I indeed . . . but he - Chambers, Oswald

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he . . . Shall baptize you with the holy ghost, and with fire. Matthew 3:11

The baptism with the holy ghost and with fire is Jesus Christs own peculiar right; he is the true bap- tiser. I indeed baptize you with water, said john, but he . . . Shall baptize you with the holy ghost, and with firea strange and amazing and super- natural baptism.

I wonder if we have ever seen Jesus Christ, if we know who he is? Have we ever heard ringing in our souls these words, behold the lamb of god! There is a phrase used in America, i want what i want when i want it. The way you will want the baptism of the holy ghost and fire is when you begin to see the lord Jesus; when you see him, the great heart- hunger, the great longing of the life will be, i want to be like him. But remember, you must come to him; it is his prerogative to baptise with the holy ghost. It is not a blessing we gain by faith, not a blessing we merge into by devotion and fasting, it is the super- naturally natural result of coming to jesus as the true baptiser. One sees lives on the right hand and on the left turning sour and cynical, seeing only the frauds and disappointments in lifeif they would only look to the lord jesus! He baptises with the holy ghost and with fire, that is, he makes us like himself.

I want to ask a very personal question how much do you want to be delivered from? You say, i want to be delivered from wrong doing then you don’t need to come to Jesus Christ. I want to walk in the right way according to the judgement of men then you don’t need Jesus Christ. But some heart cries outi want, god knows i want, that Jesus Christ should do in me all he said he would do. How many of us want like that? God grant that this want may increase until it swamps every other desire of heart and life. Oh, the patience, the gentleness, the longing of the lord Jesus after lives, and yet men are turning this way and that, and even saints who once knew him are turning aside, their eyes are fixed on other things, on the blessings that come from the baptism with the holy ghost and have forgotten the baptiser himself.

Do you know what this mighty baptism will mean? It will mean being taken right out of every other setting in life but gods. Are you willing for that? It will mean that sin in you is put to death, not counteracted, but killed right out by identification with the death of Jesus; it will mean a blazing personal holiness like his. Are you willing for that? Face Jesus himself; other lights are fading since he grew bright. You are getting tired of life as it is, tired of yourself as you are, getting sour with regard to the setting of your life; lift your eyes for one moment to Jesus Christ. Do you want, more than you want your food, more than you want your sleep, more than you want anything under heaven, or in heaven, that Jesus christ might so identify you with himself that you are his first and last and for ever? God grant that the great longing desire of your heart may begin to awaken as it has never done, not only the desire for the forgiveness of sins, but for identification with Jesus himself until you say, i live; yet not i, but Christ liveth in me.

Another thing about this mighty baptism it takes you out of your individual life and fits you into gods purpose. Are some of you realising the awful loneliness of being alive? You cannot mix in with the worldly crowd you used to, and there is a great hunger and longing after you know not what. Look to the lord Jesus and say, my god, i want to be so identified with the lord Jesus that i am pure with his purity, empowered with his power, indwelt with his life. Do you know what will happen? God will take your lonely, isolated, individual life and fit it into a marvellous oneness, into the mystical body of Christ. Oh, the isolated, lonely, christian lives! What is needed is this mighty baptism with the holy ghost and with fire. I have been seeking for it, fasting for it, you say; listen, come unto me, says Jesus, he is the baptiser with the holy ghost, and with fire.

Have you seen Jesus as the lamb of god, which taketh away the sin of the world? What is the first step to take? Come to him just as you are and ask him to give you the holy spirit. As soon as you receive the holy spirit he begins to awaken in you the tremendous want, overwhelming, all- absorbing, passionate in its impelling rush, to be baptised with the holy ghost and with fire. If you have never received the holy spirit, why not receive him now? Ask god for his spirit on the authority of Jesus, and he will lead you, as you obey him, straight to the place where you will be identified with the death of Jesus.

Where are we in regard to the personal experience of the baptism of the holy ghost? If Jesus Christ had said to us, all you need to do is to be as holy as you can, overcome sin as far as you can, and i will over- look the rest, no intelligent man under heaven would accept such a salvation. But he says be ye . . . Perfect; love your enemies; be so pure that lust is

An impossibility. Instantly every heart calls back, my god, who is sufficient for these things? Oceans of penitential tears, mountains of good works, all powers and energy sink down till they are under the feet of the lord Jesus, and, incarnate in john the baptist, they all point to him behold the lamb of god, which taketh away the sin of the world! If Jesus Christ can- not deliver from sin, if he cannot adjust us perfectly to god as he says he can, if he cannot fill us with the holy ghost until there is nothing that can ever appeal again in sin or the world or the flesh, then he has misled us. But blessed be the name of god, he can! He can so purify, so indwell, so merge with himself, that only the things that appeal to him appeal to you, to all other appeals there is the sentence of death, you have nothing to answer. When you come amongst those whose morality and uprightness crown them the lord of their own lives, there is no affinity with you, and they leave you alone.

When you are born again of the spirit of god the characteristic of your testimony is this once i was that, now i am this, and he did it. But when you are baptised with the holy ghost, there is only one you see, one you love, one you live for from early morning till late at night, one you die for. Every thought is gripped and held enthralled by the master of human destiny, the lord Jesus christ, and the whole life is devoted to him. My witnesses, wherever we are placed he is glorified, not by the testimony of the lips only, but by the whole life.