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The Meaning of His MightThat leads us to the third general principle. Having realized that I am to be strong and that in and of myself I am essentially weak, because I am still in the flesh and that it is still true that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other"—realizing that all that is still true of me, and that I am here in this warfare, and up against this terrible power, what is the next thing? It is to realize that the Lord is strong, that He is mighty, and, as the Old Testament reminds us, that "The name of the Lord is a strong tower." His very Name is strong. The Name represents Him, who He is and what He is. And the first thing, therefore, we have to realize is the greatness of His strength. That is what the Apostle is saying to the Ephesians and to us. Listen to the words; examine them in detail. He says, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." Do we realize its full significance? What does he mean by "the power of His might"? The basic thing, obviously, is the "might." We are directed to "the power" of His "might." The difference between power and might is that might means power and strength as an enduement; might means inherent power, something a man is given. Think of a very strong, muscular man. The "might" is that man's inherent muscular strength and power. Power means the manifestation of that might; the might is there as a potential, as something inherent, now manifesting itself, showing its efficacy, showing that it can be effectual. It means this great reserve of strength and power is actually in operation, doing something; not the enduement itself but the proof of the fact that you have the enduement. So the Apostle uses the two terms, and it is important that we should look at both. He says, "Be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength" so you start by reminding yourself of His strength. Look at Him, he says, look at His power. You have been looking at the enemy and you have seen his strength; you have looked at yourself and you are trembling in your weakness and in your ineffectiveness; well, now, he says, look at Him, "Be strong in the Lord." To be "strong in the Lord" you must remember "the might of His power"—"the might of His strength." Express it whichever way you like, but look at Him and realize all the reserves of strength and power that are in Him. That is what these New Testament Epistles are saying almost everywhere. "In him," says the Apostle Paul to the Colossians, "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." It is there in Him. "In whom," he says again, "God has hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge" (2:3). They are all there. They constitute this might, this tremendous inherent strength and power. To be strong in the Lord means meditating about Him and His strength. It is not just a phrase, an incantation, a formula. It means that you sit down and remind yourself of these things, and you look at Him, and you remind yourself of some of the things that are true concerning Him. Incidentally, that we may do just this is one of the main reasons for reading Scriptures regularly, and reading the four Gospels in particular. We should not read the Scriptures merely in order that we may say that we have read our daily portion, and so have done our duty. That is no reason for reading the Scriptures. I am not attacking systematic reading; I am a great advocate of systematic reading. All I am saying is that you should be careful that the devil in his wiliness does not come in and make you content with a mere mechanical reading of the Scriptures without really looking at them, and meditating upon them without realizing what they are saying, and without drawing lessons for yourself, and praying about the exercise. It takes time to read Scripture properly. It is very easy to read a number of verses and rush off to catch your bus or train. That is not reading the Scriptures; that may be quite useless. You must stop and look and think. So go back to the Gospels and look at Him and "the power of His strength." Where do I see His strength? I see it in His life. I see Him here in this world in the "likeness of sinful flesh." I see Him in the same world as I am in. I see that obviously He knew hunger and thirst and physical weakness and tiredness, that He knew what it was to be disappointed with people. He has gone through it all. And yet what I see, as I look at Him, is that He stands, He always stands. There is never a wavering, still less a failing or a faltering or a falling. He stood, with the world and the flesh and the devil-everything-against Him. He stood. Therefore as I look at His life I see at once One who walked through this world without deviating in any respect. He just went on steadily. I see even more than that, I see it in all His miracles. I see it especially in the miracles in which He cast out devils. Here is One to whom they were not a problem. Here is One who can command the devils. He can exorcise them. He speaks with power and with authority and the devils have to come cringing to Him, asking Him to spare them, not to cast them into the deep that they might be destroyed. Here is a Master. They come to Him and say, "We know you are the Holy One of God." Here is the One who, when the devils are operating powerfully, with a word could drive them out. The disciples could not do that. Look at the boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration. The father had brought the boy to the disciples and they had done their best. But they could not help, and the poor boy remained a victim of Satan's power. But at a word from our Lord the devil is driven out and the boy is healed and is restored to his father. There we see His power in operation, there we see something of "the power of His might." He is the master of "the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 3:10). But we must go still further and observe this "power of His might" as it is revealed in His own temptation. He was tried directly by the devil himself, not by some of the emissaries, not by one or the other of these principalities or powers, but by the devil himself with all his wiles. Here the devil himself takes charge of the situation because he realizes that it is the biggest problem he has ever confronted. So he came to our Lord and tempted Him forty days and forty nights in the wilderness and on other occasions; but he was utterly and entirely defeated. With the words of Scripture our Lord repels him, and the devil falls back defeated, waiting for another season. But he completely failed in spite of many efforts. That is what we must dwell upon and consider. This is not just a detail or an incident in the life of our Lord which helps you to understand His Person. It does that, of course, and attests His Person; but now, says the Apostle: Make practical use of it. Take it up, take hold of that power yourself There, you see, He met in single combat the devil with all his power in operation, and He easily defeated him, therefore "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." The power was always and already in Him; and when the devil comes He just shows it, He just lets a little of it out, as it were, and the devil is immediately repulsed. Lay hold of that, says the Apostle. James, in exactly the same way, and grasping this point says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (4:7). That is the way it works out. But it does not work out until you and I are quite certain about Christ's power, and really do know something of "the power of His might," the inherent power that is in Him. "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is both God and Man. He cannot fail. He did not fail. Finally, of course, the Lord proves and demonstrates His power on the Cross and in the Resurrection. The Cross seems to be the day of the power of evil. The powers of evil thought that to be the case, as also did the devil and all his hosts. The world, too, had similar thoughts. They reviled Him, they laughed at Him, they jeered, "Thou savest others, come down, save Thyself." They thought that He could not do so, and that the devil had defeated Him! But what was happening there was that "He was taking these principalities and powers" (says Paul in Col. 2:15) "and putting them to an open shame, triumphing over them in it" (by it). That is, He was triumphing over them when they thought that they had defeated Him. "Now is the judgment of this world," He says beforehand, looking at the Cross. "Now is the prince of this world cast out (cast forth)" (John 12:31). So look at the Cross and meditate upon it. This is the supreme paradox: He appears to be dying in weakness, but do you see the inherent strength there, do you see this might of His, do you see the power of the Godhead there, turning even that into the vanquishing of the devil and the setting of His people free—a glorious victorious triumph? Look at it and see just that! Then go on and look at the Resurrection. He "bursts asunder the bands of death," triumphs over the last enemy, and the ultimate effects of sin and evil. He is master completely over all these powers that are set against us, He defeats them all. He rises, He ascends into heaven, "leading captivity captive." He is the conqueror over everything that is set against us. This is not some psychological formula that you and I can apply. But it all comes back to this-to know Him! You will never know power in your life until you know Him. So we must get to know Him. We shall find when we consider the various portions of the "armor" that they are nearly all directed to that end, to know Him, to know about Him and the truth concerning Him. We start with that here—"in the Lord, and in the power of His might." Do we realize something of this? Do we know anything about it? Forget yourself for the time being. Look at Him and realize the truth about Him. Then realize that His power is available for you. That is the key to it all. So we must look at Him objectively as He is portrayed to us, as He reveals Himself to us. Then we must realize that we belong to One who is "the Lord" and that "all the fullness of the Godhead" is in Him, that there is invincible might and power in Him, and that it is a might and power that not only remains potential, but also becomes actual. It shows itself, it manifests itself on our behalf and also in us. So here we begin to look at this saving word that enables us even in this evil day to stand, to withstand, to be strong, to fight the battle of the Lord, and to bring honor and glory to His great and holy Name. |
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