdom. He says, my kingdom is not of this world. You see, this is a spiritual kingdom. In other words, its realm, the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. Its realm is not the physical things. Its realm is spiritual. The Lord's subjects are not the citizens of a country like we have here. [00:24:33] It is a heavenly people. [00:24:35] And entrance into that kingdom is not by birth in the flesh, but by spiritual birth. You see that? [00:24:46] You know what's also different? [00:24:49] The culture of this kingdom is far different than the culture in which we live. And the laws of this kingdom are far different from the laws of the kingdom in which we live. Right? You know, sometimes we being part of God's kingdom creates conflict, conflicts of interest and conflict between our loyalty to our king, the Lord Jesus Christ, and with our nation, because nations are not always friendly to the Lord Jesus. [00:25:27] And sometimes this world looks at us because our ultimate devotion and loyalty is supremely to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in the kingdom of God. Right. People don't understand that. [00:25:39] When I was in the marine Corps, that's the way it was. People did not understand it. [00:25:43] Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm just in society in general, people scratch their head and they don't understand. Because what you're describing is not just, well, I go to church. No, no, I don't just go to church. [00:25:57] Jesus is my king. I am in his kingdom. He is my ruler, his law is my law. [00:26:08] And sometimes people don't understand that. [00:26:11] But I hope for you, and I hope for me that our ultimate loyalty and allegiance is to the Lord Jesus Christ. For he is our king. We are in his kingdom. He said, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the jews. Notice this. But now is my kingdom, not from hence. Notice the three letter word. Now you know what? That tells us something, that over time, the kingdom of God changes, just like in an earthly king. [00:26:55] I mentioned James I, right, of England. Before he was the king of England, he was the king of Scotland, right? Or was it James the fourth? Brother David probably knows. Do you remember? It's like the king James IV or something, of Scotland. [00:27:10] Here's the thing. [00:27:12] Right now, the Lord's realm consists of those that have been born again, that have bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, who recognize his laws and have allegiance to him as their savior. [00:27:26] But did you know one of these days the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back, and when he does, he is going to seize by force other realms to be his realm and then the kingdom of God. And this is it matches perfectly with what we will study in Matthew later, because the Bible describes the kingdom of heaven changing over time. When you get to the end of Matthew, then the Lord describes the kingdom of heaven as a little bit different than it is at this moment. But when the Lord comes and he seizes his power and his authority, when the Bible says in revelation, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord of his Christ, well, that means the kingdom of God is going to expand quite a bit, I would say, when he will rule over a greater realm than he now rules. It doesn't mean he's not the king. It's just that there's a lot of people that do not recognize his authority. Right? There's many, many people do not recognize his authority. But one day he will take that authority by force when he returns in judgment. [00:28:32] And then the kingdom of God will look maybe a little bit different than it does now. But right now, the kingdom of God is mostly composed of the church of God. [00:28:41] And I could go into other verses, but just as a summary on this point, the kingdom of God is Jesus. The spiritual kingdom. The spiritual realm over which the Lord Jesus Christ rules. You know what? We are gladly his subjects. [00:29:02] We are glad that he is our king. We joyfully yield and submit to his law, to his will, and to his reign over us. We don't find the Lord Jesus. Many people, they hate the laws of God. They hate the laws of Christ. We don't find them grievous at all, do we? We find them the joy of our heart. Right? [00:29:27] We willingly bow to him. [00:29:30] Now, let's go back to Matthew, chapter three, and we'll conclude here. [00:29:35] Matthew three. This will be the third thing I want to show you. [00:29:39] Verse number eleven. [00:29:47] This is an oft misunderstood verse of scripture, so we want to look at it real quick. [00:29:53] Matthew 311. Jesus, or John the Baptist, says, I indeed, john, now baptize you with water unto repentance. [00:30:02] But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. [00:30:15] Now, there's three baptisms in this one verse. [00:30:22] John's baptism unto repentance. [00:30:26] The baptism of the Holy Ghost. [00:30:29] The baptism with fire. [00:30:32] There are at least two other baptisms in the scriptures. Anybody want to guess what those other two are? [00:30:41] Well, that's in verse eleven. [00:30:44] Yes, ma'am. [00:30:47] Okay, you added another one. You're getting all spiritual on me now. [00:30:54] That is when one corinthians says that. Anybody think of another one? [00:30:59] How about believer's baptism? [00:31:02] After you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you get baptized, right? As a demonstration of your faith, right? You have that because this hasn't happened yet. Because Jesus hasn't even been revealed. All right, so this is John's baptism even though it's in water. Also, there's one more baptism unto death. [00:31:22] Baptism unto death. That's a mysterious, mysterious one. We'll have to cover that later on another day. But there is more than one baptism in the Bible, and you have three of them listed here. [00:31:35] And what's interesting is I want to concentrate on the word fire in just a minute. But notice he says at the end he shall, Jesus shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. So this baptism with the Holy Ghost has nothing whatsoever to do with water. [00:31:53] There's no water in here at all. John baptized with water at the beginning of the verse. But what Jesus baptizes with is not water. It's the Holy Ghost, right? Right. Look, at first corinthians chapter twelve. [00:32:04] I want to show you several of these verses. This is not a one off thing. I want to show you that this baptism of the Holy Spirit is clearly articulated in scripture. [00:32:17] Verse twelve. One Corinthians twelve says this, for as the body is one, for as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For now, note the words carefully. [00:32:35] By one spirit, are we all baptized into one body, whether we be jews or gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit? This is not water. [00:32:52] If you trust in Jesus here, in all likelihood, the pastor will baptize you. Right. That's usually the way we. The typical way we do things. But this is not the pastor. This is not a man. This is the spirit of God baptizing people into the body of Christ. This is a spiritual matter. This is not something to be observed with the eyes. This is something the Lord does when a person puts their faith in Jesus. [00:33:20] Look back at Romans chapter six. [00:33:24] Romans chapter six, verse, verse number three. [00:33:28] You got to be careful when you use these verses. [00:33:31] Romans six three says this. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. [00:33:50] That's not water. There's no water mentioned at all. [00:33:55] This is being baptized, not into water, but baptized into Jesus Christ. Well, you say, well, when you get baptized into water, you're getting baptized. No, no, no. You're not getting baptized into Jesus Christ. You're getting baptized into water. This is one corinthians 1213 repeated. We could go to Galatians chapter three. I'll read it just for. If you want to chase me down, you can. Galatians three and verse 27 says this. [00:34:25] Galatians 327 says, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, this is where you gotta be very careful. You can't just do a bait and switch, you know, and play loose with the word of God. [00:34:46] And you say, well, when I got baptized, I was baptized into Christ. That is not what the Bible says. [00:34:53] You say, well, it's the same. You know, Jesus, we're in a church. No, it is not the same. It's not the same. [00:35:00] This is not putting you in Christ. [00:35:03] How can a preacher put you in Christ? [00:35:05] That's not possible. The Holy Spirit can, though. Right? Last one is Ephesians four. [00:35:13] Ephesians, chapter four, verse number five. [00:35:23] One Lord. Well, verse four, there is one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. [00:35:34] Again, not up there, but the baptism by the spirit of God into the body of Christ. [00:35:41] Now, lastly, going back to Matthew three to finish this up, he says at the end of verse eleven, he says he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. [00:35:53] This is what Jesus does now and with fire. [00:35:58] And brother Ari knows, you know, set my soul afire, Lord. Right. [00:36:03] This is what, you know, that words we use to refer to revival fires and being on fire for God. [00:36:13] But when you really look at this verse, look at what it says, jesus will baptize with the Holy ghost, and jesus will baptize with fire. Notice verse twelve, whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor and will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. So you got this idea of wheat. They would take the. They would. They would cut the stalks of wheat, right? The wheat's grown. It's ripe. They would cut the stalks of wheat and bundle them together, and they would putting on a. Put it on a threshing floor. And then they would take a stick. Right? A stick. And they would thresh the wheat. What that means is they would take a stick and they would beat a. The wheat to separate the kernel from the stalk, right? They would beat the wheat. [00:37:00] And then through a process, they would grind the wheat to separate the husk from that wheat kernel, right? And then. So they would have a big pile. [00:37:12] They would have a big pile of stuff. The only thing they want in that is the kernel of wheat, because that's what they use to make flour. [00:37:19] And so they would have a big pile of it. So what they would do is they would have a person get, essentially, a shovel and scoop it, and another person would have something to fan on this threshing floor. And they would be fanning like this to create moving air or even natural airflow, and the person would scoop it up and throw it into the air. And the chaff, being lighter than the wheat kernel, would get blown away with the wind and the wheat kernel would fall straight down. So you would have a pile of chaff, and you would have a pile of wheat kernels. [00:37:52] It's called winnowing. [00:37:54] They would take the chaff, the pile of chaff, which has no use at all except to burn and burn it. And the wheat, of course, would be saved because it had profit. [00:38:09] So if you look at verse number eleven, what is the fire with which jesus will baptize people? Are we talking about the spirit of God or some miraculous, you know, the tongues of fire in acts, chapter two? No, that's even in acts, chapter two. That's not talking about the spirit of God being on fire, but the tongues were like as of fire, not the Holy Spirit. [00:38:35] So what are we talking about? This is judgment. [00:38:38] This is judgment. [00:38:40] Second, thessalonians one eight, inflaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is referring to the coming of Christ. [00:38:56] So Jesus, when he comes, will not only. [00:39:01] And notice how much time is separated between these two. We know the baptism of the spirit of God has already happened, right? [00:39:09] Acts, chapter one, verse five. Acts, chapter two. We studied that. You guys ought to be experts on that all the time we spend in acts. [00:39:17] But the baptism of fire, of which the Lord John the Baptist, rather, speaks in verse eleven, is yet to come, when the Lord will bring judgment. There's also one other mention of fire in this context, which is in verse ten. [00:39:33] Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. So here's the thing. If fire is in verse ten and fire is in verse twelve, you can't take fire and make it something else in verse eleven that's not faithful to the context of the scripture. That's why fire, in that case, is not, you know, like a holy ghost fire. No, it's not. It can't be. [00:39:55] In fact, there's no passage of scripture that describes the spirit of God. The closest thing you got, closest thing in the scripture that describes the spirit of God as fire is quench, not the spirit. And that's hardly a. That's hardly a proof text. [00:40:13] So, brother Ari, all the verses you got need to rip them out of the handbook. [00:40:18] I don't want the Lord to set my soul afire. Do you? Not in. Not in this way, anyway. [00:40:26] The reason I pointed that out is because there's a lot of people that have misinterpreted that verse to say something, to teach things, to expect things like you got the baptism of the spirit. Now you need the baptism of fire as if it's something else you should be looking for. But that's not what it's talking about at all. It's talking about judgment. [00:40:49] So we have Jesus as Jehovah, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a fire. [00:40:58] If you can find some way to relate those three, I thank you for trying. All right, let's pray to.