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GREATER WORK
The witness of the Spirit is the witness of power. Jesus said,
"The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do
because I go to the Father." I used to stumble over that. I didn’t understand
it. I thought, what greater work could any man do than Christ had done? How could any one
raise a dead man who had been laid away in the sepulcher for days, and who had already
begun to turn back to dust; how with a word could he call him forth? But the longer I live
the more I am convinced it is a greater thing to influence a man’s will; a man whose
will is set against God; to have that will broken and brought into subjection to
God’s will - or, in other words, it is a greater thing to have power over a living,
sinning, God hating man, than to quicken the dead. He who could create a world could speak
a dead soul into life; but I think the greatest miracle this world has ever seen was the
miracle at Pentecost. Here were men who surrounded the Apostles, full of prejudice, full
of malice, full of bitterness, their hands, as it were, dripping with the blood of the Son
of God, and yet an unlettered man, a man whom they detested, a man whom they hated, stands
up there and preaches the Gospel, and three thousand of them are immediately convicted and
converted, and become disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and are willing to lay down
their lives for the Son of God. It may have been on that occasion that Stephen was
converted, the first martyr, and some of the men who soon after gave up their lives for
Christ. This seems to me the greatest miracle this world has ever seen. But Peter did not
labor alone; the Spirit of God was with him; hence the marvelous results.
The Jewish law required that there should be two witnesses, and so we find that when Peter
preached there was a second witness. Peter testified of Christ, and Christ says when the
Holy Spirit comes He will testify of Me. And they both bore witness to the verities of our
Lord’s incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection, and the result was that a
multitude turned as with one heart unto the Lord. Our failure now is, that preachers
ignore the Cross, and veil Christ with sapless sermons and superfine language. They
don’t just present Him to the people plainly, and that is why, I believe, that the
Spirit of God don’t work with power in our churches. What we need is to preach Christ
and present Him to a perishing world. The world can get on very well without you and me,
but the world can not get on without Christ, and therefore we must testify of Him, and the
world, I believe, today is just hungering and thirsting for this divine, satisfying
portion. Thousands and thousands are sitting in darkness, knowing not of this great Light,
but when we begin to preach Christ honestly, faithfully, sincerely and truthfully; holding
Him up, not ourselves; exalting Christ and not our theories; presenting Christ and not our
opinions; advocating Christ and not some false doctrine; then the Holy Ghost will come and
bear witness. He will testify that what we say is true. When He comes He will confirm the
Word with signs following. This is one of the strongest proofs that our Gospel is Divine;
that it is of Divine origin; that not only did Christ teach these things, but when leaving
the World He said, "He shall glorify Me," and "He will testify of Me."
If you will just look at the second chapter of Acts - to that wonderful sermon that Peter
preached - the thirty-sixth verse, you read these words:
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ."
And when Peter said this the Holy Ghost descended upon the people and testified
of Christ - bore witness in signal demonstration that all this was true. And again, in the
fortieth verse,
"And with many other words did He testify and exhort, saying, Save
yourselves from this untoward generation."
With many other words did He testify, not only these words that have been
recorded, but many other words.
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