What Is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? — David Guzik

First, I'll open up your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 1, verses 4 and 5. Tonight, we will be talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, taking just a week off from our normal verse-by-verse study through the book of Isaiah.

The slip that was handed for you is for you to write down any question you might have, and time permitting, when I'm done with the teaching portion, we'll collect those and answer any questions that still may remain.

I kind of advise you don't write down your question too quickly, because I hope to answer most of them in the teaching here. So, the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 4. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. I think the first thing that we should think about here tonight is to talk about what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.

Jesus promised that his disciples, who were following him in the book of Acts, and again, this goes beyond just the twelve apostles. The group of the disciples was about 120 people at this time. And Jesus promised these disciples, these followers of his, that they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Now, this was actually prophesied before the ministry of Jesus even properly began. Because John the Baptist, in speaking about the ministry of Jesus, repeatedly said, I'm baptizing you with water, but he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

And so, just as John predicted, as Jesus makes the analogy here in verse 5, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And what does that mean?

It sounds kind of like nice spiritual talk. Baptized with the Holy Spirit, or as it might be said, baptized in the Holy Ghost, as they might say down south. You know, whatever, it has a nice religious kind of sound of ring to it.

But what does it mean? What does it mean to be baptized? The word in the original language of the New Testament simply means to be immersed, dipped, drenched, or covered over. If you took something and dipped it into a bucket of water, you would say, in the original language of the New Testament, that you baptized that thing.

Matter of fact, they have ancient, you know, documents where somebody might be describing the process for dyeing a garment. I think of one especially that I've read up. It speaks of how to dye a garment, like you were dyeing a T-shirt.

This white T-shirt, you wanted to dye it red. Well, here's a bucket full of a mixture of red dye. You put the shirt in it, it's immersed in it, it's covered over, right? If you leave some of it out, it's not going to have the dye on it.

You cover it over, you immerse it. In the original language, it said you baptized that garment. By the way, and this is purely a peripheral issue, this really argues against the idea of baptizing anybody by sprinkling, right?

I mean, the word baptize in and of itself means to immerse, to cover over, to overwhelm, or to drench something in. Now again, the word can be used in a literal way. When people were baptized in water, they were literally baptized, right?

I mean, there's no two ways about that. They were immersed in water, put under the water, covered over with water, drenched with water. But the Bible also uses this term baptized in a symbolic way frequently.

I can think of many incidents right off the top of my head. First of all, Jesus talked about his suffering as a baptism that he would be baptized with. That's Matthew chapter 20. Well, you know, how can a person literally be covered over in like a vat of suffering or something?

You know, you might think of some old, you know, get smart, where, you know, he was going to be lowered into some, you know, pool of something. But, you know, it's just silly. Jesus is using the word in a symbolic way, right?

Immersed in sufferings, covered over in agony. Of course, there's another passage in the book of Romans which speaks of us being baptized into Christ. Well, you could say baptized into water, and everybody would know what that means, right?

You go dunk yourself in water. Well, you can't literally dunk yourself in Jesus Christ, can you? But you can in the spiritual concept. Everybody knows what you're talking about. You need to be immersed, covered over, drenched with the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

So, doesn't this help us to understand what baptism of the Holy Spirit means? It simply means to have the Holy Spirit upon you in a sense that you're immersed in the person and the work of the Holy Spirit.

He covers over you. It's as if you were dipped or drenched in the Holy Spirit. So, according to the simple, direct meaning of these words, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit means to be immersed or covered over with the Spirit of God.

Again, of course, we're using this in a symbolic way, but we understand what it means. Well, how does the baptism of the Holy Spirit come? Many people think, and this is sort of a classic aspect of Pentecostal theology, that you have to almost earn the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Old-time Pentecostals would have what they call a tarrying service, where they'd get together and tarry and wait. The idea was you have to kind of work it up within yourself and earn the gift of the Holy Spirit by your absolute devotion and commitment to God and such.

Friends, first and foremost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit just comes as a gift from Jesus Christ. You know, in John chapter 1, verse 33, John the Baptist said that Jesus was the one who would come and baptize in the Holy Spirit.

It's the work of Jesus Christ. It's not the work of us as individuals. It's the work of Jesus Christ. He's the one who comes and gives us this gift of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, the baptism of the Holy Spirit was promised by John the Baptist in Matthew chapter 3.

It's also recorded in parallel passages in Mark chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3. Jesus promised the coming of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the text I just read from Acts chapter 1, verse 5. And when was this promise of Acts chapter 1, verse 5 fulfilled?

Well, everybody understands that it was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Let's take a look at Acts chapter 2, verse 1. By the way, you might want to loosen up your fingers here this evening. Maybe lick the tips of your fingers.

We're going to be turning the pages of the Bible a lot here this evening. Acts chapter 2, beginning of verse 1. Now, when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, you know what I find kind of fascinating about this incident, besides the things that are terribly unique to the day of Pentecost?

The sound of the rushing mighty wind, the tongues of fire. Nowhere else in the Bible, the book of Acts, we find this scene replicated. This is just a marvelously unique thing that the Holy Spirit was doing.

I have to think, too, that the tongues of fire upon each one had to be, in a way, perhaps reminding the disciples of this beautiful promise that John the Baptist had made. That he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

I mean, that association probably would have been in their minds. In any regard, what I find fascinating about Acts chapter 2, verses 1 -4, and if I'm wrong on this point, somebody's welcome to correct me here, I don't find the term baptism of the Holy Spirit used at all in that passage, right?

You look at verses 1 -4, you will not find the term baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yet, as far as I know, it is universally acknowledged that this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised. It's simply understood that the experience of Acts chapter 2 describes this immersion in the Holy Spirit that both John the Baptist and Jesus promised would come.

Now, what I find interesting about this is that here they are, they're all filled with the Holy Spirit, they all received on this occasion the gift of tongues. I think it's very significant to note that the disciples had already received the Holy Spirit.

Keep your finger here on the book of Acts, just turn back a couple pages to John chapter 20, verse 22. Matter of fact, let's get a running start on this and begin at verse 19. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you.

Now, when he had said this, he showed them his hands in his side, then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. My, this must be an interesting occasion. Jesus just appears in the room, disciples terrified.

Then he shows him his wounds and they're relieved. Verse 21, then Jesus said to them again, Peace to you as the Father sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that it was at this point, John chapter 20, verse 22, when the disciples were born again. They couldn't have been born again before the finished work of Jesus. But now the finished work of Jesus was complete.

They could be born again. And Jesus breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. Now, there are some people. And by the way, I mean, I read the works of people who disagree with me. I'm interested to know if perhaps I'm wrong on these theological issues that are of some controversy in the Christian community.

And so I'm interested to know. But I read some people who on this point, they say that the disciples did not actually receive the Holy Spirit at John chapter 20, verse 22. That Jesus said it, Jesus breathed on them, but they didn't really receive it until Acts chapter two.

Friends, can I just say I don't buy it. I've heard people say what Jesus was just doing was pledging the Holy Spirit to them. I just don't find that in there. I can't regard that as anything else than a biblical interpretation based on wishful thinking.

You don't want it to be there. The simple, most straightforward understanding of this is that Jesus said, Receive the Holy Spirit and breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit. It's hard to read it any other way.

Now, they had received the Holy Spirit, yet God had more for them. And the reception of the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20, verse 22, could not have been the baptism of the Holy Spirit because Jesus said that it was yet to come in Acts chapter one, verse five.

Another thing that's interesting about this is in the books that I've read that disagree with the position I'm taking on this. The ones who say that Jesus was just giving a pledge of the Holy Spirit here.

They say, well, look out. It's plain that the disciples did not receive the Holy Spirit here because later on in the narrative, when you put together the post resurrection appearances of Jesus, it's plain that the disciples were still very afraid at times and not really, you know.

Well, I guess we're going to say that if a Christian is afraid, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit of God. I don't know. I mean, I think it's possible for any one of us to get in the flesh. I know that after the day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter had to be rebuked publicly by Paul on one occasion.

You know, we're not going to say, well, he lost it. He had it. He lost it. He had it. Friends, I just don't know any way to cut it honestly and straightforward with the scriptures than to say that the disciples received the Holy Spirit at the command of Jesus at John chapter 20, verse 22.

And then later on in the book of Acts chapter two, verses one through four, they received a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, some people have a very good question.

They want to know, are the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit the same thing? You really find a lot of terms being thrown around about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, don't you?

Friends, I would just have to say that there are many different terms used to describe this dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers in the book of Acts. Acts chapter one, verse five, says that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter four, verse 31, says that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter eight, verse 17, says that they received the Holy Spirit. And Acts chapter 19, verse six, says that the Holy Spirit came upon them.

Well, what's going on here? Is this like, you know, four levels of the work of the Holy Spirit? And, you know, you kind of pick and choose and say which one. Friends, I really don't think so. I really don't think that God meant it to be necessarily that technical.

And that's why he doesn't use any one specific phrase or one specific word in the book of Acts to describe this work. In many ways, we can say that these terms were referred to aspects of the same work, simply highlighting different aspects of that work.

How much of your life does the Holy Spirit want to touch? All of it. Just as much as a piece of cloth is immersed in dye. So, do you see how the figure of speech of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is very meaningful?

Man, that's how much he wants of you. He wants you to be soaked, dripping in the Spirit of God. Well, how does the Holy Spirit want to work? Friends, he wants to work in the inside out. So that's why he talks about being filled with the Spirit, right?

That speaks about an interior work. So God has a purpose in describing it as the filling of the Spirit. Can we go out and get the Holy Spirit as we please? No, not really. The Holy Spirit must be received.

He must come upon us. And that's why those figures of speech are used. And so I don't think you can really get down and say, well, four different levels, five different levels. It's a different thing to be filled, to baptize, received, to come upon, all these.

In some ways, it's just getting too technical. There's different aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit. There's no doubt about it. But the terminology used is pretty free. I think a far more relevant question to ask is simply, is our experience of the Holy Spirit a one-time thing?

Is it a one-time thing? Well, friends, I don't believe the Bible teaches that. And the first place I'd like you to turn to is Ephesians chapter 5. For me, this is one of the most meaningful, short little verses on the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation. You know what dissipation is? Wastefulness. Is there anything more wasteful than just going out and getting drunk?

Man, that's wasteful. What a wasteful way to live. It says, do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, in the original language of the Greek, it's very expressive.

You know, the Greek language has a wonderful way, especially with its grammar and its verb tenses and the way it can state things. The literal Greek here is, be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit.

It speaks about a continual filling, a continual work of the Holy Spirit in God. Be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just a one-time thing, but to constantly be being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, is this a pattern that we find in the book of Acts? Yes, it is. Again, turn back to the book of Acts. We already saw in Acts chapter 2 where they were filled with the Spirit, right? Now take a look at Acts chapter 4, verse 8.

It says, then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel. Now, somebody might say, well, it just says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. No, it's drunk.

The sense of it is that he was filled at that moment with the Holy Spirit. Well, wait a minute, Peter. I thought you were filled with the Holy Spirit back in Acts chapter 2. Yes. Well, you're filled with the Spirit again.

Yes. Look at Acts chapter 4, verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Well, I thought this crowd was baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit or baptized with the Spirit back in Acts chapter 2. Yes, they were. Well, here in Acts chapter 4 again. Yes. You see, it's a being constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

You want to take a look at another passage here? Go to Acts chapter 9. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the apostle Paul. Acts chapter 9, verse 17. And Ananias went his way and entered the house and laying his hands on him.

He said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. This kind of brings me to one of the toughest things about doing a topical study like this this evening is when we go around to so many passages, I want to just explain so many wonderful things in these great passages.

Like this is really one of the markable events of the whole New Testament, where this man Ananias comes to this man who had the most incredible reputation for murdering Christians. And God tells him to go and go to this man and to pray for him.

How many of us would be that obedient to the Lord? Wow, this man Ananias, a great man of God. In any regard, what happened? God instructed him that he would pray for him and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 9. Now look at Acts chapter 13, verse 9. Acts chapter 13, verse 9. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him.

Well, again, you see that? Filled with the Holy Spirit. How about Acts chapter 13, verse 52? And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So again, I want you to see that this work of the filling of the Holy Spirit, it's not just a one time only event.

This is a continuing work that God wants to do in our lives. Now you might say, well, this is a very crude metaphor, isn't it? I mean, it's as if we're like a bucket. And, you know, God fills us up with the Holy Spirit and maybe even makes it overflow, right?

I mean, baptizing, it's overflowing. OK, there you are. It's filled up. And then what? You got a leak in your bucket? You know, and it all leaks out. Well, you've got to be filled up again. And I admit that as an example in that way, it sounds a little crude.

It sounds a little rough. But friends, you know what it's like in your Christian life, don't you? I mean, is this foreign to anybody? That one day you can say, yes, oh, yes, God, oh, thank you, Jesus.

And, you know, a week, two, three days, whatever, half hour, you know, you feel dry as the Mojave Desert. Oh, God, fill me with the Holy Spirit of God again. I need the old hymns as I need thee every hour.

So, yes, we'll admit, you know, it's a little bit of an awkward metaphor, perhaps. But we know experientially that it connects with the reality of our spiritual experience. Now, the idea that we are spirit filled in a one time only experience known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit is off the mark.

Because I don't believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was ever meant to be a one time only experience in our life. Although and let me say this carefully, there may be in our lives a wonderful and first yielding to the spirit's power.

My friends, I can't describe to you how wonderful it can be to come in your life to the realization that the Holy Spirit wants to fill you and use you and to say, Lord, I want to yield to that power. I want everything you have for me.

And yes, you've been a Christian. Yes, you've loved the Lord. Yes, you've served him. But your eyes are open to a new boundary, to a new reason. You say, yes, Lord, I want that too. My friends, that first experience of that, that first step into saying, yes, I want more of that, Lord.

That can be a very dramatic experience in a person's life. But God forbid if 20 years later, they're looking back to that experience saying, well, yeah, praise the Lord. I was baptized in the Holy Ghost in 65.

I want to know what's the Lord God been doing in your life lately? We must continually be filled with the Holy Spirit and make our immersion in him a constant experience, though there may be a wonderful and dramatic, if you will, first encounter of a person's experience with the Holy Spirit.

And this, this is an experience that we should encourage people to reach out to the Lord for. To reach out to the Lord. Yes, Lord, I want it. Yes, Lord, I want everything that the Spirit of God has to give me.

Fill me, Lord. Use me. I want that. Perhaps an even more pointed question. Can a person be saved and receive the Holy Spirit without being baptized in the Holy Spirit? I'm going to say that again. Is it possible for a person to be saved, to receive the Holy Spirit without being baptized in the Holy Spirit?

Now, again, let's make this very, very clear that you can't be saved and not have the Holy Spirit of God in your life. The Book of Romans tells us that if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.

That's Roman chapter eight, verse nine. If you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you don't belong to him. To be saved, to be born again means that you have received the Holy Spirit. But is it possible for a person to be saved and to have some experience of the Holy Spirit without being baptized, without having perhaps all of the experience of the Holy Spirit that the Lord would have them have?

And I would say scripturally, the answer is apparently yes, it is possible. It is possible for a person to be saved, for them to have the Holy Spirit of God in their life without having all of the experience of the Holy Spirit that the Lord would have for them in their life.

Again, if you want scripture evidence of this, let's go back to the apostles. It happened to the apostles who received the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20, verse 22, right? And then later on were baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two, verses one through four and then had repeated fillings of the Holy Spirit throughout the Book of Acts.

It happened again in the Book of Acts chapter eight. And why don't we turn there? Acts chapter eight, verse 14. We'll spend a little bit of time in this passage because it's really a fascinating passage relevant to all this.

Acts chapter eight, verse 14. Now, when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet they had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. I don't think there's any doubt as to what the situation is here.

You have a group of people coming to Christ in Samaria, Samaritans, and praise God that these people who were once considered outcasts by the Jewish people are now being welcomed into God's family. You have these people who were born again.

Apparently, they were so assured that they were truly born again that they baptized them. Would the apostles or the existing disciples of that day, would they have baptized them in water if they were not assured that these people were born again?

Of course not. Yet they had not received the Holy Spirit of God in this fuller experience that they had received when they came upon them there at Acts chapter eight. Now, I'll tell you what people who don't believe in a subsequent experience of the Holy Spirit teach.

They believe that this was a special case. This was just a unique special case. Well, just file that away because we'll talk about it in another aspect here. Now, let's turn our Bibles to Acts chapter 19, where there's another, and I would say more difficult to understand aspect of this.

This is a kind of an intriguing part of the scriptures here. Acts chapter 19, beginning of verses one and two. And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth, and that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus.

And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. Now, I'd like to point this out.

From everything we know about the ministry of Paul, this was not his opening line with people. Right? I mean, this is unique in all the record we have in the ministry of Paul. But apparently there was something about these disciples that prompted the question from Paul.

I don't know what. But there was just something about their Christian lives, something about their Christian experience that prompted Paul to ask, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Again, we don't have any indication that it was his custom to ask these people to ask people in general if they had received the Holy Spirit.

Now, their reply is very interesting. They say, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. By their reply, these Ephesian disciples reveal that they have very little knowledge of God's nature as it's revealed in Jesus.

They know enough, seemingly, to be saved in students of Jesus. They're called disciples in verses one and two. But they don't know that much about what Jesus Christ has done for them. They're ignorant.

Disciples, but ignorant. Now, Paul teaches them, beginning at verse three. And he said to them, into what then were you baptized? So they said, into John's baptism. Then Paul said, John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him who would come after him that is on Christ Jesus.

Now, these Ephesian disciples had only a basic understanding of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and his ministry. It seems that they only understood what could be gained through the message of John the Baptist.

They were in the same place as another guy in the book of Acts, a guy named Apollos, who was in this place before Aquila and Priscilla explained the way of God more accurately to them, to him in Acts chapter 18.

Now, it's an interesting question. How did they receive John's baptism? We don't know. Maybe they traveled to Judea and received it at John's hands. Maybe some of John's disciples, because there were John's disciples, spread out abroad the world.

Maybe they continued on in the ministry of John after John's death. We don't really know. But you see, Paul points out that John's baptism was one of repentance, not necessarily faith unto salvation. John's message pointed men to Jesus, but it did not necessarily take men to Jesus.

So one can imagine that these Ephesian disciples perhaps heard about the coming of the Messiah through John's message, and they heard of their need to be ready to receive the Messiah and ready to ready themselves through repentance.

Yet they do not seem to have heard that the Messiah had, in fact, come and had not heard of their specific need to trust in this person and work. It's difficult. I tell you, the big question that comes up here is were these Ephesians disciples, were they actually Christians or not?

Well, I have to say it's a very tough call. This is the time when I'm glad I have two hands so I can say on the one hand and on the other hand. The problem in this is that they are called disciples, which especially in the book of Acts almost always refers to Christians, genuine followers of Jesus Christ.

However, it must be said that the word disciple does have a broader understanding and application than its most frequent usage. But its most frequent usage is describing a follower of Jesus Christ. But look what happens here in verses five through seven, where it says when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now, the men were about 12 in all. Now, having been completely prepared to respond to all of this, they embraced Jesus fully and they're baptized in the name of Jesus.

And after they were baptized, Paul laid hands on them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they received miraculous gifts from God, the gift of tongues, and they prophesied as well. You know, one thing I think is very interesting about this time that Paul had in Ephesus in Acts chapter 19.

This is the time when he wrote the letters of first and second Corinthians, which speaks so much about the work of the Holy Spirit and the miraculous gifts. Now, it also I think it's interesting to say in verse seven, where it says the men were about 12 in all.

This was not the complete group of the church in Ephesus. This seems to be one set of the group of the church in Ephesus. And Paul was ministering unto them. And so the good question, what exactly is happening here in Acts chapter 19?

It's a tough issue and full of debate whether these Ephesian disciples were actually Christians or not before they received the remarkable filling of the Holy Spirit. You want on the one hand saying that they were?

Well, they're called disciples and they appear to be part of the company of Christians in Ephesus, things that would not typically be said of them if they were not Christians. On the other hand, they know so little about Jesus, don't they?

And to me, this is a real problematic thing. In verse five, they baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. They were baptized again. So were they Christians or not? And you can debate it all day long.

But can I get down to a very sincere point here? Paul perceived that they lacked something of the Holy Spirit in their lives. What about you? Would somebody look at your life and see a conspicuous absence of the Holy Spirit, of his peace, of his power in your life?

What do you look at when you look at your own life? The Ephesian disciples sensed their need to get right with God. They knew that the answer was in God's Messiah. But they had to go further than that.

They had to go all the way to trust everything Jesus is and everything that he had done. And they needed to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Is this where you're at tonight? You need to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

Wouldn't be a Bible study if I didn't have a quote from Spurgeon, would it? Now, might I say that Spurgeon was no Pentecostal? Spurgeon was no charismatic. But will you listen carefully to his quote from him?

He challenges his listeners and he says, Have you then received the Holy Spirit since you believed? Beloved, are you now receiving the Spirit? Are you living under his divine influence? Are you filled with his power?

Put the question personally. I am afraid some believers will have to admit that they hardly know whether or not there is any Holy Spirit. And others will have to confess that even though they have enjoyed a little of his saving work, yet they do not know much of his ennobling and sanctifying influence.

Well, how about it? I'll ask the questions Spurgeon asked. Have you then received the Spirit since you believed? Friends, God always wants us to go deeper. Always to go deeper in our walk with him. You know, some of us have sipped from God's well.

And he wanted us to take a deep, deep drink. And then some of us have taken a deep drink where we might have kind of waded in and got our feet wet. And others, we waded in and got our feet wet. But God says, I want you to go right out and plunge in.

There's always deeper water for us to swim in with the Lord. The fair question is, what if you don't really know? You say, well, perhaps I'm walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit right now. Perhaps I'm not.

I really don't know. I know I'm saved. I know something of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. But I don't know if I have this fullness of the Spirit. And I just say that if you're walking in it, you'll know.

You know, Spurgeon again, give a man an electric shock and I guarantee you he'll know it. But if he has the Holy Ghost, he'll know it much more. I believe. Friends, this isn't something to hope about.

This is something we can know just as much as if you know you have a house, a family, and that there's four quarters to the dollar. You can know that you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And many Christians know little or nothing, either mentally or experientially, of the Holy Spirit.

Paul's question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believe? It applies just as much to them as it applies to them Ephesian disciples. I would say you could debate all along whether or not these people are genuinely Christians or not.

But I think the question still stands to us. Now, again, we know that a person cannot be saved apart from receiving the Holy Spirit. This is plain from Romans chapter eight, verse nine, and I'll read it to you again.

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. At the same time, in my judgment, there's absolute scriptural evidence of continuing and differing experiences in the Holy Spirit after this initial reception.

These examples and acts are just part of that evidence. Now, some people will say, I see the apostles, I see the people in Samaria, I see the people in Ephesus, but they're special cases. These are unique cases.