I desire, beloved friends, to show you, not only what power is, but where the sphere of power is—where it works.
We have two things in Mark 2:1-121And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house. 2And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them. 3And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four. 4And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. 6But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, 7Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? 8And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? 9Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? 10But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,) 11I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. 12And 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 2:1‑12); one is what Christ does for us, and the other what He does in us. These are very distinct things in themselves. What He does in us is seen in the body. This is what people too much overlook. They are saved, and they go on satisfied with that, as if the body had nothing to do with it. Now this was exactly the Corinthians. They did not want grace, but they did not look to it that the body should be the exemplification of that grace. I am sure of this—there is more grace in people than they show, and what is the reason of this? Why, there is something hindering. But where is the hindrance? Their own bodies—the working of the flesh. When I come to the second part, we shall see how this is to be dealt with.
Tonight we shall consider where the sphere of the power is now.
And first, to clear the ground—not because it is necessary to dwell upon the facts of what Christ has done for us. Generally I find people at the bottom are quite clear about this, if they are not always clear and certain about what Christ does in them—the simplest thing in the ministry of Christ is when He comes to a poor powerless man, and sets forth and displays His power. The first two chapters of this gospel are one series. Our Lord is here looking at everything as it was, but as a man come into the world able to remove every character of trouble and grief to which man was liable. That is the great thing, here was a man upon the earth able to deal with every class of evil, and remove it. He takes every class. Not every variety of a class, but every class of evil. I will show you here four classes—four different varieties of disease from which man suffers.
Turn to the first chapter and 23rd verse, and read to the 28th, here we find satan has found entrance into a man. Not into every man, though no man is safe from him and it is very important to get hold of this fact. An unconverted man has no safeguard against satan, because man is not able to keep out satan. There never was a man yet able to expel satan except one—the Lord Jesus Christ—and the moment he expelled him, the devil cried out you are not a man, you are more than man, you are the holy one of God. No man could expel him before. God could of course. The wonderful thing now is that a man has power over satan, and can lift off the burden from the shoulders of a man, whatever that burden may be. The judgment is on the body, but while resting on the body, the spirit also suffers. And now satan enters man. But there is a man here who has power over satan, and the Lord rebuked him, saying, “Hold thy peace and come out of him.” The devil had said, “art thou come to destroy us?” They thought that He had come to cast them down to the abyss, as we see in scripture He will. “I know thee who thou art—the holy one of God.” He does not own Him as a man at all. But He is there as a man, and this is quite a new thing. And I too, as a man connected with Jesus—I too can defy satan. I am a man by birth, but I am more distinctly so as born of Christ than ever I was as born of Adam. I more and more distinctly belong to the new creation than ever I belonged to the old. I am more distinctly so because of this great work of Christ. I am a brother of the risen man. I am a brother to the dying man by birth, but that is broken into by Christ now by divine power, and He says, “My brother.” That is the new creation. I belong to this man. The Lord utters just one word, and satan leaves the man. “Hold thy peace and come out of him,” and he came out immediately. There is power for you, if you want power. He speaks the word and it is done. There is not the slightest parade about it. And this is always so marvelous about the works of God. When we come to speak more of the character of power, we shall find that one great characteristic of power is quietness. People are always quiet in power. When it is a master, or a father, or whoever he is. When he has power, he is quiet. Man as man can do nothing quietly. He must make a noise about it; when I watch the growth of a vegetable or a flower, I say this is divine. It proceeds noiselessly, therefore I say that is God’s hand.
I turn now to the second class. I cannot dwell upon these instances. The second is merely to note another class. In the 30th verse, Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever. Here He came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up, and straightway the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. It is another class. This is the excitement of nature. A person might be in a temper in what he is doing or in haste, and we say “you are quite in a fever about it.” Here the Lord takes her by the hand, and lifts her up. He does everything in a different way. He has not one sovereign remedy for all. He has a particular one for each.
The third class is in the 40th verse. A leper comes to him. That, is outward evil, and He puts away this by touching it.
Now I come to the chapter I read from, and I bring before you the palsied man — a man characterized by perfect powerlessness. The others had some strength remaining in them, this one had none. And this is what I think marks it so much, and which may be of immense help to your souls, is his perfect powerlessness. He could do nothing, and he himself received everything. And he receives it from God, and knows it is a perfect thing he receives. If God does the whole thing, it must be well done. And this is the great thing that the soul finds out in grace—that He has done it. This is practically what characterizes the man in the 7th Romans. He has not a bit of power left. He could do nothing, could not stoop to pick up a crumb. That is when you get power. When you have nothing, and can do nothing, then you must receive everything. It is then a very simple thing for the heart. God has done it all for me, and it must be well done. When you come with nothing—no power — nothing the soul wants to retain—then what comes out is the simplicity of grace and power. When the palsied man goes forth, grace comes out in its fullness. See how it acts, ‘Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.’ He does not touch the palsied man—does not heal him first, but forgives his sins. He goes down to the root of the work. Now I find His perfect grace, by the necessity of perfect powerlessness. That is what the poor soul has to do. Come with perfect powerlessness, and you will unlock the heart of Christ. Here, then, are the four classes, and the Lord has power over each and all, and the delight of His heart is to shed forth this grace. He looks for a scene where He can display all the benign influences of His love. The real attraction to Christ is that you are nothing. Like the Syrophoenician woman, I will be a dog, and come and pick up a crumb. You see it is the essential point. I have to learn that He has done it all.
Now let me say one thing in connection with this, to make it a little plainer. You see Christ does it all for us. He is sent from God to do it. He comes from God to meet the mind of God about the sinner. He does not come to meet the mind of the sinner about God. Now, I know people press it this way. And though it is true, it is not the whole truth. I may say I am perfectly certain I paid an account to the last farthing, and yet, my creditor might grumble because he does not think it is paid. And so long as this is the case the matter is not settled—cannot be said to be settled. Now, we could not say we have paid the Lord the last farthing. No one knows what there is in his own heart. No one knows the extent of his sins. He knows a little—some half dozen sins and failures—but he does not know half of what goes on there. “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things.” I say, then, that what you have to learn is, that God has satisfied Himself, and that is quite a different thing. Thus Christ came to meet the mind of God about sin. Hence, the moment Christ is revealed to my soul as the one in glory, I see He has satisfied the heart of God about me, a sinner. It is God’s satisfaction I have got. It is not, “I know I have paid the last farthing, and have got the receipt in my pocket.” The whole truth is I have got the satisfaction of God touching the work done for my salvation, and that is acceptance. Hence a Christian is “accepted in the beloved.” That every believer has, though he may not know it. Every believer is like a prince who is born to a kingdom, but does not know it, till he is grown up. Does not enjoy it. He is heir to a throne, but he has not got it—does not know it—has not got intelligence about it. Thus souls do not know what they have got. That is acceptance. That is what Christ has wrought. Now do not be thinking I state it too strongly—I could not—you never can improve your acceptance, and what is more you never can lose it. Your soul may be darkened without it, but that is another thing, you can never lose it, nor alter it. You have no hand in it whatever.