In the sermon 'Baptized with the Holy Spirit and Fire' by Peter Allison, the speaker explores the role of John the Baptist as a herald preparing the way for Christ. John baptized with water as a symbol of repentance, while Christ would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, signifying an inward transformation and purification. The sermon emphasizes John's humility as he deflects attention from himself to Christ, underscoring that Christian humility involves directing focus toward Christ rather than oneself. The analogy of the threshing floor is used to illustrate the separation of true believers (wheat) from non-believers (chaff), with Christ conducting this judgment. The sermon also addresses the concept of eternal punishment, arguing against annihilationism and asserting that punishment for the wicked is everlasting, paralleling the eternal life promised to believers. This eternal punishment is described as a continuation of existence without communion with God, highlighting the severity and seriousness of judgment.

Please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 3. I'd like to read verses 15 through 18. Now as the people were in expectation, And all reasoned in their hearts about John whether he was the Christ or not. John answered saying, To all I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.

And with many other exhortations He preached to the people. May God give to us to meditate upon His law and His Word day and night. Word day and night. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that you have preserved and given to us. I pray that as we look into it this morning, that the chaff, any chaff that is spoken would be driven away.

May you prevent it from even coming forth from my lips. Pray that you would preserve to us and bring to us the truth of your Word in power, in might, with conviction that we might be changed and sanctified through your word this morning. In this we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. John is the herald who was to go before Christ to prepare the way. And his ministry we see, we saw two weeks ago, was so powerful and so convicting of people, of their sins, that the people were coming to him and saying, what should we do?

What should we do? He had told them that the axe is laid at the root of the trees, and Every branch, every tree that didn't bear fruit would be cut down. That God didn't need them. He was just fine without them. That He could raise up from the stones children of Abraham.

Even the tax collectors and soldiers came to John asking, what should we do? And he told them. He applied the Word of God to them, into their specific situation, telling the tax collectors to only collect what was fair and right, telling the soldiers not to abuse their authority and intimidate people, or wrongly prosecute people. And John was baptizing people. His ministry was powerful.

The People began to wonder, here is this man who is somewhat strange, lives in the desert, eats locusts, dressed in camel skins. That is where he abode, people came out to him. And he is baptizing. They recognized what he was doing because their prophets had said that the Messiah would come, that he would sprinkle many nations. And so they're beginning to wonder, is this person, the Christ, was John himself the one that they were looking for.

Because there was an expectation of the Messiah. Now, many of them had a gross misunderstanding, not all. We know there were Simeons and Annas who were rightly understanding the office of the Messiah. But there were many who misunderstood, who were looking for a political ruler who would come and defeat the Romans as the Maccabeans had defeated the Greeks, and who would establish a kingdom like they had under Solomon. They didn't know what they wanted.

God's kingdom was far more glorious than anything Solomon ever had. And so these people were following him. They were attracted to the power of his ministry. The people were, some of them were. And there would be a very strong temptation to play along, to let the people maybe wonder if he might be the Messiah, to get as much play as possible out of the people's misconception.

To obtain and to bask in these people who were following him as his disciples. But John doesn't do this. John doesn't do anything of the sort. He doesn't in any way lead the people to be his disciples, to be attached to him. The people earn expectation and their reasoning in their hearts about John, and John answers and said very convincingly, no, I am not the Christ.

But he confirmed the people's expectation of the Messiah. He didn't even seek to diminish the Messiah's expectation, their expectation of the Messiah so that they might pay more attention to Him. Rather, He confirmed their desire and expectation in the sight. He said, there is one coming after Him who is mightier than I. That's humility.

This one that's coming after me that's mightier than I, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He sought to renew and to heighten the people's expectation of Christ's coming. He drew them to desire Christ and not himself. He diminished himself in their sight, proclaiming the desirability and power of Christ, proclaiming Christ's power to be better and bigger than His, and Christ's station and Christ's office to be far superior to His office and Christ's work to be greater than his work. That's humility.

To be very tempting. To take this affection, this adoration of the people and to bask in it, to allow it to accrue to himself and to build up his ministry. But he says just the opposite. He must increase, I must decrease. Decrease.

John says that he is not even worthy to untie the sandal strap of the Messiah. He is not even worthy to untie the strap of his sandal. That was the most menial task that a slave could perform. When you think about it, you know, feet are rather stinky things, sometimes they're dirty. And it's the most menial task that any servant could be required to do.

It's reserved for the lowest of the servants. Of the servants. And John says, I'm not even worthy to touch this sandal, to remove and loosen it. He must increase, I must decrease. See, this desire for where people's attention is drawn, and to what people's attention is drawn, is the essence of Christian modesty.

It's really not about the length of clothes and the amount of skin that is covered or not covered. It's about where we want people's attention to be drawn. To ourselves or to Christ? Immodesty is at root the desire to be desired. The desire to be desired.

That desire to be desired. You might say it's that lust to be lusted after. John had nothing to do with that. He wanted nothing to do with that. He must increase, I must decrease.

I'm not even worthy to untie His sandal. He turned the attention and the affection of the people and the notice and the recognition of the people that were following him away from himself and onto Christ. John's purpose here is to make these people disciples of Christ and not himself. To lead them to love Christ more deeply, not himself. He's not willing that people should think of him as the Christ for even an instant.

So he answers very decisively. In the Gospel of John, we record him saying this multiple times. John says, he repeats himself to reiterate this point. He confirmed the people's expectation and heightened their desire for Christ. He says he's not even worthy to untie his sandal strap.

He says that his baptism is not as effective as Christ's baptism. John said, I baptize you with water for a baptism of repentance. Christ is going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. John's baptism was the application of an outward sign that represented the inward work of the Spirit, but it wasn't that work itself. John's was a baptism unto repentance.

His was a baptism, an Old Testament baptism for the purification that the Jews have been practicing since the time of Moses at least. Because the baptism of purification, of Repentance is described in numbers, sprinkling. It was an outward work. John himself could not affect the work of regeneration of which his baptism pointed. He could not himself pour out the Holy Spirit on them and change their hearts.

He could exhort them to repent. He could declare the truth to them, proclaiming forgiveness upon their repentance. But Christ can, Christ came, can and He will, and He does, baptize with the Holy Spirit. He gives the Spirit to cleanse and purify the heart. Not only as water washes off dirt that's on the outside, but as fire that purges out and refines the dross out of metal that melts it and refines it and makes it pure.

John, Jesus said John would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, a purifying fire. John can preach a doctrine and apply a sign distinguishing between the good and the vile, but Christ can and Christ would perfectly and does perfectly separate the wheat and the chaff. He will thoroughly purge his floor. He will cast out of the church, his church, the unbelieving and Unpenitent bearers of his covenant sign, and he will confirm in his church those that faithfully Follow him John can speak comfort to those who hear the gospel and receive the gospel, but Jesus Christ comforts us. John can promise safety on the basis of God's Word, but Christ makes us safe.

Gathering the wheat into his barn. As we read, there is no one that can snatch us from his hand. Christ accomplishes this. John proclaimed it. Christ shelters us.

The wheat in His barn forever. John can threaten the hypocrites and tell the barren trees that the axe has been laid to the root and they will be hewn down and cast into the fire. But Christ winnows the chaff, cleans his threshing floor and burns that chaff with unquenchable fire. Unquenchable fire. Pride would acknowledge Christ's greatness, but thinks itself worthy to untie Jesus' sandal strap, thinks itself worthy to hold his dirty shoes.

Pride thanks God for his salvation but thinks that it was smart enough to know to call on Christ, wise enough to choose Christ, strong enough to hold on to Christ, good enough to have been called. God has a perfect knowledge of every heart, Perfect knowledge of all of our character. He knows the pride that is in us. So this fire that he baptizes with is applied to every one of us. According as our works are found, Paul said either that which is wood, hay, and stubble is burned up, that which is silver and gold is preserved.

This humility that John demonstrates here leads us to recognize that we have nothing, nothing to offer. We bring nothing. And if Christ has loved us and called us, it wasn't because there was anything in us that led him to do that. We recognize that everything that he sends in the way of chastening, in the way of trials, we deserve and far more. Far more.

And that every day we live and enjoy His goodness that we don't deserve. Christ, John said, would come baptizing with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Spirit of course has reference to the Holy Spirit being poured out in the work of regeneration. This is the work that John spoke of, that we don't see it. We don't see the wind.

It's like the wind, Jesus said, it blows and we don't know where it came from and where it's going. But we see its effect. So God's, this baptism of the Holy Spirit is God's pouring out his Spirit to change our hearts. It's his pouring out of His Spirit that convinces us of our sin and misery, convinces us and shows us how God sees us as wicked people, about to be consumed by His wrath. And that's why these people cried out, what should we do?

What should we do? This is pouring out of the Holy Spirit is what changes our wills. So that we desire to do what we didn't desire to do. We want to do what we didn't used to want to do. It's a change of our very nature.

Such that we become new creatures in Christ. We have a new song. We have a new obedience. We have a new heart. And it can obey a new commandment.

This is the pouring out, the work of that Holy Spirit in regeneration. And it leads then, this work leads, this baptism of the Holy Spirit leads to the exercise of faith and repentance. Faith is a gift of God. The saving grace, repentance is likewise a saving grace. Faith allows us to trust in Christ.

Repentance enables us to turn from our sinful ways. You see these follow, these follow the work, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. We aren't saved because we ask God to save us. It's only a heart that has been regenerated, only a heart upon whom the Holy Spirit has been poured out in baptism that can turn to the Lord and ask Him to save us. The fire also has a reference to the purifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Purging the dross. Purging the dross from the metal and consuming the chaff. There's an analogy of a threshing floor. There's a very common analogy in scripture. It's used in many places.

It's a place of some importance. This is where your livelihood was concentrated. All of the work of the field to grow the grain is brought in to the threshing floor. Gideon is threshing in a wine press because he is trying to preserve the fruit of his labor from being taken by the enemies. People slept on the threshing floor.

Remember Boaz, in the time of threshing, was sleeping on the threshing floor. That's when Ruth came up to him. And so Bible talks about the Philistines stealing, robbing the threshing floors. There were different types of threshing. It could be done with a sledge.

That was a heavy object, a board, or that had teeth underneath it and it was dragged across the grain. They would prepare a flat place, usually a little bit elevated, so that the wind would blow across it, pack it down. And they could drag this sledge that had teeth across it and break the grain away from the chaff. But it could also be done with a stick, or it could be done with the hooves of the animals themselves. And Isaiah talks about the black cumin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the kummin, but the black kummin is beaten out the stick.

Red flour must be ground and so on. And you don't break it with a cartwheel or crush it with a horseman, with hooves. You see there's different ways that they thresh depending on what the grain was. Jeremiah speaks about Israel growing fat like a heifer threshing grain. Because the animals that were doing the work of threshing were allowed to eat the grain that they threshed.

And there was a commandment not to muzzle the ox as he treads out the grain. But this picture of the grain being threshed is a picture of this judgment. So it's used this way because after that grain was threshed, after it was broken out, either with a stick or with the hooves of the animals or this sledge, then they would take a fork and throw the grain into the air. And the wind would come through and blow the chaff away and Leave the grain on the threshing floor and that was a that was the work of cleaning the grain of winnowing it And and so the Scriptures speak then of this threshing process as a process of judgment. Proverbs 20 says, A wise king sifts out the wicked, sifts out the wicked.

That's this work of winnowing. We might call it a sieve where you Put something in and you want to separate something big from something little a Wise king sifts out the wicked and brings the threshing wheel over them Judgment Isaiah says that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river of the brook of Egypt and you will be gathered one by one. So it's both a gathering of the grain and it's a separating of the wheat from the chaff and a removal of the chaff. Daniel in describing the image that was destroyed by the stone cut without hands of the mountain says that then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor, and the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found." This is a picture of God's kingdom. And so John says that his winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn.

See, because of, Hosea says that because of idolatry, Ephraim would be like the morning cloud, like chaff blown from the threshing floor, like smoke from a chimney. It's also spoken of in terms of blessing, that the threshing floors would be full of wheat, and the vats would overflow with new wine and oil. And so Jesus, God speaks of that as what He would do with His people. See this threshing floor is the church. Judgment begins with the house of God.

He gathers his winnowing fan in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire there is an old heresy sometimes called annihilation ism that denies that the chaff will be burned with an unquenchable fire and instead it teaches that the chaff will simply cease to exist the wheat will exist for all eternity the chaff ceases to exist and This really gets back to the fundamental nature of man and who we are. We have been created in the image of God. We are created with a soul that never dies. This idea says that man was created mortal and immortality is a gift that is attached in salvation. The Bible declares here and elsewhere with the clearest unmistakable language that the punishment of the wicked is endless.

It is said to be eternal. It is said to be everlasting. These same words, eternal and everlasting, the same words that are used to describe the judgment of the wicked are also used to describe The eternity of God and the duration of the blessed condition of heaven and of the righteous. Now unto the King eternal, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. He that believes has eternal life, it never ends.

John says, I give them eternal life. And Romans tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. But these same words are used to describe the punishment of the wicked. Depart from me you cursed into everlasting, into eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. In Matthew 25 where the sheep and the goats are separated out Depart from me Jesus says To eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels so the wicked people the chaff will be going to the same fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels.

But in Matthew 25, in this passage, It says, and these will go away. Who is talking about the goats? These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Now in the Greek those are identical words. Ionian, eternal, everlasting.

All these things we are using to describe God's Eternality, this same word is used to describe both the punishment of the wicked, it's an everlasting punishment, and the same word is used to describe the life, the eternal life of those who are the sheep. It means it's the same thing. It's everlasting punishment. See, this theory of annihilation does violence also to the justice of God. Justice demands that the sinner receive punishment commensurate with his crime, not annihilation.

When the restraints on sin are removed, the sinner goes on sinning endlessly, defiantly against God. And there is need then for an endless punishment against endless sinning. The suffering of the wicked. Having no end is taught most clearly in a number of places besides this one, where Luke says, or John says that God would burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. In Revelation 14, 11, we read that this, well let me turn there.

Let me turn there. I have the verse, but let me turn there. Let me read Revelation 9, the third angel follows them with a loud voice, �If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his mark on his forehead and on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation, He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast in his image, whoever receives the mark of his name.

They have no rest, day or night. It is a torment, the smoke of their torment, the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever. There is no end to it. It doesn't say very clearly, it says it never ends. Their torment never ends.

In Revelation 20, 10, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever." It's not just that a fire is burning, but that they are being tormented in that fire forever and ever. Jude 13 refers to the wicked as wandering stars for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. And the wicked are referred to as suffering the punishment of eternal fire. In Mark 9 we are told also that this fire is unquenchable and that their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Daniel 2, 12 declares that many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

They that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. They that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake. There will be a resurrection. Some will awake to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame and contempt. It doesn't say that they cease to exist.

It doesn't say that the effect of this punishment is everlasting, but it says these passages in this text in Luke is saying that the punishment itself is everlasting. How can the punishment be everlasting? The punishment itself be everlasting if the sinner that is being punished has ceased to exist. The verse These passages in Luke here doesn't say that the effects of this punishment are everlasting. It is the punishment itself that is everlasting, just like it is The blessing of eternal life that is everlasting.

The fire, the punishment, the torment, the contempt, the worm, these are all descriptions of the punishment itself being everlasting. And this would have no sense if the people that were being punished had ceased to exist. See when it's also I think a misunderstanding of what death is and what destruction is. When we say something is destroyed, it doesn't mean that it ceases to exist. It goes into a state of non-existence, but it signifies a condition where of unable to perform its function.

A sinner has already been lost, destroyed, or ruined. But that doesn't mean that sinners cease to exist. Eternal death is not the extinction of being, but the extinction of well-being. It's the loss of fellowship and communion with God. The word death when it's spoken of the soul means alienation or separation from God.

And when that separation is final, then it's eternal death. The same we could say about the use of the word destroy or perish. To destroy is to ruin something. And the nature of what it means to ruin something depends on what it is that we are talking about. A thing is ruined when it is destroyed, when it is unfit for the use.

A car is destroyed when it doesn't run, it can't move, when the frame is twisted and the tires are blown and the engine doesn't turn over. And it is all broken down. We say the car is destroyed, it's not fixable, but it doesn't cease to exist. A ship at sea can become destroyed. It can have no rudder, no ability to turn.

An airplane that crashes into the ground is destroyed. It's in a thousand pieces, but it doesn't cease to exist. The substance of the airplane is still there. So a man can destroy himself when he ruins his health, squanders his property, debases his character, or renders himself unfit to act in life. A soul is utterly and forever destroyed when it is rejected, when it is alienated from God, when it is unable to have any longer to have fellowship and communion with God.

That is the reason that we were made, We were created for fellowship with God. And when that alienation is complete and final, the soul is said to be destroyed, but it doesn't cease to exist. You notice this very clear connection between, it's the same fire that is reserved for the devil and his angels, is also where the goats go, where the chaff is burned with unquenchable fire. But the wheat, the wheat is gathered into his barn where it is preserved for all eternity. And no one, no one can snatch God's people, His wheat, His sheep from His hand.

Amen. Almighty Heavenly Father, We pray that your Holy Spirit might teach us humility, that we might live in the power of your resurrection and not in our own strength, that all that we do might be yearning for you, for fellowship with you, communion with you. You destroy our pride. And gather us into your barn and hold us in the palm of your hand and comfort us with your rule and your kingship and your power. This we ask in Jesus name.

Amen.