God is love. God is love. One song shall reign, the grateful
heart, this anthem's praise. For by this name shall in thy
name, all thy days spring in praise. I just noticed that high
note there on that last line. Did you get that, Jeanette? Good. I tried it. Thank you, Sherry. I love that song. These hymns
that we try to sing are worshipful, God-honoring, glorifying the
God. get rid of the flesh, no show
of flesh, you know, and all this that you see going on today.
Away with that. God alone is to be exalted, and
He's exalted more by the message, by the truth declared, than our
goings-on, you know, with the flesh. God's not worshipped with
men's hands, the Scripture said, but He is worshipped in spirit
and in truth. So we sing songs that are God-honored,
glorified, and the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, let's go to John 13 now, the Gospel of John 13. I'm
going to read one verse in John 13. I don't normally take a text,
or that is, a single verse and expound upon it, but this is
one that I have often quoted and thought about, and it's amazing
what the Lord says in so few words. Chapter 13 of John, verse
13. Speaking to his disciples, he
says, Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well. for so I am." Fourteen words, thirteen one-syllable
words, one two-syllable word. The Lord isn't that wisdom to
be able to say profound things in a simple way. Oh, what all
he said here. You call me Master and Lord,
and you say well, for so I am." Now in this I see two things. I see an order by our Lord, or
a way in which we are to address him. He tells us here the way
in which we are to address him. An order of address. be taking
notes, an order of address, and secondly, a declaration of who
he is and what he has done. Are you with me? All right, an
order of address. He says to his disciples, he
is talking to his disciples, and he says to them, you call
me Master and Lord, and you say what? His disciples, that's what
they called Him, and He acknowledged that. He says, He stayed in effect
there, Ye call Me, Master and Lord. That's what they called
Him. What are we to call the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's what. He has three names, and without
all three of them, He's incomplete. He has a title, He has a name. How are his disciples to refer
to him? What should we call him? Well, he said, you call me Master
and Lord and you say well. He says, well, that's what you
should say. That's how you should call me,
Master and Lord. Now you will never read in this
book, you will never read in the Gospels of the disciples
approaching the Lord and saying, Jesus, would you? Jesus, Jesus. Never, not one time will you
ever hear the disciples call him Jesus. Now isn't that significant? He's
there. And I'm going to wear this verse
out. You call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, so I am. They referred to one another
as John and James and Peter and Thomas, James, John. Peter, would
you go get that John? Never. Jesus, would you? Never. They called him Master and Lord. Now, the enemies of the Lord
said, Jesus. Jesus. This Jesus, they said,
as for this Jesus. Now, I'm not, why should we call
him Master and Lord? He said, so I am. That's what he is. So that's
what we call him. Now, I'm not making a play on
words here. I'm not splitting theological
hairs here. I'm not trying to I'm not nitpicking. I'm really
not. Our Lord said this, did he not?
Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well. I want to say well,
don't you? Alright, I'm not nitpicking.
I'm not splitting hairs here. But I believe this is the scripture.
I know it is. This is what our Lord said. And
it's God-honoring. Our chief design in everything,
whether we eat or drink, is the glory of our Lord, is it not?
So in the way we address him, we address him in the way which
gives him the most glory and honor. That's most respectful. And this is very instructive,
I think. We're taught from the beginning.
All of us are taught from the beginning. The Lord said in the
beginning, honor thy father and thy mother. That means, in every
respect, that means obey your parents, it means address them
as such. How do you speak of your parents? What do you call your parents?
You've always, all your life, if you're a respectful child,
you've always, all your life, called your father, father or
dad, right? or mom or mother. You never refer
to them, never. You've never heard me except
introducing him in a third person as Pastor Henry Mahan. But you never hear me in private
or at any other time say, Henry said this, Henry said that. I
had a good time with Henry and Doris the other day. It's disrespectful. We always refer to them as our
parents, and even we're taught to respect our elders, not just
our parents. We're taught from little children
to respect our elders. We're to address our elders as
sir, are we not? Mr. so-and-so, Mrs. so-and-so. The Stoniker children were taught
so well this, to respect elders and call them Mr. so-and-so,
Mrs. so-and-so, until that person gave them permission to call
them by their first name. I remember doing that. I've known
them for years, and I remember telling them, you can call me
Paul. Well, they still to this day call me Mr. Paul. Well, that's fine. That's fine. It shows respect
on their part. Does it not? That's a good thing. We were taught from a young age
to respect our elders. Sir, yes ma'am, yes sir. I love
that, I told you that ad at the Virginia Military Academy, they
have an ad in Southern Living Magazine that says this, we teach
all of our cadets a foreign language. Yes sir, and yes ma'am. That's
a foreign language today, is it not? Well, so it is a foreign
language to refer to the King of heaven as Lord and Christ. It's so foreign to this generation,
is it not? And it's the fault lies right
here in this pulpit with these preachers. They're on a first-name
basis with the Lord of glory. Arthur Pink said that started
in this Armenian, this altar call generation. The high king of heaven now, he's
king. Now more than ever, listen to
me, now more than ever, this is one of the distinguishing
marks of God's true people. Now more than ever, this is one
of the distinguishing marks of those that really fear his name. David said, unite our hearts
to fear thy name. He said, you that make mention
of the Lord, make mention his name is exalted. Isaiah said
that. His name is to be exalted. Now
more than ever, when men are dragging his name down. and using
his name in such a careless, flippant, irreverent, familiar,
buddy-buddy way. Now more than ever, God's people,
God-fearing people, those who truly have his honor and his
glory at mind, now more than ever, we need to make mention,
his name is to be exalted, to be feared. You read through the
psalm, did you read that with me? The name of the Lord, the
name of the Lord, the name of the Lord. All through the psalm,
David was a man after God's own heart. And he, throughout the
psalm, speaks of God's holy and terrible and dreadful name. Now more than ever, he said,
you call me Master and Lord and you say well. So I am. And we seek his honor and glory.
If we truly respect our great elder, is he not the elder The
great elder, our elder brother, if we truly respect him, we say
unto him, Sir. We call him Lord. We call him
Lord. Now, listen to me. I know this, that there have
been many well-meaning people, even now perhaps there are some
well-meaning people, there have been noted preachers of old. I've got all the books, people.
I've read these books. I've got all these old Puritans.
And there's even some noted preachers of old who were in the habit
of calling him Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I find myself,
when I pick up some of those things, the devotionals and start
reading sermons by a fellow and he keeps saying Jesus to Jesus,
I close it up. I can't take that anymore. I'm
not writing people off like that. But what I'm trying to say is
that even though noted men did that, it doesn't make it right.
If John Gill says, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, he's wrong. The Lord said, you call me Master
and Lord, to his disciples. That's all they ever called him,
Master and Lord. He said, you say well, that's
what I am. And no matter who it is, an angel
from heaven, call him Jesus. No sir, he's the Lord Jesus Christ. At the birth of the Christ child,
and people will bring up arguments like this, at the birth of the
Christ child, the angels appeared to Joseph and said what? They
said, call his name Jesus. that that's what we're supposed
to refer to him as. No, he was designating the name
of that child, that child as being born. It had to be given
a name. It had to be given a human, an earthly name. The old writers
call it his name of humiliation. Right, Ed? His name of humiliation. In other words, the word was
made flesh. God of glory took on himself
the form of a servant. He humbled himself and was found
in the fashion of a man. He humbled himself. God of glory,
whom angels pray, humbled himself and became made of a woman, made
under the law. And an angel said, we've got
to give him, this is his name. God named him. But that's His
earthly name, His name of humiliation, His manhood, the name of His
manhood, Jesus. Call His name Jesus. And you
know, when we use that name, and we do use that name, and
we glorify that name, and we love that name, but we honor
Him. When we say that name, we know
what it means, and we're honoring it. Jesus means Savior. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Call his name Jesus. It means
Savior. Why did he call him Jesus? Because
that's what he was. He came to be a Savior. Did he
do it? Yes. He shall save his people. He did it. That's why he's got
that name. He did it. He shall save who? Whosoever let it. His people. Thine or mine, mine or thine,
all thou hast given me, I have lost nothing. When we say the name Jesus, we
mean it. We glorify him. His name is Jesus. That means Savior, because that's
just what he did. He saved his people from their
sin. He didn't try to. He didn't put
down a down payment. He didn't make an attempt. He
made an atonement. All right. That name is blessed,
but that's not the name that we're told to refer to him as. God gave the angel orders to
name that child, that boy, that child, Jesus. For the suffering,
Hebrews says this, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels, for the suffering of death, he said. That's why
Hebrews 2.9 says we see Jesus. Go over there, I want you to
look at it, all right? In the book of Hebrews, you'll find the name
Jesus quite often. It's significant that we don't
know who the author is. You know what? We don't really
know. We think it's Paul, but the name's not written there.
I'll tell you who it is. It's the Holy Spirit. But this just really just occurred
to me. It's significant that there's
not a man's name attached to this book, and the name Jesus
is used quite often throughout this book. Well, who's using
the name? The Holy Spirit. Look at Hebrews 2.9. It says,
we see Jesus. We've seen a man. We saw a man. That's all they saw was a man.
Jesus, right? Made a little lower than the
angels. Bound to this earth like man, me, and art. Why? For the
suffering of death. See, God can't die. So God became
a man in order to die. That's why he came. For this
hour I came, he said. For the suffering of death. But
now, he said, we see him crowned with glory and honor, that by
the grace of God, he should take death for every man. That word
man is really not in the original at all. It's not even there.
He's talking about sons. For verse 10, it says, it became
him for whom are all things, by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory, the captain of their salvation. So we see
Jesus. And throughout the book of Hebrews,
the Holy Spirit is referring to Jesus. Looking unto Jesus. Because it's all about, that
book is about the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
there was a man that walked this earth who was our high priest.
Who took his own blood into the holy of holies and so forth.
That's what this whole book of Hebrews is about. And we saw
God become a man. His name was Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
Looking unto Jesus. The man. That man who represented
us. That man. There's a man in glory.
But now wait a minute. By virtue of all he did. Well,
the writer here says, we see him now crowned with glory. He
earned the right. He earned a title by what he
did. He earned a title. What is it? Lord. So now. From now on, from then
on, we refer to him as the Lord Jesus. Mr. Paul, believe it or
not, we better call him the Lord Jesus, haven't we? The Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm not splitting hairs here.
The Lord said, again, you call me Master and Lord and you say
well. Anybody that doesn't is not saying
well. What folly, what ignorance and
pride in mere mortal men, to give more recognition and honor
and titles to worms, to men, rather than the Lord himself,
called him by his name of humiliation. Give titles, recognition and
honor to mere worms, and yet call the Lord of heaven and earth
Jesus. What folly, what ignorance, what
pride? Huh? You call me Master and Lord. His disciples do. And you say,
well, for so I am. He is. Look over at Job, the
book of Job with me. Book of Job, chapter 32. Job
is right before the book of Psalms. Now, a young man named Elihu
was At this time, God's spokesman, Elihu was a young man, and he
sat and listened to Job and three friends talk. He said that. He said, Age should speak. Gray
hair should teach wisdom. And he sat back quietly and listened
as the old men spake. But they didn't speak what was
right. And Elihu said, I can't take it any longer. And he had to speak up. And he
spoke wisely here. Look at Job 32, verse 21. He says, Elihu said, this is
under inspiration of God's Spirit, he says, Let me not, I pray you,
accept any man's person. In other words, bowing straight
to any mortal man. Don't let me do that. Neither let me, verse 21, neither
let me give flattering titles unto man. I know not to give flattering
titles, and so doing my Maker would soon take me away." It would be comical if it wasn't
so blasphemous. People insist on being called
doctor and reverend and so forth. Wouldn't it be comical if it
weren't so blasphemous? You know, you've heard it quoted,
Psalm 111 verse 9. Holy and reverend is his name,
God's name. He's the only one who deserves
the title reverend. You've heard that. It's true,
but men and even women love titles, Dr. so-and-so, Reverend so-and-so,
Bishop so-and-so. I saw an ad recently. Like I
said, if it wasn't so blasphemous, it would be common. It's a man
and his wife, and that's a very appealing thing to the modern
people, that a man and his wife are kind of co-pastors, so to
speak. And they had this big billboard up there advertising
families, family, family, everything, family church, family church,
family church. Anyway, I had a picture of him and his wife
sitting there, and he was bishop so-and-so, and she's first lady,
so-and-so. You know he was the first lady,
didn't you? First lady. Wow. Bishop, so-and-so. Call me so-and-so. The lie he said, I am not going
to give flattering titles unto men. Call no man your father. Isn't that what our Lord said?
Call no man your father. Meaning, in the religious sense,
that people call these fellows father. They're not my father. They're not anybody's father.
They've never followed anybody but illegitimate children. Don't call anybody mother so-and-so.
I've got one mother, and her name's Doris. Not some little self-righteous
woman dressed in a black robe. Don't call any man. Our Lord
said that. Call no man father. He said,
call no man rabbi. Be ye not called rabbi. You've
got one master, even Christ, He said. He said the Pharisees
loved these titles. They loved to be called rabbi.
He said, you call me rabbi. That's what the word master is,
teacher. You call me master. That's what I am. You do what? Call me that. Don't call these
people that, these men that. The disciples one time, Paul
and Barnabas, went into a town and healed a man who was sitting
at the gate, remember? And the people saw it and it
says, all the people came running together, crying out, the gods
are among us. Was that, where was that? Was
that Ephesus? They cried out when Paul and Barnabas healed
the Lord through them, healed this man. And they all started
saying, the gods are here. Gods have come down from heaven.
Okay, Paul, now's your time to set up pokery. Now's just the
time. You can be the poke, Paul. Pope
and Paul. You can be the first one. You
can be the Pope and everybody will bow to you. What did Paul
say? Now, this is God's man. What did he say? He said, Don't
do that. They both whipped their tongues.
Don't do that. We're just men like you are.
It's the Lord that's done this. We haven't done anything. John on the Isle of Patmos. He
was so overcome with what he saw. There was an angel that
appeared to John and revealed all these things to John, gave
him these revelations, an angel of the Lord. And John was so
overcome, the angel was a glorious being, he was glorious, beautiful. And John fell at his feet to
worship him. Being a man that he was, so overcome
by the beauty of this person and the glory and his voice and
so forth, he fell at his feet to worship him. What did the
angel say? Don't do that. I'm of your brethren and the
prophets. See that you do or not. Worship
God. Worship God. Him and him alone
you're to worship. You call me Master and Lord,
you say, Now the Lord Jesus Christ, when men came and bowed to him,
and they did quite often, didn't they? Those who knew him. The
leper came running and fell at his feet and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, what did the Lord say? He allowed him to worship him.
He was doing well, because that's who he is. Thomas fell at his feet, my Lord
and my God. Thomas said, my God, didn't he?
He called him God. What did Christ say? He allowed him to call him God,
because that's who he is. You call me Master and Lord,
you say, well, I am. He's the only one. Thou shalt
the Lord God, said thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou worship." There's a whole denomination
out there that's going door to door to deny the deity of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They call themselves Jehovah's
Witnesses. Jesus Christ is Jehovah. They're not being witnesses of
Jehovah, they're blaspheming Jehovah. They're being false
witnesses. Just like those false witnesses
of old against Christ, they are anti-Christ. The Lord allowed
men to bow to him and call him God. Why? Because so he is. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. That's who he is. And anybody that doesn't preach
this is a liar. I don't care how close they come,
they're a liar. Right, Ed? All right. Now that's how we're
to address him. Any doubts? Any questions? Does
the Lord make it perfectly clear what we are to call him? You
call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, that's what I
am. His disciples who fear him, who
reverence him, call him Master and Lord. All right. That's the
order of address. Now, here's what he's saying. Here's the declaration of what
he is. He said, you call me Master and Lord, and you say, well,
for so I am. I am Master and Lord. Now the word Master, the word
Master here, excuse me, the word Master means this, means
teacher. It means instructor. It means
doctor. They had doctors and lawyers
back then. That's like they do now. A master
was one who had these credentials. The highest credentials possible.
The highest you can go in education now is to get your doctorate.
And what you have become is a master. You think you have become a master
of that subject. Now once again, how ignorant
human beings are to think that they've ever mastered anything. Mortal men think their masters
are very subjective. Let me remind you that just 150
years ago, doctors, doctors who were highly esteemed among men,
doctors would bleed people to death. You've got something wrong
with him. Well, get that blood out of him. Right? Robin? Now, these were
respected men. He knows what he's doing. Don't
question the doctor. He's a doctor. What are we going
to do, doctor? We're going to cut his throat
and make him well. Whatever you say. with all of their technology. If any man thinks he knows anything,
the scripture says, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. Doctors. Master. Master means
an authority on a subject. He said, you call me master.
That's what I am. Don't go asking these fellas.
They don't know. They don't know nothing. But you've come to me, I know
everything. I am wisdom personified. You
call me master, the authority on every subject, because that's
what I am. You call me doctor, that's what I am. The Lord Jesus Christ is wisdom
personified. He is the authority on every
subject. Why? Take the root word of authority. What have you got? What's the
root word of the word authority? Author. On every subject, he
authored it. If you want to know something
about something a fellow's created, ask him. Christ is the one who
authored all this, the author and finisher. Christ is the architect
of the world, the universe, the conceiver, the designer, the
creator. The Lord doesn't have an opinion. What he says is it. His word
is not just the final word, it's the only word on the subject. He's the authority. You call
me master, that's what I am. every waking moment of their
lives, walking with God in the flesh, everything he said, everything
that came out of his mouth was, they were like little babies.
Everything he said was just a revelation. We didn't know that. Why didn't
we know that? For three and a half years, everything he said, everything
he did was an absolute revelation to them. These were just old
fishermen. And he, the scripture says that
everything that he said or did was written in books. The world
couldn't contain the books. So for three and a half years,
for 24, 24-7, he was talking to his disciples about what?
Who knows? Quantum physics maybe. He wrote
the book. He called me master. I am. Ask
me something. There's a lot of men on this
earth who think they're authorities, you know, and they get around
them and they know everything. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ did
know everything. He did. And the wonderful thing
about it, is that he taught them and instructed them,
though they were so ignorant. Everything he said to them was
brand new. They didn't know anything. And
yet he spoke to them not condescendingly, not obnoxiously. You know what
I'm trying to say? It was very compassionately,
very kindly. I wish I had that. There are some who have that.
Our friend Alan Jellett, you know, Alan Jellett has been here. Now, people, he is a rocket scientist. He is a rocket scientist. He's
a nuclear scientist. We laugh about this. He ain't
no rocket scientist. Well, Alan is. Now, what am I? Let me tell you my education. Twelve years at Paul G. Blaser
High School. You know where Paul G. Blaser? No, you don't? Well,
anyway, twelve years of that. I went to ACC. Do you know what ACC is? National
Community College. I took two classes in English. English 101 and 102. That's it.
Oh, I took a Spanish class at VWCC. I ain't no big deal. I took a Spanish class. About
failed it. It was hard. That's it. Old brother Allen,
he sits and talks to me like Like I actually know something. He really does. He sits and talks
to me. He's never done anything. He's so down to earth. That's
the way the Lord was with his disciples. They didn't know anything. Peter was all the time popping
off. Can't you hear him talking around the fire? They're sitting
around the fire and Peter's telling something that he's done or knows.
And the Lord's listening to him. He didn't upbraid him. He didn't
call him down. He didn't say, Peter, you don't
know nothing. No, he didn't do that. He's compassionate. He knows
our frame. Well, he said, you call me master. That is the authority
on the subject, because that's where I am. And we have the privilege,
the blessed privilege, a blessing of going straight to the source,
to Christ himself. Ask me anything. We call him
Master. You say well. You say well. And
you know, we don't really consult men on things, spiritual things
per se. Only those men, we should only
listen to and consult those men who are merely repeating what
the Lord Jesus Christ has already said. Let me repeat that. We
only consult, in regards to spiritual matters, we only consult and
listen to men who are merely repeating what Jesus Christ said. Not what they think, not what
so-and-so. I have an opinion. I'm not interested. What did
the Lord say about it? Now, that's who we, that's all
we are interested in. He's the master. We have one
great teacher. All right, he says, you call
me master and Lord, and you say, well, so I am. What's Lord mean? It means, in one word, controller. I looked it up in Webster's Dictionary,
just a simple Webster's definition. The word Lord in the first chief
definition means controller. He says, you call me Lord, for
so I am. Now we don't draw near with our
lips. There's a world of people out
there saying, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord. Lip service. When their hearts are far from
believing that. When their preachers are far
from preaching it. We don't just say it, we define
it. When we're talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ being Lord, we mean he is in absolute control
of everything down to the particle of dust in the sunbeam. That
it lands exactly where he predetermined for it to go. I don't believe
that. It doesn't matter. It's subtle. I can't understand
that. Of course you can't. God's as
high above us as the heavens are the earth. Past finding out,
Job said. If he weren't like that, he wouldn't
be God. If God wasn't incomprehensible,
he'd be a man like us. Comprehensible. But he's incomprehensible. He's unfathomable. You say that
word. Try it. Scripture just says he's high. We don't just give him lip service.
When we say, call him Lord, we mean it. He's controller. Always
has been, always will be. We don't make him Lord. No. That's
utter blasphemy. Nothing I despise more than that.
That's modern Arminian altar call or telling people to make,
won't you make Jesus Lord. Psalm 2 says, God said, I will
declare the decree. This is my Son, the King. I've
set my King on my holy hill of Zion. God hath made, the Scripture
says in Acts 2, God hath made this same Jesus both Lord and
Christ. Men don't make Him Lord. He's
not voted in. He's appointed by God Himself. Do we allow George Bush to be
our president? Now that he is, do we allow him?
Those of you that voted against him, I've heard people say that. They say, he's not my president.
Oh, yes, he is. Try to break his laws then. He
ain't my president. I didn't vote for him. Yes, he
is, whether you like it or not. And so is Jesus Christ. He's
Lord. whether men acknowledge it or
not. And I tell you what, someday every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. But Yushak, his disciple, right now, by his mercy and his
grace, that's what they call him and that's what they believe,
that he is indeed Lord. How so? How is he Lord? Lord means all. over all things, absolute. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D means controller of all things. Listen to this.
He's Lord over principalities and powers. Listen as I quote
this to you, Colossians 1. where all things created that
are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, all things were created
by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him
all things consist, and he is the head." Everything is under his absolute
dominion and authority and control. Everything. There's not one single
independent creature, be it angel or devil or man, out from under
the control of the Lord. He said, you call me Lord, that's
what I am. Lord over angels. Then all the
angels, Hebrews 1 says, bow to him. He's Lord over devils. When he
walked this planet, though men didn't recognize the Lord, the
devils did, didn't they? The devils did. They said, they
came, the devils came and said, we know who you are, our son
of the highest, son of God. And they said, they acknowledged
that they answered to him. They said, are you come to torment
us before it's time? They knew they were under his
dominion and his control. They knew that. And they said,
bid us, would you allow us to go into those swine? Because
you control all things. You say go, and something goes.
They say, would you let us go in these pigs? Go. Devil's biddy's biddy. He's
Lord, that's what it means. I'm defining what it means. He's
Lord. He's Lord over devils. He's Lord
over the elements. The sun, the moon, the stars,
the sky, the ocean. Oh, I love the stories of the
Lord walking this planet, coming into his creation. Don't you,
Nancy? Rocking on water. He's not subject
to gravity. He made it! Oh, and that boat,
the waves crashing over that boat, you know, disciples scared
to death. This was a Nor'easter. This was
the big one. This was the perfect storm. They
were going down. Who sent that storm? The Lord
did. And he's sleeping. He's not worried about a little
water. He's sleeping in the back of the boat. He sent the storm
to scare them to death, to show them his power. They went and
woke him up. He said, why are you so little
faith? Walked out on the bow of that ship that's tossing and
turning away. He's crashing on the ship. And the ocean let down like a
farm pond. The elements do His bidding.
And the disciples saw this. We've never seen anything like
this, they said. The elements. He's Lord. Hurricane. Who sends a hurricane? God does
it. The Lord Jesus Christ does it.
Meteorologists, say. Well, it's over here, it's going
to hit here. But they don't have a clue where it's going to hit
until it's getting real close. Well, we know now it's going
to hit. Why? Because it's wind-driven. Everything,
weather, is controlled by the wind, and isn't that a sign of
God's sovereignty? The wind bloweth where it misteth.
You can't tell the sound of it. You don't know where the wind's
going to blow. He's Lord over the elements,
still the ocean, Lord over the animals on this earth. Came to
this earth, a dove flew on his shoulder. Out in the boat one
day, the disciples hadn't caught one fish. He said, throw your
net right over there. Lord! That's when they said, Master,
Teacher. They started out mostly calling
him Master, Teacher. Then as it progressed, Lord,
Lord, Lord. They finally started realizing
who he really is, and they called him Lord. They said, Master,
now, you may know something about, you know, theology, but we're
fishermen. We toil all night. We know these
waters like the back of our hands. I've been fishing here, James
said. John and I and our dad have been fishing here all our
lives. We know every fish by name. Nevertheless, that's your work. We'll throw it out there. They
threw it out, and each fish was jumping into that net. So many,
they couldn't get them in the boat, and the boat started to
sink. That's when those boys threw
up their hands and said, this is the Lord. He's the Lord over
the ocean. Fish don't run. Next time we
go fishing, and don't catch anything, it's the Lord's will. He's the Lord, Lord over the
animals, Lord over mankind. You know, mankind will grant
the things I've just said. He's Lord over angels and devils
and elements and animals and fish and all that, but not, oh,
no, wait a minute, man is a free creature, independent creature.
Oh, is he? Oh, is he now? Show me an example
in the Scripture. Show me one example in this scripture
of anybody who is acting independently of the Lord's purpose and will.
Anybody. He had some enemies like Saul
of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus, you know. The most powerful man in
religion of that day. Saul of Tarsus. He was going
to go and hail people to jail. Apprehend men, women, and children
for believing this Jesus. They don't believe this Jesus.
Saul of Tarsus, riding his high horse. You know, still riding
his high horse into town, and the Lord smote him down to the
ground. Paul, Saul of Tarsus, going to
get these Jesus followers. And the Lord smote him down to
the ground, into the dust, struck him blind. And he whimpered like
a puppy. The mighty Saul of Tarsus whimpered
like a puppy. Who are you? I'm Jesus." You thought I was just a man,
didn't you? I'm Jesus. Yes, I'm the Lord. He said, Lord. Isn't that what Paul called him? Lord, what will you have me to
do? He didn't know the Lord up to
that point, but now he knows the one that knocked him off
his high horse is the Lord. The Lord said, it's hard to kick
against the He's Lord over mankind. The lot,
Scripture says, is cast into the lap. Men and women and young
people do what they think they want to do and will to do, don't
they? The lot is cast into the lap.
But what does it say? Can you quote the rest of it?
The whole disposing thereof is of thee. We're going to take, and the
chief example of that is men and devils, Margaret, men and
devils got a hold of Jesus. We're going to get him. We're
going to do away with him now. The devil, listen, the devil
is not omniscient. People, he doesn't know what's
going to happen in the next minute. That's right. Sometimes we give
him more power than he really has. He's not omniscient. He
doesn't know. He said, I'm going to do away
with this Jesus. I'm going to kill him and do
away with him. He crushed his own head. You with me? Genesis 3.15, the
serpent shall bruise his heel, but he'll crush his head. The
serpent said, I've got him now. Now we'll kill him and do away
with this son of God. What he did was fulfill God's
purpose in releasing his people from the captivity of Satan himself. He opened a jail cell to all
of us. He crushed his own power. Satan crushed his own power.
He did exactly what the Lord determined to do. Men took with
wicked hands and crucified the Lord of glory, but they did what
God purposed to do. That's a cheap example, is it
not? He's Lord. He's Lord over salvation. He's Lord over salvation. He's
of the Lord. He decides who gets this salvation. We talked about that all Sunday
morning, didn't we? It's of the Lord's mercies. It's
up to Him. He said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful, show mercy. Salvation is of the Lord. He's not under obligation to
save anybody. He just saves whom He will, doesn't
He? the most high ruler among the
kingdom of men, and give of it to whosoever he will. Whosoever he will. The Lord is
Lord of salvation. He's Lord over His church. Church,
we take talking to somebody Sunday morning, and I'm going to quit
with this. The thing that most rejoices
our heart, the thing we never grow tired of, is hearing our
God exalted and glorified. You can't preach God too softly. This is the thing, too, that
gives all his people so much comfort. You know, isn't it? And this
is the distinguishing, this is what distinguishes the true from
the false. God's people really believe that
He is absolute controller of all things, and that gives them
absolute peace. Peace, the Lord, He's the Lord. And I never grow tired of preaching
it, and I never grow tired of hearing it. I hear men preach
on God's sovereignty and Christ's sovereignty, the Spirit's sovereignty.
I've yet to grow tired of that after several years. I never grow tired of it. It still causes my heart to skip. Ah, boy. But I said a moment
ago that our Lord came to this earth for the suffering of obedience,
for obedience of death, for suffering. And yet he never, I love this,
and I'm going to quit, he never set aside his sovereignty. He
never did. He never did set aside his sovereignty
completely. I love those displays of his,
even while a man, and this is what confused people then and
now, you know, all they see is Jesus. But anyway, he never set
aside his sovereignty, and he often displayed it in spite of
seeming weakness. In spite of his weakness, it
seemed he had weakness, he would display his sovereignty at times.
He was hungry one time. He was hungry, walking along.
He was hungry. He came up to a fig tree, expecting
to find fruit there. It was time to have fruit on
it. There was no fruit on the fig tree. What did he do? wilted
that tree. He said, you'll never have fruit
on you from here on. Well, you try that. I try to get trees to live and
I can't. They'll die on me. And he killed
that tree because it didn't have fruit on it, just by word. He
was attacked by mob all the time, everywhere he went. For the last
three and a half years of his life here, he was attacked. You've
read the story. Everywhere he preached, people
would get angry at him, and they would, a mob scene developed,
and they'd swoop down on him, and he says he just passed through
the middle. Five hundred, seven hundred,
eight hundred, thousand people. Yeah, you got him? I got him.
You got him? You got him? Can't all of you get one fellow?
No, he's a lawyer. He said, no man taketh my life
for me. He said, I lay it down on myself. I decide when I lay
down. You can't touch me. And neither can anything touch
you, believer, unless God orders it. He's a lawyer. Well, they did apprehend him,
didn't they? We love this story, don't we,
guys? They finally did apprehend him, but not until he showed
one more time in the garden. Remember? He was in the garden.
All his disciples were asleep. Here came this mob with sticks
and stones and swords, a whole mob of angry people going to
get him now. The disciples were back there
asleep. The Lord wasn't sleeping. He didn't sleep for three days
before he went to Calvary. The Lord was waiting on them,
not running, waiting. And here they came, and he walked
out to meet them and faced that whole angry mob. Who do you see? Who are you looking for? And
they said, and it's kind of dark, you know, All those, they all
looked similar in the darkness. They said, Jesus. He said, I am. That name that only God has.
I am. What does it say after? They
all fell back. I mean, that whole crowd hit
the dust. One last display. You can't take
me. side to side. He's Lord. And they got her off the ground,
and then he put his hand out there. Okay. It's time. That's my God. That's my Jesus
Christ. Is that yours? He's not in our hands, never
has been in anybody's hands, never will be. He's the Lord.
He said, you call me Master and Lord, you say, well, that's what
I am. My word. Our Lord and our God, we do bow
before your holy and sovereign person. Acknowledge that thou
art God, beside thee there is none else. Who is a God like
unto thee? We believe from the heart and
bow in the heart to your absolute Lordship. How we thank you that
it is so. We are in your hands, our salvation,
everything that pertaineth to us is in thy sovereign power. How we thank you. Peace that
gives us rest and comfort. The Lord shall not the judge
of the earth do right. He always have, always will.
Thank you for revealing yourself to us, the true and living God,
in Christ the Lord. In his name we pray. Amen. Yes.