From now on, now that God has become man, from now on, the Holy Spirit will come to people

through Jesus Christ alone.

It takes residence on Jesus so that Jesus is now qualified to be the one who baptizes His people

in the Spirit and they get it no other way.

So what does it mean for Jesus to baptize us with the Spirit?

That's the question John Piper answers from John 1, 25 to 34 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 23rd, 2008.

Let's pray.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world and when you take our sins away,

you come by the Holy Spirit and we are baptized into a reality that we never thought we could know.

A knowledge of Christ, a trust in Christ,

a love for Christ, a sight of Christ, an enjoyment of Christ, an obedience to Christ,

a satisfaction in Christ so that Christ is all and in all and how we long for a fuller baptism

of your Spirit. So I'm praying now that you would come.

You would baptize us with the Holy Spirit in deeper, fuller, more powerful ways and people would

be liberated from long bondages to carnality, fleshliness, indifference, weakness, defeat,

discouragement and find themselves riding up on a tide of your powerful presence.

So come. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Last time we focused on one of John's testimonies about Jesus, John the Baptist testimonies and the

one that we focused on last time was behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That's verse 29 of John 1. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said,

behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's the best news in all the world.

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