The Baptism With The Holy Spirit

One of the most deeply significant phrases used in connection with the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures is “baptized with the Holy Ghost.” John the Baptist was the first to use this phrase. In speaking of himself and the coming One he said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11). The second “with” in this passage is in italics. It is not found in the Greek. There are not two different baptisms spoken of, the one with the Holy Ghost and one with fire, but one baptism with the Holy Wind and Fire.

Jesus afterwards used the same expression. In Acts 1:5, He says, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now .” When this promise of John the Baptist and our Lord was fulfilled in Acts 2:3- 4, we read, “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues a s the Spirit gave them utterance.” Here we have another expression, “ filled with the Holy Spirit, ” used synonymously with “baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

We read again in Acts 10:44- 46, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter d eclared,” Peter himself, afterwards describing this experience in Jerusalem, tells the story in this way, 'As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’

If God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” (Acts 11:15 -17). Here Peter distinctly calls the experience which came to Cornelius and his household, being baptized with the Holy Ghost , so we see that the expression “the Holy Ghost fell” and “the gift of the Holy Ghost” are practically similar expressions with “baptized with the Holy Ghost.” Still other expressions are used to describe this blessing, such as “receive the Holy Ghost” ( Acts 2:38; Acts 19:2 - 6); “the Holy Ghost came on them” (Acts 19:2 - 6); “gift of the Holy Ghost” (Hebrews 2:4, 1 Corinthians 12:4, 11, 13); “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit? In the first place, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may and ought to know whether one has received it or not . This is evident from our Lord's command to His disciples in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1-4, that they should not depart from Jerusalem to undertake the work which He had commissioned them to do until they had received this promise of the Father. It is also evident from the eighth chapter of Acts, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, where we are distinctly told, “ the Holy Spirit had not as yet fallen upon any of them .” It is evident also from the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the second verse, where Paul put to the little group of disciples at Ephesus the definite question, “Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?” The receiving of the Holy Ghost was an experience so clear that one could answer yes or no to the question whether they had received the Holy Spirit. In this case, the disciples answered, “No,” that they did not so much as hear whether the Holy Ghost was given.

They did not say what our Authorized Version makes them say, that they did not so much as hear whether there was any Holy Ghost. They knew that there was a Holy Ghost; they knew furthermore that there was a clear promise of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, but they had not heard that that promise had been as yet fulfilled. Paul told them that it had and took steps whereby they were baptized with the Holy Spirit before that meeting closed. It is equally evident from Galatians 3:2 that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a clear experience of which one may know whether he has received it or not. In this passage, Paul says to the believers in Galatia, “Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” Their receiving the Spirit had been clear as a matter of personal consciousness that Paul could appeal to it as a ground for his argument.

These days, there is much talk about the baptism with the Holy Spirit and prayer for the baptism with the Spirit that is altogether vague and not clear. Men arise in meeting and pray that they may be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and if you should go afterwards to the one who offered the prayer and put to him the question, “Did you receive what you asked? Were you baptized with the Holy Spirit?” it is quite likely that he would hesitate and say, “I hope so”; but there is none of this uncleareness in the Bible. The Bible is clear on this, as on every other point. It sets forth an experience so definite and so real that one may know whether or not he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and can answer yes or no to the question, “Have you received the Holy Ghost?”

In the second place, it is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and additional to His regenerating work . This is evident from A cts 1:5, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

It is clear, then, that the disciples had not as yet been baptized with the Holy Ghost that they were to be baptized in just a few days. But the men to whom Jesus spoke these words were already renewed men. They had been so pronounced by our Lord Himself.

He had said to them in John 15:3, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” But what does clean through the word me an? 1 Peter 1:23 answers the question, “ since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God .” A little earlier on the same night, Jesus had said to them in John 13:10, “The one who has bat hed does not need to wash, except for his feet,[a] but is completely clean.

And you are clean, but not everyone of you.” The Lord Jesus had pronounced that apostolic company clean I . e. , regenerate men, except the one who never was a renewed man, Judas Iscariot, who should betray Him (see verse 11). The remaining eleven, Jesus Christ had marked, renewed men. Yet He tells these same men in Acts 1:5 that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was an experience that they had not as yet realised, that still lay in the future. So it is evident that it is one thing to be born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word and something distinct from this and additional to it to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.

The same thing is evident from Acts 8:12, compared with the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the same chapter. In the twelfth verse, we read that a large company of disciples had believed the preaching of Philip concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ , and “had been baptized into the name of the Lo rd Jesus” (v. 16). Certainly , in this company of baptised believers, there were at least some renewed persons.

Whatever the true form of water baptism may be, they undoubtedly had been baptised by the true form, for the baptising had been done by a Spirit-commissioned man, but in the fifteenth and sixteenth verses we read, “When they (that is Peter and John) were coming down, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they had been ba ptised into the name of the Lord Jesus.” Baptised believers they were; baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus they had been; renewed men some of them most assuredly were, and yet not one of them as yet had received, or been baptized with, the Holy Ghost.

So again, it is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from and additional to His regenerating work. A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptised with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration, there is the anointing of life by the Spirit's power, and the one who receives it is saved: in the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there is the anointing of power, and the one who receives it is fitted for service. The baptism with the Holy Spirit, however, may take place at the moment of regeneration. It did, for example, in the household of Cornelius. We read in Acts 10:43, that while Peter was preaching, he came to the point where he said concerning Jesus, “ To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name ,” and at that point Cornelius and his household believed and we read immediately, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” The moment they believed the testimony about Jesus, they were baptised with the Holy Ghost, even before they were baptized with water. Regeneration and the baptism with the Holy Spirit took place at the same moment, and so they do in many an experience today. It would seem as if in a normal condition of the church, this would be the usual experience. But the church is not in a normal condition today.

A very large part of the church is in the place where the believers in Samaria were before Peter and John came down, and where the disciples in Ephesus were before Paul came and told them of their larger privilege baptised believers, baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus, baptised to repentance of sins, but not as yet baptised with the Holy Ghost.

Nevertheless, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every believer . It was purchased for us by the death of Christ, and when He ascended to the right hand of the Father, He received the promise of the Father and shed Him forth upon the church, and if any one today has not been baptism by the Holy Spirit as a personal experience, it is because he has not claimed his birthright. Potentially, every member of the body of Christ is baptised with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), “For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” But there are many believers with whom that which is potentially theirs has not become a matter of real, actual, personal experience.

All men are potentially justified in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross; that is, justification is provided for them and belongs to them (Romans 5:18), but what potentially belongs to every man, each man must appropriate to himself by faith in Christ; then justification is actually and experimentally his and just so, while the baptism with the Holy Spirit is potentially the possession of every believer, each believer must appropriate it for himself before it is experimentally his.

We may go still further than this and say that it is only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that one becomes in the fullest sense a member of the body of Christ, because it is only by the baptism with the Spirit that he receives power to perform those functions for which God has appointed him as a part of the body.

As we have already seen, every true believer has the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), but not every believer has the baptism with the Holy Spirit (though every believer may have as we have just seen). It is one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, perhaps dwelling within us way back in some hidden sanctuary of our being, back of clear consciousness, and something far different, something vastly more, to have the Holy Spirit taking complete possession of the one whom He inhabits. Some emphasise the fact that every believer potentially has the baptism with the Spirit, to such an extent that they teach that every believer has the baptism with the Spirit as an experience. But unless the baptism with the Spirit today is something different from what the baptism with the Spirit that was in the early church, indeed unless it is something not at all real, then either a very large proportion of those whom we ordinarily consider believers are not believers, or else one may be a believer and a regenerate man without having been baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Certainly, this was the case in the early church. It was the case with the Apostles before Pentecost; it was the case with the church in Ephesus; it was the case with the church in Samaria. And there are thousands today who can testify to having received Christ and been born again, and then afterwards, sometimes long afterwards, having been baptized with the Holy Ghost as a clear experience.

This is a matter of great practical importance, for there are many who are not enjoying the fullness of privilege that they might enjoy because by pushing individual verses in the Scriptures beyond what they will bear and against the plain teaching of the Scriptures as a whole, they are trying to persuade themselves that they have already been baptised with the Holy Spirit when they have not. And if they would only admit to themselves that they had not, they could then take the steps whereby they would be baptised with the Holy Spirit as a matter of clear, personal experience.

The next thing that is clear from the teaching of Scripture is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is always connected with, and primarily for, testimony and service . Our Lord, in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive, in Luke 24:49 said , “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

And again He said in Acts 1:5- 8, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now..... But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” In the record of the fulfillment of this promise of our Lord in Acts 2:4, we read, “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said and of the result. The result was that Peter and the other Apostles spoke with such power that three thousand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced their sin, and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ in baptism and continued in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers ever afterwards.

In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we read that when the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they “ spake the word of God with boldness ” and that “ with great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus .” And in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of Paul's being baptised with the Holy Spirit. We read in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, “And Ananias went h is way, and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened... And straightway, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God,” and in the twenty - second verse we read that he “confused the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ”. In 1 Corinthians 12, we have the fullest discussion of the baptism with the Holy Spirit found in any passage in the Bible.

This is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the results recorded there are gifts for service.

The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended to make believers happy, but to make them useful. It is not intended merely for the joy of the individual believer; it is intended primarily for his service efficiency. I do not say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not make the believer happy; for as part of the fruit of the Spirit is “joy,” if one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, joy must inevitably result. I have never known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever known before. But this is not the prime purpose of the baptism, nor the most important and prominent result.

Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point, for there are many Christians who, in seeking the baptism with the Spirit, are seeking personal joy. They go to conventions and conferences for the deepening of the Christian life and come back and tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, referring to some new joy that has come into their heart, but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they are any more useful to their pastors or their churches than they were before, and one is compelled to think that whatever they have received, they have not received the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Joy and exaltation are all right in their places.

When they come, thank God for them the writer knows something about them but in a world such as we live in to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief are so triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of men, women and young people sweeping on towards eternal hell, I would rather go through my whole life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have power to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in the year but no power to stem the awful tide of sin and bring men, women and children to a saving knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily to make believers individually holy. I do not say that it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to make believers holy, for as we have already seen, He is “the Spirit of Holiness,” and the only way we shall ever attain to holiness is by His power. I do not even say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will in a great spiritual transformation and uplift and cleansing, for the promise is, “He shall baptise y ou with the Holy Spirit and fire ” (and the thought of fire as used in this connection is the thought of searching, refining, cleansing, consuming).

A wonderful transformation took place in the Apostles at Pentecost, and a wonderful transformation has taken place in thousands who have been baptised with the Holy Spirit since Pentecost, but the primary purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is efficiency in testimony and service . It has to do rather with gifts for service than with graces of character. It is the transfer of spiritual power or gifts in service, and sometimes one may have rare gifts by the Spirit's power and yet manifest few of the graces of the Spirit.

(See 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, Matthew 7:22-23) In every passage in the Bible in which the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, it is connected with testimony or service.

We shall perhaps get a clearer idea of just what the baptism with the Holy Spirit is if we stop to consider the results of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. What are the results of the baptism with the Holy Spirit?

1. The specific manifestations of the baptism with the Holy Spirit are not the same in all persons. This appears clearly from 1 Corinthians 12:4- 13, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, the working of miracles, to another prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Here we see one baptism but a great variety of manifestatio ns of the power of that baptism.

There is diversity of gifts, but the same Spirit. The gifts vary with the different lines of service to which God calls different persons. The church is a body, and different members of the body have different functions, and the Spirit communicates to the one who is baptised with the Spirit those gifts which fit him for the service to which God has called him. It is very important to bear this in mind. Through the failure to see this, many have gone entirely astray on the whole subject. In my early study of the subject, I noticed the fact that in many instances those who were baptised with the Holy Spirit spoke with tongues ( e.g. , Acts 2:4; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6), and I wondered if everyone who was baptised with the Holy Spirit would speak with tongues.

I did not know of anyone who was speaking with tongues today, and whether the baptism with the Holy Spirit was for the present age. But one day I was studying 1 Corinthians 12 and noticed how Paul said to the believers in that wonderfully gifted church in Corinth, all of whom had been pronounced in the thirteenth verse to be baptised with the Spirit, “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?

Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” So I saw it was taught in the Scriptures that one might be baptised with the Holy Spirit and still not have the gift of tongues.

I saw furthermore that the gift of tongues, according to the Scripture, was the last and the least important of all the gifts, and that we were urged to desire the greater gifts (1 Corinthians 13:31; 1 Corinthians 14.

5, 12, 14, 18, 19, 27, 28). Later, I was tempted to fall into another error, more specious but in reality just as unscriptural as this, namely, that if one were baptized with the Holy Spirit, he would receive the gift of an evangelist.

I had read the story of D. L. Moody, of Charles G. Finney and of others who were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and of the power that came to them as evangelists, and the thought was suggested that if anyone is baptized with the Holy Spirit, will he not also obtain power as an evangelist? But this was also unscriptural.

If God has called a man to be an evangelist and he is baptised with the Holy Spirit, he will receive power as an evangelist, but if God has called him to be something else, he will receive power to become something else. Three great evils come from the error of thinking that everyone who is baptised with the Holy Spirit will receive power as an evangelist.

(1) The evil of disappointment. Many seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit, expecting power as an evangelist, but God has not called them to that work, and though they meet the conditions of receiving the baptism with the Spirit, and do receive the baptism with the Spirit, power as an evangelist does not come. In many cases, this results in bitter disappointment and sometimes even in despair. The one who has expected the power of an evangelist and has not received it sometimes even questions whether he is a child of God. But if he had properly understood the matter, he would have known that the fact that he had not received power as an evangelist is no proof that he has not received the baptism with the Spirit, and much less is it a proof that he is not a child of God.

(2) The second evil is graver still, namely, the evil of presumption. A man whom God has not called to the work of an evangelist or a minister oftentimes rushes into it because he has received, or imagines he has received, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He thinks all a man needs to become a preacher is baptism with the Holy Spirit. This is not true. To succeed as a minister, a man needs a call to that specific work, and he needs that knowledge of God's Word that will prepare him for the work. If a man is called to the ministry and studies the Word until he has something to preach, if then he is baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will have success as a preacher, but if he is not called to that work, or if he does not have the knowledge of the Word of God that is necessary, he will not succeed in the work, even though he receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

(3) The third evil is the evil of indifference. Many know that they are not called to the work of preaching. If then they think that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply conveys power as an evangelist, or power to preach, the matter of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is one of no personal concern to them. For example, here is a mother with a large family of children. She knows well that she is not called to do the work of an evangelist. She knows that her duty lies with her children and her home. If she reads or hears about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and gets the impression that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply conveys power to do the work of an evangelist, or to preach, she will think “The evangelist needs this blessing, my minister needs this blessing, but it is not for me”; but if she understands the matter as it is taught in the Bible, that while the baptism with the Spirit conveys power, how the power will be manifested depends entirely upon the line of work to which God calls us, and that no efficient work can be done without it, and sees still further that there is no function in the church of Jesus Christ today more holy and sacred than that of sanctified motherhood, she will say, “The evangelist may need this baptism, my minister may need this baptism; but I must have it to bring up my children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

2. While there are diversities of gifts and manifestations of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there will be some gifts to everyone thus baptized. We read in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Every most insignificant member of the body of Christ has some function to perform in that body. The body grows by that “joined and held together” (Ephesians 4:16), and to each least significant joint, the Holy Spirit conveys power to perform the function that belongs to him.

3. It is the Holy Spirit who decides how the baptism with the Spirit shall manifest itself in any given case. As we read in 1 Corinthians 12:11, “All these are empowered by the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” The Holy Spirit is sovereign in deciding how, that is, in what special gift, operation, or power, the baptism with the Holy Spirit shall manifest itself. It is not for us to pick out some field of service and then ask the Holy Spirit to qualify us for that service.

It is not for us to select some gift and then ask the Holy Spirit to communicate to us this self-chosen gift.

It is for us to simply put ourselves entirely at the disposal of the Holy Spirit to send us where He will, to select for us what kind of service He will, and to communicate to us what gift He will.

He is sovereign, and our position is that of unconditional surrender to Him. I am glad that this is so. I rejoice that He, in His infinite wisdom and love, is to select the field of service and the gifts, and that this is not to be left to me in my short-sightedness and foolishness. It is because of the failure to recognize this sovereignty of the Spirit that many fail to receive the blessing and meet with disappointment. They are trying to select their gift and so get none. I once knew a child of God in Scotland, who, hearing of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the power that resulted from it, gave up at a great sacrifice his work as a ship plater, for which he was receiving large wages. He heard that there was a great need for ministers in the northwest of America. He came to the northwest. He met the conditions of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and I believe he was baptized with the Holy Spirit, but God had not chosen him for the work of an evangelist, and the power as an evangelist did not come to him. No field seemed to open, and he was in great depression. He even questioned his acceptance before God.

One morning he came into our church in Minneapolis and heard me speak upon the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and as I pointed out that the baptism with the Holy Spirit manifested itself in many different ways, and the fact that one had not power as an evangelist was no proof that he had not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, light came into his heart. He put himself entirely into God's hands for Him to choose the field of labour and the gifts. An opening soon came to him as a Sunday-school missionary, and then, when he had given up choosing for himself and left it with the Holy Spirit to divide to him as He would, a strange thing happened; he received power as an evangelist and went through the country districts in one of our northwestern states with mighty power as an evangelist.

4. While the power may be of one kind in one person and of another kind in another person, there will always be power, the very power of God, when one is baptized with the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 1:5, 8, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with[a] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.... But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Truly as anyone who reads these pages, who has not already received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, seeks it in God's way, he will obtain it, and there will come into his service a power that was never there before, power for the very work to which God has called him. This is not only the teaching of Scripture; it is the teaching of religious experience throughout the centuries.

Religious biographies abound in instances of men who have worked along as best they could, until one day they were led to see that there was such an experience as the baptism with the Holy Spirit and to seek it and obtain it, and, from that hour, there came into their service a new power that utterly transformed their character. In this matter, one thinks first of such men as Evangelist, Moody, and Brainerd, but cases of this character are not bound to the few exceptional men. The writer has personally met and corresponded with hundreds and thousands of persons around the world, who could testify definitely to the new power that God has granted them through baptism with the Holy Spirit. These thousands of men and women were in all branches of Christian service; some of them are ministers of the Gospel, some evangelists, some mission workers, some Y. M. C.

A. secretaries, Sunday school teachers, fathers, mothers, and personal workers. Nothing could exceed the clearness and the confidence, and the joyfulness of many of these testimonies.

I shall not forget a minister whom I met some years ago at a State Convention of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavour at New Britain, Conn. I was speaking upon the subject of personal work, and as I drew the address to a close, I said that to do effective personal work, we must be baptised with the Holy Spirit, and in a very few sentences explained what I meant by that. At the close of the address, this minister came to me on the platform and said, “I do not have this blessing you h ave been speaking about, but I want it. Will you pray for me?” I said, “Why not pray right now?” He said, “I will.” We put two chairs side by side and turned our backs upon the crowd as they passed out of the Armoury. We prayed that he might be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Some weeks after, one who had witnessed the scene came to me at a convention in Washington and told me how this minister had gone back to his church a transformed man, that now his congregations filled the church, that it was largely composed of young men, and that there were conversions at every service.

Some years later, this minister was called to another field of service. His most spiritually-minded friends advised him not to go, as all the ruling elements in the church to which he had been called were against aggressive evangelistic work, but for some reason or other, he felt it was the call of God and accepted it.

In six months, there were sixty-nine conversions, and thirty-eight of them were businessmen of the town.

After attending in Montreal some years ago Inter-provincial Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association of the Provinces of Canada, I received a letter from a young man. He wrote, “I was present at your last meeting in Montreal. I heard you speak on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.

I went to my rooms and looked for that baptism for myself and received it. I am chairman of the Lookout Committee of the Christian Endeavour Society of our church. I called together the other members of the committee. I found that two of them had been at the meeting and had already been baptised with the Holy Spirit. Then we prayed for the other members of the committee, and they were baptised with the Holy Spirit. Now we are going out into the church, and the young people of the church are being brought to Christ right along.”

A lady and gentleman once came to me at a convention and told me how, though they had never seen me before, they had read the report of an address on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit delivered in Boston at a Christian Workers' Convention, and that they had desired this baptism and had received it.

The man then told me the blessing that had come into his service as supervisor of the Sunday school.

When he had finished, his wife broke in and said, “Yes, and the best part of it is, I have been able to get into the hearts of my children, which I was never able to do before.” Here were three distinctly different lines of service, but there was power in each case. The results of that power may not be manifest at once in conversions. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, but as he witnessed in the power of the Holy Spirit for his risen Lord, he saw no conversions at the time. All he saw was the grinding of the teeth, the angry looks and the merciless rocks, and so it may be with us. But there was a conversion, even in that case, though it was a long time before it was seen, and that conversion, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, was worth more than hundreds of ordinary conversions.

5. Another result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit will be boldness in testimony and service . We read in Acts 4:31, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God w ith boldness.” The baptism with the Holy Spirit communicates to those who receive it new liberty and fearlessness in testimony for Christ. It converts cowards into heroes.

Peter, upon the night of our Lord's crucifixion, proved himself a coward. He denied with oaths and curses that he knew the Lord. But after Pentecost, this same Peter was brought before the very council that had condemned Jesus to death, and he was threatened, but filled with the Holy Ghost, he said, “Rulers of the people and elders, if w e are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well.

This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:8 -12). Later, when the council commanded him and his companion, John, not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus, they answered, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must ju dge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20).

On a still later occasion, when they were threatened and commanded not to speak and when their lives were in jeopardy, Peter told the council to their faces, “We must obey God ra ther than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:29 -32). The natural timidity of many a man today vanishes when he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and with great boldness and liberty, with utter fearlessness of consequences, he gives his testimony for Jesus Christ.

6. The baptism with the Holy Spirit causes the one who receives it to be occupied with God and Christ and spiritual things. In the record of the day of Pentecost, we read, “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And they were amazed , saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in his native language? Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians — we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2: 4, 7, 8, 11). Then follows Peter's sermon, a sermon that from start to finish is entirely taken up with Jesus Christ and His glory. Furthermore we read, “And when they had prayed, the place in wh ich they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all..... Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well. ” (Acts 4:31, 33, Acts 4:8-10).

We read of Saul of Tarsus that when h e had been filled with the Holy Spirit, “Straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus ” (Acts 10:44 - 46). We read of the household of Cornelius, “While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.” Here we see the whole household of Cornelius as so on as they were filled with the Holy Spirit, magnifying God.

In Ephesians 5:18-19, we are told that the result of being filled with the Spirit is that those who are thus filled will speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord . Men filled with the Holy Spirit will not be singing romantic songs, nor comic tunes, nor opera songs while the power of the Holy Ghost is upon them. If the Holy Ghost should come upon anyone while listening to one of the most innocent of the world's songs, he would not enjoy it; he would long to hear something about Christ. Men who are baptized with the Holy Spirit do not talk much about self but much about God, and especially much about Christ. This is necessarily so, as it is the Holy Spirit's office to bear witness to the glorified Christ (John 15:26, John 16:14).

To sum up everything the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming upon the believer, filling his mind with a truths, especially of Christ, taking possession of his faculties, conveying to him gifts not otherwise his but which qualify him for the service to which God has called him.

The necessity of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the New Testament has much to say about the. When our Lord was about to leave His disciples to go to be with the Father, He said, “And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He had just commissioned them to be His witnesses to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem ( verses. 47, 48), but He here tells them that before they undertake this witnessing, they must wait until they receive the promise of the Father, and were thus gifted with power from on high for the wor k of witnessing which they were to undertake. There is no doubt as to what Jesus meant by “the promise of My Father,” for which they were to wait before beginning the ministry that He had laid upon them; in Acts 1:4- 5, we read, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” through which the gift of power was to come was the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

He went on to tell His disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Now who were the men to whom Jesus said this? The disciples whom He had trained for the work.

For more than three years, they had lived in the closest intimacy with Himself; they had been eye- witnesses of His miracles, His death, His resurrection, and in a few moments were to be eye-witnesses of His ascension as He was taken up right before their eyes into heaven. And what were they to do? Simply to go and tell the world what their eyes had seen and what their ears had heard from the lips of the Son of God. Were they not equipped for the work? With our modern ideas of preparation for Christian work, we should say that they were thoroughly equipped. But Jesus said, “No, you are not equipped.

There is another preparation in addition to the preparation already received, so necessary for effective work that you must not stir one step until you receive it. This other preparation is the promise of the Father, the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” If the Apostles, with their exceptional fitting for the work which they were to undertake, needed this preparation for work, how much more do we? In the light of what Jesus required of His disciples before undertaking the work, does it not seem like the most daring assumption for any of us to undertake to witness and work for Christ until we also have received the promise of the Father, the baptism with the Holy Spirit? There was an essential need that something be done at once.

The whole world was perishing, and they alone knew the saving truth; nevertheless, Jesus strictly charged them, “Wait.” Could there be a stronger testimony to the absolute necessity and importance of baptism with the Holy Spirit as a preparation for work that should be acceptable to Christ? But this is not all.

In Acts 10:38, we r ead, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” To what does this refer in the recorded life of Jesus Christ? If we turn to Luke 3:21-22 and Luke 4:1, 4, 17, 18, we will get our answer. In Luke 3:21-22, we read that after Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heav en, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Then the next thing that we read, with nothing intervening but the human genealogy of Jesus, is “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit , returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilder ness” (Luke 4:1).

Then follows the story of His temptation; then in the fourteenth verse we read, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.”

And in the seventeenth and eighteenth verses, “And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor etc.” Then, it was at the Jordan in connection with His baptism that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, and He did not enter upon His public ministry until He was baptised with the Holy Spirit. And who was Jesus?

It is the common belief of Christendom that He had been supernaturally conceived through the Holy Spirit's power, that He was the only begotten Son of God, that He was Divine, very God of very God, and yet truly man. If such a One “leaving us an example that we should follow His steps” did not v enture upon His ministry, for which the Father had sent Him, until thus definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit, what is it for us to dare to do it? If, in the light of these recorded facts, we dare to do it, does it not seem like the most unpardonable presumption? Doubtless, it has been done in ignorance by many of us, but can we plead ignorance any longer? The baptism with the Holy Spirit is a necessary preparation for effective work for Christ along every line of service.

We may have a very clear call to service, as clear it may be as the Apostles had, but the charge is laid upon us as upon them, that before we begin that service, we must wait until we are clothed with power from on high. This gift of power is through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But this is not all even yet.

We read in Acts 7:14-16 Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost (for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus).” There was a great company of happy converts in Samaria, but when Peter and John came down to inspect the work, they felt that there was something so essential that these young disciples had not received that before they did anything else, they must see to it that they received it.

Similarly, we read in Acts 19:1- 2, “And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Pa ul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” When he found that they had not received the Holy Spirit, the first thing that he saw was that they should receive the Holy Spirit. He did not go on with the work with the outsiders until that little group of twelve disciples had been equipped for service. So we see that when the Apostles found believers in Christ, the first thing that they always did was to demand whether they had received the Holy Spirit as a clear experience, and if not, they saw to it at once that the steps were taken whereby they should receive the Holy Spirit. It is evident that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is necessary in every Christian for the service that Christ demands and expects of them .

There are certainly few greater mistakes that we are making today in our various Christian enterprises than that of setting men to teach Sunday school classes and do personal work and even to preach the Gospel, because they have been converted and received a certain amount of education, including it may be a college and seminary course, but have not as yet been baptised with the Holy Spirit. We think that if a man is hopefully religious and has had a college and seminary education and comes out of it reasonably orthodox, he is now ready that we should lay our hands upon him and ordain him to preach the Gospel. But Jesus Christ says, “No.” There is another preparation so all essential that a man must not undertake this work until he has received it.

“But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” A distinguished theological professor has said that the question ought to be put to every candidate for the ministry, “Hav e you met God?” Yes, but we ought to go farther than this and be even more clear; to every candidate for the ministry we should put the question, “Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit?” and if not, we should say to him as Jesus said to the first pre achers of the Gospel, “Sit down until you are endued with power from on high.” But not only is this true of ordained ministers, it is true of every Christian, for all Christians are called to ministry of some kind.

Any man who is in Christian work, who has not received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, ought to stop his work right where he is and not go on with it until he has been “clothed with power from on high.”

But what will our work do while we are waiting? “What did the world do during these ten da ys while the early disciples were waiting?” They knew the saving truth, they alone knew it; yet in obedience to the Lord's command they were silent.

The world was no loser. Beyond a doubt, when the power came, they accomplished more in one day than they would have accomplished in years if they had gone on in disobedience to Christ's command. We, too, after that we have received the baptism with the Spirit, will accomplish more real work for our Lord in one day than we ever would in years without this power. Even if it were necessary to spend days in waiting, they would be well spent, but we shall see later that there is no need that spend days in waiting, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit may be received today. Someone may say that the Apostles had gone on missionary tours during Christ's lifetime, even before they were baptised with the Holy Spirit.

This is true, but that was before the Holy Spirit was given, and before the command was given, “But stay in the city until you are clothed with power fr om on high.” After that , it would have been disobedience and foolishness and assumption to have gone forth without this anointing, and we are living today after the Holy Spirit has been given and after the charge has been given to stay until clothed.

We come now to the question of first importance, namely, who can be baptised with the Holy Spirit? At a convention some years ago, a very intelligent Christian woman, a well-known worker in educational as well as Sunday school work, sent me this question: “You have told us of the necessity of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, but who can have this baptism? The church to which I belong teaches that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was restricted to the apostolic age. Will you not tell us who can have the baptism with the Holy Spirit?” This question is answered in the most explicit terms in the Bible.

We read in Acts 2:38- 39, “And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” What is the promise to which Peter refers in the thirty -ninth verse? There are two interpretations of the passage; one is that the promise of this verse is the promise of salvation; the other is that the promise of this verse is the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit (or the baptism with the Holy Spirit; a comparison of Scripture passages will show that the two expressions are synonymous).

Which is the correct interpretation? There are two laws of interpretation universally recognised among Bible scholars. These two laws are the law of usage (or “usus loquendi” as it is called) and the law o f context. Many a verse in the Bible standing alone might admit of two or three or even more interpretations, but when these two laws of interpretation are applied, it is settled to a certainty that only one of the various possible interpretations is the true interpretation. The law of usage is this, that when you find a word or phrase in any passage of Scripture and you wish to know what it means, do not go to a dictionary but go to the Bible itself, look up the various passages in which the word is used and especially how the particular writer being studied uses it, and especially how it is used in that particular book in which the passage is found. Thus, you can determine what the precise meaning of the word or phrase is in the passage in question.

The law of context is this: that when you study a passage, you should not take it out of its connection but should look at what goes before it and what comes after it; for while it might mean various things if it stood alone, it can only mean one thing in the connection in which it is found. Let us apply these two laws to the passage in question. First of all, let us apply the law of usage. We are trying to discover what the expression “the promise” means in Acts 2:39. Turning back to Acts 1:4 - 5, we read, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” It is evident, then, that here the promise of the Father means the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Turn now to the second chapter and the thirty- third verse, “Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.” In this passage, we are told in so many words that the promise is the promise of the Holy Spirit.

If this unique expression means the baptism with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:4-5, and the same thing in Acts 2:33, by what same law of interpretation can it possibly mean something entirely different six verses farther down in Acts 2:39? So the law of usage establishes it that the promise of Acts 2:39 is the promise of baptism with the Holy Spirit. Now, let us apply the law of context, and we shall find that, if possible, this is even more crucial. Turn back to the thirty- eighth verse, “And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So it is evident that the promise is the promise of the gift or baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is settled then by both laws that the promise of Acts 2:39 is that of the gift of the Holy Spirit, or baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Let us then read the verse in that way, replacing this equivalent expression for the expression “the promise,” “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” “It is to you,” says Peter, that is, to the crowd assembled before him.

There is nothing in that for us. We were not there, and that crowd were all Jews, and we are not Jews; but Peter did not stop there, he went further and said , “And to your children,” that is to the next generation of Jews, or all future generations of Jews. Still, there is nothing in it for us, for we are not Jews; but Peter went further and said, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off.” That does take us in. We are the Gentiles who were once “afar off,” but now “made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13, 17). But lest there be any mistake about it whatever, Peter adds, “ Even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.” So on the very day of P entecost, Peter declares that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is for every child of God in every coming age of the church's history.

Some years ago, at a ministerial conference in Chicago, a minister of the Gospel from the Southwest came to me after a l ecture on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and said, “The church to which I belong teaches that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was for the apostolic age alone.” “I do not care,” I replied, “what the church to which you belong teaches, or what the church to which I belong teaches. My only question is, what does the Word of God teach?” “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. “Has he called you?” I asked. “Yes, He certainly h as.” “Is the promise for you then?” “Yes, it is.” He took it, and the result was a transformed ministry.

Some years ago, at a students' conference, the gatherings were led by a prominent Episcopalian minister, a man greatly honoured and loved. I spoke at this conference on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and dwelt upon the significance of Acts 2:39. That night, as we sat together after the meetings, this servant of God said to me, “Brother Torrey, I was greatly interested in what you had to say today on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. If your interpretation of Acts 2:39 is correct, you have your case, but I doubt it. Let us talk it over,” which we did.

Several years later, in July 1894, I was at the students' conference at Northfield. As I entered the back door of Stone Hall that day, this Episcopalian minister entered the front door. Seeing me, he hurried across the hall and held out his hand and said, “You were right about Acts 2:39 at Knoxville, and I believe I have a right to tell you something better, that I have been baptised with the Holy Spirit.” I am glad that I was right, not that it is of any importance that I should be right, but the truth thus established is of immeasurable importance. Is it not glorious to be able to go around the world and face audiences of believers and to be able to tell them, and to know that you have God's Word under your feet when you tell them, “You may all be baptised with the Holy Spirit”? But that unspeakably joyous and glorious thought has its solemn side. If we may be baptised with the Holy Spirit, then we must be.

If we are baptised with the Holy Spirit, then souls will be saved through our agency, who will not be saved if we are not baptised. If we are not willing to pay the price of this baptism and therefore are not baptised we shall be responsible before God for every soul that might have been saved who was not saved because we did not pay the price and therefore did not obtain the blessing.

I often tremble for myself and my brethren in the ministry, and not only for my brethren in the ministry but for my brethren in all forms of Christian work, even the most humble and obscure. Why? Because we are preaching error? No, many in these dark days are doing that, and I tremble for them; but that is not what I mean now. Do I mean that I tremble because we are not preaching the truth? For it is quite possible not to preach error and yet not preach the truth; many a man has never preached a word of error in his life, but still is not preaching the truth, and I do tremble for them; but that is not what I mean now.

I mean that I tremble for those of us who are preaching the truth, the very truth as it is in Jesus, the truth as it is recorded in the written Word of God, the truth in its simplicity, its purity and its fullness, but who are preaching it in “persuasive words of man's wisdom” and not “in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4.). Preaching it in the energy of the flesh and not in the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing more death- dealing than the Gospel without the Spirit's power. “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” It is solemn business preaching the Gospel either from the pulpit or in quiet ways. It means death or life to those that hear, and whether it means death or life depends largely on whether we preach it with or without the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

We must be baptised with the Holy Spirit. Even after one has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, no matter how clear that baptism may be, one needs to be filled with the Spirit. This is the clear teaching of the New Testament. We read in Acts 2:4, “ They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance .” One of those who was present on this occasion a nd who was filled with the Holy Spirit was Peter. Indeed, he stands forth most prominently in the chapter as a man baptised with the Holy Spirit. But we read in Acts 4:8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, etc.” Here we read again that Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Further down in the chapter, we read, in the thirty-first verse, that being gathered together and praying, they were “ they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness .” We are expressly told in the context that two of those present were John and Peter. Here then was a third instance in which Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit . It is not enough that one be filled with the Holy Spirit once. We, need a new filling for each new emergency of Christian service. The failure to realize this need of constant refilling with the Holy Spirit has led to many a man who at one time was greatly used to God, being utterly laid aside.

There are many today who once knew what it was to work in the power of the Holy Spirit who have lost their function and their power. I do not say that the Holy Spirit has left them I do not believe He has but the manifestation of His presence and power has gone. One of the saddest sights among us today is that of the men and women who once toiled for the Master in the mighty power of the Holy Spirit who are now practically of no use, or even a hindrance to the work, because they are trying to go in the power of the blessing received a year, five years or twenty years ago. For each new service that is to be conducted, for each new soul that is to be dealt with, for each new work for Christ that is to be performed, for each new day and each new emergency of Christian life and service, we should seek and obtain a new filling with the Holy Spirit. We must not “neglect” the gift that is in us (1 Timothy 4:14), “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Timothy 1 -6). Repeated fillings with the Holy Spirit are necessary for to continuance and increase of power.

The question may arise, “Shall we call these new fillings with the Holy Spirit ‘fresh baptisms’ with the Holy Spirit?” To this we would answer, the expression “baptism” is never used in the Scriptures of a second experience and there is something of an beginning character in the very thought of baptism, so if one wishes to be Biblical, it would seem to be better not to use the term “baptism” of a second experience but to limit it to the first experience. On the other hand “ filled with the Holy Spirit” is used in Acts 2:4 to describe the experience promised in Acts 1:5, where the words used are “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

It is evident from this and from other passages that the two expressions are to a large extent equivalent.

However, if we confine the expression “baptism with the Holy Spirit” to our first experience, we shall be more Biblical, and it would be good to speak of one baptism but many fillings. But I would a great deal rather that one should speak about new or fresh baptisms with the Holy Spirit, standing for the all- important truth that we need repeated fillings with the Holy Spirit, than that he should so insist on exact wording that he would lose sight of the truth that repeated fillings are needed, i. e. , I would rather have the right experience by a wrong name, than the wrong experience by the right name.

We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I am sometimes asked, “Have you received the second blessing ?” Yes, and the third and the fourth and th e fifth and hundreds beside, and I am looking for a new blessing today. We come now to the question of first practical importance, namely, what must one do to obtain baptism with the Holy Spirit? This question is answered most plainly and positively in the Bible. A plain path is laid down in the Bible consisting of a few simple steps that anyone can take, and anyone who takes these steps will certainly enter into the blessing. This is a very positive statement, and we would not dare be so positive if the Bible were not equally positive. But what right have we to be uncertain when the Word of God is positive? There are seven steps in this path: 1. The first step is to we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord . We read in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptiz ed every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Is not this statement as positive as the one we made above? Peter says that if we do certain things, the result will be, “Y ou will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” All seven steps are in this passage, but we shall refer later to other passages as throwing light upon this. The first two steps are in the word “repent.” “ You must repent ,” said Peter. What does it mean to rep ent? The Greek word for repentance means “an afterthought” or “change of mind.” To repent then means to change your mind. But change your mind about what? About three things; about God, about Jesus Christ, about sin. What the change of mind is about in any given instance must be determined by the context.

As determined by the context in the present case, the change of mind is primarily about Jesus Christ.

Peter had just said in the thirty-sixth verse, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Then it was that Peter said, “You must repent,” “Change your mind about Jesus, change your mind from that attitude of mind that rejected Him and crucified Him to that attitude of mind that accepts Him as Lord and King and Saviour.” This then is the first step towards receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit; receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord; first of all receive Him as your Saviour. Have you done that? What does it mean to receive Jesus as Saviour? It means to accept Him as the One who carried our sins in our place on the cross (Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and to trust God to forgive us because Jesus Christ died in our place. It means to rest all our hope of acceptance before God upon the finished work of Christ upon the cross of Calvary.

Many proclaim to be Christians who have not done this. When you go to many who call themselves Christians and ask them if they are saved, they reply, “Yes.” Then if you ask them the question “Upon what are you resting as the ground of your salvation?” they will reply something like this, “I go to church; I say my prayers, I read my Bible, I have been baptised, I have united with the church, I partake of the Lord's supper, I attend prayer-meeting, and I am trying to live as near right as I know how.” If these things are what you are resting upon as the gr ound of your acceptance before God, then you are not saved, for all these things are your works (all proper in their places but still your works).

W e are distinctly told in Romans 3:20 that “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight.” But if you go to others and ask them if they are saved, they will reply “Yes.” And then if you ask them upon what they are resting as the ground of their acceptance before God, they will reply something to this effect, “I am not resting upon anyth ing I ever did, or upon anything I am ever going to do; I am resting upon what Jesus Christ did for me when He carried my sins in His body on the cross. I am resting in His finished work of atonement.” If this is what you are resting upon, then you are saved, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and you have taken the first step towards baptism with the Holy Spirit.

The same thought is taught elsewhere in the Bible, for example in Galatians 3:2 Here Paul asks of the believers in Galatia, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” Just what did he mean? On one occasion, when Paul was passing through Galatia, he was held there by some illness. We are not told what it was, but at all events, he was not so ill but that he could preach to the Galatians the Gospel, or glad tidings, that Jesus Christ had redeemed them from the curse of the law by becoming a curse in their place, by dying on the cross of Calvary. These Galatians believed this testimony; this was the hearing of faith, and God set the stamp of His approval upon their faith by giving them, as a personal experience, the Holy Spirit. But after Paul had left Galatia, certain Judaizers came down from Jerusalem, men who were substituting the law of Moses for the Gospel and taught them that it was not enough that they simply believe on Jesus Christ but in addition to this they must keep the law of Moses, especially the law of Moses regarding circumcision, and that without circumcision they could not be saved i.e., they could not be saved by simple faith in Jesus (Acts 15:1).

These young converts in Galatia became all upset. They did not know whether they were saved or not; they did not know what they must do, and all was confusion. It was just as when modern Judaizers come around and get after young converts and tell them that, in addition to believing in Jesus Christ, they must keep the Mosaic Seventh Day Sabbath, or they cannot be saved. This is simply the old conflict breaking out at a new point. When Paul heard what had happened in Galatia, he was very indignant and wrote the Epistle to the Galatians simply to expose the utter error of these Judaizers. He showed them how Abraham himself was justified before he was circumcised by simply believing God (Galatians 3:6), and how he was circumcised after he was justified as a seal of the faith which he already had while he was in circumcision. In addition to this proof of the error of the Judaizers, Paul appeals to their own personal experience. He says to them, “You received the Holy Spirit, didn’t you? ” “Yes.” “How did you receive the Holy Spirit, by keeping the Law of Moses, or by the hearing of faith, the simple acceptance of God's testimony about Jesus Christ that your sins were laid upon Him, and that you are thus justified and saved?”

The Galatians had had an experience of receiving the Holy Spirit and Paul appeals to it, and recalls to their mind how it was by the simple hearing of faith that they had received the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is God's seal upon the simple acceptance of God's testimony about Jesus Christ, that our sins were laid upon Him, and thus trusting God to forgive us and justify us. This then is the first step towards receiving the Holy Spirit. But we must not only receive Jesus as Saviour, we must also receive Him as Lord. Of this we shall speak further in connection with another passage in the fourth step.

2. The second step in the path that leads into the blessing of being baptised with the Holy Spirit is surrendering to sin . Repentance as we have seen is a change of mind about sin as well as a change of mind about Christ; a change of mind from that attitude of mind that loves sin and indulges sin to that attitude of mind that hates sin and renounces sin. The Holy Spirit is a Holy Spirit, and we cannot have both Him and sin. We must make our choice between the Holy Spirit and unholy sin. We cannot have both. He that will not give up sin cannot have the Holy Spirit. It is not enough that we renounce one sin, two or three, or many sins; we must renounce all sin . If we cling to one single known sin, it will shut us out of the blessing. Here we find the cause of failure in many people who are praying for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, going to conventions and hearing about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, reading books about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, perhaps spending whole nights in prayer for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and yet obtaining nothing. Why? Because there is some sin to which they are clinging.

People often say to me, or write to me, “I have been praying for the baptism with the Holy Spirit for a year (five years, ten years, one man said twenty years). Why do I not receive?” In many such cases, I feel led to reply, “It is sin, and if I could look down into you r heart this moment as God looks into your heart, I could put my finger on the specific sin.” It may be what you are pleased to call a small sin, but there are no small sins. Some sins concern small things, but every sin is an act of rebellion against God, and therefore no sin is a small sin. A conflict with God about the smallest thing is sufficient to shut one out of the blessing. Mr. Finney tells of a woman who was greatly exercised about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Every night after the meetings, she would go to her rooms and pray way into the night and her friends were afraid she would go insane, but no blessing came. One night as she prayed, some little matter of head adornment, a matter that would probably not trouble many Christians to-day, but a matter of conflict between her and God, came up (as it had often come up before) as she knelt in prayer. She put her hand to her head and took the pins out of her hair and threw them across the room and said, “There they go!” and instantly the Holy Ghost fell upon her. It was not so much the matter of head adornment as the matter of controversy with God that had kept her out of the blessing.

If there is anything that always comes up when you get nearest to God that is the thing to deal with.

Some years ago at a convention in a Southern state, the presiding officer, a minister in the Baptist Church, called my attention to a man and said, “That man is the pope of our denomination in everything he says goes, but he is not at all with us in this matter, but I am glad to see him here.” This minister kept attending the meetings. At the close of the last meeting where I had spoken upon the conditions of receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I found this man awaiting for me in the vestibule. He said, “I did not stand up to your invitation today.” I replied, “I saw you did not.” “I thought you said,” He continued, “that you only wanted those to stand who could say they had surrendered to God?” “That is what I said,” I replied. “Well, I could not say that.” “Th en you did perfectly right not to stand. I did not want you to lie to God.” “Say,” he continued, “you hit me hard today. You said if there was anything that always comes up when you get nearest to God that is the thing to deal with. Now there is something that always comes up when I get near to God. I am not going to tell you what it is. I think you know.” “Yes,” I replied. (I could smell it.) “Well, I simply wanted to say this to you.”

This was on Friday afternoon. I had to go to another city, and returning through that city the following Tuesday morning, the minister who had conducted the meeting was at the station. “I wish you could have been in our Baptist ministers' meeting yesterday morning,” he said; “that man I pointed out to you from the north par t of the state was present. He got up in our meeting and said, ‘Brethren, we have been all wrong about this matter,’ and then he told what he had done. He had settled his controversy with God, had given up the thing which had always come up when he got nearest to God, then he continued and said, ‘Brethren, I have received a more definite experience than I had when I was converted.’ ” Just such an experience is waiting for many others, both minister and layman, just as soon as he will judge his sin, just as soon as he will put away the thing that is a matter of conflict between him and God, no matter how small the thing may seem. If anyone sincerely desires the baptism with the Holy Spirit, he should go alone with God and ask God to search him and bring to light anything in his heart or life that is displeasing to Him, and when He brings it to light, he should put it away. If, after sincerely waiting on God, nothing is brought to light, then we may proceed to take the other steps. But there is no use praying, no use going to conventions, no use in reading books about the baptism with the Holy Spirit, no use in doing anything else, until we judge our sins.

3. The third step is an open confession of our surrender of sin and our acceptance of Jesus Christ . After t elling his hearers to repent in Acts 2:38,”And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”. Heart repentance alone was not enough. There must be an open confession of that repentance, and God's appointed way of confession of repentance is baptism. None of those to whom Peter spoke had ever been baptised, and what Peter meant was water baptism. But suppose one has already been baptised, what then? Even in that case, there must be that for which baptism stands, namely, an open confession of our resurrection of sin and our acceptance of Jesus Christ. The baptism with the Spirit is not for the secret disciple, but for the open confessed disciple.

There are many doubtless today who are trying to be Christians in their hearts, many who really believe that they have accepted Jesus as their Savior and their Lord and have renounced sin, but they are not willing to make an open confession of their renunciation of sin and their acceptance of Christ. Such a one cannot have baptism with the Holy Spirit. Someone may ask, “Don’t Friends who do not believe in water baptism give evidence of being baptised with the Holy Spirit?” Doubtless , many of them do, but this does not alter the teaching of God's Word. God doubtless lowers Himself in many instances where people are deceived as to the teaching of His Word to their ignorance, if they are sincere, but that fact does not alter His Word, and even with a member of the congregation of Friends, who sincerely does not believe in water baptism, there must be before the blessing is received that for which baptism stands, namely, the open confession of our acceptance of Christ and our surrender of sin.