Title: The Name of Jesus – 4
“The Name Belongs To Us”
Text: Philippians 2:9-11
I trust each of you had a wonderful Christmas. I know we did. There is nothing like watching the kids on Christmas morning opening all their presents and seeing sheer joy upon their faces as this moment that they have been waiting for so long, has finally now come to pass.
We have been on a series entitled: “The Name of Jesus.” This is the most powerful subject that anyone could talk about. Jesus Christ came to earth over 2,000 years ago and He was God’s gift to us. Jesus is the greatest gift that mankind has ever received. The greatest gift is not what He does for us, but it is what He gives us through His Name. All the authority, all the power that was in Jesus is in His Name! That is a powerful and life-changing truth. And He gave His Name to the Church. The early believers knew what they had, and they used it.
You remember the account of Peter and John, going into the Temple at about three o’clock in the afternoon, passing by a crippled man who was begging alms.
Acts 3:3-6; “Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but SUCH AS I HAVE give I thee: IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”
The church world as a whole today does not know they have anything. Some churches do not even know they have the New Birth. They do not understand that they are new creatures. They think all they have is forgiveness of sin. You see, as long as I believe that I receive forgiveness of my sins, and that’s all, not remission, which is the blotting out of sin, but just forgiveness, then I remain in the position where Satan will dominate me all of my life. But when I know I have been born again and have become a new man in Christ Jesus, and believe the Scripture:
II Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” A lot of times, we preachers stop at that Scripture. We preach that we have become new creatures. But that is not the Scripture in its entire context. Keep reading on in II Corinthians and we find more. II Corinthians 5:21 says; “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (KJV)
When we understand and believe this as Christians, it is then that we will dominate sin. We cannot dominate sin just by believing that we are forgiven. This Christian life is much more than just being forgiven.
Our Pentecostal churches are strong on the New Birth; we know that we can be born again, but we do not know that we can get anything beyond that. He doesn’t want you to stop at salvation. There is so much more for you then just salvation. Our attitude seems to be: “Hold out until the end, and pray that Jesus will come quickly, because the devil is taking everything over. He is bigger than God and stronger than the Church.” We wouldn’t be brave enough to voice that, but we live lives that say this exact thing. We live in sickness, we live in defeat, and we live in discouragement and depression. We let the devil run rampant in our lives. You can look around you and it won’t take to long to understand that. We don’t know how we will ever defeat him. We are left helpless and hopeless. Poor old me, I just can’t do it any longer. I will never amount to anything. You never hear the testimony, “Pray for me that I’ll hold out faithful until the end. But I don’t know whether I can or not. I hope so.” That is not New Testament Christianity! That is not what the New Testament teaches. Somewhere along the way we have embraced some false teaching.
New Testament Christianity is: I John 4:4; “. . . greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world”
New Testament Christianity is: Romans 8:37; “I am more than a conqueror through Him that loved me!”
New Testament Christianity is: Hebrews 13:5-6; “. . . he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me”
We have defeated and robbed ourselves. The devil hasn’t robbed some of us; we have done a good job robbing ourselves of what God has for us. Even some who knew they had the Name of Jesus did not think it amounted to much.
There is power in that Name. It is a priceless Name, it is a matchless Name, it is a Name above every other Name. His name is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, He’s majestic, He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, He is omnipotent, He is omniscient, He is omnipresent, He is the Messiah, He is the Risen Christ, He is Wonderful, The Great Counsellor, He is The Prince of Peace, He is the Everlasting Father, He is our Saviour. The Mighty God, He is the One who has the keys to death, hell and the grave, He is the God of all your problems, He is the God of all your trials, He is the God of all your temptations, He is the God of every single circumstance in your life, and He is worthy to be praised, Come on and give the Lord some praise in this house.
I have already shared this story with you a couple of years ago, but it bears repeating:
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892), told this personal experience. He was called to the home of an elderly woman who was bedfast. Malnutrition was about to take her physical life. During his visit, Spurgeon noticed a framed document on the wall. He asked the woman, “Is this yours?” She said it was and explained that she had worked as a maid in the household of some of the English nobility. “Before Lady So-and-so died,” the woman said, “she gave that to me. I served her for nearly half a century. I’ve been so proud of it because she gave it to me. I had it framed. It’s been hanging on the wall ever since she died 10 years ago.” Mr. Spurgeon asked, “Would you allow me to take it and have it examined more closely?” “Oh, yes,” said the woman, who had never learned to read, “Just be sure I get it back.” Spurgeon took it to the authorities. They had been looking for it. It was a bequest. The English noblewoman had left her maid a home and money. This elderly woman lived in a little one-room house built out of wooden boxes and was starving to death—yet she had hanging on the wall a document that authorized her to be well cared for and to live in a fine house. The money was gathering interest. It belonged to her. Spurgeon helped her get it, but it didn’t do her as much good as it could have earlier.
As a believer, we live in a little run-down shack, spiritually speaking, while lying on a table somewhere is the New Covenant. We’re proud of it, but we’ve never taken time to find out what it says belongs to us. Peter knew what belonged to him when he fastened his eyes upon that life-long cripple at the Gate Beautiful and said:
“. . . silver and gold have I none; but SUCH AS I HAVE give I thee; IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”
“You know, though,” some would say, “Peter and John were apostles. The apostles had that kind of power to get the Church started. But when the last apostle died, all that ceased.” How in the world sensible men could think like that is beyond my comprehension!
The devil has fooled whole denominations. He has even fooled some Pentecostals into believing this bunch of foolishness. He doesn’t want people to find out about this Name. He’s afraid of the Name. He knows Jesus conquered him. He knows that Name is just as powerful as Jesus the Person. He knows Jesus said, “In My Name, they shall cast out devils.” That means they will exercise authority over the devil and all of his demons. He knows that Jesus said, “In My Name they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” The devil knows that. He does not want you to know it!
As long as you do not know it, he can continue to dominate you. So he has fooled the church world. He does not care how religious you get, as long as you don’t have any power. He does not care how spiritual you get, as long as you don’t tap into that Name. That is the most important thing to the devil. He does not want you to know what is behind that Name. He doesn’t want you to know that authority and the power that you have on the inside of you. He doesn’t want you to get into a real relationship with that man Jesus. Because that is when he begins to tremble. He begins to tremble when He gets in contact with a person that really knows what the Name of Jesus can do for them.
Then there are those who believe in the New Birth, who believe in being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking with other tongues, who believe in divine healing, who believe in the power of God. Hopefully that is each one of us. We believe in those things. Even though we believe those things, there is some confusion in the camp. Can I help clear up some of that confusion this morning?
There are all kinds of ideas here. “Well, the Lord can heal if He wants to, but it’s not always His will to heal.” People who are filled with the Spirit, speaking with tongues, who have the Powerhouse in them, sit around and say, “Well, if we had the power, we could do what they did in the book of Acts. Pray for the power.” So we pray for the power to fall, we even sing the song, “Oh, Lord, send the power just now.” The power is there the whole time we are singing. If we are filled with the Holy Ghost we don’t have to pray the power down, we have it on the inside.
I believe there are times that the Lord looks over the banister of Heaven and says to Gabriel, “What are they doing down there?” Gabriel might answer, “They think they’re having church, but like a bunch of two or three year olds they are just playing church.”
There is so much playing church in the Pentecostal circles. I am tired of playing church and I know you are to. It is time that we wake up and find out what belongs to us. We have had it in our hands all the time. It is ours. What is it? It is just what Peter had. “. . . Silver and gold have I none; but SUCH AS I HAVE give I thee . . . .”
What did he have? He had the Name that is above every name. “. . . IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” Peter had the Name. We have the Name. The Name today is just the same.
“Well, I use the Name and nothing happens,” you might say. You never took time to study the Word to see what is involved in the Name, to see what is in back of the Name. It is not to be used like a magic charm. It is not to be used like a rabbit’s foot. You must know what is invested in that Name. You must know what is in back of that Name.
You cannot say that a nice home, a good living, and money didn’t belong to that poor woman Spurgeon visited. All that belonged to her, it was hers. She had the legal document, signed and sealed, which said it was hers. Why didn’t she possess it? Because she didn’t know it. The Bible says; “many perish because of the lack of knowledge.”
Thank God, we have the legal document of the New Covenant, the New Testament, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And when He went away, He left us His Name. But we must know what is invested in that Name. We must know what is in back of that Name.
