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033 - Note A The Baptism of the Spirit Chap 2 · Spirit of Christ

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Speaker 1: Note A to the Spirit of Christ by Andrew Murray.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Note A.
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Speaker 1: The Baptism of the Spirit, Chapter two. The blessed promise
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Speaker 1: that our Lord should baptize with the Holy Spirit has
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Speaker 1: given rise to considerable difference as to the way in
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Speaker 1: which its fulfillment may be expected. This is surely a
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Speaker 1: proof of how much we are lacking its full experience.
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Speaker 1: Where the Spirit is in great power, he would bring
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Speaker 1: his own evidence that we have the baptism and what
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Speaker 1: it includes. There are specially two diverse views to which
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Speaker 1: much attention has been directed of late. The one maintains
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Speaker 1: that as every believer receives the Holy Spirit in regeneration,
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Speaker 1: there can be no thought of a baptism of the
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Speaker 1: Spirit still to be sought, for the promise was fulfilled
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Speaker 1: to the Church in the guilt of Pentecost, and of
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Speaker 1: that heritage of the Church, every believer gets his share
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Speaker 1: on believing in Christ. The opposite view holds that just
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Speaker 1: as Christ's disciples and Philip's converts at Samaria and the
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Speaker 1: twelve men at Ephesus, were true believers and yet needed
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Speaker 1: specially to receive the promised Spirit, so now every believer
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Speaker 1: must seek and may expect this baptism subsequent to his conversion.
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Speaker 1: A third view takes somewhat middle ground, and while agreeing
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Speaker 1: with the first that the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer,
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Speaker 1: it maintains that the believer may, from time to time
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Speaker 1: receive very special, conscious renewals of the Spirit's presence and
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Speaker 1: power from on high, and that these may justly be
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Speaker 1: regarded as fresh baptisms of the Spirit. I cannot better
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Speaker 1: compare the two former views than by giving extracts from
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Speaker 1: two representative little books. The one be Filled with the
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Speaker 1: Spirit or Scriptural Studies about the Holy Ghost by Reverend
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Speaker 1: Earnest boys the other the Baptism of the Holy Ghost
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Speaker 1: by Reverend A. Sir Mayhan. In his book, mister Boyce
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Speaker 1: goes through the whole of the New Testament, noting all
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Speaker 1: the pathoges that have reference to the Spirit, to find
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Speaker 1: the answer to the question whether believers are already possessed
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Speaker 1: by the Spirit in all his fullness and power, as
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Speaker 1: a permanent and abiding presence, or whether they are to
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Speaker 1: look for some peculiar experience called by some the baptism
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Speaker 1: of the Spirit. He thinks that a careful study of
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Speaker 1: the New Testament leads to the conclusion that every true
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Speaker 1: believer is called not to wait to enjoy the possession
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Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit in his fullness and power, but
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Speaker 1: is entitled to believe that he already enjoys the glorious privilege,
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Speaker 1: and is to act accordingly the operations of the Holy
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Speaker 1: Ghost in producing faith in regeneration we believe to be
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Speaker 1: his work on rather than in the heart. How far
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Speaker 1: they involve his actual entrance into the heart, it is
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Speaker 1: beyond our power to determine. But of this we are
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Speaker 1: sure that when there has resulted that faith which makes
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Speaker 1: one the child of God, then there takes place, in
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Speaker 1: the case of every one, a real entrance into and
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Speaker 1: a permanent abiding in dwelling of the Holy Spirit in
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Speaker 1: the heart. Whatever be the believer's attitude and relationship towards
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Speaker 1: the Spirit in matters of Christian life and experience, he
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Speaker 1: is not to spend his time and prayers in seeking
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Speaker 1: a further indwelling of the Spirit. This, in all its fullness,
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Speaker 1: is a glorious fact already. But he is to enter
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Speaker 1: more thoroughly into an intelligent and spiritual perception of what
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Speaker 1: at present actually exists. In speaking of the day of Painecost,
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Speaker 1: he very strongly urges the thought that in his descent
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Speaker 1: then he came permanently to dwell on earth. In acts, too,
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Speaker 1: we have the personal descent of the Holy Ghost to
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Speaker 1: take up his abode in the Church on earth and
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Speaker 1: to abide with it forever John fourteen sixteen. As the
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Speaker 1: Son of God became incarnate by the union with a
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Speaker 1: really human body, so there is a sense in which
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost became incarnate also at Pentecost, uniting himself
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Speaker 1: with the human bodies of men and women who believed
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Speaker 1: in Christ. He has dwelt in the Church as the
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Speaker 1: body of Christ only by dwelling in the heart of
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Speaker 1: each individual who is a real member of that body,
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Speaker 1: and thereby uniting him with Christ as the head. And
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Speaker 1: now we believe it is from this earthly dwelling place,
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Speaker 1: and not, as it were, afresh from Heaven, that he
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Speaker 1: communicates himself afresh to each new member of the spiritual
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Speaker 1: bland body, working also in and through the believers. Each
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Speaker 1: believer is thus not only an agent through whom the
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Speaker 1: Holy Ghost manifests and carries home the reality of divine
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Speaker 1: truth to others, but is also, in a certain sense
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Speaker 1: a source from which he personally communicates himself to other hearts.
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Speaker 1: John fifteen, twenty six and twenty seven and John seven,
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Speaker 1: thirty eight and thirty nine. Speaking of the prayer in
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Speaker 1: Ephesians three, verses fourteen to twenty one, he writes, in
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Speaker 1: searching scripture, we shall find that in no one single
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Speaker 1: case are believers after Pentecost exhorted to ask for the
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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit as a gift not yet received, but that
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Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, already dwelling in them may carry on
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Speaker 1: with power his various offices in the inner man. And
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Speaker 1: in summing up at the conclusion, he says, if language
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Speaker 1: means anything at all, we have the constantly repeated assurance
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Speaker 1: of the inspeas by writers that the in dwelling of
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost is a present reality in everyone who
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Speaker 1: is a true child of God. It must be confessed, however,
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Speaker 1: that there is very little indication of the spirits in
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Speaker 1: dwelling to be seen in the lives and conduct of
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Speaker 1: a vast number of Christian professors. In view of things
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Speaker 1: as they are in the Christian Church, we do not
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Speaker 1: wonder that godly people are looking about for a remedy
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Speaker 1: and that they turn to the Holy Spirit as they
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Speaker 1: look for this. But we are astonished that men do
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Speaker 1: not see that the secret is an open one, and
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Speaker 1: that the remedy is very near them, indeed already within them.
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Speaker 1: What we want is that same simple, childlike faith in
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Speaker 1: the person of the Holy Spirit within us, as we
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Speaker 1: have been taught to exercise in all the works of
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Speaker 1: Christ on our behalf. All spiritual experience springs, in the
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Speaker 1: first instance, from a simple belief in facts which cannot
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Speaker 1: appear real to our consciousness until we simply believe them,
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Speaker 1: in spite of all feelings and appearances to the contrary.
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Speaker 1: Let us bring this simple and childlike faith to bear
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Speaker 1: upon the truth of the Holy Spirits in dwelling in
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Speaker 1: our hearts, and let us start afresh on a life
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Speaker 1: of surrender to His leadings and in the realization of
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Speaker 1: the scripture exhortations which have been unfolded in the previous chapters.
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Speaker 1: So shall we find the true secret of happiness, of holiness,
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Speaker 1: of spiritual power, which is daily and hourly to be
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Speaker 1: filled with the spirit I have of set purpose given
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Speaker 1: somewhat full extracts both because I wish to insist on
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Speaker 1: the deep importance of the aspect of truth here presented,
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Speaker 1: and to indicate how, after all, it is only one
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Speaker 1: side of the truth in connection with the former object.
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Speaker 1: I may say that for a conference held in the
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Speaker 1: course of this year, at which some twenty seven ministers
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Speaker 1: met and spent six days in prayer and study on
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Speaker 1: the work of the Holy Spirit, a copy of mister
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Speaker 1: Boy's book had been sent to each member some weeks before.
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Speaker 1: When we met, more than one testified to the blessing
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Speaker 1: that had been received in using it. There was one
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Speaker 1: passage to which one referred as having been made a
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Speaker 1: great blessing to him, and by which others had been
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Speaker 1: struck as making clear the position we ought to take
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Speaker 1: towards the Holy Spirit, without which our prayers for his
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Speaker 1: workings would avail. But little, mister Boyce writes page twenty nine,
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Speaker 1: if we were asked very briefly the true meaning of
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Speaker 1: being filled with the Spirit, we should say that it
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Speaker 1: involved not our having more of the Spirit, but rather
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Speaker 1: the Spirit having more of us. There is a vast
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Speaker 1: difference between the two, and many who earnestly seek this
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Speaker 1: fullness of the Spirit failed to see this. They are longing, waiting, praying,
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Speaker 1: for God to give them something more, when in order
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Speaker 1: to be filled with the Spirit, they must give him
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Speaker 1: something more than they have given already. Not many days later,
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Speaker 1: a similar testimony was received from one who had been
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Speaker 1: prevented from coming, but who wrote of its having been
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Speaker 1: to him like a new revelation to see that he
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Speaker 1: had all of the Holy Ghost he needed to have
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Speaker 1: or ever could have. I am certain that there are
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Speaker 1: many Christians and many ministers in christ Church with whom
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Speaker 1: this is the one thing they lack, the living faith
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Speaker 1: that the Spirit is dwelling within them, equal to every
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Speaker 1: emergency and only waiting to be admitted to a more
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Speaker 1: entire possession and a more complete control. In our evangelical preaching,
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Speaker 1: we need to have every young convert fully instructed in
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Speaker 1: this truth that the only living assurance of acceptance, the
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Speaker 1: only power of holiness and fruitfulness, the only possibility of
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Speaker 1: the enjoyment of Christ's presence and in dwelling, are to
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Speaker 1: be found in the faith of the indwelling Spirit. Let
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Speaker 1: us now turn to the other side. In doctor Mahon's
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Speaker 1: book The Baptism of the Spirit, we have an entirely
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Speaker 1: different aspect of God's truth from one who equally desires
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Speaker 1: only to know what the mind of God in scripture is.
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Speaker 1: A few sentences from the preface to a new edition
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Speaker 1: will make his position clear. Referring to John fourteen fifteen
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Speaker 1: to seventeen, he writes, the Holy Spirit had convinced the
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Speaker 1: disciples of sin, had induced them to believe in Christ,
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Speaker 1: to love Him, and to keep His commandments. From the
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Speaker 1: hour of their conversion, He had been with them, and
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Speaker 1: their bodies had been in His temples. During the ten
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Speaker 1: days these disciples waited at Jerusalem, waiting the promise of
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Speaker 1: the Father. The same Spirit was with them, still perfecting
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Speaker 1: their obedience, intensifying their aspirations, unifying their accord, and completing
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Speaker 1: their preparation for the inward enlightenments and enduements of power
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Speaker 1: which were to result from the approaching baptism. All that
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Speaker 1: preceded Pentecost was preparatory to this baptism, but no part
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Speaker 1: of it. Their conversion and subsequent preparation were the work
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Speaker 1: of the Spirit, just as much as the baptism, and
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Speaker 1: the former was indispensable to the latter. Had the apostles
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Speaker 1: continued in the propriety stage of their experience, or had
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Speaker 1: they gone forth to their work. Prior to the reception
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Speaker 1: of the promise of the Spirit, the world would never
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Speaker 1: have felt their influence. Waiting, on the other hand, the
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Speaker 1: promise of the Father, and going forth as Christ did
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Speaker 1: in the power of the Spirit, they soon turned the
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Speaker 1: world upside down. The same holds true of all believers,
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Speaker 1: the least as well as the greatest under the present dispensation,
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Speaker 1: the dispensation of the Spirit. As with the apostles and
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Speaker 1: their associates, so with every believer in Jesus. After inducing
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Speaker 1: repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: the Spirit abides with and works in him as He
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Speaker 1: did in them prior to Pentecost, and this for the
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Speaker 1: one purpose to perfect his love and obedience and inward preparation,
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Speaker 1: that the Holy Ghost may fall on him as he
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Speaker 1: did on them at the beginning. If the convert stop
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Speaker 1: short of this consummation, and if he does this, especially
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Speaker 1: under the belief that he did receive the baptism of
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Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost in conversion, he will almost inevitably remain
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Speaker 1: through life in the weakness and darkness of the old
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Speaker 1: instead of going forward to his life work under the
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Speaker 1: enduement of power and spiritual illuminations peculiar to the New dispensation.
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Speaker 1: Here this great doctrine is met by the counter one
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Speaker 1: that every new born soul does not receive the promised
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Speaker 1: baptism of the Holy Spirit and all accompanying enduements of
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Speaker 1: power at the time of his conversion. In conformation of
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Speaker 1: this doctrine, such passages are adduced as those which affirm
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Speaker 1: that all have been baptized into one body, and that
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Speaker 1: the bodies of all believers are temples of the Holy Ghost.
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Speaker 1: All this we teach is true of every convert now,
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Speaker 1: and has been true of every converted person since the Fall.
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Speaker 1: The apostles must have had the spirit of Christ, or
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Speaker 1: they could not have been his. Yet in the New
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Speaker 1: Testament sense of the word, the Holy Ghost was not
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Speaker 1: yet given, and they were not baptized with the Holy
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Speaker 1: Ghost until Pentecost had fully come. So of all converts
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Speaker 1: in this dispensation, they have the Spirit of Christ, and
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Speaker 1: their bodies are His temples. This was true of all
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Speaker 1: the converts in Samaria before Peter and John came there.
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Speaker 1: Yet the Holy Ghost had not fallen upon one of them.
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Speaker 1: How any person can contemplate the revealed results of the
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Speaker 1: baptism of the Holy Ghost, and then affirm in the
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Speaker 1: present of palpable facts that every such convert has received
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Speaker 1: the endumance of power included in the promise of the
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Speaker 1: Spirit is a mystery of mysteries. To us, language is
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Speaker 1: without meaning if the promise of the Spirit does not
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Speaker 1: await the believer after he has entered into a state
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Speaker 1: of justification, and then in a state of love and
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Speaker 1: obedience and supreme consecration to Christ, tarries before God until
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Speaker 1: he is endued with power from on high. In this
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Speaker 1: statement of scripture truth, we have perfect agreement with the
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Speaker 1: previous one on the one great point that every believer
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Speaker 1: has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. That he ought
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Speaker 1: to know this and believe that the Spirit will work
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Speaker 1: in him what he needs for further growth and strength.
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Speaker 1: The difference arises when the question comes to the way
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Speaker 1: in which the believer is to attain the full experience
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Speaker 1: of all that the indwelling of the Spirit implies. While
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Speaker 1: the former answer is believe that he is within you,
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Speaker 1: open up and surrender your whole being to him. He
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Speaker 1: will fill you, the second speaks wait before his throne
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Speaker 1: for this filling. As a special distinct gift the fulfillment
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Speaker 1: of the Father's promise. Let me say at once that
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Speaker 1: if it be maintained in connection with this second view,
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Speaker 1: that every believer must consciously seek and receive as a
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Speaker 1: distinct experience such a baptism. This does not appear to
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Speaker 1: me what the Word of God teaches. But if it
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Speaker 1: be put in this way, that in answer to believing prayer,
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Speaker 1: many believers have received, and those who seek it will
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Speaker 1: often receive such an inflow of the Spirit of God
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Speaker 1: as will to them indeed be nothing less than a
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Speaker 1: new baptism of the Spirit. I cannot but regard it
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Speaker 1: as in harmony with the teaching of Scripture. I have
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Speaker 1: already expressed my deep sense of the truth and value
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Speaker 1: of the positive part of the teaching in mister Boy's book.
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Speaker 1: But with the extent to which he goes into dying
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Speaker 1: that we should still pray for the spirit, I can
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Speaker 1: hardly agree, and am anxious to point out, how as
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Speaker 1: it appears to me there are aspects of the truth
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Speaker 1: in God's Word by which his view must still be supplemented.
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Speaker 1: There is one truth of which I cannot but think
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Speaker 1: he has somewhat lost sight. In a passage quoted above.
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Speaker 1: He speaks very strongly about the Spirit having come to
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Speaker 1: this earth and taken up his abode in the body
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Speaker 1: of Christ, the Church, so much so that all communications
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Speaker 1: of the Spirit to the unconverted come through believers. This
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Speaker 1: is an aspect of the truth of the utmost importance,
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Speaker 1: and far too little realized. But there is another aspect
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Speaker 1: that must not be lost. Sight of the Spirit is
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of God. He is not only in the Church,
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Speaker 1: but also in the Father and the Son. The Father
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Speaker 1: the Son and his body the Church. The Spirit is
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Speaker 1: the one life in which these have their fellowship. God.
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Speaker 1: He is not given his spirit to believers in the
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Speaker 1: sense of parting with him, or as if by one's
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Speaker 1: giving he did not now need any more to give. Footnote.
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Speaker 1: We are not to think of the giving of the
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Speaker 1: Spirit as an isolated deposit of what once given is
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Speaker 1: now locally in possession. The first gift is, as it were,
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Speaker 1: the first point in a series of actions, of which
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Speaker 1: each one may also be expressed as a gift from
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Speaker 1: mule on Ephesians one, seventeen. End of footnote. By no means,
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Speaker 1: all divine giving is in the power of the eternal life,
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Speaker 1: the power of a continuous life flow from God through
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Speaker 1: Christ to his people. And it is therefore consistent with
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Speaker 1: the fullest acknowledgment of the Spirit dwelling in us, that
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Speaker 1: the believer calls for more, that there is a great
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Speaker 1: deal of prayer in which the presence of the Spirit
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Speaker 1: is forgotten, is ignored. I admit and deplore, and I
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Speaker 1: deeply feel the loss which the Church suffers by it.
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Speaker 1: And yet it would be falling into the other extreme if,
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Speaker 1: because God has given and we have received the Spirit,
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Speaker 1: we were no longer to pray for more of him.
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Speaker 1: It is often said, but how can you ask for
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Speaker 1: that which you have? The answer is a very simple one.
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Speaker 1: The fingers that hold the pen with which I write
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Speaker 1: are as full of blood as can be in perfect health,
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Speaker 1: And yet if they could speak, we would not continually
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Speaker 1: hear them calling to the heart, Oh, send in the
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Speaker 1: fresh blood without which we cannot live. The branch that
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Speaker 1: hangs full of fruit is as full of sap as
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Speaker 1: it can hold, and yet it unceasingly offers its emptiness
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Speaker 1: and need to the vine for that unceasing supply without
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Speaker 1: which the fruit could not be ripened. The lungs are
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Speaker 1: full of breath, and yet call for a fresh supply
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Speaker 1: every moment. Just so with the believer who understands that
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Speaker 1: he has not done spirit as a power he can
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Speaker 1: use or dispose of, or as a person who renders
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Speaker 1: him independent of the Son, but as his spirit, who
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Speaker 1: brings into living connection with him and increasing dependence. His
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Speaker 1: whole life of prayer will be the harmony of a
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Speaker 1: faith that praises for the spirit that has been received,
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Speaker 1: and yet always awaits for his fuller inflow out of
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Speaker 1: him in whom his fullness dwells. We see this union
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Speaker 1: of having and asking in the life of the Son.
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Speaker 1: He knew that the Father had given him all things,
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Speaker 1: yea that the Father was in him, and yet he
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Speaker 1: felt the need of prayer. He had had the indwelling
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Speaker 1: spirit from his birth, and yet his receiving the spirit
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Speaker 1: from above at his baptism was a real divine transaction.
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Speaker 1: As he prayed, the heavens opened and the Spirit descended.
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Speaker 1: We see it too in Paul's epistles. He had just
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Speaker 1: reminded the Ephesians that they had been sealed with the
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Speaker 1: holy Spirit of promise when he told them that he
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Speaker 1: prayed for them that God might give them the Spirit
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Speaker 1: of wisdom and revelation. He not only asks that the
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Speaker 1: Spirit in them may make them wise, he is not
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Speaker 1: afraid to pray for the Spirit of wisdom, and so
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Speaker 1: later on when he asks that the Father would, according
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Speaker 1: to the riches of his glory as something very wonderful
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Speaker 1: and divine, strengthen them with might by the Spirit, he
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Speaker 1: indicates to us how it is not enough that we
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Speaker 1: know and believe that the Spirit is in us, but
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Speaker 1: that it is in prayer to the Father that the
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Speaker 1: increase of the Spirit's power will come and we be
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Speaker 1: filled with him. His interchange of the expression, give you
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Speaker 1: the Spirit of wisdom, and give you to be strengthened
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Speaker 1: with the Spirit gives us liberty to ask in either
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Speaker 1: way if we only realize that the Spirit is already
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Speaker 1: in us, and that it is only in the prayer
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Speaker 1: of faith to the Father where the Spirit is, that
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Speaker 1: the increased inflow of his presence and power can come.
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Speaker 1: The faith that he is in us, the assurance that
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Speaker 1: he wants more of us, and that if he only
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Speaker 1: has us holy will fill us will just urge us
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Speaker 1: to prayer for the Father, whose it is unceasingly and
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Speaker 1: ever more in the power of the endless life to
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Speaker 1: give the Spirit through the Son. It would indeed be
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Speaker 1: sad if a believer, on once having received the Spirit,
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Speaker 1: were to feel that Christ's precious word, How much more
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Speaker 1: shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
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Speaker 1: that ask him was something he had now outgrown, and
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Speaker 1: that this Chief of blessings he need now no longer
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Speaker 1: ask No. As the anointing with fresh oil is a
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Speaker 1: daily need, it is daily received in living fellowship with
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Speaker 1: the Father, through him in whom the fullness ever abides.
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Speaker 1: And just so the thought of Jesus baptizing with the
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Speaker 1: Spirit is not a remembrance of what is now a
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Speaker 1: past thing done once for all, but a promise of
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Speaker 1: what may be a daily, continuous experience. The faith that
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Speaker 1: we have the Spirit within us, even when it has
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Speaker 1: almost come like a new revelation and filled us with
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Speaker 1: joy and strength, will lose its freshness and its power,
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Speaker 1: except as the inflow is maintained in living fellowship with
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Speaker 1: the Father and the Son. The lesson of Pentecost holds
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Speaker 1: good for all ages. As our Lord is seated on
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Speaker 1: the throne in the glory to give the Spirit the
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Speaker 1: footstool of the throne remains the place where the Spirit
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Speaker 1: is received. The deeper our faith becomes that we have
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Speaker 1: the Spirit, the more continuous will be our prayer that
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Speaker 1: the Father grant us his mighty workings. It is only
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Speaker 1: in the living intercourse with the Father and the Son,
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Speaker 1: in the worship and prayer of faith, that the Spirit
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Speaker 1: will work mightily. These remarks may have prepared the way
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Speaker 1: for what appears to me the scriptural light in which
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Speaker 1: the prayer for the baptism of the Spirit may be
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Speaker 1: offered and an answer expected one to the disciples. The
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Speaker 1: baptism of the Spirit was very distinctly not his first
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Speaker 1: bestowal for regeneration, but the definite communication of the presence
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Speaker 1: in power of their glorified Lord. Two. Of this Spirit
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Speaker 1: with which the Church of Christ was baptized. Every believer
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Speaker 1: is made a partaker. He has the Spirit of Christ
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Speaker 1: dwelling in him. Three. Just as there was a twofold
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Speaker 1: operation of the One Spirit in the Old and New Testament,
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Speaker 1: of which the state of the disciples before and after
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Speaker 1: Pentecost was the most striking illustration, so they may be,
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Speaker 1: and in the great majority of Christians is a corresponding
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Speaker 1: difference of experience This difference between the bare knowledge of
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Speaker 1: his presence and his full revelation of the in dwelling
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Speaker 1: Christ in his glory, is owing either to ignorance or unfaithfulness. Four.
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Speaker 1: When once the distinct recognition of what the indwelling of
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Speaker 1: the Spirit was meant to bring is brought home to
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Speaker 1: the soul, and it is ready to give up all
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Speaker 1: to be made partaker of it, the believer may ask
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Speaker 1: and expect what may be termed a baptism of the spirit.
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Speaker 1: Praying to the Father in accordance with the two prayers
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Speaker 1: in Ephesians, and coming to Jesus in the renewed surrender
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Speaker 1: of faith and obedience, he may receive such an inflow
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Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit as shall consciously lift him to
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Speaker 1: a different level from the one on which he has
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Speaker 1: hitherto lived. Five. The way in which the baptism comes
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Speaker 1: may be very different. Tosum. It comes as a glad
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Speaker 1: and sensible quickening of their spiritual life. They are so
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Speaker 1: filled with the spirit that all their feelings are stirred.
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Speaker 1: They can speak of something they have distinctly experienced as
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Speaker 1: a gift from the Father to others. It is given
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Speaker 1: not to their feelings, but to their faith. It comes
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Speaker 1: as a deep, quiet, but clearer insight into the fullness
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Speaker 1: of the Spirit of Christ as indeed being theirs, and
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Speaker 1: a faith that feels confident that His sufficiency is equal
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Speaker 1: to every emergency that may arise. In the midst of weakness.
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Speaker 1: They know that the power is resting on them. In
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Speaker 1: either case, they know that the blessing has been given
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Speaker 1: from above to be maintained under obedience and deep dependence
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Speaker 1: on Him from whom it came. Six such baptism is
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Speaker 1: specially given as power for work. It may sometimes be
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Speaker 1: received before the believer fully understands his calling to work,
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Speaker 1: and while he is chiefly occupied with his own sanctification.
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Speaker 1: It cannot be maintained except as the call to witness
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Speaker 1: for the Lord is obeyed. The baptism of Pentecost was
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Speaker 1: distinctly given as preparation for work. The baptism of Cornelius
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Speaker 1: and his praying company as God seal to their faith
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Speaker 1: and their full participation in the blessings of the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: of God. At once open their mouths to speak. We
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Speaker 1: must beware of laying down fixed rules. God's gifts and
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Speaker 1: love are larger than our hearts. Every believer who longs
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Speaker 1: up to the light, he has to be surrendered fully
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Speaker 1: to the glory of his Lord, may come and claim
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Speaker 1: the fullness of the gift. It will prove its own
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Speaker 1: power to open the mouth and bring forth testimony for God. Seven.
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Speaker 1: The preparation for the baptism is ever the same as
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Speaker 1: with the first disciples. Having called and to forsake all
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Speaker 1: for him, our Lord had first kept them three years
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Speaker 1: in his school, training them into the knowledge and love
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Speaker 1: and obedience to his will. Great personal attachment to Jesus
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Speaker 1: was the first requisite. He had then led them in
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Speaker 1: the fellowship of his death, to give up all hope
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Speaker 1: in themselves or in his outward appearance, all confidence in
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Speaker 1: the flesh. As they were thus taught the utter insufficiency
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Speaker 1: of the flesh, either in their own good purposes or
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Speaker 1: his bodily presence to conquer sin or give deliverance, the
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Speaker 1: deed was awakened for something higher. And last of all,
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Speaker 1: he kept them first the forty days and then the
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Speaker 1: ten days in waiting expectancy, looking to himself to give
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Speaker 1: them something above what they could ask or think. With
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Speaker 1: great diversity of mode and degree, every believer will have
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Speaker 1: to pass through some preparation not entirely different. Blest they
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Speaker 1: who allow the Master himself to take them into his
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Speaker 1: baptism class, to regulate their course of training, and rest
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Speaker 1: content with nothing less than to be full of the
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Speaker 1: Holy Ghost. To some it comes without any idea of
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Speaker 1: a baptism at all. In intense devotion to their Lord,
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Speaker 1: they know that he dwells in them and has them
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Speaker 1: wholly as his own. Whatever difference there still may be
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Speaker 1: in our way of expressing what we seek, let us
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Speaker 1: remember that our Father understands each of his children better
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Speaker 1: than they do themselves. Let us rejoice, even amid varying
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Speaker 1: modes of expression, that the desire is growing among God's
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Speaker 1: people to have nothing less than what God meant by
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Speaker 1: his promise of a baptism with the Holy Ghost and
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Speaker 1: with fire. Let us be faithful to the Spirit as
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Speaker 1: he dwells within us. Let us stir up ourselves and
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Speaker 1: each other to wait for from our God, who is
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Speaker 1: able to do above what we ask or think, an
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Speaker 1: experience of his mighty in working and his overflowing fullness
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Speaker 1: in believers and the Church, such as we can form
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Speaker 1: no conception of end of Note a I