Have you put your finger in two
places? First, Acts chapter 2 verse 36,
and then Romans chapter 8. Today I would like us to consider
the Lordship of Christ. The Lordship of Christ. Or look
at Scriptures today and see before us that our God is Lord. He's Lord over all. That's the
one who saved our souls. And that should give us, as God's
people, cause for great rejoicing. Now, have you ever heard someone
say this? Have you ever heard someone ask you this question?
Have you made Jesus Lord of your life? It's a question that is
often asked in religious circles that are fruit inspecting different
people's lives. Because in their eyes, they may
not see, even if you're a professing Christian, the supposed fruit
that they're looking for. See, man looks on what? The outside,
but God looks on the heart. And I'll tell you what, in religion,
there's checklists. There's checklists. And if you
don't check all their boxes, my, they just write you right
off. There's some people go as far as to say that when certain
preachers leave certain churches, that the Gospel's no longer even
there. That's awful, isn't it? That's awful. Oh my. Now this
question again, have you made Jesus Lord of your life, is again
a question often asked in light of one's salvation, being a test
of whether or not you're saved. Or whether or not you're a carnal
Christian, whatever that animal is. Carnal Christian. They say,
we're all sinners, aren't we? Saved by the grace of God. Brother
Neil read in that passage, and I had Brother Neil read that
passage because it said, the love of God, the love of Christ
constrains us. That's what constrains us from
sin. The preacher preaches about the ministry of reconciliation. And we proclaim, be ye reconciled
with God. And there's only one way for
you or I to be reconciled with God. And that's in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. There is no other way. So you may have even heard some
preachers say, just make Jesus Lord of your life. As if you
are the one who crowns Him Lord. The answer to those foolish questions
is God beat us to it. And what pride animated dust
has to think What pride they have to think that they crown
Him Lord of their lives. Or that they make Him Lord of
their lives. Sounds like some pharisaical
self-righteousness, doesn't it? Oh my. Can we make Jesus anything? No. Amen. No. He is Lord. He's declared to be Lord. God
made Him Lord. We see that in the text here.
We see it. They say, oftentimes, they say,
well, you make Him Lord when you surrender all your life to
Him. Now, Christ is all to us, right? We all would say that.
But is there anybody who fully surrenders themselves to Christ?
Well, we're sinners, aren't we? We trust Him for all. We do.
We trust Him. We lay upon Him, don't we? But, oh, the flesh,
the flesh, the flesh. Is there any without sin? No,
we're all sinners, but praise be to God we who are in Christ
are saved sinners and his brother Neil said we pray that the Lord
takes the messages and Draws in some of his lost sheep gives
him a life Like we have you know they used to say Jesus is standing
at the door. He's just He's knocking he wants to come
in, but he can't come in unless you love him oh I like what Henry
Mahan says. He says, the Lord don't knock.
He just blasts that door. There's nothing left. There's
pieces of wood flying everywhere, little wee specks of wood, and
he comes right in. It's like some dynamite went off in that
door of our heart, and there's nothing left but a bunch of wood
little specks all over the floor. That's who he is. That's who
our God is. in this make Jesus Lord of your
life that you or I as humans can make the Lord of glory, the
Lord of our lives by something we do or decide is so foreign
to the Holy Scriptures because we lack any ability to make the
Lord anything. He's God. The God of the Bible
rules over all. Look at this in Acts 2, verse
36. We don't make Christ Lord. You
know what we do? We acknowledge that He's Lord.
After the Lord saves us and regenerates, we acknowledge his lordship.
You say, Lord, you are king. You are the ruler of all. Look
at this. Look at this. See, God beat us. God beat us
to this, what those people say that you have to do. God beat
them to it. Acts chapter 2, verse 36. Therefore,
let us of Israel know assuredly, assuredly, assuredly. Now, this
is a sure saying. that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." God's
the one who made him Lord. God's the one. Oh, we see here
the Scriptures clearly declare in this verse that God is the
one who's made Jesus both Lord and Christ. How do we who are
but mere dust in the eyes of the Lord come up with the thought
that we could make Christ Lord? Again, it's nothing but self-righteous
pride. Now turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 8, nothing but self-righteous pride that makes a man think
that he can make Jesus Christ Lord. A person like that, they
think they're something when they're nothing. And we who are
God's people think we're nothing. When yet here we are, the Lord's
elect. Oh my, all because of God's mercy
and all because of God's grace. Look at this in Romans chapter
8. verses 37 to 39. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. So in the
trials and tribulations of this life, we are more than conquerors
in Christ. Always goes back to Him. Continuously
goes back to Christ. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Look at that
statement. There is nothing that can separate
us from the love of God we who are His people. Nothing. That's
good news for sinners, isn't it? And then look it says, which
is in who? Christ Jesus our who? The Lord. Remember, it's God who made them
both Lord and Christ. He's our Lord. So we clearly
see in Acts 2.36 that God makes Him Lord. God the Father makes
Christ both Lord and Christ. And in Romans 8, 39, that it's
God again who's made Jesus Christ both Lord and Savior of His people.
So we do not make Christ Lord of our lives. No, it's God who's
done that. Again, we acknowledge His Lordship.
We bow our knee to His Lordship. And we delight in Him, don't
we? Do you delight in Christ? It's wonderful to think that
we're saved. Right now we're not waiting to
be saved. We were redeemed 2 000 years
ago. We're saved right now And beloved we're on a journey to
heaven We're on our way to the celestial city all because of
the grace and mercy of god That's it and the church in general
delights in the lordship of christ. Don't we we delight in the fact
that christ is lord over all Do we not delight in the fact
that christ is lord over all this pandemic right now? All
the things going on in the world, which we look at and go what's
going on. They're all under his lordship Praise God. We just
delight in Him. We can look in the midst of all
the things going on in this world, the situations in our lives,
and we can rejoice that Christ is Lord. I ask you who are the
born-again, blood-washed, regenerate children of God, do you rejoice
that God has made Christ both Savior and Lord over His people?
Do you rejoice in that? We do, don't we? We rejoice in
that. Do you rejoice that the one who
saved you from all your sins by his perfect sin atoning work
and his perfect obedience to the law, do you rejoice that
he's Lord over all? Yes. Amen. We do, don't we? Do you who are the people of
God rejoice that the one who has obtained your eternal inheritance,
who's purchased your eternal inheritance with his own precious
blood is Lord over all? I'm thankful. Makes us thankful,
doesn't it? We rejoice that he who has saved
our souls And He who keeps our souls is Lord over all. There's
not a speck of dust floating in the air that's not ordered
by Him. And we rejoice as the people
of God that Jesus Christ our Lord has both saved us and keeps
us. Because we'd be in a world of
trouble if He didn't keep us and if He didn't save us. Praise
His name. So we have much cause for rejoicing. You know why we have much cause
for rejoicing? Because we're free. We are free, beloved, in
Christ. Free in Him. Let's go back to
Acts 2, verse 36. Let's look at this text here.
Acts 2, verse 36. Look at this. Therefore, let
all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made
that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. So the first point I'd like us
to look at is Jesus is Lord. It's a statement, a fact. This
is not up for debate. There's no debate in this fact.
There's no debate in any part of scripture, is there? Jesus
Christ is Lord. And that name, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is so sweet to the believer's heart. His name is wonderful. He's our beloved. He's the one
who's ransomed by eternal soul, we say. Praise is mighty. And
we acknowledge His Lordship, don't we? And we do it joyfully.
We do it joyfully. Scripture declares, Paul wrote
this, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Each believer can say that, can't
we? Not just Paul. We were crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we live. Nevertheless,
we live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. In the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me. Each believer can say
that. Who loved me? Christ loved me before I ever
loved Him and gave Himself for me. Gave His life for sinners. The question is, Are you a sinner? Oh, I pray and I hope that if
you do not know Christ and you do not know that you're a sinner,
oh, that our great God would show you that you're a sinner
in desperate, desperate need of Christ. Because He is the
one thing needful for sin. One thing. Man can accumulate
all these things in this world and yet die without Christ and
go to hell. What shall it profit a man if
he's going to gain the whole world? What shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? There's nothing that we can give
in exchange for our soul, is there? God is only satisfied
with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ who gave His life
for me. Praise be to God, the believer
says, for me. My Lord did this. It's wonderful. Oh, He's Lord in our salvation,
isn't He? He's Lord in our salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
all Him. He's Lord in the church. He's
the head and we're the body. He gets all the preeminence,
the Scripture declares. And He is the head of the body
of the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. Oh, He gets
all the preeminence, beloved. We are here. to meet together
to hear about our case. to hear about our Lord. We're
here for the furtherance of the gospel. God's taken us out of
all different, as we looked at this morning, stations of life.
And he's brought us together. And we are here, beloved, in
Elmont, Michigan, for the furtherance of the gospel. Isn't it wonderful?
To bring glory and honor and praise to our great God. And
we who are the people of God, I'm edified as I put messages
together. You're edified by the preaching.
And we're all rejoicing in our great Savior. It's amazing. It's
absolutely incredible. You know, He was Lord in His
life work. He came here to save His people from their sins. And
you know what? Whatever we do, we're to do unto
the Lord. You know, we live unto the Lord,
don't we? Scripture declares this, for whether we live, we
live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live therefore or die, Lord, we're His. We're His. That's Romans 14a. He's Lord,
and we glorify His name, don't we? We sing praises to Him, giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. His name is the name that we
approach the Father in. He's Lord at His birth too, eh?
You know, He is Lord in glory. We know that from Isaiah 6. He's
Lord in glory. Angels just falling down before
Him and worshiping Him. And the one thing our Lord didn't
set aside was His Lordship, because He's Lord and King at His birth.
When He was on this earth, He's Lord. Remember what the demons
said? We looked at it a few weeks back with the gathering, the
demoniac. They said, we know who thou art, thou Holy One of
God. He knew who He was. He's Lord. He's Lord over all. My oh my. Turn if you would to
Luke chapter 23. So our Lord, He's Lord at His
birth. Scripture declares for unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. He's Lord
at His birth. Luke chapter 2 verse 11. Let's
look here at Luke chapter 23. Do you know that our Lord was
Lord in His death? He gave up the ghost, didn't
He? He gave His life for us. Look at this. Now, He's Lord
at His death. He's dying on the cross as a
sinner's substitute. We see here in this text that
our God is Lord while He's dying. He's Lord when He rose again,
too, wasn't He? He never ceased being Lord. He never ceased being
Lord. Now, the believing thief who
went to paradise, he woke up that morning He's in jail, he
probably woke up that morning, thinking, well, this is the day.
I imagine those soldiers had kept telling him, it's getting
closer, it's getting closer, just to gnaw at them. Only a
day left. So he wakes up that day, the
believing thief, he wakes up that day, not knowing that he
had a divine appointment with God. He had no idea at all. He's eating whatever they gave
him to eat, probably. He's thinking, this is the day
I'm going to die. But he did not know that his
time of love was drawing nigh. He had no idea that his time
of love was drawn closer and closer. He had no clue that he
was one of the Lord's lost sheep. That was the furthest thing from
his mind, probably. He had no idea at all. Did you
know? Did I know before the Lord saved
us? We had no clue at all, did we? Even if we grew up in a church
where we heard the gospel preached and prayed, we had no idea that
we were one of His. We hoped we were, right? But
we had no idea. But for those of us who didn't
go to church, we didn't have any idea. We weren't even looking
for the Lord. This thief, he's going to be
dying. He's got no faith in Christ at all. And he's going to die
that day. You know, he railed at first with the other thief
too. Do you know he railed with the other thief on Christ? Then
watch the works of God the Holy Spirit as he regenerates this
man and gives him faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he even gives him repentance before God. We see that in our
text. Luke chapter 23, look at verses 39 to 43. Oh, the matchless grace of God
is on display here as the Holy Spirit of God works upon this
man's heart and turns him to Christ. It's marvelous. This
is an incredible portion. And one of the malefactors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself
and us. Something's happening to this
other thief. Again, he railed with the first
thief, the one who just said that. He railed with him before,
but look what happens. Remember, the wind bloweth where
it will. The people standing there didn't even know anything
was happening. The wind bloweth where the spirit goes where he
wills. They didn't even know there was
a miracle happening right before them as they stood there at the
foot of the cross railing on Christ. But the other answering
rebuked him. Well, just before he was railing
with the other thieves. Oh, the mighty work of God the
Holy Spirit when he gets a hold of one of his lost sheep and
he shows them their desperate need for Christ. But the other
answer, he rebuked him saying, does not thou fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation? He says, you're going to die.
We're all going to die. And look at what he says here.
Look at the change here right in this man. And we indeed justly. What a statement! He's owning
the fact of His sinnership. He's owning the fact that Him
dying on that cross for what He did, He's receiving that which
was due for the sin which He committed. Look at this, for
we receive the due reward of our deeds. You see? I want you
to marvel at this, beloved. I don't say it like, oh, you
have to. But think of this. This man is
saying, we're getting what we deserve. Little does he know
he's not going to get what he deserves. He doesn't know that,
though, does he? But we're going to see this.
There's a change happening here. Look at this. For we received
the dear rewards of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing
amiss. He doesn't even know who Christ is, and now he's all of
a sudden saying, this man's done nothing wrong. He's proclaiming
the sinlessness of Christ. He's saying, we're getting what
we deserve, but this man's done nothing. Only the Holy Spirit
can teach a man that. It's the wonders of God's grace
right here before us. See, this is why we preachers
say God can save you in your seat without you moving a muscle.
As we see it right here, this man, he's strung up on a cross.
He can't move. He can't walk an aisle. He can't
say a prayer. No, he's looking to the one who
can save him. And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due rewards of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, so now
he's professed Christ as the sinless one, and now he's going
to look to him. Now he's going to set his eyes
upon him. Right? And he said unto Jesus,
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He's looking
to Christ by faith. He says, Lord, just remember
me. Just remember me. Just remember me. The Holy Spirit's
done a work on this man. He woke up that morning knowing
he was condemned and he was going to die. And you know, they say
when you go into prison and you ask anybody, is there anybody
here who's here unjustly? They say most people all put
up their hands. This man's not saying that, is he? He's saying
we're receiving what we deserve. This man's done nothing to deserve
what he's receiving. Lord save that man. We're going
to meet him in glory one day. Oh, he'll be praising the Savior
just like we who are the people of God be praising. And he said,
Lord, just remember me when thou comest into my kingdom. And look
what our Lord says to him. This is wonderful. And Jesus
said unto him, verily, I say unto you, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. Let those words sink in right
there. With me. When we leave this world, we're
with Christ. We're with Christ. Our loved
ones who have died in the faith or friends who've died in the
faith They are with christ right now right now in one day by the
grace and the mercy of god We'll be with them too. We'll be with
our savior and we'll be with those who went before us It'll
be absolutely wonderful all because of the grace and mercy of god.
I love the surety of that too today Today thou shall be with
me in paradise. There's not even a doubt. Is
there be with me? How could he say that because
he's lord? He's Lord. He's Lord over all. He's God
incarnated in the flesh, dying for sinners, dying for His people,
dying for that lost sheep that's right there beside Him, hanging
on a cross. Oh, amazing grace, isn't it? Isn't grace amazing?
It's truly amazing. Oh my, so what hope this gives
the sinner. who is coming to Christ, what
hope this gives to the saved sinner who is trusting in Christ,
the very thief who is railing on the Lord, who admits his guilt
before the Lord and before man, looks to Christ alone, and is
right now in the presence of the Lord, and he's been there
for over 2,000 years, all because of the grace and mercy of God,
boundless mercy. That's mercy bestowed upon a
poor mercy beggar, isn't it? That's mercy, and we know it's
mercy. He said, we're getting what we
deserve. See how I always say we don't
get what we deserve? We get mercy, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful.
Oh, our Lord is Lord. He's Lord in His resurrection.
He's Lord at the advent. He's Lord in eternal glory, and
we yield to Him and Him alone. He is Lord over all. Scripture
says it is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth good.
He does whatever He pleases, doesn't He? And we look to Him
and we trust Him. And we trust our eternal souls
to He who is Lord over all. If He's Lord over all and He
is, can He lose anyone who comes to Him? Amen. No, not one. Not one. If He's Lord over all
and He is, we saw the Scriptures that declare He is, He can't
lose one. And He will fetch every one of
His lost sheep. And each one of us who are In Christ, you've
been saved by his glory as a testament to the fact that he gets his
sheep. Because he sought us out, didn't he? We didn't seek him
out. Oh my. Let's go to Romans chapter 8
now. Romans chapter 8. And we see that verse 39 brings
forth that our Savior is Lord as well, and that nothing, absolutely
nothing can separate us from the love of God because we're
in Christ, because He's Lord. And as I said, if our salvation
was dependent upon us, we'd be in a world of trouble. Spurgeon,
you've heard me say this before, and I'm going to say it again.
Spurgeon said that if his salvation was dependent upon himself, he'd
lose it getting out of his bed and going to the breakfast table
1,000 times. But it's not dependent upon us,
beloved. Our salvation, our security, our justification, our redemption
is all dependent upon He who is Lord. He who is Lord. Look
at this. Nothing, absolutely nothing can
separate us from the love of God because Jesus Christ is Lord. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Verse 37.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, Look
at that. That covers everything, doesn't it? That covers everything,
visible and invisible. "...shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It's in Him. Oh, and He's our Lord. And why
can we who are the people of God not be separated from the
love of God? Number one, because it's eternal
love. Does God ever change? Nope. He's
the same, what, yesterday, today, and forever, right? So if He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever, which the Scriptures
declare He is, then His love for us from eternity past till
right now, till eternity future, will never change. And you know
why? Because it's in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. And who is our Lord? Well, He's the Word of God incarnate.
He's the second person of the Trinity. Does He ever change?
Nope. Has God the Holy Spirit ever
changed? Nope. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit
are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Unchanging. Therefore their love that's been
set upon us from eternity will never ever change. That's amazing, isn't it? That's
absolutely incredible. It'll never change. So let us
consider also the sweetness of the word there in verse 39. Let's
read that again. Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Look at that. Paul's
writing to believers, right? And notice that little word,
our Lord. That helps us to remember our personal interest in the
Lord. He's my Lord. Is He yours? And all I do is
acknowledge His Lordship. He's always been Lord, right?
He's always been Lord. And we acknowledge that He's,
as a believer, Paul's saying to other believers, Our Lord.
He's acknowledging the Lordship of Christ. And each believer
uses this title in the singular and calls from our heart, My
Lord. My Lord. David wrote this. He
said, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. So we see that David called him
Lord. He acknowledged the Lordship of Christ, didn't he? Turn, if
you would, to Matthew. Chapter 8. We'll go through a
few portions here. I'll start in Matthew. I'll try to keep
us going right the way we go through the parts of the New
Testament so we don't have to turn as much and flip different
books. Look at this. Matthew Chapter 8. God's people
call him Lord. We don't make him Lord. There's
a difference here. We don't make him Lord. We call him Lord. We
acknowledge his Lordship. There was a time when we did
not call Him Lord in our lives. Now we say, oh, He's my Lord
and my King. He's my everything. He's my everything. Look at this, Matthew chapter
8. Look at the centurion here, verses 6 to 10. And saying, Lord,
my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. So look what
the centurion answers, though, and said, Lord, I am not worthy
that thou shouldest come under my roof. Look it, he calls Him
Lord. He doesn't say, well, I've made
you Lord of my life now, and you need to come. No, he calls
him Lord, doesn't he? He acknowledges his Lordship.
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. Now,
this man has an understanding of authority. And when he's calling
Christ Lord, he understands the authority that our God has. And
we see that in the next verse. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, Go, and
he goeth. Now, Centurion, he's a leader
over a hundred men. And he's saying here, I just
say to that guy, you go and do that. And that guy, he goes and
does it. He's under his authority. Go,
and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth. When Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said, to them that fall. Verily I say
unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."
So this man, this centurion, acknowledged the Lordship of
Christ and he called him Lord. The people of God again call
our great King Lord. We don't make him Lord, we call
him Lord. Now look at Matthew chapter 15. Here's the woman
of Canaan. Here's the woman of Canaan. Matthew
chapter 15, verses 22 to 28. The woman of Canaan called him
Lord. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word.
And his disciples came and besought him, saying, send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord. She called him
Lord. What did she say? Lord, help
me. What do we, as sinners, say?
Lord, help me. Help me. Help my unbelief, Lord.
Help me in my life each day. Help me, Lord. But he answered
and said, it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast
it to the dogs. And she said, truth, Lord. She's
just acknowledging his lordship, isn't she? She just keeps calling
him Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. And Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee
even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Now turn if you would to Luke
chapter 5. Luke chapter 5. Oh my. Luke chapter 5. One of my favorite portions here.
We know that leprosy, leprosy is a picture of sin. Luke chapter
5 verses 12 and 13. Look at this. Here comes this
leper. Verse 12, And it came to pass, when he was in a certain
city, behold, a man full of leprosy. Like, I mean he's head to toe
full of leprosy. What does leprosy represent in
Scripture? Sin. He's just full. He's probably
at the final stages of leprosy. And you know what he had to do
to get to where Christ was? He had to cry, unclean, unclean,
all through wherever he could get to the Lord. Look at this.
Who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and beside him saying,
Lord, if thou will. Thou can make me clean. He calls
him Lord. He's acknowledging his Lordship. And he put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
the leprosy departed from him. Now take it in there. The Lord
touched the man who had leprosy, right? What were people not supposed
to do around leprosy? Touch them, because it made you
unclean. And you've got leprosy just like
that. Well, our Lord is sinless. He knows He touches a man and
he doesn't become leprous. But that man becomes whiter than
snow. What a picture of how the Lord saves us, beloved. And immediately,
too. Look at that. Immediately. It's
not this mumbo-jumbo, these faith healers, they're supposed to
be faith healers. No, they never ever go to the hospitals, though,
do they? They never go to the cancer wards, do they? They say,
well, you have to have special meetings in order to make this
stuff work. They're a bunch of hucksters. That's all they are.
Lying, lying men. Because if any of us had the
gift of healing, where would we be? We'd be right down in
the children's hospitals, wouldn't we? And in the cancer wards and
all through. We'd be putting our hands on
as many people as we'd probably pour our life out trying to heal
people that way, if we could do that. But we don't. We don't
have the power, do we? The Lord just touched them. And
immediately, the leprosy departed from them. Immediately. But note
that that leper called them Lord. And then our dear brother Thomas
in John chapter 20, he says this, in verse 29, Jesus saith unto
them, Thomas, because thou hast seen me and has believed, blessed
are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Oh my. Actually
go to John chapter 11 if you could. Martha called him Lord.
Martha called him Lord. Paul called him Lord too. Remember
Paul got knocked off his horse? He's breathing out threatenance.
He's going out to murder Christians and haul them and throw them
into prison, pull them out of their houses and throw them into
jail. Imagine you're sitting at home with your wife and your
family, sitting there having a nice meal, and the door just
breaks open and in comes Paul, and just because you're a Christian,
he shackles you up and hauls you out of there, throws you
in jail. That's how Paul was. But Paul had a divine appointment,
didn't he? And you know what Paul said?
Who art thou, Lord? Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord
said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Is it hard for thee to kick against
the cricks? And he, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? He's a changed man. And the Lord said unto her, rise
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou
must do. So Paul called him Lord too.
Look at here, John chapter 11, verses 23 to 27. Jesus saith
unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Speaking of Lazarus. Martha
said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection
at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And here's the question of the ages in verse 26. For
every one of us in this room and anyone who will hear this
message, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. Believest thou this? Here's the question. Do you believe
Christ is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe Christ
is the only hope for sinners? Believest thou this? And that
believer in Christ says, by the grace of God, I believe. I believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is
my Savior. He is my Redeemer. He is my King. He is my all in all. Oh, my. What Martha says here, She saith
unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe. She acknowledges His Lordship,
doesn't she? Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world. My, oh, my. Did you know that even Ananias,
who the Lord sent Paul to, he called our King Lord in Acts
9, verse 10. And there was a certain disciple
at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a
vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here,
Lord. Call him Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise,
and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire
at the house of Judas. For one called Saul of Taurus,
for behold, he prayeth. and hath seen in a vision a man
named Ananias coming in and putting his hand upon him that he might
receive sight. And Ananias answered, Lord, I
have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to
thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the
Lord said unto him, here's his lordship, beloved, on display.
Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel. Do you know that every
one of God's people are chosen vessels of God? We don't feel
it, do we? But we are. We're chosen vessels
of God. He says, he's a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel. Don't worry about what you heard,
I'm the Lord. And He's one of my chosen vessels. He's going
to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. He's going to bear my name to
the Gentiles. Because He's willed it. He's
purposed it. And it shall come to pass. Note
all the saints we looked at there, they called them Lord. They didn't
make them Lord. They acknowledged the Lordship
of Christ. They acknowledged His Kingship. because they knew
it was Him. It's Christ and Christ alone
who purchased their eternal soul. It's Christ and Christ alone
who shed His precious blood to redeem them from all their sins.
And now Christ is everything to them. And they call Him Lord.
They acknowledge His Lordship, and they do it with joy. Do we
not do the same? Boy, we could have a tough day. We could be going through things,
and we put a sermon on or read some Scripture, and oh man, we
can just be so filled with joy. We're so carried away with joy.
We get our eyes on our Savior. He's wonderful. You know what?
His name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. He's the
fairest of 10,000 to my soul. Is it so for you? Rejoice if
it is. Because it's not for everybody.
And it's only God who's had mercy and grace on us that we can say
that. He's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul. He's my Redeemer.
Praise His mighty name.