T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
September, 1940
340
liever into the invisible church, the body of Christ, “For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13 R.V.). Men are able to baptize and receive us into the visible church, but only Christ can bring us into the spiritual and invisible church which is His own body. And let us not forget that, there being no way to enter the body of Christ save by Spirit baptism, and to be outside this body in the pres ent age is to he lost, therefore no one can be saved apart from Spirit baptism. History tells us that Louis XI “ex ecuted a solemn deed of ownership,” conveying to the Virgin Mary the whole country of Boulogne in France, but re served for himself all the revenues thereof. How much like this “solemn deed” is our repentance! We may say we are sorry, but if we reserve for self the control of our actions, how deep is that sorrow ? God measures our re pentance, not by our “exceeding” sor row, hut by the revenues of our lives that flow into His treasury. —Record of Christian Work. MEMORY VERSE: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord’ shall be saved . . . and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:13, 15). APPROACH: In the time before the Lord Jesus was born, many people in the land of the Jews forgot to read God’s Word, so they forgot God, and did Golden Text Illustration L ure 3 :8 John the Great Preacher L uke 3
Acts 1:5. A careful study of these pas sages, with others on the same subject, will Show several things: 1. The Bible teaches both water bap tism and Spirit baptis/n; each has its place in the spiritual economy of God, and we should be careful not to confuse them nor to permit the one to occupy our whole attention. Some extremists can see nothing in the New Testament but baptism in water, while at the op posite extreme we find others who can see nothing but baptism in the Spirit. Furthermore, where we find the word “baptize” alone in a passage which makes no mention of “water” or “spirit,” we should study the context carefully to determine which baptism it is. 2. We should note carefully that in the case of Spirit baptism, Christ Him self is the One who baptizes. Some in this connection have made the mistake of supposing the Holy Spirit is the Bap- tizer; but, although the Spirit is active in the divine operation, we should under stand that the work is our Lord’s first of all. “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost,” said John. 3. It also appears that no one was ever baptized with the Holy Ghost be fore the Day of Pentecost. Every men tion of this baptism in the Gospels puts it in the future. And our Lord, speak ing in the forty days of post-resurrec tion ministry, also very definitely puts the experience in the future: “Yé shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:5). But after the Day of Pentecost all references to the experience of Spirit baptism, as far as Christian believers are ooncemed, look back to the past. Compare 1 Corin thians 12:13, R.V., “For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body.” The reason the baptism of the Spirit could not have been given at an earlier time is stated very plainly in John 7:37-39, closing with these words: “But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; be cause that Jesus was not yet glorified.” 4. Since the Day of Pentecost, all believers are baptized with the Holy Spirit the instant they believe and are saved. This is perfectly clear from Paul’s statement to the Corinthians, “For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13. R.V.). From the first two verses of this epistle we find that Paul wrote this statement, not merely to the Corinthians, but also . to “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.” 5. This leads to the question of what the main purpose of Spirit baptism Is. In relation to the visible church, the purpose of, water baptism is to induct the new believer into this church (Acts 2:41). Likewise, it i* thé purpose of Spirit baptism to induct the new be-
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wrong things. God sent John the Bap tist to get the peo ple ready to wel- c o m e t h e L o r d J e s u s w h o w a s coming to save them from their sins. John p r e a c h e d such great sermons In the wild country
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hear the river Jordan, that people who thought themselves good looked into their own hearts and saw they were very bad. If they were sorry, John bap tized them in the river. Some thought John was the- great coming One, but he said something like this, “I am not the Christ; one mightier than I cometh, the laces of whose shoes I am not worthy to untie.” LESSON STORY: One day John saw a Stranger coming to him. The Holy Spirit told him it was the Lord Jesus Christ; so John shouted to the people, “Behold the Lamb of, God, which taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). When John called the. Cord Jesus “the Lamb of God,” the people thought of the lambs they brought to the temple.
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