Part 71

Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they were so soon to receive in Luke xxiv. 49 said, “And behold I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be _endued with power from on high_.” And again He said in Acts i. 5, 8, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.... But _ye shall receive power_ after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and _ye shall be witnesses unto Me_, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” In the record of the fulfillment of this promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4, we read, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said and of the result. The result was that Peter and the other Apostles spoke with such power that three thousand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced their sin and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ in baptism and continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and in prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we read that when the Apostles on another occasion were filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they “_spake the word of God with boldness_” and that “_with great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus_.” And in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of Paul’s being baptized with the Holy Spirit. We read in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, “And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and _be filled with the Holy Ghost_. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened.... And _straightway, he preached Christ_ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God,” and in the twenty-second verse we read that he “confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ” (R. V.). In 1 Cor. xii. we have the fullest discussion of the baptism with the Holy Spirit found in any passage in the Bible. This is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the results there recorded are gifts for service. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended to make believers happy, but to make them useful. It is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual believer, it is intended primarily for his efficiency in service. I do not say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not make the believer happy; for as part of the fruit of the Spirit is “joy,” if one is baptized with the Holy Spirit, joy must inevitably result. I have never known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever known before. But this is not the prime purpose of the baptism nor the most important and prominent result. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point, for there are many Christians who in seeking the baptism with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and rapture. They go to conventions and conferences for the deepening of the Christian life and come back and tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, referring to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they are any more useful to their pastors or their churches than they were before, and one is compelled to think that whatever they have received, they have not received the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies and raptures are all right in their places. When they come, thank God for them—the writer knows something about them—but in a world such as we live in to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief are so triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of men, women and young people sweeping on towards eternal perdition, I would rather go through my whole life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have power to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in the year but no power to stem the awful tide of sin and bring men, women and children to a saving knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.