I want you to turn with me to
Paul's letter to the Romans, and the 14th
chapter.
Romans, chapter 14.
We'll break in, if we may, at verse
7.
Romans, chapter 14, and verse 7.
For none of us lives to himself, and
no one dies to himself.
For if we live, we live to the
Lord.
If we die, we die to the Lord.
Therefore, whether we live or die, we are
the Lord.
For to this end, Christ died and rose
and lived again, that he might be Lord,
both of the dead and of the living.
But why do you judge your brother?
Or why do you show contempt for your
brother?
For we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ.
For it is written, As I live, says
the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess to God.
So each of us shall give an account
of himself to God.
I also want to welcome those who have
joined us for this mid-week meeting, and
especially this evening session on the theme we've
adopted for this Keswick year, and it's called
Crises of the Christian, or, if you prefer,
the crises of the Christian.
And tonight we're dealing with the crisis of
authority.
Last night was the crisis of integrity, and
I missed all you colony friends.
But you had a good excuse not to
be here, and you'll have to hear the
tape on that.
The crisis of authority.
I suppose if one could reduce our Christian
creed to the simplest form, and what a
magnificent presentation of a creedal statement we had
tonight.
If we could reduce the Christian creed to
its simplest form, it's, Jesus is Lord, which
was expanded to, Jesus Christ is Lord.
And from Genesis to Revelation, really that is
an amplification of this central truth, that Jesus
Christ is Lord.
Experientially, that should be our experience tonight.
Eschatologically, as we heard this morning so magnificently,
all of history moves on to that climactic
moment where everything in heaven and on earth
and under the earth is going to declare
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
So our theme tonight is the crisis of
authority.
Under whose authority do you live your life?
Is it under the authority of self?
Or is it under the authority of Jesus
Christ is Lord?
There's no great spot here.
It's one or the other.
Now it's interesting how Paul introduces this subject
in this particular passage.
Paul is dictating a letter to a church
he'd never visited.
A church meeting in various houses, as the
church did in those early days.
A church under persecution, under the vigilantes of
the Roman Empire, and especially of Caesar himself
and his cohort.
And the church was prospering.
In fact, the faith of this church had
been heard all around the world, the then
inhabited world.
But there were problems in that church.
And it's amazing that the Holy Spirit should
take time to record problems that we might
assume were so irrelevant and unimportant.
The two problems mentioned right here, apart from
the tolerance that we should have for each
other and the recognition that we should have
for each other, without discrimination and without judgmentalism,
the two problems were days and diet.
Days and diet.
There were those who believed in keeping certain
holy days, while others said, every day is
holy for me, and I don't look upon
any day as particularly special.
Others had scruples about diet.
They wouldn't eat certain food.
And they had reasons for that.
And Paul reminds these believers that they're not
to judge one another on these issues.
Because some people have scruples, and they have
reasons for those scruples, and we should respect
those scruples.
And the strong shouldn't say to the weak,
you're so weak, you're totally immature, you need
to go to another place, and vice versa.
But instead of taking sides with these factions
in the church at Rome, Paul breaks right
in and says this tremendous statement, with which
I opened our reading, no one lives to
himself, and no one dies to himself.
If we live, we live unto the Lord.
Not unto my brother and my sister, even
though that must be taken into account.
But ultimately the Lord.
If we die, we die unto the Lord.
And then he makes this tremendous statement.
It's a crucial verse in the New Testament,
and especially in the epistle of Paul to
the Romans.
To this end, for this object, Christ both
died, number one, rose, number two, and literally
lived again.
For our purpose tonight, we could say he
died, he rose, he lived.
Why?
That he might be Lord.
Period.
And Paul's answer was this.
If we all come under the structure of
that sovereign authority of Jesus Christ, and answer
to him, and answer to him alone as
the body, we shall find our oneness in
him.
And these divisions, these divisions that are threatening
to split the church, will be resolved.
And we'll discover that we have mutual recognition
of one another, and we shall have mutual
toleration of one another.
Why?
Because we've come under his Lordship.
Under his Lordship.
The crisis of authority.
But I want to exegete this word, this
text, and apply it to us in a
very practical way tonight.
And before we leave this place, it be
my prayer that our song will be, Glory,
Hallelujah.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Is Lord.
Now let me start by just pointing out
that there is a sense in which you
can't even be saved unless you recognize that
he is God, and therefore Lord.
No man can call Jesus Lord but by
the Holy Spirit.
That's how Paul the Apostle, Paul, came into
salvation.
Who art thou, Lord?
And then, Lord, what will you have me
to do?
And something happened in his heart which was
confirmed a little later in the street called
Straight.
In a little room where blinded, he waited
for God's messenger to come and teach him
the word of God more perfectly.
But I find that in the word of
God, this matter of Lordship is a matter
of progressive sanctification.
We face the crisis of his Lordship every
time we face areas in our lives that
sometimes become unfolded in a week just like
here at Keswick.
And we discover there are areas in our
lives that weren't under his Lordship.
That weren't under his Lordship.
And if we're going to be set free,
we've got to recognize his authority in that
area as well.
Most of you have heard the name of
F.B. Meyer if you're students of Christian
literature.
And if some of you young people haven't
heard the name of F.B. Meyer, let
me tell you that he was a Baptist
minister in England in another age where, I
want to tell you, preaching was at its
best.
And he was one of the most outstanding
orators as a preacher.
As a preacher.
I've read his biography.
That man had such a way of swaying
crowds that he could affect political issues.
When he stepped onto a neutral platform and
spoke to those issues, the country waited for
his voice.
But you know there was a strange absence
of anointing upon him.
He had the rhetoric.
He had the eloquence.
He had the power to communicate.
But he didn't have the anointing.
The unction of the Holy Spirit.
But he was a hungry, thirsty man.
And he went to Keswick.
He went to Keswick Convention.
And he heard a message that deeply disturbed
him.
It was a message that he saw fleshed
out in a sportsman.
A wonderful figure in those days.
We call him in America the Babe Ruth
of F.B. Meyer's day.
He was not a baseball hitter.
He was a cricketer.
A more superior game.
You see, baseball has rules, right?
But cricket has laws.
And you talk about the laws of cricket.
Not the laws of baseball.
As a matter of fact, cricket has become
a synonym for fair play.
And even here in America you may have
heard this term.
If somebody is trying to be a little
bit devious, you say, hey, that's not cricket.
The laws of cricket.
The man was C.T. Studd, who became
a missionary to China and then to Africa.
And Norman Grubb has written a book on
his life.
C.T. Studd was under the authority and
lordship of Jesus Christ.
And he exuded the power of the Holy
Spirit.
And Meyer went to him and said, Studd,
what's the secret of your life?
He said, the secret of my life is,
I've given every key to Jesus Christ as
Lord.
He has a right to every area of
my life.
Every key.
And then he turned to F.B. Meyer
and he said, have you given him every
key?
And Meyer said, yes, he's got the bunch.
He said, I didn't ask that.
I said, have you given every key?
Not the bunch.
Have you given every key?
And that troubled this preacher.
He went home and he couldn't sleep.
He got up and he went into his
study.
And he began to search his heart.
And envisioning it as a kind of a
home with many, many rooms, he went through
each room of the home of his life.
And said, Lord, you've got the key of
that room.
You've got the key of that room.
And suddenly he came to a door marked
private, strictly private.
And he knew that Jesus Christ wasn't Lord
of that room.
Do you know what it was?
His power to preach.
He was scared stiff that if he handed
the key of that room to the Lord
Jesus, he would be asked to preach messages
that weren't popular.
He'd be asked to change some of his
styles in communicating the message which attracted attention
to himself instead of to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And a tremendous battle ensued.
But you know, he yielded.
And he said, Lord, take that key.
And F.B. Meyer became the man that
you find in every Christian bookstore today.
Especially his wonderful book, The Christ Life for
the Self Life.
And his wonderful biography.
And his wonderful commentary on Hebrew.
The Christ Life for the Self Life.
Every key.
I want to start right away by asking,
has he every key of your life tonight?
I mean every key.
The key of your sex life.
The key of your courtship.
The key of your marriage.
The key of your reading.
The key of your television.
The key of your eating.
The key of your drinking.
The key of your service.
The key of your bank book.
Has he every key?
Is he Lord of all?
Glory, hallelujah.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
Now what does this text teach us?
It teaches us three tremendous things I want
you to learn tonight.
To this end Christ both died and rose
and lived again that he might be Lord.
I want you to notice first of all
what I'm going to call the right or
right of his Lordship.
The right of his Lordship.
If you prefer, the right of his authority
over your life.
The right of his authority over your life.
For we're talking about the crisis of authority.
To this end Christ both died and rose
and lived again, or lived, that he might
be Lord.
You say, what rights has he?
Number one, he has the right to purchase
you.
And he's done that already.
He's done that already.
To this end Christ died that he might
be Lord.
You know, we don't understand the Lordship of
Christ unless we associate his Lordship with his
death and burial and resurrection.
He died to purchase you as Lord.
As a matter of fact, the very word
Lord means proprietorship or ownership.
Inherent in that word is the idea of
ownership and proprietorship.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary's
Cross, you know something?
Young man, young woman, couples here tonight, older
people here tonight.
When Jesus Christ died on Calvary's Cross, he
bought you outright.
That's why the Bible tells us that the
church which God has purchased with his own
blood.
That's why Paul says you're not your own,
you're bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and your
spirits which are his.
That's why Peter says you're not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and gold but with
the precious blood of Christ.
You'll be bought outright.
That mind is not yours, it's his.
Those eyes are not yours, they're his.
Those ears are not yours, they're his.
Those lips are not yours, they're his.
That tongue is not yours, it's his.
That brain is not yours, it's his.
Those hands are not yours, they are his.
Those feet are not yours, they're his.
That body is not yours, it is his.
He is Lord.
He has the right to purchase you.
And he purchased you on Calvary's Cross.
Why?
Because you were a slave, carnal, sold unto
sin.
And you were about to be destroyed.
And he broke into the situation and with
his own blood he redeemed you, he bought
you, he purchased you.
And you're his.
You're his by creation.
You're his by redemption.
You're his by direction.
But you're his, you're bought.
He died to purchase you.
But he rose to pardon you.
He rose to pardon you.
Christ both died and rose that he might
be Lord.
That he might be Lord.
There's a wonderful little verse tucked away here
in the fourth chapter of this epistle.
And it reads like this.
And I was meditating upon it this afternoon.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, the last two verses.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was delivered on
account of our offenses and raised on account
of our justification.
He rose to pardon you.
We know that Jesus pardoned people even before
he went to the cross because he was
God of very God.
He said, your sins be forgiven you, to
that paralytic.
And his critics cried out, only God can
forgive sins.
Well, of course, he was God.
But he went to the cross to demonstrate
and vindicate that fact in that he died
and rose again that you might be justified,
declared righteous, pardoned.
I love the story.
I love the story of Thomas.
Doubting Thomas, who wasn't there when Jesus first
appeared in resurrection.
And said explicitly, except I see in his
hands the print of a nail and in
his feet and thrust my hand into his
side, I will not believe.
The next time the Lord Jesus appeared, Thomas
was there.
And that precious savior, with gentle rebuke and
yet with charm, absolute charm, says, Thomas, come
to me.
Put your hand into these scars of mine.
There's my hand, there's my side.
Don't be faithless, but believing.
Here he was standing in resurrection power with
the marks of Calvary.
And what was the response to Calvary and
to resurrection?
What was the response?
Thomas dropped on his knees and he cried,
my Lord and my God.
He is Lord.
That's why you can be pardoned.
Won't you say tonight, my Lord and my
God.
Perhaps you've never prayed that prayer.
My Lord and my God.
He died to purchase you as Lord.
He has the right.
He rose to pardon you as Lord.
He has the right.
He lives to possess you as Lord.
He has the right.
You see, man was made to be inhabited.
And if he doesn't inhabit you, as you
are hearing in song tonight, by the power
of the indwelling Christ, if the Lordship of
Christ isn't made real in you tonight by
the indwelling Holy Spirit, then, my friend, you
are indwelt by another spirit.
It was to religious people, I repeat, to
religious people that Jesus said, You are of
your father the devil.
Jesus talks about the spirit of Satan, of
the devil working in the children of disobedience.
So, my friend, if you are not indwelt
by the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy
Spirit tonight, then you are indwelt by an
evil spirit.
And I want to say something very important
here.
Unless you make Jesus Christ Lord, you're a
sitting duck for the devil.
That's true even of Christians here tonight.
I want to illustrate it.
First, with the life of Peter.
You remember after Peter made that tremendous confession
of faith, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God.
Jesus said, Peter, I want to tell you
something.
Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you.
My Father has revealed this to you by
His Spirit.
This is a tremendous revelation you have, that
I am the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
You read the next few verses, and Jesus
says in a more sober tone, I am
going to the cross.
I'm going to be taken by Jews, and
I'm going to be taken by Romans, and
I'm going to be taken by Greeks, and
I'm going to be crucified, and I'm going
to die, and I'm going to rise again.
And Peter immediately takes hold of him.
It's a strong verb.
And rebukes him, and says, no way, no
way.
You're going to get power, you're going to
get glory, you're going to get your kingdom
through some other means, not by way of
the cross.
You're not going through that suffering.
You're not going to go to Calvary.
No way, Lord, no way.
And Jesus had to turn to the man
who said, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, and said, Satan, get
behind me.
For your talking language, that is totally carnal.
Language calculated to dodge Calvary.
And you're an offense unto me.
Now Peter had to wait until after the
resurrection to learn that lesson completely, because he
wasn't prepared to make Jesus undisputed Lord, and
bow to what Calvary means.
You know what happened?
When the chips were down, he denied his
Lord with oaths and cursing.
And this Peter, who said, Lord, if everybody
runs away from you, I won't, I won't,
I won't, had to giggle a little girl,
and some questions concerning his association with Jesus,
he denied his Lord, and then went out
with oaths and cursing.
Unbelievable, unbelievable.
Illustration number two, Ananias and Sapphira, members of
the church in Jerusalem, they had seen Barnabas
come and lay down his rich treasures through
the sale of real estate in Cyprus, and
heard that his name had been changed from
Joseph to really the fulfilled man, Barnabas, Barnabas.
Paraphrase, the spirit-filled man.
And Ananias said to Sapphira, if that's how
we get filled with the Holy Spirit, let's
also bring a gift and put it down.
But don't give everything, don't give everything.
Give part in the name of the whole.
And they decided to deceive the church and
to lie to God.
And they came, first one and then the
other, and presented their gift and made their
little statement.
And the discerning Peter said, you have not
lied unto men, you've lied unto God.
And instantly the judgment of God fell on
husband and then on wife.
They dropped dead, were wrapped up in grave
clothes and buried.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ wasn't Lord.
You are a sitting duck for any attack
of Satan unless Jesus Christ is Lord.
Not only tonight but day by day with
a reaffirmation as you face a new day
with all its challenge.
So I say to the youngest young person
here, and it's wonderful to see so many
young people here tonight, is Jesus Christ Lord
of your courtship?
Is He Lord of the friends you are
after?
Is He Lord of your private life?
Is He Lord of all?
Is Jesus Christ Lord?
He has the right to be Lord.
Why?
He purchased you.
He pardoned you.
He possesses you if you are born again
at all.
Make Him Lord.
Undisputed Lord.
So go a little deeper into the text
and notice not only the rights of His
authority and Lordship, but notice the realm of
His authority and Lordship.
There are two realms mentioned here.
He is Lord both of the dead and
the living.
Now I want to reverse that.
He is Lord both of the living and
the dead.
There are only two realms, life and death.
Either we're in the realm of the living
or we're in the realm of the dead,
says Paul.
And He is Lord of both.
He's Lord of the living.
He's Lord of the dead.
In life we are responsible to Him.
In death we are accountable to Him.
In life we are responsible to Him.
He is Lord of the living.
Do you know what are the greatest problems
in America at this hour?
In the home, in the church, in the
community, in the nation, and in every area
you can think of.
It is one word, irresponsibility.
Irresponsibility.
As far as Christians are concerned, I believe
it is a direct result of preaching cheap
grace.
Turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, a
form of antinomianism that we were talking about.
In other words, let's sin.
For the more we sin, the more the
grace of God will be poured out.
And so you have all the sexual perversions.
You have all the lying.
You have all the cheating.
You have all the shallowness of preaching.
You have pulpits become nothing more than what
I would call a vaudeville show.
And we have all this going on.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ isn't Lord.
We are irresponsible.
We live irresponsibly.
But I want to remind you that Jesus
Christ is Lord, whether we acknowledge Him or
not.
And it doesn't matter in what area we
talk about tonight.
He regards us as responsible for our deeds.
Not only our deeds, our thoughts.
Not only our thoughts, our motives.
Unless Jesus Christ is Lord, oh my friend,
I want to tell you, you're heading for
disaster.
You're heading for disaster.
But let me hurry to point out, if
we are responsible to Him in life, we
are accountable to Him in death.
We'll doubtless be hearing something about that tomorrow
morning after that tremendous message on the Lord's
return at the Bible study this morning.
But I want to remind you, Christian people,
that what Paul says here is absolutely true.
Every man shall give an account of himself
to God.
To this end, Christ both died and rose
and lived again, that he might be Lord.
So then, every one of us shall give
an account of himself to God.
For in that day, as today, every knee
shall bow, every tongue confess to God.
One day, a great white throne is going
to be raised and suspended in space.
And all who have rejected Jesus Christ as
Saviour and Lord will be judged according to
their deeds.
And because they have not named Him Lord
in this life, they'll be sent into everlasting
darkness.
The Bible calls it hell, the second death.
That's Solomon us, and I want you to
face that.
But there is another judgment, it's called the
judgment seat of Christ, the behemoth, where all
of us are going to be judged.
It's a subject we don't hear very much
about today.
But it's mentioned right here in this chapter,
it's mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3, it's mentioned
in 2 Corinthians 5.
We shall all stand before the judgment seat
of Christ, and we shall be judged for
the things done in the body, whether they
be good or bad.
We shall not be judged as sinners, that
was done at the cross.
We shall not be judged as sons, we
are being judged now and disciplined as sons,
that we might produce the peaceable fruit of
righteousness.
But at the judgment seat of Christ, we
shall be judged as servants.
And if we've lived under His Lordship, in
the power of the Holy Spirit, we shall
be able to come before that judgment seat
of Christ and say, Lord Jesus, here am
I, and the children you've given me, the
people I've witnessed to, here am I, Lord.
And we'll present our gold and silver and
precious stones, and we shall hear Him say,
well done, good and faithful servant, enter into
the joy of my Lord.
If we haven't lived under His Lordship, and
therefore have lived carnally and selfishly, we'll have
nothing to hand to Him than the wood
and hay and stubble, the straw of a
wasted life.
And we'll see those substances, symbolically speaking, burned
up, and we'll have the inexorable shame of
picking up the charred embers of our wasted
lives and putting those charred embers into His
pierced hands.
We are responsible to Him in life.
We are accountable to Him in death.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ is Lord, the realm of
His authority as Lord.
We've looked at the right.
Those are the realms.
But all authority structure has rules, and we
have the rules of His authority right in
our text here, right in our text.
Now, in the prophetic present, the Apostle Paul
projects that day as if it were right
there in the church in Rome, and he
quotes from the Old Testament, and he says,
listen to the language.
He says, as I live, says Yahweh, every
knee shall bow to me, and every tongue
shall confess to God.
Now, we sang that in a chorus a
few moments ago, and it has a tremendous
implication.
One day, as I pointed out already, all
in heaven, all on earth, and all under
the earth are going to bow the knee
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father.
Do you know this?
That even Satan, even Satan, who will be
thrown into the bottomless pit, will have the
abject humiliation of bowing at the feet of
Jesus and saying, you are Lord, and then
have to go to hell.
Not only to hell, the bottomless pit.
But I want to say, and I want
to say it from the depths of my
heart, the principles that will obtain in that
day, obtain and prevail right now.
And they really are two rules that are
of comprehensive ramification.
One, submission to Christ as Lord.
Two, confession of Christ as Lord.
Let's look at it together.
First of all, submission to Christ as Lord
in every area of our lives.
In every area of our lives.
Submission to Christ as Lord in every area
of our lives.
That's the bent knee.
That's submission.
Now the Bible teaches us, as I'm going
to be explaining more explicitly tomorrow night, that
there are three circles that represent our lives.
There is the circle of the home life,
there is the circle of the church life,
there is the circle of the world life.
And in each of those areas, Jesus Christ
must be Lord.
We must submit to His Lordship, first of
all, in the home.
In the home.
We must recognize the authority of the home.
And you know how God has organized and
structured the authority of the home?
The husband must bow to the rulership of
Christ as head.
As head.
Head of the home.
The wife is to submit to the leadership
of the man as head of the home.
The children are to submit to the wonderful
care and protection of husband and wife.
What we call parentship.
Why?
Because God has ruled it that way.
Children, obey your parents in the Lord.
Wives are to obey their husbands.
And the word obey is in the Bible.
Obey.
Not just submit.
Obey.
And the husband is to obey his Lord
in everything.
And when that chain of command works out,
as we're going to see tomorrow, that's when
the Holy Spirit floods the life with agape
love, and the home comes together as a
home should be.
And without it, the home is destined to
destruction.
And you young people getting married now, and
you young people thinking of getting married, I
want to tell you, unless Jesus Christ is
Lord of your home, I want to tell
you, you are headed for disappointment and disaster.
But it's not only unconditional submission in the
area of the home.
It's unconditional submission in the area of the
church.
In the area of the church.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church.
And as the head of the church, he
has appointed his leaders in the church.
And those leaders in the church have an
awesome responsibility.
And I speak for a moment to pastors
here, but I also speak to members here.
And I'm speaking now from verses that are
rarely heard today.
Because the preacher's a puppet today, or a
pope, one or the other.
But when I read my Bible, I hear
these words.
And God is speaking by the inspiration of
the Holy Spirit.
And he says, to leaders, to leaders, and
to members, obey them that have the rule
over you.
Literally, the rulership, the leadership over you.
And submit yourselves.
For they watch for your souls, as they
that must give an account, that they may
do it with joy and not with fear.
For that would be, listen, that would be
unprofitable unto you.
Unprofitable unto you.
Where?
At the judgment seat of Christ.
When a preacher stands behind this holy desk,
his task is to preach the inerrant truth
of God, and demand obedience to truth.
Not to him, not to rhetoric, not to
eloquence, but to truth.
For truth is preached for obedience.
And if it's not for obedience, you're not
preaching.
But with doctrine there must be discipline.
And failure to obey must be disciplined in
the church.
Disciplined in the church.
And when that authority is disregarded, a church
becomes just like, listen, apostate Israel long ago.
There was no judge or king in those
days, and everyone did that which was right
in his own eyes.
And that is characteristic of both churches.
We're talking about lordship.
We're talking about authority.
And that's the word of God.
And what about the world?
What about the world?
Listen to this text, and I could quote
many more.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, to
every creation of man, for the Lord's sake.
You say, what does that mean?
It means everything that you do.
It means punctuality at your job.
It means writing that examination paper without cribbing.
It means filling out your tax income tax
form correctly and honestly.
It means keeping the speed limit where it
says 65.
It's 65.
It means giving the right shade.
It means behaving as a considerate Christian.
It means all those things.
It means everything where the rubber touches the
road.
He is Lord.
It means respecting your leaders.
Not because they happen to be perfect men,
because we'll never have a perfect society down
here, but that you respect the leadership and
the officialdom behind it, as Paul teaches in
this very epistle in the 13th chapter, that
all leaders are ordained of God.
Bush, right now, President George Bush is a
deacon under God.
A deacon under God.
And if he doesn't behave as the President
should do, he's going to answer.
He's going to answer one day.
If he's a sage man at the judgment
seat of Christ.
If he isn't, at the great white throne.
We can't fool with God.
And I don't care how China's running its
government now, one kind of government is better
than anarchy.
There's either democracy or dictatorship, but anarchy is
absolute disaster for any country, as we see
right now in Lebanon.
God recognizes power.
And the wonderful thing is that the gospel
with its dynamism can work in every kind
of authority.
Because ultimately, God is on the throne.
But when it comes down to you and
me, He must be Lord in the home.
He must be Lord in the church.
He must be Lord in the world in
which you live.
Unconditional submission to Jesus Christ as Lord in
every area of life.
Have you got the message?
You got the message?
But I want to add something more.
And it's the climax of all we have
to say.
Not only the bended knee, but the open
mouth.
Not only unconditional submission to Jesus Christ as
Lord in every area of life, but unashamed
confession of Jesus Christ as Lord in every
area of our life.
Now, many of us here in silence can
say, Yes, Lord, I bend my knee.
I bend my knee.
And I'm obeying that message.
And I'm going to make Him Lord in
my home.
I'm going to make Him Lord in my
church.
I'm going to make Him Lord in my
world.
Lord, I really mean that.
And then you leave this place with sealed
lips.
And opportunities occur right, left and center.
And you don't open your mouth to confess
Jesus Christ as Lord.
You have repudiated His Lordship.
If we understood Lordship, if we understood Lordship
aright, I want to tell you something.
There'd be nothing, nothing fulfilling every church with
people, people seeking Jesus Christ.
Because every day of our lives, we would
be witnessing, witnessing, witnessing.
And I want to tell you, even though
there is an element that will never respond
to the gospel of Jesus Christ, they have
destined themselves to destruction anyway.
I want to say there are a lot
of hungry people, a lot of hungry people,
who want to hear the message of life,
but they can't hear it with sealed lips.
That's why Paul says in this very epistle,
in chapter 9, Romans 10 rather, and 9,
he says, If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved.
Now that's how a person comes into salvation.
But salvation is not just initial, it's continual.
We go on confessing, because Paul says, How
can people hear this message of faith unless,
unless they preach?
And how shall they preach except they be
sent?
And he's talking about, he's talking about confessing,
proclaiming Christ as Lord.
Now obviously, you've got to confess Him by
the way you live, as well as by
the way you speak.
For if the way you live does not
match the way you speak, you've cancelled out
what you say.
You've cancelled out what you say.
You speak with your eyes, you speak with
your lips, you speak with a handshake, you
speak with those vibes that come out of
your personality, that you're consciously walking in the
light under the power of the Holy Spirit.
But you speak with your lips when you
enunciate, when you spell out very simply how
you love Jesus, how you love Jesus, how
you love Jesus.
How many of you have said a word
for the Lord Jesus today on the beach?
How many of you have said a word,
perhaps, to somebody in the shop?
How many of you have witnessed to the
Lord Jesus this past month?
Maybe this past year.
I want to say something, and I want
to say it from the bottom of my
heart.
I believe, I believe that we've copped out.
Billy Graham would be the very first man
to admit it if he were to stand
here to say, I see my friend for
fifty years a bosom pal.
We've talked about this and prayed about it.
And I thank God that just recently there
in that great metropolitan area of London, he
was able, with 230 live links, to speak
to 1.2 million people.
And thousands have come to Christ.
And God has used this man of God
as the spokesman for evangelism.
But we've copped out and said, leave it
to Billy Graham.
We'll live very comfortably, thank you.
And you've sealed your mouth.
We've left it to the televangelists and see
what's happened there.
And we've left it to pulpiteers.
And do you know what the average, average
in this country is?
The evangelical pastors of our land represent the
worst witnessing group.
And I say it to our shame.
Only five percent of evangelical pastors have led
people to Christ one on one.
Five percent.
It's left to the pulpit.
I believe a church should be a worshiping
community where the Word of God is so
expounded that people just drink it in and
take it in and then go out Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday witnessing, confessing to
Jesus Christ.
And whether or not Jesus Christ is Lord,
following this week, will be determined by how
often and when you confess Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ as Lord.
In your daily witness.
At work, at play, in the community, on
the golf course, the racquetball court, wherever it
is.
Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord.
Now my question is, as you face this
crisis of authority, at what point, at what
point are you going to say, Glory, Hallelujah,
Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
For I want to finish with John Hudson
Taylor's great statement, Jesus Christ is either Lord
of all or not Lord at all.
Now sure, new areas of your life are
going to be exposed.
Perhaps even tomorrow night, tomorrow morning.
But the attitude that you set tonight will
determine whether you bring His Lordship and authority
over those areas immediately, without any question.
Because as far as I know, Lord Jesus,
everything is under your Lordship.
You have every key.
Every key.
Now you all heard me give my testimony
briefly on the opening night of this Keswick
week.
And I told you there was a tremendous
crisis I faced on Lordship, at Keswick Convention,
on the issue of where I would serve
Christ.
Under the ministry of that wonderful man, my
professor and mentor of homiletics, Dr. Graham Scoggins.
And subsequently I heard him preach that same
message at Keswick, and give an invitation.
Later on he shared with us something that
happened in that great convention.
Many came forward to declare publicly and confess
that Jesus Christ was Lord, in the line,
as they made their commitment in that great
evening service.
But one young lady remained behind, looked up
into his face and said, Dr. Scoggins, I
want Him to be Lord.
I want Him to be Lord.
I want Him to be Lord of all.
But I'm scared stiff that He will send
me to Africa.
I don't want to go to Africa.
I don't like mosquitoes.
I don't like snakes.
I don't like this.
And I just don't want to make Him
Lord.
Without having to pause, Graham Scoggins opened his
Bible at Act 10, and read that story
of the vision that God gave to Peter
when he was a racist and discriminated against
Jews and Gentiles.
Or rather, discriminated against Gentiles being a Jew.
And God had to teach him a lesson.
And He caused a vision of a sheep
to come down from heaven, of all manner
of animals.
And there was a command, Rise, Peter, kill
and eat!
And shrinking back from eating everything, Peter said,
Not so, Lord.
And pointing at those words, not so, he
left the story and he said, Young lady,
no slave dictates to his master.
No Christian dictates to Jesus Christ as Lord.
The issue is clear.
Either you say tonight, Not so, or you
strike those words out and you say, Lord.
But you can't say both.
It's a contradiction in terms to say, Not
so, Lord.
You can't say, Not so, Lord.
And leaving his Bible open at that page
and that sentence, he slipped away while that
girl sat there and looked at those words.
Very quietly he prayed in the distance there
that God would break through to that life.
He looked over and saw her shoulders convulsing
as she wept.
He came quietly behind and looked over her
back onto that Bible.
Now, tears stayed.
And guess what she had done?
She had poured out the words, Not so.
And she was quietly saying, Your Lord.
Your Lord.
You are Lord of all.
I put it to you tonight.
Not so, Lord.
You can't say both.
Tonight you go out saying, Not so.
You take the consequence.
Or you say tonight, Lord.
You are Lord of all.
For in the theme of tonight, glory in
the highest.
Jesus Christ is my Lord.
Let's bow together in prayer.
As we've done each night, I'm opening the
altar again tonight to front of this auditorium.
For unashamed submission.
And an unashamed confession to Jesus Christ as
Lord.
The crisis of authority.
We've come a long way since the first
night.
We've been traveling down the crises, we need
to say it.
But to me, there is a sense in
which tonight is pivotal.
Absolutely pivotal.
And there may be Christians here who've been
on the way longer than I have.
And you could come and expound this passage
much more profoundly than I can.
But somehow or other, like a dear man
who came to me last night and hugged
me, he said, Two years ago, I came
to one of the evening services and was
convicted by a remark you made about a
casual Christian.
The casual Christian.
And I was so convicted, I repented.
And surrendered my life to Christ as Lord,
especially in relation to my daily devotion.
And I haven't missed my devotion for two
years.
And I want to thank you.
And he gave me a big hug.
You can't be casual.
Or callous.
Or even callous.
About tonight's message.
And I want to ask, have you given
him every key?
Every key.
Of every area of your life.
Is he Lord of all?
And if this applies to all of us.
And we jam the aisles.
Because we want to respond and respond without
shame.
Without sham.
Without shrinking to the fact that we're making
him Lord of all.
Or reaffirming his Lordship in a way that
God has impressed upon your spirit tonight.
Then I don't want you to hold back.
I don't want you to hold back.
Because I want to tell you this.
All the fullness of blessings in the Holy
Spirit that we're going to talk about tomorrow
night.
Will not take place.
Unless this issue of Lordship is settled tonight.
Is settled tonight.
I want to pray a simple prayer I
sometimes use in my quiet time.
And I'm going to pray it twice.
First to show you how it goes.
And then for you to pray it in
your own heart.
And then I'm going to ask you to
confess.
That you have meant that prayer.
And you intend to follow this crisis by
a process.
This act of commitment.
By an attitude of communion.
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
Here are the words.
Lord of every thought and action.
Lord to send.
And Lord to stay.
Lord in writing, speaking, giving.
Lord of all things to obey.
Lord of all there is of me.
Now and evermore to be.
Will you pray that prayer?
Lord of every thought and action.
Lord to send and Lord to stay.
Lord of writing, speaking, giving.
Lord of all things to obey.
Lord of all there is of me.
Now and evermore to be.
Lord hear the prayers that ascend to heaven.
And here tonight do the most permanent and
lasting work.
For your glory and for the blessing of
your people.
For we know that to make Jesus Christ
Lord.
Is to glorify the Father.
Hear this prayer Lord.
And harvest the fruit of response here tonight.
We ask it in the name of Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Amen.