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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn tonight to the book of Mark. We're going to begin our study in the Gospel of Mark, and we're going to be in chapter 1, verse 8. I have a handout.
This is part of our study. I'm just going to send some your way, brother. If you didn't get one last week, take one. If you have the one from last week, this is the same one. So, here you go, Simon, if you would just pass down, and I don't know if it's working, but we'll see.
Here, you see if you can get it going.
Do you want this or not?
No.
Okay, then we'll just move it.
You be in charge.
I mean, I can hold it, but I don't really know how to do it. Let me take a picture of some lights.
Don't worry about it, brother. We got it. If you look at your sheet, you'll see that we are in the study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This is beginning to draw to a conclusion, and you know me.
When I start to draw to a conclusion, we're only months away from the end. That is the sad part. I have a problem landing the plane sometimes, because there's just a lot that I want to.
Say.
So, we have looked at, if you look at your sheet, you'll see the outline of where we have been. Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word pneumos means spirit, and that is where we get the word pneumatology.
Our categories have been the nature of the Holy Spirit. We have looked at the Holy Spirit as He is personal, as He is divine, and we have looked at Him in the ways that the Bible describes Him to us. We have looked at the work of the Holy Spirit, both in the Old Covenant and in the administration of the New Covenant.
We have looked at Him and how He worked in the life of Christ and how He works in the life of believers. At this point, we are looking at the distinctives of the Holy Spirit. Three areas that the Holy Spirit is unique within the Godhead that are things that only seem to apply to Him.
First is the subject of blasphemy. Remember last week, we went through the texts where Jesus clearly says that if someone speaks a word against Him, they will be forgiven, but if somebody speaks a word against the Holy Spirit, they will not be forgiven either in this life or in the next.
And I talked about the fact that that particular type of blasphemy was unique to the time when Christ was in the world because they were saying, you have the power to do these things and that power is of the devil.
Therefore, they were ascribing to the Holy Spirit works of the devil. I want to read a quote I didn't get to read last week to sort of finish out last week and bring us into this week. This is a quote.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has to do with accusing Jesus Christ of being demon possessed instead of being spirit filled. This particular type of blasphemy cannot be duplicated today. The Pharisees were in a unique moment in history.
They had the law and the prophets and they had the Holy Spirit stirring their hearts and they had the Son of God Himself standing in front of them and they saw with their own eyes the miracles that He did.
Never before in the history of the world and never since has such a divine light been granted to men. If anyone should have recognized Jesus for who He was, it was the Pharisees. Yet they chose defiance.
They purposefully attributed the work of the Spirit to the devil even though they knew the truth and they had the proof. Jesus declared their willful blindness to be unpardonable. Their blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was a final rejection of God's amazing grace.
They had set their course and God was going to let them sail into perdition unhindered. End quote. I thought that was a good quote sort of finalizing what I talked about last week that the particular sin that Jesus is referring to was in a specific time and a specific place during the time of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well tonight we're going to move from the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and we're going to look at the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. Let me ask you a question. How many of you and this is probably going to be determined by your church background.
How many of you have ever heard the term baptism of the Holy Spirit applied specifically to one particular spiritual gift? Show of hands just a few of you. What particular spiritual gift Miss Pat would that be?
Yes.
Right.
The evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit according to the Pentecostal church. The evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that a person would speak in tongues. I've told this story before but it's a good story.
So I'll tell it again.
When I was I went with a family member to a camp meeting at a holiness church. And while I was there my relative took me up and introduced me to the head of the camp meeting who had been the person in charge of the event.
And she walked up and she said this is Keith and he is a student at a Baptist seminary. It tells you how long ago it was. It's more than more than 10 years ago. But it also will if you want to paint a red stripe down your back at an assemblies of God or a holiness meeting just say you're a Baptist.
Because that puts you kind of in the on the opposite camp when it comes to the gifts. And the man shaking my hand while I was introduced when the person said this is Keith and he's a student at a Baptist seminary.
He pulled me in tight. He looked me dead in the eyes. And he said well I want you to know that we believe that the evidence of sanctification is the utterance of speaking in tongues. I won't ever forget that's exactly how he said it.
He was very very concerned that I knew that. And I said okay.
Thank you.
And that was it.
What do you want? You want me to respond?
Uh uh.
What am I going to do?
No way Jose. No I'm not going to argue with you. This is your camp meeting. You're the cowboy. I'm just one of the stall men here. I ain't got no dog in this fight. Not right now. But that just goes to show that this particular issue is one that a lot of people consider to be the focal point.
The most important thing. This is the thing that sort of trumps everything else. You'll notice on your list next week we're going to look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I felt like this was the transitional topic.
Because before we ever talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we need to understand this idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well where does the concept or the idea, the language of baptism of the Holy Spirit, where does that come from?
Well let's look first in the Gospel of Mark. I asked you to open your Bibles there earlier. And we're going to look at Mark chapter 1. And this is the situation with John the Baptist. We'll begin at verse 4.
I don't like to read a text without a context, so we'll begin at verse 4. John appeared, that being John the Baptist, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Stop right there. We all know that the Baptists had the original denomination, right? Here's John the Baptist.
Nobody?
It's too small a group of people. I need a bigger group for such a lame joke. But you'll hear, if you ever hear Presbyterians, they don't call him John the Baptist. They call him John the Baptizer. Just because of that.
Just a little small thing. But if you listen, they'll say he's John the Baptizer. Not John the Baptist. So that's just a little funny thing. It goes on to say,. And all of the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him, and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Stop right there just for a second. This is a good point. If anybody ever wants to argue with you that all,.
The word all,.
Always encompasses every person in the world. This is a good verse to point into. Because this text says, And all Jerusalem were going out and being baptized. Does that mean everybody? No, because we know the Pharisees weren't baptized.
We know the Sadducees weren't baptized. We know probably most of the scribes and most of the Herodians were not baptized. In fact, most of the Roman soldiers weren't baptized. So the word all here means all without distinction.
Not all without exception. Meaning all kinds of people from Judea. And all kinds of people from the surrounding area. For instance, if you heard on the news tomorrow that President Trump was coming to Jacksonville, and it says, All Jacksonville turned out for the president's visit.
Now you know not every person in Jacksonville came to the visit. But the idea of the word all there is in regard to distinction rather than exception. So that's an important point. Because sometimes people want to stress that word all and push it too far.
When they start talking about salvation. You know, if Jesus died for all, then everybody is going to be saved. Well, let's start talking about what all means. Some people say all means all and that's all that all means.
Well, all always has a context. And this is a good verse to remind us of that.
Anyway, it goes on to say,.
Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.
I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Right here is the introduction of the concept of baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit. So we see this also in the Gospel of Matthew as well.
I don't have the direct reference for you, but there's almost the exact same. I like the way that it points to here in Mark. That's why we went to Mark. We could have looked at the Matthew passage. But both of them are using the same language.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's where this language comes from. Now I want to show you another. Yes, sir. Matthew 311. Thank you. So we have the parallel passage there. If you want to make a note in your in your notes, we have Mark and Matthew both say the same thing that you'll be.
Jesus is going to baptize you in a different way. So this kind of leads to a quick, just an immediate thought. Do we still baptize the way John baptized?
The answer is yes.
Not your question. John went out. He invited people to come down. They repented of their sins and they were baptized. Right. They were put into water. We still do that. So Christian baptism does have a connection to John's baptism, even though there are some distinctions that are made.
In fact, later in the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul will meet a group of people who say, didn't you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized? And they'll say, we didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.
Right. They asked the question. We've only been baptized with John's baptism. So there's a distinction that's made, at least from a practical sense, of baptism in the new covenant versus baptism in the old covenant.
You realize John is an old covenant prophet. You ever thought about that? John's in the New Testament, but he's still functioning under the old covenant. Because the new covenant has not been ratified in Christ's blood yet.
Jesus's ministry was mostly performed under the old covenant. Jesus kept the law. He was born under the law that he would keep the law, that he would redeem those who were under the law. So we understand that.
When does the covenant be established? Jesus said, this is the covenant in my blood. Right. When he held up the cup. He said, this is my body, this is my blood, this is the new covenant in my blood. When Jesus said, it is finished, the new covenant was established in his blood.
When did the old covenant die?
It's a good question.
Well, this is actually somewhat of a... I don't want to spend too much time debating this. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 8, it says the new covenant made the old covenant obsolete. And what has been made obsolete is passing away.
When did it fully and finally pass away? In AD 70, when Titus brought his army in and destroyed the city of Jerusalem, no more could sacrifices be made in the temple. No more could the people of Jerusalem come and worship there in the temple.
The old covenant had passed away. Now, it was officially done when Christ died on the cross. The new covenant was administered and established. But it was passed away when Emperor Titus came in under his father, Emperor Vespasian, and destroyed the city.
Jesus said, not one stone is going to be left upon another. And that's exactly what happened. Within 40 years of Jesus' death, the city of Jerusalem was under siege. The people were killed. Over 1 million Jews died over a period of several months.
Some of them by starvation. Some of them by, sure, just being destroyed. Some of them being killed. They literally melted the gold out of the temple walls. And it was an amazing and terrific, when I say terrific in the bad way, time of destruction.
If you ever read the history of it, Josephus, a Jewish historian who was captured by the Romans and became somewhat of a go-between between the Jews and the Romans, became the historian of the day and he wrote about what happened during that time.
It's amazing history that happened in that time. The old covenant is over. No more. There's not going to be any more sacrifices because the sacrifice has come. Who is the sacrifice? Christ. What does Hebrews tell us?
The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. Those bulls and those goats had one purpose. It was to point forward to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right. They pointed forward to Him. They were, as it were, putting the sins of the people onto an account that would later be paid in full.
That's why that word tetelestai. Jesus is going to pay it in full. I don't mean to be flippant, but when we talk about the blood of bulls and goats, it's almost like a credit card. It's not really paying it.
It's putting it, it's charging it because later it's going to be paid in full. All those bulls and all those goats are simply holding it until such time as that account is completely paid off. And that's what Christ did.
So that ends the covenant, right? So we are new covenant Christians. We live under the new covenant. And in the new covenant, we have a new type of baptism. But it's symbolically the same as John's baptism.
In the sense that we go into the water, we repent of our sin, and we go under the water and out of the water, symbolically being washed of our sins. But it's also symbolic of something else. What does baptism symbolize according to Romans chapter 6?
Burial. Burial.
Go with me to Romans 6 and we'll look at this real quick. Now, some people do debate as to whether or not Romans 6 is talking about what happens in the water. And we're going to talk about that in a minute.
But just for a moment, I just want to look at what Paul says here in Romans chapter 6. In Romans chapter 6, it asks this question, What shall we say? Or do we continue in sin so that grace can abound by no means?
The whole issue here is if we're saved by grace, does that mean can we live in sin? And Paul says no, no, no. How can we who died to sin still live in it? That's a rhetorical question. The answer is you can't.
If you're dead to sin, you can't keep living in sin. It just doesn't work that way. But he goes on to say, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Now, we have to ask the question. Is this talking about the water? Or is this talking about something else? Well, here's my take on it. And I'm willing to be corrected. But my take on it is this. I think that Paul rather here, when he talks about baptism, I do think that the picture of baptism is in view.
But I don't think that the water baptism is actually the focus. And I'll tell you why I think the picture is in view. Because of verse 4. He says, We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death.
In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. In fact, think about what baptism symbolizes. You take a person and you lay them down.
And they go down as it were like a corpse. In fact, we do that. I tell them, I say, Hold your nose and expect to be there for a second. I always do. If I baptize you, if you haven't been baptized yet and you do get baptized, you're going to be down there for a second.
Because I want to make sure. Did I baptize you, Jackie? Isn't that what I told you? I'm going to hold you down for a second. I said, Because I want to make sure you don't have a dry spot when you come up.
Because sometimes you go down too quick, come back up, and you've got a dry forehead.
And we've got to do it again.
Well, you know the old joke between the Baptist and the Methodist. The Methodist asked the Baptist, he said, If somebody's baptized up to here, is that high enough? And he said, No. He said, Well, how about up to here?
Is that high enough? And he said, No. He said, So up here, you've got to be baptized here? And he said, Yeah. And he said, Well, that's the part we take care of, and that's the most important part. But the idea is when you're baptized, there's a picture.
The picture, I think Paul is saying here, is being buried. That's the whole part about going backwards. We used to have a baptistry where you had to baptize people forward. Remember, Jack, when we had a different type of baptistry?
And if you couldn't fold yourself in half, you couldn't be baptized. It was a little different. I always had trouble with that just because of the symbolism. I don't think it was wrong. Immersion is the key, being fully under the water.
I think you can go straight back up if you had to. But the idea of laying back, picturing dying. Think of Lazarus in the tomb. And I tell them, I'm going to hold you down. Make sure you're completely down under the water.
And then I'm going to bring you back up, symbolic of rising to new life. So the picture is dead with Christ, raised to life. That's the picture that baptism does. Now, I remember talking to Brother Walter Heaton.
He is our missionary to Croatia. He is a student of Master's Seminary. He's a brilliant man. And he and I were talking about this passage. And he said, Keith, this is not talking about water baptism. Because his argument was this is what he would call a dry passage.
Meaning that the baptism referring to here is spirit baptism. And I do agree to a point. I will give the point this. Our baptism into Christ does not occur in the water. Our baptism into Christ occurs when we come to faith in Him.
That's the moment we are. Because here's the thing I want to show you guys. I want to really point this out. Baptism is all about union with Christ. Baptism is about union with Christ. Let me write it with a better marker.
Baptism is union. Therefore, think of it this way. When he says, do you not know that you've been united with Christ? You've been united with His death. Think of it like that. I'm not changing the words of Scripture.
I'm helping you understand. But here's the thing you have to remember about the first century church. As soon as somebody came to faith, what did they do? They baptized them. They didn't wait six weeks.
They didn't wait two months. They didn't wait until they had revival so that they could have 15 baptisms in a row. When someone came to faith, they baptized them right then. So there wasn't a long distinction between somebody receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit internally and someone receiving the baptism of the water externally.
That's why when Peter in Acts chapter 2, repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Right there, people will see baptism saves you.
That's not what Peter's saying. Peter's making the point that there's a connection between baptism and salvation, and the connection is this. When you come to faith, you get baptized. What's that? You're thinking Philip, right?
No, I was going to mention that. In that scenario, Philip is walking along and he hears the man reading the book of Isaiah. And he says, do you understand what you're reading? Have you ever thought about that question?
Can you imagine you're sitting there reading something and somebody comes, do you understand that? Wouldn't that make you feel kind of foolish? But there was something about Philip's way of asking that the man wasn't offended.
He said, how can I unless someone explain it to me? So he got up there and he explained it to him. And he says, is this about the prophet or is he talking about someone else? And he's reading from Isaiah 53.
And so he explained to him that that's talking about Jesus. Next thing you know, there's a body of water in the Ethiopian. He says, look, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? In the King James translation, it says, if you believe, then I can baptize you.
The idea, if you do believe, we'll bring you down there and we'll baptize you. And so they did. So, yes, that's the picture in the early church. There wasn't a big distinction between the water baptism and the spirit baptism because it was expected that you would be baptized upon profession of faith.
You didn't have to, as it were, prove it. Now, this is, again, a hotly debatable topic and I don't want to spend all night on it. There are those who say, well, we should wait and see the fruit before we baptize someone.
And I understand the reason behind it because we don't want to baptize false converts. But at the same time, the scriptural model was always the person hears the gospel and they repent and they believe and they're baptized.
And that was the picture. But the baptism that was in water didn't save. It was the baptism, the internal baptism, the spiritual baptism was what was doing the actual work. It was uniting the person with Christ.
And that's why I say baptism is all about union. I want to show you a couple of places just to just to point that out. If you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, this is in your notes. Run over to 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13.
Actually, I'll read verse 12 because of the context. I'll give you a second. I hear Bible pages turning. I'll give you a second to get there. 1 Corinthians 12, beginning verse 12, it says, For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.
For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. Jews or Greeks, slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit. There we were baptized into one body. What is the word baptized idea there?
We were united to the body of Christ. We were united to the body of Christ. And who did the baptism? If you look at the context here, in one spirit, we were all baptized. We were baptized. What is the...
Brother, does anybody have a King James? Anybody have a New King James? I know you do. Or no, you don't. You're New American Standard. Can you read to me verse 12? Or verse 13. I'm sorry, verse 13.
For by one spirit, we were all baptized.
For by one spirit. That's a point I was going to make. In the King James, it says, By one spirit, we were all baptized. In the ESV, it says, In one spirit. So you have to go and look up that word. And I do think the idea is the spirit is the one doing the baptism.
The spirit is the one baptizing. He's the one that's placing you into Christ. You understand? We have been united with Christ by baptism. We've been united in His death. He died. We died with Him. We've been united in His life.
He lives now. We live. What does the scripture say? I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, not I. I've been crucified with Christ. And now I live. But not I, but the one who lives in me. The spirit lives in me.
I've died to my old self. I live to Christ. That's union.
And unity.
That's the idea of baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that's why I think it's been co... To use the word corrupted is a little maybe harsh. It's been co-opted. It's been stolen. To focus so much on one particular spiritual gift.
Well, you don't have the gift of the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues. That cannot be true. How do I know? Well, this one text tells me that everyone does not speak in tongues. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 12, you read it all the way through.
It asks the question, does everyone speak in tongues? The answer is no. Not everyone does speak in tongues. But everyone does have something else though. Everyone has the baptism. Everyone in Christ has the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, that's the key point here. Is if you are in Christ, you have been baptized. Because if you haven't been baptized, you're not in Christ. And by this I mean spiritually. If you've not been united with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, you ain't His.
That's the key. It's a united... It's a unity thing. In fact, if you want one other verse, you don't have to turn there. But Galatians 3 .27,. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
You have put on Christ. He is now yours and you're His. You now belong to Him. Almost like a uniform. He is yours. So, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the work of placing the believer into union with Christ and with other believers.
You're in unity with Christ and with the body. And through this act of baptizing us into Christ, the Spirit is confirming us as His. And ensuring that we will be raised with Him. Baptism is about union with Christ.
Think I need to say it again? I won't say it again. I know I've said it several times. Well, let me go on. Because there's a few things I want to clarify. 1 Corinthians 12 .13. You're still there because I didn't ask you to move.
I wanted you to stay there. 1 Corinthians 12 .13 clearly says that all believers have been baptized in Christ by the Spirit. Notice there is no place in the New Testament where it says to seek the baptism of the Spirit.
You say, why am I saying that? Because we are told to be filled with the Spirit. That's in the imperative. That means that's something that you be filled with the Spirit. What did we talk about a couple of weeks ago?
What does be filled mean? Submit yourself to the control of something. That's what filling means. Remember it says, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. So, what's the connection there?
Being drunk with wine, you're submitting yourself to being under the control of alcohol. If we go out and we drink a bunch of alcohol, we're submitting ourselves to its control. And Paul says, don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
So, how am I filled with the Spirit when I submit to the Spirit? You know, Charles Spurgeon, great Puritan preacher. As he was walking up, he used to lead the music in his church from a low podium. And then when he was done leading the music, he would walk up to a higher podium and he would preach.
They didn't have any instruments. Spurgeon did not believe in instruments in the church. So, it was just the voice. So, they would sing. He'd be done singing. He'd walk up the steps and he'd walk to a pulpit that was behind him and above him.
And he would preach from the pulpit. While he was ascending those steps, he would say, I need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit. That was his prayer as he ascended the steps.
Because he knew without the Holy Spirit of God, there would be no power. And he was also submitting himself because he wanted to be filled with the Spirit. And to be filled with the Spirit means you're submitted to the Spirit.
It's an active, volitional imperative that you do. Baptism is not. You do not baptize yourself in the Spirit. The Spirit baptizes you. The Spirit is the active one in that. Does that make sense? You are being baptized by the Spirit.
You're never commanded to be baptized. You are baptized by the Spirit. It's a work of the Spirit of God. And that's an important truth. Because, again, if you were in a church where you were being told, Well, you've got to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And the baptism of the Holy Spirit is manifested in a certain gift. Then what would you want to try to do? You'd want to try to have that gift. You'd want to try to manifest that. Because you'd want to be baptized.
The reality is it's not something you do. The baptism of the Holy Spirit of God is something that God does. In the same way that your justification in your coming to faith is something that the Spirit does.
You know what Jesus said? He said, The wind blows where it wills. And so too is it with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not one that we manage. The Spirit falls on men. And those men are changed. And in a moment they go from being dead spiritually to alive spiritually.
From a moment they go from being haters of God to friends of God. In a moment they go from being blasphemers to faithful men. In a moment they go from being outside of Christ to unified with Christ. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
He changes a person. I remember somebody recently, not too recently, but in the last few years, they said, You know, Pastor, we don't do a real long invitation. And I said, Yeah, we really don't do much of an invitation at all.
And they said, But what if somebody needs to get saved at the end of the service? And I don't say this to in any way demean the question. It's an important question. But my response was simple. I said, Men do not need me to manifest an opportunity for God to work in their heart.
Or manufacture.
Or manufacture. That's even better. That's right. Because a lot of salvation is manufactured. We lower the lights. We kick up the organ. We play 115 verses of Just As I Am. And we manufacture the conversion.
I put a little blurb in our bulletin. You've probably seen it. It says, I'm concerned about the state of your soul. I want to talk to you. And I'll stay here all afternoon on Sunday. If a man's ready to do business with the Lord, I'm ready to work with him and talk with him and pray with him as the Lord leads.
And there have been, by God's grace, moments like that. But it doesn't have to happen right next to the communion table. It doesn't have to happen right on the steps. In fact, I think it was W .A. Criswell, pastor of Dallas, First Baptist Dallas.
And if I remember correctly, it was him. But I may be wrong. But as soon as he was done preaching, he would go right to his office and people would line up to talk to him. And he made himself available.
Now as I'm saying it, I'm thinking it might be Lloyd-Jones. I might be wrong on who I'm... But the pastor would go immediately to... He wouldn't stand there and have people come down and get down on their knees on the chancel.
He would go right to his office so that men could come and sit in his office and talk. And sometimes talk as long as they needed to. And talk about the Lord. And he would avail himself to that. And if that's the way God does it, that's the way God does it.
The point is, we are not manufacturing salvation. We are trusting the Lord to do what He's going to do. And however that works. God's the one who regenerates. God the Holy Spirit is the one who baptizes that person into Him.
And when that happens, you know what? I don't have to lead them in prayer. I never met a man who loved a woman that I had to explain to him how to tell her he loved her. And if a man falls in love with Jesus Christ, I don't have to tell him how to talk to her.
It just is the changed heart. You know? Well, I can't pray like you, Pastor. I can't pray like Brother Andy. I can't pray like Sister Cindy. You know, with all those very powerful prayers. You don't have to.
Do you, Brother? You just talk to God. And if your heart changes from a hater of God to a lover of God, that part's the easy part. So, having said that, you know what the answer is on the one blank on your sheet.
Baptism of the Spirit is about our union with Christ. We are water baptized, having been united with Christ by the Spirit. The water symbolizes that union. And it testifies to that union. Because the water baptism was often what separated a man from his family in the first century.
A man willing to go out and be baptized was, by that, leaving his world behind. You know, it doesn't take... You ever been in a church where they'll say, Okay, everybody close your eyes and bow your head.
And they'll say, Okay, don't anybody look around. If you've been moved by the Lord today to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, put your hand up. Put it right back down. You don't want nobody to see it.
What kind of a life is that? No, we go up. In fact, I believe really strongly in this. I believe the baptism in water is the testimony. It's the statement to the world, this is my union with Christ. Not because that's when it's happening.
But you're testifying that it has happened. And that's why I do see a link between salvation and baptism. Not that baptism causes salvation. But that baptism is linked in the sense that this is my testimony to the world that I have died with Christ.
And now I live with Him. And that's why I think the mode is important. Now, if a person was sick in a hospital bed, I'd pour water on them if I had to. If they couldn't be immersed, I would do that. In fact, the Didache, one of the earliest extra-biblical documents that we have, talks about the fact that they would actually baptize people three times.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This was the first century church.
They would do that.
But if they did not have enough water, or if the person couldn't physically be immersed, they would pour water on them. That's a very early... But it was always only because they couldn't do it the other way.
It was only an exception. It wasn't the rule. The rule was you get down in that water and you picture you are united with Christ. So, beloved, tonight my admonition, my encouragement to you is this simple question.
Have you been united with Christ? And if you have been united with Christ in your heart, have you testified to that in the waters of baptism? Because that's really a big part of being united with Christ.
It doesn't cause to being united, but it is certainly testimony to the world that in your heart, you have been united to Him. Now, next week when we come back together, we'll look at the gifts. I'll talk a little bit more about the tongues and how we understand that particular gift as well as the others as gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for the truth of it. I pray, Lord, that tonight has been an encouragement to Your people. And I pray that it has been uplifting to them. And I pray that we, Lord, have been united with Christ by grace through faith.
That we have been baptized into Christ by the power of Your Spirit. And, Lord, if there are those here tonight who haven't, Lord, that You would by Your grace do what only You can do. Change their heart.
Open the heart. Take out the heart of stone. Replace it with a heart of flesh, Lord. Baptize them into Your Son. Lord, as the Israelites were... As 1 Corinthians says, the Israelites were baptized into Moses, meaning they were united with Him.
Lord, may we be baptized into Christ. May we be united with Him. And, Father, we thank You for the gift, for the promise, for the salvation that comes in knowing Him alone. Lord, everything that I've said tonight that is true, may it be a blessing to Your people.
And everything that has been incorrect, I pray that You'd wash it from our minds. In Christ's name, amen.