The Holy Spirit: Baptizing the Believer

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Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, September 5th. Sometimes Christians ignore the Spirit’s work because we don’t understand it. Let’s continue the series on the power of the Holy Spirit with clarification on His role in baptizing the believer.

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Have you ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Well, some of you would answer that with great confidence, yes, I have. Others of you would answer that No, I haven’t. Some would answer, I’m not sure. Now, many people would think, well, you know, with all the controversy and all the questions about it, as long as I’m saved and I’m going to heaven, that’s all that matters. And so I don’t want to get into all that. Well, my friend, anything in this book, you need to get into. Because if it were not important, it wouldn’t be in here. And if it’s in here, it’s worthy of our understanding and applying it to our heart accordingly. And in this message… The Holy Spirit Baptizing the Believer. That’s the title. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Acts chapter 1. And I want us to begin reading in the first verse and reading through the fifth verse. And this is Luke’s introduction to this whole book of the book of Acts. This is where all the excitement begins about the Holy Spirit. So he says in the first verse… The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these, he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Then he says, and gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the father had promised, which he said, you heard it from me. For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Now, it’s very evident in that verse of Scripture that whatever it means, Jesus said it’s going to happen not many days from now and somewhere around 10 days later, Pentecost. That is exactly what happened. Both baptisms, water baptism and spirit baptism, are reserved for those who are believers. And it’s interesting that many people walk the aisle and say… I was baptized when I was a child, but I had never received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior for the forgiveness of my sin. Now that I’ve been saved, I want to be baptized. A young lady walked the aisle and she said, I’m going to the mission field. And one thing has been bugging me for a long time. I have been saved since I was baptized. I want to tell you something. If you have not been scripturally baptized since you’ve been saved and you’re listening to the Holy Spirit, He’s going to keep bringing it up. I can guarantee you that. He will keep bringing it up because baptism is an act of obedience to God and God is not about to ignore that. And so you who’ve been thinking about it, you’ve said in your mind, well, you know, one of these days I may consider being baptized. You need to consider it right now. If you’ve not been baptized since you’ve been saved, you have not been scripturally baptized and you’re not baptized. You got wet, but you weren’t baptized. And there’s a difference in getting wet and being baptized. And so that’s water baptism. But what we’re talking about here is the baptism process. A spirit baptism. Now, when we think about baptism, we think in terms of water baptism being a picture of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. But it is also a picture of what happened to us. We died to our old way of life, crucified with Christ Jesus, buried in Christ Jesus, and risen to walk in newness of life. It is a picture. It is a symbol. It isn’t just a token. It is a true symbol. It’s a proclamation of our confession, of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and our identification with the body of Christ that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism, water baptism, doesn’t make you saved, but it is a symbol that you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, died the old way, buried in Christ, risen to walk in newness of life, and that’s why We insist on immersion because it pictures scripturally exactly what happened to Jesus and also what has happened to us. With that in mind, I want us to look here at what he says when he says in verse 5 of Acts 1, For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And he’s not talking about water baptism because he said he baptized you with water. The Holy Spirit’s going to baptize you, and it’s going to be different. And you’ll recall that John the Baptist said he’s going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What is the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit? The baptizing work of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit placing us into a new union with the Lord Jesus Christ whereby we have a brand new relationship with Him. Placing us into Christ, the Bible says, placing us into the body of Christ. That is what the church is. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not brick and mortar. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a body of people who have been born again by the grace of God and by the Holy Spirit, have been baptized into Christ, and therefore we make up the body of Christ, the church universal all over the world. Now, what I want us to see here is this. When the Bible says that a person is baptized or that there would be a baptism of the Holy Spirit not many days hence, what was Jesus referring to? He was referring to what happened at Pentecost, what happened at Pentecost. So let’s look, if you will, to Acts chapter 2. And notice what he says here. Remember Jesus said, what’s going to happen is not going to happen many days hence. It’ll be just a short period of time. And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. It is interesting, listen now, that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit visited those believers, the Bible does not say… They were baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says they’ve all filled the Holy Spirit. And the manifestations, not of the baptism, but of the manifestations of the filling of the Spirit was that they began to speak in foreign languages so that the people who were there from all over the world at that time, who were there worshiping, they understood in their own language the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right, I want to compare the baptism and the filling, but I want you to go back for just a moment and look at some verses to remind us of what Jesus said in the upper room with his apostles. Go back to John chapter 14. Remember how often he referred to the Holy Spirit in these 14, 15, 16 chapters. You recall in verse 16 of chapter 14, he said, I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper, that is the Holy Spirit, that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Then if you will recall in the 15th chapter, look at that if you will. He says in verse 26, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the father, that is the spirit of truth, hope who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness of me. Now, remember that Jesus Christ died, was buried and arose and then ascended to the father. And Pentecost came after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the day of Pentecost, what happened? On the day of Pentecost, Jesus Christ, the ascended Lord, fulfilled the promise of the Father. When Jesus Christ had ascended to the Father, At the given time, predetermined by God, when He said, not many days hence, on that day, in response to God’s promise and the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, His atoning death now being completed, the work finished, God the Father on that day baptized all those there at Pentecost with the Holy Spirit. That is, He baptized them into the body of Christ, which was the institution, the beginning of the church. and so what happened at pentecost was the church began and what happened was the spirit of god baptized every single believer into what was the beginning of the body of christ and that was the beginning of the church of the lord jesus christ he said whatever is going to happen is going to happen not many days hence where does that place us that was the beginning of the church of the lord jesus christ that was the baptizing work of the holy spirit Now what happens is they experience the filling of the Spirit, but what happened was that God baptized them with the Holy Spirit into His body that is making or beginning the church. What they experienced, what they sensed, What happened to them, they sensed the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them and they began to speak with other tongues and men began to understand and men began to be saved. And as Peter preached this sermon, they ended up by saying, men and brethren, what shall we do? And he said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you too shall receive the gift that God has given. So oftentimes we take that passage and we say, well, what happens today is we’re still being baptized with the Holy Spirit. In this light. When you are saved by the grace of God, from the moment the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, not many days hence, and baptized that group of believers into the body of Christ, beginning the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, from that moment on, every single person who has received the Lord Jesus Christ, likewise, has been baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. Now, let me show you the difference. There is a distinction between the filling of the Holy Spirit and the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit. So I want to give you some comparisons. And let’s begin with this comparison. First of all, that the baptism, this is comparison number one, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is nowhere commanded in the Bible. Now, if the baptism of the Holy Spirit is, if it is as many people teach that it is, and you will hear preachers and teachers say, you need to get baptized with the Holy Ghost. Well, the Bible doesn’t say that. Nowhere are we commanded to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Because that is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of every single believer. We are not commanded to be baptized by the Holy Ghost anywhere. But the Bible does teach us that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the last message in this series dealt primarily and completely with just that command, that we are to be being filled with the Holy Spirit. And therefore, being filled with the Holy Spirit, it will affect every single area of our life. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not commanded. The filling of the Holy Spirit is commanded. The second comparison I want us to see here is this. And that is the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit is a position and the filling of the Holy Spirit is a provision. For example, go back over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 for just a moment. When Paul is speaking here of the church, he says, verse 13, for by one spirit, we were all baptized into what? Into one body, that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of us were baptized so that when you’re saved, likewise, you are placed into him. When we say, for example, that Jesus Christ died on the cross, and when he died on the cross, he atoned for the sins of how many people? How many? How many? All right now, but his death on the cross is only applicable to those who do what? To those who receive him. So when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, he baptized every believer. Now, when a person believes today in the Lord Jesus Christ, what happens? They are placed into union with him. So when we say position, we’re talking about a new relationship. That is, we have become a part of the body of Christ. We have a relationship with each other. And the filling of the Holy Spirit is not for relationship, but the filling of the Holy Spirit is provision. That is, in the filling of the Holy Spirit, we receive what? We receive the gifts that God chooses to give through the work of the Holy Spirit In the filling of the Holy Spirit, there is the power of the Spirit of God working in and through our lives. And we are able to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life for our daily walk and the work that God has called us to do. Nowhere does it say the baptism of the Spirit does that. The baptizing work is something completely and entirely different. The third difference is this. that the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit deals with a relationship, whereas the filling of the Holy Spirit deals with my behavior. That is, when you and I are placed into union with Him, that deals with relationship. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that affects our behavior. Once you’re saved by the grace of God, once you become a new creation in Christ Jesus, once you’re baptized only one time into the body of Christ, Our relationship can no longer be tampered with. We are sealed under the day of redemption, the Bible says. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. And therefore, one time we are baptized, many times we are filled. Because my performance has nothing to do with the baptizing. The performance has nothing to do with the baptizing, but the filling does. And we said the filling of the Holy Spirit, which can happen anytime in a person’s life, many times in a person’s life, many times during a day, because our walk in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit and living in the Spirit is determined by each decision we make. If we make decisions that are in keeping with God’s will, we’re walking in the Spirit, living in the Spirit, full of the Spirit. But the moment we choose to disobey Him, we’re out of the Spirit. And you see, if the baptism was the same as the infilling, then you could be in the baptism today and out of it tomorrow. It has to do with position, relationship, union. We are sealed under the day of redemption. And the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit that took place at Pentecost was God’s establishment of the church, and all of us who are saved have been baptized by that same Holy Spirit. And then… We said, for example, that the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit happens to every single believer. Whereas the filling of the Holy Spirit, that’s not necessarily true. That is, there are lots of people who have never been filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of them do not even know what it’s all about. Don’t know how, never felt any need or any desire. Whereas the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit is a universal work of the Spirit of God in the life of every single person who has ever been born again. It can happen as we said before. That is, a person who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be filled with the Holy Spirit forever. if it is explained properly at the time they’re saved it is not synonymous with the baptizing work of the holy spirit when a person receives jesus christ as their savior the bible says we are placed in the union and that’s why i keep emphasizing the fact because many people think in terms of the christian life of god up there we’re down here i do the best i can no we have a relationship and a union with Christ and the whole body, so that the whole church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, every single person who has been born again, it makes no difference what their language, what their culture, where they live, where they are geographically on this globe, makes no difference. Every single one of those persons is a part of the great body of Christ. It should be the church in Atlanta, the church in Miami, the church in New York, and the church in Boston, the church in Hong Kong, you name it. Churches everywhere, all in the same body of Christ. Why? Because we have the same Christ, the same Lord, the same Savior, and as Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, there are diversities of gifts. Many members of the body, but all the members of the body are important because all the members have the same relationship. That is, we are who we are, Because of our union with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, somebody says, well, when you think about different views about the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, I will not be critical of anyone else. This has nothing to do with the gifts. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Holy Spirit does give gifts, different gifts, the Bible says, to whomsoever he will. So no question about that there is a baptism of the Holy Spirit. No question about there being a filling of the Holy Spirit. No question about there being gifts, but let’s get them in their right order. And that is, at salvation, baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ Jesus forever. Thank God. At the point we are willing to surrender and yield and our lives cleaned up, filled with the Holy Spirit, thank God for the privilege. And when the Spirit of God… who is indwelling us, begins to exercise the gifts which He has given to us, your life is going to make an impression to the glory of God. Baptized once, filled many times, exercising the gifts daily in the power of the Spirit of the living God. So that every single believer is walking in the Spirit, living in the power of the Holy Spirit, serving God under the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit. And you see, we get the terminology mixed up. We mix them all up. And before long, it becomes self-centered if we’re not careful of what we’re going to get, what we’re going to have, what we’re going to do, and what we have when the Bible’s emphasis is that the Spirit of God controls us. And that’s what he’s talking about walking in the Spirit. But you know, if you don’t know what you have, you can’t enjoy it. But once you know who you are in Christ and what you have in Him, then my friends, you and I should boldly be confronting the world in love because we have someone on the inside of us who has equipped us to do everything God’s called us to do. Baptized once at salvation. Filled many times. the expressions of the gifts as we serve the living God. And we have the privilege, moment by moment, day by day, of doing that.

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Thank you for listening to The Holy Spirit, Baptizing the Believer. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.