1. I would like to speak this morning on one of the great themes of the Bible -- the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
2. When we say Jesus Christ is Lord we mean He is God. Acts 10:36 says Jesus Christ is "Lord of all."
3. In John 20:28, Thomas said to Jesus, "My Lord and my God."  All throughout the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as "the Lord Jesus Christ."
4. Charles Hodge, in his Systematic Theology, writes, "It is, therefore, not merely the fact that Jesus is called Lord, that proves that He is also God; but that He is called Lord in such a sense and in such a way as is consistent with no other hypothesis. In the first place, Christ is called Lord in the New Testament with the same constancy and with the same preeminence that Jehovah is called Lord in the Old Testament. This was the word which all the readers, whether of the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures, under the old economy were accustomed to use to express their relation to God. They recognized Him as their owner, as their Supreme Sovereign, and as their protector. He was in that sense their Lord. The Lord is on our side. The Lord be with you. The Lord He is God. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Thou Lord art good. Thou Lord art most high forever. O Lord, there is none like unto thee. I will praise the Lord. Have mercy upon me, O Lord. O Lord, thou art my God. The religious ear of the people was educated in the use of this language from their infancy. The Lord was their God. They worshipped and praised Him, and invoked his aid in calling him Lord. The same feelings of reverence, adoration, and love, the same sense of dependence and desire of protection are expressed throughout the New Testament in calling Jesus Lord. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Lord, save me. Joy of thy Lord. Lord, when saw we thee a hungered? He that judgeth me is the Lord. If the Lord will. To be present with the Lord. Them that call on the Lord. Which the Lord shall give me in the last day. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour.  Jesus Christ, therefore, is Lord to Christians in the same sense that Jehovah was Lord to the Hebrews."
5. Up until recently, this was how most Christians understood the Lordship of Christ.    Jesus Christ is Jehovah God (cf. Joel 2:32; Romans 10:9-13).
6. A number of years ago, a debate developed in Christian circles over the Lordship of Christ.  The people in this debate were not questioning the deity of Christ.  The controversy centered on salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
7. The so-called "Lordship Salvation" advocates emphasize that submitting to Jesus Christ as Lord over your life is necessary for salvation.
8. Lordship advocates also stress a changed life as the result of salvation. Those who believe in Lordship Salvation say that a person who professes to be saved but is not living a godly life is not truly saved.
9. The Bible teaches that genuine faith in Christ will result in a changed life.   "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).
10. However, some Christians grow quicker than others.  And sadly, there are some believers who are carnal.    Many Lordship teachers say there is no such thing as a carnal Christian, but I Corinthians 3:1 says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
11. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is a matter of spiritual growth, not salvation.
12. To be saved, a sinner simply has to recognize that he is a lost sinner, and that he needs to place his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, not in his good works or baptism or church membership, etc.
13. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).
14. Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10, 11).  The Bible commands us to submit to Him.  James 4:7, 8 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded."
15. A changed life and submission to Christ's lordship are the result of salvation. They are not a requirement for salvation.  Lordship advocates often confuse salvation with discipleship.
16. Our message to sinners is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).
17. Our message to Christians is that we must yield to the Lordship of Christ, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved.
18. The context here in Romans 14 is the dispute over "doubtful disputations" (14:1), such as eating certain foods and observing certain days, such as the sabbath (14:2-6).
19. Paul says the solution to these disagreements is total surrender to the Lordship of Christ (14:7-9).

I. JESUS CHRIST IS BOTH SAVIOUR AND LORD

1. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we also accept Him as Lord, for He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. We cannot receive Jesus as Savior only. We can only receive Him as Lord and Savior. However, some people do not understand all this entails.
3. For some believers, yielding to Jesus as Lord does not immediately follow their conversion. They do not willfully reject the lordship of Christ. They simply did not understand His lordship.
4. For example, some people get saved but do not start tithing right away.  Then they begin to realize Jesus Christ is Lord of everything, including their finances.  And then they start to tithe.
5. Some people get saved but do not give up smoking right away. Then they begin to realize Jesus Christ is Lord of everything, and they stop smoking.
6. By the way, more and more I am realizing that we preachers do not go far enough when we preach against smoking.  We usually state that it is a dirty, filthy habit (and it is), and a bad testimony, and bad for the smoker's (and those nearby) health, etc.
7. This is all true.  First Corinthians 3:16, 17 says, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are."
8. First Corinthians 6:19, 20 says, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
9. Certainly it is a wicked sin to defile God's temple. But I think we should go further. Let us also consider the terrible waste of God's money that is being spent on tobacco.  Money that could be spent on furthering the Gospel.
10. All these different issues can be easily settled if we are yielded to the Lordship of Christ.   In the context of Romans 14, it was over food and observing certain days (14:1-8).
11. Today Christians wrestle with other issues, but the this same principle remains: "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's" (14:8).
12. Jesus Christ is Lord, and some day we will all have to give an account to Him (Rom. 14:10-12).   He is Lord of everything, including how we spend our money, and spend our time.
13. Some people get saved but they do not have regular devotions right away.  Then they begin to realize Jesus Christ is Lord of everything, and they were allowing other people and other things take priority.
14. So they start to develop a prayer life, and start to seriously read and study the Word of God.
15. Stewardship is more than about how we manage our money.  It is also about how we manage our time.
16. Once a person gets a hold of this important fact -- that Jesus is Lord of everything, things start to happen.
17. Good things!  Wonderful things!  Glorious things!
18. Luke 6:46 says, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

II. JESUS IS LORD BECAUSE HE IS GOD

1. First Timothy 3:16 says Christ is "God manifest in the flesh."  And some day we will all have to stand before Him and give an account.
2. The apostle Paul says in Romans 14:10, "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."
3. Then in the next two verses he says, "For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (14:11, 12).
4. We shall all stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and give account to God, because the Lord Jesus Christ is God.
5. Second Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
6. It will be the Lord Jesus Christ we will face at the Judgment Seat.
7. It will also be the Lord Jesus Christ who will sit on that big white throne on Judgment Day, when all lost sinners from all over the world will be assembled, judged, and then cast off into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).
8. In John 5:22, Jesus said, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."
9. A number of years ago, Senator John Ashcroft was speaking in chapel at a Christian college, and he quoted a slogan of our founding fathers during the Revolutionary War: "We have no king but Jesus."
10. Mr. Ashcroft said that because he is a Christian, he believes Jesus Christ is "King of kings and Lord of lords."
11. That simple Biblical statement became a big issue for many of our ungodly politicians later on when they tried their best to keep him from becoming Attorney General.
12. Romans 1:30 describes these liberal politicians as "haters of God."
13. But whether these God-haters want to acknowledge it or not, Jesus Christ is "King of kings and Lord of lords."
14. And some day they will acknowledge it (Phil. 2:9-11).
15. Romans 14:8 says, "Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's."   We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
16. We belong to Him by creation.  John 1:3 says, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."   He is our Creator.
17. Furthermore, we belong to Him by redemption.  First Corinthians 6:20 says, "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
18. First Corinthians 8:6 says, there is "one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him."

III. JESUS IS LORD OF EVERY THING

1. Some Christians think they can separate their Christian life from their so-called "secular" life (home, school, work, friends, sports, entertainment, travel, politics, etc.) but that is unscriptural.
2. All earthly relationships must be based upon the Lordship of Christ.
3. This includes the home (Eph. 5:21--6:4).
4. This includes the work place (Eph. 6:5-10).
5. This includes politics.  If we truly believe that, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10, 11), then it stands to reason we should vote for leaders who will stand for Christian values.
6. This includes vacation time.  It amazes me how some Christians (even some pastors) can go on vacation and skip church.  Do they think they are they on vacation from God?
7. This includes leisure time.  It is disgraceful that some Christians sit and watch dirty television programs with bad language, bad music, immodesty, indecency, and immorality.
8. A preacher friend of mine was in the home of a missionary and that missionary was watching a dirty Hollywood movie.   This missionary was surprised when my friend got up and left the room, refusing to watch such garbage.
9. My friend said that two years later that same missionary was caught in adultery and out of the ministry.
10. Yielding to the Lordship of Christ involves every aspect of our life.
11. In the biography of the great Baptist pastor F.B. Meyer, we read that his early ministry lacked power.   Dr. Meyer said that his early Christian life was marred and his ministry paralyzed.  The way he described it, it was because he had kept back one thing from the bunch of keys he had given to the Lord.
12. He said he gave all the keys to his life to the Lord, every key except for one. The key for that one room was kept for personal use, and the Lord was shut out. The effect of this incomplete consecration was found in lack of power, lack of assurance, and a lack of joy and peace. But eventually F.B. Meyer came to realize that the joy of the Lord begins when we hand over the last key.
13. F.B. Meyer experienced the lordship of Jesus Christ when he handed over that last key.  He had kept back the key to one room in his life and it brought great defeat. Have you yielded keys to every room in your life?  Or is there a room marked “private – keep out?”
14. If so, you must be willing to surrender that key to the Lord.
15. Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid?
    Your heart does the Spirit control?
    You can only be blest,
    And have peace and sweet rest,
    As you yield Him your body and soul -- Elisha A. Hoffman

CONCLUSION:

1. In his book, The Way of Holiness, Stephen Olford tells a story about an incident in the life of his friend Pastor W. Graham Scroggie.
2. Dr. Scroggie was speaking at the Keswick Convention in England on one occasion when he was approached by a young woman who had been greatly stirred by his message on the Lordship of Christ.
3. Walking up to him at the close of the service, she said, “I want Jesus to be Lord of my life, but I am afraid God will send me overseas as a missionary, and I don’t want to go.”
4. Pastor Scroggie opened his Bible to Acts 10:14 -- "But Peter said, Not so, Lord."
5. Dr. Scroggie explained the utter absurdity of Peter’s answer. God had given Peter a vision of a sheet in which were all manner of four-footed animals, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.  And a voice came to him, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter answered, “Not so, Lord.” (See Acts 10:12-14).
6. Dr. Scroggie went on to explain, “A slave never dictates to a master. Therefore, to say ‘Not so, Lord’ was impertinent!” “Now,” advised Dr. Scroggie, “I want you to cross out the two words ‘not so’ and leave the word ‘Lord’; or else cross out the word ‘Lord’ and leave ‘not so’.” Handing her his pencil, he quietly walked away.
7. For some time she struggled. Then he returned and saw that the words ‘not so’ were crossed out.  The word "Lord" remained.
8. With a glad light in her eyes, she repeated affirmatively, “Lord!” “Lord!” “Lord!”  No longer would she dictate. She was now His disciple, and He was her Lord and Master.
9. She had truly yielded to the Lordship of Christ.