“Dead to the world and all its toys,
Its idle pomps and fading joys.”
The world masters and enslaves people who have not the Holy Spirit. To one man it offers money, and he falls down and worships; sells his conscience and character for gold. To another it offers power, and he falls down and worships and sacrifices his principles and sears his conscience for power. To another it offers pleasure; to another learning; to another fame, and they fall down and worship, and sell themselves for these things. But the man filled with the Holy Ghost is free. He can turn from these things without a pang, as he would from pebbles; or, he can take them and use them as his servants for the glory of God and the good of men.
What did Peter and James and John care for the great places in the kingdoms of this world after they were filled with the Holy Ghost? They would not have exchanged places with Herod the king or with Cæsar himself. For the gratification of any personal ambition these things were no more attractive to them now than the lordship over a tribe of ants on their tiny hill. They were now kings and priests unto God, and theirs was an everlasting kingdom, and its glory exceeds the glory of the kingdoms of this world as the splendour of the sun exceeds that of the glow-worm.
The head of some great business enterprises was making many thousands of dollars every year; but when the Holy Spirit filled him money lost its power over him. He still retained his position, and made vast sums; but, as a steward of the Lord, he poured it into God’s work, and has been doing so for more than thirty years.
The disciples in Jerusalem after Pentecost held all their possessions in common, so completely were they freed from the power and love of money.
A rising young lawyer got filled with the Spirit, and the next day said to his client: “I cannot plead your case. I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus”; and he became one of the mightiest preachers the world has ever seen.
A popular lad got the fiery baptism, and went to his baseball team, and said: “Boys, you swear, and I am now a Christian, and I cannot play with you any more”; and God made him the wonder of all his old friends, and a happy winner of souls.
A fashionable woman got the baptism, and God gave her power to break away from her worldly set and surroundings, live wholly for Him, and gave her an influence that girdled the globe.
Paul said: “The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Men could whip, and stone, and imprison his body, and cut off his head, but his soul was free. It was enslaved and driven by no unholy or inordinate ambition, by no lust for gold, by no desire for power or fame, by no fear of man, by no shame of worldly censure or adverse public opinion. He had power over the world, and this same power is the birthright of every converted man, and the present possession of every one who is wholly sanctified by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.
2. Power over the flesh. The body which God intended for a “house beautiful” for the soul, and a temple holy unto Himself, is often reduced to a sty, where the imprisoned soul wallows in lusts and passions, and degrades itself below the level of beasts. But this baptism gives a man power over his body.