Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 103. Authorised

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Quiet Talks by Samuel Dickey: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter: 103. Authorised



TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 103. Authorised

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Authorised

He was a threefold Substitute. First, in His life, by His perfect obedience in Nazareth, and on to the end of His life. He was our Substitute there. We failed in obedience. He obeyed perfectly in our place. Then on the Cross He was our Substitute, bearing the shame and death that belonged to us. And then on the Resurrection morning, He was still acting for us when He arose. In all of this He was acting on our behalf.

I used to wonder in my ignorance why our Lord did not finish up at once the whole conflict with the evil one. Why should Satan have been left free for these two thousand years? Why was he not put finally out of the way when once he had been so disastrously defeated? Well, the answer, after all, is a very simple one, and goes at once to the core of what we are talking about. If our Lord had been acting on His own account simply, and only, the conflict would have been closed up at once, and the defeated never able to do more.

But our Lord was not acting for Himself. He was acting for us. And there is something for us to do in settling the conflict. We must accept as our own what was done for us. We must step in and take possession of what had been our own originally, and what is now won back for us. Our Master practically says, "Take possession of what I have redeemed, what I have bought back for you."

Do you remember that marvellous statement of His in the tenth chapter of Luke? (Luk_10:18-19.) That is a passage that ought to be marked in our Bibles in red, or in gold, or any way that will make it stand out big and plain to our eyes. Listen to it prayerfully, that its tremendous meaning may come home to our innermost hearts. "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall in any wise hurt you." And in the midst of the glad rejoicing that such words must bring He adds that our chief rejoicing is to be over what He has done for us. It is all of His wondrous grace that we have such wondrous power.

Now, we should use this authority given to us; use it in Jesus' great Name; use it as the Holy Spirit guides; use it as the need comes in our lives, and in the opposition that is aroused by service. We have authority to take from the enemy everything he is holding back. The chief way of taking is by prayer, and by whatever action prayer leads us to. The cry that should be ringing out to-day is this great cry of "Take, in Jesus' great Name."

In my Master's Name I would speak out this message of His all anew to every follower of His in any need or stress. To those out on the far-flung, thin, red firing line of the foreign mission-field, in the midst of Africa's savagery, of China's opposition and apathy, of India's crying need, to those in the midst of London's slums and streets, in the thick and drive of New York's push and scramble; to any one and every one, wherever the stress of sin and of need is being felt. This is His message to you to-day. Listen keenly, "I, Jesus, have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. I have the authority. I have won it by my own life-blood. I won it for you. I give it to you. Use it in my name. Greater works shall ye do because I am with the Father in the place of authority, and you shall act in my place even as I acted in your place."