God's Message to This Generation of Hell Raising Church Members Lordship — E.A. Johnston

Well, it's good to be before you tonight friends and you're not gonna want to miss this message as it addresses our generation today. But before I begin this message friends, I want to give you the definition of a term.

Antinomianism and the Rejection of God's Law

The term is the word Antinomian. Some of you may have heard of it some of you may have not but Antinomian is derived from the Greek words anti against and nomos Law and it contends that no person can be held accountable to any moral law.

That's how a lot of folks think today. Especially in our churches that to be a Christian It is only required of them that they believe then they can live as they please. Tell me if that's not our sad condition today friends as we sit in our churches in a stupor of spiritual declension.

There is a vital message That needs an audience today. Whether it's addressed to the only believe crowd who hate repentance and the law of God or the hardshell crowd who refuse to repent because They mistook that for a merit.

The Absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ

This generation of self-satisfied Bible-thumping holiness-hating Hell-raising church members need to hear the most needed message to the church today which is the lordship of Christ Jesus. The title of my message this evening friends is God's message to this generation of hell-raising church members is the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Listen to me friends. That's true because Smack-dab in the middle of the gospel is a bloody cross on which the Prince of Glory died. And if you want him friend for forgiveness of sin, you must come to him in repentance.

Confessing you are a sinner and throwing down every single Shotgun you have that's pointed at the Lord God. Jesus is Lord. You can't divide Jesus into two halves and take the one you want. He is Lord.

He is an absolute Lord. This message is for every Unsafe church member out there who travels a religious road to hell and who once made a decision. But who never met the Lord Christ for salvation. For there's a huge segment in the church today.

Who still need to repent and to be born again and start living right and to kiss the son? Lest he be angry and you perish from the way now anytime. Some preacher tries to stick his neck out there and preach the doctrine of the lordship of Christ.

He will have to face an angry mob of lost religious people who were busy Picking up stones to hurl at him the most hated doctrine Inside and outside of church today. Is that Jesus is Lord? Back about 30 years ago There was a popular slogan among Baptists in particular.

It was if he's not Lord of all. He's not Lord at all and we smiled when we heard it and we said it even if we didn't live it. But few of us knew that for Christ to be Lord in her life then the kingdom of self had to die.

Mordecai Ham and the Cost of Preaching Christ's Lordship

But old-time preachers who were mildly used to God Understood this message of the lordship of Christ. Maybe some of you have heard of the old evangelist Mordecai ham. Billy Graham was saved in the tent meeting under the preaching of Mordecai ham.

Well old Mordecai ham went up and down America preaching his main theme of the lordship of Christ and God so Blessed that message which honored his son that entire communities were changed. Mockers were converted Families were restored Bars were closed.

Laws were changed. Crooked politicians either repented or feared the consequences. And when some of evangelist hams hearers Hardened themselves against that message and resisted God's work God withdrew his grace and God's judgment fell.

They had to carry some of his ears out on a stretcher because God had struck him dead. They were out there either Submitting or resisting to that doctrine of the lordship of Christ and entire communities Felt the power of it.

Did Mordecai ham pay a price for preaching that message. Well, let me tell you friends one time He was attacked in a hotel lobby by a man with a cord who struck him from behind on the back of his head and Gashes were cut in the side of his face.

On another occasion an angry mob Broke in on his meeting and a gang of men dragged him out of the town. And they had a bucket of tar a sack of feathers and a rope to hang him. The mayor in that Texas town had to call the Calvary to come rescue him.

Another time Mordecai ham was run over by a car while crossing the street. It was dragged until he was Unconscious. He spent the whole next year in a hospital in a state almost in a coma. But despite those physical attacks on him as well as verbal attacks against him Mordecai ham Relentlessly went up and down America preaching the message of the lordship of Christ.

Listen to his own words friends taken from his biography. I preached the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ allowed for no compromise. But hammered this one thought that Christ Jesus must have first place.

First call and first allegiance. I made that the keynote of all my meetings. That's what he said friends and when Mordecai ham came to town the moral life of that town was changed. Because he pressed the claims of the Lord Jesus on his hearers and lies were transformed.

Transformed. That's better than making a little decision like we do today and remain unchanged. Listen friends when Jesus was here in his earthly ministry. As he passed through towns and villages those who encountered him experienced change.

A Testimony of Conversion and Transformation

Have you encountered this living Lord? Have you experienced change? Does your family know it? I was a lost church member for years. I even taught a big Sunday school class with over a hundred members for years.

But I was a lost religious man. Until one day. Hear my testimony now friends until one day. I was alone at home. For my family was away out of town on vacation. And I was reading a sermon by the Puritan preacher Solomon stoddard and while I read that sermon I saw the gospel for the first time as it came alive to me and I saw a living Lord Who demanded obedience and I wasn't able to give it and I got lost that day.

I saw that although I was a good church member I was a lost man on my way to hell and not only that but I Deserved to go there. I became a seeker of the Lord that day and bless God. He saved me. Well, I didn't tell my wife for about three weeks.

Until one morning in the kitchen I slowly approached her and I said I've got something serious to say to you. Will you please listen? While you were away God saved me. He really saved me. She looked at me intently and replied.

Since I've been back. I've noticed a change in you. Can your loved ones friends say that about you if you claim to be a Christian. Have you met this? Risen Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father and who reigns on a heavenly throne.

Who is the living Lord? Have you been? Transformed by him. A few preachers today are gonna stick their head on a chopping block and Preaching unwanted an unpopular message, but I will because nobody likes me.

Anyhow, I've got news for your friends. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is a Living Lord who sits at the right hand of the Father and he earned that right by way of a bloody Cross and if you want him you must come to him get to him where he is.

Total Allegiance and the Coming Judgment

And bow to him as all it's all you are and all he is. And that my friends is the fact that Jesus Christ is a risen Living Lord with all power. Power in his nail prints in his hands. He has rights and claims on all followers of his if you are his friend.

Then you were purchased by his blood, but he must be a complete master. Your life is not your own if you've never bowed your knee and bowed your heart to him as Lord in Acknowledgement and utter surrender of all you are to all he is.

Then I'd recommend it to you now friend. Because a day is fast approaching We're at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

So you better do it now friend. Before he makes you bow to him. When he makes his enemies his footstool and he puts his foot on your neck. Get the wax out of your ears and hear me now. His saviorship is found in his Lordship.

But this authority Rejecting bunch of church folks today Stand with that noisy mob in my Bible who cried We will not have this man reign over us but listen to me friend. Jesus will be your Lord now, or he will be your judge then in the New Testament 520 times Jesus is called Lord.

The early church did not separate Christ from his lordship as we do today. Those early Christians had a faith where the robber met the road for they For to be a Christian back then. They had to make a choice and it had to be a dangerous choice.

Because they had to say either Caesar is Lord and bow to him or Jesus is Lord and bow to him. And they knew if they were found out to be Christians and say Jesus is Lord it meant confiscation of their property.

Their family would be hauled away. They would be shut up in a prison. Until it was time to throw them to the Lions and the Bears in the Roman Coliseum. Those early Christians understood the cost of following a Crucified Christ.

They didn't know nothing about making a decision For Jesus and put it in a tin can and living like the devil the rest of our life. They knew if they became Christians it meant something it meant they had to surrender.

They're all to a risen Lord No matter the consequences. They understood that to be a Christian meant entire submission daily surrender to a living Lord absolute ownership of me and mine unquestioned obedience.

The Holy Spirit, Scripture, and the Call to Surrender

I'm praying friends right now That God will go to work on some of your hearts and show you Your condition and I'm praying friends that the Spirit the Holy Spirit Makes this book which is the Word of God to come alive and to make Jesus Christ leap out of its pages in a Revelation to a poor sinners heart so he can be saved.

You will either bow to him now or then I will spend my life force and energy to proclaim this one Urgent theme that Jesus is Lord. He must be Lord in your life friend. Where you crown him Lord of all all you are or you just gonna go on to hell.

Maybe just because. Maybe just maybe I can draw some of you out of your complacency to get awakened to your lost condition and to see your danger and to come and Surrender to the claims of Christ on your life to where you can Call out to him and say I can resist him no longer.

What can I do to be saved? Listen to me friends. Jesus demands more than admiration. He demands full submission To his rule in your life. The reason you don't want him as a Lord is that you want to sit on the throne of your life?

And rule there. You want to be able to call the shots as it concerns you. But you must be confronted With the reality that Jesus is Lord and if you want him as a Savior from sin Then self must be dethroned.

And another enthroned there the Lord Christ that same Jesus Who was taken by cruel men and nailed up on a cross on Calvary where they hung a crown of Thorns on his tender brow drove nails into his innocent hands and feet on that bloody cross.

They hung the Son of God while soldiers Threw dice at his feet and made a mockery of his nakedness. We're self-satisfied lost religious leaders made fun of him. Saying he saved others let him save himself.

Christ's Invitation to the Weary and the Lost

Look at that man on the cross friend see him hanging there with that crowny thorn on his head. Look at his nail pierced hands and feet. But look at that blood-stained Savior from sin with his arms outstretched.

Beckoning you to come to him. He says Come on to me All ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Let me ask you friend. Are you weary of your sins?

Are you hungry for God? Are you thirsty for Christ? You come and surrender to this bleeding Savior who declares if any man. Any man that means you friend if any man Will come after me. Let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever Will save his life shall lose it and whosoever Will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Listen to me friend. The cross is the place where wicked man sought to get rid of him. But by his death it becomes the place where his saving power. Hear me now. Where is saving power flows out to all who come in repentance?

Confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. You you stick your pride in your pocket friend and come and surrender to this living Lord. You come he's a sovereign overall overall.

All things have been given into his hands. I'm gonna sing a hymn friend and if God's been dealing with your awakened soul. Through this message. I want you to come to Christ. I want you to come and do business with him come and get serious before him.

Become a seeker of his mercy and grace in repentance. If God is dealing with your friend, don't turn your back and walk away. Don't you be like that rich young ruler who refused to make Jesus Lord? He wanted to hang on to the things in this world.

And he turned his back on Christ and walked away and walked straight to hell. You come friend and you throw down your shotgun of rebellion. It is now pierced feet. You take your place as a guilty sinner at that cross and lay your sin burden down at the feet of Christ Jesus.

The Lord Jesus Christ will not settle for anything short of absolute surrender of Yourself to him. You surrender all you are to all he is. He is Lord. You come as I sing. All hail the power of Jesus name.

Let angels prostrate. Fall bring forth the royal Diadem and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal Diadem and crown him Lord of all. Oh that with all the Sacred throng we at his feet may fall. Will join the Everlasting song and crown him Lord of all.

Will join the everlasting song and crown him Lord of all. You.