Baptized in the Spirit

By way of introduction I want to propound to your consciences certain questions.

First question:

The New Testament speaks of a baptism in water and a baptism in the Spirit.

In which connection is the word baptism used in a literal sense

and in which one is it used in a figurative sense?

I put it upon your consciences to answer that question.

Is the baptism in the Spirit the literal baptism,

and the baptism in the water the figurative, or vice versa?

Second question:

Is there any command in the New Testament imposing on you

the obligation to be baptized in water?

Third question:

Is Spirit baptism or water baptism designated and required

in the following Scriptures?

“They ... were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mark. 1:5).

Is that water baptism or Spirit baptism?

“After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judæa;

and there he carried with them and baptized.

And John also was baptizing in Ænon near to Salim,

because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.”

(John 3:22-23)

Is that Spirit baptism or water baptism?

“Go ye therefore and teach all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

(Matt. 28:19)

Does that require water baptism or Spirit baptism?

“And all the people that heard him, and the publicans,

justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,

being not baptized of him.” (Luke 7.29-30)

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ ...

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.” (Acts 2.38-41)

“But when they believed Phillip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God,

and the name of Jesus Christ,

they were baptized, both men and women.” (Acts 8.12)

“See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? ...

And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch,

and he baptized him.

And when they were come up out of the water,

the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip.” (Acts 8.36, 38-39)

“Can any man forbid water,

that these should not be baptized,

which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” (Acts 10.47)

“We went out of the city by a river side ...

and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And ... Lydia ...

attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

And when she was baptized, ... (Acts 16.13-15)

“And they spake unto him the word of the Lord,

and to all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes;

and was baptized, he and all his straightway.” (Acts 16.32-33)

“And many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.” (Acts 18.8)

“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized.” (Acts 22.16)

Do these Scriptures designate and require water baptism or Spirit baptism?

Is the baptism in these Scriptures a literal one or a figurative?

Do these Scriptures obligate you to water baptism?

Fourth question:

In trying to understand your duty concerning water baptism

should you study what is said in the New Testament

about water baptism or about Spirit baptism?

Fifth question:

Is there a command in the New Testament

which imposes the obligation of Spirit baptism on you?

If so, where? Will you quote it?

Sixth question:

Does it exempt you from the necessity of obedience

to plain and positive commands to submit to water baptism?

Seventh question:

Because something is said in the New Testament about the Spirit baptism,

using the word in a figurative sense,

should you shun, avoid, neglect, or depreciate a positive and unequivocal command

expressed in a literal sense of the word?

“I indeed baptize you in water ...

but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,

whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:

he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost.”

This text is a contrast throughout.

There is a contrast between two baptizers, John and Jesus.

Jesus is mightier than John, in the purity of His character,

by so much as an immaculate one is superior to a sinful one;

in the power which He holds,

in so much as omnipotence transcends temporary, limited, and derived power;

in the dignity of His character and of His office,

by so much as all authority in heaven and on earth surpasses a brief earthly commission;

and in His ministry by so much as that one was to decrease and cease

and the other to increase and endure “alway, even unto the end of the world.”

There stood the two baptizers;

and of the one it is said that he was as great as any man ever born of a woman;

and hence it is not instituting a comparison

between an insignificant man on the one hand and a greater man on the other,

but it is instituting a comparison between the greatest man

and a Being infinitely greater than the greatest man.

Hence, it unequivocally teaches the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ,

as to His immaculate nature, as to His omnipotent power,

as to His investment with all authority,

and as to the perpetuity of His kingdom.

The second point of contrast is in the baptism.

“I indeed baptize you in water.”

“He will baptize you in the Holy Ghost.”

Here are two elements which stand over against each other

as the two baptizers stood over against each other.

One element is water; the other element is the Holy Ghost.

There is not only a contrast between the baptizers and the baptism,

the element, but there is a contrast in the subjects.

John baptized in water only penitent believers,

men who had repented of their sins,

men who had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus baptizes in the Holy Ghost.

There is also a contrast in the design of the two baptisms.

John baptized in water penitent believers who in that ordinance,

visibly and before men, confessed their allegiance to Jesus Christ,

and showed forth His burial and resurrection.

The design of the baptism of the Holy Ghost was to confer power on Christians,

whether they had been baptized in water or not, as you will see directly.

Thus, between the baptizers and the elements in which they baptized

and the subjects they baptized, and the design of the baptism,

they stood over against each other in contrast,

and the essential feature of the contrast was power. Power!

John said to these Pharisees and Sadducees who came to this baptism,

“I cannot baptize you. You do not repent.

You do not bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

I announce to you that the axe is laid at the root of the trees,

and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.

But I cannot take that axe and cut down the trees,

I cannot make that discrimination.

I cannot separate between the righteous and the unrighteous:

but there cometh one after me mightier than I. He can and He will.”

Neither of these baptisms supersede or displace the other.

You could not plead an exemption from the water baptism

because you had received the other.

Each one stood upon its own merits.

Now I want to show you in the next place what the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not.

I want to discuss it negatively.

In the first place, it is not conversion for the following reasons:

In conversion the Spirit of God is the agent or administrator;

but in the baptism of the Spirit the Spirit of God is the element,

and Jesus is the agent or administrator.

Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Ghost;

as the water was the element in which John baptized penitent believers,

so the Spirit was the element in which Jesus baptized

those who received the baptism of the Spirit.

But in conversion the Holy Ghost is the divine agent,

the direct administrator.

He originates, He acts, He confers, and this is the first point of distinction.

In the second place,

the subjects of the Spirit baptism

and the subjects of regeneration are totally different.

The subject of regeneration is a sinner, a lost sinner.

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The subject of the Spirit baptism is a Christian,

one who is already regenerated and converted.

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There is not a man living who can show one instance where a sinner

received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Take the second chapter of the Acts,

where it is said that the Christian people being assembled together in one place,

on these Christian people came the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Jesus had said unto His {disciples} Church:

Tarry ye in Jerusalem until I send to you the promise of the Father,

which ye have heard of me.

And at the close of that sermon Peter makes faith in Jesus Christ

the condition of receiving that Spirit baptism:

as Paul does, when he says to those disciples whom he met at Ephesus.

Have you received the baptism of the Holy Ghost since you believed,

or did you receive it when you believed?

In Acts 8 Philip preached in Samaria,

and it is said

that “When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God,

and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized” in water,

but as yet the Holy Ghost had fallen on none of them.

The apostles came down and prayed

that they might receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost,

and these penitent believers, those baptized Christians, received it.

Take the case in Acts 10 when Cornelius and his household

received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

The disciples, to whom the matter was rehearsed,

argued from it that they must have previously repented unto life

and had their faith purified by Christ,

as you will find from Acts 11 and Acts 15.

Cornelius the Gentile had received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Then hath God granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life,

purifying their hearts by faith.

Concerning the Samaritans it is taught expressly

that they received that baptism after they believed.s

Jesus breathed upon them and they received the Holy Ghost <ref>

Those baptized believers already had the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

Was nobody ever converted until that time?

Was not Abel a Christian? Was not Enoch? Was not Noah? Was not Elijah,

who went up to heaven in a {chariot of fire}? WRONG It was w whirlwind <ref>

Old Testament saints did not have the Holy Ghost.

Their sins were "covered" until the cross.

Were not the apostles,

who had themselves been baptized in water and who had sent out as baptizers?

Jesus breathed upon them and they received the Holy Ghost <ref>

Those baptized believers already had the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

The baptism in the Spirit is regeneration or conversion,

Jesus said at Cæsarea-Philippi,

“On this rock will I build my church,”

referring to Himself and the faith which Peter had expressed in Him.

In the first letter to the Corinthians 12 Corinthians 13 Corinthians 14

we learn that many who had received the baptism of the Spirit were far from being sanctified.

They were selfish, they were proud,

they were magnifying these extraordinary powers

which had been conferred upon them,

and they were depreciating the graces of love and faith and hope

which in their highest development constitute sanctification.

There in that church were men who possessed the gift of tongues,

who could work miracles, who could interpret tongues, who could heal the sick;

and yet they were exceedingly imperfect Christians.

Joel 2.28-29

The baptism in the Spirit was a figurative and not in a literal sense.

When John the Baptist says, “I baptize you in water,”

that is a literal baptism,

“but Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Ghost,”

that is a figurative use of the word.

Baptists are the only people called Christians on the face of the earth

that require salvation before baptism.

There are no others on the earth today who take that position.

Instead of making baptism essential to salvation

Baptists are the only ones who demand in every case

that its subjects must be saved before they are baptized.

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