I'm looking at the Gospel of
John chapter 13 this morning. John chapter 13, and I want to
read one verse of Scripture here. John 13 verse 13. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
to his disciples then and now. And he says in John 13 verse
13, Ye call me Master and Lord, And ye say, well, for so I am. It amazes me how much the Lord
Jesus Christ said in so few words. But then again, he is wisdom
personified. And in these 14 words, so much
is said here. First of all, the Lord Jesus
Christ gives an order how his disciples are to address him,
a mandate, an order of address, how we are to refer to him. And
secondly, he gives a declaration of who he is. First of all, we
have an order of address, how the disciples of Christ are to
address the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Ye call me Master and
Lord. And ye say, well. How are we to address the Lord
Jesus Christ? How are his disciples to refer
to him? What should we call him? Well, they called him Peter,
James, John, Thomas. His disciples called him Master
and Lord. And he said to them, ye say,
well. when you call me that. You say,
well, for so I am. You'll never read in the scriptures
of the disciples approaching the Lord and calling Him simply
Jesus. Never. Not one time will you
hear them calling Him Jesus, approaching Him. Though they
called each other by their names, John, Peter, James, yet never
Did they refer to him or speak to him, addressing him as Jesus? They always called him Master
and Lord. Why is that? Well, he gave the
answer. He said, because I am. So I am. Now, I'm not splitting
theological hairs here. I'm not nitpicking, but this
is scriptural. is the word of our God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one saying this, speaking it. And what I'm doing and saying
here this morning is merely repeating what he said. This is scriptural.
This is God honoring truth and instruction. Now, all of us are
taught from the beginning, from the beginning, to honor thy father
and thy mother. Respect your elders. How do we
refer to our earthly parents? How do you refer to your earthly
parents? How do you address them? Well,
I am quite sure you do not call them by their first name as if
you are an equal to them. But no, you call them father
or mother, dad, mom. And if you really respect and
love your parents, you always refer to them as such, not as
some rebel's speak of the old man or the old lady, things like
that. That person doesn't respect their
elders. And we respect anyone who's older
than us and wiser than us, more experienced, by calling them
sir, yes sir, or Mr. so-and-so, Mrs. so-and-so, unless
they give you permission to call them by their surname. There is a Virginia military
school. I forget the name of it, but
they advertise in a magazine, and the advertisement is significant. They say this. This is what the
advertisement of this Virginia military school says. It says,
We teach a foreign language. We teach yes sir and yes ma'am. Well, that is a good ad. And,
you know, people referring to the High King of Heaven as Lord
and Christ. That's a foreign language today.
Very few, you'll hear very few today referring to the Lord Jesus
Christ as Lord and Christ. Most call him Jesus. Now more than ever, listen to
me, people, now more than ever, This is one of the distinguishing
marks of true believers, true disciples, true God-fearing people. Scripture talks about, unite
our hearts to fear thy name. Another psalm says, make mention
that his name is exalted. God-fearing people, true disciples,
true believers. of the Lord Jesus Christ call
him Master and Lord, and they say, well, for so he is. Now, if his honor and glory is
what we truly seek, if we truly respect our Lord, we say, well,
when we call him by that title, Lord. There may be many well-meaning
people, even noted preachers in the past that I have read
who have ignorantly used his name Jesus often. That doesn't
make it right, though, does it? It certainly doesn't. Our Lord
Himself says here, You call me Master and Lord, and you say
well, for so I am. A preacher years ago whom I had
a great deal of respect for, his name was Arthur Pink, A.W. Pink, from England, I believe. He gave an interesting illustration.
and referring to how we're to address the Lord. He said, you
may read in the scriptures how some of the apostles in writing
about the Lord Jesus Christ would refer to Jesus this and Jesus
that, especially in the book of Hebrews, which is a book of
speaking of Jesus, the high priest, the man who came to be the high
priest. Well, Arthur Pink noted this,
he said, now back in the days that he lived, King George was
on the throne of England and his wife's name was Elizabeth.
And he said, now the Queen, Queen Elizabeth can call the King by
his first name. She can refer to him as George
this and George that, but not his subjects. And God's Word,
the Bible, although men were used to write it. It is the Word
of God. The Holy Spirit led these men
to write God's Word. It's the Holy Spirit who is referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ at various times as Jesus. Now, he can do that, just like
the Queen can call the King by his first name. But not us. No,
when we're speaking of him, we refer to him with his and his
title of honor and respect, Lord. At the birth of the Christ child,
the angels said this, Call his name Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sin. Call his name Jesus, they told
Joseph. That was his designated earthly
name. Now listen carefully. Our Lord
Jesus Christ took upon him the form of a servant. He was found
in the fashion as a man. He took upon him the likeness
of sinful flesh, without sin, no. He was made of a woman, born
of a woman, made of a woman, I'm sorry, born under the law.
And his name was to be called Jesus. That was his designated
earthly name. The old writers referred to that
name as his name of humiliation, or that is when he humbled himself
and took upon himself the form of a man. And he did that. He became a man for the suffering,
Hebrews says, of death, that he might suffer death, even the
death, obedience to the death of the cross. By virtue of that,
he earned the title after he died and ascended and rose sat
down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Now, from then
on, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, at the
name of Jesus they will confess him, they will refer to him as
the Lord Jesus Christ." He earned that title, Lord and Christ. What folly it is, what ignorance,
what pride and rebellion when mere mortal men give honor, recognition,
and titles to men who are but worms, and yet call the Lord
of heaven and earth simply Jesus. What folly, what ignorance, what
pride, what rebellion it is in man to do so. But you are a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord, in speaking to his
disciples, says, You call me Master and Lord, and ye say,
Well, for so I am. There is a declaration. He is
the one and only. He said, so I am. That is the
name of God. He is God manifest in the flesh. He is the one and only Lord of
lords. Master of all masters. Now, if
it were not so blasphemous, it would be comical how that men
and even women take titles and insist upon being called by those
titles, such as doctor, or reverend, or father, or bishop, or elder,
or even pastor. Insist upon it. Why some of the
most wicked men on earth take the title reverend, call themselves
by the title reverend. People refer to them as reverend.
Well, there's nothing to be revered about them at all. I think it
is Psalm 111. Yes, Psalm 111 verse 9 says this,
Holy and Reverend is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one whose name is to be revered. Revered. Reverend Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only one deserving
that title. Job, or it was Elihu, young Elihu,
after listening to Job and his friends speak, he answered them
in this way. As Job and his friends spoke
back and forth, Elihu kept quiet, but finally he spoke up and said
this. He said, Let me not, I pray you,
accept any man's person, neither let me give flattering titles
unto man, for I know not to give flattering titles. In so doing,
my Maker would soon take me away." Elihu was a wise young man. He said, I do not know to give
flattering titles. We are all but worms. Well, the
people, the apostles now, they wouldn't take these titles. There
was a time when Paul and Barnabas healed a man or some folks, and
the people ran together saying, the gods are come down among
us. And Paul quickly said, no, we're but men of like passions
as you are. Don't do this. The people called
them gods, but Paul, now this would have been an opportunity
for them to set up a position as Pope, wouldn't it? They could
have said, yes, we're the Pope. We're the Vicar of Crichton,
but no. They said, we're but men, just men of like passion. Now here's a declaration. Our
Lord said in this text, you call me master and Lord you say well,
for so I am. Master. Master means teacher,
instructor, doctor. He's the great doctor, the master.
Master means authority on the subject. Now again, how ignorant. Most are. Immortal men think
themselves to be masters of the various subjects when they know
very little. Scripture says, if any man thinketh
he knoweth anything, that is, thinks he has mastered anything,
he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. A truly wise man will
admit to how much he does not know. But the Lord Jesus Christ
is wisdom personified. Have you ever been around someone
who thinks they know everything? I have been around a lot of people
like that. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ did know everything, does
know everything. He is the authority on every
subject because he is the author. The word author is the root word
of authority. He is the author of all things,
the architect, the conceiver, designer, creator. He is not
just the final say on a subject, but the only say. He said, you
call me master, you say well. Now, he said, you call me Lord. You say, well, so I am. He's
the Lord. Scripture says that he is King
of kings and Lord of lords. Lord meaning absolute sovereign
controller of all things. That's what he is. Absolute sovereign
controller over. He's the Lord over angels. Lord
over devils. Lord over the elements. Lord
over animals. Why he had fish jump in the net.
Lord over mankind. Lord over salvation, he giveth
it to whomsoever he will, not whosoever will, but whosoever
he will. He is Lord over the church. The
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if you call me Master
and Lord, you say, well, for so I am. May the Lord get glory from this
message, is my prayer. Amen.