Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/jerry-jennings/the-lordship-of-christ/
Now I'll read with you in Luke chapter 2. I want to read verse 11. Luke chapter 2 and verse 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now read with me in Philippians.
The Philippian epistle. Chapter 2, verse 8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that 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 that is out of every throat these words be spoken, should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
I have upon my mind this afternoon something that I thought I might hear earlier on and that's the Lordship of Christ. There's a lot to be said about the Lordship of Christ. But I'm not the one that's going to say a lot about the Lordship of Christ because I don't know that much about the Lordship of Christ.
I should know more than what I do. Lord of all. That's what the Roman epistle tells us. Both of the living and the dead. And I think the Lordship of Christ is something that really marks the assembly of the Lord's people.
Ideally it should. And not so much the denominations. But I don't really know that for sure because I don't go there and I don't really know what it is they teach anymore. But I'm just saying, imagine this.
A brilliant Baptist church that we heard about this afternoon. Not the same place. This was out in Galesville, Wisconsin. And they invited me to come and hear the Gospel. The brethren didn't do that, so I didn't go to the Gospel Hall to hear the Gospel.
I went to this little Baptist church in Galesville, Wisconsin because they invited me and my wife to come and hear the Gospel of which we didn't know what the Gospel was. We didn't have a clue. Never heard the Gospel.
Heard the Word, I suppose. But never really knew what the Gospel was. And if I think back on it today, I really don't know how much they understood in relation to the Lordship of Christ. I take it that salvation and the Lordship of Christ go hand in hand and you can't have one without the other.
Somebody explained to me a long time ago what the Lordship of Christ was and he explained it to me in a very simple way. And I'll just pass that on to you. The Lordship of Christ, He's my Master. And I'm His servant.
And salvation and Lordship go hand in hand. If you're saved and born again, the Bible ran washed in the precious blood of Christ today, then He's your Master. And you're His servant. You know, we speak of the servants of the Lord.
We're all servants of the Lord. Every one of us in this room today. If we're saved, if we're born again, we're servants of the Lord and He's our Master. And that's the Lordship of Christ as best as I understand it.
He has authority over every aspect of my life. He has authority over my time. And He has authority over your time. And He has authority over my talent. And that's not much, I can tell you. I can play the radio, but that's about it when it comes to talents like that.
But there are some people in this room and you have a lot of talent. There's a lot of potential here too, by the way, because there's a lot of young people and it's great to see them. And I can say that now because I'm getting kind of long at the tooth.
I'm looking over my glasses. Years back I used to wonder, why do these men look over their glasses? Well, the same reason I'm doing today is because I just had cataracts removed. That's old people problems, you know.
So He has authority over your time and your talent and your treasures. That's that stuff you got in your pocket and in the bank, treasures. And there's things that you have in your life. You know, my wife calls them thingies, thingies.
And He also has, He's the master of my testimony as well, and your testimony too in this world. I remember in a gospel meeting one night in this brilliant Baptist church that this preacher, his name was Robert Bledsoe.
That's been a lot of years ago. And he was kind of like a man that was walking backwards looking at his tracks, you know. He was a real simple, simple gospel preacher and every time he opened the Word of God he spoke on Christ.
That's just exactly what he was supposed to be speaking on. Christ. Couldn't think of a better subject, could you? Well, there was Rodel preaching away and at the end of a gospel meeting he asked a question.
Who will make Jesus the Lord of their life? Well, I didn't know up from down. But I did know this, that about ten minutes prior to that question, God saved me through a half a verse of Scripture. While we were yet without strength in due time.
I never heard that. But I heard this. Christ died for the ungodly. I knew that described me. And I nudged my wife and I says, He's been my Lord for ten minutes. How long has He been yours? How long has He been yours?
Because as long as He has been yours and as long as He has been my Lord, He has been my Master and ideally I have been His servant. You serve Him in your small corner in me and mine. So I didn't have to make Him the Lord of my life.
He was the Lord of my life. I didn't have to pump it up and you don't have to pump it up either. I didn't have to be taught that and you don't have to be taught that. It's a given. You ever hear that expression before?
That's how they talk down in Oklahoma. They've got chair crusher cafes and they've got bents and all kinds of things like that. And one of their favorite little things is it's a given. I said to my wife, what's a given?
She says that means that you just automatically do it. So it's a given. If you're saved in the room today, it's a given. He's your Lord and you're His servant. I take it that the acknowledgement of the Lordship of Christ is not necessarily a commitment.
A commitment is really when you're being dedicated to a cause perhaps, or a person or an activity. And then I'm in control. If I'm committed to something, I'm in control of whatever I am committed to.
It's a complete surrender. That's different. That's the laying down of the sword. That's when God is in control, not me, with my commitments. But God is in control in relation to my surrender to Him as my master and me as His servant.
You know, that's what General Lee did. I mentioned this in lacrosse last week. This is what General Lee did to General Grant at Appomattox. He just laid down the sword. And the resistance was over. And he surrendered his armies to Grant's army, the army of the Potomac.
And do you know what else he did? He agreed to abide with the terms of the surrender. I wonder if you and I agreed to abide to the terms of our surrender to Christ. Someone said years ago, I heard an older brother say, He's not Lord of all.
He's not Lord at all. Personally, I think that's a bit of a stretch. But that's what they believed in that day. And those were really words. And sometimes words are cheap. But the acknowledgement of the Lord as Lord is not.
And it isn't necessarily manifested by words. But it's manifested by words and deeds. Words and deeds. We need to say what we mean and mean what we say. And the reason we do is because the Lord means what He says.
And He says exactly what He means. And so there's no gray areas in your Bible. But when you get the cataracts taken out of your eyes, then the pages of your Bible will be instantly white. I didn't know that they were white for years.
So I got them things pulled out of there. And suddenly I looked at my Bible and I thought the pages were white. And all the print on the pages is black. So it's black and white. No gray areas. In it at all.
I try to remember sometimes what Mary said long ago in John chapter 2 and verse 5. Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. Do it. So how do I find out what He saith unto me? Well, it isn't in my imagination or my feelings.
It's through this grand old book called the Bible. You know, the acknowledgement of the Lordship of Christ in my life and your life will strengthen our faith. And faith is really a simple concept, isn't it?
It's just believing God. What's so hard about that? What's so hard about believing God? What's so hard about believing someone who loves you? I sometimes say that in a Gospel meeting and I think it goes somewhere.
Well, what is so hard about believing someone, exercising faith towards someone in His Word and His will who actually loves you so much He gave His Son to die for you and me, the likes of you and me at that place called Calvary?
Do you know without Him we're nothing? We can. The Bible says we can do nothing. But I sometimes think without Him we're really nothing. Nothing at all. Down in Iowa they say you're doing them onto a hill of beans.
Something like that, don't they? They use that little term. Isn't that an Iowa term? I used to hear it when I was a boy anyway. Him or he or him and things doing them onto a hill of beans. So without Him, that's really the truth of the matter.
It'll strengthen our faith. It'll enable our love to grow. Should we talk about that a little bit? The love of the saints. It's not so hard to love the saints, is it? God loves them. How about the dear unsaved?
Hard to love them? You know, some of them are some real rascals. I'm sure glad that the Lord loved me. I'm sure glad that there were some Baptist folks at the Korean Baptist Church that even loved me and prayed for me.
Give us more love for the lost. An old brother used to say all the time. He's gone now. He's gone to be with the Lord. I heard him say it time and time again. Especially when he would get up off of his knees and from praying he would say, give us more love for the lost.
You have love for the lost? Do we really, honestly, sincerely love them the way God loves them? Well, I know we don't love what they do. God don't love necessarily what I do either, but He loves me. And He loves the dear unsaved too.
So much that He gave His Son, and now we know that love is an action word and not just something. That's not good English. It ain't just something that we say. It's something that we do. There's movement behind that.
You know, this matter of acknowledging the lordship of Christ, it really will help us to love the saints and the sinners, and it will help us to be loyal to the Lord and to the Lord's assembly. This is God's assembly.
You know when an assembly meeting is going on, you know who's there? The Lord's there. Well, if He's there, then why is it that I'm not there? Why is it that I'm somewhere else on Lord's Day morning or somewhere else on a Wednesday night?
Well, you know, that's... We're right off to the ballgame or something on a Wednesday night. I mean, after all, the Lord's at the ballgame, so I'd just as well be there. No, He's not. He's here at the assembly of the Lord's people on Wednesday night, just as much as He is on the Lord's Day morning.
He's here on Wednesday night. And how about Sunday night, the gospel meeting? How about these gospel meetings? Are we getting to them? Are we praying for them? Very important. It'll preserve the assembly, and if we give it up, we're going to lose that preservation.
And how is it we're going to replenish the assembly if we don't have gospel meetings, and if we don't come to the gospel meetings and support the gospel meetings? I don't know if that's going on here in Iowa.
Probably not. But I've just heard things. I'm way down there in Oklahoma. I get a few things dropped into my ears, but I don't belong to the preacher's union, so I'm not privy to a whole lot of information, you know.
You know, acknowledgement of the Lordship of Christ will help us conquer Satan and comfort the saints and convict the sinner and control our service. You know what the Bible says? By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have a hat on your head.
Is that what it says? Or a necktie around your neck. No. That you have loved one for another. You know if we're praying for one another, it isn't going to be hard to love one another, but I tell you what is going to be hard, and that's criticizing one another.
What was it Mr. Hamilton taught us the last time that I heard him preach in Lancaster? He says it doesn't take any talent to tear a building down, but it takes a lot of talent to build it up. And I was a young believer.
Maybe saved about a year, and I'm scratching my head. I had a hair on my head in them days. I could scratch. And I wasn't real sure what he was saying in those days. I understand it better today. You know it takes absolutely no skill in tearing down an assembly.
Now let me take that a little further. Okay. You want to help the elderly brethren in the assembly. Whether these brethren are young elderly brethren and shepherds and overseers. You know it all goes together.
You want to help them? Then don't criticize them. You cannot help anyone by criticizing that individual. Are we guilty of that? I've been in the assembly since 1974. And all those years I have heard shepherds, elderly brethren, overseers in God's assembly being criticized for this, criticized for that.
You know something? And not one ounce of that criticism ever helped one of those men. You know what the Hebrew Epistle teaches us in chapter 13? To meet them, to greet them, to pray for them. We need to meet them.
We need to greet them. We need to pray for them. We need to pray for them and their wives and their children and their families. Are we doing that? Are we now? If we're not, shame on us and we ought to be.
Because that's the only way that we can help them. They're there because God has put them there. Now you may not agree with that, but that's all right. Whether you agree with them or whether you agree with that or not, at least pray for them and for their families and for their children.
Because if God causes a breach in them, there'll be a breach in God's assembly. Don't say that very kindly. I hope you take that kindly. I'm very sincere about that. They need our help. They don't need our criticism.
They need our help. And that's the way that we can help them. And I say again that He is Lord of my tongue. That's an interesting thought, you know. When we get on this platform, we need to try and remember something that an old brother told me over 40 years ago.
I forgot my algebra right or whatever. I'm not an arithmetic teacher. Okay. But he told me something that I have never forgotten. And it stood me in good stead because I'm not in a real big hurry to get on the platform.
And I'd have been real happy if Mr. Lavery would have got up. And I could have just skated through the whole afternoon, see. I could have. I was hoping that he was, but he didn't have his Bible in his hand and I thought he was not going to do it.
But this old brother told me years and years ago that I was a young believer and on a Lord's Day morning after the breaking of bread, I got up and I ministered on something and I was ministering corrective ministry.
That's something for a young man to do. Especially when you were saved about a year or maybe in the assembly for a year. And you know what he told me and I'd never forgotten it. I'm going to pass it on to you so that you never forget it either.
God is going to test you on everything you say. And this old man told me this. He said, What you had to say this morning was true. And it was right. But he said, I want to tell you this, brother. God is going to test you before the week is up.
You know what happened? Before the week was up, I was tested. So guess who saw me the next Lord's Day morning when he asked me how I came out with the test. I said, I flunked it. Well, he said, you're going to get it again.
He said, you'll get it again and again until you get it right. God will make sure you get it right. So we want to remember that. God will test us on what we have to say. Not only on the platform, but wherever else.
And He is our Lord. He is my Lord. He is your Lord and we need to submit to Him to such acknowledgement of His Lordship Romans 14 verse 9 Secure salvation. And I might say again, the salvation and the Lordship of Christ go hand in hand.
They travel together. And you can't have one without the other. I think there used to be an old song like that. There's a lot of truth to that. You can't have one without the other. You can't have salvation and reject and neglect the Lordship and the authority of Christ in our lives.
God don't save us in our sins. He doesn't save us in our haunts. Our old haunts. Remember those old haunts? Maybe some of you don't know anything about that, but I do. Sad to say. He doesn't save us in our old sins or our old haunts or our old habits.
He saves us from our sins and those haunts and those habits. Habits. I'm going to get on that. I think I did that one time here. Not too long ago. You know that salvation is real? Salvation is real good.
Salvation really works. And if it's not working in my life, is there not a cause? Mr. Loren Mitchell used to say that. Is there not a cause? Acknowledgement of Christ's Lordship really simplifies service, doesn't it, brethren?
He's my Master, and I'm His servant. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. That's really very simple. He's the Master, and I'm His servant. I think of those words that Paul the Apostle asked long ago in Acts 9 verse 6.
Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Not what I want to do. That's not what is important. What wilt the Lord have me to do? He's the bookends of your life and the bookends of my life. The Alpha over here and the Omega.
Acknowledgement of His Lordship will subdue the forces of evil. I think Genesis 3 and verse 15 and Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11 would bear that out. Philippians 2, 9 to 11. Isn't it interesting?
All these people that deny God, they deny Christ, they deny the Holy Spirit of God, and out of every throat will come these words, Wherefore God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and every tongue confess, every tongue, out of every throat will come those words, Jesus is Lord.
To the glory of God the Father. If I was being burned at the stake today, do you know there's been a time back in the day when some saints were burned at the stake, but if you were burned at the stake today and I was burned at the stake today, what would your last words be?
And what would my last words be? Jesus is Lord.