THE NEW POWER
[p. 183] THE NEW POWER
2 Kings 2: 9 - 11; Mark 2: 1 - 12
I am endeavouring in these addresses to set forth the scope of the gospel. I have sought to show you the difference between merely knowing relief from your sins, and knowing Himself; and what I come to this evening is the power which the one who believes in the gospel receives, a power the effects of which are seen by men. It is the power of God; and it is a great thing to see what the power of God can effect in a man, and that where the greatest weakness is, there the power is most manifest.
I read about Elisha as an illustration, just to show you how he got what he desired. When Elijah was going away he said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for thee”. Elisha asks that in the absence of Elijah a double portion of Elijah’s spirit might be upon him. A double portion means a complete portion. His desire was to have a complete portion of Elijah’s spirit. He did not ask for any earthly favour, but that he might have that which would enable him to go through this earth in the spirit and power of Elijah. This is in keeping with what our blessed Lord tells His disciples when He was leaving them. He says, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”, John 14: 16. He Himself was their Comforter while He was with them. Now He was going away, and He tells them that they should have another Comforter, equal to Himself - that was the Holy Spirit.
Now what I see is that there are many who truly believe the gospel, who do not expect this mighty power of God, and who have not got it, because their eye is not resting on Christ risen - on the One who is on the right hand of power and from whom this power, the Holy Spirit, came, consequent on His exaltation.
[p. 184] You may say, How do I get this power? What, I ask, was the condition on which Elisha got his request? That is an important question, for that is really the condition on which we get it. The condition was - “If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee”. Elisha had his eye on Elijah, and he got his request. What does that set forth? It sets forth what the condition is with us. If we see Christ “taken” - risen, we get His power, and that power is the Holy Spirit. Does the eye of your soul follow Him “taken”? (The word ‘taken’ is used four or five times in the first part of the Acts.) How Elisha must have watched Elijah! He looks for the power that Elijah had here on earth, and when he sees Elijah “taken” he gets it. That prefigures the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power here to maintain the believer in the place where Christ is not.
Now I turn to Mark 2. In the opening of Mark’s gospel we find that the Lord meets every kind of pressure that is upon man, and removes it. In chapters 1 and 2 we get the four great pressures that rest upon man met and removed by Him. He casts out the unclean spirit and cleanses the leper in chapter 1, and in chapter 2 He raises up the palsied man. Palsy sets forth perfect inability. And what does the Lord enable him to do? When He says to him, “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk ... immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion”, Mark 2: 11, 12. This man who was utterly powerless came out in power. This sets forth in figure the mark of having received grace. But let us look at it in detail. Here is this palsied man, he has no power to do anything. He cannot come, and he cannot get in, and they are crowding the door. There are difficulties all around him, and obstructions of every kind, and in himself perfect inability. This is the experience of everyone [p. 185] one who seeks blessing. This man, instead of finding any help in himself or in anything around him, found that everything was against him. At last the difficulties are overcome, and he comes. The roof of the house is uncovered, and they bring the palsied man to the place where the Lord was, and let down the couch upon which he lay. What an exhibition of perfect weakness! “When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (verse 5). He met the man in his actual need; all the difficulties were removed, and what he needed most, that He gave first. The scribes, the religious men, said, Who is this? “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” How little they knew what they were speaking about! The blessed Lord in order to be able to forgive sins had to bear the judgment of sin, the sentence of death that lay upon man. In order to remove it from man He had to take it on Himself. If I were to say to you, Whatever is the weight that is upon you, I will take that weight, I will saddle myself with that weight - what would you say? But the weight the blessed Lord took upon Himself for us was the judgment of God - DEATH. Supposing a man to be immensely in debt, and a friend steps forward and goes to the bank and clears the debt, and comes with the receipt in his hand. That has been used as a figure to show how Christ went into death - the judgment of God - paid the debt and rose from the dead, and that was the receipt. But His resurrection is far more than a receipt. To call it a receipt is a measure of truth, but only a measure, it is not the full truth. The resurrection of the blessed Lord is not merely a receipt of a debt paid, but He has in His death removed the man on whom the judgment lay, and now He is the one Man before God in place of the man who has been removed. And now it is not Adam the believer has to do with, but Christ. “As in [p. 186] Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”, 1 Corinthians 15: 22. Therefore the believer has not only to know that his sins are gone, the debt paid, but he has got a new Person - Christ; he lives in Him. One man is for ever set aside in judgment, and the Man that has set him aside is in the glory of God. Salvation is by looking to Him. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth”, Isaiah 45: 22. Not only is my debt paid, but I am accepted in that Man, accepted in the Beloved.
I want to press on your hearts what the One who can forgive sins must have gone through in order that the sins might be forgiven in righteousness. He could not have forgiven sins without having borne the judgment of sin; and in bearing it, He not only put away the sins, but He removed the man that did the sins. There were certain of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?” The Lord does not contend with them, but says, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise. and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house”. The thing that carried you, you carry now. That is what takes place in one who has got the power of God. This man raised out of his palsied condition exemplifies this. Mark the words, “That ye may know”. I believe the great lack with us is that we do not manifest what the power of the gospel is. If in our lives we were exponents of the power of the gospel, it would arrest all our relations and acquaintances.
But I want now to say a little on what the power is. You see. as I have already said, it is not only that Christ died and bore the judgment, but He is risen; and if He has died and risen, there is an end before God of the man who was under the judgment of God. But you must have a link with Him as risen. What is [p. 187] that link? How are you connected with Christ? By the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is your bond with Christ risen. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his”, Romans 8: 9. I believe there are a great many who believe that Christ died, and are really converted, but who have not laid hold of Him as risen from the dead, and they have not got the answer to faith in Him risen.
The answer that the Lord gives to you if you see Him risen, is the living water. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”, John 4: 14. “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive)”, John 7: 37 - 39. Now what is the effect in a man who gets this living water? It is this: he turns right round and takes a new course altogether. I could furnish examples of it even in my own experience. I have seen a man, in a moment, without taking an hour to think of it, turn right round and take a new course, making no question of difficulties, or of anything, but taking an entirely new course. And why? Because he had laid hold of Christ risen. What enabled him to do it? He has got the power of God. The Holy Spirit is the power that can put you beyond the influence of all your natural proclivities, whatever they may be; whether it be the club, or politics, or music, you will go diametrically contrary to your former tastes. The taste which once commanded you, you will command, as this poor palsied man was enabled to carry the bed on which he lay. That is what the gospel and the power of Christ can do for you. It can put you entirely beyond your natural inclinations; no matter what they are, you now go the other way. You have got to God, and you turn [p. 188] from the thing that would keep you from God. That is the point, and that is what I have said, that where the weakness is most manifest, the power is most demonstrated. In principle it is the same with Elisha. What did he do? What was the first thing that he did when he got the power? When I have asked that question some have replied that he went over Jordan. But no, that was not the first thing, he did something else before that; he took up his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. It was not merely that he took them off, but he rent them in two pieces; that is, he rendered them useless. Why did he do that? It was as much as to say, I have done with that. What enabled him to do it? He had received a new power. So, too, with the palsied man; he arose, and took up his bed, and went forth before them all, so that all the people “glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion”. What an effect it had upon them! And it could not be otherwise with you, beloved friends, if you got that wondrous power, that wondrous gift - the gift of the Holy Spirit. I do not think we estimate the greatness of it sufficiently. Sometimes we see a person who we do not doubt is safe from judgment, and yet we do not see him so distinctly turned to God that he is turned from that which would naturally detain him. Why is it so? Because he has not got hold of Christ risen, and therefore he is not in the power of the Holy Spirit. The great mark of one who is in the power of the Holy Spirit is that he is occupied with God and not with himself.
I get another illustration of this in the early chapters of the Acts of the apostles. There was a man laid at the Beautiful gate of the temple; and Peter and John saw him, and Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but” - what? - “such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones [p. 189] received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God”, Acts 3: 6 - 9. How beautifully that sets forth the grace of God! Where the man was weakest, there he became strongest; his feet and ankle bones received strength so that he walked, and leapt, and praised God.
Again in John 5: 5 - 9 in the case of the impotent man; he had had an infirmity thirty-eight years and was in those five porches and could not get into the water. He was thoroughly incapable, but when the Lord says to him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk ... immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked”. There, too, is demonstrated that where the weakness is most manifest, there the power is most manifest.
This chapter (John 5) goes on to the resurrection of the body, and therefore we get the wonderful truth that you pass out of death into life. The resurrection of the body is the completion of it. But here on earth we come out in a new power, as the case of this man sets forth. It is interesting to mark what the greatness of the grace is; it is not only that you are clear of all that is against you, but you come out in the power of God, and you are now of Christ because you have the Spirit of Christ. You have no link with Christ but the Spirit. The best feeling that ever was will not help you. If Christ had not set aside the old man in judgment how could you be relieved of that man? But He has. The old man has gone in judgment; and the wonderful thing now is that the One who ended him is risen from the dead. Do you believe that? Well, now you want something from the risen One, as Elisha wanted something from Elijah, and you get it. David and Jonathan made a covenant together. What is the covenant with the blessed Lord now? It is the wonderful and blessed bond that I receive from Himself. I receive the Spirit of God. And what is the [p. 190] effect on me? To my own surprise I turn a new way. It is not that I calculate, I do not want calculations, I do not want good resolutions. No, it is what I never dreamt of, I am turned right round by the new power that I have received, and now I am occupied with God. See an illustration of it in the case of Israel. When they were clear of their enemies, what marked them? (Exodus 15). They were singing! Of themselves? No, it was God they had before them. I am quite sure that any of you who have known it must feel what a wonderful moment it was when you were clear from every question about yourself, and to your unspeakable delight God became the interest and joy of your heart.
On a former occasion I pressed that the very first action of the Holy Spirit in the soul is to assure you of God’s love to you, and then you are not thinking about yourself or your own state, but of Him; though no doubt you will be greatly exercised as to how you are answering to the love. Now you know you have a bond with Christ, you are linked with Him, and a new interest altogether is awakened in you; it is with Him you are occupied. He is now before you, and you know that He loves you.
I cannot go any farther than that tonight. I do not dwell upon what flows from it; I may on another occasion, if the Lord permit, dwell on that, which is - following the Lord. But tonight I only want to show you that you come out here in an entirely new way, and that you take a new course. Your tastes are all changed. I would to God there were more of the distinct manifestation of what the blessedness of grace is. Further on in Mark 2 we find that the Lord meets a man named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom, and He says to him, “Follow me. And he arose and followed him”, (verse 14). The remarkable thing is that this man leaves all that he lived in, his natural interests. He was a man who had bartered his religion and [p. 191] country in order to make money, and now he leaves it all. You will find this principle beautifully brought out all through Scripture, if you study it. I could not enumerate the cases to you now. Look at the woman in John 4; she left her waterpot and went off. Why? Because she has got something new and wonderful, or at any rate she has heard of it. She came to get water at an hour of the day when she could not find a man, and she is so arrested by what the Lord communicates to her that she now goes and tells the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did”. She is occupied with the greatness of the One who had spoken to her. Light had entered her soul through His word. “The entrance of thy words giveth light”, Psalm 119: 130, and what a remarkable change it wrought in her! She has parted with her own natural interests, and she is now occupied with something greater, with the One who had told her of the living water. It is not only that you are saved from your misery and wretchedness, but you are set up on this earth in divine power. In divine power? Yes. You are still here in natural circumstances, but I say divine power has set you up in a new way. Then it is not a question with you of doing this thing or that thing for yourself, but you live for Him who died for you and rose again. You may be weak in natural things, but your weakness will be no hindrance. As the apostle said, “When I am weak, then am I strong”, ... “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”, 2 Corinthians 12: 9, 10.
I desire to lay this upon your hearts, and may the Lord grant that each of your hearts may be affected by it, and that you may see what a wonderful thing conversion according to God is. Paul says to the Thessalonians, “Ye turned to God from idols”. Is that all? No, but “to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10. What a remarkable change that was! It was a change right round. It was not simply that they were saved from judgment.
[p. 192] If that is all you are thinking of, you lose sight of the wonderful nature of the grace that has met you. The nature of that grace is that it enables you to come out a man altogether after a new stamp, not what men would call a better man, but a man for God; you were for yourself in one form or another, but now you are for God, and God is glorified in you as in the case of the palsied man.
I need not add more, but I ask you to look to the Lord, every one of you, that you may be really more in the power of the gospel of Christ. We have to face, in the present day, the way the gospel is limited to forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Christ. There are numbers who really believe in Christ’s work on the cross who have never yet had their eye fixed upon Him risen from the dead, and so have never known that they have received the Holy Spirit from that blessed One who is outside of all here. I believe that the very first day that you apprehend Christ risen and get the Holy Spirit in power you take a new turn, a way you have never contemplated or thought of.
The more I ponder it the more it delights my heart to see what a wonderful place the grace of God can set us in on this earth; not only clear of all that was against us in the sight of God, not only to know that we are accepted in the Beloved, but we are set up in divine power here, so as to be able to act for God in the circumstances we are in, and to come out in a new power, the power of the Holy Spirit, in the sight of men.
May there be more of those who not only believe in Christ’s death but who, having received the Holy Spirit, livingly set forth what a wonderful place the grace of God can put us in on this earth, setting us up in divine power to act for God, and happy in ourselves in whatever circumstances He has placed us.
The Lord grant that each of our hearts may be stirred to understand the greatness of His grace to us for His name’s sake. Amen.