Baptism in the Holy Spirit — David Du Plessis

The Lamb of God and the Beginning of God's Work

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I appreciate the invitation of the brethren to come and speak to you. It's the only day I really could cut out of a very busy program. And I'm happy to see so many of you here. And particularly am I thrilled to see so many young people at this camp.

The Lord is moving everywhere, that's true. But there are still promises of God that has not been fulfilled. There are prophecies that must yet be fulfilled. And when I see how other prophecies have been literally fulfilled, and yet nobody could have predicted just how they could happen.

They could not tell how exactly these things could take place, for they had not happened before. If it is always a repetition of what happened before, we would be able to predict pretty closely. However, when nothing like it has happened, and we have no conception of how God is going to do it, we must be prepared to see things happen in a way they have not done before.

And sometimes they happen so easily, they just seem to shape up, and it doesn't look like it is supernatural. It seems so natural. It seems that it just developed that way. But the Lord was in it all, and God has a marvelous way of reaching people at a time when He has set the climate, when He has tuned and set the stage.

When you think of the day of Pentecost, now Jesus died at the season of the Passover. He was truly the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And several times when I have asked the Lord, how do I present these matters to the people?

The Lord said to me, always begin at the beginning. You must always tell people the beginning again. And so I began where the beginning was. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God.

And then we find, this is John's Gospel, John began to preach the Gospel, and the way he introduced the ministry of Christ was to present Him to the people. The day He came, He did not say, there is the Son of God, but He said, there is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

Never talk to people that have never known Jesus before about any more than the Lamb of God who takes away sin. For that is all they know about, rather, they know about sin. And they're all looking for an escape from this sin problem.

So tell them, here is the Lamb of God that takes away sin. And if they say to you, yes, we know God forgives sin, you say, no, it's more than that. He doesn't forgive, He takes them away. He changes men.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

He regenerates them. He takes away the sin or the desire for sin and changes us. John then said, He shall baptize in the Holy Spirit. Now lately I see there are so many interpretations or translations of the Bible, and the scholars agree that John 1 .33 should never have been translated any other way, but that it should have read from the beginning, He that sent me to baptize in water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descend and remain upon him, He shall baptize in the Holy Spirit.

So I read it that way. Why I don't care which professors or theologians I face, that's the way I read it because I know, they know and agree now that's the way it should have read. I wished it hadn't ever read like this, for now Pentecostals talks about the baptism with the Spirit.

Thank God He never baptized us with the Spirit, but in the Spirit. Everyone is baptized in the Holy Ghost. John baptized in the river, not with the river. He baptized in water, never with water. And that is God's image of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

And I have learned to say baptism in the Spirit so faithfully, that now I say it without even thinking other peoples are saying different. And the worst term you can use is talk of the baptism of the Spirit, and then you mean in the Spirit.

For when it is the baptism of the Spirit, then the Spirit is the agent. And there is a scripture, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and a Southern Baptist in Texas reminded me, he got that. By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.

Spirit is the agent, we are the candidates and the body of Christ is the element. The Spirit puts us in there. When? And have all been made to drink into one Spirit. And by the time you drank, is the time that Jesus said, I offer you the water of life.

And when you drink that water of life, it does make a difference. You have a well within you springing up into everlasting life. But then later on he said, if you come to me and drink, and your belly, out of your belly, not in, but out, will flow rivers of living water.

And now they call the baptism in the Spirit a horrible name, and they call it infilling, when it is an outpouring. It never was an infilling, it's an outpouring. It's true, they were filled to overflowing.

And if they didn't start talking, nobody would have known they were full. But they started talking, and then talking a language they never learned, so they knew they were full of something, because what's coming out.

And I thought it was so nice, I thank Brother David Edwards for what he said this morning. I've always said, if you are full, you'll run over without so much shaking. But if you only got a little at the bottom, you really got to shake before something will come out.

Let's begin to pour and stop shaking. Let's do some pouring and talking. Well, they filled to overflowing on the day of Pentecost. That is the day God gave the Holy Spirit. Upon her, now the Spirit had dwelt in Christ in His totality.

From Receiving the Spirit to Living in the Spirit

And when He rose from the dead, that day He breathed on His disciples, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. He meant what He said, and said what He meant. Drink now of the water of life. That's what He offered first, always a drink.

He starts always by drinking, that's in. But you'd never swallow the river. But He says, after you've had a drink, you can be baptized and the river will swallow you. Then you are in the river, and then out of you will pour what's in, and the Spirit is then not only in you, but you are in the Spirit.

How'd you get in there? That's a question so many people have asked me. When I speak of walking in the Spirit, they say, How do you get in the Spirit? I said, That's where Jesus put me 50 years ago when He baptized me.

He put me into the Spirit. And thank God for the years and years I have lived in the Spirit. When I didn't, I felt like a fish out of water. Horrible feeling, dry, miserable. And if you don't get back in quickly, that's a terrible experience and people smell it, like a fish on the banks.

Now then, in the Spirit is the life. What happened in Jerusalem when Jesus conducted that first baptismal service? And I call Pentecost a baptismal service. Got Scripture for it? Yes. If Peter didn't say it that day, thank God when he got in trouble he had to admit it.

For after the house of Cornelius incident, he came back to Jerusalem and his brethren contended with him for what had happened in the house of Cornelius. And he then said, As I began to speak, the Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning.

Now he wasn't speaking of the rushing wind, for there was no rushing wind in Cornelius' household. He didn't speak of tongues of fire, for there were no tongues of fire seen there. But what did he talk about?

He says, In other words, brethren, Jesus baptized the house of Cornelius like he baptized us at the very first baptismal service back in Jerusalem. Jesus was still the baptizer. And lift up Jesus as the baptizer forever.

But he also gives the water of life to drink. That is the first thing he offers as Lord and Savior. He rose from the dead, the Lamb of God had died indeed. And when he met his disciples that night, he said, Peace be unto you.

Do you know what that really means? There is nothing between us, we are absolute at one. Dear Lord, this bunch, that fellow there, Peter, denied you three times. The others ran away, perhaps John, yes.

But Jesus said, Peace be unto you. As my Father sent me, so send I you. And so, the first thing that's got to happen to you is you've got to be born of the Spirit. For the Father sent him out of eternity into time by a glorious birth.

And then he said, he breathed and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. That's where the church was born. Quiet, very quiet, I would say, except for Jesus talking. And them knowing something has happened. The church was born.

I said that in a Baptist church recently. And after the meeting, they had questions and they said to me, But you told us tonight the church was born on the day of his resurrection. I said, Yes, that's what I believe.

They said, We always heard the church was born on the day of Pentecost. I said, You believe that? Yes. I said, Do you believe then that Peter and James and John and all the disciples received their regeneration?

For regeneration was something that was promised in the Old Testament, but never was possible until the Lamb of God had died. To make it possible. Now they not only know the prophecy, the prediction, I will give a new heart, I will create a new spirit within you.

Now it's possible! Because the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. I said, You mean the apostles only got that on the day of Pentecost? One of them said, Yes. I said, Now you're in trouble. For if that is true, nobody was ever born again until they spoke in tongues.

He says, I don't believe that. I said, I don't either. He says, But do you agree? I said to him, Do you agree with me then they were born on the day of his resurrection when he said, Receive ye the Spirit?

He said, Yes. So I converted a whole Baptist church in one meeting to accept that the baptism in the Holy Spirit was more than conversion. And that conversion or regeneration came first. And then the baptism.

The Son of God was born of the Spirit, matured in the Spirit, and when He was 30 years old, He received a baptism in the Spirit. And if that was necessary for the head of the church, I say it's necessary for every member of the church.

That's God's purpose, God's plan. And He said, He shall receive or the Spirit shall come upon Him and remain upon Him because He shall baptize in the Holy Spirit, just like John baptized in the river.

Pentecost and the Birth of the Missionary Church

Now, on the day of Pentecost when this happened, something happened to Jerusalem. Remember, it's only a matter of weeks before that Jerusalem was in uproar. And they crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And then for 40 days after His resurrection, it was all quiet.

Most of them thought He was gone, the disciples knew. Then again, He ascended on high and nothing happened. The disciples stayed in Jerusalem and prayed there. The company dwindled till there were 120 and came the day of Pentecost.

Now, that was the one feast of the Jews when Jews out of every part of the world was expected to be in Jerusalem. They could miss other feasts, but the feast of Pentecost was the feast when all Israel should, as far as is possible, get together.

And every Jew from everywhere in the world tries to be there at Pentecost. I can see why the Lord so arranged it. He knew a long time ago that'll be the day when He'll pour out His Spirit, when He's got them all in Jerusalem.

The Spirit fell upon the city and upon the assembled disciples. And we read, as usual, there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And when this was noised abroad, multitude came together and were confound because they heard every man speak in his own language.

That's all that happened. There wasn't a miracle of healing. There wasn't an earthquake. There wasn't lightning. The tongues of fire were seen by the believers. There really was nothing but funny talking.

Just talking, that's all. And anybody can do that. But I mean just to talk away and talk funny to your own mind. And another man says, but what you're talking is my language. And you never heard that language or never spoke it.

That is somewhat of a miracle. The news went out and the crowd came together. Three thousand were added to the church that day. Peter didn't have a chance to study a homiletical sermon. He was really put on the spot.

But look what a sermon he preached. And see what happened. That very thing that Jesus said. Now the emphasis that I put on what I expect is the words of Jesus. The Father will give the Holy Ghost. And when He comes, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

Jesus said He'll begin with the world. And He will reprove the world. The world or Jerusalem is stirred. I know we Pentecostals like to think that it's all the noise they made that brought the multitude together.

I don't believe that at all. I believe it was the Holy Ghost that brought the multitude together. I believe the Holy Ghost was at work in that city. He was stirring the people. He was bringing them together.

The same people that shouted crucify Him, now suddenly finds they are in another climate. Something has happened around. They gather. And when they gathered, they saw this strange phenomena, very strange phenomena.

But that phenomena caused men out of every nation under heaven to collect at that site where the disciples were still rejoicing and speaking. Three thousand were added to the church. How can that be possible?

Peter the preacher, that fellow that everybody had heard, denied that he ever knew Jesus. Just a little while ago. Dear Lord, couldn't you have let John do the talking? After all, he was at the cross with you.

But the Lord uses strange people sometimes. And He used Peter on that day. He was bold enough to get up. And the brethren stood with him. I like a little story that I heard when I was a boy. We had an old brother in our church, in our little congregation, that always complained that we couldn't get to be one accord, one accord, one accord.

Now, how could we be one accord? In our little congregation, we had Dutch Reformed Calvinists, we had Methodists, we had Baptists, oh, we had all kinds of people. They came out of their churches. Now they tried to get together, and the doctrines they came with didn't match.

And it wasn't easy to get together. So he kept on groaning about one accord, one accord. And the Lord gave him a vision. Thank God He gives us visions. And I think it's better to see vision and come to church and tell a vision than sit at home and look at television.

Come to church and tell a vision. This is the place to tell a vision. You'll never go wrong if you come to church and tell a vision. But if you tell a vision at home, that's other stuff. Well, he saw.

And most prophecies in the Bible were visions. Have you ever checked how much was vision and how much was spoken? Much. I think Dr. Lamser said to me that sixty-six or almost two-thirds of all prophecies came by vision.

Is it any wonder that God says, your young men shall see visions in the last days? Well, this brother saw a vision. And he was in the Spirit. He found himself in a sort of an oriental place, saw the people dressed like orientals, and there was a guide that said to him, the Lord wants to show you something.

And what he saw and heard was this. The hundred and twenty, supposedly, now in this gathering, and they were talking and one of them said, we had a hundred and twenty left of all the five hundred that had been when he ascended.

It seems we are losing. We are dwindling. If we stay longer, we'll be nobody here. But our trouble is nobody knows who's who. We haven't got a leader. And since Jesus is gone now, I would like to propose that we select Brother Peter as leader.

One old gentleman got up and he says, brethren, I'm sorry, I cannot second that because much as I respect and regard Peter, I can't forget what happened a few weeks ago. So down goes Peter. Then another one said, but we need a man of great love.

John is such a man. Ah, says the other, since that brother was frank about Peter, I'll be frank about John. I couldn't vote for him, for he asked his mother to ask Jesus to sit on his right hand. He already wants to lord it over us.

So I can't have John. Well, we must have a man of faith. Oh, yes, yeah, that's right. Well, I nominate James. He says faith without works is dead. Ah, but he's John's brother. He wanted to sit on the left hand.

So down goes James. Then someone says, well, we need a cautious man that doesn't just believe every wind of doctrine that blows around. And Thomas is just that sort of a fellow. I nominate Thomas. Ah, says another one, that fellow diggers all into doubts.

He doesn't believe everything. And then Peter gets up and he says, brethren, all you have said about all of us is quite true. We are not denying, we confess. But how long are you going to keep this up?

How long will you go on? Is there anybody here that is perfect that has never blundered? He says, I'll tell you. If there is anybody in this meeting that truly believes that he can stand in the shoes of the master, you stand to your feet and I promise I'll follow you.

And nobody stood up and they were all of one accord. You'll never, never, never get them of one accord on doctrine or on traditions or on experience or no, sir. But when it comes to a guilty conscience, we'll be of one accord quickly.

Let's admit it. It's with the grace of God that we are what we are. And then when this happened, glory to God, the winds began to blow and the chat blew out and what wouldn't blow out, burnt out. And after that had happened, Peter stood up and what a sermon he preached.

And Jerusalem was shaken. A few days later, a miracle of healing added to the blessing of Pentecost and again Jerusalem was shaken. Five thousand more, ten thousand, twelve thousand, thousands. That's not the kind of growth that we rejoice in today.

I rejoice in what's happening in Indonesia. I rejoice in the past history. But the thought that comes to me or the Lord has laid on my heart lately is that on the day of Pentecost, Peter, in speaking to them, told them this and said, it shall, this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel.

Now this that you see here is what Joel tells about that will come in the last days. He did not say this is the fulfilling of Joel's prophecy. He only said that what you see here is a sample or is an example of what Joel says will come in the last days.

He says, and Joel says, it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out, here it says, of my spirit. I think in Joel's prophecy, here it says, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And my servants and handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy.

This is what Peter tells them. This is where he begins his message. He uses Joel's prophecy as an example of the fact that God plans to pour out his spirit upon humanity. And here you have a sample of it.

The Holy Spirit Spreads the Gospel

But we must all admit, the spirit was poured out upon Jerusalem. But there was no indication that any news came from any other part of the world that the spirit had been poured out there. It was a matter of Jerusalem.

The church began, the newborn church goes into action. And from there on, wherever they went, Jesus said, I'll be with you. And if he's with me, the baptizer is with me. And he is the source of all blessing.

So wherever I go, goes two things. The Holy Spirit, the river of life, and Jesus Christ, the baptizer. Always. So then, this began to spread. They thought that if they crushed them in Jerusalem, they would make an end to the whole thing.

But they found out this was a different kind of a fire. The more they tried to quench it, the more it spread. For the church, not the disciples, not the apostles, the church went everywhere preaching the gospel.

And that is how it spread. Until within a brief time, in comparison with the ages that Christianity has gone through, they were accused of turning the world upside down. Now I show you this as God's sample of what is possible.

And it was not possible because they were so prepared. There was no preparation they had except the walking with Jesus. They had no money. They had no political influence. They were under an unfavorable government.

They were under a pagan government, an idolatrous government, an idolatrous people. There was nothing in the government that was in their favor. They had not the economic resources. They did not have the academic or educational qualifications.

They were but fishermen. Quite everything was against them. They were just a miserable little company that believed Jesus lives. And Peter, on the day of Pentecost, made this incident proof that Jesus does live.

For he said, He therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this which ye now see and hear. When they heard this kind of preaching, they were pricked in their hearts.

And who did that? Jesus said he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And unless the Holy Spirit is in your church or in your campaign or in your camp, unless the Holy Spirit is at work in the pews to reprove of sin, you can preach the most marvelous sermon, nothing will happen.

Men are not persuaded by oratory. Men are persuaded by the Holy Spirit. And I'm sorry we ever got the idea that we've got to preach them under conviction. Because then we began to preach hellfire in spite of preaching Jesus Christ.

Don't you believe in hell? Yes, but the Lord never told me to preach it. He just told me to lift up Christ. And when people ask me about hell, I said, why are you so interested? I'm not going there, so why should I worry about it?

I'm going the other direction. But we want to preach people under conviction. It was the Holy Spirit that convinced them. They never had decided they have been guilty. Why? They did what the priests said.

They did what their church said. Come all of a sudden, they realized they were guilty in crucifying Jesus. The Holy Spirit had come upon earth. And he reproved of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

And then they said, what shall we do? Oh, I like that. Do you know something? As I see the Pentecostal movement in the last 50 years, we've had the greatest success when people began to ask, what is this?

What shall we do? I believe the Holy Spirit will always help us and raise the question in the hearts of the people. Now when I go around, I usually give a word of introduction. When I meet believers, I can talk to them for hours.

But when I stand before an audience and I know pretty well that there are very few sitting in front of me that is sympathetic and very few that's truly born again. And how can the natural man receive the things of the Spirit so I'm not foolish enough to talk to them about the things of the Spirit?

But I do talk to them about Jesus. And I can explain that Jesus is the Savior, that I am a God that takes away sin. I can also explain that he's the baptizer. For John said, I came baptizing in water that he might be made manifest.

So John explained the spiritual action to them by baptizing in water, a natural performance. And so I talk to them this way. But I usually give them just 15 or 20 minutes if they give me an hour, so that I'll have 40 minutes or more for questions.

For when they ask questions, I am able to detect what the Holy Ghost has been doing to them. What did the Holy Ghost say to them? And so when they began to ask questions, I can say anything for they asked for it.

And when they ask for it, they won't accuse you of judging them and condemning them. Then you can say it. And I notice that Jesus, in talking to the scribes and Pharisees, when they began to reason with them, then they really got the truth.

Then Jesus told them. He told them the truth. I can too, without any prejudice, for the Lord has helped me to get rid of all my prejudice. If you bear fruit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, he'll purge you so that you can bear more fruit.

And all that Jesus asked of Peter, and we heard that this morning, was, Do you love me? And love is his qualification for a good ministry, if you love him. But he says, You must so love the people. Now friends, all of you are aware of the fact that today we are living in an age when things are happening that never happened before.

The World Council and Spiritual Renewal

You can hardly pick up a paper today without seeing headlines, not only in this country, I've just come from Europe, and I can read some of the European languages, and we find English papers. But today, as I walked over to the motel there for lunch, I looked at the newsstand there, and I saw the San Francisco Examiner.

Youth's Plot London Revolt. You can hardly pick up a paper today, but you read of what youth is doing. Everywhere. In Uppsala, at the World Council of Churches, there was a parade there with the opening day.

Two young fellows, bearded fellows, the young ones to look old, and the old shaved to look young. I don't know what the idea is, but two bearded young fellows got in a tree and kept on throwing all kinds of remarks.

So the police came and took them down, and the cameras were on them. And the Herald Tribune published just about eight lines about the parade and a half a column about those two fellows. They got all the news.

And some people that were in the parade never even knew it happened, if they didn't see it in the paper. Oh, yes. Last night I read a letter from a man who's sending all kinds of news around, and he tells of what the young people did in Uppsala and that they had a Club 68.

Now, I wonder what he would have written in that letter if he knew that in Club 68, one night in one corner sat twenty Pentecostals. I was one of them. And what were we doing? Well, if you like it, we were scheming.

What was the scheme about? How can we put enough dynamite under this thing to blow it up spiritually? We were talking about it. Who were we negotiating with? We weren't negotiating with anybody in particular, only that some of the secretaries of the World Council wanted the Pentecostals not to forget that they are there to witness.

And one of their secretaries said, whatever you fellows do, please don't try and play theologians, for you couldn't keep up with these fellows. But if you will testify and witness, they couldn't keep up with you.

So why play their game? Play your game. You've got a testimony. And thank God for one old Chilean Pentecostal, he took them literally. And believe me, he sat in a lot of meetings and whenever I'm there and I listen to the argument, I hear this Spanish voice back here and I look around, there he is again.

He doesn't sometimes even know what they're talking about, but he gives his testimony. Every meeting he gives his testimony. And the theologians began to say, we need more people like that. Who are you?

People who are asking questions, but people who are giving answers. And their answers don't come out of their heads, it comes out of their hearts. Thank God Jesus said, It's out of your belly and not out of your brain will flow rivers of living water.

It's out of your brain that comes all your knowledge. But everybody's got a brain. But not all have a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit. A new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart that can feel. Well, the young people were there.

There were some Pentecostal young people involved with this crowd too. What's this Club 68? I learned that they put up Club 68 to entertain the young people at night and let them have some drinks there.

And where they were, it wasn't strong liquor, it was sort of Swedish beer. Now there's Swedish beer that I don't think has much alcohol. You can get it non-alcoholic, but it looks pretty well the same in the bottle.

Anyhow, they felt that the young people always liked to have something, some place after meetings to talk. And don't you think the other places, the picture shows, and the dance halls were open also? They said there were not everybody coming to the World Council just to participate.

There were some visitors coming to sightsee and so they must have entertainment for them. Yes, there was a lot of things going on. I went not to see how many tares I can discover among that crowd. I went to see how much of the good seed there was there.

And I found it's there. I'm not an expert at finding tares, because Jesus said, don't worry about them, they'll be judged in the day of judgment. You worry about planting the good seed. And so I always look for the good seed.

And I haven't found a field that's all tares, but I've never found a field that's all wheat. There are tares in every field. And just as soon as you think you've got a perfect little congregation, you prepare yourself for a site of tares.

They'll be there. Jesus said so. And he said, don't bother about the tares. But this other man, as I said I read his letter last night, he went to look for nothing but tares. And now he gives the world the impression there was nothing but tares there.

What a poor show that is. You want to work for God and you go around finding tares, when I don't have to leave America at all. I don't have to leave anywhere if I want to see tares. I can find them easy.

They're all around me. They're everywhere. But the World Council had for their theme the words in verse 5 of Revelation 21. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And so they were all concerned about things being made new.

And they talked about a whole lot of things that should be made new. But you know, they stopped there. And I pointed out to them in my private conversations, they would say to me now, what do you think of all this?

Well, I said, I think, I think they're completely off the track. They want God to make all things new, but they refuse to discuss how He's going to do it. Verse 6 says, He said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.

I will give unto Him. And Him is singular. And to everyone, that is a thirst of the fountain of life, of the water of life, freely. Make all things new. He wants to make all things new. But him and every her takes a drink.

They'll never be new. It's a personal matter. They try to make it a massive affair. To believe that the Lord will just shake the masses. I said, He will. He certainly will. But you can be sure if the mass begins to move, every him and every her will have had a drink.

That's the only way. He said to her at the well, if you drink of the water I shall give you, you'll have a well of everlasting life. He always deals with the individual. And he that overcometh shall inherit all things and I'll be his God and he shall be my son.

Again, the individual, the personal matter, this personal encounter with God. Now, then they want to know what do we Pentecostals think. And you know, Brother Christian Kruse from Germany gave a lecture on the Saturday, the first Saturday of the meetings.

I arrived Saturday afternoon and the moment I got out of my car, I was surrounded by good friends that recognized me. The dear Lord just held me up on the highway so that I would arrive right at the time when certain people walk out of that building to meet them.