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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Every Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not reserved for a select few group of Christians. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not some sort of spiritual upgrade you have to pay extra for if you want a first-class relationship with God. No, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is available to every Christian. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains why he believes that every Christian receives the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. He calls it the Christian's birth certificate. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress? Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In my experience as a pastor, I've discovered that the majority of Christians feel a sort of spiritual vacuum in their lives. In their most honest moments, they simply do not believe that their relationship with God has made any real difference.
They experienced conflict in their marriages, diseases in their bodies, and moral struggles in their behavior, just like any of their non-Christian friends. In short, they're longing to experience the supernatural power of God at work in their day-to-day lives, but they don't really believe they can. Well, if that assessment is somewhat true of you, there's a book I've written that I want you to read. It's titled I Want More, and in this best-selling book, my goal is to help you satisfy your spiritual hunger as you pursue a fresh, new way of thinking about and experiencing the power of God's Spirit in every area of your life. You're invited to request your copy of my book titled I Want More, when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'll give further details about my book later, but right now it's time to continue our new study called Unleashed, Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit. Last time I asked you to trust me when I said that every Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, but today we're going to look at some of the key passages people argue that baptism with the Spirit comes after salvation and discover why those arguments don't quite hold up to the truth of God's Word. I've titled today's message The Christian's Birth Certificate. In his book, The Me I Want to Be, John Ortberg writes about an experience he had water skiing.
This is what he writes. On vacation one summer, my wife, a veteran water skier, was teaching our family to water ski. I had only water skied once or twice before, so it took several trips to feel any confidence at all. I decided I wanted to try using only one ski, but the boat could not generate enough power for me to get up out of the water. Back in the boat, I noticed a button labeled Power Tilt.
Now I know nothing about boats or engines, but it seemed like a promising button, so we gave it a shot. I heard a whirring sound, which I later learned was the propeller being driven much deeper under the water. I got back behind the boat, balanced precariously on one ski, and yelled to my wife, Nancy, hit it. The bow of the boat lifted up out of the water at a 45-degree angle and moved as if I had been shot out of a cannon. Adequate power to get my body up out of the water was not a problem.
Survival was. I gestured wildly for the boat to slow down. However, my family had not prearranged signals, and so my kids interpreted my waving as a desire to go faster, so they revved the boat up full throttle. I was not just up, but I was bouncing through the air between landings like a rock skipping across a smooth lake. It never occurred to me to let go of the rope. I eventually came down on my face.
For six months, I could not smile with the right side of my mouth, but I did find out I could ski. I just needed power. You know, all of us feel that need for power at special times in our life, don't we? Maybe not the power to water ski, but we feel the need for power in our prayers. We feel the need for more power in saying no to sin. We need the power to be courageous, to stand up for the gospel. We feel the need for power to give us peace when our world is collapsing around us. We all want power, but the good news is that if you are a Christian, you already have all the power that you need.
The power is not a special force. That power is a person, the Holy Spirit of God. Last week, we began a brand new series of messages entitled Unleashed, Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit, and we're talking about how we as Christians can access that tremendous spiritual horsepower that we all possess, the Holy Spirit of God. We said last time that while every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, not every Christian is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. Far too many Christians go through life unaware of the great power that they already have as Christians. They're like that poor old Indian chief we talked about last week that bought the red Cadillac and then attached two horses to the front bumper to pull him around.
He had no idea of the tremendous horsepower that was already under the hood. Many Christians are like that. We are unaware of the tremendous spiritual horsepower that we have as believers. Now today, we're going to look at what this baptism with the Holy Spirit is all about. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 12, 13. This is the seminal passage for the discussion of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. And the last time, we answered two questions about the Holy Spirit. First of all, who is the Holy Spirit? And we saw last time that the Holy Spirit is first of all God Himself.
When we say the Holy Spirit indwells you, we're saying God Himself indwells you. He is equal to God the Father and God the Son. He is never called an it in the Bible.
He is always referred to as a he. He is a person. And then secondly, we answered the question, when does a Christian receive the Holy Spirit into his life? Do we have to beg, barter, plead, cry for the Holy Spirit to come into our life?
Or is He already present within us? And again, the seminal verse to that question answers that question. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13.
Paul says, for with one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit. That word baptized comes from the Greek word baptizo, and it means to immerse. In the classical Greek literature, it was used, among other instances, to refer to the process by which you would change the color of a piece of cloth. If you wanted to change the color of the cloth, you would take that piece of cloth and you would baptizo it. You would immerse it in a vat of dye. You didn't sprinkle it.
You immersed it to completely change its color. That's what happens to us when we become a Christian. Jesus Christ immerses us. He baptizes us.
He doesn't sprinkle us. He baptizes us completely with the Holy Spirit of God. And the result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is, first of all, Jesus Christ changes our spiritual color. He takes us from being guilty and rebellious sinners to forgiven and obedient disciples of Christ. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is the process by which Jesus Christ changes us, and secondly, he connects us to himself and to other members of the body of Christ.
Now notice what he says here. He says, for by one spirit, with one spirit, we were all baptized. Every Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not reserved for a select few group of Christians. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is not some sort of spiritual upgrade you have to pay extra for if you want a first class relationship with God. No, the baptism with the Holy Spirit is available to every Christian. But notice there is a difference between the baptism with the Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. While every Christian experiences the baptism with the Holy Spirit, only a few, only a select group really experiences the filling, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that we're going to talk about next time. Now I know some people want to argue with me about this idea, every Christian experiencing the baptism with the Spirit.
They will point to instances in history where great men like D.L. Moody and R.A. Torrey and others were saved, but after their salvation, sometimes months, years after their salvation, they had an additional experience with the Holy Spirit. We're going to talk about that next time with the second blessing.
So how do you explain that? Or how do you explain the instances in the Bible where you had people saved for a period of time who did not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit? It's something that came afterwards. Well, we're going to look at today, first of all, the three passages in the book of Acts that seem to indicate that the baptism with the Holy Spirit doesn't come at the time of salvation, that it comes after our salvation. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to turn first of all to Acts chapter 2. These are three passages in Acts that tend to teach that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not concurrent with salvation, but subsequent to our salvation. Now the first is the first recorded instance of the baptism with the Holy Spirit in the Bible.
Look at this. Remember the apostles were in the upper room. They were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come as Jesus had prophesied.
Look at verse 1 of Acts 2. This is the passage that records the long-awaited coming, the baptism with the Holy Spirit on believers. Remember this had been prophesied for thousands of years. The Old Testament had prophesied that believers would one day be baptized with the Spirit. Joel talked about that among other prophets. The Gospel writers looked forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist prophesied it would happen. Even Jesus Christ Himself prophesied that it would be a future point in time when the Holy Spirit came. For example, in John 16 verse 7, Jesus said, But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper, that is the Holy Spirit, shall not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you. Even when Jesus was on earth walking with His disciples, His disciples never experienced the baptism, the permanent indwelling with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, I have to leave first before the Holy Spirit can come. So here you have people like Abraham, David. You have people like Moses. You have the apostles, John the Baptist.
Nobody had ever experienced the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But they all knew it was coming one day. And the day that it came was the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And that's why there was a delay between believing and receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Just as there was a point in time when Jesus was born, a point in time when He died and rose again, so there had to be one point in history when the Holy Spirit would come as had been prophesied. And that point in time was the day of Pentecost. Merrill Unger writes, Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, is as unrepeatable as the creation of the world and of man as once for all as the incarnation, the death, the resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
Does that make sense to you? We had to have a point in time when the Holy Spirit came. So He came at the day of Pentecost. But aren't there other passages that seem to indicate believers don't always receive the baptism with the Spirit? The second passage people point to is Acts chapter 8.
Look at that, verses 14 through 17. Luke records, Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them, they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then the apostles began laying their hands on these Samaritans and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Now remember, the Samaritans were half Jews who hated the full-blooded Jews, and the full-blooded Jews hated these half-breeds called the Samaritans. But what did Jesus say? He said, And the Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses to where?
Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the other parts of the world. Well, just as Jesus prophesied, the Gospel came to the Samaritans. And they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The problem was they hated the Jews, they hated the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and the Jewish Christians hated them. So how was God going to bridge that gap between these two groups and make them all a part of the body of Christ? Well, God, in this exceptional case, delayed the coming of the Holy Spirit for these Samaritan believers until the Jewish Christian leaders Peter and John of the church in Jerusalem could travel to Samaria, see for themselves that these Samaritans had been saved, and God gave them the authority to lay hands and they could receive the Holy Spirit. And these Samaritan Christians, when they saw that these Jewish leaders who had become Christians, Peter and John, had laid hands on them and given them the gift of the Holy Spirit, it had a way of unifying the body of Christ between the Samaritans and the Jews. The reason the Holy Spirit was delayed in this exceptional case was for this one very special purpose to bring unity in the body of Christ. Now, there's one final instance that people point to to say that the Holy Spirit's coming is subsequent and not concurrent with salvation. Look at Acts 19 verses 1 to 7.
This is so interesting to me. Again, Luke records, And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus and found some disciples. And he said to these disciples, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Now, notice, by asking that, Paul was indicating that would be the normal thing to happen, to receive the Holy Spirit when you believe. So he sees these disciples and he said, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
And they said to him, No, we've not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit. And Paul said, Well, then into what were you baptized? And they said, Into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in Christ who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus. And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.
Now, let me give you the Reader's Digest version of what was going on here. Paul is going through Ephesus. He meets these men who appear to be Christians. And he says to them, Now, you know, in today's world, if we see somebody and we're not sure whether they're saved or not, we've all learned that question from evangelism explosion to help diagnose whether a person's really saved or not. We ask them, If you were to stand before God and He were to ask you, Why should I let you into heaven?
What would you say? By the way, a person's answer to that question can really tell you whether they're saved or not. Because most of the time when you ask people, Well, what would you say to God about why He should let you into heaven? Most people will say, Well, because I'm a pretty good person. I'm better than Osama bin Laden was. I keep the Ten Commandments.
I give my mother flowers on Mother's Day. You know, I'm a pretty good person. That's why God ought to let me into heaven. And, of course, the only right answer to say to that is the only reason God would let me into heaven is because I've trusted in His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for my sin.
It's only faith in Christ that saves us. Well, in Paul's day, they didn't have evangelism explosion, so Paul had his own question that he asked people to determine whether they were saved or not. And Paul asked them the question, Okay, you're a disciple.
Have you received the Holy Spirit of God? And when they said, We haven't even heard of the Holy Spirit of God, that sent the alarm bells ringing in his mind and he said, There's a problem here. So he probes further and he says, Well, you were baptized.
Into what were you baptized? They said, Oh, we were baptized by John the Baptist. We were followers of John the Baptist.
He said, Ah, there's the problem. John the Baptist was simply a forerunner announcing the coming of Jesus Christ. It turns out these disciples were not true believers. They were followers of John the Baptist. And so, once Paul explained the gospel to them and they were saved, the Bible says then they received the coming, the baptism with the Holy Spirit of God.
Now, here's the point I want you to take away from this. From Acts chapter 8 all the way through the rest of the New Testament up until today, the pattern is very clear. When you truly trust in Christ as your Savior, you immediately receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit of God. Every Christian has been baptized with the Holy Spirit, but not every Christian has been empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. Now, as we wrap up this study on the baptism with the Holy Spirit, let me answer the so what question.
And that's the question, so what? What does the baptism with the Holy Spirit mean to me? If the Holy Spirit's baptism, if that's part of the basic package, to use the car analogy, if every believer has it, what benefit do I derive from the baptism with the Holy Spirit? Let me share with you three things the Holy Spirit has done for every Christian. If you're a Christian today, here are three things the Holy Spirit has already done for you. Number one, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us the ability to trust in Christ. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the ability to trust in Christ. I want you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 for just a moment.
Ephesians chapter 2, while you're turning there, let me ask you a question. Is everybody in the world free to trust in Christ as his Savior? Is everybody in the world free to trust in Christ as his Savior? Or do you believe that God has put a choke hold on some people? Does God restrain some people from coming to Christ? Is there somebody who wants to come to Christ and God grabs him by the neck and says, no, whoa, you can't do that, you're not predestined. Only those who have predestined will I allow come to Christ. Is everybody free to come to Christ? Absolutely. Jesus said whoever wants to drink of the water can do so without cost.
Everybody is free to trust in Christ, but not everyone is willing or able to trust in Christ. Let me show you the difference. Let's say I take a bale of hay and set it in front of a lion. Is that lion free to eat the hay?
Of course. There's a chain on it that keeps it from going to the hay. That lion is absolutely free to eat as much hay as it wants to. But will that lion ever eat hay?
No. It's not because he's not free to, it's because he doesn't want to. By nature he is a carnivore.
He is a meat eater. And because by nature he is a meat eater, there is nothing inside him that desires that bale of hay. And it's the same way with non-Christians. Yeah, the non-Christian is free to trust in Christ. He's free to come to God, but by nature he will never do so because by nature he is an enemy of God. And that's what Paul says in Ephesians 2, 1, and 3.
Look at this. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. He's talking about our life before Christ.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sin. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of our mind, and we were, underline this, by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. By nature we were born into this world hating God. The Bible says we are born into this world not desiring God. Romans chapter 3 says, There is not one righteous person among us, no, not even one. There is no one who seeks for God.
This is a critical point in our study because there's a lot of confusion on this topic. You see, it's the Holy Spirit who empowers us to put our trust in Jesus. And for those of us who already know Christ, the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside of us today. And so I've written a book to help you experience God's power and presence like never before.
My book is titled, I Want More. And in this practical book, I explain how you can deploy the power of God's Spirit in order to experience God in a fresh, new way. The Holy Spirit indwells every Christian. He dwells inside of us.
But few understand how to unleash His power. In my bestselling book called, I Want More, I'll help you overcome the stumbling blocks that keep you from having victory and satisfaction in your spiritual life. You're invited to request your copy of my book, I Want More, when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. A quick word about your financial support of Pathway to Victory.
We understand the financial pressure upon many families in today's climate. At the same time, the spiritual forces working against us are on the upsurge, only to say your generous and sacrificial gift to Pathway to Victory comes at a critical time. So thank you for your generosity that makes this Bible teaching ministry available not only on your radio station, but on hundreds of stations around the world. Don't forget you can watch Pathway to Victory on television. On Saturdays, we're on at noon Eastern on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
On Sundays, we're on hundreds of stations, including TBN at 10 a.m. Eastern. David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. A copy of the book, I Want More, is yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Call 866-999-2965, or make your request online at ptv.org.
Now, when you give a gift of $75 or more, you'll also receive a CD and DVD copy of Unleashed. That's this month's teaching series on the Holy Spirit. One more time our phone number, 866-999-2965, or go to ptv.org. You could send your request by mail. Write to P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back to join us next time when the message called The Christian's Birth Certificate continues, right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org slash donate, or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory.
