The Daily Word of Righteousness

A Giant Step Forward, #31

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:40-43)

For two thousand years the principal righteousness of the Christian churches is that which has been imputed to us because of our faith in Christ. But the hour will come, according to the Prophet, when Christ will cleanse us from sin so we are able to lift up hands that actually are righteous and holy.

The cleansing of the members of the royal priesthood of necessity must take place before they are raised from the dead and clothed in bodies like that of the Lord Jesus. We cannot be glorified and after that be cleansed!

Physical death is the last enemy to be destroyed, not the first!

It is time today for the wickedness to be removed from the Kingdom of God.

First the Lord will take the weeds out of us. If we are not willing to have the weeds removed from us, the Lord will remove us from the Kingdom. We then will be thrown into the fiery furnace, for the fiery furnace has authority over all sin—even the sin in a Christian. We are in danger of being harmed by the second death until the sin is out of us.

Matthew Three, and the Coming Salvation

Matthew continues the warning of Malachi concerning the coming of the one who is to remove the sin from the royal priesthood.

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:10-12)

The Lord Jesus Christ will baptize us "with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

I suppose we always have felt that this should be translated "with the fire of the Holy Spirit."

However, the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the baptism with fire are two different baptisms.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is for the purpose of making us witnesses of the Lord, both in acts of supernatural power and also in holy moral behavior.

The baptism with fire is for the purpose of clearing the Lord's threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn; and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

We already have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now we need to be baptized with the fires of Divine judgment.

To be continued.