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THE KING’S BUSINESS
yet” received the Holy Spirit as a distinct and a definite personal experience. So important did the apostles regard it that believers Should “receive it that this whs the first thing that they attended to, ‘‘they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost.” It is evident from this that the way to obtain the Holy Spirit is by prayer (cf. Luke 11:13). - Some tell us that as soon as the Holy Spirit was given to the church at Pentecost as an abiding gift it is no longer proper to pray -for Him. Evidently Peter and John thought that it was proper to: pray for Him. It; was now years after Pentecost and still we find the -apostles: praying for the Holy Ghost. The result o f this prayer was that “they received the Holy Jlhost.” Sunday, November 26 . _Acts 8 : 18 - 25 . ■The reception o f the Holy Spirit by the Samaritan converts was Something so defi nite-and marked that Simon “saw” it. Then Simon wished to buy. the power o f impart ing: the Holy Spirit to others. His heart was- so thoroughly corrupted with selfish ness and covetousnesS that he would turn God’s Holy gift into a way o f gain. Then came the stern rebuke and awful warning. It should be read carefully and pondered deeply. It is exceedingly solemn. Are there not today among us those who are longing and praying for the Holy Spirit for their own aggrandizement and gain? An evangelist had once spoken upon “the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” The pastor as he walked home with him said “that is just what I need, I must have the baptism o f the Holy Spirit.: I am now getting $ 1,200 a year; if I had the baptism with the Spirit I could get $1,500 a year.” That was frightful, but he only put into plain words what many another had dimly felt, and for this reason has long been praying for this precious gift. Let all such ponder Peter’s solemn words in verses twenty to twenty- three. That reveals an irreverence and selfishness so profound as to make pardon almost impossible—Peter said, “if perhaps, the thought o f thy heart may be forgiven
and they turned from Simon to Philip. They believed the truth and were baptized. Then something occurred that must have rejoiced Philip for the time, “ Simon also himself believed,” “and was baptized.” But Simon’s faith was only intellectual and his baptism only' outward. He was baptized in water but he was not baptized into Christ (cf. Gal. 3:27). His body was cleansed but his ?heart remained vile (v. 21); I f anyone believes in baptismal regen eration they would do well to ponder care fully the case o f this baptized but unregen erated rascal. There could be no doubt that he Was baptized by the proper outward mode o f baptism (whatever that may be) ; for he was baptized by ah apostolic dele gate. But while he had the symbol he had not the essential experience for which that symbol stands. However important water baptism may be (and anyone who studies candidly the «Acts o f the Apostles ought to be able to see just how important it is), real baptism is not that which is outward upon the body but “that o f the heart, in the Spirit” (Rom. 2:28, 29). Saturday, November. 25 . Acst 8 : 14 - 1 7 . The Apostles at Jerusalem gladly received the intelligence that the despised Samari tans “had received the W ord o f God.” They sent' their best men to foster the work. Peter and John on their arrival found that none o f the young converts had “as yet” received the Spirit. There are those who teach that every regenerated man has the gift o f the Holy Spirit but this teaching flatly contradicts the teaching o f the Bible in this passage and elsewhere. Certainly among this large company o f bap tized believers there were at least some regenerated persons but we are distinctly told that “as yet the Holy Spirit was fallen upon none o f them (literally not one o f them).” They were precisely in the. posi tion o f many in the church today who have believed the truth “concerning the kingdom (o f God and the name o f Jesus Christ” (v. 12 ) and have been “baptized in the name o f the Lord Jesus,” (v. 16) but have not “as
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