In Matthew chapter three we find John the Baptist baptizing people in the Jordan River. He tells them to REPENT because the church age (Kingdom of Heaven) is about to begin. In verse seven he sees a group of Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized. Knowing who and what they are, he stops them, calls them vipers and warns them that, unless they changed totally, they would feel the full force of God’s wrath. His unspoken message was that being baptized would do them no good without a total change of life (true conversion). Read What is Conversion? Key word–Conversion.

In verse eight John commands that the Pharisees and Sadducees produce “GOOD FRUITS” (vs 10) that would prove that they had truly REPENTED OF THEIR SINS. John’s words in this verse prove that Biblical repentance involves much more than being sorry for having broken God’s Law (sinned–1 Jn. 3:4). Repentance demands a total and permanent conversion from sin to holiness–from darkness to light. Rather than being merely sorry for having sinned, true repentance necessitates a total, permanent, spiritual about face which leaves the repentant walking in the opposite moral direction he/she had been going. True repentance leads to justification (forgiveness of all PAST sins–Rom. 3:25), which leaves the justified one holy, without sin and free of all guilt. At this point an act is prescribed by the Lord which not only removes all sin from the former sinner, but awards him/her God’s Holy Spirit which is necessary to enter into the next step on one’s path to salvation and rebirth which will be awarded upon the return of Jesus Christ. The next step is true conversion (one’s walk of holiness) which, if maintained until death, will result in salvation (Mat. 10:22/ Rom. 5:21; 6:22).

In verse 12 John’s narrative shifts from baptism and the receipt of God’s Holy Spirit to the walk of true conversion. Here he tells us how God rids the believer of ALL OF HIS/HER CHAFF (sins, false beliefs, bad habits, etc.). Everything that is not of God must be removed “as by fire.” In ancient times wheat was de-chaffed by using a pitchfork to throw it into the air when the wind was high. Wheat chaff is very light and can be moved by the wind which carries it away from the wheat body where is later burned with fire, symbolic of the Holy Spirit’s ridding the true convert of all of his/her sins and symbolically burning them, destroying them forever. IF, that is, the baptized one remains in his/her holy spiritual condition.

However, if the repentant, justified, baptized and converted one is not totally sold out to the Lord and does not obey His Law, he/she will grow more spiritual chaff as he/she spiritually crucifies Christ again and again with each sin. Read Hebrews 6:1-6 where we find the Apostle Paul warning us that if one embraces Christ and His Law, but continues to sin, in the eyes of God he/she re-crucifies Christ with each sin. Such a re-crucifier underwent a false conversion. Billions have been told that returning to sin following baptism is inevitable due to Adam’s sin-transferal miracle which leaves believers at Satan’s mercy and unable to overcome ALL of his “fiery darts” of temptation (Eph. 6:16). This is the Satanic theology that created so-called “Sinners Saved By Grace.” Having been one of them in times past, I can assure you that the SSBG theological bond is hard to break. But break it we must in order to qualify for salvation and rebirth at the return of Christ. Read Born Again. Key word–Born.

As stated earlier, baptism is designed to leave one in a permanent , spiritual, sin-free condition in which one must continue to walk in order to meet the Lord in the clouds following the first resurrection–the resurrection of His Very Elect saints–His first fruits who maintained their holiness until the end (Mat. 10:22; 24:13). Unfortunately, the vast majority of professing Christianity rejects the Lord’s plainly commanded walk that is required for those who would spend eternity with Him in the Kingdom of God. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom. Read 1 John 2:6; 3:6-8 and Revelation 3:21. When was the last time (if ever) you heard those passages used in a sermon?

Baptism by emersion symbolically washes away all that is not of God. By using the power of the Holy Spirit we must remain in that “died in the wool” spiritual condition. If we slip up, God will forgive us. If we make a habit of slipping up, meaning that our repentance is faked, God places us back in the pre-repentance category where He views us as He does all other Law-breakers,, meaning that we are without Christ, aliens from Israel. strangers to the covenants (including the New Covenant) of promise, having no hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). “SINNERS SAVED BY GRACE” ARE SPIRITUAL GENTILES (HEATHEN). There will be no heathen in the Kingdom of God. L.J.