The great truth of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Alright now, let's talk together shall we from scripture. I want to do this concerning
the great truth of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And I want you to turn to the one
chapter in the Bible where you would expect to read about it in its original form. Acts
chapter 2. I say originally because one finds so many kinds of different versions about
it in these days. Not that I want to discuss that, but I want to come with you simply on
the surface of scripture and we'll go through it together and we'll see some five, six,
seven or eight points according to time. I should have been preaching a half an hour ago,
but the Lord sort of moved otherwise. But nevertheless, if I can't deal with all of them
properly, I'll deal with one. All these great and wonderful things. But firstly then, you will know
that this was the beginning of the church era on the earth. That Jesus said he would build his
church and he started to do it on the day of Pentecost. And what a precious and wonderful
revelation of truth this is. I'm glad that Jesus put his will into it saying I will build my church
and the gates of hell are not going to prevail against it. If he had said the gates of hell are
not going to prevail against me to prevent me doing it, we could have understood that. That he's
going to go right through with this great project. But it's going to be such a glorious church
in the speech and in the purpose of Jesus that it's going to be all conquering just like he is.
That's what he said. And of course for this it had to be in the all-victorious Holy Ghost. The church
would surely be defeated without the glorious Holy Ghost. It had to come to life in the blessed
spirit. And so he poured forth the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. And the first thing I
want you to notice about it is in verse 1. That the day of Pentecost, it was fully come. And when
the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. What a marvelous
thing it is for us beloved to realize that first of all this great truth of Pentecost was introduced
way back in the Old Testament. You realize that don't you? That following the keeping of what we
know as we call it Good Friday and then Easter Sunday there had to come the great reckoning of
those days in between. You can read all about this in Leviticus 23. And on this wonderful day
of Pentecost on the 50th day they had to keep a feast. Now then I want you to see that Pentecost
is a feast. Glory, we all like feasts don't we? That's how God introduced it. And you will find
if you read again carefully or even cursorily upon the pages of the scripture you will find
that it's headed this way. The feasts of Jehovah, these are the feasts of the Lord. And Pentecost
is one of the Lord's feasts. It's the Lord feasting and inviting men and women to come to
his banquet. That's what Pentecost is. It isn't being led as a lamb to the slaughter, particularly
anything like that. It's everybody putting on their best garments in anticipation of a royal feast.
If only we get this into our hearts that God said, oh it's a feast, it's going to be a feast.
If you're pretty lean of soul you'd better come. If you're saying, oh my leanness, my leanness,
come to the royal table. Let the Lord bring you into this great festal occasion to feast with the
Lord. You're going to discover, I tell you beloved, you're going to discover the fat things of God.
You know as when God said, come and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Amen. And he advises
to come. Have you ever done that? Have you ever been baptized on a festal occasion? When the
singing and the joy and everything are all evident. God's called it to this and it is just simply not
possible for men and women to feast on the fullness of God unless they are baptized in the Holy Ghost.
Mind you, you may come as a poor hungry soul. You may spend, I don't know whether it be your good
fortune or your misfortune, three days listening to somebody preaching and then at the end get
bread and fish. One of the multitudes that have had bread and fish, hardly a feast. But lots of
people think because they've had bread and fish, it's hardly a feast today. Poor you fancy thinking
that's a feast. You're out of your senses surely aren't you? Hallelujah. I don't know, anybody
might have been some poor Christians on the poor left bread and fish on Christmas day, but you
certainly didn't. Did you? Not you. My, I went somewhere the other day up in Gloucester to preach
and after when it got to the morning and lots of my hostesses, unless they get to know me very well
like people I live with in London for instance, they're very very concerned to know what I'd like
to eat. And after a week of dietary they discover I'm quite normal.
Sometimes they think I'm subnormal because they want to put me on bacon and eggs as I'd know
thank you. Just a bit of cereal and a piece of toast will do me. You see, just like you might.
And but I went there and the dear lady she she sort of hovered around me a moment or two and then
she said and uh what would you like for lunch? I said oh just anything you put on
that'll do me fine you see. And uh she said well will you do this and that? I said that's lovely
just treat me as one of the family. She said do you like Christmas pudding? I said oh yes.
Would you like it for for seconds? I said oh yes. So I finished up their Christmas pudding for them.
Not all at once.
You see the leftovers from the feast beloved. The leftovers. It was nothing.
God says come to a feast. Will you get it into your mind and in your heart that it's a feast
and it's not leftovers? Although there's enough for you. God planned for you.
God provided for you. God thought of you. Isn't this a marvelous thing? And you can come tonight
and join in the festivities of God. Oh you saw that didn't you? When the day of Pentecost fully
came. They were all there. You know if you're invited to a feast by the king you're there.
You're all there aren't you? Yes amen. You're there. If you were invited by the queen you'd find
your best clothes you could unless you were one of these renegades out and out people. Oh I'm
going to go in the oldest clothes I can get. I'm against the establishment. Well of course you
shouldn't be there then should you? Of course you shouldn't. If you really meant what you said you
wouldn't even go. You go invitation from the queen. You see that's what you do but if you really
saw it what was all about you put on your best clothes then wouldn't be I wouldn't be surprised
you went and ordered a new suit and you'd go to the feast wouldn't you? Now that's the way to come.
When you come beloved see what God is wanting to do. He's wanting to thrill you with the
manifestation of his glory. He's wanting to fill you with the fullness of his provisions. He's
wanting to let you know that he's made a place for you. Your son to the banquet won't you come?
That's how it starts. The second thing I want you to notice with me is in the second verse that
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the place
all the house where they were sitting. The next thing then I think we need to see and it's all
in keeping with it. If it is a royal, a banquet then I want to tell you it's a heavenly occasion too.
Oh it's heavenly when God baptizes you in the Holy Spirit it's heavenly ah
oh immediately you lose your taste for her.
Oh immediately you lose your taste for her.
If you've been a worldling you lose your taste for the world when you're baptized in the Holy
Ghost. You're not needing someone to chisel you out with sermons on separation for the next 10
years. Not when you've really been immersed, baptized in God from heaven. What do you want
to do with anything else? What do you want? There's nothing greater this side of heaven
than to be baptized in God for the Holy Ghost is God.
It's baptism we're talking about.
So baptized in God what do you think is going to take place on you when you're baptized in God?
You know there's so many people they get this word you shall receive power they think that's
all God ever said about you. He said you're going to be baptized in God. No wonder you get power
coming on you. Keep looking for power don't we all need it because we were thinking last night
together. But beloved it's God. Hey then it's not God outside of you it's not God in heaven so much
it's not God there or God somewhere else it's God there and you in him. You've been baptized in him.
Don't you realize what it's all about?
What? Oh God coming down of the in your everything. God above you, God beneath you,
God around you, God within you, God upon you. Oh God over you, you're baptized into God.
I do believe that most people don't see this. They're expecting a sort of a touch of power
or something enabling to do something. Hey when you're baptized in God you are someone.
You've been immersed into God.
Total immersion kept in for eternity. That's God's intent.
He kept there forever. He said I'll really show them what this feasting is.
It's not feasting on things I give it's feasting on things I am.
It's not feasting as me providing for them it's feasting on me including them.
I include you into myself. That's God, the holy gods.
You're baptized in him and it's heavenly. Bless God. We don't have to work it up, beloved, do we?
No, no, you don't have to get all heated up and sort of work your place self to a pitch where it happens.
They heard a sound from heaven.
It came from heaven. Bless God that it's heavenly. It's heavenly. Have you ever been all wrapped up
in God and in heavenly love? Have you been thrilled with him and through and through
with this almighty God? Have you ever been there where your poor impoverished soul
has been carried away into God and all your little narrowed shriveled up
wizened self inside has been released from its fears and its bondages and all its hiding places
and all its strictures and all its inhibitions and all its exhibitions too and you're brought
through to this place where you're in God. Did you have a baptism like that? That's the sword I got.
It was heavenly. Oh, it was so wonderful and it was as to me as the dawning of a new day
entirely, as the openings up of things that I'd never seen before, the entrances into secrets of
God, the goings into the unfoldings of his love, resting on his eternal bosoms looking up into his
sweet face, being blessed, satisfied, overwhelmed with gratitude within me.
Hallelujah! That's my testimony of the baptism in the Holy Ghost. When God got hold of me,
he never left any devils inside me or even all around me. All I could see was God.
I must confess it's the same to this day. Hallelujah! There is a place where God immerses
you into himself. He knows that you can't be satisfied with five minutes joy in a meeting.
It's lovely to have him. He knows you can't be satisfied with a little alleviation
going into the world of forgetfulness of some of the harsher things of life for a while.
All to return again tomorrow.
Oh, amen! He pushes out the frontiers. Hallelujah! Amen! That's the kind of baptism
to have. That's the kind. It's life-changing, nature-changing, personality-changing, height-changing,
depth-changing, breadth-changing, length-changing. There are no limits.
It's heavenly. If it's worked up from them by the week's time.
Heaven without mixture.
God without man. Hallelujah! Spirit without flesh.
Death without death. Life without death. Fullness without emptiness.
Fulfilment without loss. That's the baptism in the Spirit. That's what I read in the New Testament.
Have you ever read it? Through from the Acts of the Apostles,
start moving through those chapters. You see these people. They did the most extraordinary things.
I'm sure lots of their relatives thought they were mad, but what does that matter?
Hallelujah! When God gets a man and fills him and fills him and fills him till he can't contain it.
Let's press on. You will know all the sort of things that happened on that occasion.
We may have time to refer to them, but I want to make these other points at the moment.
In Jerusalem at that time, there were a lot of people. They came from all around the place.
And they heard these people who'd been baptised in the Holy Ghost praising God in another town.
And at least it attracted them and they went and listened.
And some thought it was just a drunken display and some thought all sorts of things.
But you know the famous verse 14, Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said
unto them, You men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you,
and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken. As ye suppose, seeing it is but the
third hour of the day, this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. Now, beloved,
this was prophecy fulfilled. Amen. That's what the baptism in the Spirit is. It's prophecy
fulfilled. You know that Joel had spoken about this.
Hmm. You know that, don't you? But you won't find a lot of other things that we get so interested in,
talked about in prophecy, but Joel spoke about this. It was going to be a tremendous day, he said,
when God was going to do this and that and the other. And you'll have to read about it
down through the verses that follow this sixteenth verse. But God, he prophesied this,
the actual day, and he prophesied that it was the beginning of many days that were going to ensue.
Let's read it on just a little. It shall come to pass in the last day, saith God, I will pour out
my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men
shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens
I will pour out in those days of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven
above, signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come, and it shall
come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. What a great
introduction to the era of salvation. God pouring out the Holy Ghost. Showing you what he really
intended to do. Amen. Souls will get saved if God pours out the Holy Ghost, you know.
And our prime duty is to see that God does pour out the Holy Ghost.
And if we fulfill our part, he will. He has prophesied it, beloved. This isn't something,
you know, that's come out of somebody's ideas. God, as I have already said, set this thing in
the list of the feasts. But he also talked about it in prophecy, too. You will remember,
you will remember, you who read the Gospels, in Mark you will find that he begins that this
is the Gospel of Jesus Christ concerning his Son, which was written before in the prophets.
Jesus was foretold by the prophets, his life, his birth, his death, his resurrection, glory to God.
And the pouring forth of the blessed Holy Spirit is all going according to prophecy, beloved.
Isn't it a marvelous thing that a man can have an experience that a fulfillment of the Word of God?
Then you need to ask yourself, have I had such an experience that fulfills prophetic scripture?
Marvellous to think you've been prophesied about, isn't it?
You thought you were ever so unimportant. It's a good way, really. And then God shows, well,
you're not quite so insignificant as you thought. Perhaps you're on the back saying,
I didn't want you to get sort of big-headed and proud. But nevertheless, I've prophesied
this is that which Joel spoke about. Though when Joel spoke about it, he didn't really know what
he was talking about. Often they did that. These men of old, they were so obedient that when the
power of God came on them, they spoke and they wrote and they didn't hesitate. They didn't care
whether they were educated or uneducated or anything like that. They were men who knew
how to respond to the power of God in their life. Old Joel, you know, and he seemed to get all
eaten up with this. He said, what we want is more prophets, your sons, your daughters, your servants,
your handmaidens, all prophesying. Young men seeing visions. You know, a terrible thing.
You get young people, they've got no vision at all. And you wonder whether they have. Some people
can't see beyond a glass on a table or a bedding slip or something like that. That's about as far
as their vision can go. When men have lost their vision, beloved, God says, I'll make your young
men see visions. I'll make them see it. Have you entered into the glory of the prophetic side
of this great baptism in the spirit? When a man becomes a mouthpiece of God, when he enters into
this that God is aching, you know, it isn't just aching to do. It doesn't, the God wants you to
sit down and keep on feasting and feasting and feasting and you could become a glutton. Isn't
that? There's that side of it. And he wants us to have our good fill. He doesn't want to send us
out thin, bony, poor, emaciated kind of creatures. He wants us to be well fed on the great things of
God. He wants us to be in the true heavenly experience. Then he might think you're fit to go
out on the earth and give forth the heavenly message. He wants us to enter into this great
miraculous side of this baptism in the spirit. For beloved, we are not just baptized in the spirit
for our own self-satisfaction, though we may feel ever so fulfilled. He doesn't want us to be
baptized in the spirit just to sort of go dancing about and say, oh, this is heavenly. It is.
Glory be to God. When God sort of baptized me in the spirit, I didn't know whether my feet were on
the earth or not. And if somebody had come along and said, do you know? Your feet were a yard off
the ground. I couldn't believe them. I didn't know when I was walking on the earth or whether I wasn't.
And I tell you the truth. I'm not just using a sort of figurative language. I'm telling you my
experience. Not that you've got to get something that makes you float on a cloud, just a better mine
or anything like that. But what you've got to know, beloved, is the glory of this heavenly life.
Heavenly life. Amen. Filling and filling and filling you. And then he put you into the realm
of the prophets of God. You prophesy, I'll do things. That's what he said. Thou prophesy,
I'll do this. Hallelujah. Oh, God wants men that are going to speak, and God does what they say.
Amen. What a world to come into.
And the next thing about this great baptism in the Holy Spirit, you will find lower down.
I said earlier that it was a royal occasion, and that's a heavenly occasion.
We know that it's from God himself. But Peter, he takes up from the end of Joel's prophecy
in verse 21. And in 22, he moves out, and he's not long before he gets to David, verse 25.
David spoke concerning Jesus. I foresaw the Lord always before my face. He's on my right hand,
that I should not be moved. This is Jesus going into death, getting ready to rise again.
This is the secret revealed to us. How Jesus felt, how Jesus thought, the way he approached death,
he'd never known it. He assumed a body that he might know it for you and me.
And this is the secret I foresaw the Lord always before my face. He's on my right hand,
that I shouldn't be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice. My tongue was glad. Moreover also,
my flesh shall rest in hope, because thou wilt not lead my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways
of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. Men and brethren, let me freely speak
unto you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with the
sons of this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.
He, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
neither his flesh should seek corruption. And the next point that stands out there is this,
that the baptism in the Spirit is an oath redeemed. God's on oath about it.
God swore with an oath.
Hallelujah.
I like this great truth of the oath, don't you? That God said, you're not to swear by an oath.
You're not to swear by heaven, you're not to swear by earth. Heaven's God's throne, earth's his footstool.
It's nothing to do with you, you can't swear by either, they don't belong to you.
And you're not to swear by oath at all, not by your head, you can't turn one hair black or white.
I didn't turn my hair white. I can't do anything about it, and don't you women try and turn your
gray hair brown, or anything like that. You and I, beloved, we stand here as we are, and God moves
in this tremendous realm. He was on oath about it.
On oath. I'm ever so glad about God's oath. God swore with an oath, and God redeemed his oath.
Hallelujah. Isn't that a wonderful thing? Beloved, let great assurance come to your heart.
If you don't know this mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost that God wants you to have,
find assurance here that God, when he was moving to the place that he should pour forth his Spirit
upon all flesh. Beginning in Jerusalem, as we read, he got in this place where he made great
oaths as well as made great promises. I'm going to raise up Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is
going to raise up Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is the great baptism. He's the one that
does it. We hear a lot about John the Baptist. Have you ever heard about Jesus the Baptist?
Do they preach about Jesus the Baptist? If you come from a Baptist church or a Methodist church
or whatever church you come from, Jesus the Baptist.
When I met Jesus the Baptist, praise him. He was a real baptism. That's what he said,
you know. You can read it in the fifth verse of chapter one.
John truly baptized in water and you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
They were a few days off Pentecost then. Imagine it. If you've not been baptized in the Spirit,
imagine it. Think of someone going down to the ocean or somewhere like that and somebody just
pushing them in and pushing them out. The first baptism I saw took place on the south,
in the sea I mean, took place on the south coast of England. They sort of saved it up until I got
there and I wished they hadn't. It was as cold as you had it and the sea was rough and I stood on
the shore shivering. I always shiver when I get near the seaside in the very warmest temperatures
but still never mind. We all stood there and I wrapped myself around with a coat and hung on
everything. The wind was blowing. I thought it was a false 10 gale. I don't suppose it was
but it felt like it to me. We had a time of prayer and this young fellow that was going to be
baptized in water, when he got through our prayer, he was gone. He didn't wait for the
baptizer to get in first. He went bounding down the shore, leaped over the waves. Literally,
it was a rough sea. He jumped up over the waves, came down in the sea, rushed up tight to jump
over the next one. He baptized himself a long time before the baptizer.
But never mind, the baptizer's still baptizing. Amen. Oh, and it was cold. I did feel for him.
One little human being in a vast ocean.
Yes, just think of it. One little you in the vast ocean.
Glory to God.
God on earth, Jesus the baptizer, baptizing you into this oceanic spirit.
Oh, glory. Talk about might, strength. Think of it. Think of it. Go on, let your soul think of it.
If you're one of these people who stand trembling on the brink, hesitating, lots of fears,
wonder what it'll do, wonder where you'll finish up, and all this sort of thing, beloved,
think of it. But instead of thinking in a great force, ten gale, and a bitter cold day,
and great cold waves, think of warmth, and think of love, and think of God, and think of Jesus
coronation present, think of it all, and let yourself go in the hands of God. Ye he's on oath
about it. He's sworn to you. What'll happen? You'll have a proper baptism. That's what'll happen.
A real immersion by God.
Now, wonder of all wonders, I who stood on the shore was frozen to death.
The young fellow that got baptized was warming. They stood there, water running off him, dripping
off him, and I said, go on, get to it. He said, son, I'm not cold. Well, I shivered for him.
My wife laughs at me because I don't like cold water. She said, you, if it rains,
it'll get a spot of rain on you. She said, oh, I'm wet through.
Well, that's what she said. I'll tell you what, she's not going to laugh at me about this baptism
in the Spirit, you know. I got a reminiscence in the warmth of God's great in-gathering Spirit,
the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Him.
If anything means life essence, it's Spirit, isn't it?
If anything means distillation, it's Spirit, isn't it?
You ladies tell me, aren't the best scents those that come from distillation, those glorious aromas?
Hmm.
You're going to be baptized and wrapped all around in God, filled and flooded and all this
mighty oath, oh Lord. Jesus Christ himself relied on this glorious oath. It's all right, son,
you go down into death, you go down there, I'll raise you from the dead, my son.
That's my oath to you. And God had it written in the book
so that if he hadn't done it, he should be shown to be a liar and untrustworthy.
And everybody could have said, he didn't raise him from the dead, did he?
But everybody has to say, he did raise him from the dead. He is alive from the dead.
That's the thing that always thrills a company of Spirit-filled Christians, isn't it? He's alive,
isn't it? He's alive, he's alive. Your death rolled off you, the gloom's gone,
the depressions have gone, the oppressions have gone, the sinking feelings gone,
the sense of what am I living for is gone.
Hallelujah, he's alive from the dead, and he was given the victor's crown, beloved,
so that you should be baptized by the King. The King himself, he doesn't leave it for him,
him, him, or anybody else. He does it personally. If you can't trust him that hung on the cross
for you personally, to baptize you in the Spirit properly, there's something wrong with you.
I dare say you've not really trusted him at Calvary.
It is he who does it, and do you know he's not called a Pentecostal?
You won't find anywhere in the Bible where he's called a Pentecostal.
And he's not called a Charismatic either.
So you needn't be afraid, he's called Jesus.
He's called Jesus, hallelujah, and he immerses you in the Holy Spirit. Ah, it's such a Holy Spirit
experience, you know, when you're baptized in the Holy Ghost, it's so holy.
It's sort of secret revealed to secret.
The awe and the wonder and the joy and the glory and the inclusion into the Spirit of God
himself is marvelous. God's on oath about it. It's realer than your flesh.
Amen.
The next thing I want to say, as we move down, we'll start, we'll read up again from 32, shall
we? This Jesus, 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 ye now see and hear. Praise God.
Shed forth this which ye now see and hear. Is this the kind of experience you're in?
A real proper experience. Something that you can see and something that you can hear.
Something that everybody knows about. There are so many people, they want a kind of a secret thing
to happen to them. Shut away somewhere in a corner or, you know, they really want this,
but you know, what will they say?
One thing is God determined about and that he's going to bring you right out into the open.
Right out into the open. You've got to be properly branded.
Something to be seen and heard. Beloved, you've no idea of this great thing that God wants to do,
unless you've seen that this blessed baptism is to bring everything out into the light.
This blessed baptism is to bring everything out into the light.
Open you right up so that people can see it. See it and hear it.
It's seeable, knowable, provable. You could handle it.
But that's the kind of baptism you've got. It's not some little thing that's hidden away.
God doesn't want it that way. Doesn't he say that he wants to pour his Spirit upon all flesh?
Whether you call these people your enemy or whether you call them your friend,
whether you call them your mum or your dad or your brother or your sister or your aunt or your uncle
or your grandma and your grand dad, I don't know what. It doesn't matter whether you call them your
minister or whether you call them your leader or anything like that. They've got to know.
They've got to know. They've got to be baptized in the Spirit. They've got to be told.
Where'd God baptize me in the Spirit? I don't know. Well, I was in a church down in Kent.
We're in Kent now, aren't we? Yes, I was in a church in Kent a long time ago now.
And why did I get into trouble? I was in real trouble. My wife, well, she was there then,
too. I was denounced publicly. I was sort of buried and beaten down. I was spoken of as another
voice speaking in the church. Another voice that sat in the church, you see, up straight away.
They heard it. They heard it. That's right.
Yeah, everybody knew. I thought everybody was looking at me. Well, I hope they saw it.
That's the sort of thing that it's got to be, beloved. How are they going to know?
Oh, they've got to be brought in. And if you're so full of love, and if you're so full of another
spirit, that people can detect that it's there, you may defend your genuine.
One thing Jesus did say is this. You don't light candles to put them under the bed.
That's what he said. You don't light candles to put them under bushels.
You put them up on the lampstand so that everybody entering in the house can see.
That's just what he intends to do with you. He wants to set you alight to glow with the glory
of God and put you up on a lampstand so that everybody can see it. That's what Jesus said.
That's what Jesus said. You can't go against the ways of Jesus, the words of Jesus. You just can't
do it. It's got to work out as he says. Have you made an opposition since you've been baptized
in the Spirit? I said last night, baptism in the Spirit won't get you out of trouble,
gets you into it. It gets you out of trouble with God, but it'll get you into trouble with men.
That's right, isn't it? It did me anyway. I sort of think that it works out this way with everybody
that has the genuine baptism in the Holy Spirit. I've got to hurry up, that clock's defeating me.
And as we move on down this great chapter, we'll come to verse thirty-eight. I beg your pardon.
When they heard this verse thirty-seven, I'm reading, they were pricked in their heart,
and they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?
Peter said unto them, Repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ,
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So then it's a gift
to be received. A gift to be received. Hallelujah. You like getting gifts, don't you? Wouldn't you
like God to give you a gift? God giving you the Holy Ghost. Giving you the Holy Ghost, free.
God, listen to this. God's so generous, beloved. Think of how different you'd be
if you had the gift of the Holy Ghost. You could say, the Holy Ghost? It's mine.
Have you ever talked to people saying, you know, I've got the Holy Ghost?
I wonder what they'd say at your work if you talked like that.
Where you went? No, I've got the Holy Ghost.
They don't understand. They haven't got a clue.
But you've got to receive the gift.
Hallelujah. Fancy receiving a gift that you can't contain.
Ever thought about it? Receiving a gift that you can only hope to hold as he sort of flows out of
you. Fancy receiving a gift like that. That's God's intention. Fancy receiving a gift, beloved,
that's going to spring up in you all spontaneously and you haven't got to work the old pump handles
or try and get yourself blown up to something. He rises and fills and flows out as naturally as a
river, as a stream rises. Nothing's forced about it. Nothing about it's forced. Nothing of the
flesh, nothing of man, all of God. God's coming in you with joy, finding another place, a spring
from which to rise, a place for it, running out through you. Hallelujah. Meeting everybody,
flowing out over everybody. Repent, repent if you've never received this gift from God. Repent!
However far you've come, whatever you believe, repent if you've stopped short of this. Get down
on your knees and say, oh God, I'm sorry. I never saw it. I never knew it. Some of you, you've got
to get, see this twofold thing about the baptism in the Spirit, it's something that Jesus does. He
does. He baptizes you in the Holy Ghost. That's what he does and it's something that you do.
You receive the gift. That's what Peter said, didn't he? What shall we do? He said, you receive
the gift. We'll leave the rest to Jesus. He'll do that all right. You do your part. There's no doubt
what Jesus will do if you'll do your part. Amen. Isn't it marvelous? If you're a cowbrist,
you can say, he's sovereignly baptized in the Holy Ghost. If you know how meaning say,
now you do your part, receive the gift. So you see, we're all together.
We're all brought together in this mighty baptism in the Spirit and all these artificial
primal divisions, they all disappear, don't they? Oh, hallelujah. You can say,
I declare to you it's a sovereign gift from God. Absolutely right. And you say, just receive the
gift. Absolutely right. Who's right? Both of them. God does the immersing, you do the receiving.
Isn't that lovely? So if you're one of these people that believe in positively sitting about
till something happens, I want to tell you, you've got to stir yourself up and receive.
That's what Peter said, didn't he? I mean, Peter would tell you exactly the same if he was standing
in my place tonight. But as he can't be here himself, this is right. God sent the book with
his words in it. Hallelujah. The sacred record, beloved, you must receive.
That's your test, whether you think that God is deceiving you or not.
It all turns on God's person and character in the end, whether you believe he's true or whether you
don't believe he's true, whether you believe he keeps his word or whether you do not believe he
keeps his word. Who believes that God keeps his word? If I said put your hand up, would you put
yours up? You believe God keeps his word? Amen. Well, if you've not received the Spirit,
you're duty bound to receive him tonight. Unless you've denied yourself.
Hallelujah. God keeps his word, baptizes in the Holy Ghost.
Now, how about this tongues business? I mean, I'm just sort of using the phrase that goes around.
When they were baptized in the Holy Ghost, the scripture records, they all began to speak in
other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Hallelujah. It was quite a surprise to them,
but what was a surprise on the day of Pentecost ought to be gladly received since you ought to
receive it with all gladness. Nobody's trying to build any theories on it. It's just the word of
God, isn't it? It's just written there and you don't have to read somebody's book about it except
God's book, that's all. And when you read God's book about it, then you come to the Holy Ghost,
and you come in all simplicity as God wants you to come. And you just let him be the head. Jesus is
the head. Just let him start talking through your mouth. Amen. It's the Spirit that will give the
utterance, of course, but you've got to let him start talking through your mouth.
You've got to really trust him. Go open up, head of this marvelous realm of God.
Hallelujah. I tell you this, you'll enter into an entirely new realm.
Listen, it's ever so safe. You can ask Peter. You can ask Paul. You can ask them all.
It's ever so safe, beloved. You know what's wrong with people, don't you? You just don't trust God.
They just don't trust God. And God demands that you trust him. That you just hand everything over to
him. He says, it's all right, son. It's all right, love. You'll be all right. Just hand yourself over
to him. Just hand yourself over to him. Wouldn't you like your being to be worked by God?
Wouldn't you like to know that it was God moving everything inside you?
You think of other desperate things that have moved you at times. Don't think too far back
or too deep down, and then you'll feel utterly ashamed. We don't want to remember the shame.
But you just think of how your being's been worked by powers and then think of him,
the new great power from on high. This higher power, beloved, this heavenly power,
this godly power, this spiritual power. Amen. And that's what it's got to be.
And I want to say one thing more, and I'm going to be through.
And it's this. You go right down to the end, and verse 47, it talks about people that were praising
God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be
said. By the baptism in the Spirit, the church came into being.
Didn't exist till then, save in the heart of God. It was there. He planned and oh how he longed
for the day when he could pour out the Spirit, and in that Spirit, the church could be formed.
As it had always been in that same Spirit, in the heart of God from all eternity,
he had to pour out the Spirit of him, and in his Spirit, it could all be.
Think of it. His church.
And when we get beyond all our ecstasies, and when we get beyond all our first experiences,
and beyond all the gifts we have, and beyond all things else, tracing it all through prophecies
of Scripture, and I don't know what, we come to the place where we're known. This is our eternal joy
that it's in that blessed Spirit. Glory be to God. I'm included. I'm incorporated.
I am in Christhood. I am there. Glory to God. Let it eat up your heart.
Let it carry you away. Let it fill your mind. Let your imagination go free. Let God take you as
someone so utterly new that he can bring the impressions of the infinite upon you.
That he can take up your whole being, make you real. He'll make you
throw to his feelings. He'll make you understand with his understandings. It's in his Spirit.
Oh, to be there. It's all worth it. More than worth it. The blessed Pentecost.
It's the day of the Church, isn't it? The Spirit is the Spirit in whom, in which the Church is
formed, and I want to tell myself again, and it comes again and again, that there was nobody in
the early Church except they were baptized in the Holy Ghost. No one.
All 120 of them started off there, and then it came 3,120.
Isn't that great? You see, it's God's intention,
beloved, that what you should be, if you're not baptized in the Spirit, you're subnormal.
Subnormal. There are powers. There is life. There is experience.
Far beyond you that you've never known yet,
and into these he'll carry you, take you by his grace. Let's pray.

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Original audio at https://biblebase.com/download/11476/