Preached at Burnham, Morning of the 14th Sunday after Trinity, September 2, 1866.
“Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of Him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”—St. Matthew iii. 5, 6.
Our Lord once asked the Jews why it was that they went in such multitudes into the desert. ‘It could not be,’ He said, ‘to see reeds shaking in the wind; it must have been to see or hear some man. But what sort of man? Was it,’ He asked, ‘one clothed in soft raiment? Such a man,’ He said, ‘you might have found in kings’ courts, but not in a wilderness. Was it then a prophet,’ He said, ‘whom you looked for? Did you think that the man who was clothed in camel’s hair and with the leathern girdle about his loins was that? If you did,’ our Lord said, ‘you were not mistaken; he was a prophet—he was more than a prophet; of him it is written—“I will send my messenger before my face; he shall prepare my way before me.”’
Let us try then to understand how this plain man showed himself to be a prophet, and how he prepared the way for a greater than he was.
He did no strange or wonderful act. He had lived alone in the deserts; the people in the towns and in the country knew nothing of him. His speech was plain like his dress, and he did not change it to suit the tastes of different people; he did not speak in one way to the rich, and in another to the poor; he had the same message for all—“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
What did he mean by saying “Repent”? He meant ‘Turn round to a God whom you cannot see, but who knows you; who knows what you have been doing; who knows all your bad ways. Turn to a righteous God, for you have been unrighteous men.’—
Does that sound like a voice which men of all kinds and classes, in all different places, would like to hear? If John the Baptist had brought the tidings of some wonderful thing which they might gaze at or handle, they might have been curious to know what it was, if they even half believed that it was worth seeing. If they were told of a person who was very benevolent, and would give them some treasures each according to his taste, that might have been a reason for crowds to gather, and to go some distance; but to hear of one whom they could not see—of one who had not found out some good in them which deserved rewards, but had found out the evil that was with them all—would not they be likely to shrink away from such words; to go as far as possible from the man who spoke them?
But perhaps the other words which he spoke made up for what was hard and painful in these. He said—
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” What did that sentence mean? It meant that the King of heaven was very near to them, that He was coming to them; that He would know all that they were thinking as well as what they had been doing. “His fan,” said John the Baptist, “is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor; He will gather the wheat into His garner, the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.” The words—“The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” then, do not sound more cheering than the command “Repent.”
And yet both were cheering; both were what men in that day wanted to hear. ‘What?’ you say; ‘did murderers, and adulterers, and false-swearers want to hear of One who knew all their secrets; from whom they could not hide themselves any longer?’ Yes, my friends. It is a very intolerable thing for a man to hide a bad secret in his heart, to feel that he is a liar. It is the best news, and what you want, to hear you may get rid of that burden; you may throw it off; you may make a clean breast; you may become a straight and honest man again. If people felt that they might in very deed throw off the load which is on their hearts—the load of falsehood, the load of treachery—they would be more glad to do it than to get much corn and wine or stores of gold; for what good do the corn and the wine and the stores of money do a man if he carries a heavy heart within him, if he cannot quit himself of that? If he can, these things may give much pleasure, or he may go on very well without them. The only question is this—can anyone take this burden from us? Is there anyone who is willing to take it?
Now John the Baptist did not pretend that he could take any single man’s burden from him, that he knew the secret of any man’s heart. If he had spoken in his own name some might have heeded him, but those who did would have gone away disappointed, he would have given them no relief; they would have heard him preach, and they would have admired him, perhaps, but the preaching would have passed out of their minds; they would have been the same men as before. But he spoke in the name of the Lord God. He believed Him to be a real being; a real searcher of the hearts of the children of men. He believed that God was able to take away the burden from men’s hearts, and that He was willing as well as able to take it away. When he said “Repent,” he did not doubt that God was saying it; that God was in very deed calling men to repent and turn to Him; that He desired to send away the sins from them which were burdening them and hindering them from being His true servants. John believed that if God called men to repent, He would give them repentance, that He would draw them to Himself. He may have been astonished when he saw such crowds swelling around a poor man like him. He may have said—‘What have I done to move people: whom I do not know, whom I never heard of, like this?’ He may have been astonished, but he will have known very well, ‘I did not bring them; I had no charm to make them follow me. It is God’s word that has entered into them. That has laid bare the secrets that they kept hidden; that has showed them that what they want is light, not darkness; that they want God to be near them, and not far from them. And now He has taught them that He is near them, and not far from them; that He is not their enemy, but their friend; that He does not desire their death, but their life; that He does not wish to destroy them for their sins, but to save them from their sins. He has taught them this, and therefore they have come to my baptism.’ Here, my friends, are the signs of a prophet—a man who does not speak his own words, but the words of the Lord. But John not only spoke words, he baptized, we are told, for the remission of sins. He gave them a clear sign, a simple sign, that God actually sent away their sins; that when they turned to Him to make them clean, He did make them clean. It was a sign. The water washed their bodies, God washed their hearts within them; He took away that which was defiling their hearts, as He had appointed water for taking away that which defiled their bodies. If you ask me what it was that most defiled their hearts, I should answer it was distrust. They had not trusted God, therefore they disobeyed Him. Now they trusted Him, they told Him of their disobedience; they asked Him to make them what He wished them to be. So they became different men; their whole mind was changed. The baptism was God’s assurance to them that He designed to purify them. When they received it they said—‘That is what we need; we want that above all things.’
And so the news which John the Baptist brought about the kingdom of heaven became good and comfortable news to them, though he spoke of One coming after him who would purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner, and burn up the chaff. They had begun to know that they needed this kind of winnowing and threshing; that they had chaff in them which ought to be burnt up; that if there was any wheat in them, God Himself must nourish it and cause it to grow. And, therefore, if there was One coming who would do what John could not do; who could baptize them with His Holy Spirit; who could make all that was good in them to spring up and flourish, and with a fire could destroy all that was bad in them—they might indeed welcome Him as their Prince and Deliverer—the Prince from heaven—the only one who could set things right on earth.
John’s message ‘You may repent and turn to God; God calls you to repent and turn to Him;’ was a comfortable message. The assurance ‘He sends away your sins’ was a comfortable message. But the message ‘There is One coming who will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire,’ was a more wonderful and divine message still; it took in both the former. It said—‘There is One at hand who will prove that He has come from God, by ruling your hearts and turning them to God. There is One coming who will show you how thoroughly God sends away sins.’ But it said also—‘There is One coming who by His Spirit will enable you to love God and love your brethren; to fight against all that makes you turn from God and hate your brethren; yea, to bring forth the fruit of good works with which God will be well pleased.’
Thus it was that John the Baptist prepared the way for the great King—for the Lord Jesus Christ.
My friends, when our Lord had described John as a prophet, yes, as greater than a prophet, He added—“Nevertheless he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” John had said to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The King of Heaven is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’ Those who lived after the King of Heaven had appeared, after He had begun to baptize with His Spirit and with fire—would have blessings which John the Baptist had not, which he only expected. And who are those that lived after the King of Heaven had appeared, after He had begun His baptism of the Spirit and of fire? We are of that number. We say that the Son of God has appeared; that He has walked and lived among men; that He has died for them. We say that He has ascended on high; that He has baptised with His Holy Spirit. We are baptised ourselves, our children are baptised, into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We ask in Christ’s name that the Holy Spirit may be renewed in us day by day, that God will not take His Spirit from us; that His Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts. We ask this for the whole congregation, for the least and the greatest. We live therefore under that wonderful sentence—“He that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.” We have a greater assurance that God will give us repentance; we have greater encouragement to confess all our sins to Him. We have proofs which John the Baptist did not know, that He will put them away and give us a clean heart and a right mind. But Oh, my friends, what madmen shall we be if with all these pledges and encouragements to trust our Father in heaven we distrust; if with the certainty that He wills to take away our sins, we hug our sins and let them eat into our souls and destroy them; if when we might have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and reigning over us, we open our hearts to the Evil Spirit, and let him be our master. We are all tempted to do that; if our blessings are greater than those of the men in the old times our dangers are greater; the only deliverance is in coming to God and asking Him to search us and to try us, to see if there be any wicked way in us, to guide us in the way everlasting. From every town and village in England people may come and confess their sins to God, and ask Him to make them right; but if they choose their sins instead of His righteousness and truth, they choose misery instead of peace, death instead of life, the kingdom of hell instead of the kingdom of heaven.