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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/brody-thibodeau/lord-of-me/
We're going to focus on one phrase, really, from John's Gospel, chapter 20. The reason that we read verse number 13 and all of the different verses leading up to verse number 31 was to get a feel, really, for the setting in this area when the Lord Jesus revealed himself to his disciples as a risen Lord.
Now, I appreciate that we have been given much of that background already, and we're not going to spend much time on it. But the phrase that I want to draw your attention to is in verse number 28, when Thomas says, my Lord and my God.
And I want to take those words, and I want to learn from the Gospel of John some things that are implicated by the phrase, my Lord and my God. Because really what Thomas was saying when he said, my Lord and my God, if you have a literal rendering of that, perhaps, you will know it says, the Lord of me and the God of me.
So he is not simply saying that this is a Lord that I have taken, and this is a God that I have decided to worship. He is saying, the Lord of me, the God of me. And I believe Thomas was one, in the Gospel of John, who was very clear on the deity of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I must say that much of the morning I spent praying while our brethren were up here for direction as to what to speak on, and when our brethren were focusing on the person and nature of Christ, and reading from John chapter 20, my mind went to Thomas's words, the Lord of me and the God of me.
I like John chapter 20. I like the effect that the resurrection or the realization of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus had on these disciples. And I think John chapter 20 or the John 20 experience should be something that we experience regularly because of the effect that it had on these men.
It took discouraged men and women and encouraged them for service. It took people who had been feeling defeated, and it reminded them that they were really victorious. And I think the most significant thing that happened in the John chapter 20 experience is that these people became enthusiastic.
Sometimes that's a bad word, isn't it? I believe that enthusiasm has its place in Christian experience. I don't know if everyone thinks that way. See, in a meeting like this, after lunch, you look around and you wonder, right?
Because if both of your eyes aren't closed, and one of them is and the other one wants to, right? I'm not talking about a feeling. I'm talking about an attitude based on the realization of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The fact that He is alive, that gives us a hope for eternity. For if we only have hope in this life, we are of all men most miserable. But the fact is, we have a Lord and Savior who not only died on a cross so that He could deliver us from our sin and from the power of sin and from the punishment of sin, but who has been raised again really and physically from the dead, which gives us a hope for the next life.
Doesn't it? And it gives us a reason for all that we do. I am one who believes that there is that which is found in the New Testament that is obedience because the Lord says, right? It's obedience simply because He says.
I believe when we get into 1 Corinthians 11, on Monday evening, we are going to find that the apostle is looking now for more than just simple obedience because the Lord says, but he is looking for obedience out of a spiritual understanding or the meaning for which they are doing what they are doing.
But I believe the resurrected Christ gives us not only commandments, but he gives us meaning and he gives us a reason. We do what we do because we serve a risen Lord. Don't we? Thomas says, the Lord of me and the God of me.
It's a nice crowd here today. I hope you all come to Cedar Falls Monday night for the Bible reading. Everyone, Tuesday night, you don't have to. Monday night, yes. We're going to read in 1 Corinthians 11 and we're going to discuss headship.
Very important truth from the scriptures. Chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians is teaching us about the display of headship in the assembly. Headship is that which has to do with God's order and authority. I believe it is something that has to do with God's order and authority beyond the confines of the fellowship of a local assembly.
However, he is teaching us in 1 Corinthians 11 that the assembly should be displaying the authority and the order that God has in displaying headship. So headship has to do with order and authority. But Lordship is different.
Now, if you're still in 1 Corinthians, you're going to start right at the first and you're going to find out with your highlighter that the word Lord is mentioned many, many times in 1 Corinthians because I believe he is bringing to mind the Lordship or the one to whom they are responsible so that they will adjust their behavior in accordance with his character and his commands, right?
And 1 Corinthians is an epistle of Lordship. And some would even say that Lordship is really an outworking or a response to God's order in headship. In a way, you're not wrong. But Lordship has more to do with ownership.
Now, I want you to think about that. Lordship has much to do with ownership. Obedience is something you can do to a command. But when you are saying that this is the Lord of me, what you are saying is not simply I am obeying him, you are saying he is the one who has authority and ownership of me, the Lord of me.
And the God of me. I don't think I have made a more controversial statement than I did last week in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. Now, don't get worked up. It's okay. I started talking about Chinese food and you would be surprised how many people are passionate about their Chinese food.
After I was done speaking, I had people coming to me from all angles. You know, you should try this Chinese food. You should try this one, right? Really what I said was this, that I've had Chinese food almost everywhere I go.
I try and go to a Chinese restaurant of some sort. Independence, Lucky Buffet, right? I've been in Mansfield, Ohio. Scott and I were to a buffet in Mansfield, Ohio. And I only filled my plate four times because I didn't like it very much.
And if I'm at a food court and I'm walking by and I see some nice food here and there and I always know I'm going to go to that Chinese food, I'm going to regret going to the Chinese food, but I always end up there anyway.
My point is this. I have tried a lot and there's one place that I think is the best Chinese food I've ever tasted. And it's five minutes down the road from my house in Bloomfield, PEI. Just in a tin strip mall and a little hole in the wall with the best egg rolls and chicken balls in North America.
Right? Since that restaurant has been there, there have been times when ownership has changed. And the last time ownership changed, I can remember before going, thinking to myself, I hope they didn't change the food.
Hope they didn't change those egg rolls that I love so much. And I hope they didn't touch the sauce for the ribs. Because you can go some places, they got great egg rolls and great meat, but the sauce is not there, right?
And they got good sauce. And I was thinking, don't change anything. Change ownership, but don't change anything. Do you know when it comes to the night that I trusted the Savior and acknowledged Him as Lord, there was a change in ownership.
I'm gonna qualify this statement after I say it, but I believe it with all my heart. There was a change in ownership and everything changed. Everything. You say, why do you need to qualify that statement?
Well, there may be younger brethren and sisters here today who have been saved for just a little while. And sometimes you still have wrong thoughts. And sometimes you still say wrong words. And sometimes the ministry at a conference is so cutting and strikes you so hard that you wonder, could I even really be saved if I think this and I do that?
See, we still have the flesh inside, don't we? In fact, the Bible says that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that you cannot do the things that you would. And it is a constant struggle for Christians, even who have been saved, as long as my good friend, Robert McElwain, which is 80 years, 80 years he's been saved.
And he says, there's still the struggle between the spirit and the flesh and it never goes away. But I'll tell you, my life changed completely the night that I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. He now has authority in my life.
And I'm sure you can say with me today, those who are saved, the Lord of me and the God of me. Now that will have practical outworkings in your life. Young brother, young sister, it will affect who you choose as a partner for life.
When you are looking for a husband or you are looking for a wife and you truly claim to have the Lord as your Lord and can say the Lord of me, then you will be looking for a partner, husband or wife who is saved because that's what he wants.
I'm gonna go a step further and give you some advice. You'll want to find someone who has spiritual desires like you have. You marry someone who professes to be saved and does not have the same spiritual desires you have.
It's gonna be hard on you, it'll drag you down. But absolutely without fear of contradiction, you own the Lordship of the Lord Jesus. It's incumbent upon you to search out a mate who is a Christian. It'll have different implications in your life as well.
As the time flies, we're not gonna spend too much time on it. But remember the Lord of me, the Lord of me. Did these men fail? These men had failings. Did these men fail after they realized that the Lord had been resurrected?
Yes, they did. Did they fail before? Yes, they did. I look even in this very chapter when it says there that the disciples went away again to their own home. I find that to be kind of a sad statement, really.
That they had been told about the Lord Jesus and his resurrection and they went to their own home. Now your mind is going right to John 7, isn't it? And the last verses in John 7 before John 8, where it says, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
It says that they all went to their own home. That's a different word. That is the idea that they actually went to their own dwelling places, to their own houses. But in this chapter, it's a different word.
And it really could be translated that they all went to their own things. And I believe, brethren, that's the danger that I can fall into in my Christian life is that I can become occupied more with my own things than with the things of God.
And the moment that I begin to become more occupied with my own things, I'm following down the road that our brother went down this morning. I'm starting to go after the purse of gold instead of the Bible gold.
And nothing will have more of a dampening effect on your life than when you put yourself first. You think about that. Because it's true. In fact, we are not living in the good of the statement, the Lord of me, when we seek our own things first.
Now, my mind is drifting, but maybe in a good way. Philippians 2. The Apostle Paul is talking about Timothy. And he says, for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. What a commendation for that man, Timothy.
I don't believe Timothy was the best preacher, but I believe Timothy was a faithful man who could be depended upon. And the Apostle Paul says, I can trust Timothy to go to you because he believes what I believe and he will stand for what I stand for.
And the following verse says, for all seek their own and not the things which are Christ Jesus. We need to check our attitudes, don't we? The Lord of me and the God of me. The God of me. What a statement, really.
I'm one who believes based on the verse that we read, number 31, that John's gospel was actually written with the express purpose of defending the deity and the real physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in a day when that truth was being assailed from every angle.
And you began John's gospel and it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
And you're thinking of Colossians now. Chapter 1, all things were created by Him or in Him were all things created. Now you will run into cults who have their own translation of the Scriptures and those very two Scriptures that I just quoted to you are mutilated in their Bible.
In Colossians it will say that in Him or by Him, all other things were created. That's absolutely horrendously blasphemic. It is. What they are saying is the Lord Jesus is a created thing through whom all other created things have come into existence.
And they'd only be right if the Word was there. It's not. They've inserted that to support their doctrine. Let's be absolutely clear. This One whom we worship is the Lord of me and the God of me was never created.
Never was. And chapter 1 of John in verse number 1 actually says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Not a God. John's Gospel from beginning to end. I sounded angry there, didn't I?
I'm not angry. I love that. There's a difference between passion and anger. OK, I'm passionate about this. I think that we need to learn the truth, brethren, so we can defend the truth. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we are brought face to face with a fact from the Bible that this One who ever existed as God coequal with the Father in eternity.
And I believe, brethren, based on the Scriptures, existed as Son of God, now takes on a body and He tabernacles among us. And it was for these people who daily would walk with Him and view Him as He walked and as He moved and as He acted, they would know we beheld His glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And the moral attributes of this man being absolutely consistent with the moral attributes of God because He is God. He is. I believe that the Jews in John 5 and verse number 18 realize the implications of sonship.
Sometimes we don't. But the fact that the Lord Jesus claimed to be the unique Son of God in the days of the Jews and the Pharisees, they knew that He was actually claiming equality with God. And they were right.
The One who we know as the unique Son of God caused a stir that day to the point where they took up stones to stone Him for blasphemy because claiming to be the Son of God was claiming to have equality with God.
And if you say... I shouldn't say, if you say, if someone tells you that He's not equal with God, you can go to John 5. That's just one of them. Right? John. John's Gospel. I love it. It is the Gospel of the Father and the Son.
Because John knew full well when he published the Gospel of the Father and the Son, he was proving the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord of me. The God of me. Chapter 8. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
And he saw it. And was glad. And they began to talk. And he says, Verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, or before Abraham came into existence, that's what the word is, before Abraham sprang to existence.
Don't let anyone tell you that the word is I existed. Because that could imply that there was a beginning to the existence of the Lord Jesus. The word is I am. And when he says I am, he was laying claim to the fact that he is the I am of the Old Testament.
The Jehovah of the Old Testament seen in the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. I'd like to lay out more for you. I love this theme. I love to learn more about the deity, the Lord Jesus Christ. I love to tell people that the Lord of me is actually the God of me.
And sometimes I would like it if other people kind of got the enthusiasm bug and got onto it too. We need this. We need this. Brethren, we need more than just to read it and learn it, we need to love it.
I love this book. And while I don't believe that we should ever be abrasive, brethren, the Bible doesn't speak of people being lovers, not fighters. The Bible speaks of lovers being fighters and defenders of that which is true.
And this book has in it that which is true. Do you love it? May we all be refreshed in our love for the Scriptures and for the Lord Jesus. I'm not sure if I had anything else to say. I don't know. I lost my notes during the first half.
But remember the implications of lordship. It means He has ownership. And we should behave in a way that is consistent with the claim that we make. And you remember that the Lord of me is also Thee. The definite article is there.
The article is there in front of both of those. It's not assumed. It is there. Is Thee God of me.