Jesus Will Set You Free — David Du Plessis

The Great Commission and the Freedom of Biblical Truth

Jesus said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. World Map Tape Outreach is fulfilling this divine commission by bringing you these messages for your spiritual edification. Open your Bible and your heart and share now in the teaching ministry from God's Word.

I'm happy to be with you in this camp this afternoon and to share with you some of the things that I find is so necessary for God's people, all God's people to know and to act upon. For you know, when Jesus said, The truth shall make you free, he just meant that.

A lot of people are bound, doing nothing, just because they don't know how. They don't know what. If only they knew, they'd do things. But they don't. And I really am amazed at the ignorance of God's people.

It's tragic how ignorant we are of the simple truths of the Bible that ought to liberate us from our doubts, from our fears, from our suspicions, and just make us bold as lions to do anything. But of course you can put a lion in a cage and the poor fellow doesn't know that he's got strength to break those bars, so he stays behind the bars.

And that's the trouble with some of God's people. Jesus was talking to his disciples one day when Thomas said to him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, how can we know the way? Now here's an ignorant man.

I don't, we don't know where you're going, how can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.

And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?

He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how seest thou then, show us the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me doeth the works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. And that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Oh, the richness of this promise and the simplicity of it all.

Simply this, that Jesus said, I am in the Father and the Father in me. In the 15th chapter he says, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.

I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Have you ever seen a hard-working branch? That branch just stays put.

And through the branch flows the power that causes, brings about the grapes. You are just to be in me and I in you. And as the Father in me and I in the Father produces such works, therefore when I am in you and you in me, you can do the works that I do.

And even greater works than these, because I go to the Father. This is the promise of the Lord. And this is possible if we will but know the truth. Now, we come to Acts 1. Jesus was speaking again to his disciples.

The Promise of Pentecost and the Power of Witness

And in the fourth verse he said, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me.

For John truly baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. What was he talking about? Pentecost. Not many days hence. There's a day coming now that you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, exactly like John baptized in water.

And you notice I say in. I know the King James Version says with, but that's one of the big mistakes in the King James Version. It's full of mistakes, but that's one of them. John never baptized with water.

Never. He only baptized in water. John couldn't baptize with Jordan, he baptized in Jordan. And Jesus never baptizes with the Spirit, he baptizes in the Spirit. Then the Spirit is in you, and you in the Spirit.

But very few people know that they are in the Spirit. They think they're mostly out of the Spirit. They think they're still in the Old Testament, where the Spirit never was in the prophet, but only upon the prophet.

Where did the Spirit come into the disciples? He now says to them, you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?

They wanted positions in the political world. They wanted to win political authority. They wanted to really excel. They wanted to be free from the bondage of the Roman government. Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in his own power.

But listen to this, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Not in, upon. That means that you are in the Spirit, and the Spirit upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

That's what Jesus said ought to happen to the people upon whom the Spirit comes. They become witnesses for Jesus. When did the Spirit come into these men? Jesus said, I in you and you in me. When he rose from the dead, we read in John's Gospel, the twentieth chapter, that morning, when he rose from the dead on the third day, that morning he met Mary Magdalene and said to her, Go and tell my brethren I go to my Father and your Father.

First he said, don't touch me. I haven't gone to my Father yet. Don't touch me. I am on my way. Tell my brethren I'm going to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. That's a wonderful thought.

But she came and reported this, and he's gone. They didn't see him in the tomb, so they left. But she stayed until she saw him. And then she got this message to take back to them. I go to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.

Christ’s Ascension, Presence, and the Comforter

How far is God? We sing how great is God. How far is he? He says, I go to my Father. Some of us have a silly idea that heaven is so far away that it takes a long time to get an answer. We've got a few Americans out there around the moon now.

Look how long it took them to get there. And they want to step on the moon and step back. What an achievement for science. What an achievement men have come to. When are we going to step out some into God's space?

What are we afraid of? I'm not afraid of those fellows. I asked Jesus to take care of them, and he's the only one that's out there that can take care of them. We've had a man in space for ages. Jesus is out there.

And he went and came back. For that morning, he said, I go to my Father and your Father. Don't touch me now, but I go to my Father and your Father. And that evening he was back. And he said, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.

Where'd you get it? Well, I've just come from the throne. I've just come from the throne. Oh, but, hmm, can it be real? He says, touch me. You see, he'd been to his Father. Now you can touch him. Why?

Now he's got all power in heaven and on earth. In my last newsletter, I said there were two ascensions. And you'd be surprised how many people talked to me about it, wrote to me about it. They said we never heard of such a thing as two ascensions.

We thought Jesus went up once for all. Oh, no, I said he went up and came back. And reported all things well. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. He said to Mary, I go to my Father and your Father.

What do you think? Where did he go? And when he came back and said all power is given unto me, where did you think he'd come from? Where was he from the morning till the evening? The old Negro preacher, they gave him a signs book.

And he shouted glory. And they said, now what's in that book that you shout glory for? He says, this silly book says that if I want to get to one of the stars, I'll have to travel at the rate of light, the speed of light, 186 ,000 miles an hour, a second rather, and still I'd have to be an old man before I get there.

He says, what nonsense. Glory to God, he says, heaven isn't that far away. They said, what do you think? He said, well, Jesus said, when he finally said goodbye, he said, I'll tell, ask the Father to send you a comforter.

He left and ten days later the comforter was there. He says five days there and five days back. But I can see it faster than that. In the morning, he said, I go to my Father, and in the evening he was back.

And he said to his disciples, as the Father hath sent me, so send I you. How did his Father send him? First out of glory, out of heaven to earth, out of eternity into time by a natural supernatural birth.

He was born of the Spirit, wasn't he? And what does he mean now? I, the Son of God, had to be born naturally supernatural to become Son of Man so that you sons of men can become sons of God. The Lamb of God that taketh away sin had died.

He rose, he ascended, and descended to tell them, now you can be sons of God. I've got all power in heaven and earth. And he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. That's where the Holy Ghost got into the disciples.

He said to them, he that is with you shall be in you. And now he says, receive him, let him in. Oh, Jesus made it so simple. When he spoke to the woman at the well, he says, have a drink of what I can give you, and you'll never thirst again.

It'll revolutionize your life. On the day of the feast he said, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And if you believe, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Rivers of living water.

Rivers of Living Water and the New Birth

And now we sing, here's my cup, Lord. Fill my cup, Lord. Oh, these poor cup Christians. Fiddle with a cup when you can have a river. Why do you look so miserable? Christians are like the brother. Every wonderful meeting he kneels at the altar.

Fill me again, Lord. Fill me again. Fill me again. A very honest old sister knelt beside him. She said, Lord, please don't he leaks. Fill me again. And Jesus says, rivers shall pour out of you. I want to help you this afternoon to see that every one of you can be a pouring Christian.

Not a sponge that sucks in everything, but just pours it on. Why don't you keep pouring? And I don't see that when they strike a gusher, they don't have to put on pumps. They've got to put on taps to close it down.

I don't think I have much trouble to get it out. My trouble is to keep it in. And you don't have to put forth any effort. Like that branch that does nothing but abide and let it pour through him. He does it.

And so Jesus says to them, as my Father sent me, so send I you. And here's the first step. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Be born of the Spirit. And every one of you that met the Lamb of God, the resurrected Son of God, He breathes new life into you and you become a son and a daughter of God.

The Spirit of God is in you. This is the new birth. And here the church was born on the day of His resurrection. That's where the church was born. Oh, says a Baptist to me in a Baptist church when I was preaching, but we heard that the church was born on the day of Pentecost.

I said, do you think so? He said, well, I always thought so. I said, Baptist, now you are in trouble. He said, why? I said, because if you say the church was born on the day of Pentecost, that means the disciples and everybody else was born again for the first time on the day of Pentecost.

He said, yes. I said, because you couldn't be in the church without regeneration. Nobody's in the church if they're not regenerated. You only get in the church by the Spirit. You must be regenerated to get into the body of Christ.

And if you say the disciples received regeneration on the day of Pentecost, then, brother, nobody's regenerated until they speak in tongues. No, he says, I can't believe that. I said, I don't believe it.

That's why I say the church was born when Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. What happened on the day of Pentecost? The newborn church was baptized into the Holy Ghost. And nobody can be baptized in the Holy Ghost unless he's first born again.

The baptism is not for any but a child of God. And he doesn't get it to become a child of God. He receives this baptism because he is a son of God. Jesus came to Jordan. Do you think he came to receive the Holy Ghost?

Or do you believe the Holy Spirit was in him? I believe the Holy Spirit was in him from his birth. He was born of the Spirit, the son of God, for 30 years. Did he come to Jordan to become the son of God?

No, sir. He was the son of God. And this baptism was for the son of God. And he was 30 years old. So that nobody can say that he grew up into it. It wasn't something he grew up into. It was a tremendous event.

And today people want us to believe that you are born of the Spirit and then you gradually grow into the Spirit until, well, you got something like Pentecost. And they don't want to accept Pentecost as an event, as a glorious happening in your life.

Forgiveness, Spiritual Gifts, and Christian Witness

So Jesus now says to them, he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Then he says to them, Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. What was the promise of the Father? We say the promise of the Father was the Holy Ghost.

Sure, but the promise of the Father was more than that. For John the Baptist said, He that sent me, he promised that someone will come after me that is greater than I. He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost.

That's the promise of the Father. The promise of the Father was a baptizer. And, of course, if there's a baptizer, there must be a baptism. There must be a baptism. Jesus Christ is baptizer in the Holy Ghost.

But now he says to the disciples, when he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, he said to them, Now you can do one thing. You can go, whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted. You are now born of the Spirit.

Your sins are wiped away. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all unrighteousness. Now forgive everybody. That's what is the privilege of every child of God. Just to forgive everybody. Forgive who?

Whosoever. That means everybody. And we'll get a lot more people saved if we'll forgive them than we do by judging them. And I never saw more expert judges than Christians. If they don't judge the world, they judge each other.

And poor fellows, when they judge so much others that they even judge themselves. But if you'll begin to forgive others, you'll be able to forgive yourself too. And most people are miserable because they can't forgive themselves.

Why can't they? Because they can't forgive anybody else. Jesus said, Forgive, that's all. And Peter this time didn't say, Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother? He just kept quiet. Because the Lord already told him.

Not seven times, but 70 times seven. I must forgive my brother 70 times seven. Could you imagine a brother that bad that you've got to forgive him 490 times? Could you imagine that? One fellow said, Do you think anybody could be that bad?

Well, I said, How about your wife? He just bowed his head and walked away. I think we do a lot of forgiving. And if a man and wife can forgive one another and stick together, why can't we forgive everybody and stay together?

If we didn't never forgive one another, we'd never stick together. And it's because the world has so little forgiveness that we have so much trouble and division. Families are disrupted. Churches are disrupted.

Peoples are disrupted. No forgiveness, no forgiveness. But now Jesus says to them, He shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. When He comes into you, start forgiving. And when He comes upon you, you shall have power.

And ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. What means witnesses unto me? It simply means you shall be like me. You will be like me. And He says to Thomas, If you saw me, you saw the Father.

You know, the world ought to see Jesus when they see us. Honestly. We ought to have the character of Jesus, for the fruit of the Spirit is the very character of Jesus. If you bear fruit, the Father will be glorified.

What is fruit of the Spirit? Love. If you love one another. Well, now He says, You shall be witnesses unto me. Did this happen? Well, we'll just skip the day of Pentecost, because we knew, we know now, that the day of Pentecost came, these fellows received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and so we find in chapter 4, they had performed a miracle, the first miracle after Pentecost.

But miracles did not begin at Pentecost. There were miracles before Pentecost. There were healings before Pentecost. There was the word of wisdom before Pentecost. There was the word of knowledge before Pentecost.

There was discernment before Pentecost. There was faith before Pentecost. There was even interpretation before Pentecost. They could, Daniel could interpret what was on the wall. All the gifts of the Spirit were manifested before the day of Pentecost.

So those are not the consequences of a Pentecostal experience. What did the Pentecostal experience do? Only one thing that never was before, they spoke in tongues. That's all. You can call it the least of all the gifts, because it is the last of all the gifts that were manifested.

All the other gifts were manifested before tongues was. And finally tongues came on the day of Pentecost. And it's just useless to call anything Pentecostal if there's no tongues. For tongues was all that was there on the day of Pentecost.

And you can't change it. The record's clear. And I'm glad for people today who are willing to accept the term Pentecostal. I'm not a Pentecostalist, but I am thoroughly Pentecostal. And I'm getting worse every day.

I'm Pentecostal and nobody will change it. Because I do not only have the Spirit in me, I am in the Spirit. And not sometimes, all the time. You can't catch fish on dry ground. No fish is that foolish to come out of the river.

And anybody that's baptized in the Holy Spirit should live in the Spirit. And if you don't, that's why you're gasping. Poor fish out of water, what a terrible thing. And you know a fish out of water, if that poor thing lies on the bank there low enough, you can smell it a mile off.

And some Christians cause an awful stink. Because they don't live in the Spirit. They try to live on dry ground like other people. You've got to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, all the time. Jesus doesn't baptize you in the Spirit and take you out again.

Baptism, Overflow, and Life in the Spirit

They send me all kinds of little things about baptism because I use the word baptism. I refuse that other kind of word they've got, infilling and filled and filled again. I say it isn't filled, it's overflowing.

But people get the idea you get empty and you fill up again. You get empty and you fill up again. No, sir, you're just overflow. But I don't keep the tap and the faucet in my kitchen flowing just to show it's full.

I only turn it on when I want it. And I don't keep talking in tongues all the time to show I'm living in the Spirit. I just turn it on when I want it. But I'm always full. I never get filled, I just overflow sometimes.

A little more than other times. But I stick with the word baptism. I do not use another word. And when they complain, I say, yes, God said it is a baptism. And so a friend sends me this. Here is from a book of a good Baptist writer.

He says, is immersion the only valid form of baptism? The answer turns on two points. First, the meaning of the Greek word baptizo, the use of the word in Scripture. It is often said that baptizo means to immerse.

This is true. But it means more than is popularly understood by immersion. It is not the same as bapto, which means to dip in and out again. But it has an intensive force and means to submerge and keep under.

The contrast is seen in Greek literature, where the two words bapto and baptizo are applied to ships. The former, bapto, is used for a ship in a storm, dipping under the waves and up again, under the waves and up again.

While the latter word is used of a ship that is sunk for good. It is also used of men who have been drowned. Well, goodness me, get drowned then. Drowned in the Spirit. It thus appears that the dipping practiced by many people represents the idea of bapto rather than baptizo.

In the New Testament the words are not confused and the word bapto is never used of Christian baptism. That means Christian baptism is you get sunk in your state. Live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, minister in the Spirit.

You are in the Spirit. Now this ought to be information that will liberate you from the idea that sometimes I'm in the Spirit and sometimes I'm out. You're always in the Spirit. Why don't I know it? Because you do not recognize the truth.

But this truth ought to make you free. This truth ought to let you realize God didn't baptize Jesus in the Spirit and then Jesus had to come back and say, Oh, Father, give me another baptism. Talking to a Dutch Reformed minister in Holland he said to me, Brother David, I've tried.

He's the television preacher for Holland and he's baptized in the Holy Ghost. You'd be surprised how many key people the Lord has baptized in the Holy Ghost lately. And he's one of the key men in the nation.

Speaks on television every week. And so they asked him to give teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And he said, Brother David, I did all right until I got confused within. I cannot say the Spirit comes in when you're baptized.

I said, but didn't you notice that he comes upon? He said, upon. I said, yes. John was told by God. I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize in water, the same said unto me upon, upon. Notice it.

Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth in the Holy Ghost. And so the Spirit came upon Jesus and Jesus said, Now I am in the Father. The Father in me since I was born.

But I in the Father since the day at Jordan. And now he says to them, that's how I do these works. The Father in me and I in the Father. And he doeth the works. This is why the words I speak, they are not even mine.

I am in the Father, he says these words. If you and I would begin to be so simple that we accept these as facts, not myths, facts. That's how God sees it. But we are afraid. Why are we afraid? Because people who never have had the baptism teach us the way they think.

I talk to some of these great learned men and they say to me, we don't always, we can't always understand Paul. I said, why not? Well, we don't know what he means. I said, but if you had Paul's experience you would know what he means.

I said, how do you come to your conclusions then? Oh, they say we just speculate a little. And if there's anything I dislike, it's speculative theology. That means guessing. I said, why should you guess?

Why don't you experience it? They say, have you got Paul's experience? Oh, yes, I said, every bit of it. They said, how can you claim that? I said, well, Paul didn't walk with Jesus and I didn't. But Paul wasn't there on the day of Pentecost and I wasn't.

But long after Pentecost, this man received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And whether he got it 10 or 12 years afterwards and I got it 12 or 15 or 1800 years afterwards, it doesn't matter. I came afterwards.

But I got the same baptism that Paul had. And I live in the Spirit like Paul did. And so, I understand what Paul means. I don't have to guess. I don't have to speculate. I just know. And now they call me a great authority on the Holy Spirit.

They ask me on television, how come that you are such a great authority? Well, I said, I've lived in the Spirit for 50 years. He baptized me in 1918 and I've lived in the Spirit for 50 years. I ought to be an authority by this time.

I ought to know something about it. And I know how it works. Well, now here we come. Jesus said, you shall be witnesses unto me. Did that ever come true? Listen, they just healed a man and they didn't have a healing meeting.

It's a funny thing. They went to a prayer meeting. And they hadn't even, before they ever got to pray, they healed a man. Jesus said, if you believe, you can lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.

Why don't we? Oh, we must first pray. He didn't say pray. He said lay hands on the sick. Just lay hands on them. And if you in Jesus' name will lay hands on the sick, you don't have to pray. One Methodist minister said to me, well, I didn't believe in that stuff at all.

Healing, Spiritual Authority, and the Gifts of God

But he says one of my members demanded that I'm the elder and I should lay hands on her. So I laid hands on her because she demanded it. But I didn't believe one bit. She says she did. He says because I didn't believe one bit of it, but I did what she wanted me to do, I prayed and I said, Lord, this lady or this sister believes that you can heal in answer to prayer, if it be thy will.

He says, David, I should never have said that. Because the moment I said if it be thy will, I got a shock, she got a shock, and she was healed. Are you afraid to say if it be thy will? Brother, you couldn't say anything better.

Because it is the will of God to bless. It is the will of God to heal. Only you don't believe it. And he says, I didn't believe it, but I said if it be thy will, and he proved to me that it is his will.

Do you know what happened to that Methodist? He got converted. She got healed and he got saved. Boy, you say an unsaved preacher lay hands on the sick? How could God answer that? God didn't answer his prayer, he answered her prayer.

What did she do? She made the elder of the church. Boy, you could get some of your elders saved if you had believed. And he said to me, I never thought God could answer prayer. And so I said, if it be thy will, and there he proved it to me.

Now, here they had gone to the temple to pray, on the way they found this sick man, must have been one of those that Jesus never looked at. He sat with the bearded Philgeben, the old beggar. And Peter said to him, I haven't got.

I'm glad I'm not that poor today. I mean, I'm not as poor as Peter was that day. Gold and silver I haven't got. But he didn't turn him over to the Women's Missionary Council or something like that, poor fellow.

He said, what I've got I'll give you. And what did he give him? He gave him a gift of healing. And don't forget, it's the sick man that got the gift, not Peter. Peter was the delivery boy. He delivered what the Holy Ghost gives.

And you can't show me any person that's got the gift to heal, nor can you show me such a gift in the Bible. There is no gift to heal, they are gifts of healing. And gifts of healing are only good for sick people.

And when sick people get the gift of healing, they'll be healed. Oh, but there are brethren that God uses. They've only got a ministry of healing, but they haven't got the gift to heal. You can have a ministry of healing to deliver gifts of healing to the sick.

Why don't you? Because you're still waiting for a gift to prove that you can do it. And so none of us do it because we can never find the gift. When we think we've got it, we try to employ it and it won't work.

But if you will let the Holy Ghost do it, and use you, things will happen. After this incident we read that they found them in the temple preaching boldly. And it came to pass on the morrow, chapter 4, verse 5, came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes and Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and Meneas who were the kindred of the high priest were gathered together, and when they had set them in the midst they asked them, By what power and by what name have ye done this?

You see, it got beyond the stage of talking now. It was the stage of doing. Please turn the tape over for the remainder of the message. I told you just now that I spoke to a man last night, the very learned Methodist minister who had studied under Karl Barth.

Demythologizing Scripture Through Present-Day Experience

But Karl Barth's successor in Basel University is a man called Heinrich Ott. Heinrich Ott is a very brilliant young red-headed theologian today. He studied under Barth and then he studied under Bultmann.

Now Bultmann is the man that says that the Bible is full of myths and we ought to take these myths out. Cut them out. So I know this is what he had heard from Bultmann. I meet him and I begin to tell him of what God is doing.

You see, when I meet these fellows the way I do it is this. I do not make up my mind what I'm going to say. I don't make up my mind what I want to discuss with them. I just wait till I get there to see what the Holy Ghost wants to do.

And when I get there, I just start talking. You see, I just open the tap and start pouring. For God said, you'll have rivers in you. Jesus said so. And I can pour it on fast. And I just met him and I poured it on.

The first thing I poured on was love. Because unless you love, the Holy Ghost cannot and will not manifest himself. Don't you ever go to anybody with a fight in your mind because you're going to lose the fight.

I've tried to fight people and then the Holy Ghost helps them and not me. Don't become aggressive. For if you start fighting, you've lost already. But brother, if you can start loving, you'll paralyze them in no time and you're on top.

I started talking to him. All of a sudden he said, wait a minute. He says, I've never heard such talk in my life. He says, what are you doing? Have you got a sense of destiny? I said, well, yes, I believe I'm here in God's time, God's purpose, and I'm a servant of God.

He says, what do you feel your ministry is? Oh, I said, I've got a wonderful ministry. He says, what is it? I said, I go around demythologizing the Scriptures. He says, you do what? I said, I demythologize the Scriptures.