Jesus Is Lord

If you would, please turn with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Before I read the text, by way of introduction, before we go on a trip in the

Jeffreys family, there's something that Dave Jeffreys does. He has a list of things to bring on the trip.

And it is a one -page extensive list. Nobody else in the house basically uses one because they can handle it without a list.

And I put things on it, the basics, like Bible, clothes.

And it seems like, well, why would you put all the night? I mean, I just don't put clothes. I put the types that there are.

Why would you do that, Brother Dave? Well, I just need to remind myself every once in a while of the basics.

And the message this morning for the church here at BBC, Bethlehem Bible Church, it's going to be a very basic doctrine, a very basic truth that I'm going to bring forth.

But I trust that it will hold. For many who have been here for years, it will just be something to encourage and strengthen your heart.

But too, as the church is growing and we have people coming in, maybe even for the first time or for a short period of time, and they stay for a short period of time, there is certain basic doctrinal truths that people need to hear about.

And this subject matter, there is no better, there is no greater, there is no more lovely, there is no more sweeter topic than the

Lord Jesus Christ, because Christ is all in all to us here at BBC. And one aspect you will see in this text that I'm going to expand upon and hopefully bring to you, you will see in verse 36.

That will be the text. But I want to begin reading in Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 22. Follow along with me.

Page 910 of this church -provided Bible. I don't know why we call it a pew

Bible. We have no pews, but pocket Bible, bro Bible, BBC Bible.

910, page 910, verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.

As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God raised him up, losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me. For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul in Hades or let your

Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.

Verse 29, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he would not be abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now there's more to read, but I can't because of the 10 pages of notes that I'm gonna try to get through this morning.

But Peter's sermon is like a hammer beginning earlier on in the chapter. Line upon line and precept upon precept.

And he concludes the message, this first part of the message here in verse 36 with the word therefore, and we heard our brother

Harry say last week, if they see the therefore, they'll find out what the therefore is there for. And certainly he's saying, look back at all that I've said, look back at what these

Old Testament passages have said concerning the coming of the Messiah.

And you can see that all of this culminates in one person, one lovely person, one great person, one honored person, one highly exalted person, the

Lord Jesus Christ. He wants them to remember a key element about Jesus. What Peter is saying here is this is important, this is vital, and I don't want you to miss it.

He wants them to receive these words of a true and faithful saying. And after preaching on the death and the burial and the resurrection of Jesus, there were two great truths here in chapter two in verse 36.

He speaks of Jesus being that Messiah, that Christ. God has made him Christ.

That's the first part, but there's a second part. The second part of this truth, God has made him Lord. And that's the emphasis of the message here this morning.

God the Father has made Jesus Christ Lord of all.

Jesus is Lord of all. This morning, we will look at this truth. As he's preaching to this people, he said, you killed him, but he's alive and he's ruling today.

He wanted them to know that God the Father had glorified his son, Jesus whom they had crucified.

You see that in verse 36, right at the end of the verse, this Jesus whom you have crucified.

He connects them and their activities and what they had done to Jesus. And they're gonna say, but there's more to the story.

You've missed him. You've done something that you ought not to have done. You've rejected him. He is the one that God the

Father has made Lord. This is a hard message that he's preaching to them.

They're guilty. He's telling them they're guilty. He's not watering down the truth. There's no sidestepping the issue here.

Peter is letting them have it with all barrels. He told them you're guilty of rejecting

God's Christ, of killing him. But I want you to know that the one that you crucified, basically what

Peter is saying is, the one that you've crucified, the same one has been glorified by God the

Father. You killed him as a deceiver. You killed him as a troublemaker. You killed him as a sliver in your finger, but he's the one that was sent from God.

No man ever spake like Jesus. No one ever spoke like the

God -man. He came to save those who call upon him. And what

God has done, it says in this text here, God has raised him from the dead and highly exalted him and made him both

Lord and Christ. You rejected him. But what does it say in verse 32? Look with me at verse 32.

Jesus, you killed him, but God raised him up. And we've seen it with our very own eyes.

We're witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. In verse 33, what does it say that God has done?

Where is Jesus now? What is his position? Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Where is Jesus?

You could get my Sunday school lesson from a couple, three weeks ago about the ascension of Jesus. He has ascended to the throne on high to the right hand of the

Father in a place of authority, in a place of power, reigning as King upon his rightful throne.

And as King, he is to be submitted to. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a hard message for anyone to hear, but it's necessary.

And this morning, I cannot water down the message. I cannot sugarcoat the truth or change the message no matter how piercing it may be.

In our text, the issue was that these men had rejected the Christ sent by God in New Testament times, and people are doing the same thing today.

But the fact still remains, though they reject him, God has not changed concerning the position of his

Son. He has made him both Lord and Christ. And Jesus remains until this day and for all eternity, both

Lord and Christ. And since he is Lord of all, Lord being master, ruler, supreme majesty, absolute sovereign.

And yes, Christ, the anointed one, the one sent by God, he is the one who's to rule over all.

And we owe our allegiance to him and we must bow our knee to his sovereign rule.

This will involve repentance, as I preached not too long ago, resignation.

In a word that's not a biblical word, I was considering that this week. Capitulation. That means unconditional surrender.

I don't know, I think I may have got this right. But when World War II, when in the fighting of the

Pacific War, the United States and the allies against Japan, when it came time for the surrender on the naval vessel,

Douglas MacArthur, I think was there. Before that, Japan wanted to bring terms.

And those terms were not accepted. You must come in its unconditional surrender.

And when a sinner comes before God, looking for God to do something in their life, they don't bring any terms.

It's unconditional surrender. I remember one time at a meeting, a conference, a

Bible conference in San Antonio, when we were living there back in the early 90s, one of the preachers at that conference, some of you in this room know his name,

Gordon Bayless was preaching. Friend of ours from England, who's now with the Lord.

He said to the people as he was preaching the gospel, you need to raise the white flag of surrender.

Unconditional when it comes to, if you want to be saved. You can't have any terms. I want

Jesus, but I want to be able to hold on to this. No, I want Jesus, but I'd like to be able to have it my way.

No. Unconditional surrender. And what a far cry from the messages that are coming off the television or other pulpits across the land.

Because some say that faith in Christ is faith in him only as Savior.

They want the other part, the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ, the one who comes to save, but not

Lord. They say that salvation at first does not involve commitment or bowing or obedience, or it does not necessitate a change of behavior.

It won't result in that maybe right away. It's just trusting in Jesus to save you from your sins, but no claim upon the life.

They wrongly say you have a free will, just exercise it and take the gift just like you would go down to Walmart and take something off the shelf.

It's that easy. Or is it? They say it's not commitment of life to Jesus as Lord, and the

Lordship is not an issue. In fact, they split the gospel salvation experience into kind of like two steps.

First, you accept Jesus into your heart as Savior, and you get forgiveness, and you're on your way to heaven.

You open the door of your heart to the Savior, and it's a done deal. And then secondly, they say in the future, maybe, or if you want to, or if it suits you, you can make

Jesus Lord. They have fire insurance from hell and all is well.

I heard a pastor once say, I don't care if those we get to accept Jesus don't come to church or don't ever change their lives, just as long as they accepted

Jesus, they're forgiven, and they're on their way to heaven. That is not the gospel, not the gospel.

What's wrong with this kind of message? Well, we live in a day where preachers, many preachers, thank

God for the ones who do know, but many do not know what the gospel is. We hear everything under the sun, but consider this.

Jesus, our Lord, reading through the gospels, never trimmed or clipped his message to fit his hearers.

Did you hear what I just said? He never trimmed or clipped his message to fit his hearers, to make it more palatable to his hearers.

As a matter of fact, when the question is asked, and you think, you ever read the gospels and you see a question is asked of Jesus, and you think, oh,

I have an answer for that. And Jesus just comes out with a bomb. He never trimmed his message.

What he did do is he clipped and trimmed the people and called them to the claims of the gospel and his word and his command.

Men have left off the word of God, embraced teachings that are easier to preach and aren't so hard for people to accept.

And it's certainly much more easy to fill a church with distorted truth being preached from the pulpit to make it more palatable for the people.

And BBC, we ought to be so thankful that God has entrusted us with the truth and God has given us the gospel.

He's given us the word of God and there are no gimmicks. There are no pastors parachuting out of planes so that his tie can be clipped off on Sunday or weird, strange things, army tanks on platforms being done here.

It is line upon line, precept upon precept, and God is growing his church. Jesus is building his church.

Amen? Isn't that a wonderful thing? We have the need for the meeting afterwards and all the planning for another building.

That's God's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. One of the problems with this type of preaching, this poor preaching, this gospel, is that they send their people off and home to live a condemned and Christless life, thinking that they're on their way to heaven and they're not.

And I desire to declare unto you the gospel this morning. I'm not ashamed of it. BBC is not ashamed of the gospel and we agree with the

Apostle Paul in Romans 1, in verse 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the

Jew first and also to the Greek. We're not ashamed of it. We preach it. It is God's power.

It's not our responsibility to save anybody. It's our responsibility to preach the gospel and watch

God save people. Let him do his good work. Others will be contented to blow an uncertain call on the trumpet, but we desire, like the old time religion, like the old prophet

Jeremiah, who said you need, as he, in Jeremiah chapter six of verse 16, he said, ask for the old or the ancient paths.

That reminded me when I read that text this week of a song that we used to sing many, many years ago in the 1980s when we were living in Texas at a church and the chorus of that song went like this.

I love that old time religion for it will never change. I love that precious holy

Bible for it's always the same. The road's still narrow. The way's still straight.

You must be born again. Christ still lives. He still reigns is the

Lordship. He still reigns and he's coming again. Do you know how people get to a belief like that when they don't believe in the

Lordship of Jesus Christ? Simply bottom line is that they reject the word of God, of course, they lay it aside and they become their own authority.

But it's really because when they look at Christ Jesus, when they look at the scriptures, what they do is they separate the three offices of Christ and compartmentalize

Jesus. And what I mean by that, there are three offices of Christ spoken of in the scripture, him being prophet and priest and king.

And they say, yes, it's important to listen to the words of Jesus as prophet and he speaks the truth and yes,

I'll do that. And secondly, to be saved, I must receive the

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the priest who not only was the one who offered up the sacrifice, but he himself was the sacrifice.

And I trust that. But they say it's not necessary to receive Jesus in his office as king, as Lord, in order to be saved.

It's not necessary to submit to his authority, no need to bow to his rule. That comes later in the salvation experience or maybe it might not come at all, sadly.

And I say to you that about that is that, that is another

Jesus. That is not the Jesus of the Bible. That's another gospel and that leads people astray.

You cannot compartmentalize Jesus and pick and choose what you want as you kind of go down this spiritual salvation buffet.

And I'll have three scoops of God's love and I'll have four scoops of God's mercy.

I like that part right there, Jesus as Savior. But this part right here, very big and important where Jesus is

Lord, I'm gonna skirt that. I'm gonna go around and pick, I don't want that. Can't be done, compartmentalizing.

Let me try to illustrate it better. You invite me over to your house and I will come.

You invite me over your house for dinner. Before I come, you understand that I am a father.

You understand that I am a husband, a pastor, a friend, a member of BBC in the workplace,

I'm an IT manager. And you say, Dave, you can come over, but I only want the pastor and the husband to come over.

All the rest of you can't come. Now you smile, right? But it's what is being done with this type of preaching.

Jesus is Lord and Savior. He's Lord and Christ, but I only want the

Savior part. Ludicrous, cannot be done. You cannot compartmentalize

Jesus. If someone is to receive Jesus Christ, they must receive him for who he is and who the

Father has exalted him to be here in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

Lord and Christ. And may I say this, who does the verse say makes

Jesus Lord? You remember I said in this false gospel, this false teaching, they say, I'll accept

Jesus. I'll open up my heart to Jesus as Savior. And then maybe one day I will make them.

The person will make them. The sinner will make Jesus Lord. Do we believe the words of men or the words of God?

Here it says, who makes him? God, the Father makes Jesus Lord. You don't make him

Lord, he already is Lord. And if you're to accept him, you accept the Lord Jesus Christ.

Doesn't it ring true when you start now thinking about verses in scripture? It says, if you confess with your mouth, the

Lord Jesus, Romans chapter 10, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved.

For whosoever, verse 13, shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

This is so important. We must understand this. You need to understand this in order to be saved.

And if you are saved, it's important truth to encourage us and to keep our priorities correct in our lives to where we understand that Jesus is

Lord and not us. And if Jesus is to be received, he is to be received as Lord over all in our life.

And if he is not Lord of all in our lives, and I'm not saying to perfection, that is the direction, right?

We're not going to as believers to be able to submit absolutely all the time. We're gonna fall, we're going to sin, but that's the direction of our lives.

We wake up in the morning and Jesus is Lord. We go through the day and Jesus is Lord over my time.

He's Lord over my eyes. He's Lord over my hands. He's Lord over my feet. He's Lord over my thinking.

He's Lord over my finances. He's Lord over my family. He's Lord over my job. He's Lord over all.

He must be because God has made him that. And we must bow to that. We submit to that and gladly do so.

For it is the Lord Jesus Christ that has saved us. And when they say, when it says in John, the gospel of John chapter one, verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.

Who do we receive? What Jesus am I supposed to receive? And some have a watered down, weak, powerless, impotent

God, Jesus, who they've dreamed up, who cannot save. But the

Jesus of the Bible can. Who do we receive? The one whom God hath made both Lord and Christ.

The Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus who came, before he came, it was told of Mary and Joseph, you shall call his name

Jesus, for he shall save his people from his sins. He's the one who will come, as it says in Luke, to seek and to save that which was lost.

He's the one that they preached in chapter four, in verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name on the heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The name of Jesus. I love the hymn, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name

I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Jesus is our all in all, is he not,

BBC? And he is to be lifted up and kept in his rightful place, not only within the church, but when we also preach the gospel.

Now, is this thing about Jesus being Lord different? I mean, is this just a one -time thing here at the beginning of Acts and it didn't carry on?

Let me show you a couple of places. Look in chapter 10, hold your place in two, and go to Acts chapter 10.

Acts chapter 10, notice in verse 34.

Acts 10, in verse 34. So Peter opened his mouth and he said, of course, this is

Peter, I believe this is at Cornelius's house, he's preaching the gospel with Cornelius and all those that Cornelius has called.

So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly, I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, and then there's some parentheses, and in the parentheses, that's gonna more describe about say something about Jesus.

Through Jesus Christ, in parentheses, he is friend of all. Is that what your translation says?

Jesus is the grandfather of all. He's the nice, weak, and lovey -dovey

Savior of all. No, Jesus is Lord of all. It was throughout, if you read this book, and you continue on through the

New Testament, you see that this is pounded upon, this is proclaimed over and over again that Jesus is

Lord. Go with me, if you would, to Acts chapter 16. I'll just give you a couple. There are other ones.

If you're taking notes, you can look at 11 .23, 14 .23, and we're gonna go to chapter 16.

You know the account here in chapter 16. Paul and Silas are in prison, and isn't that,

I'm just gonna take you aside here. Here's a freebie. In the reading this morning, brother

Scott Brown, Paul going on the missionary journey, and he goes to Lystra.

What happened to him in Lystra? He got stoned, and he was left there for what? This is free.

This is not the message. I'll have to get back over there. Help me if I don't. He gets stoned in Lystra.

A few verses later, they're going all around. Where does he go back to? He goes right back to Lystra.

Why? Because Jesus is Lord. He's in submission to the leading of the

Holy Spirit, and he's gonna go where God says. Now, if it were you or me, we might say, wait a minute. That just happened to me.

I don't think I'll go back there. God knows I went back to what was over there, and I got stoned, and was left for dead, and we would raise ourselves up as an authority, and that would not be good.

So he submitted himself to the Spirit of God, and he went where the Spirit of God told him to go, because Jesus, Jesus is

Lord. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas in prison, and in this account here,

God is gonna deliver them from this prison, and there's the Philippian jailer, and look with me in verse 31,

I believe. Well, verse 30, this Philippian jailer brought them out and said, sirs, what must

I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.

So we see that this was emphasized by the apostles. This is throughout

Scripture, this truth about the Lordship of Jesus, where people are to surrender, are to bow to Jesus.

There are so many occasions, you see them, and Jesus is walking, and there's 10 lepers in the

Gospels, and he heals them. And I don't know what happened to the nine of them, but one of them comes back, and he falls down before Jesus, because Jesus is to be worshiped.

He's Lord, and Master, and King. It's throughout the Scripture. And it ought to be throughout our lives.

We must remember that he is head of the church, Lord of the church. He's the head of our household,

Lord of our household. He's the head of our life, and the Lord of our lives as believers.

You see, it's not enough just to receive Christ as Savior and not Lord. I mean, even the apostles heard that from the mouths of Jesus.

Do you remember in Matthew chapter seven, I believe it was, in verse 21, where Jesus said, not everyone who says unto me,

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of the

Father. There has to be an outward exhibition, demonstration, declaration in the life of a person who comes to Christ that they're showing that Jesus is

Lord in their life. They do the will of the Father. They obey the Scriptures. And I'll give you some examples of that in a short period of time.

What's necessary is to receive Christ means to receive a whole Christ. A whole

Christ or no Christ at all. Without this truth, you have thousands of so -called born -again professing

Christians who have a false message and a fake Jesus. Another Jesus who cannot save, and that's why we see so little fruit in the lives of people who embrace a decapitated

Savior. And what I mean by that is they cut off the head. They cut off him being king. The crown is cut off.

That's a decapitated Jesus, and that's not the Jesus of the Bible. You believe on that Jesus, then you can do whatever you want.

You're Lord, you're king, you're master. This teaching has given birth to the carnal

Christian heresy, where they say, well, you know, there's some Christians who just can't seem to pony up and submit and make

Christ Lord. Because of that false message, with a faith that does not require commitment and obedience, the result is a group of Christian mutations foreign to the scriptures.

Titus 2, verse 11 says, the grace of God, which has appeared unto all men that bring salvation, teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.

Jesus is Lord in our lives, and we submit to His Word and desire that when we read the

Word of God, that we apply it in our lives every day. That we not just read it, oh, that's a good thing to know, and I can quote it and let people know that I know what the

Bible says, but I do what the Bible says. That's the difference, because we submit to Him.

And I ask if thousands are born again, or as the polls say, the surveys say, three quarters of the

United States are Christians. Where are the committed disciples? Where are those who are turning their

Jerusalem upside down like those in the book of Acts did and fill Jerusalem with their doctrine?

The problem with this false message is it really stems from a root core problem, a misdiagnosis of the heart of man.

The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? It's corrupt from the top of the head to the bottom of the foot.

Man is dead in trespasses and sins. And if you try to put a band -aid on that, a decapitated gospel against that won't work.

It must be the unadulterated word of God, the gospel which proclaims the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the one who powerfully saves sinners.

What's troubling with those who believe that type of message is, is that sadly, and you'll see some of the surveys say that the church looks exactly like the world, the same types of behavior.

And I would purport that the survey has got a false premise because when they say they compare

Christians to non -Christians, this bucket over here of Christians is not the ones that I'm speaking of this morning that have been truly born again.

Lord Jesus is Lord. They may have a nominal profession, but not a possession of the spirit of God.

They haven't been given a new heart. The old heart hasn't been taken out and a new heart put in that beats for God.

And they are not ones who are submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ, a whole

Christ, not a divided Christ. We call men to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We preach a faith that demands commitment and obedience and repentance and submission. So let me try to put some practicality to this this morning.

Because bottom line, as I said, it's a contradiction of the claims of the gospel to call yourself a follower of the

Lord Jesus and not conduct yourself in a manner that proves

Jesus is Lord in your life. And so I wanna teach this kind of like in the negative. So what would the so -called

Christian life look like if Jesus is not Lord? Let me give you a few examples. If Jesus is not Lord, the word of God, the commands of Jesus are not obeyed because they're not important.

You don't have to listen if he's not Lord. And by that, I mean, you're the king of the hill and you won't, let's give an example.

The Bible is very clear. When a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, you even see it here in the book of Acts.

I believe even in this chapter, you said they believe they're baptized. One of the first steps of obedience in the life of a child of God, somebody who has been born from above, gloriously and marvelously saved by Jesus Christ is to identify with Jesus Christ and water baptism, believers baptism.

And if you are saying this morning that you profess to be a believer and you're not baptized, and we've been stressing this in the church here because we want people to be blessed.

We want you to be obedient. We want to stir you and spur you to righteous and holy living.

And one of the first and really the easiest things to do is to get into a robe and to give yourself to Pastor Mike and commit yourself to him as he performs that ordinance.

But you identify with Jesus. And if you haven't done that, that would be an example of where Jesus is not

Lord. I won't join the church. I mean, I got my own ideas about membership.

That's a person showing that Jesus is not Lord because read this book. There's places in the beginning of the book where they knew how many were in the group.

They had a enumeration of it. There were church offices. I mean, there were offices in the church. I mean, it's quite clear.

They would bring elders for the churches. And there was a known membership, but some won't because I'm king of the hill.

They won't serve the body. They won't humble themselves. They won't submit to the authority in the church. They won't share the gospel.

And people sinfully elevate themselves onto a throne where Jesus alone should sit.

Secondly, if a so -called Christian life looks like this when

Jesus is not Lord, you get the glory and not Jesus. You see, this type of thinking, this monarch type thinking where there's a kingdom and a king, and we look back on the medieval times, like that's about how far back we can go.

But in this Asian culture with this king, this king was the final authority.

This king was elevated. You didn't go into the king chewing your bubble gum with your shorts on, you know, kind of just nonchalantly go in.

You went in carefully and you carefully made sure of what you were saying and your posture, your whole demeanor before the king was different than you were before the common person.

And when it comes to the person who will not make Jesus, who will not submit to Jesus being

Lord, whom God has made Lord, they toot their own horn about their own accomplishments rather than listening to the children's song, which admonishes rise and shine and give

God the glory. And since Jesus is king, you should be speaking more of him than self and elevated him that Jesus might be exalted and glorified in the midst of your life, family and church.

Here's another demonstration. A person who will not submit to Jesus as Lord, Jesus is not

Lord in their life, they elevate their authority over the authority of the word of God.

And let me give you some examples of that. If Jesus is not Lord in your life, you will say things like this.

I know I should let Christ's word rule in my life, but you don't understand

Pastor Dave. You don't know my circumstances, Pastor Dave. I know

I should submit to the authority God puts in my life, like I should submit to my parents or my husband or my boss or my teacher or the police or the coach, but you don't understand, they're not saved,

I know better, I can handle it. I'm the authority, that's what it sounds like.

I know I'm supposed to submit to the church leaders, but now really, nowadays,

I mean, look at those guys. I mean, they're just men, just like us, they put their clothes on just like we do, they eat meals just like, they sleep like we do, but I'm not going to do that.

I've got my own way, I've got my own, you know, God blesses the church with leaders, with brothers and sisters in Christ also, who could be a blessing and a help to you if you'd listen to them, if you'd allow them to come alongside of you.

And when someone comes to help you, to encourage you, to exhort you or to encourage you to good behavior, don't put up the wall automatically and say, you know,

I know better. Listen, glean from it, learn from it, they're doing it out of love to help you.

How about this one? I know God's word says that I should marry an unbeliever, but maybe, just maybe,

God will use me to bring that, if we get married, God will use me to bring that person to Jesus. Well, that's a great thought, but how about this?

Consider the pain if that person isn't, for one thing, of disobeying God's word, but how about this being the better approach?

Pray and pray and get that guy or that girl with a mature Christian to where possibly

God might save them and grow them and you see that life spring up from within them and then maybe, if it's the will of the

Lord, get married. But not, some people will not do what God would have them to do.

I know I should pitch in around the church and help out and serve others, but my schedule is so full.

I mean, and there's a lot of other people who are doing a really good job at BBC. I don't think

I need to. God's word says that God has called all of us to be servants of the most high and to serve in the body.

First Corinthians 12 talks about us being placed into the body for a particular reason.

You have a particular gift, spiritual gift that can be exercised in the church for the betterment of the body, the glory of the

Lord Jesus. How about this? I know that Jesus is head of the church, but I'm here and Jesus is in heaven and I can kind of see all what's going on.

How foolish, right? As if he doesn't see it. These are the types of attributes of those that will not submit to Jesus.

I know I should financially support BBC, but I'm the Lord of my finances and you just don't understand.

You just don't understand. I know I shouldn't be angry, but people keep pushing my buttons and I just can't help it.

And you think about all of these, really. Are these valid excuses to be able to stand before God one day and say,

I didn't bow the knee, I didn't submit to the Lord Jesus, I didn't get baptized,

I didn't obey, I didn't surrender. I mean, what happens in our cycle of singing songs when

I surrender all comes around? I mean, do you ever think about what it is that we're doing when we're singing that song?

All to Jesus, I surrender all to Him, I freely give. We ought to mean that.

It ought to be a reality. It ought to be the desire. And again, I'm not trying to shoot anybody out of the saddle as far as, sometimes you can go overboard on this type of preaching and then you got all kinds of people saying, well, maybe

I'm not saved. I'm not talking about being perfect. I'm talking about that that's your desire, that Jesus would be

Lord. And you strive for that. You fall, you strive for that. You commit the whole fiber of your being and all of your life, your eyes, your ears, your hands, your feet, your family, your job, everything, subjugated to the

Lordship of Jesus. The Christian life is I surrender all.

I surrender first and foremost, the unholy Trinity, me, myself and I, right?

Me, myself and I surrender. And if you don't, surrender to the

Lordship of Christ. In Colossians 1 .18, there's an interesting phrase in there. It says that in all things and everything,

Jesus should have the preeminence. And I've talked to people about this in the past.

And what they do is they kind of prioritize their lives. And this is freeing, if you can learn this one, maybe this is why you were, that God brought you to church today this morning, just to learn this piece.

But they compartmentalize their priorities and they say, number one, what would you all put?

Number one, Jesus, right? To glorify God and to, Jesus is first in my life.

And then maybe second, it's gonna be my personal walk with God. Then maybe third is my spouse.

Fourth is my children. Fifth is my membership of the church. Sixth is work. Seventh is friends or whatever.

And they say, Jesus must be first. Well, after looking at that verse and just considering it, here's a practical tip.

If for one, if Jesus is, if you're not submitting to him as Lord in your life, Jesus takes second or third or fourth or fifth.

He's someplace down the bottom. You're up the top. You're the king of the hill. But what it ought to be is, it says in that text that Jesus should in everything have that preeminence or have the first place.

So when it comes to my, you know, God is first. But when it comes to my personal walk with God, Jesus is first in that.

When it comes to the relationship with my spouse, Jesus is first in that relationship.

And that will affect my behavior. What you believe will affect how you live. Jesus is gonna be first in the relationship with my children.

Jesus is gonna be first in my membership at BBC. Jesus is first at work on my job.

It will affect the way that you live and you will live to the glory of God of Jesus. Jesus is to be first in everything in your life.

That's so important to learn and so important to hold on to. Okay. I ask each one of you here this morning, if Jesus, is

Jesus your Lord? Can you say that? First and foremost, it's like I was thinking of Thomas, his great declaration there in John 20, verse 28, where Jesus showed him his wounds in his resurrected body.

And Thomas had missed that coming of the Lord the first time and he had been doubting. I have to see the hole in his side.

I have to see the prince in his hands. And Jesus comes about a week later. And Thomas, Jesus says to Thomas, you know, reach hither your hand and feel the wounds.

And Thomas doesn't need to. And in bowing before Jesus there, he just says plainly and simply, really the motto of the

Christian life. I don't really have a word for it. You can tell him off my notes for this, but like the motto, the theme, he says, my

Lord and my God. And that ought to be upon our lips and upon our hearts every single day, my

Lord and my God. Rather than like Pharaoh, who said in the Old Testament, who is the

Lord that I should obey his voice? Shun that type of thinking. Or like the citizens of the nobleman's kingdom in Luke chapter 19, verse 14, we will not have this man reign over us.

That is a thought, that is an attitude to be repented of. I call upon you this morning and let me first speak to those who are here that are lost.

It could be possible that you've got this picture of God being an ogre, or of God just being way up there and, you know,

I'm never gonna find out anything about God till I die and maybe I'll get in, maybe it'll be okay. What you need to do today in your life is to settle it, to have a relationship with God through his son,

Jesus Christ. If you wait, it's too late. And the

Bible tells us that there is only one way to be saved, not many, not many paths leading to one

God. There is only one way. Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me, John chapter 14.

Verse six. In that verse I quoted in Acts 4 .12, you can't be saved in any other name but the name of Jesus Christ.

God has made him Christ the Messiah, the Savior and Lord. And what are we to do?

Romans 10 .13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And you might be thinking, what does that mean? To call upon the Lord. It means to beg

God for mercy to save me. I'm a sinner. I deserve hell.

I deserve to be cast out of the presence of God. I don't deserve any favor from God. But let me tell you,

God is rich in mercy. God is pleased to save sinners. And you walk around after here and you talk to some people.

God has saved many, many a soul here in this room today. And if you would repent, that means to consider your sin and how you've offended

God and you are sorry for your sin and so sorry that you are willing to give it up and to turn to Jesus.

You're gonna turn from it and turn to Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus, and call upon the name of the

Lord, he will save you and he will save you now. And it must be done now in your lifetime.

Tomorrow could be too late. Next month might be too late. What are you waiting for?

Call upon him today to be saved. And that's where it begins. And for those of you here that are believers, you understand that we called upon the name of the

Lord and he saved us. And he was merciful to us, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, right?

For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And you know, there's a verse that kind of had been in my Christian life, kind of darkened and dampened, but it is a great verse,

John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

And by the grace of God, we've been able to call upon him. We've been able to believe, enabled to believe upon the

Lord Jesus Christ. And we have been made the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

And he is not only just our savior, he is Lord. And we are so glad because he rules the universe.

He rules the angels. He rules the demons. He rules the nations. He rules nature.

He rules over our bosses. He rules over people. He rules over the church.

He is Lord of all. And that is so comforting to us. And yet, doesn't it just kind of come right home and hit us right in the heart this morning that there have been times when we have lived our

Christian life, like some of the examples that I've given you, and we have elevated ourselves to a place where we ought not to have been.

We must decrease. He must increase. He is sitting where?

He is sitting on a, fill in the blank for me, tell me the word. He is sitting today on a throne.

Who sits on a throne in heaven at the right hand of the Father? King Jesus. And he is our

King. He is our Lord. And he is our Master. And we bow before him with everything that has to do with any part and every part of our lives.

Colossians 2, verse 6 says, as we have therefore received Jesus the

Lord, so walk ye in him. We've received Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. He is

Lord of all. When we enter into the church, we find him to be the head of the body.

Colossians 1, 18. The head whom we are subject to. Do you understand that the elders are not the head of Bethlehem Bible Church?

He is King. He is Lord. And we are under him. We submit ourselves to him and to his word.

In our whole Christian life, Romans 14, eight says, we live unto the

Lord. In all of our service, Colossians 3, 24 says, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the

Lord. Look at that phrase in the New Testament, as unto the Lord. And that's how we ought to live, all that we do.

In 1 Corinthians 1, 9, it says we've been privileged to be called into the fellowship of Jesus Christ, our

Lord. In the resurrection, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who was the firstborn among the dead. And because he was raised, we will be raised too.

And lastly, when it comes to the second coming of Christ, the rider on the white horse, the faithful and true one, whose name is called the word of God, coming with his armies, coming in judgment to tread upon the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, who is it that's coming?

Is it a headless Jesus? Is it a Jesus without a crown? Is it a

Jesus without a throne? Is it baby Jesus in the manger? Is it little

Jesus, meek and mild? Is it sweet Jesus who wouldn't hurt a flea?

No, Revelation 19, 16 says, and he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,

King of Kings. And I know you know the rest of this verse, Lord of Lords.

That's who he is this morning. In the end,

Jesus wins and we share in the blessings because we are the Lords.

We have been privileged by God's grace, which has been effectual to waken us up.

And I pray that those in this room here this morning that are not saved, that you would be woken up this morning spiritually, awake out of your slumber and look at your need for Jesus Christ, the

Lord. And those of you who've been blessed with salvation, remember, not perfection, but direction.

Every day, looking to submit every, when any circumstance, when any temptation, when any opportunity comes your way, whatever it is, work or home, with parents or children or friends, out without your parents being around children.

In every instance, if you say, I name the name of Christ, and Paul's words to Timothy, let those that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

They want to be holy. They want to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives, that Jesus is

Lord. And when Jesus is Lord, in our lives, in the church, in our families, at school, at work, wherever we are,

Jesus gets the glory. And that's what it's all about. That he might be exalted, that he might increase, and that we might decrease.

Shall we pray together? Our Father in heaven, as we consider this text, given concerning the gospel of Jesus, that he was killed, crucified, but you raised him from the dead.

You highly exalted him. And as we think of Philippians and given him a name that is above every name.

And at that name, every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth.

And every mouth will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

May it be so in our lives. The examples, the practical examples that were given this morning,

Lord, where if a person will not submit to the Lordship of Jesus, and they say, I know what the word of God says, but, and but, and but,

I know what I should do, but, it almost fearfully makes us think that that type of language is, as it were, but goat language, not sheep language.

Save them, Lord, please. And make them your very own people. A people who rejoice and gladly submit to the

Lordship of Jesus. Gladly obey. Trusting and obeying and applying the word of God in their lives.

And may it be so from this moment on, Lord, that we could afresh and anew be committed to serve the

Lord Jesus, to love him, and to rest in his goodness and love, and to remember the forgiveness of sins through his shed blood.

We who are deserving punishment for eternity, thank you, Lord, for saving us. And help us to be that peculiar people who say, and only, it could only happen as the word of God says, that we can call

Jesus, Lord, by the spirit of God. Thank you for this great work in this church. In Jesus' name, we bless you.