Paris Reidhead preaches on the importance of doing everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus, emphasizing the need for a deep relationship with Christ, submission to His authority, and a commitment to glorify Him in all aspects of life. Reidhead connects this concept to Ezekiel 36, highlighting God's concern for His Name and His desire for His people to walk in His statutes. He challenges the audience to examine their relationship with Jesus, surrender to His sovereignty, and allow Him to be the driving force behind every word and deed.

In the Name of Jesus By Paris Reidhead* Will you turn, please, to Colossians, Chapter 3. The 3rd Chapter, of Colossians. It was my privilege during the past four Tuesday nights to speak to the Commuters’ Bible Class, sponsored by the Christian Business Men’s Committee of the city, four Tuesdays from 5:35 until 6:05, in the Wendell Willkie Building. I met with a group of business men that were desirous of studying the Word of God as it related to a Christian Business man, in business, at home, in his community, and at church. And as I prepared my heart for this ministry I became convinced that that which engaged us was in a sense the heart of the Lord’s expectation for His people. This morning I am asking you to share with me, not in the detail in which we were privileged to spend during those four Tuesday nights, but in seeing this in its relationship as it grows out of the Text. Colossians, Chapter 3, verse 16 and 17. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” I believe that if you will relate this text to Ezekiel, Chapter 36, you will understand God’s concern for His Name. In verse 22 of Ezekiel 36, we read: (perhaps previously. We will turn to verse 20.) “And when they (that is, the people God judged and scattered) entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned My Holy Name, when they said to them (that is, the one into whose country they came as a consequence of God’s scattering judgment), These are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land.” (Eze. 36:20) (Now get the picture: Israel had been called of God and bore His Name. He wanted this people for Himself as a witness. And, because of their stubbornness and unwillingness to heed God’s Will and Way and Word, God judged them, scattered them, and in their scattering, as they would come into a Land, under the judgment of God, they would say, “Who are you?” And then they would say, “We are the people of the Lord. We are God’s people, and God saw this as a profaning of His Name.” They kept it, even when they were scattered because of His judgment upon them. So in verse 21, we read: “But I had pity for Mine Holy Name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I will sanctify My great Name, which was profaned among the heather, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the he heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.” (Eze. 36:21-23) All that God is purposing to do in the verse of Ezekiel 36 that follow is to the end of securing for Himself a people upon whose hearts the Law has been written, and into whom He has placed His Spirit and fullness, in order that they might walk in His statutes. I am so grateful that He said, “I will cause you to walk in My statutes.” (Eze. 36:27) But God had great concern for the Name, His Name. He said, My Name is JEHOVAH, that is My Name. And we must understand that this is the chosen Name of God. We are not surprised therefore that we read in the 17th verse of Colossians 3: “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jehovah-Savior.” For the Jesus in the New Testament is the Jehovah in the Old Testament, and the very Name that He took as is was the compound word, Jehovah Yeshua, the Lord my Salvation, or Jehovah Yashua, the Lord my Savior. And I do not know that scholars agree as to which it is. But in either case it refers to the Lord Jesus, and refers Him back to the Jehovah of the Old Testament. So as He was concerned about His Name with Israel, He is concerned now about His Name with His people, the Church. And thus in verse 17, you have this fulcrum Scripture upon which the leverage of God’s purpose must rest: “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus.” Now does this mean that the use of the Name, Lord Jesus, becomes a ceremonial suffix to every conversation? When you are ordering your groceries, you conclude the order by saying, In the Name of the Lord Jesus? Is this what He is referring to? That it is just a suffix or a prefix, a little form. Oh indeed not. You must not so misconstrue it. Is He referring there particularly to the formula that closes most of our praying? In the Name of the Lord Jesus. Well, I am sure that this is fit and proper, but I do not believe that it embodies the heart of God’s intention in this text. What do we understand the formula here, the expression, Do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus, to imply? First of all it implies a relationship, a relationship that we sustain to Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. What is that relationship? Well, we understand that the ones to whom he writes are Christians; they are those who had discovered that Jesus Christ is God. This is a revelation that has been made to their hearts, that Jesus Christ is God, God come in the flesh, very God, of very God, as well as very man of very man. Consequently, they see and they understand and recognize that being God, He must be worshipped as God and obeyed as God, and thus we have the testimony: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, (or Jesus to be Lord) and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved.” (Rom. 10:9) And thus he is writing to people that are related to this man, Christ Jesus, by having understood Him to be through the revelation of God’s Word and His Spirit that Jesus Christ is God. This is the people to whom he writes. And thus, all that would be done for the glory of Jesus Christ is done for the Glory of God. Secondly, these are a people that have not only seen the person and the man Christ Jesus to be God, but they have done the only fit and appropriate thing to do to this One who is God come in the flesh. They have bowed before Him in brokenness. The expression used repeatedly is, They have fallen upon the Rock, that Rock cut out of the mountain without hands, that Stone that the builders rejected which is made the Headstone of the corner. Seeing that He is God, they have done as did Saul of Tarsus, “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6) There is now a capitulation to Him as God, thus as Lord of every area and every department of the individual’s life. There is a 3rd thing that happened to the people to whom he writes. Christ has become their life. Salvation does not consist in a right view of the person of Christ. It is not without a right view of the person of Christ, but it is possible for one to see Jesus Christ as God and not to have been born of God, because salvation does not consist in a view or an opinion, or a doctrine or a truth. It is not without. It is indispensable. But salvation is in a person, and thus these people to whom he writes are people into whom, by the miracle of the new birth, Jesus Christ has come. For he wrote earlier, saying, When Christ who is our life shall appear. This is why David said, and I return to it again and again, “Jehovah is my life and my salvation.” (Psa. 27:1) Now no one is truly born of God that does not see that Jesus Christ is God. This is the touchstone of Christianity. This distinguishes Christianity from all other cults and all other-false religions. Christianity is essentially religion that views Jesus Christ as God, and therefore no one as a Christian questions this. This is absolutely a fixed factor in Christianity. Then it is to have a right and proper view regarding His person, but it is also to have had a right and proper vital relationship to Him. Thus it said, “To as many as receive Him.” It did not say, Received the Word concerning Him, “but to as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God.” (John 1:12) And so we are now speaking to people who not only have the Gospel and the plan of redemption, but have been by this miracle of imparted life made partakers of the Divine Nature, and of whom it could be said, Christ is in them. For you understand, of course, that Paul writing to the church at Corinth said, “Examine yourselves, prove your own selves, know you not your own selves how that Christ be in you except you be reprobate.” (II Cor. 13:5) He is now writing to a people that have Christ in them. Now let me ask you. Is he writing to you? Have you seen Him as God? Has there been this revelation to your heart? Have you submitted to Him as God in every area or department of your being? Have you received Him by this miracle of imparted life, so that Christ is in you? Should it be that I have to have someone answer and say, No. These first three questions you have asked, I have not been prepared to do. I will not accept Jesus Christ as God; well then we stop there, but what I say is of no pertinence to you. You have already precluded any participation. Again, someone else would say, Well, yes I know Him to be God, but I am not yet come to that place of capitulation and surrender to His Sovereignty that is implicit in it. I hold it to be a factor, but I have not personally decided to let Him rule. And someone else might say, “Well, I am not at all sure that Jesus Christ is in me. The Plan of Salvation is in my mind; the truths concerning His death, burial, and resurrection are in my memory. I have in times past made religious action in relation to these truths but to say that Jesus Christ is in me is that for which I am not prepared.” Then I have word for you, and I would be delighted to speak with you at leisure or length if you need, at another time, but I would have to say that you do not qualify therefore by the Biblical definition of being Christian. And therefore, these are the issues we must settle. I do not want to misconstrue that of which we are speaking. I now turn to you that have answered these three questions in the affirmative, and wholeheartedly, with full confidence. I know that; Jesus Christ is in me as Life Giver, having brought me out of life into death that I am a new creation. Then I submit to you that we are approaching the grounds of understanding this Text. Do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus. This I say involves a relationship we have described. What is involved in it? First, we are related to Him, not only as those who have been saved and redeemed by the pouring forth of His Life in death and by the releasing of His Life in resurrection, but we are those that have been adopted into the Father’s family through faith in Him. And the redeemed person stands before God as a child of God, born into His family. And thus it is that Christ is spoken of as the Elder Brother of the believer. We see this wonderful truth that our Lord Jesus might in all points be like unto His Brethren, and He is heir and we are joint-heirs with Christ. Now, our Elder Brother, and in my mind I capitalize that because He is gloriously, infinitely beyond us in every respect. Our Elder Brother is seated is seated at the right hand of the Throne of God, glorified, as John saw Him. And He is there. Now He worked? He said, “I do only those things that please the Father.” (John 8:29) I do always those things that please the Father. I only speak as I receive commandment of the Father. I only do what I see the Father do. And so our Lord was in total submission to His Father, absolutely abandoned to the will of His Father, though He was God, Eternal God, by whom all things were made, it pleased Him to accept the limitations of His humanity. And during the three years of His public ministry everything He did He did by the Father directing, empowering and guiding as to the time. Remember that. Everything He did, He did by the power of the Father, through the Spirit. And He said, I only do what I see My Father do. He was completely at the bidding and the control of His Father. This was part of His emptying. Being found in fashion as a man He accepted the limitations of His humanity, presented His body, and did only those things that pleased the Father. Now, as He, so are we in the world. And it would thus to be that you would come to that place in your experience where you recognize that the energy and the abilities with which you have previously served self and sin were not transmutable into the Kingdom of God, that God had written cipher over everything that had its origin in human personality, and said in that Day of Judgment it must be burned up and nothing but ashes. And in His Sovereignty He has established that the only thing that will endure is that which is done as were the works of the Lord Jesus done, not of Himself, but being the vessel and vehicle by which the Father worked through the power of the Spirit. Now it is that the Son is to work in us by the power of the Spirit. And so whatever we were to do in His Name would be done as our Lord labored in the Name of His Father, at the control of the Father, at the direction of the Father, at the timing of the Father, and of course by the enabling that the Father would give. So it is with you that you have abandoned if you are rightly understanding what it means to work – “whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus,” recognizing that it is not simply to take the energy of your personality and say, Now I am going to do all of this in His Name. If you do it will just be wood, hay and stubble multiplied. It is not that at all. To do it in His Name is not to take unsanctified, carnal energy, engage it in religious activity, and then attach to it the Name of Jesus, and expect it to be accepted. No. This is not enough! It is infinitely more and deeper than that. It involves therefore an abandonment of the right to our rights, to originate. He has taken from His child the right of origination, the right of spawning, and the right of generation. Therefore, just as our Lord Jesus for thirty years sat, if you please, engaged up in Nazareth in that which pleased the Father, sought Him to do. He could do nothing of Himself. Oh He could speak, and brings worlds into being. But when He accepted the limitations of His humanity for thirty years He used the axe, and the plane, and the hammer and the saw, and someone would have come to Him and said; Well now listen, Lord, you have got to get on with this task for which you have come. And He would have said, “I can do nothing of Myself.” (John 5:30) He had to wait for the Father’s time. He had to wait. And so it has come to the place that you have allowed the Cross to join you to the Lord Jesus to the place where the ability and the desire to originate out of your personality has been abnegated and negated by the Cross. And you have no desire any longer to originate activity and plans and programs. Like the Lord you are just bound. You are tied. You can do nothing of yourself. To do it in the Name of the Lord Jesus means that you have been prepared to come to the place that you do nothing rather than simply to act in the energy of your personality and to invent in order to give the impression of activity. The only thing that can be truly in the Name of the Lord is that which has had His originating design and His purpose, that which begins with Him. So it implies therefore a relationship to Him, in which as Brother to Him, joined by birth into the Father’s family, you have the same attitude toward Him as He had toward the Father. Secondly, and further to this very point is something that is passed, and ignored, and missed too frequently. “And that is that when you do in word or deed in the Name of the Lord Jesus,” you do it under the control of the Head. Christ is the Head over all to the Church which is His body. And it is in relationship to the Head of the Church. Not to the body. My body does not control my body. And I categorically deny submission of the members to the authority of the body...members submit to the authority of the Head and are brought under the control of the Head. But I submit to you this, that whenever the Head controls the members of the body work in a sweet and glorious union and harmony without conflict, without difficulty. And thus it is to be and to work in word and deed to the Name of the Lord Jesus It means that your relationship to Him is so vital, so complete, and so sweet in the fullness of all that He has purposed, that you find that you are walking in sweet communion with those who walk likewise with Him in union, so it is a union of the members to each other, but in submission to the authority of the Head. Now back to the implication. What is the purpose therefore of this? To do whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus. What is the purpose of this word? Well first that you should understand that there is only one fit, proper motive for any activity flowing out of a Christian, out of a redeemed person, only one motive. You recall in the 61st of Isaiah, that wonderful portion that was read and quoted by our Lord Jesus, that He had something to say concerning all the He was doing. Let me read it to you: “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, that garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. That He might be glorified.” (Isa. 61:3) Now I verily believe that there is only one hub for a Christian’s heart, only one point to which everything in his heart must point, one supreme ruling passion of his being. And that is the Glory of Jesus Christ, that HE might be glorified. It is so difficult to live in a system of legalism. Many times people who are prepared to live on a shallow level desire to have a lot of do’s and don’ts emphasized from the pulpit. Now don’t do this, and don’t do that, and don’t, and don’t, and oh my, the first thing you know you begin to say, “Now how many don’ts do I have?” and the list grows and grows until as our Orthodox Jewish Brethren have 613 don’ts or do’s that are there, acts of righteousness which must be observed, and they cannot carry them all in mind at any given time, and so they are constantly in conflict with their conscience. I believe that God’s purpose was to give to us the Word and the instructions. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom in order that you can understand God’s mind, and God’s Will, and God’s purpose in every relationship of life. If you read thoughtfully and prayerfully this New Testament, you will find that God has been just as explicit in your relationship in a sense, as He was in the Old Testament, just as explicit. Not so much in Don’t eat this kind of fish or that kind of bird, but explicit in terms of the application of the principles that He wishes these, His Own to observe. And I submit to you that if you have this heart of all the commandments of the Holy Ghost, this heart of the purpose of God in all the words and deeds that flow out of your life, if you have this clearly in mind, to which you give whole hearted agreement, that you have the touchstone by which you are going to be able to measure the items of conduct, and of responsibility and activity as they may occur. Many times we are in difficulty because we do not have a point to which we can bring our lives. If you had a compass that did not have a point to which the needle would go from any direction it would be rather useless, but the fact that here are out on the sea ships from almost every part of the world, and every water of the world, and they are all making their course accurately and with the least amount of delay and difficulty because up here in the north there is what is called the Polar Star, the star of the pole, the magnetic pole. And because of that, all the compasses are properly related from whatever longitude on the globe they may be. They are all related to this, and by virtue of having the compass they can relate themselves to each other, and to this magnetic pole. So it is that there should be a magnetic pole in your life, and God has given it to us here. “Whatever you do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus.” Here it is. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all on account of the reputation of Christ.” This is essentially what is meant by it. Do all on account of the honor, and the glory, and the praise that He deserves. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory. Let nothing be done. Let nothing be done, says the Holy Spirit. But let all be done. And now you have this pole star that is fixed in the Scripture from Genesis through Revelation. It is the glory of God, and particularly now, since we have seen, and acknowledged, and received Jesus Christ as God. It is the glory of God in Jesus Christ. That He might be glorified was the reason for our Lord’s coming and His ministry; that He might be glorified is the rule for every word and attitude and action of your life. Now you discover, if you consent to this that it is far more rigid than a system of legalism. If you have this ruling, controlling, governing commitment of mind and heart, and a total abandonment to this supreme good, the glory of God in Jesus Christ, you have the measure for this Book. Glorify Him in word. Not only the words you speak, but the words you read, and the words you hear, and the words you see. And therefore you are going to test all of your reading by this, that “whatever we do in word or deed...” This means that you can read to the glory of Christ. It is going to be a rule at work. It tests every conversation. It tests every action. Your life now is being measured by the compass which tells you whether the item is pointing toward that pole star of purpose, or it is not. You can set this compass down and in the midst of recreation. If it wavers off some other way, There is no debate you have already committed yourself to the glory of Christ. In your business. You set this compass down in the middle of the business situation. And if the pull of the needle wavers and does not come right to the fix on the magnetic pole star of your heart, the reputation, the honor, the praise, the glory of Jesus Christ, well that is out. Now you have found something. Every conversation, every action, every attitude, your whole life now is measured by a simple compass that you can carry into every action and every situation with the greatest of ease. The Glory of God in Jesus Christ. Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all on account of the Name, and the reputation, and the honor, and the glory of Jesus Christ. This is God’s Word to you this morning. What will you do with it? Shall we bow in prayer. We thank Thee, our Father, that there are gathered here a company of people that, having had the revelation of Thy Son, count it all joy to bring every thought, and every intent, and every motive, and every purpose, their whole being to this one end, the glory of Jesus Christ. We hear Thy Son pray, Glorify Thou Me with the glory I had with Thee before the world was, and we believe that the only thing Thou art interested in these days is to answer the prayer of Thy Son and glorify Him in the midst of Thy people. Thou hast said that Thou wouldst sanctify Thy Holy Name in Thy people. Should there be anyone here, Lord, who finds the touchstone of this Truth, condemns attitudes or actions, or words, or activities, might there be a hearty repentance, a complete break, a confession, knowing that there is cleansing in the Blood, and a commitment of the entire being to this simple purpose, this ruling passion, this governing controlling truth that will keep us from the ditch of despair and failure, and sin. Lord, grant that we shall stand in a moment before Thee, a people united, in one ruling passion, to glorify Jesus Christ in every word we speak and every thought of our minds, and every action of our lives, and attribute to others this same purpose, Lord, and stop any tendency that there might be to judge the motives of others. Oh God, give to us we pray Thee today a respect for one another and a respect for Thy Word that will cause us, at least until the proof is to the contrary, that this people that stand before Thee and name Thy Name want to glorify Thee. Let it be failures of judgment and not failures of purpose, and grant, Lord, that charity and love, and sympathy and forgiveness shall characterize us, and that we can walk unitedly together, knowing that we have our eyes fixed on the same goal, and following the same compass we want to see Jesus Christ glorified in every word and deed. To that end, bind our hearts in unity, for Jesus sake. Amen. Shall we stand. “Now may the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the Blood of the everlasting covenant make us perfect in every good work to do His Will, working in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ our Lord, to Whom be the glory now and forever. Amen.” (Heb. 13:20,21) * Reference such as: Delivered at The Gospel Tabernacle Church, New York City on Sunday Morning, October 15, 1961 by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1961