Matthew 12:28 and 29 say, “But if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter into the house of the strong man and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will thoroughly plunder his house.” Verses 18 and 19 of chapter twenty-eight say, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We need to read the word therefore strongly. Therefore refers to the fact that all authority has been given to Christ. For this cause, “therefore,” we must go to disciple all the nations, to make all the nations disciples.
Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is to confess not only Jesus but the Lord Jesus. The mouth has to confess the Lord Jesus; it must pronounce “Lord.” I have found that especially in the Western world, both in Europe and America, when people pray, they do not use the title Lord very much. Mostly they pray saying only, “Jesus.” This is not a proper way. Whenever we say “Jesus,” it is better that we add the title Lord, “Lord Jesus.” The mouth confesses the Lord Jesus, and the heart believes in the fact that God has raised up Jesus. If we do these two things, we will be saved. Then verse 13 says, “For ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” This is to call not only the name of Jesus but the name of “the Lord.”
First Corinthians 12:3 says, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking in the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed; and no one can say, Jesus is Lord! except in the Holy Spirit.” Here again, this verse stresses our saying that Jesus is the Lord. As long as a person says that Jesus is the Lord, that is a proof that the Holy Spirit is working within him. We have to help people to realize that Jesus is the Lord, and we have to help them to exercise their mouth by exercising their heart to say that Jesus is the Lord and to call Jesus the Lord.
We all have to realize that to preach the gospel is not merely to preach or to teach; it is to fight the battle. Matthew 12 tells us that in order to preach the gospel we have to bind the strong man. Satan is the strong man, the one who usurps all people. The whole world is now under darkness and the usurping hand of Satan. To preach the gospel to bring someone to the Lord is to spoil some goods out of the usurping hand of Satan. Therefore, we have to pray to bind the strong man Satan. For this we need not only power but also authority. We can illustrate the difference between power and authority with a policeman. Cars on the street have power, but a policeman has authority. No matter how powerful a car is, when a policeman gives an order, he has the authority over it.
Christ said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:18-19). When we go to preach the gospel, we must not only seek power from on high, but we must learn to exercise the authority of the headship and lordship of Christ. A policeman may be smaller than we are, but he has the authority because there is a government behind him. Because we cannot go against a government, we cannot go against a policeman. I have learned that in this country all the drivers are afraid of policemen. This does not mean that the policemen have the power; it means they have the authority. Many cars on the street are powerful, but when a policeman gives the signal, everyone has to stop. Authority is over power. Are we going out to preach the gospel only with power? We also have to learn to exercise authority. We are the Body of the Head, and we are under the headship, so we have the Head as the “government” backing us. We have a strong backing, that is, the Head.
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