preach this message as it ought
to be preached, we're all going to leave this place singing that
song. Wouldn't that be a blessing of His grace? I'm going to attempt
to speak on the baptism of the Holy Spirit that's mentioned
in all four gospel accounts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And while I was sitting up here,
I thought of this question. Paul asked some people in Ephesus,
have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And when
he asked that question, he was talking about receiving the gifts
of the Holy Spirit. And their reply was, We've not
so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And I wish
that all of us would have that attitude of, I've never heard
of the Holy Spirit. I want to know who he is. I want to know what he does. Now, in some respects, God the
Holy Spirit is more mysterious to us than God the Father, because
we have some idea of the concept of a father. And God the Son,
he's the man Christ Jesus. But God the Holy Spirit is a
spirit. God the Father is a spirit as
well, but he is more mysterious to us in some respects. And I pray that the Lord will
bless this message to cause us to Sing, he is the lily of the
valley. He's the bright and morning star. He is the fairest of 10,000.
And that's what we will sing if we are baptized with God,
the Holy Spirit. What is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit? Now you turn with me back to
John. And hold your finger there in
John one, and I wanna read Matthew's account of this same event. Matthew chapter three, verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. Now put yourself in John's
place. What if the Lord Jesus Christ
came to you and said I want you to baptize me? You reckon you would feel somewhat
unqualified to do something like that? Of course you would. Well
John did too. John did too. But John forbade him saying I
have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me? And Jesus
answering said unto him suffer now. Suffer it to be so now, for thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now don't miss
that precious statement. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. And my dear friends, he said
that with regard to every believer. He had you on his heart when
he said, thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. When he fulfilled all righteousness,
you fulfilled all righteousness and you stand before God because
he fulfilled all righteousness and you fulfilled all righteousness
in him. You stand before God absolutely
righteous. Isn't that wonderful? Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water. That lets you know what baptism is. It's baptism by immersion. He was submersed. He was completely
under, and he came up out of the water. And lo, the heavens
were opened unto him, And he saw the Spirit of God, John,
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, in the form of a
dove, and lighting upon him, and lo, a voice from heaven,
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. All right, let's go to John's
account. Verse 29, 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 would love to
heard the way John said that. Maybe one day we'll get to enter
into it. This is he of whom I said, after
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was. That's talking about his eternal
existence before me. And I knew him not, but he that,
but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore, my come
baptizing with water and John bear record saying, I saw the
spirit descending from heaven like a dove and did a boat on
him. Stayed right there in a boat
on. He didn't have the Spirit by
measure. I was made to think of that star that the shepherds
follow. The scripture says with regard
to that star, it stood above. It stopped right over where Christ
was and it stayed there. God the Holy Spirit abode upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I knew him not. But he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him. I like
that. Remaining on him. The same as he which baptizeth
with the Holy Ghost. And the Lord's first public message
in Luke chapter four His first words, anybody know them? The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is
the third person of the Trinity. Now somebody says the word Trinity
is not in the Bible. That's true. The word Trinity
is not in the Bible, but the doctrine of the Trinity is on
every page of scripture. The Lord told us to baptize in
the name of the father, the son, and the Holy spirit. John tells
us in 1 John 5, 7, there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are
one. He's God. Peter said to Ananias,
why has Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thou has not lied to men, but
unto God. God the Holy Spirit is God just
as much as God the Father is God and God the Son is God. God the Holy Spirit is God and
he is a person. He's not a force. He's not an
influence. He's a person. God the Father
is a person. God the Son is a person. God the Holy Spirit is a person. He's called the Holy Spirit.
He's called the Spirit of Truth. He's called the Spirit of Grace.
He's called the Eternal Spirit. He is called the Spirit of Promise. He's called the Spirit of Christ.
He's called the Spirit of Adoption. He's called the Comforter. I
love his name. When you're comforted by the
gospel, isn't it wonderful to be comforted by the gospel? You
know who it is that's comforting you? It's God the Holy Spirit
taking the things of Christ and comforting you with the gospel. Now he's first mentioned in the
creation account when the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. He was involved in creation. just as the father was, just
as the son was. He wrote the scripture. Holy
men of God, Peter said, spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost. He directed each word to be said
exactly as he would have it said. This is a divine book written
by God, the Holy Spirit. The angel said to Joseph regarding
his pregnant wife that he had never knew. Can you imagine what
that man was going through at this time? The angel appeared
unto him and said, That which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost. It was the Holy Ghost who begat
as the seed of God in the virgin's womb, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is when he became in the flesh. God the Holy Spirit is
the author of the new birth. We're said to be born, birthed. of the Spirit of God. He inhabits
the preaching of the gospel. Listen to this scripture from
1 Peter. Peter spoke of them that have preached the gospel
to you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. There is no
true preaching of the gospel without the Holy Spirit blessing
the Word. It's just words that really don't
mean anything to us. unless God the Holy Spirit is
pleased to bless. Preaching is a supernatural thing.
It's not just a man getting up and popping off and giving his
thoughts and his opinion. It is blessed by the Holy Spirit
if it's true preaching. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I love when Paul said,
now the Lord is that spirit And where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. That's a mark of God the Holy
Spirit. There is liberty. There is freedom. And all of our experience of
Christ and His gospel is by the Holy Spirit. He's the Spirit
of Christ and Jesus Christ cannot be separated from His Spirit. God the Holy Spirit, a person
can be grieved and he can be quenched. Now that doesn't mean
eternally put out. If that would be the case, he
would have left us all long ago. But as a person, he can be grieved
and he can be quenched and he can remove his influences from
us. Now let me show you this from
the scripture. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 18. In everything, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18, in
everything give thanks for this. is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Whatever it is you're going through,
it's God's will for you. Give thanks. He's too wise to err. He's too
kind to be cruel. In everything, give thanks. He's too powerful for his will
to not be done. In everything, give thanks. This thing you're giving thanks
for that is so difficult, it's the will of God and Christ Jesus
concerning you. Now look what he says next. Quench
not the spirit. That means I can have an attitude
that makes God the Holy Spirit withdraw His influence from me.
Quench not the Spirit. If I do not manifest this thankful
attitude, I will quench the Spirit of God. I will not have the same
influence that I would have had. Look in verse 20. Despise not
prophesied. Now that's preaching. That's
the preaching of the gospel. And if I have a wrong, a bad
attitude toward the preaching of the gospel, I quench the power
of God the Holy Spirit. He's not speaking to me. Not
in power. He may be speaking to somebody
else, but he's not speaking to me. When I despise, when I belittle,
when I have a wrong attitude toward the preaching of the gospel. So we see God the Holy Spirit,
his influence can be quenched. That's what it says. Look in
Ephesians chapter four. What I want us to see from this,
God the Holy Spirit's a person. He's a person. Look what Ephesians
chapter four beginning in 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. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted,
forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. Now any conduct contrary to what
this passage of scripture says grieves the Holy Spirit. He's a person. You're around
people. If you offend people, you know what? They're going
to withdraw from you, if you offend people. And God, the Holy
Spirit, is grieved over conduct of his people. I mean, here in
this same chapter, he says, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit. Endeavor, give every effort to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So we see
from these passages of Scripture that God, the Holy Spirit, is
a person and He can be grieved. He can be quenched in the sense
that he can remove his influences from us. And I think that's what
divine chastening is, really. Divine chastening is when you
don't feel his influence. You feel like you've been left
to yourself. You feel alone. And whenever you feel alone,
you're, Lord, Come to me. I don't deserve it,
but I need to have your presence. One thing a believer cannot bear
is to be left to themselves. I have to have the presence of
God, the Holy Spirit, which is the presence of Christ. He is
the Spirit of Christ. Now, when we read here in our
text in John 1 of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, This is mentioned
in all four gospels, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now we read
three baptisms in the scripture. First, there's water baptism.
That's for believers. It's going under the water, coming
back up, confessing your identification with Christ. You're saying, my
only hope of being saved. I think this is why I love baptism.
It's so simple, it's so glorious. My hope of salvation is that
when he lived, I lived. And his righteousness is my personal
righteousness before God. When he died, I died with him
and my sins were paid for. When he was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead. What a beautiful, simple thing
is water baptism. What a wonderful confession of
Christ. What a blessing to confess him in baptism. Now the second
baptism spoken of in the scripture is what the Lord called the baptism
of fire. The baptism of fire. Christ said, I have a baptism,
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how is my soul straightened
until it be accomplished? Now he'd already been through
water baptism. He's talking about being completely immersed under
the wrath of God and submerged under the wrath of God all the
way under and emerging from the wrath of God. That's the baptism
by fire and I think it's interesting. The Lord said to Peter, I mean,
James and John, they wanted to be on the Lord's right hand on
the left. They wanted to be exalted above their brethren. And he
said, are you able to be baptized with the baptism I'm gonna be
baptized with? You know what they said? We're
up to it, yep. Yep. But you know, the Lord didn't
correct them because he said, you shall indeed be baptized
with the baptism I'm baptized with. When Christ was baptized
in the fire, I was too. That's the hope of the gospel.
And the third baptism is called in all four gospels, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Now, historically, there are
two great errors that have come from this statement with regard
to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The first error is the Pentecostal
and charismatic movement. Speaking in tongues, miracles,
and I could spend so much time showing the error of that, but
the one thing, all I'm gonna say right now is it takes away
the emphasis of the gospel. It's demonic. It's demonic. Somebody that is practicing that,
it's demonic. The other error that comes from
this baptism of the Holy Spirit is the idea of a second work
of grace. You're saved, then you have a
second work of grace. You're baptized in the Holy Spirit,
sealed in the Holy Spirit. Well, what's that do? That again
takes the emphasis off Christ, doesn't it? All of a sudden,
the emphasis is this experience of the Holy Spirit, and it is
just as off as the other. Both of those are completely
wrong. Well, what is the baptism of
the Holy Spirit? Now, I know this. Somebody that,
a preacher, that is always talking about the Holy Spirit, guess
what? He doesn't have the Holy Spirit. The Lord says with regard to
the Holy Spirit, he shall not speak of himself. He won't. His purpose is to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone who's been baptized with
God the Holy Spirit isn't going to have a whole lot to say about
God the Holy Spirit. His emphasis is the gospel of
Christ. That's the purpose of God the
Holy Spirit. So what I would like to do is
just look in John of what the Lord said with regard to the
Holy Spirit. You know, the Son knows the Spirit
intimately. They've been together eternally. They know each other. They love each other like the
Son loves the Father and the Son loves the Spirit. And where
could we get better teaching with regard to God the Holy Spirit
than what the Lord Himself says. Now, turn to John chapter 3.
I'm going to be as brief as I can on these things. John chapter
3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night. Some people think that he did
not want to be identified with Christ during the day. He was
embarrassed, it would put him in trouble, and that might be
what it meant. I wouldn't say that's not what
it meant, but it means this more. He was in utter darkness. He
came to Jesus in utter ignorance and darkness. And said unto him, Rabbi, there's
his first problem. Teacher. He was coming to a teacher. Now, the Lord is the great teacher,
but we don't come to him to be taught. We come to him as the
Lord to be saved. Teacher. We know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born, again. My marginal reasoning says from
above. He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Nicodemus, you don't know anything.
Except a man be born from above. He can't see. He can't understand.
He can't perceive the kingdom of God. It's going to go over
your head. Verse 4, Nicodemus saith unto
him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of
the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Now, some have taught from that
that water baptism equates to regeneration. You gotta be born
of water and the spirit. In Ephesians chapter five, verse
25, husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word. The water represents
the word. God the Holy Spirit always uses
the word. I don't know if you caught this,
but when Paul was reading that passage in John chapter one,
when Philip said, we found him of whom Moses and the prophets
wrote, he was identifying the Christ. by the Word of God. And God, the Holy Spirit, always
uses the Word of His own will. Begat he us with the Word of
truth. Verse six. That which is born of the flesh.
I was born September 9th. 1959. Flesh. And it will never rise
above that. This is a clear statement with
regard to the old and new natures that there are. Your old nature,
that which you're born with, will never rise above what it
is. Flesh. But that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. That which God the Holy Spirit
has birthed is spirit. Every believer has a spirit. The spirit died in the garden.
Remember, in the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. Well,
he didn't die physically. His soul didn't die physically,
but his spirit died physically. And when God the Holy Spirit
births you, you now have a spiritual nature, a new nature, the new
man. That which is born of the flesh, there's never gonna be
anything more than that. flesh. That which is born of
the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you,
you must be born again. The wind blows where it listeth,
where it wills. You hear the sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So is everyone
that's born of the Spirit. John chapter six. Verse 60, or verse 59, these
things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum, many
therefore of his disciples, they claim to be his disciples. They
claim to be his disciples. Many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard, notice this is in italics, when they'd heard
this message, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can be expected
to believe anything like this? This is harsh, this is austere,
we don't like this. When Jesus knew it himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you? What if you see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before? What he's saying about that is,
if you're offended now, you're really gonna be offended then.
when you see me seated at the right hand of the Father." Now
look at this next statement, it is the spirit that quickens. The flesh, how much is a profit? Nothing. Nothing. All spiritual life comes from
the Holy Spirit. The flesh profits nothing. Look in John 7, verse 37. In that last day, that great
day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man
thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me,
As the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. But this he spake of the spirit,
which they that believe on him should receive. For the Holy
ghost was not yet given because of Jesus was not yet glorified.
Everything we experience in believing on him is the inner work of God,
the Holy spirit in us. Everything we experience of Christ,
everything we experience of seeing his beauty and his glory, everything
we experience of resting in him and knowing that he is all, that
is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Turn to John 14. Verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and
he shall give you another comforter. I love the way the Holy Spirit
has called the comforter. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and say unto him, your warfare's
accomplished. Your transgressions are pardoned.
You've received the Lord's hand double for all. You know who's
saying that? The Holy Spirit. He's the comforter. that he may
abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth." The Holy
Spirit never uses error. He never uses error. Now, can a believer fall into
error? Sure he can. I mean, remember when Paul said
to the Galatians, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth
you. They were endorsing something that it didn't come from the
Holy Spirit. And God, the Holy Spirit, never
uses error. He is the Spirit of truth, the
truth of the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, we're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of what? The truth. Those two things cannot
be separated. Where you have the sanctifying
work of God, the Holy Spirit, you have the belief of the truth.
And when you have the belief of the truth, you have the sovereign
saving work of God, the Holy Spirit. Even the spirit of truth,
verse 17, whom the world cannot receive. The only way you can
receive the Holy Spirit is if you have a new nature. He's got
to give you the grace to receive him. But the world can't receive
him, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you
know him. For he dwelleth you, and shall be in you. I will not
leave you comfortless. I will come to you, and he'll
come to us by spirit. Can't be separated. Look in verse
26, but the comforter, chapter 14, verse 26, but the comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said to you. Now turn to John
16. This is so important. I believe
the Lord gives more detail as to the work of God the Holy Spirit
here, I suppose, than anywhere else. Here in this passage of
scripture, John chapter 16, verse seven, nevertheless, I tell you
the truth, it's expedient for you that I go away. Now he's talking about dying
and going back into glory. It's expedient for you that I
die, that I go away. For if I go not away, if I don't
die and put away sin and go back to heaven, you're never gonna
have the comforter. You see, you're gonna have the
comforter for this one reason, I go away. That's the only reason
you're gonna have him. Because I go away. I put away
your sin. I go back to the Father. The
Comforter doesn't come to you because of anything in you. It's
because I go away. And I go to my Father. Now, but if I depart, I will
send him to you. And when he has come, he will
reprove, overwhelmingly convince, convict. When he has come, he
will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now somebody's thinking, if you
say Christ only died to the elect and God the Holy Spirit only
came to the elect, why is the word world used? Because it's
the best word to use. Same world of which the Lord
said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son. I like that word. He's called
the savior of the world. Not one time in all the Bible
does the world mean every individual without exception, not once.
And if you try to take that word and say, well, that takes away
from election and effectual atonement for the elect, no, it doesn't.
It doesn't in any way, it's a good word. I love the word. He's the
savior of the world. He came not to condemn the world,
but that the world through him might be saved. You know the
way the Lord says everything is just perfect, isn't it? It's
just perfect. I love the way he says things.
And when he has come, he will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. Look at this verse nine. because
they believe not on me. You know, when you've been convicted
of sin by the Holy Spirit, it's not necessarily when you
feel so guilty about some horrible sin you've committed. It's horrible
to commit a horrible sin. I'm not in any way saying that,
but a lost man can feel very convicted over wrong conduct,
can't he? A lost man can. You've been convicted
of sin by the Holy Spirit when you see that faith is out of
your reach. You can't even believe. When
you come to that, you see what sin is more. Yes, there are sins,
but this is the sin of nature, the evil nature that you can't
even believe unless God gives you the grace to believe. Have
you ever seen that? That you can't believe. Faith
is out of your reach. You don't decide to believe.
You find yourself believing when you do believe and you know it's
because he gave you the grace to. But you also see that you're
a great sin. And I don't have any doubt about
this. If I would say to you, I've got some really bad sin
in my life. I know what you all be thinking.
You'd be thinking, what's he doing? Is he taking drugs? What's he doing? And what if
I said unbelief? You'd say, that's the worst thing there
is. Every sin proceeds from unbelief. It's the mother of all sin. And when he convicts you of sin,
you're convicted of the sin of unbelief. And next he says in
verse 10, of righteousness, because I go to my father and you see
me no more. You see that I'm the only righteousness. And I'm the one going to the
Father. And you see me, you see your righteousness is the righteousness
that is me. And I bring my righteousness
to the Father. And you're convinced, when you're convicted of the
Holy Spirit, you're convinced that the only righteousness is
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. His righteousness is my righteousness
before God. And I wish I could say that even
more plainly. I don't know how to. The only
righteousness I know is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And if you don't
agree with that, it's because you haven't been taught by the
Spirit of God. He'll convince the world of righteousness because
I go to my Father and you see me no more. And He'll convince
the world of judgment because the Prince of this world has
been judged. Verse 11. Now that word judged
is actually in the perfect tense. He's already been judged. You
know what you're convinced of when you're convinced by the
Holy Spirit? You're convinced that all judgment actually took
place on the cross. On judgment day, it's just the
sentence is going to be handed out. The judgment has already
taken place. When he said, it is finished,
I was justified without guilt. Oh, Satan was
defeated. Oh, he thought he was, he thought,
I love to think about this. He thought I've got him. And
he didn't know his head was being crushed at that time. Let's go on reading. I have many
things to say into you. Verse 14. I have many things
to say to you, but you can't bear them now. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. That's what he does for. He shall not speak of himself.
Let me repeat, a preacher that's always talking about the Holy
Spirit doesn't know the Holy Spirit. His purpose is not to speak of
himself. He shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. He will
show you things to come. Here's a beautiful illustration
of that. The Lord said to the thief on
the cross, he told him the things to come, didn't he? By the spirit
of God, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. He told him things to come. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. He's telling him things to come. Who is he that condemns? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
the treason. He's showing things to come.
This is what God, the Holy Spirit does. He shows things to come.
I've, I've, I've already read the end chapter. I know, I know
the, I know the finish. I know the end. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He'll
show you things to come. Verse 14, he shall glorify me. That's his chief work. He shall glorify me. When Christ has all the glory
in my salvation, I've been baptized in the Holy Spirit. When I look
to Christ only, I've been baptized into the Holy Spirit. When I
see the sufficiency and beauty of Christ, I've been baptized
in the Holy Spirit. He shall receive of mine and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine. Don't you love that? All things
that the Father hath are mine. The way the Lord spoke. Therefore
said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you
a little while and yet, You shall not see me again a little while,
and you shall see me because I go to the Father. If you believe on Christ, you have been baptized in the
Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
Spirit. that gives us grace to hear, believe, and rejoice
in the truth of thy Son and rest in Him. We thank you for His work in
salvation. We thank you that He is the Spirit
of Christ. In His name we pray.