All Power Is Given Unto Me

It is a great joy to be back in this Tabernacle. The memories of the first two visits are very sweet and precious to my heart this morning, and it is a great joy to be back by the side of your beloved pastor. My one and only purpose in being here is to lift up Jesus. He is my only theme. This is not Gipsy Smith’s campaign—it is yours. You people who live in Chicago, you Christian people both inside this building and on the air, it is your work—more yours than mine, because you live here. Whatever spiritual atmosphere there is in Chicago it is what you Christian people have made it. If it is a low ebb, it is your own doing; if it is at fever heat, it is your own doing. Examine yourselves and may God speak to you through my lips and through the words of my mouth, and I pray that God will take my whole being and interpret Himself to you through me, that I may become a channel through which He can interpret Himself.

Let me read from Matthew’s Gospel.

“Then the eleven disciples went into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him.”

That doesn’t surprise you, does it? They worshipped Him. I wonder what we would do if He came here this morning; if He stood in the pulpit where I stand and if we could really see Him. If we could see the prints of the nails in His hands and the marks from the thorns on His dear brow. If we could really see Him, what would we do? I don’t know what I would do. I think I would be like John Jasper…When he was talking about Heaven, he said, “I don’t know what I’ll do when I get to Heaven. I’ll probably make a fool of myself. The very thought of it drives me distracted—to see Him face to face!”

“When they saw Him they worshipped Him but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.”

All power in heaven and in earth! “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway.” All power, all things, all nations, and alway.

I want to speak for a few moments about that “All power is given unto me.” Nobody ever talked like that before or since in the history of the world. You never heard anybody who dared stand up or write down and say to the world, All power is given me in heaven and in earth. You see, Jesus spake as never man spake. You remember that, don’t you, and you remember that all others that came before Him had to say, Thus saith the Lord; but when He came He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you.” All other people who came before Him were sick, diseased. He came and said, I am the great physician. All others, when they came, were hungry. He said, I am the bread of life. All others were thirsty. He said, I am the water of life. Whosever 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. All others were like sheep scattered without a shepherd. He said, I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. All others were sinners and lost—captive, bound, slaves, estranged from God, away on the mountains wild and bare, away from the tender shepherd’s care; lost in the midnight of their depravity and fallen state. He said, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Keep your mind on that, will you, because this is in connection with “All power is given unto Me.” All of us were in darkness and in nature’s night. He said, I am the light of the world. Others said, We know He is coming; but He said to a woman, I that speak unto thee am He. Jesus spake as nobody else dared to speak—and now He is past the crucial moment. He went through the agony of Gethsemane’s Garden, endured the nails and the thorns, the rude rabble of the insulting multitude, the blasphemous crowd, the unregenerate multitude who cried, Away with Him, let Him be crucified. His blood be on us and on our children. He fathomed the depths of human sin. He scaled the heights of human depravity, He went out into the immensity of the worlds unknown and came back from it all. Death could not hold its prey. Up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes—and He lives forever at the right hand of the Father.

“He ever lives above for me to intercede
His all revealing love, His precious blood to plead,
His blood atones for all our race
And sprinkles now the Throne of Grace.

The Father hears Him pray, His own beloved One,
He cannot turn away the presence of His Son,
His Spirit answers to the blood
And tells me I am born of God.”

This is what it means—“All power is given unto Me.”

I am wondering if you ever thought of the forces of God you have never seen. You probably noticed the wind this morning as you came around the corner. The wind reveals something of the invisible force of the omnipotence of God, but that is only a breath. You talk about the God of Hosts. Have you ever thought of the power of God in a storm,—on an ocean. I have crossed 69 times and have seen something of that power. Have you seen the handiwork of the Lord in the skies. Have you watched those ivory chariots passing across the pavement of blue? Have you ever thought of Him who marshalls them, of Him who rides upon the wind. Have you ever thought of the forces of God—storms, rain, snow. You can stop an army with snow flakes. Have you ever thought of the forces of beauty, the forces that frighten, thunder, lightning. These are some of the invisible forces of God; and yet for the child of God, all the forces break on the shores of the cross of Calvary.

“All power is given unto me.” Jesus said that and I am going to rely on it for myself. Not only did He die there to put away all my past sins, to blot them all out, but He came within me and gave me a clean heart and renewed a right spirit within me. He is able to take all crooked things out of my life, all the meanness, all the selfishness, the pride, the envy, the evil speaking, the evil thinking and the evil feeling. Jesus is able to do that and if you haven’t made that discovery, God help you make it this morning; because if you profess to be a Christian and don’t live up to your profession in your home, then you are hindering somebody. Somebody would have been with you at church gladly but they saw something in you not quite what it ought to be. They know, but may not tell you. Perhaps it was a bitter word. Did you come down to breakfast as if you had slept with a nest of weasels? Quarrelsome? Grouchy? And Jesus was not in you with the power of the risen Son of God—that power that makes everybody beautiful—that power wasn’t working in you or you would have been sweet and lovely over the breakfast table. Jesus makes people beautiful like the spring morning, like the sun-kist heights of the Alps, sweet as primroses on an April day, or the blue bells of my country on a May morning, it is time to pray! God gives you all power. He wants to come into your heart and mind, through His Son, and so create all that is lovely and beautiful. All power is given unto Me and you may prove that if you are prepared to pay the price and let Him have His way. You must let Him take out all that is selfish and mean.

“Give me a heart renewed
Full of love divine;
Perfect, right, pure and good.
A copy, Lord, of thine.”

All power for you, my Brother; all power for you, my Sister—in your own heart life, in your home life and in your family life; and if religion doesn’t show itself in your family life, it is worth very little. You must have so much of Christ in you that your folks will want to be like you. I remember the first prayer I prayed. I couldn’t read, we had no Bible; I didn’t have your opportunities. My blessed father came home to five motherless children and told us that he was a new creature in Christ Jesus. We didn’t understand that, but we watched and we saw a new character and a new disposition and a new temper unfold day by day; also a new face—for his face was transformed and it was so beautiful! My first prayer I ever prayed was out loud getting under my blanket, “Blessed Jesus, make me like me daddy!” I wonder if your children see something in you like that—that they pray for. I wonder if your husband sees something in you, Sister; or if your wife sees something in you, my Brother; or, you children, if your parents see something in you. All power—there is nothing too difficult for God. He is able, and He can do it for you this morning. And please don’t be so fully taken up with other people that you will neglect your own spiritual life. You will take care of other people better when you let God save you a little deeper, higher and broader. The whole man of you, the whole woman of you, transformed so that you will pray from your soul,

“Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,
All His wondrous compassion and purity;
Oh thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine.
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”

All that is for you in Jesus Christ. You see, you and I are living this side of Calvary and I would rather be on this side and be Gipsy Smith than to be Adam on the other side. On this side we have Jesus as our Advocate. Before He came it was sin for anybody but the high priest to enter the Holy of Holies, but Christ put our sins away when He died in our place on the cross; and it is for everybody, blessed be God. There is nobody left out.

Let me tell you a story. I lived in Cambridge; it was my home until just two years ago. My precious daughter is there, my brother is there this morning and my sister and her family are in Liverpool. My son is a minister and he and his wife live in Burlingame. All my folks are there in the danger zone and God is wondrously taking care of them. When I lived at Cambridge I had a neighbor, an old brewer, who was one of the biggest sinners in the city. He took a fancy to me because of my love for nature—trees, flowers, anything alive. You see, I was born out there in the woods and I can’t keep away from them very long in thought or in feeling. I love nature, I love everything with which God has His way. I’ll love you if you will let Him have His way—and I love you if you don’t. But I want to tell you about my brewer-friend. When I was away on a campaign, he would plant things for me and I would find them when they blossomed into flowers. He taught me much. One day I was with him at the greenhouse. He came up to me and said, “This is a new setting of eggs. They are Rhode Island and they came from 500 miles away. They cost $15.00.” I said, “For how many?” “Twelve.” “My, you had better be careful of them.” I had been trying to preach the Gospel to him and he would swear at me. “You have got my wife, my son, my young daughter, but I am the black sheep of the family. There is no hope for me.” When I saw those eggs I said “When are you going to set this lot. I want to learn because I may keep poultry some day.” He had me help with the nest and then showed me a black Minorca sitting on some glass eggs and she sat there like an old church member. (And some of you are great “setters” but you don’t hatch anything. You don’t bring anybody to Christ, you don’t do anybody any good, you don’t bring anybody with you to church. There are other people beside you in the world). We found the hen and she turned her back eye on me. He put the twelve beautiful eggs in to the little nest. I can see the black Minorca as she stepped over them, right over, and when she sat over them she just got down. I asked him, “When will you take her off the first time?” “Day after tomorrow.” “Please remember I am a learner and don’t take her off till I come back.”

We were transplanting some verbenas, petunias and gloxinias and other precious things for the greenhouse and garden and when he was whistling away, I got a common old ordinary white egg and slipped in with the $15.00 crowd, and next morning I was there early. He took the dear old hen off, and cried, “You vixen, you have laid!” “No, she didn’t. I laid that!” And then he swore at me. “What did you do that for?” “You profess to love me, so let that old thing that is common, that doesn’t belong to the golden crowd, the Rhode Island crowd, stay in the nest.” When hatching day came, my little common egg came out and that dear old hen knew no difference. When the wind blew or the dog or cat came around, she protected the odd little chick along with the Rhode Islanders. I said to him, “Don’t you know Somebody said, ‘How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.’” And for the first time I saw the tears fall and he turned to me and said, “You knew what you were doing.” “I think so.” That was all I said just then, Three or four months later he was dying and I stood beside him and talked with him and he held this hand in both of his while I prayed with him. When I got through praying, he said, “Gipsy, I’m under the wing and there is no odd one now.”

My Brother, my Sister, God has sent me to tell you this morning that he loves you and will never give you up. He is lonesome to tell you to come home and remember there is no odd one—you are all in His love, you are all included in his great plan. Calvary stretches out its arms this morning and in golden letters printed by fingers divine you may read, “Whosoever cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” Will you believe it?” All power is for you. All pardon is for you. All cleansing is for you. All victory is for you. God help you to believe it and if you are hearing at a distance will you kneel down when we pray in a moment, will you commit yourself, your wife, your children, your husband, your parents and loved ones to Him who loved you and will never cease to love you. God help you to trust Him and to trust Him now. May we realize that all power in heaven and in earth is in Jesus Christ and He has promised to be with you and with me,—He will be with the most frail, most unworthy, most unlikely, oldest, youngest—until we shall be presented faultless before the Father.