By the Late Rev. Christopher Munro, Strathy
Preached at Kilmuir, Skye, 1st March, 1867
“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 an unquenchable fire,” — Matt. 3: 12.
In this verse we have a portion of John the Baptist’s description of the work given to Christ as the Father’s Servant. And as this work has an important bearing on the state of all mankind, and therefore on the state of each of us, it is surely a matter that calls for attention and consideration on the part of every man and woman among us. Let us then endeavour to turn our attention to it on this occasion, looking for and depending on the Spirit’s guidance and blessing.
Christ’s work is set before us here very briefly, and is divided into two departments — baptising with the Holy Ghost and purging His threshing floor. It is the latter department that is to form the chief subject of our meditation at present. The figure employed here to illustrate this solemn and important part of His work is as well known now as it was when spoken to the inhabitants of all rural and agricultural districts of a country. It is, as we have it written, a threshing floor into which the farmer brings his corn after it is cut and dried, in order to get it threshed; and when it has undergone this process, then he gets it winnowed, after which
he carefully gathers up the grain, and lets the chaff either go with the wind, or burns it up, as was the custom in the country of Judea.
Considering the state of my congregation and the command to preach the gospel as fully as possible on every occasion, I must turn their attention in the first place to the baptism by the Spirit and by fire, and then, to the second portion, the winnowing. I shall then notice how he describes Christ as one mightier than he; and the reasons why he did so are to be found not only in His person but also in His work.
I. The work, as indicated already, consists first in His baptism with the Holy Ghost. I attempted some Sabbaths before this to speak to you concerning the Spirit’s work in quickening the dead, and also concerning some of its fruits, but all I said then, or can say now, on this aspect of His work leaves this subject almost untouched; it is so extensive and profound that it is impossible to exhaust it. Here then we have the work of salvation described by its effects in the case of the redeemed. Much was antecedently necessary ere they could receive the Holy Ghost, and the fact of His being received, in the manner described here, implies the finishing of all that work given the Son to do in His estate of humiliation. John’s work was to preach repentance, declare the advent of the Saviour, baptise with water. But although he had been filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb, and was taught and led by Him in performing his work, he could not give that Spirit to any other; he could baptise none by the Spirit and by fire. Let none from this statement conclude that there is no difference then between teachers who have not the Spirit and those like John who are filled with Him. The giving of the Spirit in His saving influences and operations belongs to Christ. As Mediator and Saviour he was anointed by the Spirit, who was given Him not by measure. He is the head of the Church, which is His body, so that the oil poured on Him, as it was on Aaron, reaches down to His skirts, or is imparted to every member of that body or to every believer. He was anointed by the Father with the Spirit, in the first place, as Immanuel, and then the spirit was given by Him to others. The whole disposal and distribution of this gift is lodged in the Son as the Head of His Church. The effects or fruits, produced in them in consequence, are summed up here in the figurative word, fire. This teaches us that those baptised had been unclean, and their uncleanness of such a nature as requires fire to purify it. There are some impurities that nothing can remove except fire, especially the impurities of metals, and there is no impurity of any kind which may not be removed by fire, if it can be employed in sufficient quantity, and it removes it by consuming it and so cleanses.
But is it not said that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin?” Yes; Christ’s death made expiation for sin, and so it is the only means whereby the guilt of sin is removed, or by which the sinner is delivered from the curse of the law, from the sentence of death under which he is on account of transgressing the law. It is not, however, simply by the blood of Christ that sin as an unclean principle is removed and the soul is cleansed. It is true that it was Christ’s death that opened up a way for the Holy Ghost’s coming to sinners and taking up His abode in them, and so may be indirectly said to be the cause of their sanctification, but directly and immediately it is the work of the Spirit to sanctify the soul. The guilt of sin then is removed by the blood, but the pollution is removed or consumed by the sanctifying and mighty operation of the Holy Ghost. The uncleanness that is removed by sanctification is unbelief, rebellion of heart and will, the enmity of the carnal mind, love of sin and self, pride, hatred, anger, wrath, etc., or the disposition from which all these evils arise. These are as noxious plants in the soul to be rooted out, or as the lusts of the flesh to be mortified, or as stains to be washed and made white. The Spirit is given and dwells and works in them for these purposes. But is it not said that it is by beholding the glory of Jesus they are “changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord?” In sanctification there is a physical change effected in the soul and also a moral one. The spirit is the author of the former directly and of the latter by showing Christ as the example and rendering the word effectual to induce them to follow Christ or imitate the example He has left unto His people, so that they become like to Him. And also He causeth all things to work together for their good, that is, for their sanctification and comfort in the Holy Ghost. He worketh in them “both to will and to do”; inclines their wills, draws forth their hope, their desires, their fear, their humility, etc., and enables them to forsake sin and obey His will. By his working in them after this manner, they are led to see sin and hate it, resist it, struggle against it, and overcome it. In this manner He purges them from all their iniquities. He baptises them with the Holy Ghost.
II. The other department of His work is to purge His threshing floor, and this He does in the capacity of a judge. He it is who has the fan in His hand. All judgment is committed to the Son. None else could act the part of the Father’s Servant. No angel is fit for this work; no, not the whole multitude of them. Prophets and apostles are unfit for it. They cannot search men’s hearts; no, not one man’s heart. Peter could not see
that the heart of Simon Magus was not right with God, or not sincere in the profession made by him until it came to light by his doings. In separating the precious from the vile — all the righteous from all the wicked — infinite and infallible knowledge is necessary. To know and search the hearts of the countless multitudes of mankind is absolutely necessary in order to do the work ascribed here to Christ. To take in all the thoughts, words and actions, all their motives, all their ends, requires an infinite mind, an infinite understanding. Christ then must be God. For if not, this is work which He could never perform, and therefore that could not have been committed unto Him. This work, however, is committed to Him, and we have the utmost certainty of His being able to perform it, and therefore there is no doubt of His yet executing it. He knows His sheep; knows them by name; knows their circumstances and the time they live. He knows their works, as He tells the churches of Asia. He knows their thoughts, their desires, their faith, their love, their sealing, for they are all sealed by the Spirit. He knows well what often perplexes them in the day of their effectual calling; He knows their repentance, their obedience, their union to Him, and the fact of His purging them. They are written on the palms of His hands; they are as seals on His arms, and on His heart. He has hold of every one of them.
Christ knows all who are not His people, and shall know them afterwards. “Depart from me, I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity” — He did not know them as His people — shall be His language to every one of the ungodly. He makes a clear and decisive distinction between the clean and the unclean, between wheat and chaff, in His word. The one class is dead, the other living; the one is regenerated and the other unregenerated; the one has the Spirit and the other has Him not. One man fears God the other has not His fear before his eyes. One loves Christ, the other does not. The believer has grace, the other is destitute thereof. The one pursues holiness, the other pursues sin. The pure in heart are poor in spirit; the unclean are rich and have need of nothing. The former serve God, the latter their lusts. One man is given to prayer, the other either neglects it or rests on it, and prays to be seen of men. The believer is a stranger here, and finds no resting place, no abiding city; the unbeliever makes himself and the world his god and heaven. The former has his treasure in heaven, and therefore his heart there, but the latter minds earthly and carnal things. The former endeavours to live to God, the other lives to himself.
These are very marked and wide distinctions made in the Word between the two classes, and made by Christ through His Spirit, so that we
may consider them as one way in which he uses His fan. He purges His Church to some extent on earth. He permits temptations to fall out, by which the unsound or the chaff are made known to be so. The Church, as a visible body, has experienced declensions from the faith and practice of the truth, and when this happened, or does happen, it is He who can purge it or reform it, by sending forth His truth and His light whereby heresies and errors are brought to light, and men are rendered sincere in their profession and zealous for purity of doctrine and discipline and practice. Until He takes His fan in this case, matters will proceed from bad to worse, and no human wisdom nor human effort can check the spread of error, of delusion, of corruption of manners among ministers and people. To whatever degree of purity He may bring His Church on earth, we are not led by Scripture to expect that it shall be absolutely free from chaff on earth.
The thorough purging mentioned here must be understood as that to which the Church shall be subjected at the last day — a final judgment — when Christ shall appear, and when all mankind shall be called to His bar. Then He shall separate the chaff from the wheat, or the righteous from the wicked, so that no believers shall be left among the unbelievers, and no unrighteous person allowed to remain among the just. The obscurest penitent shall not be overlooked, nor permitted to be driven away by the winnowing wind, and the best painted formalist shall not be able to stand in judgement; he shall be as conspicuous for the want of the wedding garment as he who never made any pretence to religion, or as the most openly wicked or undisguised enemy. The eye of the King, come in to see the guests, will at once detect him, and so he will be moved away to the left hand. The wind shall pass over all, and none can stand but the righteous. These shall, like wheat, be gathered, and none left, none lost, but all led safely into the house or mansions prepared for them, and none of them shall go out any more, shall be any more among the wicked or shall lie among the pots. None of them shall be any more tried or tempted by sin or by the world or by the devil. They shall no more fear the results of the great day, for it shall be past to their unspeakable peace and joy for ever and ever. They shall then be where their hearts have been while strangers on earth; they shall then have their soul’s desire satisfied. Their desires expressed in groans unutterable shall then come out clearly and find their satisfaction in Him, in whom all fulness dwelleth. And the fear of falling away shall not as much as for a moment mar their perfect peace, joy and felicity. This gathering shall be the work of Christ Himself: this peace, comfort, and satisfaction will be imparted freely and
ungrudgingly. Then shall be seen more clearly than ever how all the promises of God are in Him, yea and amen.
Supposing the question was put to them, “Has a single promise failed in the case of a single person here? If so, let him speak out and mention what it is,” none would be there to reply. And might not He ask each of them and receive an affirmative answer to such questions as these, “Did not I speak truth when I said ‘He that believeth in the Son shall have everlasting life’: ‘Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out’: when I said that ‘all things shall work together for good to them that love God’: and when I assured all believers of the being kept through faith unto salvation. Did I not speak the truth also when I promised that My grace would be sufficient for them and My strength made perfect in weakness?” “O yes,” would be the universal reply. “Is not My reward better than all I required of you to forsake for Me? Is it not better to be here, wearied and worn out in the good fight, better to come maimed and halt, disowned and hated by the world, than be cast into hell? Look down and take a view of their torments, their privations, pains and agonies, and hear the requests that are not to be gratified, and take a survey of your mansions, of the glorious home built by God, of its walls and gates and streets and inhabitants, and come now, drink of this river, this fountain, eat of this tree. Come and take your fill at the fountain of sovereign, eternal and redeeming love, and say if all My promises are not yea and amen.” O yes! Eye hath not seen, and it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive the things prepared by God for His people. The doom of the wicked is as fearful to contemplate as that of the just is delightful and glorious, but they shall be cast into that fire which is unquenchable and eternal. They shall believe when it is too late that all threatened against sin is true, that it deserves the wrath and curse of God for ever and ever, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; that it had been better never to have been born than to die in sin; better never to have heard of sin and salvation and to have Christ offered and yet to be rejected by them; for their everlasting existence shall be a state of suffering the most intolerable pain that a creature can bear. There is no pain like that of fire.
And this fire shall not serve the purpose of purging them from their dross, like the fire spoken of under the former head of this discourse. It shall never remove one stain or spot. It shall not consume one evil passion or sinful lust, but these in the midst of this furnace shall retain their being and their exercise, the power of the fire only adding to their painful craving that is never destined to be satisfied. It will not purge the cons-
science from guilt nor warm the heart, but render it as cold as an iceberg towards God and fellow-creatures. It will not melt it, but render it as hard as an adamant stone. Its purpose shall be to punish and not to reform, and the period during which the punishment shall be inflicted is not to come to a termination.
What do these things teach? They teach that we are defiled and unholy by nature and so unfit for heaven, the seat of everlasting blessedness and rest — that unless we are purified we can not see God in peace, but must be cast away like the dross of silver and gold. We are told that one came who baptises with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This, as you know, is Jesus Christ, who alone can give the Spirit. He still lives and has the residue of the Spirit, so that He is able to baptise now. He still carries on this work, and does this to everyone that comes to Him. Have you come unto Him with the conviction that you needed such a baptism? If so, you must be conscious of this need still; you must now feel your need of being washed and purified from all your dross. Give this work to Him; give heed unto His testimonies, unto all He requires of you; for by this the young man shall purify his ways. The Lord’s ways are undefiled, whereas the ways of sin are defiled and cannot be touched without receiving some spots. In the Lord’s ways there is no defilement; none is contracted, but the soul is cleansed more and more. Let your dependence be on Him for being upheld in His ways and so for being more and more sanctified and made holy. Is not this most desirable for those who abhor themselves and have frequently to cry out “Unclean, unclean?” Come then you, whose complaint is of that nature, apply unto Him, learn of Him, follow Him, and this thy uncleanness shall be removed and thou made whiter than the snow.
Let all learn from this passage the nature of the trial that awaits all of us present here this day. We must all appear before Him, spoken of in our text, who has the fan. Let any or all of us now avoid Christ and refuse to come to Him, yet we must come at last and go through the trial. Are you ready for it, were He to call you now? Could you stand in judgment? He, who has the fan, now calls and invites you to come unto Him. O how long will you refuse, how long be guilty of the folly of despising and rejecting Him who came to cleanse, and besides whom there is none else to do it! Come as you are; think not that you can cleanse yourself; wait not for this, by which many are deceived, and so they put off, till death overtakes them, far away from Christ wallowing in their pollution, and the opportunity, during which they might be washed and purified, gone for ever.