Lordship is Obedience Lesson Six — E.A. Johnston

The Danger of Apostasy and False Assurance

I've been in church all my life, and I've personally known some good church members who under certain circumstances, when life went against them, fell into apostasy, and they either went back into the world, or it ended tragically for them.

The Rotten Foundation of Empty Profession

When the modern church brought in the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did, we lied to folks when we baptized them and welcomed them in, telling them they were now saved. And before they came to us, they were upon a rotten foundation of self-righteousness and carnal security, and when they came among us, their foundation never changed.

It just got a new paint job of an empty religious profession. We are in our Lordship series, friends, and today's message is, Lordship is Obedience, and my text can be found in the Gospel of Luke. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 6, and we will look at verses 46 through 49. It's easy for our ears to be dull at hearing when we come to a familiar passage of Scripture, for we feel we have heard it all before.

Reverence for the Word of God

But I want us to focus, friends, on this striking passage of Scripture, for I feel we don't know it as we should. Some of you may wonder why I usually begin my message by saying, Here now is the Word of God, right before I read the Scripture.

It goes back to a pastor's conference that I was at, where I heard a pastor from Japan who was addressing us, and before he began his sermon, he held out his Bible in his outstretched arms, and with a great deal of reverence, he said, Here now is the Word of God.

Because back in his homeland of Japan, the people there don't believe in God. We tend to take our Bibles for granted, and we tend to gloss over familiar passages of Scripture because we have heard it a hundred times already.

I'm thankful God called me to be his preacher. And here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like a man which built a house, and dug deep, and laid the foundation on a rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded upon a rock.

But he that heareth and doeth not is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth, against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.

Jesus' Question and the Foundation of Obedience

Jesus begins His sermon by asking a question. He says in so many words, Why do ye call me Lord, when I am not really your Lord? This familiar passage on the two foundations boils down to obedience, friends.

Genuine Faith and Daily Obedience

If you are on the solid rock of faith in Christ, you will obey Him in your daily living. If not, you'll just give Him lip service. Baptists have a talent for repeating back terminology that they hear from the pulpit, like parrots, but often it's not a reality in their lives.

It reminds me of the story of C .T. Studd, who was at a conference with F .B. Meyer, who asked the young C .T. Studd why he kept staring at his Bible in his morning quiet time like he was in a trance, and Studd replied, I'm asking God to make this verse a reality in my life.

And that's what Jesus is saying here about the two different people standing on two different foundations. One foundation is false, because there is no reality of God in the life, and thus no obedience to God, as opposed to the true convert who lives in obedience to the Lordship of Christ in a life of surrender to Him.

The Solid Rock and the False Profession

One stands on a solid rock, which is Christ, and the storms of life can't shake his testimony in Christ Jesus, and the other falls when circumstances go against him as he is on shifting sand of a false profession, lordship, his obedience to God.

In one's daily living, all else is sinking sand. The warning in this passage is a false faith results in a false profession, and a false profession rests upon a false foundation, and a false foundation will crumble beneath you when times get tough, and the ground below you will eventually give way, and a sinkhole will open up that will suck you down to a smoking hell.

Let us pray.