The work of the Holy Spirit.
We've been talking about sanctification now for a couple, three weeks.
Tonight I want to talk about the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
baptism of the Holy Spirit. John here, what I read to you,
they all thought that he might be the Christ. And John answered
him in there in verse 16, answered all of them and said, I indeed,
all I can do is baptize you with water. But there is one mightier
than I, that's coming. He's coming. And I'm not even
worthy to latch it in His shoes. I'm not even worthy to unloose
Him. And He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost in fire.
And John predicted this. He predicted the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. And look with me over in Acts
chapter 1, and let's see if something happens here. He predicted the
baptism of the Holy Ghost, that Christ would baptize His disciples
with the Holy Spirit. And our Lord is talking to His
disciples here before He ascended back to glory. And He was assembled
together with them here in Acts 1, 4. And being assembled together
with them, commanded them, didn't ask them, didn't plead with them,
He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. But
wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, Ye have heard
of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost, not many days from hence." So John predicted
it. Our Lord said it's going to happen.
And so you see, we're going to talk about the baptism of the
Holy Ghost. And we're talking and dealing
with the work of the Holy Spirit as a person. He is a person.
He's not an influence. He's more than just someone to
guide us in some way. He's an actual person who comes
and does things for us and does things in us. He's the third
person of the Godhead. And when you come to this baptism
of the Holy Spirit, baptism is the first word that I want us
to look at, but there are different scriptural terms that the Holy
Spirit uses. And He uses these things. We're
studying these things, not for intellectual knowledge. We're
not looking at these things just so our intellectual knowledge
may be greater. But I want us to deal with these
things and look at these things for truths that's to be believed.
Truths that God teaches us. Things that God has in his blessed
word. You see, when we talk about these
things, these are our experience. These are our salvation. And
so when we're talking about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we're
talking about a work that the Holy Spirit does for us and does
in us. And we, beloved, it's something
that happens, and it's an experience we have. And so let me show you
another thing over here in Acts, Chapter 19, just a moment, using
different things. But here in Acts, Chapter 19,
Paul's over at Ephesus now. He's over at Ephesus. And John
done said, you know, you're going to be baptized. The Lord's going
to come and he's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire.
And on the day of Pentecost, he says, you tarry here not many
days hence. Our Lord ascended back to glory.
Ten days later, that was 40 days and he was on the earth after
his resurrection. Pentecost is 50 days from the
Passover. So it's 10 days from the time
our Lord told him to wait. So they waited in Jerusalem.
They didn't witness. They never done any preaching. They stayed and tarried there,
and waited there, and waited until the promise that God had
given them. And they waited there, and on
the tenth morning, on the day of Pentecost itself, the day
of the feast, the Scriptures tells us that the men got up
that morning, and the Holy Ghost fell on them. And they began
to preach. like they had never preached
before. They began to preach in a way they never had, and
that's the baptism of the Holy Ghost that came upon them that
they had never experienced before. And here in Acts chapter 19,
look what it says here in verse 1, And it came to pass, that
while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the
upper coast, came to Ephesus, and finding certain disciples,
He said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
Now it says here they're believers. It says they're believers. And
they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there
be any Holy Ghost. We know nothing about this. This
is something we've never heard of. And he said unto them, Were
you baptized? And they said, We had John's
baptism. We just had water baptism. John baptized us. Then said Paul,
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying
unto the people that they should believe on him which should come
after him, and that is on Christ Jesus. And when they heard this,
they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now watch
what happens. First of all, they ask him, have you received the
Holy Ghost since you believed? So I mean, a man is regenerated
and people are regenerated sometimes before the baptism of the Holy
Ghost. But here it says, when they heard this, we were baptized
in the name of Christ. And when Paul laid his hands
on them, the Holy Ghost came on them, and they spake with
tongues and prophesied, and all the men were about twelve. And
that's a question that we all ask ourselves. And the reason
they spake in tongue was to give evidence in those days that the
Holy Ghost indeed came upon them. And these were Gentile believers,
and that's another reason why it was. But here's a good question. Have you received the Holy Ghost
since you believed? Have you been, has the Holy Ghost
come upon you? Has the Holy Ghost come upon
you? Have you received, has the power
of God come upon you? And everybody ought to be able
to answer that question. whether the Holy Spirit's ever
come upon you and given you an experience of Christ and a knowledge
of Him and an interest in Him and a reality of Him that you
never had before. In other terms, at baptism of
the Holy Spirit, he talks about it being poured out. Joel said
in 2.28, he says, when he, the Holy Spirit, shall be poured
out upon all flesh. And that means like when the
Holy Spirit, you know, when they were anointed with oil, and the
prophets were, and the priests were anointed with oil. He says
that all of God's people, the Holy Spirit will be poured out
on all of God's people. And when Peter went down to Pentecost,
I mean down to Samaria, Philip had been down there preaching
for quite a while. And as yet, the Holy Ghost hadn't fallen
upon any of them. That's what it's called, falling
upon them. And so Peter and James went down there, and they began
to preach to them, and the Holy Ghost fell on them as they began
to preach. And you remember when Simon Peter
went to Cornelius' house. One reason they know that they
were believers and that God had saved them and opened the doors
of the Gentiles was that the Holy Ghost fell upon them and
they began to speak and prophesy in tongues. And oh, beloved,
and I'll tell you another thing, it's called the promise, the
promise of the Spirit. And it's also called about being
baptized into Christ. You remember last week, We dealt,
in the last couple of weeks, in Romans 6.4, it says, as many
of us that were baptized into Christ were baptized into His
death. Now that could not possibly be water baptism, being baptized
into His death. Water don't put you in the death
of Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can identify
you and put you and make you one in the death of Christ. And
that's why Paul says that by one spirit, one spirit, Are you
all baptized, immersed into, put into one body? And that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
whether you're Jew or Gentile. And the Holy Spirit is like conversion. It's like our conversion. Everybody's
conversion is a little different. It's not experienced the same
way. The woman at the well, she was saved a different way than
the blind man in John 9. One blind man, the Lord Jesus
Christ told him, receive his sight. Another blind man, the
Lord Jesus took spit and mud and put on his eyes. One woman
went to him for mercy and he just wouldn't hear her talk.
Blind barn of man is begging for mercy and he says, bring
him over here to me. So every way our Lord did not deal with
everybody exactly the same way. And so the baptism of the Holy
Spirit is like that. It's not experienced in the same
way. Sometimes some people have a powerful experience, a Holy
Ghost experience. I mean, you know, like a Pentecostal
experience, that the power comes down on them in a mighty way,
and they know that something's happened, extremely powerful,
and they get a... I'm not saying they have goosebumps
or anything like that, but it comes on, the Holy Spirit comes,
I think, in such a way that they cannot doubt They never saw,
they never experienced, they never understood the scriptures,
they never understood Christ. It was an experience that made
Christ a living reality to them. Just like that. And sometimes
the Holy Spirit comes gently. He comes as a gentle breeze.
We don't hear about the Apostle Paul and his baptism of the Holy
Ghost. He just said he spent down on Damascus Road, went over
there and stayed blind for three days. Adonai went and laid hands
on him. Adonai went and witnessed to
him. And he was a straightway preacher, never said anything
about his baptism in the Holy Ghost. But one thing about it,
all experienced the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Every believer
experiences it. And what is it? Look, let me
show you in Galatians chapter 3, verse 27. Let me show you.
Let's look at this verse of Scripture. I know that you, you know, when
we talk about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, we're not talking
about the baptism of the way Pentecostals talk about it. We're
not talking about it that way. We're not talking about having
some wild-eyed experience and hair standing overhead and seeing
visions and crossing our eyes and all that kind of stuff. We're
not talking about that. And that's why I say, you know,
that a lot of folks, when we're talking about it right now, you're
saying, well, I've never had no great big experience. Sometimes he comes, you know,
comes as a gentle breeze. Sometimes he comes and just,
our Lord Jesus breathed like that and said, receive ye the
Holy Ghost, receive ye the Holy Spirit. But here in Galatians
3.27, look what it says. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Now, this is not
baptism with water. This is being put into Christ. Put into Christ. As many as have
been baptized into Christ, not into water. He said, as many
as have been baptized into Christ, put in Christ. joined to Christ. And that's
what he says. He has put on Christ. Christ becomes your armor. Christ
becomes your life. Christ becomes your righteousness.
Christ becomes everything to you. And that's why I know that
most folks in religion is raised in religion, and they come out
of religion. They did not know anything about
the Holy Spirit. They were just making decisions.
They was going through the motions. They was raising hands and shaking
tears. But beloved, until a man is put
into Christ and baptized into Christ, he can't know Christ.
And that's why it says there's one Lord, one faith, and one
baptism. And that's a baptism into the
body of Christ. And I ask you this question,
how does the Lord Jesus Christ become real to His people? How
does Christ become real? How can we say this? To whom
having not seen, we love and rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. How can we say that? How does
Christ become so real to us that we say we've never seen Him,
yet we love Him? How did He become so real to
us that I mean, beloved, we walk with Him, and we talk with Him,
we converse with Him, we pour our hearts out to Him, we acknowledge
this great need of Him. How did that happen? That's what
the baptism of the Holy Ghost is. That's the only way He becomes
real to us. Huh? And what we say in this,
what in the world makes us feel our need? What was it come upon
us that makes us feel our need of Him? What was it when I was
preaching Sunday that made some say, oh, the start again said,
oh, I want to be saved. That's what Christ has made so
real to you that you cannot bear the thoughts of being without
Him, of being deceived, of being misled, of being deceived. The Holy Ghost is the one that
comes, and that's that fire that He comes into you and makes you
see the deceitfulness and the frailty of your own flesh and
heart. That wouldn't happen unless the
Holy Ghost came upon you. Oh, we acknowledge Him, and we're
willing to suffer for Him. We're willing to give all that
we have for Him. We're willing to witness for
Him. And you go through all the book of Acts, and you see the
response of men and women, and churches, of those that were
baptized by the Holy Spirit. There was a dramatic change in
their relationship with Christ. A dramatic change of their relationship
with Christ. Those men there in Ephesus, they
were believers, they were worshiping together, they were meeting together,
and they only knew John's baptism. They only had been baptized by
John. And they had been baptized, and they said, oh, we repent. And when Paul comes down there
and preaches Christ to them and says, John, yes, he said, I'm
baptized with everyone coming greater than me. And they heard
that, they believed that, he laid hands on them, and to give
evidence that they believed Christ and needed Christ and Christ
had been made real to them, they began to speak with tongues.
Now the days of the apostles is over. Now we live by faith. We don't need signs. Signs are
for unbelievers. And we don't need signs. We don't
need tongues. We don't need goosebumps. We
don't need visions. What we need, and the Holy Ghost
does, by the baptism of Him baptizing us and being in us and us having
received Him, is that we see Christ as a living person and
a reality in our lives. We ain't made no decisions. God
made a decision for us. We're not worried about Christ
accepting us, but will He accept me? Has He done something for
me? Has He changed my heart? Has
He changed my nature? Has He changed my look? Has He
changed the way I see things? Has He changed the way I understand
the Scripture? Changed the way I look at my...
That's what the baptism of the Holy Ghost is, do you see? Oh, my. Let me show you something
here, Nats. Oh, what a dramatic change in
the relationship with Christ, the relationship with the Church.
The relationship of their knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In
Acts 10, verse 44, let me show you this real quick. Acts 10,
verse 44. This is where Peter went out
and preached at Cornelius. Preached at Cornelius' house. And oh, and it says here, you
know, they got in there and they began to preach, and he began
to witness about Christ being hung on a tree, and how God raised
Him from the dead. And God bore witness to him,
and he raised him from the dead. And he told us to testify to
men that he's to be the judge of the quick and dead, and that
to him all the prophets give witness. And whosoever believeth
on him shall have remission of sin. And while Peter, yes, spake
these words, the gospel, preaching Christ to them, the Holy Ghost
fell on them which heard the word. They were listening to preaching. And the Holy Ghost fell on them,
and they heard that word, and that word then became the living
word, and they saw Christ like they never saw Christ before.
They never heard that, and then Peter asked them, who forbids
you from drinking water, being baptized here? Now look back
down here in chapter 11, verse 1. Look what happens now. And the apostles and brethren
that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received
the word of God. Now, we then heard that they
had received the word of God over there at Canaanites' house.
And then heard that a Jew had went and preached to them. And
when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision,
they began to contend with him, saying, Thou wentest to men uncircumcised,
and did we eat with them? I mean, that's something you
didn't do. Well, look what Peter said down
here in verse 15. And he rehearsed the whole matter,
and he says, And I began to speak, and as I began to speak, and
as I began to speak, and this is what will happen if somebody
ever hears the gospel. This is what will happen if the
Holy Ghost falls on a man. The Holy Ghost fell on them as
on us at the beginning. The same way God sent the Holy
Spirit on us at the beginning, that's exactly what He did for
these Gentiles. Then remembered I the word of
the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water, but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Now this is what
He said, for as much then as God gave them the like gift as
he did of us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. What was
I that I could withstand God? And when they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. And so you see, beloved,
here they was. Always a dramatic change. They
heard. They laid hands on them. But
something dramatic happened when the Holy Spirit comes on a man.
I mean, Gary and I was talking before services, listening to
that message yesterday of Brother Henry's on good-bye God. Good-bye
God. I tell you, this is back in the
seventies, early seventies, and he's preaching this. And I mean,
he just, And Gary said, he said everything that I'd ever said
that was wrong. Now what would make a man say,
I was completely and entirely wrong my whole life, and then
all of a sudden start believing something as dramatic, as different,
as daylight from dark, as life from death? What happens to a man that causes
him to do that? The Holy Ghost comes on him.
Dramatically changes him. And that's why when people are
waiting for some dramatic thing to happen, and that's why a lot
of folks don't believe they're waiting for some great experience.
But did you have an experience when the Holy Ghost come on you?
But every single one of you has come on here and you wouldn't
know nothing about God, you wouldn't know nothing about Christ, and
you sure wouldn't hear me. And another term, not only baptism,
but filling, filling. You know, when the scriptures
tell us that the Holy Ghost came upon them, filling them, filling
them with power. And it says so many times in
there, and they being filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke, spake
the word with boldness. And when Paul was dealing with
Goliath, Mr. Sorcerer, being filled with the
Holy Ghost, he turned around and pronounced judgment on him. He turned around, being filled
with the Holy Ghost, he turned around and said, Oh, you son
of the devil. You son of the devil. God curse
you, and I mean he cut him off right then. And the deacons,
look in Acts chapter 6 with me just a moment. We'll talk about
the deacons. Talking about deacons. When we
look for a deacon nowadays, we're looking for somebody that's faithful,
committed, knows the gospel. But here's what they said when
they were looking for Acts chapter 6 and verse 3. Wherefore, brethren, look out
among you seven men of honest report. full of the Holy Ghost
and wisdom. Now, how in the world are they
going to know they're full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom? What's going to make them men
know that they're full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom? Who may
we appoint over our business? And we'll give ourselves continually
to prayer and the ministry of the Word. And the whole saying
pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man
full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip and Prophets.
Now, how in the world did they know these men were full of the
Holy Spirit? Did they act some strange way?
Did they act different than any other believer? I don't think so. I think that these men knew some
things. Everybody watched them, heard them, heard them witness,
heard them talk, and said, these fellows really know Christ. God's
given them some wisdom in His words. Give them some wisdom
in how to deal with people. And so they set up a fire. And
I'm going to show you one thing, and then I'm through. Look over
here next. I mean, Ephesians chapter 5. This is something
right here. Here's something right here for
us to look at. filling. Ephesians 5.18. Look what the apostle says. And be
not drunk with wine, when it is excess, but be filled with
the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit. Be filled
with the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled
with the Holy Spirit? Well, when a person is filled
with the Holy Spirit, when you find those men and women filled
with the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts and throughout the Scriptures,
you find people that it's something that happens that gives authority,
that gives power, that gives ability for service and witness.
Now, the baptism is one thing. That's one thing. That happens.
That happens one time. But many times we're filled.
And so when we have this feeling and the Holy Spirit fills us,
it gives us some authority, gives us some power and some ability
for service and witnessing that we never had before. Look how
the disciples preached and how they witnessed after the Pentecost. And this feeling is absolute
necessity for any one of us, any of us, to have any true service
for Christ or have any kind of worship. You see, our Lord Himself
didn't enter the ministry until the Holy Spirit descended on
Him when He was baptized. He didn't even enter the ministry.
And that's why He told those that followed Him for three years
and saw His miracles and heard Him preach. He says, you tarry
right there. Don't you go no place. Don't
do nothing. I don't want you preaching. I
don't want you with. I don't want you to do nothing. You stay right there.
Because you won't have no power to do anything until the Holy
Ghost comes down on you and baptizes you in the Holy Ghost. And that's
why Paul, you know, and he says, when I came among you, he said,
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men's
wisdom, but with the demonstration of the Spirit and power. And
here in Ephesians 5.18 it says, Be ye filled, but be filled with
the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. What
does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Well, I know one
thing. It's by Him we have the fruit of the Spirit. We don't
have any fruit of the Spirit except being filled with the
Spirit. And I'll just give you an illustration. Let me just
tell you a thing or two. There's been time and time after a service
or before a service. We get through with the service.
Somebody meet me out there, meet me up here. And they start talking
to me or start talking to somebody else. And they get what people
would call excited. But they get to witnessing, they
get to talking about the message, they get to talking about something
God's done or something, and they get to actually preaching
in certain sense. They get excited. And what that
is, that's being filled with the Spirit. And when you get
to talking, how many times have you been in a car going somewhere
or something, and you all get to talking, and the Holy Spirit
come among you, and you just, the Scriptures and your thoughts
and your penance just come to you like that. That's the filling
of the Holy Spirit. And, O Beloved, in our graces,
our faith, our joy, our peace, all the graces that we have is
by Him. And the filling of the Holy Spirit
is essential to our worship. And let me show you something
happens when you fill with the Spirit. Verse 19. Speaking to yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in
your heart. What's this? To the Lord. Giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, you speak to yourselves in
psalms. You read the psalms and you speak
to yourselves and the psalms speak to you. And then you're
all by yourself and you start singing the hymns. You sing hymns. Huh? And then you sing spiritual
songs. And then you start making melody
in your heart. And this melody starts working
in your heart. And it's to the Lord as you sing
these psalms and hymns. And then you turn around and
you start giving thanks to God. Do we do this when we're alone? Praising? Singing? offering thanksgiving,
worship, and adoration, as well as in public, we do these. This
is what being filled with the Spirit is. We're singing in our
hearts, making melody, and praising and blessing God, and adoring
Him, and adoring Christ, and giving thanks, alone as well
as when we do it in public. Do you all do that? Even those of you that's like
me, can't carry a tune in a bucket. You still do it. You can't help
yourself. Huh? Oh my, you'll get up some day
and you just, one tune goes in your mind and another tune goes
in your mind. And you get to making that melody
in your heart to the Lord, then it all leads you to thanksgiving
and praise and real worship. That there is just you and Him.
Not just publicly. But we do this among. That's
what it is being filled with Spirit. That's what it is being
filled with Spirit.