Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Who is the Lord Jesus Christ to you? We know many people have many different takes on this question. Many believers attempt to pigeon hole the Lordship of Jesus Christ by picking and choosing how they want to serve him; they attempt to selectively honor the Lord and this is only because they do not want enough doctrine to correct their twisted aberrant minds. Certainly we do not know all there is to know about Christ’s lordship, but we have to have a desire to learn and then submit to him.
I. Some say he is our friend / Lord, so we should think of him as an understanding confidant.
That He should be understanding of our moral decisions even when they violate His Father’s commandments; that He should know we are just human. However, no believer is “just human”, for we have the Spirit of God indwelling us, and we can do all things through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Did Jesus Christ not say in John 15:14 “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatever I command you.” Is He not saying we must obey His word if we expect to walk in spiritual communion with Him? I think so. To the world viewpoint our Lord’s words here are too narrow. The world certainly looks for room to wiggle away from God’s righteous standards, but God’s own children should never think this way.
II. Some say he is our High Priest / Lord so we should be able to conduct our Christianity secretly just between us and Him.
Did He not say in Matt.5:14-16 that we are now the light of the world, responsible for showing His light of salvation and godly living in this sin darkened world; that we are not to hide our light? Jesus Christ does not want us to be secret disciples.
You see, disciples serve their master as His representative. We are not only called to learn of Him; we are also called to witness in His name.
Should churches and their leaders scrap peace with the Lord to make peace with those who oppose the plan of God?
We know the answer is no.
III. Some say He is our social justice / Lord so we should work to stop poverty and war and seek a level world wide distribution of wealth and power. That our gospel today is to serve those in economically distressed areas of the immediate and global community. From Matt.26:6-9 it is told that expensive oil was poured on Jesus Christ’s head and some of his disciples rebuked him for allowing such waste when this oil could have been sold to feed the poor, Did our Lord not say in Matt.26:11? “For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always.” Mary of Bethany listened to her Lord speak of his impending crucifixion and she felt a deep devotion to honor him with the best she had, and she was ridiculed for it. The disciples were so caught up in what they thought was Christ’s ascendancy to power they overlooked his intense sorrow as He faced his death.
Even as the Lord was in the Upper Room having his last supper with the disciples theystill exalted human good above divine righteousness. They had been drawn into Judas Iscariot’s way of thinking. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we must always exalt divine righteousness above human good. We must never listen to the non-doctrinal types.
Some of these folks say Christians are to fight against paying taxes, or serving on jury duty, or pledging allegiance to the flag or serving in the military; that peace must be had at all cost; that war is never the answer. But Jesus Christ said in Mark 12:17 that we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesars’ and unto God what is Gods’.
Jesus Christ taught respect for establishment law, even if the people didn’t like those who ruled over them as long as we remember obedience to God is never subservient to the government. To reject Bible doctrine for a social gospel is to scrap the plan of God for the epistemologies and humanistic-human good philosophy of the world.
IV. Some speak of Christ as our religious tolerant / Lord. They speak of a gospel that says toleration trumps truth.
Did not our Lord say in Matt.15:13 “...Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” In John 15:6 Christ said, “If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” Our Lord said no one comes to the Father but by him. What God may tolerate for now with the world religions, he does not tolerate in his own children. He will judge the unbelief of the unsaved soon enough; but he will not tolerate unbelief among those who call themselves born-again believers.
The bottom line in this message is since we are born again Christians we owe our lives to our Lord Jesus Christ. We owe him because he saved us for all eternity. Because he is our Lord we should dedicate our entire life to him, not just a Sunday morning nod or a pinch of offering, or just a token effort to serve. A doctrinal church is not a place to hide from serving God; it is a place to accurately serve the Lord.
V. Some say Christ is our family first / Lord; that Christ expects us to put our family first. But, we are not to let our families hold us back from learning and witnessing in His name. From Matt.10:32-39 our Lord draws a line in the sand and asks for His disciples to stand with Him. He is not saying we should pick a fight with our families, but when we do follow Him as our Lord the fight will come to us. Will we buckle to their lordship and deny the faith. I know this may sound radical and unloving and that we should work to keep peace in the camp so to speak, but whose peace do we want? Will we scrap peacewith our Lord to make peace with those who oppose the plan of God? Are we willing to suffer inner personal shame because we are seeking to appease the unappeasable people in our lives? What happens to our lives when we allow the spiritually blind to lead us? That’s right; our Lord said we would both end up in the ditch, Lk.6:39.
We should make our daily choices reflect the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We should manage our homes and our finances and our time to reflect the Lordship of Christ. We should think ahead when we make our plans to submit them to the word of God, Ps.37:5 “Commit your way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.” He is Lord of every aspect of our daily life. He is Lord of our Christian service; our relationships with family; co-workers, fellow students, our neighbor and so on.
For this relationship we have with the Lord to be pleasing to him we have to really change our old ways. We have to really change the way we think and nothing can do this but his word. Good servants are trained servants. Knowing who our Lord is develops devotion, and knowing his commandments develops strategies to conquering our battles against the world, the flesh and the devil.
My challenge to all of us here is for us to renew our respect for the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Consider him in all our ways. Seek balance in your Christian walk. Avoid legalistic codes imposed by ignorant believers who think they are more righteous than God. On the other hand avoid undisciplined behavior; thinking God’s grace doesn’t care how you live.
If we love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and mind as noted in our opening passage in Matt.22:34-40 we will find ourselves happy indeed. We will have a sense of purpose and destiny because we have the assurance that we are in the plan of God and in the place of his provisions every day. We will be fulfilled believers. What more could we ask for?