The Difference between Wheat and Chaff – Matthew 3:11-12

 It is very likely that verses 5-12 are not one of John’s sermons but a summary of several sermons. When we compare this with the other gospels, the same information is sometimes set in different contexts, like diamonds in different settings. I think that Matthew, our penman, under the direction of the Holy Spirit is trying to give us the gist of John’s message without taking up too much time and ink. Perhaps one of the clues to this is the way that he uses a variety of metaphors, jumping from vipers to stones, and from trees to wheat. Despite the variety, it’s not difficult to grasp the general theme of the first great Baptist preacher.

When we get to verse 12, John brings up one of the cardinal doctrines of all true Baptists. But it is one of the lesser-known and lesser-emphasized points in most Baptist doctrinal statements. It doesn’t get the glitter and zeal of many other points, like sovereign grace and premillennialism.

In our church statement of faith it is point #17, and it is called “The Righteous and the Wicked.” Concluding with more than a dozen scriptures, it says – “We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked. We believe the righteous are they who believe in Christ Jesus, the justified by faith, and the sanctified by the Holy Spirit and the Word; that the righteous are heirs of God and joint-heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that eternal life, the gift of God, is the matchless possession of the just. We believe that the wicked are they who do not believe in Christ Jesus; they are condemned because of unbelief and corrupted by the god of this world; that the unjust spurn the privileges of God’s grace, choosing the life of sin and rebellion; and that eternal damnation is the inescapable portion of the unjust.” I’m sure that on our mood, we might want to change the precise wording of that statement, but it does a reasonably good job explaining what we believe on this point. And part of that point was John’s point in Matthew’s summary of John’s message.

This morning, let’s think about the difference between wheat and chaff. I don’t know whether or not my thoughts will flow very logically, but I promise to try. Because, what John is trying to say is that you and I are illustrated by either chaff or wheat. And, as he says, the final end of each is radically different. So there are two kinds of people in this world – There are those who will be put into the Lord’s garner and those who will be cast into the Lord’s fire. There are people who the Lord classifies as “righteous” and there are the rest, who are “wicked.” There are no other groups – no in-betweens – none caught in transition – none still in limbo. At this very moment, you are either wheat or chaff – righteous or wicked. We could probably substitute a dozen words for each of these designations, and I probably will during the course of the next thirty minutes. But whatever words, illustrations, allusions and implications we might mention, you are one or the other. And if you died with a heart-attack in the next sixty seconds, you’d be gathered into the Lord’s nice warm silo for all eternity or you’d be set aside for eternal destruction. This is an important doctrine, and an important consideration – therefore an important message – whether I can express it very well or not.

What is the difference between wheat and chaff?

In some ways there is VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE.Consider the birth of a baby. The human being is the most complex creature in God’s creation – even more than the angels. And how does that single cell hidden deeply in his/her mother’s womb grow and divide, again and again, as some cells eventually become heart muscle, bone, brain matter, vital organs and all the other body parts? The Creationist praises the wisdom and omnipotence of God for these things – while the secularist praises ….. what???? Even though everything else in creation is less complex than our children, each and every thing is still miraculous. And that includes that germ of wheat.

By the way, the Greek word here refers to generic “grain,” and sometimes it is translated “corn,” but it’s not necessary to be concerned about that in the course of John’s illustration. A stalk of wheat, by the command and blessing of God, heads out and produces a number of wheat seeds. The farmer saves some of those seeds and plants them the next fall or spring. Lord willing, it germinates and grows – a root, a tiny seedling, and a stem, which becomes a stalk. Then it “flowers” – it heads out and over time produces several dozen seeds just like the one from which it originally sprang. As in that human baby, why did part of that seed become root, part become stalk, and part become grain? Some may call it the nature of nature or a freak of evolution, but I call it the marvelous grace of God.

And here is my point – the stalk is not much different in nature from the grain. If the scientist was given a tiny, indistinguishable piece of either one, using DNA analysis, he could determine that they both came from the same “mother” – the same seed. I can’t tell you that they would have the exact same DNA, neither can I say that they wouldn’t. But one is stalk or stem, or husk, with little or no value whatsoever, while the other is extremely valuable. One is alive, while the other is dead, one is essential to the sustaining of life, the other is only filler or bedding material. And yet they are very, very closely linked, coming from the same original source.

In many ways there was no difference between murderous Herod the Tetrarch and his victim John Baptist. There was little difference between the wicked men of Sodom and Lot the escapee. Every person on this planet has come from the same original man and woman – the same seed. Most of us have the same number of arms and legs, eyes, ears and belly-buttons. But the fact remains that some of us are wheat and some of us are chaff. (“Chaff” refers to any part of the wheat plant which isn’t grain, doesn’t feed us, and can’t grow more grain. With some exceptions chaff isn’t good for anything but as fuel to keep us warm.)

And what determines the difference between chaff and wheat? Perhaps I should rephrase….. Who determines the difference between chaff and wheat? It is not the plant itself; it is not evolution; that difference is dependent upon the Lord, the Creator himself. And what precisely is the difference between chaff and wheat?

Despite the essential similarities, there is a difference in NATURE.Wheat is valuable to the farmer. It might be used to grow next season’s crop. It might be crushed and made into food – flour for our pancakes and bread for our sandwiches. Or it could be sold or traded for other things necessary for life.

Of what value are you? I’m not talking about the value that you might have to your family, your friends or to society. I’m sure that if we looked around hard enough, we’d find lots of things with which to inflate our importance. “I raise wheat and sell it so that the city-dweller might have bread for his sandwich – I am important” “I am a policeman and I keep the peace.” “I make people laugh; I help in the family kitchen; I shovel the neighbor’s snow – for a small fee.” My question is not whether or not you are of value to people around you. The question is: are you of value to the Lord who created you? Remember, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” If we wanted to, we could probably find things to praise in every wretched person who ever lived. Ted Bundy, the mass murderer, was good-looking and charming. Perhaps Joseph Stalin loved his family. Nero gave Rome the opportunity to rebuild itself into the most modern and beautiful city in its day. But as far as eternity is concerned these things mean nothing.

What is your value to the Lord? There is something important. What glory have you brought to Him this week? In contrast to that, how much dirt and filth have you smeared upon yourself? How many people have you helped or blessed in the Name of the King of kings? If these sorts of things were the criteria for entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, would you be admitted? By the way, these are NOT the criteria for entry into Heaven. But the question is still appropriate: what is your value in the sight of the Lord?

The nature of chaff is different enough from wheat to render it worthy of fire. If you plant a little of the stem or stalk of the wheat plant, it will not grow. If you tried to sell it, you might get a few pennies, but not anything like that of the grain itself. If you ate a bunch of the chaff, you’d probably get sick enough that you’d quit before you starved to death, because to humans it has no nutritional value. As far the husk is concerned, that part of the chaff which holds the wheat germ, it’s only value is as fuel for the fire.

Notice that the JUDGMENT for the wheat is the same as that of the chaff.As you picture this verse don’t get confused about the “fan.” Before today’s modern equipment, and even before yesterday’s semi-modern equipment, preparing wheat for sale or use in the kitchen, involved a great deal more work than it does now. Someone had to cut the head off the stalk. If you think about it, if the harvester simply sliced off the head and it fell to the ground, it would be very difficult to find and use. So the man with the scythe or sickle would most likely make his cut well below the head. Then he’d have to gather those cut stalks into bundles, usually binding them together. Either at his home or perhaps at a community site, the stalks with the grain would have to be reworked. In some cases, oxen would trample the stalks, breaking the heads off the stems and separating the husk and the seeds. A more labor intensive, but cleaner and more efficient procedure, would be to flail the wheat. A flail was a 3 or 4 foot stick at the end of which was tied or chained another shorter stick. The worker would slap that flail down on the stalks, breaking them up, knocking the heads off the stalks and hopefully separating most of the husks off the grain. Every farming community had at least one hill which had been flattened and furbished as a threshing floor. The farmer would either do the flailing there, or he’d bring his beaten crop up to the threshing floor. There when the wind was sufficiently strong, he’d put his fan into the debris, tossing it into the air. The fan was usually something like a fork. Together between the fan and the wind, the heavier grain would fall to the floor, while the useless chaff – pieces of stalk and husks would be blown aside by the wind. In this case the fan didn’t create the wind – it tossed the crop into the wind. You can imagine all the work that this took.

Obviously, both the wheat and the chaff had to endure all the same kind of preparation. Both were harvested at the same time; you could say that they both died at the same time. Both were bundled and carried to the threshing floor. Both went though the flailing experience, and both were flung into the air. But the wind blowing through the threshing floor carried the weightless, useless chaff away, while the heavy wheat, like gold nuggets, fell back down to the floor once again.

The saints of God, the citizens of the Heavenly kingdom, have rarely escaped the common end of all flesh. Only a few have been translated from this life to the next without passing through the doorway of death. In fact many of God’s people have been flailed and flailed and flailed again, feeling the whip and the stick, and the crushing weight of the oxen before being safely gathered and stored. As we read from Thessalonians last week, we all suffer tribulation in this life. Furthermore “it is appointed unto all men once to die.” This aspect of judgment, these results of sin are universal, and facing every one of us. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” It doesn’t matter if we are wheat or chaff – death and the problems of life are basically universal.

Despite all this, the FINAL END for the wheat is entirely different from that of the chaff.The fan of Christ Jesus, “is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

All of this is an illustration, it is a short concise parable, an allegory – John isn’t thinking about wheat and chaff. We have to determine what he means by each part of his story – the wheat, the chaff, the fire and the garner. Can there be any other possible meaning for the wheat and the chaff, than the righteous and the wicked? Assuming that this is the true meaning, what is the meaning of the “garner?” The Greek word here is translated “barn” twice as often as “garner.” Synonyms include “storehouse,” “granary” and “silo.” Obviously, Christ Jesus, this farmer, will gather His grain into the place which He has prepared for it. I am not doing the slightest bit of damage in quoting John 14 in the light of this reference. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

For the chaff the end will be unquenchable fire. Would you like some wonderful trivia with which to dazzle your friends? The word “unquenchable” in Greek is “asbestos” (as’-bes-tos). As I said last week, the wicked, those whose lives showed no evidence of repentance…. Those whose only relationship was to Abraham and not to Christ. Those who have no spiritual substance, no weight, no value, who were not servants of the king, will be cast into the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone – the second death. There are, without a doubt, enough scriptures which speak about the fires of hell to remove any doubt about what the Bible teaches. “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1). Matthew 13 – “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 25 – “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

Now I have to close with something which John didn’t address at that time.Or at the very least it wasn’t mentioned in this chapter. What makes the chaff different from the wheat? I don’t mean, what is the evidence of the difference between them, but what is the cause of the difference?

In the same way that a baby grows in his mothers womb, those few similar cells become many very different parts of his body. And in the same way, that a corn of wheat falls into the ground, and as it grows it produces root, stem and eventually fruit. The essential difference between each items is the grace and will of the Almighty God.

The reason that one man repents of his sin and gives evidence of his repentance, while another does not, cannot be explained by the fact that the first is a better man than the second. They both come from the same sinful stock of Adam. It is not the value that we might be to our family or our society which makes us saints or leaves us sinners. The difference between the wheat and the chaff is the grace of God. The difference between the saint and the sinner is the salvation of the Lord.

The truth of the matter is that the chaff enjoys being chaff, and it will always be chaff, until the day of judgment. Scripture says that “there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.” Scripture says that “there is none that seeketh after God.” It is not until the message of John is heard – “repent” – It is not until the Holy Spirit of God drives that message into the heart that chaff can even think about becoming wheat. And even then it is not in the power of chaff to become wheat – that requires “regeneration” – the miracle of God. It is by grace, the unmerited favor of God, that wheat is made wheat and is destined to God’s granary.

If you have any desire for the things of God, it is because the Lord put that desire within you. If you hate the thought that you are chaff and destined for the Lake of Fire, it is because God is working in your soul. With that as the background, John and I exhort you to repent before God, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Surrender to the King right now, where you sit, because the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.