The Baptism with the Holy Spirit

While a great deal is said in these days concerning the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, it is to be feared that there are many who talk about it and pray for it, who have no clear and definite idea of what it is. But the Bible, if carefully studied, will give us a view of this wondrous blessing that is perfectly clear and remarkably definite.

I. We find first of all that are a number of designations in the Bible for this one experience. In Acts i: 5, Jesus said, ‘’Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence y In Acts ii: 4. when this promise was fulfilled, we read ‘’they were all filled with the Holy Ghost:’ In Acts i:4. the same experience is spoken of as ‘’the promise of the Father,’’ and in xxiv: 49 as “the promise of my Father” and “endued with power from on high y By a comparison of Acts x: 44, 45, 47 with Acts xi: 15, lO THK BAPTISM WITH THE) SPIRIT

1 6, we find that the expressions ‘Hhe Holy Spirit fell on them” and * Hhe gift of the Holy Ghost” and ‘received the Holy Ghost’’ are all equivalent to ^’baptised with the Holy Ghost.”

2. We find in the next place that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may know whether he has received it or not. This is evident fi-om our Saviour’s command to the Apostles: “Tarry ye in the city,until ye be endued with power from on high.” (lyUke xxiv:49.) If this enduement with power or Baptism with the Holy Ghost were not an experience so definite that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could they tell when those commanded days of tarrying were at an end? The same thing is clear from Paul’s very definite question to the disciples at Ephesus. “Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?” (Acts xix:2, R. V.) Paul evidently expected a definite “yes” or a definite “no” for an answer. Unless the experience were definite and of such a character that one could know whether he had received it or not, how could these disciples answer Paul’s question? In point of fact they knew they had not” received” or been * ‘baptised with” the Holy Ghost, and a short time afterward they knew they had “received” or been “baptised with” the Holy Ghost. (Acts xix: 6.) Ask many a man to-day who prays that he may be baptised with the Holy Ghost: ‘’Well, my brother, did you get what you asked, were you baptised with the Holy Ghost,” and he would be dumb-founded. He did not expect anything so definite that he could answer positively to a question like that, “yes” or ‘’no.” But we find in the Bible nothing of that vagueness and indefiniteness which we find in much of our modern prayer and speech regarding this subject. The Bible is a very definite book. It is very definite about salvation: so definite that a man who knows his Bible can say positively “yes” or “no “to the question “are you saved.” It is equally definite about “the Baptism with the Holy Ghost:” so that a man who knows his Bible can say positively,” yes, “or “no,” to the question, ’ ‘have you been baptised with the Holy Ghost.” There may be those who are saved who do not know it, because they do not understand their Bibles, but it is their privilege to know it. So there may be those who have been Baptised with the Holy Ghost, who do not know the Bible name for what has come to them, but it is their privilege to know.

3. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a work of the Holy Spirit separate ajid distinct from His rege7ierati7ig work. To be regenerated by - the Holy Spirit is one thing, to be baptised With the Holy Spirit is something different, some thing further. This is evident from Acts i: 5.

There Jesus said: “Ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not majiy days hence.’’ They were not then as yet “baptised with the Holy Ghost.” But they were a/r<^^ regenerated. Jesus Himself had already pronounced them so. In Jno. xv: 3, he had said to the same men, “Now areyeclean through the Word.” (Comp. Jas. i: 1 8; I Pet. i: 23) and in Jno. xiii: 10: “Ye are clean, but not all,” excepting by the “but not air ’ the one unregenerate man in the Apostolic company, Judas Iscariot, from the statement “Ye are clean.” (See Jno. xiii: 11.) The Apostles, excepting Judas Iscariot, were then already regenerate men, but they were not yet “baptised with the Holy Ghost.” From this it is evident that regeneration is one thing, and that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is something different, something ftirther. One can be regenerated and still not yet be baptised with the Holy« Ghost. The same thing is evident from Acts viii: 12-16. Here we find a company of believers who had been baptised. Surely in this company of baptised believers there were some regenerate men. But the record informs us that when Peter and John came down they * ‘prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them). ^’ It is clear then that one may be a believer, may be a regenerate man, and yet not have the Baptism BAPTISM WITH THK HOIvY SPIRIT 13

with the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is something distinct from and beyond His regenerating work. Not every regenerate man has the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, though as we shall see later, every regenerate man may have this Baptism. If a man has experienced the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit he is a saved man, but he is not -£tted for service until in addition to this he has received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

4. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is always connected with testimony and service. I^ook carefully at every passage in which the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned and you will see it is connected with and is for the purpose of testimony and service. (For example, Acts i: 5, 8; ii: 4; iv: 31, 33.) This will come out very clearly when we come to consider what the Baptism with the Holy Spirit does. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not for the purpose of cleansing from sin, but for the purpose of empow>. ering for service. There is a line of teaching, put forward by a very earnest but mistaken body of people, that has brought the whole doctrine of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit into disrepute. It runs this way: First proposition: there is a further experience (or second blessing) after regeneration, namely, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. This proposition is true and can be easily proven from the Bible. Second proposition: this Baptism with the Holy Spirit can be instanteously received. This proposition is also true and can be easily proven from the Bible. Third proposition: this Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the eradication of the sinful nature. This proposition is untrue. Not a line of Scripture can be adduced to show that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit is the eradication of the sinful nature. The conclusion drawn from these three propositions, two true and one false, is necessarily false. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not for the purpose of cleansing from sin, but for the purpose of empowering for service. It is indeed the work of the Holy Spirit to cleanse from sin. Further than this there is a work of the Holy Spirit where the believer is strengthened with might in the inner man: that Christ may dwell in his heart by faith... that he might be filled unto all the fulness of God. (Eph. iii: 16-19 R.V.) There is a work of the Holy Spirit of such a character that the believer is * ’ made free from the law of sin and death,” (Rom. viii: 2) and through the Spirit does ‘’mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body.” (Rom. viii: 13.) It is our privilege to so walk daily and hourly in the power of the Spirit, that the carnal nature is kept in the place of death. But this is not the Baptism with the Spirit, neither

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