In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church,
he makes mention of Jesus as Lord 29
times, and it is this emphasis of Christ's
Lordship that is foundational to the series of
messages I bring before you, friends, on the
Lordship of Christ.
I never knew a man who embodied the
theme of the Lordship of Jesus Christ more
than Dr. Stephen F.
Olford.
Dr. Olford was my homiletical mentor, colleague, and
friend.
I was in his first graduating class of
his School of Preaching, and Stephen Olford and
I co-wrote a book together on his
homiletical mentor, Dr. Graham Scroggie, entitled Olford on
Scroggie.
I literally spent countless hours under the preaching
of Stephen Olford, and his main message that
he preached was the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
I believe, friends, that the most neglected doctrine
in the church today is the Lordship of
Jesus Christ, the rights and claims that Christ
has on all followers of his has been
delegated to the ash heap by pastors today
who prefer to teach a more lenient gospel
and a more sin-tolerant Savior.
But unlike most of us preachers today, Jesus
never preached sin and religion.
God bless the preaching ministry of Stephen Olford
through countless transformed lives who heard him.
My own life was turned upside down by
a sermon Dr. Olford preached on Lordship, and
God will bless the preacher who highlights in
his sermons the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and
that's where we are going to go, friends,
in this series of messages on the Lordship
of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5.15 declares, And that he
died for all, that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him
which died for them, and rose again.
The Lordship of Christ is a life of
submission of Christ Jesus.
It is utter surrender to a living Lord.
It is the willingness to bow daily and
hourly to the sovereignty of Christ and to
the authority of the Word.
Through this submission to Christ comes victory in
Christ for a daily living, as seen in
2 Corinthians 3.17 which states, Now the
Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty.
This can be understood where the spirit is
Lord, that is, where he is given his
true deity and sovereignty, there is liberty.
We will see, friends, in this series that
the victorious Christian life is a surrendered life
to the Lordship of Christ.
Let us pray.