Classic Holiness Sermon: Pentecost

by P. F. Bresee

He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire (Matt. 3:11 [KJV, etc.]).

And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (Acts 1:4, 5)

Everything that God does or arranges for is at the proper time. The sun and moon are regular in their courses and the seasons come at the proper time. Christ came in due time and His sacrifice for the sin of the world was at the appointed time. The crowning fact in the salvation of this world, the coming of the Holy Ghost, was in God's time. And though every day since that time has been Pentecost and it has been opportune at any moment for Jesus Christ to baptize with the Holy Ghost, it is not inopportune, when the anniversary of that day comes, that we wait with special thanksgiving for this greatest of gifts--God himself--and look for His manifest power and glory.

On this anniversary morning as we are gathered together in our place, of one accord, as they were on that Sunday morning, to feel afresh and know the mighty power of God as they felt and knew, there are a few things to consider. They may be very primary things, but the primary colors mingled make the perfect light of day, so these primary things make the light of Christian experience.

Let us take it into our hearts afresh this morning; let us embalm it in our thoughts more, even, than ever before; let us recognize the fundamental character of the fact that everything depended upon the coming of the Holy Ghost and that everything depends upon His abiding. There would have been no continued Christian Church but for the coming of the personal Holy Ghost. If He had not come the end of the work of Jesus Christ would have come. That work of God in this earth which has its roots in prophecy and manifold divine manifestations, and its great upgrowth in the Man of Calvary, would have ceased.

I am not saying simply that prophecy would have failed; that promises supposed to have been made by God would have come to naught and that the words of Christ would have fallen to the ground. All this would have been true. But without regard to this, there could have been no continued Christian Church on the earth, without this personal coming of the Holy Ghost.

Does one question and say, "Has not Judaism lived?" Yes, but not without the coming of the Holy Ghost. Judaism lives because the revelation of the personal God is true, and according to His own word holds her up, even in her rejection of His Son, as a monument to the truth of His Word.

But has not Mohammedanism arisen and other religions, and have they not lived? Yes, man is a religious creature; and left without the true religion or even rejecting it, he will at once go to work and make a religion. And when a religion is once made, even by growth or by some religious genius, men cleave to it. But not the Christian religion. It demands conditions and service which the heart of man cannot be and do. It is not founded in superstition nor in human effort but in the manifest power of God. Take that away and the Christian religion dies. A religion bearing the name and having some of the forms may continue, but the Christian religion ceases. It was the coming of the Holy Ghost that made possible and clear the religion of Jesus Christ. And it is His coming and abiding that makes possible the Christian religion at any time. Let the Holy Ghost take His departure and Christianity ceases to be Christianity. There may be some shreds of the teachings of prophets and apostles and of Jesus, with the unreasonable things eliminated. The critical spirit of human wisdom may be applied to the sacred books until every unreasonable thing is removed and until they are made to conform to the spirit of modern learning. And the same spirit of human culture may be applied to what was worship in the Christian religion. Great thought and skill may be made to apply to what may be regarded as Christian architecture. Great temples and auditoriums may be produced, and men may be trained in all the learning of the schools, but without the Holy Ghost the Christian religion will be gone. That which saves from sin, which translates into a new kingdom, which makes men holy and fills them with God will be gone. Men will be saying, "lo, here" and "lo, there." "What great man is this," but the power of God will have departed.

The presence of the executive of the Godhead, the Holy Ghost, is essential to the continuance and maintenance of the Christian Church, and to maintain its truth. The truth is lost without the Holy Ghost. The great truths of God which are spiritual are revealed to man by the Holy Ghost. The great truths of this Book are as dead and as deeply buried in the words of this Book as any corpse in the grave without the Holy Ghost. He it is who gives them life and power. He it is who opens the eyes of men to see, who takes away the veil which hides their vision.

Men are made Christians only by the work of the Holy Ghost. No truth, no acceptance of truth will make a man a Christian. No effort of his own, no struggle he may make to be right will make him a Christian. No devotion of himself to what seems to him to be right and excellent will make him a Christian. A man is made a Christian by being made a new creature, and by being divinely sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Why do we so insist on repentance, faith in God, consecration of ourselves, if these do not make us Christians? Simply to put ourselves properly in the hands of God so that the Holy Ghost can do the mighty work.

We are often asked in one form or another what we mean by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Men say that we teach that the whole work of salvation is by the Holy Ghost; that He awakens, and re-creates, giving the new life; that the new life is His life begun in the heart; that we are kept by Him. Why do we divide it off and emphasize what we call the baptism with the Holy Ghost? We are always glad to discuss these questions because the Holy Ghost works along with our thinking, though far beyond it.

We do not divide it off from other Christian experience. It is closely connected with all other Christian experience. A man is convicted of sin that he may get rid of sin. His conviction ordinarily is in a general way. He comes to see by the light of the Holy Ghost that he is a rebel against God. He is sorry for specific sins, but the one great fact that rises high above all else is that he is a rebel against God. "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight" [Psalm 51:4, KJV, etc.]. Above all it is pardon that he feels the need of, that his guilty conscience may be relieved, that the condemnation which he feels may be taken away.

Then, that he may walk in the light of God, that he may love Him with all his heart, with great delight he obeys Him. With great alacrity he runs to do His will. With childlike glee he rejoices in the newfound treasure, but soon finds out that there is opposition to this new life in his own being; that though he loves God he does not love Him with all the heart, and that self intrudes. Into his love comes fear. Into his devotement comes ambition and self-seeking. There is a struggle in his own breast.

He looks up into the pure Spirit of Jesus by the light of the Holy Ghost and is overwhelmed. He cries out, "Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts" [Isaiah 6:5]. This is the place we need it and must have it. And this is the provision of the baptism with the Holy Ghost. It was for this that Jesus bade them wait. And Peter declares as the great fundamental fact that their hearts were purified. The fiery baptism burns up the dross, and nothing else will do this. This is the basis. This has to be insisted upon. This is the stigma. To die to sin is to go without the gate bearing His reproach.

Men would seek the baptism for power, for usefulness, for the greater peace and joy; but each man must feel the need of the cleansing blood for his own deliverance, for the sake of his own soul. As Paul declares, "That I [may] know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death" [Philippians 3:10]. Let me emphasize that the first great work of the baptism with the Holy Ghost is to make men holy, that they may love Him with all the heart and not backslide, but go on from grace to grace.

This being received you can stand and say that, "The very God of peace sanctifies me wholly" [see 1 Thessalonians 5:23]. God can give you, in safety to yourselves and to His work, the power of His indwelling, and fulfill in you the promise that, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power . . . and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" [Acts 1:8].

There is a power of holiness. I scarcely consider a holy man by himself, for he is never alone, and is never to be reckoned with simply as a man. But yet he is a man, and is not simply and altogether a vessel. He has a holy manhood, a manhood that is unworldly, that loves God with all his heart, that seeketh not his own, but the things that are Jesus Christ's.

The power of a holy man is not himself, but the indwelling Holy Ghost. While he is personality enlarged and strengthened, yet he is more of an avenue, more of a transmitter, more a viaduct, than a personality, i.e., he is filled with and clothed upon with power so much greater than himself that he is comparatively lost sight of. Something like a minister of the United States government, he represents not himself but his government. The power of a holy man is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

It is power in him of personal establishment. Paul desired to preach to the Christians at Rome, to impart to them some spiritual gift, to the end that they might be established. He desired to preach to them at Thessalonica that they might be established in holiness. That they might have power to stand even in the evil day.

"But my circumstances and conditions are such." You know nothing yet as you ought to know. If you knew God in the power of His grace, you would know no circumstances or conditions. "But I am so weak." Yes, you are a baby and you like to be a baby, and want people to baby you. It is time you were men and women.

"To be witnesses." Power to suffer for Him. Martyrs, to suffer for Him. To be made partakers of His sufferings. You will not be made holy through the blood by the baptism with the Holy Ghost without suffering with Him. Power to suffer and not repine will be given you. The apostles first beaten and threatened and let go departed from the council. How? Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name. The world against you; friends, ecclesiasticism, society, against you; you suffer in mind, heart, and body. You are made a gazing stock. Your enemies are those of your own household. How should you feel? Rejoice, and be exceeding glad. Suffering for Him is the seed of the kingdom. He suffered without the gate. By His suffering He laid hold of the power of darkness. By His agony He triumphed. We go unto Him without the camp. Our very being is wrapped in His. He bears it with Him. He holds it in His nail-pierced hands. It goes with Him into the sepulcher. He cradles it in the grave. How utterly lost is this world to us, and how insignificant its possibilities of suffering or exaltation. But He bursts the bands of the grave! Thy little suffering already has in it the resurrection power and glory.

Ye have power to be witnesses. Power to tell. It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost speaketh through you, through me. "I am not eloquent." That was one word that Moses needed to be ashamed of. Jesus does not need a gold jeweled cup to pour the wine of His heart's blood through to men. He did not have a cross of gold bedecked with jewels. It was a rough wooden cross. He can take a rough clay pitcher and pour through it the water of life. "That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" [2 Corinthians 4:7]. The power is of God. Human knowledge and wisdom, and culture, are far less than the foolishness of God.

The Holy Ghost in us, and through us, and about us, will work upon the hearts of men convincing them of their need of God. He is in the world to carry on the work which Jesus Christ began, to destroy the work of the devil. He will find a way to reach the hearts of men. He knows the secret doors which we could never find.

I desire to insist this morning that the personal Holy Ghost has come. He whom the Father promised, and who Jesus said should come. Friends say, "Do you believe that the experience of the disciples on the day of Pentecost is possible today?" There are some things which we believe, very precious things, and we hope for them. But there are some things which we know, what we have felt and seen.

*P. F. Bresee, Sermons from Matthew's Gospel (Kansas City: Nazarene Publishing House).