In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing and acting upon the simple truths of the Bible. He highlights how many people are bound and unable to do anything because of their ignorance. The speaker shares a personal experience of how he was able to miraculously reach a person in need by relying on the power of God. He also talks about the joy of being a "river Christian" who can pour out the blessings of the Holy Spirit upon others. The sermon concludes with a story about a preacher who challenges the idea that heaven is far away, emphasizing the presence of the Holy Spirit as a comforter.

Jesus said, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. World Map Tape Outreach is fulfilling this divine commission by bringing you these messages for your spiritual edification. Open your Bible and your heart and share now in the teaching ministry from God's Word. I'm happy to be with you in this camp this afternoon and to share with you some of the things that I find is so necessary for God's people, all God's people, to know and to act upon. For you know, when Jesus said, The truth shall make you free, he just meant that. A lot of people are bound, doing nothing, just because they don't know how. They don't know what. If only they knew they'd do things. But they don't. And I really am amazed at the ignorance of God's people. It's tragic how ignorant we are of the simple truths of the Bible that ought to liberate us from our doubts, from our fears, from our suspicions, and just make us bold as lions to do anything. But, of course, you can put a lion in a cage and the poor fellow doesn't know that he's got strength to break those bars, so he stays behind the bars. And that's the trouble with some of God's people. Jesus was talking to his disciples one day when Thomas said to him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, how can we know the way? Now, here's an ignorant man. I don't, we don't know where you're going, how can we know the way? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how seest thou then, show us the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. And that the Father may be glorified in the Son, if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. Oh, the richness of this promise and the simplicity of it all. Simply this, that Jesus said, I am in the Father and the Father in me. In the fifteenth chapter he says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Have you ever seen a hard-working branch? That branch just stays put, and through the branch flows the power that causes, brings about the grapes. You are just to be in me and I in you. And as the Father in me and I in the Father produces such works, therefore when I am in you and you in me, you can do the works that I do. And even greater works than these, because I go to the Father. This is the promise of the Lord. And this is possible if we will but know the truth. Now, we come to Acts 1. Jesus was speaking again to his disciples, and in the fourth verse he said, 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. 4. John truly baptized in water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. What was he talking about? Pentecost. Not many days hence. There's a day coming now that you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, exactly like John baptized in water. And you notice I say in. I know the King James Version says with, but that's one of the big mistakes in the King James Version. It's full of mistakes, but that's one of them. John never baptized with water. Never. He only baptized in water. John couldn't baptize with Jordan. He baptized in Jordan. And Jesus never baptizes with the Spirit. He baptizes in the Spirit. Then the Spirit is in you, and you in the Spirit. But very few people know that they are in the Spirit. They think they're mostly out of the Spirit. They think they're still in the Old Testament, where the Spirit never was in the prophet, but only upon the prophet. Where did the Spirit come into the disciples? He now says to them, you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? They wanted positions in the political world. They wanted to win political authority. They wanted to really excel. They wanted to be free from the bondage of the Roman government. Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in his own power. But listen to this, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Not in, upon. That means that you are in the Spirit, and the Spirit upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's what Jesus said ought to happen to the people upon whom the Spirit comes. They become witnesses for Jesus. When did the Spirit come into these men? Jesus said, I in you, and you in me. When he rose from the dead, we read in John's Gospel, the twentieth chapter, that morning, when he rose from the dead on the third day, that morning he met Mary Magdalene, and said to her, go and tell my brethren I go to my father and your father. First he said, don't touch me. I haven't gone to my father yet. Don't touch me. I am on my way. Tell my brethren I'm going to my father and your father, my God and your God. That's a wonderful thought. But she came and reported this, and he's gone. They didn't see him in the tomb, so they left. But she stayed until she saw him. And then she got this message to take back to them. I go to my father and your father, my God and your God. How far is God? We sing how great is God. How far is he? He says, I go to my father. Some of us have a silly idea that heaven is so far away that it takes a long time to get an answer. We've got a few Americans out there around the moon now. Look how long it took them to get there. And they want to step on the moon and step back. What an achievement for science. What an achievement men have come to. When are we going to step out some into God's space? What are we afraid of? I'm not afraid of those fellows. I asked Jesus to take care of them, and he's the only one that's out there that can take care of them. We've had a man in space for ages. Jesus is out there. And he went and came back. For that morning, he said, I go to my father and your father. Don't touch me now, but I go to my father and your father. And that evening he was back. And he said, all power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Where'd you get it? Well, I've just come from the throne. I've just come from the throne. Oh, but, hmm, can it be real? He says, touch me. You see, he'd been to his father, now you can touch him. Why? Now he's got all power in heaven and on earth. In my last newsletter, I said there were two ascensions. And you'd be surprised how many people talked to me about it, wrote to me about it. They said, we never heard of such a thing as two ascensions. We thought Jesus went up once for all. Oh, no, I said he went up and came back. And reported all things well. All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. He said to Mary, I go to my father and your father. What do you think, where did he go? And when he came back and said, all power is given unto me, where did you think he'd come from? Where was he from the morning till the evening? The old Negro preacher, they gave him a signs book. And he shouted, glory. And they said, now what's in that book that you shout glory for? He says, this silly book says that if I want to get to one of the stars, I'll have to travel at the rate of light, the speed of light, 186,000 miles an hour, a second rather, and still I'd have to be an old man before I get there. He says, what nonsense. Glory to God, he says, heaven isn't that far away. They said, what do you think? He said, well, Jesus said, when he finally said goodbye, he said, I'll tell, ask the Father to send you a comforter. He left and ten days later the comforter was there. He says, five days there and five days back. But I can see it faster than that. In the morning, he said, I go to my Father, and in the evening he was back. And he said to his disciples, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. How did his Father send him? First out of glory, out of heaven to earth, out of eternity into time, by a natural, supernatural birth. He was born of the Spirit, wasn't he? And what does he mean now? I, the Son of God, had to be born naturally supernatural to become Son of Man, so that you sons of men can become sons of God. The Lamb of God that taketh away sin had died. He rose, he ascended and descended to tell them, now you can be sons of God. I've got all power in heaven and earth. And he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. That's where the Holy Ghost got into the disciples. He said to them, he that is with you shall be in you. And now he says, receive him, let him in. Oh, Jesus made it so simple. When he spoke to the woman at the well, he says, have a drink of what I can give you, and you'll never thirst again. It'll revolutionize your life. On the day of the feast he said, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. And if you believe, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Rivers of living water. And now we sing, here's my cup, Lord. Fill my cup, Lord, all these poor cup Christians. What do you want to fiddle with a cup when you can have a river? No wonder you look so miserable. Some Christians are like the brother. Every wonderful meeting he kneels at the altar, fill me again, Lord. Fill me again, fill me again. A very honest old sister knelt beside him. She said, Lord, please don't, he leaks. He's forever pleading, fill me again. And Jesus says, rivers shall pour out of you. I want to help you this afternoon to see that every one of you can be a pouring Christian. Not a sponge that sucks in everything, but just pour it on. Why don't you keep pouring? And I don't see that when they strike a gusher, they don't have to put on pumps, they've got to put on caps to close it down. I don't think I have much trouble to get it out. My trouble is to keep it in. And you don't have to put forth any effort. Like that branch that does nothing but abide and let it pour through him, he does it. And so Jesus says to them, as my Father sent me, so send I you. And here's the first step. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Be born of the Spirit. And every one of you that met the Lamb of God, the resurrected Son of God, he breathes new life into you, and you become a son and a daughter of God. The Spirit of God is in you. This is the new birth. And here the church was born on the day of his resurrection. That's where the church was born. Oh, says a Baptist to me in a Baptist church when I was preaching, but we heard that the church was born on the day of Pentecost. I said, do you think so? He said, well, I always thought so. I said, Baptist, now you are in trouble. He said, why? I said, because if you say the church was born on the day of Pentecost, that means the disciples and everybody else was born again for the first time on the day of Pentecost. He said, yes. I said, because you couldn't be in the church without regeneration. Nobody's in the church if they're not regenerated. You only get in the church by the Spirit. You must be regenerated to get into the body of Christ. And if you say the disciples received regeneration on the day of Pentecost, then, brother, nobody's regenerated until they speak in tongues. No, he says, I can't believe that. I said, I don't believe it. That's why I say the church was born when Jesus breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. What happened on the day of Pentecost? The newborn church was baptized into the Holy Ghost. And nobody can be baptized in the Holy Ghost unless he's first born again. The baptism is not for any but a child of God. And he doesn't get it to become a child of God. He receives this baptism because he is a son of God. Jesus came to Jordan. Do you think he came to receive the Holy Ghost? Or do you believe the Holy Spirit was in him? I believe the Holy Spirit was in him from his birth. He was born of the Spirit, the Son of God for 30 years. Did he come to Jordan to become the Son of God? No, sir. He was the Son of God. And this baptism was for the Son of God. And he was 30 years old. So that nobody can say that he grew up into it. It wasn't something he grew up into. It was a tremendous event. And today people want us to believe that you are born of the Spirit and then you gradually grow into the Spirit until, well, you got something like Pentecost. And they don't want to accept Pentecost as an event. As a glorious happening in your life. So Jesus now says to them, he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Then he says to them, Wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. What was the promise of the Father? We say the promise of the Father was the Holy Ghost. Sure. But the promise of the Father was more than that. For John the Baptist said, He that sent me, he promised that someone will come after me that is greater than I. He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost. That's the promise of the Father. The promise of the Father was a baptizer. And, of course, if there's a baptizer, there must be a baptism. There must be a baptism. Jesus Christ is baptizer in the Holy Ghost. But now he says to the disciples, When he breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, He said to them, Now you can do one thing. You can go, whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted. You are now born of the Spirit. Your sins are wiped away. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all unrighteousness. Now forgive everybody. That's what is the privilege of every child of God. Just to forgive everybody. Forgive who? Whosoever. That means everybody. And we'll get a lot more people saved if we'll forgive them than we do by judging them. And I never saw more expert judges than Christians. If they don't judge the world, they judge each other. And poor fellows, when they judge so much others that they even judge themselves. But if you'll begin to forgive others, you'll be able to forgive yourself too. And most people are miserable because they can't forgive themselves. Why can't they? Because they can't forgive anybody else. Jesus said, Forgive, that's all. And Peter this time didn't say, Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother? He just kept quiet. Because the Lord already told him. Not seven times, but seventy times seven. I must forgive my brother seventy times seven. Could you imagine a brother that bad that you've got to forgive him 490 times? Could you imagine that? One fellow said, Do you think anybody could be that bad? Well, I said, How about your wife? He just bowed his head and walked away. I think we do a lot of forgiving. And if a man and wife can forgive one another and stick together, why can't we forgive everybody and stay together? If we didn't never forgive one another, we'd never stick together. And it's because the world has so little forgiveness that we have so much trouble and division. Families are disrupted. Churches are disrupted. Peoples are disrupted. No forgiveness, no forgiveness. But now Jesus says to them, He shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. When he comes into you, start forgiving. And when he comes upon you, you shall have power. And ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, unto the uttermost parts of the earth. What means witnesses unto me? It simply means you shall be like me. You will be like me. And he says to Thomas, If you saw me, you saw the Father. You know, the world ought to see Jesus when they see us. Honestly. We ought to have the character of Jesus, for the fruit of the Spirit is the very character of Jesus. If you bear fruit, the Father will be glorified. What is fruit of the Spirit? Love. If you love one another. Well, now he says you shall be witnesses unto me. Did this happen? Well, we'll just skip the day of Pentecost because we knew. We know now that the day of Pentecost came. These fellows received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And so we find in chapter 4, they had performed a miracle, the first miracle after Pentecost. But miracles did not begin at Pentecost. There were miracles before Pentecost. There were healings before Pentecost. There was the word of wisdom before Pentecost. There was the word of knowledge before Pentecost. There was discernment before Pentecost. There was faith before Pentecost. There was even interpretation before Pentecost. Daniel could interpret what was on the wall. All the gifts of the Spirit were manifested before the day of Pentecost. So those are not the consequences of a Pentecostal experience. What did the Pentecostal experience do? Only one thing that never was before, they spoke in tongues. That's all. You can call it the least of all the gifts because it is the last of all the gifts that were manifested. All the other gifts were manifested before tongues was. And finally tongues came on the day of Pentecost. And it's just useless to call anything Pentecostal if there's no tongues. For tongues was all that was there on the day of Pentecost. And you can't change it. The record's clear. And I'm glad for people today who are willing to accept the term Pentecostal. I'm not a Pentecostalist, but I am thoroughly Pentecostal. And I'm getting worse every day. I'm Pentecostal and nobody will change it. Because I do not only have the Spirit in me, I am in the Spirit. And not sometimes, all the time. You can't catch fish on dry ground. No fish is that foolish to come out of the river. And anybody that's baptized in the Holy Spirit should live in the Spirit. And if you don't, that's why you're gasping. Poor fish out of water. What a terrible thing. And you know a fish out of water, if that poor thing lies on the bank there low enough, you can smell it a mile off. And some Christians cause an awful stink. Because they don't live in the Spirit. They try to live on dry ground like other people. You've got to live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, all the time. Jesus doesn't baptize you in the Spirit and take you out again. They send me all kinds of little things about baptism because I use the word baptism. I refuse that other kind of word they've got, infilling and filled and filled again. I say it isn't filled, it's overflowing. But people get the idea you get empty and you fill up again, you get empty and you fill up again. No, sir. You're just overflow. But I don't keep the tap and the faucet in my kitchen flowing just to show it's full. I only turn it on when I want it. And I don't keep talking in tongues all the time to show I'm living in the Spirit. I just turn it on when I want it. But I'm always full. I never get filled, I just overflow sometimes, a little more than other times. But I stick with the word baptism. I do not use another word. And when they complain, I say, yes, God said it is a baptism. And so a friend sends me this. Here is from a book of a good Baptist writer. He says, is immersion the only valid form of baptism? The answer turns on two points. The meaning of the Greek word baptizo, the use of the word in Scripture. It is often said that baptizo means to immerse. This is true. But it means more than is popularly understood by immersion. It is not the same as bapto, which means to dip in and out again. But it has an intensive force and means to submerge and keep under. The contrast is seen in Greek literature, where the two words bapto and baptizo are applied to ships. The former, bapto, is used for a ship in a storm, dipping under the waves and up again, under the waves and up again. While the latter word is used of a ship that is sunk for good. It is also used of men who have been drowned. Well, goodness me, get drowned then. Drowned in the Spirit. It thus appears that the dipping practice by many people represents the idea of bapto rather than baptizo. In the New Testament, the words are not confused and the word bapto is never used of Christian baptism. That means Christian baptism is you get sunk in your faith. Live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, minister in the Spirit. You are in the Spirit. Now, this ought to be information that will liberate you from the idea that sometimes I'm in the Spirit and sometimes I'm out. You're always in the Spirit. Why don't I know it? Because you do not recognize the truth. But this truth ought to make you free. This truth ought to let you realize. God didn't baptize Jesus in the Spirit and then Jesus had to come back and say, Oh, Father, give me another baptism. Talking to a Dutch Reformed minister in Holland, he said to me, Brother David, I've tried. He's the television preacher for Holland and he's baptized in the Holy Ghost. You'd be surprised how many key people the Lord has baptized in the Holy Ghost lately. And he's one of the key men in the nation, speaks on television every week. And so they asked him to give teaching on the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And he said, Brother David, I did all right until I got confused within. I cannot say the Spirit comes in when you're baptized. I said, but didn't you notice that He comes upon? He said, upon. I said, yes. John was told by God. I knew Him not, but He that sent me to baptize in water. The same said unto me upon. Upon. Notice it. Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth in the Holy Ghost. And so the Spirit came upon Jesus and Jesus said, Now I am in the Father. The Father in me since I was born, but I in the Father since the day at Jordan. And now He says to them, that's how I do these works. The Father in me and I in the Father. And He doeth the works. This is why the words I speak, they are not even mine. The Father, He says these words. If you and I would begin to be so simple that we accept these as facts, not myths, facts. That's how God sees it. But we're afraid. Why are we afraid? Because people who never have had the baptism teach us the way they think. I talked to some of these great learned men and they say to me, We don't always, we can't always understand Paul. I said, Why not? Well, we don't know what he means. I said, But if you had Paul's experience you would know what he means. I said, How do you come to your conclusions then? Oh, they say we just speculate a little. And if there's anything I dislike, it's speculative theology. That means guessing. I said, Why should you guess? Why don't you experience it? They say, Have you got Paul's experience? Oh, yes, I said. Every bit of it. They said, How can you claim that? I said, Well, Paul didn't walk with Jesus and I didn't. But Paul wasn't there on the day of Pentecost and I wasn't. But long after Pentecost, this man received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. And whether he got it 10 or 12 years afterwards, and I got it 12 or 15 or 1800 years afterwards, doesn't matter. I came afterwards. But I got the same baptism that Paul had. And I live in the Spirit like Paul did. And so, I understand what Paul means. I don't have to guess. I don't have to speculate. I just know. And now they call me a great authority on the Holy Spirit. They ask me on television, How come that you are such a great authority? Well, I said, I've lived in the Spirit for 50 years. He baptized me in 1918, and I've lived in the Spirit for 50 years. I ought to be an authority by this time. I ought to know something about it. And I know how it works. Well, now here we come. Jesus said, You shall be witnesses unto me. Did that ever come true? Listen, they just healed a man, and they didn't have a healing meeting. It's a funny thing. They went to a prayer meeting, and they hadn't even prayed. Before they ever got to pray, they healed a man. Jesus said, If you believe, you can lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Why don't we? Oh, we must first pray. He didn't say pray. He said, Lay hands on the sick. Just lay hands on them. And if you, in Jesus' name, will lay hands on the sick, you don't have to pray. One Methodist minister said to me, Well, I didn't believe in that stuff at all. But he says, One of my members demanded that I'm the elder, and I should lay hands on her. So I laid hands on her, because she demanded it. But I didn't believe one bit. She says she did. He says, And because I didn't believe one bit of it, but I did what she wanted me to do, I prayed, and I said, Lord, this lady or this sister believes that you can heal in answer to prayer, if it be thy will. He says, David, I should never have said that. Because the moment I said, If it be thy will, I got a shock, she got a shock, and she was healed. Why are you afraid to say, If it be thy will? Brother, you couldn't say anything better. Because it is the will of God to bless. It is the will of God to heal. Only you don't believe it. And he says, I didn't believe it, but I said, If it be thy will, and he proved to me that it is his will. Do you know what happened to that Methodist? He got converted. She got healed, and he got saved. Oh, you say an unsaved preacher lay hands on the sick? How could God answer that? God didn't answer his prayer. He answered her prayer. What did she do? She made the elder of the church. Oh, you could get some of your elders saved if you believed. And he said to me, I never thought God could answer prayer. And so I said, If it be thy will, and there he proved it to me. Now, here they had gone to the temple to pray. On the way they found this sick man. Must have been one of those that Jesus never looked at. He sat with the bearded Philgeben, the old beggar. And Peter said to him, Gold and silver I haven't got. I'm glad I'm not that poor today. I mean, I'm not as poor as Peter was that day. Gold and silver I haven't got. But he didn't turn him over to the Women's Missionary Council or something like that, poor fellow. He said, What I've got, I'll give you. And what did he give him? He gave him a gift of healing. And don't forget, it's the sick man that got the gift, not Peter. Peter was the delivery boy. He delivered what the Holy Ghost gives. And you can't show me any person that's got the gift to heal, nor can you show me such a gift in the Bible. There is no gift to heal, they are gifts of healing. And gifts of healing are only good for sick people. And when sick people get the gift of healing, they'll be healed. Oh, but there are brethren that God uses. They've only got a ministry of healing, but they haven't got the gift to heal. You can have a ministry of healing to deliver gifts of healing to the sick. Why don't you? Because you're still waiting for a gift to prove that you can do it. And so none of us do it because we can never find the gift. When we think we've got it, we try to employ it and it won't work. But if you will let the Holy Ghost do it, and use you, things will happen. After this incident we read that they found them in the temple preaching boldly. And it came to pass on the morrow, chapter 4, verse 5, came to pass on the morrow that their rulers and elders and scribes and Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and Meneas who were the kindred of the high priest were gathered together, and when they had set them in the midst they asked them, by what power and by what name have ye done this? You see, it got beyond the stage of talking now. It was the stage of doing. I told you just now that I spoke to a man last night, the very learned Methodist minister who had studied under Karl Barth. But Karl Barth's successor in Basel University is a man called Heinrich Ott. Heinrich Ott is a very brilliant young red-headed theologian today. He studied under Barth and then he studied under Bultmann. Now Bultmann is the man that says that the Bible is full of myths and we ought to take these myths out. Cut them out. So I know this is what he had heard from Bultmann. I meet him and I begin to tell him of what God is doing. You see, when I meet these fellows the way I do it is this. I do not make up my mind what I'm going to say. I don't make up my mind what I want to discuss with them. I just wait till I get there to see what the Holy Ghost wants to do. And when I get there, I just start talking. You see, I just open the tap and start pouring. For God said, you'll have rivers in you. Jesus said so. And I can pour it on fast. And I just met him and I poured it on. The first thing I poured on was love because unless you love, the Holy Ghost cannot and will not manifest himself. Don't you ever go to anybody with a fight in your mind because you're going to lose the fight. I've tried to fight people and then the Holy Ghost helps them and not me. Don't become aggressive or if you start fighting, you've lost already. But brother, if you can start loving, you'll paralyze them in no time and you're on top. I started talking to him. All of a sudden he said, wait a minute. He says, I've never heard such talk in my life. He says, what are you doing? Have you got a sense of destiny? I said, well, yes. I believe I'm here in God's time, God's purpose, and I'm a servant of God. He says, what do you feel your ministry is? Oh, I said, I've got a wonderful ministry. He says, what is it? I said, I go around demythologizing the Scriptures. He says, you do what? I said, I demythologize the Scriptures. He says, what do you mean? Oh, come on. I said, you studied under Bultman and you know that Bultman says the Bible is full of myths, stories. He says, that's right. I said, and Bultman says we've got to demythologize them. He says, what method do you follow? Oh, I see what you mean. What method I follow? I says, I bring these myths up to date. And then the myth is no longer a myth, it becomes a fact. And if I can turn your myths into facts, brother, the Bible is true. And so he looked at me, he says, for instance, I said, for instance, Acts 2. Acts 2 is a great myth, if we look at Christianity generally. I said, the only people that have spoiled that are the crazy Pentecostals. But you think they're crazy. I've come to tell you I'm not crazy. We're just demythologizing the Scriptures. We've got sense enough to do it. I said, and I can prove to you by the witness of millions of people, and if you don't want to believe the common people, the heathen, the Gentile, the heathen out there, I'll bring you the most educated men that say Acts 2 is true in the 20th century as it was in the 1st century. For they received the baptism in the Holy Ghost just like they did then. And from there on, that professor sat with his open mouth and he just listened to me demythologizing the Scriptures. Oh, there are no myths in the Word of God. We can bring them right up to date. They happen again. And last night, this preacher, I could see that he was interested. I told him this. And I said, you see, there are a few myths in the Bible that I also wondered about. That one, how that the prophets moved around, but particularly that one day, Philip ran himself out of breath to catch up with the eunuch. And then, after the eunuch had heard the Word and was baptized, Philip disappeared and was found in Azotus. And that's a long way off. Now, there are lots of fellows that said, that isn't true. That's just the way that Luke wrote it. But I said to him, there was a day in 1924 when I was suddenly moved by the Spirit. He said to me, you're wanted at a house at once. There's need there. There's trouble there. And I said immediately. The word was immediately. I said, Lord, I cannot be there immediately, but I promise I'll run as fast as I can. I left to Brethren, turned around, walked out the gate, and when I put my foot down to run the first step, I put it down in the front door of the house a mile away. And I looked and I said, how did I get here? I'm not out of breath, I'm not tired, and I'm here. I went in and found this poor brother suffering. Four men were holding him down. And when they let him go, he grabbed at me and I said, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke you. He fell back as if he was shot. I stood over and I said, now Satan, will you stop persecuting this man? Will you go out of this house and never come back again? A sister gave a scream and she said, I saw a huge serpent crawl out under the bed and out that window. And he was gone. And his brother said, my, what a lovely feeling. I've been bound. Something has been squeezing the life out of me. And now I'm free. And thank God he was free for the rest of his life. He never had another attack. But here we were singing, the Lion of Judah shall break every chain and give us the victory again and again, when these two brethren walked up. They came in, they said, sounds like there's victory here. And one of the brethren that was in there said, why yes, he says, when David came, the Lord seemed to have charged him with power and in no time he told the devil to get out and he's out. He says, how long has David been here? He says, 20 minutes. Oh no, they said, you can't tell us that. He left us 20 minutes ago. He said, well, he came in here 20 minutes ago. They said he couldn't run that fast. And they looked at me, they said, how'd you get here? Well, I said, I ran. Which way did you run? I said, well, from the gate where I came out, I ran to the left. They said, when that gate clicked, we walked up to it and we opened it and we looked to the left, there's no David there. We looked to the right, there's no David there. Where did you go? I said, well, in that case, I don't know where I went. I only know I got here. So, I had enough witness by then to know the Lord really did it. Now, how did you feel? I didn't have time to feel. It was perfectly normal, natural. I didn't feel funny. I didn't feel a shock. I didn't feel even the breath of air in my face. I was just here and then it was there. And I'm looking for the millennium. That's where I'm going to travel then. I don't think I'll need jets anymore when I've got that glorified body which Jesus gives us. Hallelujah. Well, now, by what power and what name have you done this? That's the question to the disciples. Are they asking us any questions? I repeat what I said at the previous meeting. The other day I read something that really touched me. And I've been thinking it over again and again. A man said to another man, if tonight you were accused of being a Christian and they called all the people that you had met today as witnesses, do you think they could prove you guilty? Would the witnesses prove you guilty that you are a Christian? How many of you would like to be guilty of being a Christian? Wouldn't you? Oh, brother, I want to be guilty every day. And I wish they'd get witnesses to prove I'm guilty. But then I have to live so that they can prove I'm guilty. And then I began to say, wait a minute, but I'm Pentecostal. And if they were to accuse me of being Pentecostal, could the people that I've dealt with, the people that I've met with, would their testimony prove that I'm guilty of being a Pentecostal? Are you guilty every day of being Pentecostal? Wouldn't you like to be guilty every day of being in the Spirit? And can you see now how we've got to walk so that everybody that meets us, everybody that sees us, ought to know it? And, brethren, you can go and find out. If you want to be the public prosecutor, go and get the witnesses. I don't care whether it was the cardinal or an archbishop or a theologian. There isn't one I've ever met in years now that could have doubted what I was. Many of them didn't only hear me say it, they felt it. They said they felt it. And I wondered, often I wondered what they feel. But when I realized that I walk in the Spirit, they must feel the Spirit. For the Spirit is greater than I. And if I'm in His atmosphere, they ought to feel that atmosphere. And that atmosphere must be love. And if you don't love, you spoil it. Now, Jesus said, You shall be witnesses unto me. And they were accused of having done a miracle, and I turned back, and I suppose I must hurry on. Here I come with something. This is Mark 11, 27. When they come again to Jerusalem, and as you're walking in the temple, there came to Him chief priests, scribes, and elders. I call this a commission, church commission, investigation. Have you ever heard of such things? They appoint commissions to investigate. They appointed a commission, they came to Jesus and listened to what they say to Him. By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee the authority to do these things? Isn't it clear that the works that He did, the apostles did, and they were asked the same question. They were asked the same question that they asked Jesus. Who were they? The chief priests, the Sanhedrin? Who were these? The chief priests? Elders? The same people that asked Jesus, now asked His disciples. And they ought to be asking us. They ought to be questioning us. By what authority do you thee these things? Who gave you this authority? Jesus said, I'll also ask of you one question. Tell me, I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or a man? Answer me. The reason they said, if we say from heaven, you'll say, why didn't you believe Him? If we say of men, they were afraid of the people. They believed that John was a prophet. And they answered and said to Jesus, we cannot tell. Poor fellows. It wasn't they cannot tell, they dare not tell. Perhaps they were afraid. Jesus said, neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. They asked Him for the source of His power and the reason for His ministry. And look where He takes them to. John's baptism. What's John's baptism got to do with it? If you tell me where John's baptism is from, I'll tell you where I got my power. For His power came from the same source that John's baptism came from. Now let's go and see. I think we ought to study John's baptism. And we go back to John's gospel, the first chapter. And we read in the 19th verse. Listen carefully. This is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Him, Who art Thou? Another commission. Another commission. There was a commission asking Jesus questions, but they'd already asked John questions. And that's why I know they knew where John's baptism was from. But they wouldn't admit it. John says to them, he confessed and denied not, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the anointed one, he means. They said, are you a liar? He said, no. Are you that great prophet? No. They said, but who are you? Really they wanted to know, what are you? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What do you say of yourself? He said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, said the prophet Isaiah. I am only here to introduce Him. I'm only a voice. I'm only telling you things. And verse 25, and they said to him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, neither Elias, neither that prophet? Why do you baptize? You see John, you're not only talking, you're doing things. And why do you do it? They didn't like John's baptism, because the Jews had a kind of a washing ceremony for proselytes. If they got a Gentile to join the Jewish religion, they circumcised him, then they washed him, and finally washed off all his Gentile ways, and they called that a baptism. But in order to do that, you've got to have the authority of the Sanhedrin. You've got to have three judges to decide that you can do it. And John didn't have any judges around. He left the temple and didn't work under the Sanhedrin. He didn't work under the auspices of the Sanhedrin. He worked under the auspices of Almighty God. John. He must have been a funny fellow. There was only one of them those days. And recently when I talked to some ministers, and we were discussing this, I said, well, brethren, I don't know. God uses men, and sometimes strange fellows. For I know if John the Baptist were alive today, and he came to San Francisco, the Bay Area where I live, why, they'll take him to Asbury Heights and make him king of the hippies. No time. He was a regular old hippie. He objected to society. He didn't like the status quo. He was revolutionary. And he said, but the biggest revolution is coming when Jesus comes. Why, he'll take away your sin and he'll change you so that you'll never be the same again. Do you want revival? The European hippies say to me, we don't want revival. They turn it on in the beginning of the week. They turn it off, close out the revival on Sunday night. We want something that's more lasting. We want revolution. So I prefer the word revolution to revival. We want something permanent. We want something that we can live and die for. One of those Presbyterian ministers got inspired. He said, David, that's a beautiful sermon topic. I said, what are you going to preach on? He says, a hippie in the Holy Land. And he preached it. And 300 hippies came to church to hear about the hippie in the Holy Land. And he said, this hippie found the way, found the truth. And the world was revolutionized by his introduction of Jesus Christ. John says, they say to him, why do you baptize? And when he saw Jesus, he said, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And he says, I knew him not. Listen to John. What are you baptized for? He says, I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing in water. John says, my baptism is that you Jews should see what he will do. For God knew when Jesus began to baptize, you wouldn't see him. He had ascended on high. You couldn't see the Spirit. He's like the wind. So how would they understand? God said he would baptize. How would they understand? So God made a natural example and said, like John baptizes in water, so Jesus will baptize in the Holy Ghost. And you can never understand the baptism in the Holy Ghost if you cannot see a baptism and immersion into the river. The only difference is, as the Baptist preacher says, that he means when Jesus immerses you in the Spirit, he leaves you in the Spirit. Then you live in the Spirit. You walk in the Spirit. But John says, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. The Spirit was in Jesus from his birth. But here the Spirit came upon him. And from that hour on, Jesus lived in the Spirit, walked in the Spirit, ministered in the Spirit. He was in the Spirit 24 hours a day. It didn't matter where or when. He was always ready. He was ready for any eventuality. He could command a storm. He could command demons. He could command the sick to walk. And when he saw a sick man come through the roof, he said, your sins be forgiven you. And I think if we'd forgive more people, we'd get more people healed too. This is Jesus. Where did you get the power to do these things? At the baptism of John, the Spirit came upon me. And from then on, I had power and authority to do the things that you see. And you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me. In what way? The works that I do, you shall do also. And greater works than these, because I go to my Father. And now, folks, please don't say that's just for the 12 apostles. That is for everybody. For Jesus never said that some will have it and some don't. A Baptist said to me, and you believe that anybody can get the baptism in the Holy Ghost? I said, sir, do you believe that anybody can get saved? He said, yes. I said, the Lamb of God that saves, that takes away sin, is that your authority? Yes. I said, the same man that called him the Lamb of God called him the baptizer in the Holy Ghost. And if you still believe he can save sinners today, I believe the same Jesus can baptize in the Holy Ghost today. Who did John say you could get this baptism? He said that to everybody that he baptized. And I said to the Baptist, Now, my friend, when John baptized the people, did they all get baptized the same way? He said, yes. I said, you're sure he baptized the one exactly like the other? Why, certainly. I said, you don't think perhaps he baptized some only so far? No, he said. That's not baptism. The no's must go under two. Well, now I said, please tell me something. What happened to John's candidates? He says, they were baptized. No, no, no. I said, what did the water do to them? Oh, he says, they got wet. I said, so the consequence of the baptism was they got wet. The water made them wet. He said, yes. I said, did they all get wet? Of course, he said. I said, some didn't get wetter than others? No, they all got wet exactly the same. I said, now what can I say? When Jesus baptized the first time, the first baptismal service into the Holy Spirit was on the day of Pentecost. And I said, you read, they all spoke in tongues. He says, yes, that's right. I said, so if all John's candidates got wet and all the candidates of Jesus spoke in tongues, do your candidates still get wet in the 20th century? Oh, of course, he said. I said, do they get just as wet as John's candidates did? He says, naturally. I said, then naturally when Jesus baptizes in the 20th century, they speak in tongues just like they did in the first century. And you don't get baptized because you got wet. You got wet because you were baptized. You don't speak in tongues because you want to be baptized. You speak in tongues because you are baptized. Can I have the baptism without speaking in tongues? You'll first have to get the baptism. The tongues comes afterwards, not before. You are not baptized because you spoke in tongues. You are baptized. You speak in tongues because you are baptized. And when you are baptized, listen. Oh, I wish I could impress this upon you. When you were baptized in the Holy Ghost, you received exactly the same endowment, the same power, the same authority that Jesus received at Jordan. And he says from that reason you can do the works that I do. When are we going to start? When are we going to start? Oh, I pray that the Pentecostal movement would wake up and stop thinking that tongues is the ultimate. Too many still say, Well, I got through in 1927 when I spoke in tongues. And it seems you are through. You are not in any longer. He never intended you to get in one side of the river and get out the other side. He intended you to stay in the river. For he says river should pour out of you and out of your belly, not out of your mind. That's our trouble. We want to fix everything with the mind. But it's from the heart. And you read what Jesus did. How did he do it? Compassion, compassion, compassion. Every time he had compassion, he did a miracle. If we had a little compassion. Where does compassion come from? Love? Love. If you love somebody and that person suffers, how much compassion do you have? Because your love constrains you. Let's love. But one day I said, Lord, how can I love such terrible people? You're sending me to awful people. How can I love them? He said, forgive them. How can I forgive them? They are wicked. He says, yes. But you have authority to forgive them. You have no authority to judge them. He never gave us authority to judge. He only gave us authority to forgive. I said, Lord, I can't justify what they're doing. I can't condone their sins. He says, you never do. You have no authority to condone sins. You have no authority to compromise with sin. But you have authority to forgive them. What does that mean? That means you don't judge. And thank God, if ever I was glad to lose a job, it was to lose this job of being everybody's judge. I got off the bench, and instead of being the prosecutor, I became the defender. And today I'm a defender. Today I love everybody. And the public defender will take the case of the worst rascal in jail. And that's what Jesus wants you and I to do. Oh, that we may learn to forgive, and forgive, and love. And that's why, of course, that's the reason why you find me in all these churches. I first forgave all the Pentecostals. I used to judge them. Then I forgave them. And then I had to forgive the Protestants for what they did to us poor Pentecostals. And then I had to forgive the Catholics for what they did to all the poor Protestants. And you know something? It's marvelous. When I forgave everybody, began to love everybody, everybody got blessed. And this river began to pour in a fashion that I have no trouble. I never get tired of pouring because I don't have to pump. Some fellows sweat, they pump so hard they sweat, and then they get a few drops out. I'm not a cup Christian, I'm a river Christian. I love to pour the sweet, cool waters of life upon people. And they just melt. They just break up. And today, thousands are baptized in the Holy Spirit. A few weeks ago, I was in Notre Dame University, the largest Roman Catholic and the most popular Roman Catholic university in this country. They invited me to go to a Catholic Pentecostal conference. Catholic Pentecostal conference. Were there any there? Only 600 Catholic students, professors, priests, nuns. And they didn't know I was in the meeting that night. Not many of them had seen me, but it seemed later on that most of them had read my book and had heard some tapes. And when I got up and I said, I'm David Duplessis, you should have heard the shout, the clapping, the cheering, the applause. And I said, I notice I'm among friends. And one shouted, we just love you. Well, I said, I so love, it's time I reap some now. And I like it. Then they had a Pentecostal mass. Pentecostal mass? Here they sing the liturgy with guitars and tambourines, and they sing it like Pentecostal choruses. And 30 priests, beautifully vested in white, they serve communion together. Then they stood two and two, one had the bread, the one had the wine, and they made 15 lines and said, come on, this is the table of the Lord, everybody's welcome. Pentecostals and Protestants, everybody had communion that day. And they took it from Catholic priests. They gave them both the wafers and the wine. And when that was over, they came and they began to hug me. Well, those priests, their tears flow over their cheeks. When I got through with the priests, one of the nuns came, she says, Brother David, would you be offended if I give you a kiss of peace? I said, I certainly have peace with you. And she kissed me. And all the nuns came and kissed me. They were all baptized in the Spirit, and if ever I received a holy kiss, that was it, I believe. The love that flowed, the love that's there, oh, did I get a blessing. Are they Pentecostal? There's a book now published by one of their professors, it's called Catholic Pentecostals. They don't call it charismatic. Oh, no, they just call it Pentecostal. They don't call it glossolalia, they just call it tongues. They're like us Pentecostals, so simple. And it's reaching the country. And they said to me, take courage, Brother David, God's on the throne. And in the last three years from the end of 66 up to now, that's last Easter or Pentecost, over 10,000 Catholics have received the baptism in the Holy Ghost. From Boston to San Francisco, wherever I go, they're there. I introduced in Washington a week ago, two weeks ago, I introduced a South African brother to a lot of people. Finally, here was a Catholic priest, nice, long beard, lovely fellow, smiling, bright. And I said to my South African brother, I said, this is a Roman Catholic priest that is baptized in the Holy Ghost. I said, this is a brother from South Africa. Oh, he said, bless the Lord, it's good to meet a South African. And he hugged him and he kissed him. And after we turned away, the South African said to me, now, he says, that Catholic priest said hallelujah and praise the Lord more than anybody I'd yet met in America. I said, that shows you, Brother, what they've got. That shows you what they have. And Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, I'm speaking now mostly of ministers, receiving the baptism all the time. How do they get it? No techniques. Just meet Jesus, the baptizer. Just let him do it. I introduced them to the baptizer and I don't always pray for them. I told the brethren just now that I met with 400 evangelical ministers recently. They asked me to speak about Pentecost. So I told them who did it on Pentecost Day. Peter says, the Spirit fell on them in the house of Cornelius as on us at the beginning. He says, then I remembered the word of the Lord. John baptized in water, you shall be baptized in the Holy Ghost. So Peter said to them, we were baptized in the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost. Jesus did it. And he can do it still after the meeting. A few ministers came to me and they said, David, are you going to pray for us? I said, no, I was asked to lecture. I wasn't asked to pray for anybody. And when I'm asked to lecture, I don't do any more than that. They said, don't you have a room in the hotel? I said, but I don't run side shows. I only do what they ask me to do. They said, but you really impressed us. I said, I'm glad. Then you know now that Jesus is the baptizer. Yes, but we still want you to pray for us. I said, but I told you Jesus is the baptizer. Aren't you on speaking terms with him? Why should I ask him to baptize you? Why don't you? And I say to you in this meeting this afternoon, why do you run around? How many more people do you want to lay hands on you? How many more people do you want to lay hands on you? A lady came to me the other night, and she said, I want the baptism. I said, how do you know you haven't got it? She says, well, I don't speak in tongues clearly. I said, because you don't believe. I said, have you been prayed for? Oh, many times. I said, then I won't pray for you. I'll just ask the Lord to save you from your unbelief. Have you ever asked Jesus to baptize you? She says, as you were preaching tonight, I asked him. I said, for how many times have you asked him now? Oh, she said, I can't remember. I said, then he did it. Come on, I said. Jesus said, if you believe, you can talk in tongues. Do you really believe? She says, I do. I said, then talk. And she started talking in tongues. And I looked at her. I said, but you've done that before. She says, yes, but I never believed it was real. I thought so. I thought so. That's the trouble with a lot of you. How can Jesus baptize you if you won't believe when he does it? You must accept it by faith. All right, I must close. Shall we bow our heads in a prayer? Anybody in this gathering now, Jesus said to his disciples, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. I ask every one of you that ever spoke in tongues to take this word today, and from this hour on, believe that the Spirit is not only in you 24 hours a day, but he is upon you. He is there whether you recognize him or not. He's still there. For as sure as he's in you, he'll stay upon you. You can grieve him, but you grieve him only when you don't recognize him. Let's learn to recognize him all the time. Those of you who have the Spirit in you, but you've never accepted the truth that Jesus also will baptize you, or you've never accepted the fact that when he baptizes you, you should speak in tongues because you want the Spirit to knock you out and make you speak in tongues. Jesus said, if you believe, you will. Will you believe right now and speak in tongues? And now I'm going to invite the whole gathering, those who have in the past and those who have never done before, for the baptizer is here, and without anybody laying hands on you, he'll baptize you where you're sitting. And I'm doing something that I have never done in any church in any conference, but I feel the Lord is busy doing something and he wants you today to grasp the fact that if you can speak in tongues, you ought to know that as much as you can speak in tongues, so much the Holy Spirit is upon you. And since he's upon you, you can do the works that Jesus did, for you do it in his name. I ask you now, let us all, since we know not what to pray, how would we know what to pray? We don't understand why we are so weak and so such failures, but the Spirit will know how to make intercession for us. Let's pray with the Spirit. If the foregoing message has been a blessing, we urge you to share it with your pastor, your prayer group, your neighbor, or someone in spiritual need. Additional copies of this tape or a free tape catalog may be obtained by writing to World Map Tape Outreach, 900 North Glen Oaks Boulevard, Burbank, California, ZIP 91502. 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