One Baptism (2) by GW North

Last night I said that, God-permitting, I would speak on the doctrine of baptism, and
I wish to do so because the Lord hath not turned me away from the theme.
And as I said yesterday, I feel an increasing need in these days to speak on foundations
and fundamental things, because I am sure in these closing days of time, whilst God
is seeking to lay the topmost stone, most of us, or shall I say the whole wide world
and churches as well, need to direct themselves to the foundations of things.
And you will know that this is a fundamental thing.
I would like you to read with me in the Ephesian letter and the fourth chapter, Ephesians chapter
4.
Here is a man in verse 1 who says he is the prisoner of the Lord and he's beseeching
us.
What a wonderful thing it is that this should happen to us.
The Lord has him imprisoned.
He just can't get away from him.
That's a marvelous thing, isn't it?
That's a step further than saying, I'm in his hand and nobody can pluck me out.
This is a glorious understanding for our hearts.
And he says in verse 4, verse 3, that we are to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling,
one Lord, one faith, and how many baptisms?
You're sure that isn't a mistake?
There's one baptism, one God and one Father, one God and Father of all, who is above all
and through all and in you all.
Now, beloved, it is exceedingly vital that we do understand what the Spirit of God is
saying.
And it is also very vital that we believe what the Lord is saying.
You wouldn't think of saying that there was more than one God, would you?
And yet, I can testify to you tonight, there are millions of them.
I mean, the Bible alludes to Dagon and Baal and the Queen of Heaven, and talks about
teraphim, dung idols, and I don't know what.
But we know that though the Bible alludes to other gods, there's only one God.
Is that right?
And the Bible alludes to other baptisms, but there's only one baptism in precisely the
same way.
But we've made the terrible mistake of saying that there's more than one baptism and thereby
contradicting God.
Now, it's a serious thing to contradict God, and as soon as you do that, it brings about
serious results and serious error, obviously, when we contradict God.
That's precisely what the devil did right at the very beginning.
He contradicted God, and old Adam fell for the contradiction.
Now, the new Adam is not supposed to fall for contradictions.
Even though the devil starts them up, and people glibly repeat what the devil starts,
we must believe what God has written in the book.
Now, we will turn at this moment to the Hebrews letter, and in the Hebrews letter, in chapter
6, we have this word recorded for us.
We are to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ and to go on unto perfection, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of
the doctrine of baptisms.
Now, there you have a plural of the doctrine, but you notice that the doctrine is singular,
that through all the baptisms that are spoken of in the Bible, there is one doctrine running.
And in the one great baptism, all the doctrine of all the other baptisms are consummated,
and that they are applied to us by the grace and power of God.
And therefore, I want with you, seeing that we have very limited time tonight, in that
my wife reminded me that when I spoke about this subject, when I spoke on this subject
in a place called Exeter, because you're allowed to do what you like when you're at home,
I suppose, she said, you never finish till quarter to ten, and I suppose I'd been speaking
for somewhere about an hour and three quarters or two hours at that time.
So, having regard to the limitations on time, I want to direct you into the Scriptures so
that we may be able to trace this great thing that God has for us and see what he is really
trying to tell us.
God has not always succeeded in telling us.
He's succeeded in having preachers, and he's succeeded in having scribes, and he's succeeded
in having writers, but he hasn't always been able to tell us because we haven't got an
ear to hear, and we haven't often a heart to receive.
And I have discovered, beloved, that unless you have a heart for what God wants to say,
you never will understand what he's talking about.
In the Corinthian letter, the first one, we'll make this note in chapter 10.
The apostle writing says, moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how
all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and were all baptized
unto or into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea.
And doesn't it seem strange that the apostle that could write to the Corinthians saying
these things that he has said about the children of Israel being baptized unto Moses should
write an epistle to the Ephesians and say, now there's only one baptism.
And immediately your mind will say, well, this is an allusion to a baptism that is historical
and real, but it can't be the baptism that Paul is talking about.
If it be the baptism, then I can't be baptized because this took place in ancient Israel
thousands of years ago.
Immediately then our mind understands this and our heart should pass into what God has
to say to us.
You know, beloved, it's a remarkable fact when you read something like this of the children
of Israel being baptized unto Moses or into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, because
when you turn back to the beginning of your Bible, you see that God brings everything
out of the waters, is that right?
That's right, isn't it?
Even the earth, the dry land was made to appear out of the waters, is that true?
And when you read in the end of the Bible that there's no more sea, it's simply because
God has finished with his purposes where water is concerned, but that kind of water is concerned.
But I won't discuss that with you now because this is the sort of thing that could take
us to quarter to eleven, leave alone quarter to ten.
But it is nevertheless true that the Spirit of God was brooding over the face of the water.
It is a tremendous thing.
And I want you to make a note.
Now you make a note of this on your pads if you're making notes.
This is the sort of thing that the Bible excels in.
It's so true.
It's so fundamental in its elemental things.
All right, you will notice that there you have the Spirit and the water, and all you're
needing is the blood, and you're back where John was talking, we were yesterday morning.
The Spirit and the water and the blood.
All right, I just show you how God right at the beginning starts this tremendous thing
and lays the foundations way back there in the beginning.
All right.
Now then, we're going to go to the great baptism that's mentioned here.
I don't want to label it because I seem to remember that at some time or another in the
not too distant past, we did consider this same chapter in Exodus.
We were very near it yesterday morning, those of us that gathered together, when we looked
into the 15th chapter of the book of Exodus.
Because the 15th chapter is the chapter of the song that they sang after God had done
this wonderful miracle.
And the miracle was that God fought, here it is in verse 14 of chapter 14, God fought
for his people.
the Lord shall fight for you, you shall hold your peace, praise God.
I don't know whether you have a job to hold on to your peace, do you?
Lots of people do, hold your peace, get to peace so that you don't even say a word and
don't even open your mouth and hold it like that.
Hold it in silence.
You haven't got to say a word here, you haven't got to do anything.
What a tremendous revelation this is for the human heart to come to.
And the Lord would fight for people lots of times if they'd only shut up.
That's right.
The Lord says to Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me?
Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward, but lift thou up thy rod and
stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it.
And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them,
and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh and upon all his hosts, upon his chariots, and upon
his horsemen.
And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten me honor upon Pharaoh,
upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen.
And so the miracle proceeds to unfold before the eyes of this advancing host.
Now the Lord beloved wants us to understand the vital truth that's in the one true baptism.
Here we have a picture, an allusion to the truth.
For all baptisms that are connected with water are only illustrations.
They are allusions, not illusions, they are allusions.
They are pictures, if you like, they are windows into.
And they allow us to see through the eyes of God what he is getting at in this great
one true baptism, amen.
And so in they go, and you know the whole of the story, I won't take the time to read
it all, but this is what the Lord wants us to understand, that the Egyptians in verse
23 pursued and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his
chariots, and his horsemen, and it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked
unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled
the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drive them heavily,
so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth
for them against the Egyptians, and the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over
the sea.
That the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.
And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength
when the morning appeared, and the Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the
Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
Amen.
Listen, and the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the
host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.
There remained not so much as one of them, but the children of Israel walked upon dry
land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand and
on their left, and the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and
Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.
And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.
Now my beloved, this is the occasion when Israel was baptised into Moses.
They could only, as it were, belong to Moses, being, the word, the preposition is unto,
they could only belong to Moses as they were baptised unto Moses.
The commentary of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament is exactly that.
You're not to be ignorant, says Paul, that they were all baptised unto Moses.
Now nobody can belong to Jesus Christ until they're baptised unto him.
I want to say that water baptism won't do it either.
It's a picture of it.
The tremendousness of it, beloved, is this, that there's only one way into Jesus Christ,
and that's by being baptised into him.
What a tremendous truth for us, our hearts, to understand.
Now what you must do with that is turn, if you like, just keep your finger in that chapter,
we'll turn into the New Testament, and when we come into the New Testament, we'll read
something that Paul wrote to the Colossians.
And in the Colossian letter, he wrote this in the second chapter.
In verse 12, we are buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead, and you, being dead
in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him,
having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,
which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
And here's the apposite verse, and having spoiled principalities and powers,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them.
Isn't it? That's what God did at the Red Sea.
That's the picture, that's the first picture in this great baptism.
At the Red Sea, God made a show of them, of Pharaoh and his hosts.
He said, we will pursue, the 15th chapter of Exodus will reveal it, we'll go after them,
we'll draw our sword, we'll be satisfied upon them, we'll satisfy our lust upon them,
said the devil, and the Lord lured them into the midst of the sea.
He lured the devil into death, this is the great truth, lured all the demon hosts from
principalities and powers, into the death, and then triumphing over them.
He said, I've got me honour upon Pharaoh, praise God.
And they saw all the Egyptians dead at their feet. Have you ever seen that?
Dead, there they were, they saw that great work which the Lord did.
When you were baptised in water, is that what happened to you? Did you see that?
Could you say, the Lord has fought for me, I haven't even had added one word to it.
Praise the name of the Lord, he's done it. It was the Lord that took off their chariot wheels,
it was the Lord that lured old Pharaoh on, glory be to the name of the Lord.
You know, when Jesus came down from heaven to earth and finally hung on that cross,
he drew a whole of the satanic hosts and powers, he drew the devil right on himself on the cross,
and down he went into death like that great Red Sea, praise God, and then when he got the
devil there fast on him, he died. That's right, he slew the devil, that's right.
The devil has no power over God's children at all. The devil has no power against you
if you don't give it to him. You can only give the devil power by sincerely believing in him.
It wasn't until Eve believed and Adam believed in Satan in the beginning, believed in what he said
that he had power over them to bring death upon. That's right, God with all his omnipotence
can't help you till you allow his power to work by believing in him. The devil with all his power,
not omnipotent but very powerful, can't do anything to you until you start to give him
power and authority by believing in him. You let that sink in your heart.
The second chapter of Hebrews has it clear and fair upon the sacred page.
God communicating to us what is written in eternity. He says that through death,
he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them,
and here the reference is to this great, shall we say, Mosaic baptism.
Delivered them that all those slaves of Egypt who were frightened of dying, delivered them
through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to the bondage of Pharaoh and all his
hosts and taskmasters. Glory be to the name of the Lord. Amen. Now have you ever seen this?
You know there's a lot of noise and kerfuffle and fuss going on about people being baptized
in water these days. Now, beloved, you've got to see what the Bible says about this.
If you haven't seen it before, see it now. Do you wonder when old Paul wrote to the
Ephesians? He said he was praying for God to open the eyes of their understanding.
But the eyes of their understanding should be enlightened.
And you see the old translators, they won't fire out really because you might have heart in your
margin or in your newer translation, but you only understand with a heart. You understand this,
don't you? You only understand with a heart in spiritual things. You're in a poor state
if you now intellectually understand what I've said and your heart hasn't grasped it.
You're nearly worse off than you were before. You can come into torment this way by your intellect
grasping it and your heart not understanding. But your heart, beloved, to grasp this wonderful truth,
it'll bring you with a great gasp of relief and release over onto the other side. Amen.
So the Lord works. And you may know if you're familiar and like to trace these things
through Bible numericals that this was the third day they were on the resurrection side of the Red
Sea. All right. The Lamb was slain on such and such a day, that's right, the twelfth chapter,
and then the three days elapsed and now they're on the resurrection, the three days have passed,
they're on the resurrection side of it all. You and I, beloved, are supposed to be able to look
back in this one great baptism that we have known and see that God has done all this.
Ah, alas, alas, I find too many people who say they've been baptized with this mighty baptism of God,
and yet they're troubled by devils, they're troubled by the world, they're troubled by this,
they give such credit to Satan you would think Satan was their God.
Now, beloved, he's dead. Now, we're going back to the second great baptism that's recorded
in the scripture. And the second baptism is in the book of Joshua.
Now, here then is an allusion to further truth in this wonderful revelation of God.
And it's in the third chapter, 40 years has elapsed. It could all have been gotten through
in 40 days and lists. But because of disobedience, these people, all that generation died that
enjoyed that first baptism. They all died. And so a new generation has arisen. There are only two
left of that first generation, Joshua and Caleb. And Caleb's 80, and I reckon Joshua is about to
say. A couple of old men. And they're moving in, beloved, to this tremendous truth. And Joshua now
is speaking. And he says this. After three days, you see, now you've got your allusion to your
three days again. In verse two, the officers went through the hosts, chapter three, verse three,
and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God,
and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place and go after it.
You're not to wander about as you think, and you're not to hope you'll get in some time,
some place. You ought to go after it. And if you don't go after it, and you know that ark is the
type of Jesus Christ, if you don't go after it, you won't get into what God has for you.
Hallelujah. You, you should do all these things. And he says in verse four, you have not passed
this way here to fall. They were going a new way. Praise his name. Joshua says to the people,
sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
And Joshua spake unto the priests saying, take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the
people. And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, and you will know beloved, that Joshua is the old Hebrew name
meaning Jesus. The Lord says unto Jesus, you see, in the old, Moses was magnified. All right?
In this great new move, it's passing from, if you like, Moses to Jesus.
This is in time. And Jesus is going to be magnified not just because he brings people
out of the world, out of the devil's ambit and orbit. It's not the negative part, but the positive
part now. Jesus is all positive. And it's wonderful. He says, I'm going to magnify thee this day
this day in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee. And thou shalt command the priests, thou shalt command the priests
that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, when you come to the brink of the water of Jordan,
you shall stand still in Jordan. Jesus is saying, stand still in Jordan. All right?
Now you will know that Jordan is the river of death. It runs from north to south
in that wonderful land. And it terminates in the Dead Sea.
And here is the glorious revelation. Jesus is saying, listen to what Jesus is saying to you,
will you? This, of course, is in the type. He's saying to you, now watch,
that ark represents me, and I'm commanding these priests that they're going to stand still in
Jordan. I want you to see something. Follow the unfolding of the doctrine. All right.
Joshua says to the children of Israel, verse 9, come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your
God. Joshua said, hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without
fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hiveites, the Perizzites,
and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the
Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. Verse 14, it came to pass when the
people removed from their tents to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the
covenant before the people, and as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of
the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, for Jordan overthroweth all his
banks all the time of harvest, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon
a heap very far from the city Adam. Did you know there was a city Adam? You knew there was an
old Adam? This is all removed far from the old Adamites, beloved. Glory be to God, a long way
away from that citadel and stronghold. Hallelujah. Amen. Fancy a city where Adam dwells. Oh, praise
God. Very far from that, and that is beside Zereton, and those that came down toward the
sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off, and the people passed over
right against Jericho, and the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm
on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the
people were passed clean over Jordan. Amen. And what's this next great in look, this inletting
into the truth that we have in this second picture? It is this, that Jesus is saying to you,
listen to him, I stood in death until all my people passed over.
That's what he's saying. He told the priests, Joshua told them, now don't you betray the type,
don't you teach anything other than the truth. It's Jesus speaking. I am going to hang on that cross
and I am not only going to defeat the devil there, I'm not only going to overcome all the
middens of darkness, I'm going to hang there until all my people pass over. That when Jesus died,
all his people died, and when Jesus was buried, all his people were buried, and when Jesus rose,
all his people rose, and when Jesus ascended, all his people ascended, and it's all over.
We've passed over. Glory be to God. A long way away from old Adam now. Old Adam's not in this.
You should read Romans 6 very carefully in connection with this chapter. We haven't
got time to do it. And what a glorious thing this is, beloved. Did you see this when you were
baptized in water? Did you see what it was all about? And do you know this, my beloved brothers
and sisters, turn with me into John chapter 10. You know this Bible is a wonderful book.
The more I read this Bible and the more I let it dawn on me and let it saturate into me,
the more glorious it is. And you may remember, beloved, in verse 40 of chapter 10, it says,
Jesus, it doesn't say Jesus, but it is Jesus, went away beyond Jordan into the place where John
at first baptized, and there he abode. Now, if you turn back in your Gospel,
you will find that John was baptizing at a place called Beth-abara, or you might call it Beth-abra,
and do you know what that means? The place of crossing.
It's almost certain that when Jesus walked down the banks of Jordan, he walked and went and stood
in the exact spot where the priests stood of old time and bore the ark, where the can of stones
had been originally raised. It's almost certain. The place or house of crossing,
that's where John was baptizing, because it says there was much water there, and that's where Jesus
went. Could you what? Can I repeat that? The exact reference. Just a moment, it slipped my memory at
the moment. Sorry at the moment. 1041. 1041, it doesn't say Beth-abara. 1040, chapter 10. Oh,
well, sorry then, I mislooked it. I thought I was on it when I went to chapter 10. It is there then,
is it? Beth-abara or Beth-abara? Oh, sorry. Well, somebody's misled me too. All right then,
but it's there. You can check it up in any concordance that he went to Beth-abara. 128. 128.
Thank you very much for your good concordances. And that's where it was. Now, my beloved brothers
and sisters, do you see what God is saying to us? Have you got this firmly fixed in your heart?
Look, you understand this deeply, that so far as we are concerned, it's all over.
It's all finished. That's what he meant, among other things, when he hung on the cross and said,
cross and said, finished. Praise God. Finished. And you know, beloved, I do declare, and it's
absolutely true, that it's this that really begins to magnify Jesus in your eyes. Now,
I know that probably most of us have been taught perhaps from Sunday school days and by good
teachers and so on. And therefore, we may have come gradually to start to think of Jesus as being
wonderful and we've been taught to sing the choruses and the hymns and truly they're right.
But oh, beloved, you know, to really get into the magnificence of Jesus Christ, you've got to know
this powerful baptism that brings you not just into water, that's not the baptism. You've got to
come into that mighty work wrought in the Spirit of you, whereby you are conjoined with all the
hosts of God into the glorious fullness of what Jesus Christ wrought out on that cross. To know
that it was then that it was all done. This indeed sets you free. It's this beloved that
causes you to go skipping and the dancing, that it's all finished. That Jesus said,
if you like, I won't come off this cross till it's all done. You remember they said,
come off the cross, we'll believe you. He didn't particularly want them to believe him,
he wanted us to. He stayed there. He wasn't concerned about whether these people believed
in him any more than he was the we beloved, more so we who never witnessed the actual crucifixion.
And any way to know Jesus Christ after the flesh would be unavailing. We must know him
after the Spirit and to know that we can come and understand this tremendous thing.
Now there's something you've got to get deeply into your heart about this.
You may remember that in the Philippian letter and the third chapter,
Paul uses this phrase when he starts to tell something of the wonder of what God had done
for him. He calls himself an Hebrew of the Hebrews. And I expect you will know that the
Hebrew word Hebrew means passerover. He says, I'm a passerover of the passerovers.
Yeah, that's what he was saying. Now that's what you've got to be. You see, there were two
passovers. You're going to pass over Jordan. Praise God. There'd been a pass over a long time
before. 40 years before what we call the Passover had been accomplished. But you beloved, not just
in a merely figurative sense, not just in saying go through rites and ordinances of churches,
or even that which is spoken of in the Bible as being ordained of God in the physical and
the material and the outward and for the human body. But you've got to be a passerover of the
passerovers in your spirit. You've got to know the glory of this. It's all so removed from the old
Adamic state, beloved. All so far removed. Now to note the continuity of the truth. We'll take
the third great picture where water is concerned and the greater of the three, the greatest of the
three. But before we do that, we'll turn back to where we were in Joshua. And as we turn into the
fourth chapter, which is continuing, the story started in the third. It says in verse 14,
on that day the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel. And they feared him as they
feared Moses all the days of his life. And 19, the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day
of the first month and encamped in Gilgal in the east border of Jericho. Two kings.
And here we have a fuller picture drawn for us. In 2 Kings chapter 2, it came to pass when the Lord
would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from,
here it is, here's the continuation of the story, Gilgal. They came over and encamped in Gilgal.
And we can pass over all the intervening years and generations and incidents and histories
and all the wonders of it all. And God is continuing. Oh, Lord, beloved, look,
understand that these are but three parts of one great baptism. This is the thing that we're to
see. If we'd only understood this, so God comes right back to Gilgal. And Elijah, who in this
instance stands for Jesus, takes Elisha, who stands for his people, the church, as we shall see.
He's got him now. And he says, we're going from Gilgal. Amen. And Elijah says unto Elisha,
tarry here, I pray thee. I want you to notice these words. Can you recall in the New Testament
where the word tarry is used? Now notice how God takes up the familiar words here. He takes up
the things that we're familiar with. Hallelujah. Tarry, he says. All right.
I love this book. I eat this with relish. I can lick my lips when I read this.
It's very tasty. He says, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to the house of God.
You know, that's what he says. In my father's house are many mansions and I'm going, he says.
That's Jesus. Is this right? That's right. John 14. He's going home to father's house. All right.
Keep it clear in your mind. And Elisha says unto him, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. Of course, you'll see this is only in type. It
can't fulfill it in perfection, but the connections are all here. And the sons of the prophets that
were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto them, knowest thou that the Lord will take away
thy master, now notice another familiar word of the New Testament here, will you? From thy head
today. As though Elisha was the body and Elijah was the head. All right?
Keep it clear, won't you? Like the church is the body and Christ is the head.
Amen. And he said, yea, I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha,
tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, as the Lord liveth,
liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And you know that
Jericho is the city of palm trees. All right. Let's go on. And the sons of the prophet that
were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him, knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy
master from thy head today? And he said, yea, I know it. Hold ye your peace.
And if you think about it, beloved, and let your mind travel into John's Gospel 14, 15, 16,
they wished Jesus would have held his peace when he said, I'm going. Oh, their hearts are full of
sorrow that Jesus was going. They knew he was going. They didn't want anybody to tell him.
See, let the connections run in your mind. This is the way you're supposed to read the Bible.
You're supposed to know all that the New Testament teaches and says, and then you're
allowed to read the Old Testament. Don't you try and master the Old Testament before you know the
New. If Jesus was to come back tonight and you knew more about Abraham and Isaac than you did about
Jesus and the church, there's something wrong. I understand it. No medals for knowing all about
the Old Testament. You know all about Jesus. Praise God. Let the other fall into place afterwards.
Amen. When you get to heaven, you haven't got to be known as Bible lovers. You've got to be known
as Jesus lovers. The other follows. Praise God. And he says, I know it. Hold your peace.
And Elisha said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee here, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. You know,
you could almost think you can hear Peter speaking, can't you? To whom else can we go?
You're the living one. You have the words of eternal life. He says, Leave me. Go on. You can
go. The others have forsaken me. He says, You're the living grave,
come down. Your soul's alive. Mine isn't. Nor was it till he received the Spirit,
though he'd been baptized in Jordan. Get that deeply into your heart.
Water can't do it. And so we go on. And they too went on. And fifty men of the sons of the prophets
went and stood to view afar off. And they too stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle
and wrapped it together and smoked the waters. And they were divided hither and thither,
so that they too went over on dry ground. And it came to pass when they were gone over,
that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee.
And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me.
And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing.
You know it was the hardest thing that God ever had to do, don't you?
Elijah, to baptize you in the Holy Ghost, he had to kill his son in order to do it.
He had to slay Jesus in order that you should enter into the one true baptism.
You know that? Elijah said, You've asked a hard thing.
If you've asked God, O Lord, heal me, O Lord, forgive me, O Lord, do this for me, O Lord,
feed me with a crumb of bread and a bit of fish, that's easy. But for this, my friend, for this,
hardest thing God ever did.
Hallelujah. To bring you into the one great baptism.
Let's go on.
It's a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou shalt see me
in me, when I am taken from me, it shall be so under me. But if not, it shall not be so.
This is why lots of people aren't baptized in the Spirit, they don't see him.
They don't see the Lord in his glory. They don't see him in all his risen splendor.
They don't know why he was raised up on high, that he should be the true person
through whom the Father should mediate the Holy Ghost to men and women on the earth. They don't
know. They don't see it. And it came to pass, verse 11, as they still went on and talked,
that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder,
and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven, and Elijah saw it, and he cried,
My Father, My Father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof.
And he saw him no more.
And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in pieces,
and he took up also the mantle of Elijah, fell from it, and went back, and came back through death,
stood by the bank of Jordan, and he took the mantle of Elijah,
and he'd rent his own. This is why some people never know this mighty baptism.
For you may recall that the word that is translated, ye shall be endued with power from on high,
in Luke 24, is the word clothed. You shall be clothed with power from on high. The mantle comes
down, glory, out of the chariot of fire, and the horseman thereof, hallelujah, out of the chariot
of Israel. The chariot of Israel is the chariot of fire, and the chariot of the spiritual Israel is
the chariot of fire. It isn't the watery baptism you need so much. These are only pictures. It's
the fiery one. Hallelujah. And he had no more use for his own power, no more use for his own clothing,
glory. He rent it. He took the same glorious mantle of Elijah, and he smites the water,
and as we've already seen, he comes back through death. The Church is a resurrection body. It's
come back through the death of Jesus. Hallelujah. It's come back through Jordan. Praise the name of
the Lord. Oh, this is a marvelous truth. And as he smites the waters in verse 14, he's saying,
where is the Lord God of Elijah? Amen. When he also had smitten the waters, they parted,
hither and thither, and Elijah went over, and he knew he was alive with the life and had the
power of his Elijah. He knew it. Praise God. Do you know that?
This is what it's all about. This is the thing. You see, it's built up through these pictures
of baptism. Have you gone as far as this? It may be, beloved, that you've seen that God has
destroyed Satan and his hosts, so far as you're concerned, and cut you off from the world, Egypt.
It may be, you know, something of the truth of that great Colossian scripture
and the great Hebrew scripture. It may be, beloved, that you know something also of this
fact that when Jesus died and he was all done for you, that his great love, so wonderful, so glorious,
was all for you, and you know you've passed over into your promised land.
You know that? Into your promised land, a land that flows with milk and honey.
Let me remind you, I think it was the last time we together, we thought about this land
that flows with milk and honey, for milk and honey are the two basic sweets, two basics.
You see, the bees make the honey, people don't have to work for it, and the cows give the milk.
You've got the basic sweetness and the wonderful nourishment of milk and honey. This is the basic
of your new spiritual life, where you were naturally bitter, now you're naturally,
supernaturally of course, but you've got to be natural in the supernatural world.
You've got to be as naturally, supernaturally natural as Jesus was natural, you see? That's
right, all sweetness, all nourishment, all goodness, glory. You've passed over into your land and you
just flow with milk and honey, you flow sweetness everywhere, you flow milk everywhere. Hallelujah,
you're a lovely person now. If not, you're not in your promised land.
Don't try and kid yourself, you aren't, it flows with milk and honey, flows with it.
Let that sink in, and don't let any man deceive you,
and least of all, don't you be the man that deceived yourself.
Praise God. And you may know that, but do you know this? In the same Jordan.
Glory, God's continuing the story. It's all so marvelous that you've finished your own works,
you've finished moving in your own power, you've been endued with power from on high.
Praise God. And back you go, and death holds no terrace for you, and nothing can forbid you.
You're moving now, not in the land of impossibilities, but in the great spirit
of possibility. All things shall be possible unto you. And he says, where's the God of Elijah?
Or if you like to put it translated in our New Testament terminology,
where's the father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Where's the God of our Lord Jesus Christ?
My word, the world needs to know it. Praise God. I'll tell you why. You can look into the
first chapter, you'll see it in the first chapter, it's so plain. In this you find
Moab, verse one, he rebels against Israel after the death of Ahab, and Ahaziah fell down
through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria and was sick. And he sent messengers
and said unto them, Go, inquire of Baalzebab. You remember that's what they called Jesus.
He casteth out devils by Baalzebab. There it is. Now this man went and inquired of Baalzebab,
the devil. He got into spiritistic communications. Devilish. If you've ever touched those,
you get clear of it tonight. You'll never be what God wants you to be until you've got clear
of all contamination from evil spirits meddling with spiritism, mediums, palm readers, glass movers,
crystal ball gazers. If you've ever touched those and you're not in the spiritual life you
should be in, you've got to get clear of it tonight. Confess it. It's sin and it's abominable.
And touch it no more. Now let's see. This is the great contest between light and darkness,
between Jesus and Satan. You've been meddling in Satan's kingdom, Baalzebab. They couldn't say
anything worse about Jesus, that he was casting out devils by the great devil himself, the prince
of them. Do you see the great contest that's going on in this world? It isn't merely conservatives
and labor and Germans and English and Russians and Chinese and the dollar against the pound.
It's a great contest between light and darkness, Satan and God. Now here's a man. He goes to
inquire of the devil. Here he is. He says, go and ask. Go and consult. Ask the medium.
He wouldn't have been called a medium. He might have been called a Delphic oracle or something
like that. I don't know. Might have been called a prophet. Something like that. And he said,
whether I'll recover of this disease? That. The angel of the Lord said to Elijah,
the Tishbite, arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria. Say unto them, is it not
because there is not a God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baalzebab, the God of Ephraim? Now
therefore, thus saith the Lord, thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up,
but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed. Praise Baalzebab. Elijah didn't quibble or quarrel.
God was not in Israel. Yet Israel was full of gods. But there's only one God. Amen. And God had
his man. It was Elijah. God had his man, Jesus. Hallelujah. He didn't act in the spirit of Elijah.
I'd like to be able to stop to make the contrasts. But never mind.
John Baptist was the last one who came in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Jesus came in the spirit and power of God. All right. Hallelujah. All right. Off we go then.
And you see what happens. There was no God in Israel at all. Only Elijah. Elijah gets a disciple
called Elisha. Is that right? He pours water on the hands of Elijah. Praise God. What a wonderful
thing. Think of the hands of Jesus, what they did. Oh, you remember the things he did. The
devils he cast out. The bodies he healed. The minds he comforted. Oh, the sins he forgave.
All the miracles he performed. And now he's going. And no wonder old Elisha says,
Oh, a double portion of this man's spirit.
He gets it. He gets it. Hallelujah. He comes back and he says, Where's the Lord God of Elijah?
And if the garment could have spoken, it would have said, He's here.
He's here. You say that? Are you really in this one true baptism?
The head's been taken, but it's not been disconnected from the body.
The head's in heaven. The body's on earth. Glory be to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, beloved, we have the picture being finally drawn now by the Spirit. And here's
the doctrine unfolding. All these things that you speak of in this watery baptism through which
you've been, and alas, alas, it's been such a watery baptism with so many, it's watered down
the truth. So we've lost sight of what God has for us. You say, I've been baptized. You haven't
been baptized if you've not been baptized in the Spirit. There's only one baptism. You read it in
your book. Do you believe it? Do you believe? It took me a long time before I could swallow it,
but in the end I did. In the end I did. I believed God. Mind you, you're penalized if you believe God.
But you've got to believe God. When old John Baptist was baptizing in Jordan with the baptism
of repentance unto the remission of sins, he himself said when Jesus went to him, he said,
I have need to be baptized of thee. He needed to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. He just said it.
He's going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. He said, I need this baptism that I've
prophesied and testified to the people of. I need it. I need you to baptize me. I've baptized
thousands in this Jordan, but what's that? This is the baptism. Glory. This is what I'm needing.
I know. I need this baptism. Hear old John Baptist talking. Let him advise your heart.
Let him show you that all these other things are as nothing as compared with this, beloved,
that you should know this mighty engulfing of God the Holy Ghost, incorporating and
infixing and infilling you with all of God. Praise God. This is what the Bible reveals, beloved.
Amen. And I want to ask you a question. When did this happen to you?
Glory. You can ask me when it happened to me, if you like.
You can ask me if it's happened to me. I was a Baptist pastor at one time,
put ever so many down in the waters. Hallelujah. Glory. I still do it occasionally.
I went up to a group somewhere, oh, Birmingham, not so long ago. God moved in a wonderful way,
and afterwards they said, oh, will you come and baptize us, they said. They're all baptized
before they're baptized in water. They're all baptized. Glory be to the name of the Lord.
They want to be immersed in water, beloved. Just as a picture,
as you could be immersed in the Pacific Ocean, in the place where it's deepest,
but it won't make a scrap of difference to you, my friend, unless the Holy Ghost,
unless God by the Holy Ghost has baptized you unto Jesus Christ, unto him, unto his very self,
unto his image, unto his life, unto his character, unto his power, unto his miracles,
unto his prophecies, unto his discernment, unto everything that he has,
unto his wisdom, unto his knowledge. Go on, go to the moon. That's right.
Now, glory to God. There was a time when my heart awoke to all this. There was a time when I saw it
so clearly. I'd muddled and peddled about for all kinds of other things, and then God showed me.
You've got to be baptized unto Jesus Christ,
and you can't be baptized unto Jesus Christ in water.
You can only be baptized unto Jesus Christ in the Spirit.
That is all. That's the one baptism. One body. You see, it's got it all tied up here. One body,
one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Follow the logic of it through. I won't take the
logic of it with you. I'm not supposed to be your sort of mind and everything else. I'm not supposed
to be your sort of mind and everything. You think it through. There's one body,
even as you're called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
finishes up with saying, one God and Father of you all, who's in you all, through you all,
over you all, lost in God.
And so, beloved, the Lord teaches us the doctrine of the baptisms that are alluded to in the
Scripture, and tells us there's only one. That's all. There's only one.
And I find people saying all kinds of things and bringing up all kinds of propositions
and ideas about baptism in water.
And here is the Lord teaching us. You see, it's all there. The old Elisha, the body, if you like,
went down with Joshua, Joseph, if you like, Elijah, into Jordan, right in through glory, glory,
glory, glory, glory. And where did the head go? Up in a jar of fire, a mighty world,
up to heaven. Didn't see him anymore. And from the place of invisibility,
comes the Church, back through the same glorious waters, back through the same wonderful death.
Amen. And he comes. Can you do what Elijah did? Yes, I can do what Elijah did.
The things that, the works that I do, shall you do also. All right? And greater works than these
shall you do. Elisha did exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah. He had a double portion of
the Spirit. What a wonderful thing this is. To us has been given this privilege
that we should move in this life and in this world under the power of our glorious head.
That we should move in the Lord God of Jesus. Amen. I've substituted Jesus for Elijah.
Amen. And the world must know it, beloved. The world must know it.
People bound by darkness, evil spirits, necromancy, fiddling with things of this nature.
The world has sold itself out to the devil.
It's gotta be reached with the power of God. Gotta be reached with the power of God.
Hallelujah. Well, what are you doing about it? Endure with power
from on high. Isn't it true, beloved? So many people say they've had this
endowment with power and about all they can do is speak in tongues. Where's the power?
I'm in this one great baptism, they want to say, and all they can do is speak in tongues.
And they're pretty limited vocabulary at that. If you listen to them,
glory be to God. There is something, beloved, that's far beyond all this.
Let's move in, shall we? We're going to come back to this same scripture.
15 of chapter 2. When the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw this Elisha, they said, they said, they said,
Elisha didn't go round advertising, they said, I've got the power, I've got it. The spirit of
Elijah, the rest of Elijah. Praise God. It's good if 50 prophets say it about you, beloved.
It's good if 50 prophets say it about you. No matter whether some man or woman has laid hands
on you and they said what they think about you, don't worry about that. It's good if 50 real
prophets say that about you, beloved. Oh, praise God. What would you think about that? The spirit
of Elijah, the rest upon Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground
before him. Why? The spirit was there.
It was there. They knew. Glory be to God. And so did the world soon know, if you like to say
that Israel was the world because it had become very worldly. The world soon knew, beloved,
as he moved out amongst them. And it goes on to say this, they said, Behold now there be with thy
servants fifty strong men. Let them go, we pray thee, and seek thy master. Lest Peradventure,
the spirit of the Lord, hath taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.
And he said, You shall not sin. You shall not sin. And they kept on persisting and persisting
and persisting until he was ashamed and let them go. Acts chapter 2.
My word, I'm sorry, I'm overrunning my time. I'm going to be through in a few minutes.
I believe we have to be out at nine thirty. And in Acts chapter 2, when the day of Pentecost was
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven
as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting,
and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them,
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit gave them utterance. And so we'll miss out the next. But it says in verse 12, when they were
all amazed and were in doubt, they said one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said,
These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said
unto them, So on and so on and so on, sixteen, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel,
and he begins as the Spirit of God in him gives him now prophetic utterance in his mother tongue,
having given him to speak in another tongue prior to this, now gives him to say these things.
He says verse 32, This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy
Ghost, he hath shed forth this which you now see and hear. For David is not ascended up into the
heavens, but he saith himself that the Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I
make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this and so on
goes the Scripture, they heard this man say that he knew where Jesus was. They said the Spirit of
God might have cast him in some valley, he might be on some mountain. Nay, this Jesus of God raised
up. God raised up Elijah, took him up, ascended up into heaven. Praise the name of the Lord.
And Jesus, to fulfil the figure, he sits right down on that throne. Amen. And he sheds forth
this one mighty great baptism. Amen. And 120 different men, or I heard somebody say 120
units of a congregation became a body, one body. Praise the name of the Lord.
And so the Lord is teaching us the truth, beloved. So the Lord teaches us the truth.
He's not cast in some valley, he's not lost somewhere, our Lord Jesus Christ, because the
clouds received him out of sight and because he's sitting down there on the right hand of the
Majesty on high, beloved. Praise God, he's alive, he's alive. And old Elijah, he knew in his heart
where Elijah was. Bless God, he knew that God had taken him to heaven. Praise the name of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord. And God the Father has taken Jesus to heaven,
and he's sitting there, and he's ready tonight to baptise you.
For you may remember, that's exactly what Peter said. I won't read it, but I expect you're familiar
with the story. When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said,
men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said, repent, every one of you, be baptised
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and it's unto your children, and unto all them that
are afar off, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he
exhort them, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. And as many as received his
word were baptised, and the same day there were added unto them three thousand souls.
These all continued in the apostles, and so we go on.
So the Lord brings us here, oh, that you should continue, every one of us,
in what these apostles had, in what these apostles received that day on Pentecost.
It's God's intention that it should be received, lived in, lived out,
moved. When were you baptised in this manner? If not, you're to be baptised in this manner.
The promise is unto you. It's unto you. Don't let it pass you by.
It's unto you. Say, thank you Lord, it's into me, I've received it.
That's what it says in Galatians chapter three. The blessing of Abraham, which is justification
by faith, should come upon the Gentiles, that we should receive the promise of the Spirit.
That's right. I've received it. The promise is unto me.
It was unto those Galatians. It's unto you. What a marvellous thing this is, beloved.
Well, bless the Lord for this that God is showing us. It's all one great glorious
thing, if your heart can see it, that that cross, praise God, that burial,
that resurrection, that ascension, and enthronement, and mighty enduement, is one
great thing in the heart of God. What it is in God, it has to be in thee and in me.
One. But we split it up. We get a little bit, a little bit, a little bit more, a little bit more,
and God wants us to have it all. Amen. God wants us to have it all. Praise his wonderful name.
Now we've got to stop, beloved. Let's pray.

Raw whisper.ai text

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