Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 42 and your hardback hymnal. Number 42, let's
all stand together. Number 42, all hail the power. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth a royal diadem. and crown him Lord of all. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. He chosen seed of Israel's race,
he ransomed from the fall. Hail him who saved you by his
grace, and crown him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by
His grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every
tribe, on this terrestrial ball, to him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and
crown him Please be seated. Good morning. If you'd like to turn with me
in your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 5, John chapter
5. I'll read one verse, 27. I would read 26 also. For as the
father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to
have life in himself. and hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man." That's
what we were just singing. The Father has crowned the Lord
Jesus Lord of all. He's made him Lord over the living
and the dead. And we've come here this morning
to bow We don't make him Lord, he is Lord. But we rejoice in
bowing to him for who he is and who the Father has made him to
be. I want us to pray together before
we begin. Jeanette is going to be starting
her chemotherapy tomorrow. three times a week three times
a week so the Lord enables you to remember pray for her that
the Lord would use this to help her and Seth and Kaylee had little
August this week and August had some Some problems, they had
him in and out of ICU for a few days, but he's home. They went home late last night,
so he's all out there. We just rejoice with him. So
let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
thank you for causing our hearts to bow and to rejoice in what you have done in making
the Lord Jesus Lord over the living and the dead. Lord, we
thank you for the blessing of being able to come here and to
worship. We thank you for the promise
of your presence and Lord, how We rely upon Your Holy Spirit
to open our hearts, open Your Word, reveal the glory of Thy
dear Son, and cause us to worship You in the power of Your Spirit
and according to the revelation of truth that You've given us
in Your Word. Lord, thank you for Jeanette
and Donnie. Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased to use this
medication to help her and to give her healing and strength
in the midst of the trial that you've sent into their lives.
We know, Lord, that you are the great physician You often use
the means of medicine, so Lord, we pray that you would do that.
We thank you for little August, and Lord, thank you for the way
in which you gave those that ministered physically to him
the wisdom to know how to treat him, and thank you for his safe
recovery. Lord, we pray that now you would
open our hearts and reveal Christ. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. John 5, 27 is our text this morning. The verse that we just read. And the Lord tells us, I've titled
this message, The Authority of Christ. And the Lord tells us
here in his word that the Father has given the Lord Jesus the
authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus, as the Son of
God, has always had the authority to execute judgment. What the
Lord is telling us here in this verse is that the father is rewarding
his son for having been faithful and successful in accomplishing
what the father sent him to do. And so, as the son of man, that's
a reference to the incarnation, to the humanity of Christ as
the Messiah. the one who came in the likeness
of sinful flesh in order to accomplish our salvation. And so the Lord
is telling us here that the father is pleased with his son and he's
rewarding him with this authority because he was successful and
faithful in being our savior the father has made him judge. Because he was faithful and successful
as the servant of the father, the father has made him king. Because he was successful and
faithful in his suffering, the father has made him sovereign. to reign and to rule over all
of his kingdom. The Lord Jesus was faithful as
our Redeemer. And now he's telling us that
the Father has given him authority to execute judgment. You see
that? The authority to execute judgment. This word execute is
also translated to do, to perform, or to cause. We find it in many places in
the New Testament. One of the most striking to me
is found in John chapter nine when the Lord asked that blind
man Do you believe that I am able to do this? And the word to do is the same
word to execute. Do you believe that I have the
power to execute this? Do you believe that I have the
authority to perform this? And the blind man said, yay,
Lord. And what a striking contrast that is to what we hear in religion
about God. If you listen to what men say
about God, they will present him as one who is willing to save, but he's
not able to save. One who wants all men to be saved,
but apart from man's cooperation, he's unable to save. The leper came to the Lord Jesus
and said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. God has given him authority to
do, to perform, to make happen, to execute judgment because he
is the Son of Man. Oh, there's no question in the
hearts of God's people of his ability. We plead for his willingness. Lord, if thou be pleased, if
thou be willing, we know you can do this. Lord, I know you
can save me. Lord, if you'd be pleased to
save me, it's completely up to you. And my salvation is in your
hands and whatever help I need in this life, it's all in your
hands, Lord. That's what it is to bow. That's
what it is to crown him as Lord. The father has given to the son
authority to execute judgment. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse
nine, we read this, behold, I come And here again, we find this
same word execute translated to do. Behold, I come to do thy
will, oh God. I come to perform, I come to
complete, I come to execute the will of the Father. What was
the will of the Father? that the Lord Jesus would save
his people. That was the will of the Father. And now the Lord's telling us
that because of his faithfulness and because of his success to
do what the Father sent him to do, the Father has rewarded him
with the authority as the Son of Man to execute all judgment
upon the earth. In Revelation chapter 21, the
Lord Jesus is seen as the one who sits upon a throne and he
says this, behold, I make, same word, I do, I will, I make, I
execute, I perform, I make, all things new. Write these things
for they are faithful and true. Faith bows. Faith rejoices in the authority
that the father has given to his son to execute judgment and
rejoices in his faithfulness to have done that and knows that
he has all authority. When the Pharisees sent the men to arrest the Lord Jesus
and to bring him back, they came back empty-handed and the Pharisees
asked them, where is he? And they said, Never a man spake
like that man. We had no authority to arrest
him. He didn't speak like the scribes. He didn't teach like the scribes.
He spoke with absolute authority. We were powerless in his presence. The disciples, when the Lord
Jesus was on that boat on the Sea of Galilee, and said, peace
be still. And that raging storm became
a placid lake. What manner of man is this? Even
the wind and the seas obey his voice. What authority, what authority. And when that centurion, a centurion
is a Roman soldier who has a hundred Roman soldiers under his authority.
And he came to the Lord with a servant that he loved that
was dying and asked the Lord to heal him. And the Lord said
to that centurion, I'll come. And the centurion stopped the
Lord and said, oh no, Lord, oh no. I'm a man of authority. I understand authority. I say
to this man, go, and he goes. I say to another, come, and he
comes. And I know that you have all authority. I'm not worthy
that you should come under my roof, that you should come into
my house. Only speak the word and my servant shall be healed.
Now that's the demonstration of those
who believe that God is able. He has all authority. Lord, all
you have to do is speak the word. The Pharisees, after the Lord
Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, asked the Lord, by what authority,
by what power do you do this? And the Lord said, I'll ask you
a question first, and if you answer my question, then I'll
answer yours. John the Baptist. Was he sent
of God or was he of man? And they got in a little huddle
to the side and said, well, if we say he's of man, then the
people will be against us because they all love John the Baptist.
But if we say he was of God, then he'll ask us, Why didn't
you submit to his preaching? Why didn't you believe what he
said when he pointed to me and said, behold, the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world? And so they concluded
that they couldn't answer the question. Neither will I tell
you by what authority I do these things. We don't... We don't question. Faith does not question the authority
of Christ. Faith just bows to his authority
and rejoices in his authority. You've got to think about this
thing of authority. There's only two reasons a man
will submit to authority. Just not even thinking about
the authority of Christ, but just authority in general. There's
two reasons why men submit to authority. Fear and love. Fear and love. I'm sure we've
all had once or twice in our lives where we were breaking
the laws of the speed limit, looked in our rearview mirror
and saw the Police officer. His light's on and the first
thought that we have, what's this guy pulling me over? Why
didn't he go out and look for a real criminal, Logan? Why is
he pulling me over? And there's a sense of frustration
and disgust that you're being pulled
over. That attitude completely changes
when the window gets rolled down and the police officer steps
to the window. Oh, officer. And you submit to that authority,
don't you? You'd be fooled not to. And you
speak with high regard and respect. Why? Because you're afraid of
the sword that he wields. and you're hoping for the best
outcome. You know, you submit to authority.
The five-year-old who's been put in the corner for quiet time
and he's all puffed up and he's doing what he's been told to
do but his heart's not. His heart's not in it. He's doing
it out of threat of punishment. The man who goes home from work
after having had an encounter, a bad encounter with his boss,
says things to his wife about his boss that he would never
say to the face of his boss. Why? Because you submit to authority
because of fear. That's one reason why people,
why we submit to authority. And there are those who have
an outward submission to the authority of God for that same reason. The Lord
said, you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far
from me. You put on the garb of religion, you clean the outside
of the cup, you whitewash the tomb, The inside's full of corruption,
full of dead men's bones. Karl Marx got it right when he
said that religion is the opiate of the masses. Men submit to
the authority of religion out of fear. Fear of hell? And religion is... is often structured
in such a way as to demand compliance with the threat of the law. You see it in all forms of religion.
I was talking to a brother recently about what the scripture tells
us in the book of Revelation. When the Lord Jesus is rebuking
the churches of Asia Minor, two of the churches, he says to them,
you have those in your church who practice the doctrine of
the Nicolaitans. And then the Lord Jesus says,
of which I hate, of which I hate. Now you can read a hundred commentaries
and men for years have speculated what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans
is because there's no explanation anywhere else in scripture as
to what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was. But the Lord tells us twice
that he hates it. I think it's a great error. to
try to speculate as to what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans is.
And when the Lord gives us no further definition in his word,
we must simply interpret the word itself to figure out what
the doctrine of the Nicolaitans is. And if you just simply interpret
the word Nicolaitans, it's clear as to what the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans is. The word Nicolaitan means master
over the people. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans
is what we see practiced in every form of religion all over the
world. It's clergy laity. That's the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
And God says, I hate it. For a man to put himself in a
position of threatening and beating the sheep. I heard of one very
large, very popular church in California. This preacher is
on TV and radio all over the world. And somebody told me recently
that I witnessed, they said, every single Sunday, the first
thing they do is practice church discipline. They call out someone
in their congregation that's not abiding by the rules and
regulations of the church, and they publicly shame that person. What do they do that for? Cracking
the whip of the law to keep everybody else in check. This man calls himself a Calvinist. But it's not just practice there. We had a large group here from
Canada last weekend. And they're coming out of a Dutch
reform church where the elders demand the submission to their authority. And now it's practiced in every
form of religion all around the world, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The first reason why men submit
to authority is out of fear. We're going to see that on the
day of judgment. If a man or woman tells you that
they're an atheist, there's two things you can say to that person.
And used to be you never met someone that would admit to being
an atheist. Now they seem like, you know, they're everywhere.
Person tells you they're an atheist, two things you can say to them.
Number one, I didn't think you were that stupid. Really? You know, they're puffed up in
pride and arrogance and they consider themselves to be so
intellectual. Atheism is stupidity. And secondly,
you can say to them, I promise you, you will not always be an
atheist. When the Trump of God sounds
and the sound of that trumpet, the scripture says is going to
be the sound of many waters. Oh, No flash flood, no tsunami
is like the deluge that's going to come in God's day of judgment. And the Lord Jesus is not going
to come the second time like he came the first time. He's
not going to come as a babe in a manger. He's going to come
as a reigning sovereign. This is what this scripture is
telling us. I have given him authority to execute judgment
because he is the son of man, because he was faithful as the God-man, as the incarnate
God, to be successful in what he said. I've given him authority
to execute judgment. And he's gonna come, and the scripture says Every
knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. Yes, that atheist in that day
of judgment, why would he not? And then in the book of Revelation
the scripture says that that the unbeliever will run to the
mountains and cry for the rocks to fall upon them to hide them
from the wrath of the Lamb. When the Lord Jesus returns,
there's going to be a submission to his authority out of fear. Out of fear. the authority of the Lord Jesus
was a threat to the Pharisees. Turn with me
to Acts chapter 11, Acts chapter 11. I'm sorry, John chapter 11, forgive
me, John chapter 11. Lazarus has been, raised from
the dead. Four days in the tomb, his body
had begun to decay and stink, and the Lord said, Lazarus, come
forth. And he came out of the grave. And there were people
there that saw it firsthand. They witnessed it. In verse 46 of John chapter 11,
some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them
what things Jesus had done. Eyewitness, more than one, went
from Bethany, right on the hill, right on the Mount of Olives,
just a short way from Jerusalem. They ran down to Jerusalem to
tell the Pharisees what had just happened up there. Then gathered the chief priests,
verse 47, and the Pharisees, a council, that's the Sanhedrin. 70 of the chief Pharisees made
up a high court and they came together and they said, what
are we gonna do? What are we going to do? For
this man doeth many miracles. They didn't deny the fact that
the Lord Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead. The evidence
was undeniable. But their fear of his authority
was that they were going to lose their authority. But look what
they said. For if we let him thus alone,
all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take
away both our place and our nation. And from that day forward, they
plotted his death. There was no question that he
had authority. He had authority to raise the
dead. But his authority was a threat
to their authority. And they feared losing their
place their position of power and their nation. They feared no longer being clergy
and not having a laity. Two reasons why men submit to
authority. The first is fear. And the second is love. Love. Willingly, gladly submitting
to the authority of one you believe loves you more than you love
yourself. We love ourselves a lot, don't
we? You know, this idea that the world's promoting that we
need to love ourselves more, no, that's our problem. That
is our problem. We love ourselves way too much. But to believe that there's one
who loves me more than I love myself, to believe that there's
one who knows me better than I know myself, To believe that there's one whose
thoughts toward me are better than the thoughts that I have
for myself? To believe that there's one whose
will and ways for me are better than my will and my ways? To believe that? Oh, if you believe that, you
bow. You'll just collapse at his feet. Lord, you're what I need. I've
made a mess in having, every time I exercise my authority,
I just, Lord, I need one. No, that raised fist to heaven
that says we will not have this man reign over us, that fist falls and Lord, Lord
save me, Lord reign over me. And he does not rule with the
threats of the law. You think about authority in
the earthly sense, I've seen men like elders and pastors and
husbands sometimes, and bosses, demand submission to their authority,
demand respect because of the position that they have, and
use the threat of the law to punish that which will not bow. True respect can't be demanded. Outward submission might work,
but true respect has to be earned, doesn't it? It has to be earned. You can't demand it. Husband,
you earn your wife's respect by your love for her. You earn the respect of your
of your children by your love for them. So the Lord, when he shows us
his love, when he shows us what he's done in laying down his
life, we We gladly, turn with me to Psalm
84, Psalm 84. Fear and love, fear and love. And perfect love casteth out
fear. The perfect love casteth out
fear. God's perfect love causes us to come and to bow before
him in love. Look at Psalm 84. Look at me at verse 10. For a
day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a
doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents
of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and
shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory, and no good thing will he withhold from them that walk
uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, blessed is
the man that trusteth in thee. And the prophet tells us, the
prophet Jeremiah tells us, I know the thoughts that I think toward
you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil to give you your expected end. Oh, to bow, to bow to him. That's what the scripture means. when the Lord tells us that he
makes us willing in the day of his power. When he reveals to
us how he's executed, back to our text, he's executed his power
and the father has given him authority to execute judgment
He executed judgment on Calvary's cross when he put away the sins
of his people, when he fulfilled the law, when he satisfied justice,
he executed judgment. And those for whom he executed
judgment are made willing in the day of his power to bow before
him. Oh Lord, you love me, you know
me, your thoughts toward me are so much better than I could ever
have for myself. We don't submit to his authority
out of the fear of wrath. The wrath of God The Lord Jesus
has called our propitiation. Hearing his love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the
propitiation of our sins. Propitiation means the putting
away of wrath. There's no more wrath. There's
no more judgment. There's no more punishment. There's
no more condemnation. The Lord Jesus took that. and he put it away by the sacrifice
of himself. And now we bow out of love for
what he's done. We dealt with this a little bit
Wednesday night, just touch on it quickly. James calls love
the royal law, the royal law. The scripture tells us that it
is the fulfillment of God's law. And I just want to close by saying
this. There was a time that I thought that the doctrines of grace as
we called them. I don't like that term because
they're not doctrines. There's one doctrine of grace
and they all stand or fall together. But in our pride and in our self-righteousness,
and in what we thought was intellectual. We called total depravity and
unconditional election and limited atonement and irresistible grace
and perseverance of the saints, we called those the doctrines
of grace. And we thought those were the things that only the
mature, well-educated, people of God could possibly come to
understand. I don't believe that for a minute.
I believe that the newest babe in Christ believes that they
have no righteousness whatsoever within themselves and that apart
from the grace of God, they are dead in their trespasses and
sins and unable to do anything to save themselves. If you're
talking to someone who believes in free will, you're not talking
to a believer who hasn't come to understand total depravity,
you're talking to an unbeliever. These things are not debatable. Every babe in Christ who has
suckled the milk of the gospel believes that God is sovereign
and that the only way that anyone could be saved is for him to
choose according to his own will and purpose before time ever
was a particular people. Unconditional election. Every
babe in Christ who's ever drank the milk of the gospel believes
that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross, that
he successfully redeemed a particular people that God had chosen. That
he didn't waste any of his blood, he didn't die on a cross for
everyone. He died for his elect people. Every babe in Christ
believes that. That's not a higher knowledge.
That's the gospel. And if you don't believe that,
you don't believe the gospel. Every babe in Christ believes that
grace has to be irresistible, that God has to make me willing,
that he has to cause me, he has to open, he has to birth me by
his spirit apart from any contribution of my will. And every babe in Christ believes
that God is faithful to keep those from falling and to present
them thoughtless before the throne of grace in the day of judgment. That those whom the father elected
and those whom the son redeemed can never fall away, they can
never be condemned, they will be eternally saved. Now, am I suggesting that every
baby in Christ can give you that definition? No. But you take a brand new believer
and you tell them what I just said, and their response is gonna
be, amen, amen. That's my experience, that's
what I believe, that's what I know. We used to believe that those
things were the meat of the gospel. Now we know that that's the milk
of the gospel. So what is the meat of the gospel? One word, love, love. That's the meat of the gospel. That's what God grows his children
into. more and more love for him, more
and more love for his word and for his church and his people.
And that comes as a result of him showing them more and more
of his love for them. Two reasons a man will submit
to authority. Fear and love. Perfect love casteth out fear. The father has given the son
all authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. And we rejoice that he reigns
sovereign. He reigns sovereign over the
living and the dead. He reigns sovereign over the
armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. Oh. All right, let's take a break.