The Baptism in the Holy Spirit

[00:00:00] Now, this morning, in the time that we have available to us, I would like to take up another matter. [00:00:09] It is also, in my estimation, central to the Gospel. [00:00:14] It is a matter over which there is much controversy, much confusion, much perplexity, and to a certain extent, quite an amount of bickering. You will find it in Matthew and chapter 3 and verse 11 and 12. [00:00:38] The words of John the I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. [00:00:56] He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire whose fan is in his hand. And he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor, and he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. [00:01:21] Solemn word, very important words. [00:01:29] And it is no good people trying to avoid this passage as if it didn't exist. [00:01:36] I sometimes get the feeling in some Christian circles that they would really rather wish that this particular statement had not got into the New Testament. [00:01:51] But the fact of the matter is that it's not only in the New Testament, but it is right at the beginning of the Gospels. [00:02:02] And it comes in a statement which John the Baptist made concerning the ministry of the Messiah. [00:02:13] Now, my point is, the heart of John the Baptist's ministry was illustrated, symbolized, set forth, however you like to put it, in a baptism of water, an immersion in water. [00:02:32] It was called baptism unto repentance. [00:02:37] And everyone who hearkened to the voice of the Spirit of God, everyone who sought the Lord with a sincere and pure heart, John the Baptist commanded them be baptized. [00:02:57] This isn't what we know later in the New Testament as Christian baptism. It was a baptism unto repentance, but it symbolized the heart and core of his ministry. John the Baptist was given a ministry to prepare the way of the Lord. And to prepare that way he preached the judgment of God really, and the need to flee. [00:03:29] And the illustration, the evidence that a person really was moving in that direction was that they got baptized. Now, it seems very odd to me if then he goes on to describe something which is unimportant concerning the ministry of the Lord Jesus. [00:03:52] If this baptism unto repentance was the heart of John the Baptist ministry, surely he must be speaking about something which lies at the very heart of the Messiah's ministry. [00:04:08] He said, he who comes after me shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit. And in fire whose fan is in his hand, he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. And he will gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. [00:04:35] Now, is there such an experience as the baptism of the Holy Spirit? [00:04:45] Is there such an experience, if you want to put it another way, as baptism into the Holy Spirit? [00:04:51] I say unequivocally and as clearly and dogmatically as I am capable of, there is that no one make any mistake about this matter. [00:05:10] The details may differ from life to life. [00:05:16] Some of our problem comes in bringing this whole matter down in such a way that we make it a technique, a series of steps, a method or something else. [00:05:32] But don't let us get away. Younger folks, listen to me. There is an experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:05:45] And that experience is vital and necessary to everyone who would be a functioning member of the body of the Lord Jesus. [00:06:03] When we turn over the pages to 1 Corinthians and chapter 12 and verse 13, we read these words, for in one spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and were all made to drink of one Spirit. Some people have taught from this that only those who have a second experience of the Holy Spirit are in the church. I think this is quite wrong. It is unscriptural. [00:06:36] Others have taught from this that this is the proof that everyone who's converted is baptized in the Spirit. [00:06:44] And I think that's just as much at fault as well, because people say, well, you see, when you were converted, you were baptized in the Spirit. Well, theologically there may be some ground for that. But surely the fact of the matter is what does it mean to be baptized in the Holy Spirit? [00:07:09] Does it not only mean that the Holy Spirit is indwelling us, but that also he is empowering us? [00:07:22] Now, many Christians will not argue, I would think all Christians, we could say there's no argument about the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The argument is over the empowering of the Holy Spirit. [00:07:41] And my point is this, that no one can function as a member of the body of the Lord Jesus until they both know the indwelling and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. [00:07:56] You cannot take part, you cannot contribute, you cannot participate. You cannot sense the mind of the Lord all the time. It has to be second hand. [00:08:06] You leave it to others, as it were, to go ahead. And then you say, yes, I think that's right. [00:08:15] Instead of being able to be functioning members of the body of our Lord Jesus. [00:08:23] Now, one or two things here in what I'm saying this morning. I just hope that in speaking this Very simple way. It may clear up for you, especially you younger folks, some of the problems that beset us in this matter. You see, I think a lot of damage has been done by people who speak about receiving the Holy Spirit. I am personally not over worried about the technology of terms because I know from my own experience that I was saved. But some years later I suddenly realized the Holy Spirit was a person. And when that happened, something happened inside of my heart and it really was a receiving of the Holy Spirit. But he was there all the time. [00:09:13] So I'm not too worried about them. But what does bother me is the kind of idea that somehow I've got the Spirit. [00:09:22] I was saved so many years ago, now I've got the Spirit. [00:09:27] Oh dear. [00:09:30] I don't think that's a true baptism in the Spirit. You see, in my estimation a true baptism in the Spirit is that the Holy Spirit's got you quite a difference. I think when you've got the Holy Spirit, it's once again self centered. See me, I'm in. [00:09:55] I'm sorry for you, but I may be able to help you with a few steps and methods. [00:10:02] I may be able to get you in, but it's. I have. What a different thing it is when suddenly the Lord Jesus takes someone he saved and he immerses them in the person of the Holy Spirit. [00:10:26] I don't believe in sprinkling. [00:10:30] I know some do. And if you are happy with that form of baptism, the Lord bless you. [00:10:38] But as far as I can see, being buried with Christ in baptism, you don't sprinkle a few clods of earth on the coffin and go off. Say we've buried them decently, you put them right under and the earth covers completely. [00:11:04] And that's why I believe in baptism by immersion. [00:11:09] Not only because historically it's right. Because there was no other form of Jewish baptism in the New Testament other than baptism by immersion. No such thing as sprinkling. [00:11:23] But the fact still remains that it's an immersion. Now this baptism of the Holy Spirit, I prefer the term baptism into the Holy Spirit because that puts the accent on the right place. It's when the Lord Jesus takes you and immerses you into the person of the Holy Spirit. [00:11:48] Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm all for that. [00:11:53] I can't think of anything more exciting, more wonderful. When we've found the Lord and we begin to get to know things, you know, and our heads grow in knowledge and we have a little experience of the Lord too. There's A sense in which we feel we're encompassing everything. And after a while it all becomes stale and old and we know it all, you know, especially you young ones who have grown up in it, you know it all. So boring. [00:12:18] There's hardly a song they sing I haven't heard since I was a kid. And I mean, there's sort of, you know, I mean, they can't open their mouths, phrases don't drop out of them that I've heard since I was a babe in arms. [00:12:33] Maybe they're slightly more modern language. Oh, it's the same thing, you know, we sort of feel we know it all. What a wonderful thing it is when Jesus takes a person and immerses them into the person of God, the Holy Spirit. Alec called him the titanic person of the Holy Spirit. Oh, I think that's absolutely marvelous. The one who brooded over the face of the waters when all was chaos and void and brought out of the emptiness, order, and out of what was not that which became substantial. I think it's wonderful when I see the end of the Bible and I see those last words, and the Spirit and the bride say, come, the person of the Holy Spirit with the bride. That from the very beginning of creation he's had in his heart. He knew that this was, as it were, the objective of all his working to produce this bride for the Son of God. [00:13:37] I can't think of anything more wonderful. [00:13:40] Oh, that would start transforming our lives, don't you think? [00:13:45] My word. To be immersed not just under the direction of the. Of the Holy Spirit, not just under the government of the Holy Spirit, but immersed into the person of the Holy Spirit. I can't think of anything more marvelous. And I know that theologically some people will get a headache on this, but I often think of it like this. You see, when I was converted, it was the Holy Spirit that brought me to Jesus. [00:14:16] But when I enter into this deeper experience of the Holy Spirit, it is Jesus who immerses me into the person of the Holy Spirit. [00:14:27] And then we find the whole Godhead is at work. The Father and the Son dwelling in me through the person of the Holy Spirit. [00:14:42] Now, just to get clear on this matter, I think that Jesus made this perfectly lucid in what he himself did and said in the Gospels. For instance, you take John, chapter 20 and verse 21 and 22. This is the resurrection appearance of Jesus. And you will remember that the disciples were there, except for Thomas. He was missing. And this is what happened. Jesus therefore said to them again, peace be unto you as The Father has sent me, so send I you. [00:15:20] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit. He said he breathed them and said unto them, receive ye the Holy Spirit. And then went on, whosoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven. Unto whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained unto them. Now, I'm interested in this because we know from John 7:39 that the Holy Spirit, though of course he was obviously in the world, was not given in the New covenant sense of the Word at this point. [00:15:57] Now, is that clear? It says, because Jesus was not yet glorified. In other words, Jesus had not ascended to the right hand of God the Father to sit down in glory. [00:16:09] So John chapter 7, if you want to look at it, and verse 39 puts it quite clearly. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, I want to know what happened in that upper room. I know there are some who say, well, they did receive the Holy Spirit. [00:16:37] I have questions about it, and I tell you why. Because when Thomas appeared a few days later, Jesus didn't say, now listen, you have missed something which is absolutely foundational. And he breathed on him and said, receive ye, Thomas, receive the Holy Spirit. He didn't do it. He allowed Thomas to wait to Pentecost. In other words, it seems clear to me that it was Pentecost when the person of the Holy Spirit was given. That two things in one happened to those hundred and twenty. First, the Holy Spirit came into them. And then he came upon them at once at the same time. Do you understand? Because it was the beginning of the age. So the Holy Spirit came into them and upon them. Now, why did the Lord Jesus enact this little incident if it had no meaning? Surely it was for the disciples afterwards. [00:17:31] Don't you think it was to make clear to the disciples, never make a mistake. [00:17:37] There are two sides to the Holy Spirit's work. One is that he comes within to dwell, and the other is he comes upon us with power. [00:17:49] Now, you will find this in Luke and the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verse 48 and 49. Ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send forth a promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city, until ye be clean clothed with power from on high. Endued with power from on high. Clothed with power from on high. Now, this isn't breathing on them so that they receive the Holy Spirit within. This is A clothing upon them, something coming upon them. You know, clothing is a very important thing. [00:18:32] You may have the sweetest spirit in the world. You may have a degree, you may be a graduate, but if you are dressed improperly, you will be self conscious. [00:18:46] Isn't it true? Doesn't make any difference to your degree. You may have done five, six years at university and come out with every qualification. You may be a doctor, but I don't mean medical necessarily, I mean just a doctor or something like that. I mean you may, you may have, you've got all the qualifications. You may have the most beautiful character in the world, but if the Queen asks you to have a meal with her and you went in grubby old jeans and a hairy chest bursting up like vegetation, I imagine that you might feel a little self conscious when all the others come. And even if you might be a bit of an extra, I imagine that when finally, in that daunting atmosphere, ushered forward by somebody to meet Her Majesty, you might suddenly feel all tongue tied. [00:19:50] Character and degrees are nothing to do with it. It's clothing, isn't it? Now I know many people who are just like that when it comes to the work of the Lord. [00:19:58] You see, they've got the spiritual character. Oh, there's no doubt about that. They've got spiritual character and they've got spiritual qualification too. They've been trained by them, they've gone the Lord. But when it comes to it, there's a terrible self consciousness because we feel somehow inadequate, as if eyes are looking into us and in that moment we're paralyzed. We can't function, we can't witness, we can't preach, we sometimes can't pray, we can't lead, we can't do all kinds of things because somehow we just feel unclothed. Now the book says something about being clothed with power from on high. In Acts, chapter 1, in spite of the fact that Jesus 10 days previously had breathed on them and he said, receive ye the Holy Spirit, it then says, and being first for being assembled together with them, he charged them, this is Jesus, not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Which said he, ye heard from me, for John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence. [00:21:14] Now what do we make of all this? Well now listen to me carefully in this. There is a definite experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:21:25] I want to say this as clearly as I can on this matter. People sometimes charge those who've had a real experience of the Holy Spirit. With sort of having it all. [00:21:39] The extraordinary thing is, that's what they say. [00:21:46] They say they've got it all. You don't need anymore. Isn't that funny? [00:21:52] Those who believe in another experience of the holy well, of course. What's wrong with it? They think they've got it all. [00:21:58] But the people, other people say, we've got it all. We don't need more. When we were converted, we got it all. Isn't it all childish when you really think about it? Can anyone contain all of the Lord? Never. [00:22:13] There must be more. Now, there are initial things. You see, the book speaks of two things. It says, in Ephesians 5, 18, be filled with the Holy Spirit. And it goes on to say some very interesting things that I often thought are overlooked because everybody naturally listens to this one wonderful and graphic command. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 5 and 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. But before then it says this. Look therefore carefully how ye walk. Not as unwise, but as wise, because the days are redeeming the time. Because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. In other words, it seems to me that we can't redeem the days because they are evil. We cannot be wise and understand what the will of the Lord is. Apart from being filled with the Holy Spirit. [00:23:16] We shall be carried along by the sheer force of circumstances which the enemy will engineer in our nation. [00:23:28] We will be worn out by this virus, and then that one, and then this circumstance, and then that, and then this problem, and then that problem. And after a while we begin. We started off so full of zeal, but after a while we just begin to go on and we lose hearing the Lord anymore. [00:23:45] It's not that we're simpletons. [00:23:48] It is the simple fact that only the Holy Spirit can keep us alive to God and sensitive to God and in a way of understanding. And then it goes on as speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I don't think anyone can be that kind of Christian without the Holy Spirit. [00:24:18] I mean, by nature, the very fact that we've got so much against us, so much pressure, so much conflict, is not going to help us to be all the time singing to one another in psalms and hymns. And spiritual songs making melody in the heart. That's a lovely get out, isn't it? For those who have no good voice. Lovely, lovely when people can sing beautifully and it's not so beautiful when people can't. But it doesn't matter. The Lord says, as long as they sing, make melody with the heart. And then it goes on and says, subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. I don't see, you see, how there can be any of this relationship without the person of the Holy Spirit. Now, this to me, is not an initial experience because the word is be being filled. [00:25:06] So my point is, the Holy Spirit may come within us and does come within us at new birth. [00:25:16] And it is a question of the depth of our commitment and the measure of our obedience as to whether the indwelling Holy Spirit is able to do his work of producing real character in us. [00:25:33] But there has got to be at some point a breaking of the spiritual sound barrier. Sometimes it does come. When a person's born again, it comes. [00:25:45] I know one or two cases like that very well. I have to tell you that my experience all around the areas that I've gone is that it doesn't matter who it is. Nearly everybody at some later date comes into another and deeper experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:26:05] Once that initial sound barrier has been broken, then you must be being filled. It's a step of faith every day to drink more of the Holy Spirit, to take of that fullness so that you're able to live the kind of life you ought to live. [00:26:24] I don't know whether what I'm saying really comes home as it ought to. But you see, there's so much confusion on this matter everywhere. [00:26:45] I remember years ago I asked Mr. Sparks because many people told me that he didn't believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And since the term was being bandied around all over the place, I thought, well, I'll get hold of him and I'll ask him straight, what did he think about the baptism of Holy Spirit? I've never forgotten it. It was a great shock to me because I thought that he was going to say, oh, be very careful, there's no such thing. [00:27:23] But instead he said, well, he said. And he thought, as many of you who knew him will remember, how he would for a while. And then he said, some of those who say they're baptized in the Spirit have been born again. [00:27:41] That answered a lot of questions I had. [00:27:44] He said they were never born again. He said they were nominal Christians. They never had anything Suddenly he said, the Holy Spirit's come inside and they live. But he said, you'll find those people don't have power. That answered an awful lot of questions for me because a lot of people who said to me they'd been baptized in spirit, they still couldn't go out on the streets witnessing it was very interesting to me. [00:28:09] And there's no doubt that an awful lot of people have been born again. Catholic circles, Episcopalian circles, Lutheran circles. Everywhere you go you find people who were converted in the head. Suddenly it's happened inside. Thank God for that. Then he said, and then he said, there is such a thing as a counterfeit. [00:28:26] He said, the thing is just psychic, he said, where you get people, you know, doing all kinds of things to induce an experience, working up a kind of atmosphere where the thing is psychic. Yes, I'd seen some of that, quite a bit of it. And in fact, that's what in Egypt put us so thoroughly off this whole matter in those earlier years. [00:28:51] And then he said, but he said, there is a baptism, Baptism in the Holy Ghost, and that every believer should seek. [00:29:10] I think Mr. Spouse himself was the living example of it. [00:29:15] Sometimes I go, sometimes they tell me that Watchman Knee never believed in. In a. In a. In such an experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:29:22] And I remember once talking with Ms. Fish Parker about it many, many years ago. She said, he most certainly did. He not only bleeded, but he had his own experience. And later on, Mrs. Stearns, Caroline Stearns in the state, said to me, it was in my home. [00:29:42] We found him on the floor and had to leave him for a whole day. [00:29:47] And she said, I've never forgotten the message he gave that evening. [00:29:55] Now, my point is this. If you look into church history, there is no one who has been used of God upon whom the Holy Spirit has not come. [00:30:08] It doesn't matter whether it's Billy Graham. I am old enough to remember Billy Graham before his experience. And afterwards. Oh, and I tell you, the difference between chalk was the difference between chalk and cheese. [00:30:21] I remember Billy Graham preaching up in Westminster Chapel when I was near to backsliding, and I was. And dear Arthur Matthews, assistant minister Tuesday, said, lance, would you come with me and my wife if we took you up to hear Billy Graham? And I sort of said, oh, well, all right. I thought it was rather sweet of them to ask me to go. And I did. And we sat there and I remember watching Billy Graham, this young man, very good looking, blonde, sort of going into the most incredible antics I have ever seen. He jumped over that rail in Westminster Chapel and rolled on the floor wrestling with lions. [00:31:02] He was illustrating the Christians dying in the arena at Nimes. And honestly, you could hear the crunch of the bones and the roar of the lions and the slide. And I was all eyes and ears, and I thought, what nonsense. And when it came to the end, and when it came to the end, when the appeal was given, there was all this soft blues in the background, you know, while the appeal was given. And do you know, it helped me in this way that I. Of course, I'm a rather odd character, but the way it saved me was this. I thought to myself, there must be something in this if a man goes to such extraordinary lengths to try and get someone saved, I thought to myself, there must be something. Now, I was already saved. But I was very disillusioned. I was cynical, I was disillusioned. I was disappointed. My whole spiritual life had dried up. I was looked upon merely virtually as a backslider. [00:32:03] And I thought, well, Billy Graham himself said he had an experience after that when he came back, that next time, as all of you will know, there was a different man. There was none of all that sort of emotional thing. Of course it was there. You can't preach without emotion. You can't preach without a certain amount of acting. But the amazing thing was that now he stood and it was the word, word, word, word, coming up to. And when the appeal was given, thousands of people went forward, instead of just one or two people trickling forward and, you know, sort of urging them, and they sang just as I am. I don't know how many times. [00:32:43] I mean, it was amazing that the man had an experience. This was the same with Reuben Torrey. It was the same with DL Moody. It was the same with the Wesleys. If you go back into history, you will find it's the same with all. There is an experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:33:03] For you younger ones, let me just tell you my own little experience. You see, when I was saved, I was saved very, very dramatically. [00:33:13] And I had what normally people associate with the baptism in the Spirit. All before, I had visions and dreams and angelic visitation. All before I had a deeper experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:33:29] And still it didn't do anything for me at all, because although I knew the Lord, I knew him outwardly. [00:33:37] I can't explain it. [00:33:40] When I went to the School of Oriental African Studies and the full weight of university life came on me at the same time as being disillusioned with church life. At that time, we had two Pastors and the whole church was ranged up between either one or the other in a great collision with fiery church meetings and I don't know what else. [00:34:02] The bottom fell out of my life. [00:34:05] And then with the impact of socialism, I mean, I'd been brought up a good blue conservative and I began to think about not only socialism but communism. [00:34:21] I wondered whether it, you know, one had to be honest, you know, those of you at Universe, you know just what I mean, you've got to open up, you've got the whole part of your life. You want to be absolutely honest, intellectually honest. [00:34:33] And I wandered in this morass and I used to always be asking the same question, but how? But how? I used to hear victory preach from the pulpit morning, noon and night and say, but how every time he stayed in my heart, but how? I used to look at all those faces and think, well, they've all got it but me. [00:34:52] And then they used to sing hymns like, My chains fell off. And I used to. Well, my chains haven't. [00:34:59] I didn't dare tell anyone because I thought I was the black sheep. I found out later that all the other 399 had got chains on as well. But that's later. I mean, at the time I thought I was the only one. [00:35:14] And they sang that he breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free. [00:35:20] They thought it didn't work with me. And then Alan Redpath sent me a little booklet through the post. [00:35:29] No big dramatics, no great lecture, just a little booklet, little blue booklet entitled but how and when I saw this, But how he must have read my heart. I never told him my butt Howe's. [00:35:50] And you see, what I did was this. It was God's timing, of course. I thought, I will give the whole of Wednesday afternoon to prayer. So I went down to a little dusty dingy church, parish church in Woburn Square and I knelt in that place and it was like heaven opened. I have never forgotten it. And you see, what I lost later due to some of the excesses I saw, which frightened me so that we drew back onto the more right but negative side was. The first thing God said to me was, the Holy Spirit is here and he's here to take you over. [00:36:36] He's in you and with you. And he will reproduce the nature and character of Jesus. [00:36:46] Do you know, it was a revelation to me. I never thought of the Holy Spirit as a person. I always thought of him as neat. [00:36:53] He was always it. [00:36:55] He was always a power, a presence, an influence, a grace, a strength. [00:37:05] I never thought that God, just as you know Jesus as a person, just as you know Father, God the Father as a person, you must know the Holy Spirit as a person. He is a person. He doesn't speak of himself, but he's still the person of the Holy Spirit. [00:37:23] It was like a revelation. Do you know, I thought I'd never heard of the Holy Spirit. I must have heard many times because the minister in the church about the church I was in was a Keswick speaker. I mean, many times we must have heard the speech, you know, I never heard it with my ears, although he was preaching. I never went in. Just shows you, doesn't it, how we take what we want. [00:37:43] But when that happened, it was as if the whole Bible started to live. And I said, oh, God, if I live and you use me, I will to bring others to Christ, I will always put them in possession of a full gospel. [00:37:57] The second thing, of course, I learned that day was that I was crucified. And that was as great a relief as anything else. I'd been doing my best to make Lawrence Lambert a good Christian. I'd been beating him into prayer, getting him into Bible study. I used to witness to one person a day. So I terrified the students at the school of audience because I had that Wesleyan thing, you know, of buttonholing one person. [00:38:21] So, I mean, I. As soon as I went in, the students common rooms used to be called in those days. I always got a few seats spare, no matter how crowded the place was. They just went and I was left. I went down a corridor. People suddenly vanished into doors. And that's the truth, they were terrified of it because it wasn't person to person evangelism. I got hold of them and said, you know, I'm a Christian. Would you like to come to a meeting with me? People just terrified of it. [00:38:52] The greatest relief in the world to me was when I found that I had been crucified with Christ. I thought, what have I been doing resurrecting that silly old Lance Lambert, trying to do so much with him when God has finished with him and put him on the cross. Thank God for that. [00:39:10] Well, I remember that the Lord said a very strange thing to me when I got up on my knees, the last thing, it was like a person to person encounter with the Holy Spirit. [00:39:20] He said, now before you go, there's one last thing. [00:39:23] Yes, Lord, I said. He said, no more witnessing. [00:39:30] I don't suppose you'd say that to too many of you. [00:39:34] I said, all right, Lord, no more witnessing. Until I give you the opportunity. And for three weeks I lived for the first time in about four years. Instead of being a little spiritual machine, I suddenly sank back and became Lance Lermot. I enjoyed myself. I laughed, I looked at things. And suddenly I found the places next to me were no longer vacated. [00:39:58] Now, my first experience, when someone came up to me and said, do you mind me asking you a personal question? What is it about you that's different? And over a few weeks before, I would have told him in no uncertain terms. But on that occasion I remember just saying, well, really, there's not a lot of difference, except that this major difference, that by the grace of God, the Lord Jesus is alive for me. And this fellow looked terribly moved, and his tie eyes filled with tears. And he said, well, how could he get into me? And I thought, be careful, Lance must be the devil. [00:40:32] I couldn't believe that anyone could come to the Lord as simply as that. So I thought, now you're being tricked. You're being tricked. Be careful. So I said, well, you just open your heart. Well, where could I do that? Well, I said, you could do it here. Well, I will, he said. And he did it. [00:40:46] I was flabbergasted. From then on, it was like a river beginning to flow. Up to that time, there was nothing. I was just a believer. Nothing happened ever. I prayed morning, noon and night. And then it was just as if a great river started to flow. [00:41:01] In one sense effortlessly, but on the other side at great cost. [00:41:08] Because when the Holy Spirit really comes upon you in that way, when you're immersed into him, then there come the crisis of obedience. [00:41:17] It's one thing to say you've been crucified with Christ, another thing to come up to the place where you've got to die. [00:41:23] Now, I've spoken a little more personally, but I've done it deliberately this morning. For you younger ones, there is an experience of the Holy Spirit. [00:41:35] If you get bothered about the terms, leave it. But there is an experience of the Holy Spirit. In my estimation, there is a baptism into the person of the Holy Spirit, and only the Lord Jesus can effect it. [00:41:51] And the fact that that he is the baptizer into the hotel is the most wonderful thing in the world. I want to be. I want to come into his hands. I want to bow before him. I want to settle the issue with him. Since he died for me, since he's won everything necessary for me to know the person of the Holy Spirit, I want to. Don't you? [00:42:16] May God help us in this matter. To be clear in our understanding of this. Shall we pray? [00:42:28] Father? We pray that we may understand as we have never understood before the title of our Lord Jesus, that he is the baptizer in the Holy Spirit. Bring that home to us, Lord. We want to see the Lord Jesus as Savior. And not only as Savior, but as Lord. And not only as Lord, but as healer. And not only as healer, but as builder and not only as builder, but as the one who baptizes us into the person of the Holy Spirit. Lord, get down to those little blockages, those things that halt us, that paralyze us, that somehow, Lord, stop us from really entering into what Thou hast for all of us. We pray that those who are young in the Lord here this word may be written on their hearts and in their lives. And they may in Thy sovereign timing come Lord themselves to know what we're talking about in original experience. We pray it for all. And we ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus.