This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your scriptures, let's open up to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 3. The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 3, we'll be picking up in verse 15. This is the reading of God's Word. As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn. But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people. But Herod the Tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. This is the reading of God's word. So we are in the gospel of Luke, the gospel of Luke chapter three. If you close your Bibles, you might want to open back up. The Gospel of Luke, picking up in verse 15. This is a text that it's weird. It's putting me through this ringer of emotions because it is glorious heights and terrifying depths. And we're going to be unpacking that today. If I seem a little off kilter, it really just might be that. It's kind of hard. Because in this text, I actually see one of the joys I get out of the scriptures, and I'm hoping you can come to embrace this as well. One of the joys of the word of God as he has given it to us is there's this literary beauty to it, a literary quality to it. Now, don't get me wrong. I say literary, not at any expense of truth. God has given us truth, but you know, God could have given us a series of bullet points. This is true, this is true, this is true, this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong, and we would have had truth. He did not just give us truth, he gave us truth that is just beautifully done, well written, and we actually are enriched when we see what our Lord saw fit to give to us in the literature of it. You see, today on the one hand, we're going to be talking about what John the Baptist taught, just very specifically that. But what I also want you to see is how Luke wrote this gospel. Because John's not the only one teaching. Luke is also teaching us with the way he wrote his gospel. You see, a major theme of this gospel up to now, and we've been talking about it, is how much more important Jesus is than John. Major theme. We've talked about it a bunch and Luke has been broadcasting this in the first few chapters. We've talked about it in more than one sermon, but I'll give you a recap because I want this to be fresh for where we are today. We started out this book and there's these prophecies of these miraculous babies that God is going to give his servants. John the Baptist prophesied, Jesus prophesied. John has said that he will be great before the Lord. Jesus will be greater in every way and greater by far. You see it even in the ways they're miraculously conceived. John is miraculously born of a couple who is too old to have kids. It was miraculous. Jesus is miraculously born of a virgin with no man involved. Greater by far. John comes to prepare the people of God. Jesus comes to rule the people of God. In the same way, John prepares for the coming one. Jesus is the coming one. John had said he would be a mighty prophet like Elijah. Elijah, he's gonna be like, that's no small order. Jesus will be more than another prophet. Jesus will be the Son of God. Jesus, greater in every way. The stories of their birth continue the theme. Luke shows us this even in the length of the accounts. How many verses are given to John's birth, strictly his birth? Two. How many are given to Jesus? 20. Even in the length that Luke is going to talk about, he wants you to understand who is the priority of this story. You remember when Zechariah, John's father, was first told by the angel that he was going to be having a baby, he didn't believe, and he was made to be mute until the baby came again. So, John the Baptist is born, Zechariah's mouth is loose, then he starts prophesying. And what's his prophecy about on the day of the birth of his son? Jesus. He's not sitting around talking about, look at my baby boy, he's amazing, he's miraculous. He's like sitting there cradling his baby, talking about the baby that's still to come. Zechariah wanted to talk about the sunrise that shall visit God's people from on high, giving light to those who sit in darkness. He's celebrating Jesus, not John. And now one more time, this theme continues and it's in John's own words now. You almost feel bad for John, right? He's a little baby being, and the other baby's being celebrated. Oh, your kid's sure cute, you know? No, John has no hangups like that. And you see that in how he comes and ministers. I want to read the verses for you again. Picking up in verse 15, we'll read through 17. John, in his own words, carries on this theme of Jesus is so much more important than him. As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, you see, because John was an impressive figure, right? And they are impressed by him. So they're wondering, is this, is this the Christ? They're wondering whether he might be the Christ back in the text. John answered them all saying, I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming. The strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. John's own words, he who is mightier than me, he's coming. And like I said, I don't think the people had ever seen a man so impressive as John. And he was impressive, objectively impressive. He was a mighty prophet like the ones they had grown up reading about, hearing about. And so it's just natural. There's this time of expectation among the people of God. And they're wondering, this is the mightiest person I've ever seen. Frankly, maybe I've even ever heard of. Do you think this could be the Messiah? And John makes it real clear. I, whatever I am, I am not even worthy to do the straps of the sandals of the one who is coming. That is who I am compared to the Messiah. John says he is not even worthy of doing the smallest, most menial duty because that is how great Jesus is. It is God's grace to John that John has any role to play at all. And John is clear on that. And he wants a crowd to be clear on that. John proclaims that Jesus is mightier by nature. And he's also going to proclaim that Jesus is mightier in what he is coming to do. That's the point he's making. Second half of 16 into 17, John is making the point. See, I'm baptizing you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, skipping ahead, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. That's one of those interesting statements. You end up reading a whole lot to figure out what we're talking about. Holy Spirit and fire. We start with the first half of it. What does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? Basic point. This is incredible. This is incredible. Baptized with the Holy Spirit? Because the scriptures make clear. Who is the Holy Spirit? God himself. God himself. One of the members of the Holy Trinity. He's not some impersonal force. Jesus does not come bearing the Holy Spirit like He's electricity. Like some would have you believe, the Holy Spirit is God and you just have to ask the question, who can possibly perform such a baptism? Only God. No one else is anywhere near qualified to do that. Jesus Christ, the one who is mightier than I who is coming, he will baptize with the Holy Spirit himself. And again, do you see that contrast of greatness, of importance? John, he is mighty, but he's doing this baptism with water. Jesus is the Son of God, capable of baptizing with the Holy Spirit himself. See, for whatever greatness was present in the baptism of John the Baptist, it pales, utterly pales in comparison to the baptism of Jesus. Now, obvious in the text is we're getting a glimpse of something that's going to come in volume two of Luke's work. On that day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was given, See, after Jesus would ascend, just a little snippet ahead, and then we'll come back to this moment in the text. After Jesus ascends, he sends his Holy Spirit upon his disciples. And with that baptism, he changes the people of God forever. Now, the people of God are united with Christ in a brand new way. You see, we don't need a personal Pentecost. Because on that Pentecost, on that day of Pentecost was the beginning of a new reality for all believers ever after. That is the work that was done. It changed us just as well as it changed those disciples. It's a mighty baptism. He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Now John also points though, to the judgment, to the judgment that Christ will bring. This baptism will also be a baptism of fire. John paints this picture in verse 17. He paints a picture of wheat being separated from chaff. The process is, ideally on some kind of breezy or windy evening, you, with your winnowing fork, you throw the wheat in the air, the chaff is lighter, the wind carries it away, the wheat falls right back down, and you're sort of separating the wheat from the chaff, what's useful from what's not useful. Eventually, the picture then, of course, is that the chaff is piled up somewhere and thrown into the fire and burned altogether. The fire that Jesus will bring will be a terrifying purging of mankind. Terrifying purging of mankind. See, the scary part of this text, of this teaching, of this truth that judgment is coming, the really scary part is that we are talking about people. We are not talking about agriculture anymore. We are talking about people here. When I look at this room, the truth is I don't know the heart of any of you. I know some of you well, I know some of you less well, but even the ones I know well, I do not actually know your heart. And if someone came to me and said, I want you to identify every Christian in this room, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I'd get some right, but I'd get some wrong. I just don't know hearts like that. We as people do not know the heart like that. And so while we live in this life, there is always going to be this kind of uncertainty about who is who, who's with Christ, who's with the world. Our company during this time will always be mixed. But it won't always be that way. There comes a day when Jesus will judge perfectly. There will be none who can fool him. There's no hiding. There is no deceiving Jesus on that last day. There comes a day when the Lord himself will separate the people who are his own from the people who are not. From the people who believed and trusted him and followed him, and then the people who rejected him, who refused him. The people who are his, they'll be gathered to him. And that, that is the dream of every Christian, is it not? To have Christ call us out, gather us to him. That is our dream. That's what we long for in this life. Sometimes we feel so far away and we just longing, Lord, bring me close. That's why sometimes we long for this to just be done. It's not even that this is so terrible all the time. It's just that we know we want to be near to the Lord. And here sometimes we feel so far away. But the dream of the Christian, the dream of the one who has actually believed in Christ and found salvation in Christ, you realize that dream is the nightmare for the world. That dream is a nightmare for the world. The people who are not His will suffer what John can only describe as unquenchable fire. There will be no end to their condemnation. People with eternal souls will endure eternal punishment. There will be no place left to hide. There will be no escape. There will be no relief. It is terrifying what is coming. And we need to have our attitudes corrected severely sometimes on our view of judgment. I mean, we start with a household of faith. Start with how Christians view non-Christians and the judgment that awaits. Judgment is fearful. And it's not just an idea. And it's not a blunt weapon that you use against others. Judgment is terrifying. What is coming is terrifying. And we know that. It's up here in the brain. Is it a conviction of our lives? Is it a conviction of our lives? Do we understand the doom that awaits our loved ones? Have you wrestled with that? There's no more sweeping it under the rug. Do you understand that doom awaits wonderful, generous people, people who you've weathered life storms with, people you've had fun with, people you count as longtime friends or family? Do you understand the condemnation that awaits them? If we believe that judgment is real, If we believe that hell is real, brothers and sisters, we, we have to repent of how we have treated judgment, how lightly we have viewed it, how little it has mattered to us, especially when we consider those who do not believe. We must repent of the fear that prevents us from speaking. We must repent of using like awkwardness as if that is an excuse for not seeking to rescue your neighbor. I don't know how to talk about that. It would be really weird if I tried. I don't know how to talk to people either. That's like the universal condition. Yeah, we've got no idea, but yet judgment still exists. Whatever I don't know about talking to them, I know judgment's still coming. How long am I going to believe that awkwardness counts as a reason for why I don't speak? We must repent of using our ignorance as if that's an excuse for not talking about subjects we're not comfortable with. I would talk to them about judgment, but I know they would bring up this and I have no idea what I would say. Again, what do you know? You know that there is one coming to judge Believe me, you couldn't contain in a set of encyclopedias how much I don't know. I'm with you on that. I know there are things that are scary. I know there are things that are embarrassing that we don't know. I know we would feel confounded on so many subjects, but really, is that an excuse? Sometimes it's not even just ignorance, it's willful ignorance. I don't know about that stuff, so I'm not gonna talk, and let's fill in the blanks, so I'm not gonna talk, and you can handle judgment on your own. We must repent of the lack of love that allows us to treat people's souls like they're unimportant, when it is eternity that hangs in the balance. It's not your opinions. It's not the good of your family. It's not some conversation subject. It is their eternity that we are talking about here. We must repent. There's a quote we run up here. We run a series of quotes during the prelude to try and focus our hearts and our minds on what we should be focusing on. And one of them is just so fitting. I bring it to you again. It's by Richard Baxter. He said that the face of death and nearness of eternity did much convince me what books to read, what studies to prefer and prosecute, what company and conversation to choose. It drove me early into the vineyard of the Lord and taught me to preach as a dying man to dying men. The nearness of judgment cannot be ignored in our day-to-day life. The truth of judgment must cause us to live differently. Love for our neighbor, love for our family, love for our friends. It means that we have duties of love to perform. The fear of man needs to take a backseat to the fear of God. Brothers and sisters, let us take courage and let us act. Let us be silent no longer. Today, today is the day to speak. Let our lives demonstrate that we know that every single day we draw nearer to judgment. Time is very finite. The hourglass is running. Today is the day to speak. I plead with the non-Christian to think soberly. carefully about judgment. Do justice to the truth that judgment is coming. And I'm just gonna put my cards down. I'll say it frankly, you know judgment's coming. You know judgment is coming. God's work on our hearts is too clear. We don't know everything that the Bible has to tell us just innately, but on our hearts, We know a number of things, but among them, we know that there is a right and that there is a wrong. We know that there is such a thing as justice and we will answer to it. We know that there is a standard of justice that exists above us and that we have violated it. I think the biggest mistake that people make is that they assume that they are going to be fine when the day of judgment comes. They assume that they are good enough. Hey, I'm not claiming perfection here, but I'm good enough. Have you seen the other guy? That is a wretched person. We seem to think that judgment and hell are reserved for about like a dozen people across all of history. But we, we are going to be just fine. I know judgment's coming for other people, but I'll be okay. What you have to ask yourself is what does God say on the matter? What does God say on the matter? God says that we will answer. God says that we will answer for every word, every action, every thought. You take the thoughts alone. If all God was going to look at in your life was the 45 minutes that you've been in this building, you would stand guilty. You would stand guilty, your thoughts alone in that short a time would testify to your guilt before God. What are we going to do if he's going to hold our whole lives against us? We will answer. And the only standard that God says will pass on the day of judgment is perfection. The very thing that we grant we are not. Not a single person walks around and says, I'm perfect. Not a single one of us. For some reason, God's common grace, I guess. We still don't believe that about ourselves, that we are perfect. And if you know you're not perfect, and if God's standard is perfection, do the math. The Holy One of heaven will not tolerate a single lie that you have told. He will not tolerate a single angry thought that you have had. He will not tolerate a single act of indiscretion. People who are good enough don't actually exist in God's view of the world. He's got no category for the person who is just good enough. If you are not absolutely, hear that word, if you are not absolutely perfect, not a single crime to your name, not a single lie told, not a single lustful thought, not a single act of violence or theft or gossip, if that is not you on that last day, you will stand condemned before the judge of heaven. That is what God says. Judgment comes for us all. And the scriptures tell you who do not believe that you are not ready for that terrifying day. You are not ready. So I plead with you. I plead with you, please don't wait a moment longer. Don't wait a moment longer. The only hope that you have on that day of judgment is Jesus Christ. The only hope you have is entrusting the one who can pay the penalty of justice for you. The only hope you have is in the perfect life, not that you ever came close to living, but the perfect life that Jesus Christ actually did live. And the good news, the good news of the gospel that you should not leave without hearing. The good news of the gospel is that the one who will someday come as our perfect judge, he already came and he came as our perfect savior. The holy one came for those who are not holy. The perfect one came for the broken, the wretched, the evil, the lost, the sinner. That is who he came for. And if you, today even, if you will trust in Jesus Christ, trust that he did live that perfect life, trust that he died, not for anything he did, but for crimes that we committed. If you trust that he did in fact rise from the grave and conquer death, you will be forgiven. You will be forgiven for things that this world thinks are unforgivable, that the world would crucify you for. You can find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. For all those who are found in Jesus Christ, who have found that forgiveness in Jesus Christ, the judgment seat no longer holds your condemnation. Good news, good news. Today is the day. I urge you, Don't look to tomorrow. Don't look to an hour from now. Today is the day. If the condemnation of the Lord weighs heavy upon your heart, know that in an instant it can be replaced with the joy of the Lord, with the peace of the Lord, the hope of the Lord, the love of the Lord, all the blessings of the Lord. He will exchange condemnation for blessing. The way of the world is the way of judgment. It is the way of condemnation. The way of the world, which is just what you should assume you are living if you are not following Christ, the way of the world will be met on that last day by unending torment, by misery, by agony. There are no words to do justice to what an eternity of hell is going to be like. That is the way of the world, but the way of Jesus Christ is described as everlasting life, as joy unspeakable. And when you put those side by side, unending torment on the one hand and joy unspeakable on the other, what choice is there? There is no choice to be made. I urge you, if you are not a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, if your life is not His, consider judgment soberly. and believe the words of the gospel that say that you can be forgiven. Luke records that the crowds were expecting Jesus. Brothers and sisters, let us do likewise. Let us live in certainty that judgment and salvation are coming. Let us live expectantly. Let us be prepared for the day that is coming. With the end of this passage, Luke makes a point to summarize John the Baptist. John the Baptist was characterized as a man who preached good news to the people. John proclaimed the coming of the anointed one of God. The Savior was coming. Good news, he could say. God's Messiah is coming. John preached that because Christ is coming, evil is going to be judged. That is good news. The quote in your bulletin, it's the quote I'm going to read, and it's so important. Judgment, says Leon Morris, judgment is not at first sight, very good news, but it is an integral part of the gospel. Unless we can be sure that in the end, evil will be decisively overthrown, there is no ultimate good news. So here's the good news. The rescue is coming. Deliverance is coming. Justice is coming. Good news indeed. John preached that because Christ is coming, repentance and forgiveness were possible. We get hung up on repentance. Oh, that's a, you know, sour subject. No, no, no. But it's good news because they're actually possible. This is good news. Remember, we've talked like two or three sermons about repentance. So I'm going to do this quick. Repentance is in the context of hope. Our sins can be washed clean if we will only repent in faith. We don't repent and the scriptures don't ask us to repent expecting judgment. We repent in the certain hope of forgiveness. That's good news indeed. Now in a sad, but entirely predictable reaction, the ministry of John the Baptist gets him arrested. You know, John, really, when you look at him, he was a model of faithfulness. Herod, the Tetrarch Herod, one of these powerful regional rulers, he was living in an adulterous relationship with his brother's wife. And John calls him out on it. This is sin, Herod. Frankly, the whole sum of your life is sin. This wild man in the desert was not going to be cowed by any earthly ruler. He was not going to be silenced no matter what was awaiting him. He spoke the truth. And the truth cost him. The truth cost him. He was locked up. Later, he's going to be beheaded. John was a faithful man. John was a courageous man. I'd encourage you to realize though that courage isn't the main thing going on here. Sometimes it's just the truth. The truth forces us to go directions that we are not feeling particularly courageous about. I bet you there's a lot of saints in the history of the church, martyrs, who would have counted themselves cowards, but they couldn't abandon the truth of God. It was the truth that mattered more than whether they counted themselves as courageous. We need to realize that we likewise are in times where the truth will not be convenient. The truth will not even be desired. And yet there are times when you will be called upon to speak and to speak the truth. The truth is not always rewarded in this life, but be prepared that you will be called upon to speak. If John is the model of faithfulness, Herod really is the model of unrepentance. He hears the truth. He can't plead ignorance on this one. He hears the truth and he hardens his heart. Not only does he reject God's counsel, he harms God's messenger. This is a terrible place to be in as a human being. Hard-hearted and sprinting toward judgment. And the truth is there are far more of us like Herod than we care to admit. So here's our prayer. It's a prayer for ourselves, it's a prayer for others. Lord, please deliver the hard-hearted from their doom. I want to bring you back full circle to the way that Luke wrote his gospel, and we'll end with this last point. Luke places this summary of John's arrest actually earlier in his gospel than do Matthew and Mark. You ask yourself, why would he do that? Because he's not trying to say it happened earlier than it did. He just wants to tell you about it earlier in his story. And it appears that Luke wants to write about John in a way that really brings out, that emphasizes that John was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, that he came first. That was what he was there to do. Remember, everything, everything in this gospel so far has been building to Christ. And during that period of the buildup, John the Baptist is hugely significant. He is a big time player as long as Jesus is not yet on the scene. But as soon as Jesus is about to appear in his ministry, Luke makes this point to summarize John and sort of let John fade to the background. Now that the Messiah is here, the forerunner has done his job and he doesn't need to be in the story anymore. So I want you, I want you relish this moment in the story. Prophecy has been fulfilled. The way of the Lord has been prepared. And so the forerunner bows low as his king draws near. The only reason that we read this book, this gospel, it's not because of who Luke is. We read this because we want to read about the ministry of Jesus Christ. And now He is about to begin His work. No more whispers anymore. No more prophecies that we're awaiting. The greater one. the mightier one, the holy one. He stands on the edge of the stage about to take over the entire story of redemptive history. Feel that expectation building in you like the crowd surrounding John. Feel the yearning, feel the yearning for the long awaited fulfillment of the plans of God. Feel the longing of the people of God for their deliverance. And it's to that grand act of fulfillment that we will turn to next time. With the beginning of the ministry of the God-man grown. Next time, Jesus steps on the scene. Let's pray. Father, may we do justice to the truth as you have given it to us. There are things we don't understand and we don't need to understand, but there are things that are so straightforward that we need to be living in light of. Lord, may every one of us in this room do justice to the truth that judgment is coming. I pray for those who have not believed yet. Lord, don't let them go. Don't let them go without finding the forgiveness that they need. Don't let them go without finding the grace that they need. Lord, save the hard-hearted from their doom. For the children of God in this room, Lord, forgive us. We have not done justice to the truth that you have given us. I pray that this afternoon, that this night would be a night that we find ourselves unable to not speak the truth of the gospel. I pray that you would make opportunity for the conversations that we long for, that we pray for, with the people that fill our hearts and fill our lives. I pray that we would be a people faithful to you and faithful to our neighbor. May we live in light of the truth that our Savior will come back. Our Father, we cannot wait until the day that our Savior comes back. But we pray that in the meantime that you would be active and mighty to save. We don't want to see a single one of our friends, our loved ones, or our enemies lost. We want you to raise up uncountable numbers of your children from our valley, from our state, from the wicked organization that's Planned Parenthood. Raise up your children. And we pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.