Good morning. We'll have to get
used to not having piano music for a while, so it kind of calms
us down. If everybody can find their seats.
Let's open this morning's service with hymn number 52 and your
hardback hymnal number 52. And let's all stand together.
52. Majestic sweetness sets enthroned
upon the Savior's brow, His head with radiant glories crowned,
His lips with grace o'erflow, His lips with grace o'erflow. No mortal can with Him compare
among the sons of men. Fairer is He than all the fair
who fill the heavenly tray, who fill the heavenly tray. He saw me plunged in deep distress
and flew to my relief. For me He bore the shameful cross
and carried all my grief, and carried all my grief. To Him I owe my life and breath
and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death
and saves me from the grave. And saves me from the grave. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to
be back in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. If you'd
like to turn with me there. in your Bibles, John chapter
1. Cyril and Lenore will be flying
back north this week, so we'll miss them. It's been good to
have them here for the winter. And Charlie Belarus is graduating
from Parris Island this Friday. So hopefully, we'll see him next
Sunday. Let's ask the Lord's blessings
on our time together. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly
Father, we find such hope and comfort
in being able to come into thy presence and call you our Father
and approach your throne of grace We know that the only reason
for that is because of thy dear son, the sacrifice that he made,
the satisfaction that he accomplished at the cross. And so for Christ's
sake, we come before thee and we ask thee, Lord, that you'd
be pleased to send your Holy Spirit that he might enlighten
the eyes of our understanding, that he would enable us to worship
thee, to set our affections on things above where Christ is
seated at thy right hand, that Christ might be lifted up and
that our hearts would be drawn in faith and in love to him. Thank you for your word. Lord,
we know that these are the words of life and Lord, we pray that
you would speak life and truth to our hearts this morning. We thank you for Charlie and
ask Lord that you would bless him and that you would call him
and she would cause him Lord to find his hope in thee. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter 1. Last Sunday, we saw where the
Holy Spirit, through the pen of the Apostle John, introduced
John the Baptist as the one sent of God to fulfill those prophecies
that were given in the Old Testament concerning Christ. The last words
that God gave in the book of Malachi was that he would send
a forerunner, in the likeness of Elijah, and John was the fulfillment
of that prophecy. And then in Isaiah chapter 40,
the Lord tells us that there would be one that would come
to point us to Christ. And John's ministry was very
brief, and it was very purposed in that he was to do just that. He said, behold, the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sins of the world. That was his work.
And he accomplished his work, and the Lord took him home. He
testified as to the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if the Lord enables us to
be faithful, we will do the same thing. We will testify to the
person and to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is
and what he accomplished. So if you'll look with me at
verse 25, we'll read these verses together of John's testimony. In verse 25, And they asked him,
and said unto him, Why baptizes thou then, if thou be not that
Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet. And John answered them,
saying, I baptize with water. There standeth the one among
you whom you know not. He it is who cometh after me
is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bathsabia,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. And the next day,
John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. I'm reminded of what the Apostle
Paul said when he said, I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ, who he is, and him crucified, what he did
for the salvation of his people. This is he whom I said after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me. We know that physically speaking
John was older than than our Lord in the flesh, but John is
testifying to the deity of Christ and his eternal nature as the
Son of God. And I knew him not. John and our Lord were were cousins
by marriage, and they must have known each other growing up,
but the Lord had not revealed to John who Christ was until
now. I knew him not, but that he should
be manifest to Israel. That was John's ministry, to
manifest the Lord Jesus to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bare record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou seeth the
spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. and I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God. I've titled this message the
Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Surely there is much confusion
about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in religion
and I don't want us to be in any way confused about who the
Holy Spirit is and what his ministry is. John said, I baptize with
water, but there's one that cometh after me who is preferred before
me. who will baptize you and Matthew, Mark, and Luke add fire
to the baptism of the Holy Spirit when they say He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. We must not be in any way confused
about who the Holy Spirit is. He is the third person of the
triune Godhead. And just like God the Father
and God the Son, he possesses all the attributes of deity.
He is self-existent. He has no beginning. The Holy
Spirit as well as the Father and as well as the Son are referred
to throughout scripture as Jehovah. Jehovah is that name that the
Lord gave to Moses at the burning bush, I am, which speaks of his
self-existence, it speaks of his eternality. And so the Holy
Spirit is the eternal God, part of the eternal Godhead, one of
the third person of the eternal Godhead. Not only is he eternal,
but he's holy. I was thinking, someone asked me,
what's the difference between what you all believe and what
we believe? And one of the big differences
is that our God is holy. And your religious friends would
say quickly, well, my God's holy too. But holiness means that
he cannot be satisfied with anything less than an absolute perfect
sacrifice. That's what holiness requires.
And so if your God can somehow be satisfied with anything that
you have to offer him, whether it be your will or whether it
be your works, then your God's not holy. The holiness of God
can only be content with a sacrifice that is as holy as he is. Habakkuk says that his eyes are
too pure to look upon iniquity and whatever we do is sin and
so One of the big differences, one of the difference between
our God and the gods of men's imagination is that our God is
holy. Holy, holy, holy. There's three
persons of the triune Godhead in Isaiah chapter 6 when the
seraphim hovered over the throne of God and they cried, holy,
holy, holy. The Father's holy, the Son's
holy, and the Holy Spirit is holy. He's immutable. I am the Lord and I change not,
and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And that word
Lord is Jehovah, and so that verse applies to God the Father,
applies to God the Son, applies to God the Holy Spirit. I am
holy. I change not. I am immutable. My covenant promises
must stand. My character, my nature cannot
be changed. And there's our hope. Oh, we are so We are so mutable
and we live in a world that's in constant change. And yet we
have a God who reigns sovereign over all things, the armies of
heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. And no man can
stay his hand and no man can say unto him, what doest thou?
He's sovereign. God the Father is sovereign.
God the Son is sovereign. God the Holy Spirit is sovereign,
they are immutable, they are holy, and they are omnipotent,
all powerful. When the Spirit of God is pleased
to speak truth to a sinner's heart, nothing that sinner can
do to stop him. He makes them willing in the
day of his power. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful that that our God is omnipotent. He possesses all
power. And the Lord Jesus said in John
chapter 17, the Father has given me all power to give eternal
life to as many as I am pleased. And so the Spirit of God has
all power. He listeth with us whoever he
wills. We're dependent upon God's Spirit
for our life. And that's who the Holy Spirit
is. And so when John says of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he will baptize you with the Spirit. He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
And the scripture tells us in Romans chapter eight, he that
hath not the Spirit of God is none of his. We must have the
Holy Spirit. and we must be baptized in the
Holy Spirit in order to have life. That's what Christ came
to do and that's the work of the Holy Spirit in raising us
from our spiritual deadness to eternal life. One of the clear evidences in
Scripture that the Holy Spirit is not, you know, In our experience,
we can relate to what a father is and what a son is. But men
have perverted the idea of the Holy Spirit by making him some
sort of a force or an energy. No, he's a person. He's a person. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Verse 16, rejoice evermore. Rejoice in the Lord. And again,
I say rejoice. Oh, we have reason to rejoice
even in the midst of our trials and troubles. We know that God
sent them for his glory and for our good. And we rejoice in Christ
Jesus. We rejoice in who he is and what
he's accomplished for our salvation. Pray without ceasing. It is the
spirit of God that puts the spirit of prayer in our hearts and enables
us to come into the presence of a holy God and pour out our
souls to him. In everything give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. And yes,
it is the will of God that we be thankful all the time, but
that's not really what that verse means. The giving thanks is in
reference to all things. And so, the literal interpretation
of that verse is in everything give thanks for everything that
you are experiencing is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. So it's not just a matter of
having a positive attitude under difficult time, it's a matter
of thanking God for whatever it is he sends, knowing that
it came from him and that it's good. And then he says, quench not
the spirit. The spirit of God is a person, he can be quenched.
How can he be quenched? By not rejoicing, by not praying,
by not being thankful. Look at the next verse, despise
not prophesying, that's preaching. Don't be, contemptuous or even take-it-or-leave-it
attitude about the preaching of the gospel. I must have the
preaching of the gospel and if we have a laxed attitude about
the preaching of the gospel then the result of that would be the
quenching of the Holy Spirit. I don't want to be the one to
quench the Holy Spirit. I've done it enough. I so don't
want that to happen when we gather together for worship, that the
Spirit of God would be quenched because of our attitude towards
the gospel. Let me show you another passage,
Ephesians chapter four. Not only can the Holy Spirit
be quenched, But he can, as every believer has experienced, be
grieved. And in being grieved and in being
quenched, what does he do? Does he forsake us? No. Does
he withdraw the sweetness of his presence and cause us to
experience the shame and the separation of our sin? Yeah.
Yeah, he will do that when he's quenched and when he's grieved.
Look at verse 29. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve
not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of
redemption. You're not gonna lose the Spirit
of God If you have the Spirit of God and you've been baptized
in the Spirit of God, you're sealed by the Spirit of God until
the day of your redemption. He will never leave you nor forsake
you. But we've all experienced what it means to grief Him with
corrupt communication, with a bad attitude, Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. These are the things that that
grieve the Spirit of God. And be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. There's only one reason
Only one reason that we would harbor an unforgiving spirit
towards someone who has offended us. We've lost sight of what
God has done in forgiving us. That's the only reason. Nothing else. There's nothing
in that experience that would cause us to be unforgiving other
than we've lost sight of what God has done in forgiving us,
even as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. What does the
Spirit of God do? He points us, as the Comforter,
He points us to Christ and causes us to see and to believe and
to rejoice in what the Lord Jesus has done in forgiving us. That's
His ministry. When our Lord began his public
ministry, he went back to his hometown in Nazareth and went
into the synagogue, as was his custom, the scripture says, and
took the scroll and stood and read from Isaiah chapter 61,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me. And he read that passage of scripture
and everyone there knew that that was a prophecy of the coming
of the Christ, the Messiah, which is what, that's what Christ means. It means the anointed one. And
they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. What is he saying? He's reading
this verse as if it applies to him. And to remove all doubt,
he said to them, this day, the scripture has been fulfilled
in my sight. Yes, I am the Christ. I am the anointed one. I am the
one who has come in the full power of the spirit of God to
accomplish the purpose of God and the salvation of God's elect. And we know how that turned out
after the Lord interpreted his sovereignty in salvation, they
wanted to kill him. They tried, they tried to murder
him. And he escaped, well he escaped, he just walked away
from them and they didn't know where he went. His time had not
yet come. There would come a time in a
few years when he would allow them to lay their hands on Him
and take Him and nail Him to a cross. But in the meantime,
He had work to be done. He had to fulfill all righteousness
in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's who He is. Now, we
have the Spirit of God in measure. He came to baptize with the Spirit
And when the Lord gives us the Holy Spirit, we have the Holy
Spirit in measure. And that measure can be quenched,
it can be grieved, as we just read. The Lord Jesus Christ possessed
the Holy Spirit in the fullness of his power and was successful in the power
of the Spirit of God. to accomplish what he came to
do. He is the Christ, the anointed one. So what is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit that John's referring to here? Let me say just a few words first
about what it's not. It is not a second work of grace. It is not something that's reserved
for the special privileged super spiritual saints whereby they
get the anointing of the spirit of God subsequent to their salvation
enabling them to perform supernatural feats like the speaking of tongues
and performing of miracles. That is not the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. I would counsel you strongly
to run from such foolishness. Those who practice that and believe
that do have a spirit, but it's not the Holy Spirit. They have
been deceived by an evil spirit in believing such a thing. And that spirit actually robs
from Christ his glory and salvation and gives the glory You've been
around some of these Pentecostals and Charismatics and now there's
a whole bunch of, there's a whole group of Calvinistic churches
now that are practicing the full gifts of the Spirit of God so
that you can embrace a Calvinistic gospel and still enjoy the full
measure of the Spirit in these spiritual gifts. That's not of
God. It is not of God. They say, well,
preacher, how do we explain the spiritual gifts that are demonstrated
in the New Testament? Those gifts were given by the
apostles or to the apostles, the 12, and by the apostles to
certain individuals for the authenticating of the gospel, just as the prophets
of the Old Testament. Those were signed gifts. just
as the prophets of the Old Testament could often perform miracles
in the power of the Spirit of God to confirm their message
as being from God. We don't need those sign gifts
anymore. We don't need those confirmations. These were things that were practiced
before the scriptures were fully written. What do we do now? We test the spirits by the Word
of God. We try the spirits and see if
they're consistent with what God has revealed in his word. And so this baptism of the Holy
Spirit is not what's being practiced
in man-made false religion. It's different. It's something
that is for every believer. John said in Mark chapter 1 verse
8, I indeed baptize you with water but he shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with fire. There are three baptisms
spoken of. By the way, the word baptize
means to submerge or to immerse. That's what the word means. When
the Bible was being translated into the English language, there
were groups that were using other modes of baptism, like sprinkling
of babies. And so rather than take that
word, baptizo, from the Greek and properly translate it to
immerse, they couldn't do that because there's so many people
not immersing. The word baptism is a transliteration of that
Greek word left open for interpretation by those who want to practice
some other mode of baptism other than the immersion or the submersion
of believers. Baptism is for believers. And it is to be practiced by
the mode of immersion because of what it symbolizes. Water
baptism, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and baptism by fire all
represent the same thing. Union with Christ. That's what
they represent. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we baptize a new believer, In the water, what do we say? Buried with Christ. We baptize
you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
all three persons of the triune Godhead, buried with Christ in
baptism, so that what you are testifying in your water baptism
is that when Christ went to the tomb, I went, my sins went to
the tomb. I was in him. Union with Christ. I died. Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. So union with Christ, buried
with Christ, raised with Christ, Christ is my life. What he did
in his death and in his resurrection is the hope of my salvation.
And my union with him is the only hope that I have. That's
what baptism is a picture of. And the baptism of the Holy Ghost
is the same thing. And the baptism of fire. When James and John sent their
mother to the Lord to negotiate their position in the kingdom
of God. They still thought it was an
earthly kingdom. She wanted her two sons to sit on his right
hand and on his left hand when he ascended to his throne. And
the Lord responded by saying, you know what you're asking?
Are you able? Are you able to drink of the
cup that I'm gonna drink of? And are you able to be baptized
with the baptism that I'm gonna be baptized with? And in pride
and in their own self-righteousness, they said, we're able, we can
do it, bring it on. And the Lord said, and you shall.
Now that's the baptism of fire. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to Calvary's cross and the fire of God's holy wrath fell on him,
the holy sacrifice, in order to satisfy God's divine justice,
the Lord Jesus was baptized by fire and all those for whom he
died were baptized by fire in him. In him. And you shall. You shall drink of the cup that
I'm going to drink of. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me, let it be nevertheless not my will,
but thy will be done. The Lord Jesus was faithful to
drink of the cup of justice, the cup of sin. He had never
known sin before. And God made him who knew no
sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Yes, the physical sufferings
of crucifixion were horrible. But the cup that our Lord was
praying might pass from him was not the physical pain of crucifixion. It was the sins that were going
to be poured out on him that he would bear in his body upon
that tree. He began burying them even in
the garden. That's why he sweat great drops
of blood. And that was the baptism of fire. And here's our hope. See, what
is it to be baptized in the Holy Spirit? It's to believe that
all of the hope of my salvation, all of my righteousness, all
of my justification before God were accomplished singularly
in the person of my substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you
believe on him? You see, only those who have
been baptized in the Holy Spirit believe that. It's not some sort
of extraordinary, it is extraordinary actually, it's very extraordinary,
but it's not some sort of emotional, physical manifestation of supernatural
gifts. This is the supernatural gift. The supernatural gift of God
is Christ. And to believe on him, and a
man can receive nothing except to be given to him from heaven.
Oh, here's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He came that he
might baptize with, John said, I baptize you with water, but
my baptism is only symbolic. As is that baptism, it's only
symbolic. The baptism we must be baptized
with is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire. Turn to me to John chapter 16. John chapter 16. Look with me at verse seven.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that
I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter,"
oh, what a precious name, the one who comes along beside you,
your Your advocate, he's an advocate just as the Lord Jesus is an
advocate with the Father, the righteous one at the right hand
of God, so the Holy Spirit is an advocate, he presents us.
And the Lord says, it's expedient for you that I go away. You remember
when Mary went to the tomb and the Lord revealed himself to
her and And she said, oh, Rabboni. She
said, oh, don't ever leave me again. And she clung to him. And the Lord said, Mary, don't
touch me. The scripture says, don't touch
me. The word there is cling. Mary was never going to leave
his physical presence ever again. Mary was convinced that wherever,
whatever you go, I'm gonna be right by your side. I'm gonna
cling to you. I'm not gonna run the risk of
ever losing you again. And so, well, the Lord said,
Mary, don't touch me. He said, I've got not yet gone
to my father. He wasn't saying, Mary, you're
going to somehow defile me with your physical touch. I've not yet gone to God. No,
he was saying, when I go to the Father, I'm going to send the
Comforter. And with Him and your baptism in Him, I will never
leave you nor forsake you. So that in the middle of the
night, when you wake up at two o'clock in the morning and your
heart is heavy about something, I'm there. I sleep no slumber. And wherever you are and whatever
you do, I will be there. And so the Lord said, it's expedient
for you that I go away. I must go to my father for the
Holy Spirit to come. And when he comes, when he comes, if I depart, I will send him
unto you. You see that in verse seven? And when he has come,
He will reprove the world of sin. Now that word, that word
reprove means to convince. And I want you to see that the
word world in this verse is used in the same way in which it's
used in John 3 16. For God so loved the world. You're not talking about, the
word world is never used in the New Testament to describe each
and every individual person of the world. He's talking about
those of us who live in the world who have been called out of the
world. And yet we're still in the world. If the Holy Spirit was going
to convince, convict to repentance, that's what that word means.
the entire world of their sin, then he's not doing a very good
job. And I feel blasphemous even saying
that. He's doing exactly what he's
sent to do. Everyone that God chose in the
covenant of grace, everyone for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died
as their substitute, the Holy Spirit will come and the day
of his power will convince them of their sin. He's not talking
about having a guilty conscience because of something bad you
did. God's written his moral law on the hearts of all men.
And all men can suffer pains of conscience for bad behavior.
That's not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy
Spirit convicts you of sin, He causes you to believe that everything
about you is sinful. That I don't have a prayer, I
don't have a work, I don't have a commitment, I have nothing
that I can offer God, a holy God, that would satisfy His holy
justice because I'm a sinner and everything about me is sinful.
I need a substitute. I need one who's holy, one who's
undefiled, one who's separate from sinners, one who is higher
than the heavens to be my advocate before God. That's the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Believe on Christ for all your
righteousness before God. He will convince the world of
sin. and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because
they believe not on me. Lord, even my faith is mixed with unbelief. How do I separate these things? God, you're gonna have to separate
them. You're going to have to acknowledge God-given faith from
my unbelief because all I can cry is, Lord, I do believe. Help
thou mine unbelief. I'm so full of unbelief. I want
to believe God perfectly all the time and I can't. Why? Because I'm a sinner of sin because
they believe not on me. And Lord, there was a time when
I couldn't believe on you. It was impossible for me to believe
on you. I was dead in my trespasses and
sins. I was spiritually blind. I was
incapable and unable to believe. Lord, if you don't cause me to
have life and give me faith, I'll not believe. I'll not believe. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. This is the baptism. This is what it means to be immersed
or to be submerged in the Holy Spirit. This is His work. And
without this work, we're left ourselves. Of righteousness,
notice the rest of this, of righteousness because I go to my Father. I
have no righteousness outside of Christ. Christ Jesus the Lord
is all of my righteousness before God. I've never been able to
keep any of God's laws. in a way that's acceptable to
Him. To will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For evil, when I would do good,
evil is ever present with me. I need a righteousness that I
can't produce. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
and of judgment because the prince of this world has been judged. When the Lord Jesus Christ bowed
his mighty head on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished.
Death was conquered. Satan was conquered. All that
Christ came to save were justified before God. The sentence is yet to be executed
in its full power when the devil and all of his minions are thrown
into the lake of fire, but the surety of that was accomplished
on Calvary's cross of judgment because the prince of this world
has been judged. In other words, to be immersed,
to be submerged, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, believes
that there's nothing left to be done other than what the Lord
Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross. It's finished. You believe
that? You've been baptized in the Holy
Spirit. And you can't not believe that
if you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. You will believe
that till your dying day. Why? Because you have the spirit
of God and he will not leave you. And when you quench him
and when you grieve him, he will use that quenching and that grieving
to draw you back to Christ. Let me show you that. Let's read
on. Verse 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you
cannot bear them now. How be it when he, it's a person,
When he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into
all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine and show it unto you. If you've been baptized in the
Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit of God that keeps pointing you
back to Christ. And these people who practice
a pretend baptism of the Holy Spirit are not bringing glory
to Christ. They're bringing glory to themselves.
They're bringing glory to the Holy Spirit. The Lord said, he's
not gonna speak of himself. He's not gonna glorify himself,
he's gonna glorify me. That's what he's going to do. John said, I baptize you with
water. I could say that to any candidate that comes to be baptized,
I baptize you with water. but he that cometh after me is
preferred before me. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. Union with Christ. All right,
let's take a break.