The Name Belongs To Us Series

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”