“Whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather his wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.” Luke 3:17.
These are solemn words my friends. The entire word of God is solemn but parts of it are more solemn than others and these words are exceptionally solemn. These words pertain to every human being that has been, is and will be until the end of time. As the apostle says:—”We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” No one can run away from this as the Psalmist says:—
“From thy spirit whither shall I go
Or from thy presence fly,
Ascend I heaven, lo, thou art there
There if in hell I lie.”
These are the matters we ought to be thinking about — but oh! man is so lost so utterly depraved — so hypocritical and so full of himself; and we are all every one of us the same. We are of the same mould — from the Queen on the throne to the poorest and most despised person on earth — we are all the same as far as spiritual matters are concerned. We have all to run the race God has ordained for us. When I myself look back upon my life — what have I? It has gone like a flash and supposing I were to live as long again, What have I? As the Psalmist says —
“Lo thou my days an handbreadth madest
Mine age is in thine eye
As nothing sure each man at best
Is wholly vanity.” Psalm 39:5.
There is only one thing needful. One thing only is praiseworthy. The word of God and the Gospel of the blessed Lord is the only thing worth paying attention to. When we shall come to the end of our life and shall come face to face with the endless eternity, there is then only one thing needful and that is the word of God and the One whom the word of God reveals — the Lord Jesus Christ — the sum and substance of the entire Bible.
The words of our text were spoken by the Holy Spirit through John the Baptist. The Jews looked upon John as a saint and the Bible says he was sanctified from the womb. He was the forerunner of Christ as the prophet Isaiah prophesied 800 years before it happened.
John knew through the teaching of the Holy Spirit that there was no other way of salvation but through the Lord Jesus Christ. He boldly rebuked Herod and told him where he was guilty — and oh, my friends, what a monster of iniquity Herodias was when she asked for the head of the blessed John on a dish.
We are told that the big city of Aberdeen has been contaminated by a tin of bully beef. Oh, my friends, what a tin of bully beef the heart of man is — how full of germs — worse than the typhoid germs. It is the well from which proceeds all sin and iniquity. But, my friends, when grace enters it finds the soul full of thieves and robbers. The first prayer of grace is “Create a clean heart in me.” When the sinner is taught by the Holy Spirit and he realises where he is going, that prayer is uttered in all sincerity. Grace comes in and directs the sinner to the blessed Saviour. Grace will make a person small and insignificant in his own estimation — as I once heard the late worthy Mr Beaton, Gairloch, saying — “It is nature of grace to be emptying the creature.”
Isn’t it amazing, my friends, how careless we are about these things? — which goes to prove how utterly depraved and lost we are!
Oh, my friends, I am eternally lost, apart from the Lord Jesus and the efficacy of His sacrifice.
But He will gather His wheat into His garner. The eternal Father is here revealing more and more the power of the Son. All power in Heaven and earth was given to Him by the Father. By the fan in his hand we understand His power. The hosts of heaven and the peoples of the earth are His. Through Him and by Him all things are created. He summoned the worlds out of nothing.
But oh, my friends, we hear such a lot of rubbish today about the creation — millions of years it took the creation to evolve. The Bible says that He created everything in six days, and if the Bible said it, we believe He could have created everything in a split second.
Is it not a very good thing for us, my friends, the hand that holds the fan? This was the One that took pity on us when there was no one to pity. The everlasting wealth of the Gospel is here and we have a little of it here yet in Harris. Oh how thankful we should be that we still have the Bible and are allowed to open it.
Christ came and gave to his own the rules of life that will stand firm until the day of judgment. But, oh my friends, what an example He left us — when He was reviled, He reviled not; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgest righteously.
Oh, may He deal with us with His word before it is too late. If you will not bow your knee to him here, you will do so at the day of judgment. When His enemies shall lick the dust in obedience to Him.
Christ with His fan is purging the world. He will gather home the wheat and the chaff he will burn. Is it not a good thing for you, ‘poor soul, that the fan is in Christ’s hand? Why then should ye be afraid? It is the merciful hand, the powerful hand, the unerring hand that will not let one grain, however small, fall to the ground.
He is protecting and guiding us, and tonight again we are hearing and reading about Him in whom all the fullness of grace meets, the fullness that can satisfactorily fill our emptiness.
We have need of grace — grace that will take us home out of this terrible world — grace that will empty us out of everthing that is our own, that will make us bend our knees, that will keep us running the race set before us, that will make us pray without ceasing, that will make us read the Word. May He bless His word. Let us call upon His Name.