To those who believe Jesus Christ
is precious and we've come here to adore Him. And He is Christ
the Lord. That's what I want to speak on
this morning. I want to ask you to turn to
Isaiah chapter 9. The title of my message is Christ
Our Sovereign Lord. Now this will not be your typical
Christmas message that you hear from most pulpits on this Sunday
before Christmas. But I do want you to know that
I am thankful. I am thankful that our Lord Jesus
came into this world, that He was born of a virgin. And I'm thankful for what He
accomplished for His people. Did you know the Bible tells
us that though we have known Him after the flesh, henceforth
know we Him no more after the flesh? All of God's people delight
in the incarnation of Christ, in His virgin birth, in His walk
on this earth, and in what He did at Calvary 2,000 years ago. But not all of those who profess
to be Christians adore Him or delight in His sovereign rule
over all things. Brethren, there's only one God. And there's only one blessed
Lord. There's only one Holy Spirit. All believing Christians or Trinitarians
We believe in one God, but three divine persons that make up that
one glorious, majestic God. The Apostle John wrote these
words in 1 John 5, 7. There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are one. Only one God. Jesus Christ is
God Almighty. And God gives us a warning in
Colossians, telling us this, Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are
complete in Him which is the head of all principality and
power. Jesus Christ is the head of his
church, but he's also the head of all principality and power. Pastor Fortner said this, and
I agree with him wholeheartedly. God has so highly exalted, honored,
and magnified his son that the only way any creature can exalt,
honor, and magnify the triune God is by exalting, honoring,
and magnifying the Lord Jesus Christ. So determined is the
eternal triune God, to make Christ preeminent in all things, that
God cannot be revealed to or known by men except as He is
revealed and known in Christ. The only way God makes Himself
known is through His Son, and the only way God deals with men
is through His Son." End of quote. Now how important is this? How
important is it to know that Jesus Christ is God Almighty? Well, John wrote this in 1 John
chapter 5, the last two verses, verses 20 and 21. He said, We
know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Jesus Christ is the true God and to know Him is eternal
life. Anyone who is attempting to worship
God without knowing Jesus Christ as very God of very God, they're
worshiping idols. Ralph Barnard said this, tell
me who your Lord is and I'll tell you who your Savior is. In other words, you can't have
Jesus as your Savior if you don't have Him as your Sovereign Lord.
I can't reveal Him to you, but I can declare Him to you. I can
preach Him. I can proclaim that Jesus Christ
is God Almighty, and only God can reveal that to you. When
the Apostle Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill, he said this
to the men of Athens. He said, I perceive that in all
things you are too superstitious. For as I passed by and beheld
your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, to the
unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly
worship, Him declare I unto you, and Paul preached Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified. Now I'm going to say something,
and I'm probably using a conservative number, but I'm going to say
it anyway. It's probably more, but I would venture to say that
90% of professing Christians ignorantly
worship. They have never had Jesus Christ
declared unto them as the Scriptures reveal Him. So this is not your
typical Christmas message. Look at Isaiah chapter 9. Verses
6 and 7. And I'm going to say this before
I read it. There are just too many wonderful
truths here to declare all of them in a lifetime of messages. So I'll have to limit my thoughts
to just one subject. Follow along with me as I read
these two verses. For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. Now let
me stop you for a moment. The child is born refers to His
humanity. Our God did become a man. He
was born of a virgin. He was a baby, but He was still
God. Unto us a son is given refers
to His deity. So we have the God-man declared
to us here in Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 as a prophetic statement
He had not yet come, but He was coming. And we read in the next
phrase, the government shall be upon His shoulder. Now the
government has always been upon the shoulder of God Almighty.
but not upon the God-man. He had not come into this world
yet. So we're reading a prophetic statement concerning the coming
of the Messiah, a child being born, a son given. The government
shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful.
We were just singing about that. His name is Wonderful. His name
shall be called Counselor. And some tie the two terms together,
wonderful counselor, that's fine. He is a wonderful counselor.
But Jesus Christ is wonderful in everything. Everything about
Jesus Christ is wonderful. So his name should be called
wonderful, counselor, the mighty God. And some religious people
have the audacity to say, He is a mighty God, but He's not
God Almighty. How many gods do they worship?
There's only one. He is God Almighty. It says He
is the everlasting Father, which means the Ancient of Days. It
says He shall be the Prince of Peace. God has always been the
Ancient of Days. And He has always controlled
everything. But He has ordained that Jesus
Christ be the one who would receive all the worship and all the praise
and all the glory. And that day was yet coming when
Isaiah wrote this and it says in verse 7 of the increase of
his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne
of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it. Now like I said
there's just too much here to confine to one message. So I
want to draw your attention to this very truth, this same Jesus
that was born in a manger, this same Jesus that was a young boy,
this same Jesus who worked in a carpenter's shop, the same
Jesus during His public ministry who performed miracle after miracle
after miracle, and the same Jesus that was hung there on that cruel
cross, enduring the wrath of God for His people. That same
Jesus is now on the throne of David. He's on His sovereign
throne in glory. And the government is on His
shoulder. I don't care what these preachers
of today say. There's coming a day, they say,
when the government's going to be on his shoulder, when he reigns
on this earth, when he's living over there in Jerusalem on that
throne of David in a temple made with hands. I don't care what
they're saying. I'll tell you what they're really saying, is
that the government's not on his shoulder right now, but it's
going to be. and they're denying the deity of Jesus Christ, the
Lordship of Jesus Christ. Tobias Cripps said this, he said,
you must know that you're never to separate in your thoughts
God from Christ. Also, you are to look upon Christ
and so look upon Always, as you look upon Christ, so look upon
God. Or as you look upon God, look upon Him no otherwise than
as He is in Christ. Not as if there were another
God besides what Christ is. For there is no such thing. And I say, Amen. Here you go,
Israel. Our Lord is one. We read this in Daniel 7, you
don't have to turn there, but in verses 13 and 14, the Word
of God says, I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to
the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him,
and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom that
all people that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed. Our Savior has taken His position
in glory as King of kings and Lord of lords. And by His grace
and His sovereign power through the finished work of Jesus Christ
our Savior, we have been delivered from darkness and translated
into that everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. Pastor Forder
said this, I quote him one more time, now listen carefully to,
I can see that man standing here right now and he's not bashful.
He said, now listen carefully, in time, After our Lord's obedience
to and fulfillment of His Father's will as a man, Christ took His
place of dominion as a man. There is a man in glory, a man
sits today upon the throne of grace, and that man is Christ,
the man who died for our sins at Calvary. But this world has
always been under the meritorial rule of the Lord Jesus Christ,
whose goings forth have been of old everlasting. That's in
Micah 5 too. It is Christ's editorial rule
of the world for the salvation of his elect that preserves the
world from destruction by the wrath of God. Thanks be unto
God. The God who rules this universe
is the friend of sinners. Amen. So I want to have you turn
to Philippians chapter 2, as we consider this subject, Christ
our Sovereign Lord, who rules over everything in this whole
universe. Our text in Isaiah 9 says, speaking
of the coming Messiah, For unto us a child is born, unto us a
son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. Isaiah was writing under the
inspiration of God, speaking of that day when Christ would
be exalted to His sovereign throne of power. Now listen to me, God
has always worked all things after the counsel of His own
will. God has always been in sovereign control over everything.
Nothing has ever happened apart from God's permissive will, and
we have Illustration after illustration after illustration of this very
truth in the Old Testament. And I've said this before and
it bears repeating. If you want to be acquainted with God and
how He governs and how He rules this universe, get acquainted
with the God of the Old Testament. And God is immutable. He does
not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Before I read this passage of
scripture in Philippians 2, I want to give you some illustrations
of what the Old Testament says about God ruling and governing
over all things. Now, Peter mentioned this. In
2 Peter 2.4, he wrote these words, God spared not the angels that
sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. and spared not
the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the
ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes,
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those
that after should live ungodly." And so there are three illustrations
God cast down his created angelic beings who rebelled against him,
a third of all of the angels that God created, being deceived
by Lucifer, the angel that seemed to be the brightest of all the
angels, who deceived them into thinking that he should be the
most high God. They fell. And it was Jesus Christ who cast
them down. He wasn't a man yet, but He was
God. And it was Jesus Christ that reserved them into chains
of darkness. There's no redemption for angels. Think about that the next time
somebody wants to argue about particular redemption. And when
God destroyed the world during the days of Noah, He did that
on purpose. A hundred years plus, he told
Noah what he was going to do. And Noah, moved by fear, prepared
an ark. It took him over a hundred years
to build that ark. God was waiting patiently for
that day. And when it came, when he shut
the door of the ark, Noah and his family being safe in that
ark, and all those animals that God told him to take aboard,
Then the fountains of the deep broke up, and water came from
above, and covered this whole world, and everything on this
earth that was not in that ark. Not just men, women, and children,
but every living thing died in those flood waters. Jesus Christ is the God who brought the flood,
This Christ isn't known today. Jesus Christ is God, He's always
been God. I'm not denying the Father, I'm
not denying the Holy Spirit, but God is of one mind who can
turn Him. And I can just, in my mind, imagine men, women, and children
as they struggled till they took that last breath. And Peter calls
them a world of ungodly people. And Sodom and Gomorrah, God destroyed
them with fire and brimstone from heaven because of their
ungodly homosexual lifestyles. And not only that, but other
evil sinful ways as well. He delivered just Lot, of course
his two daughters and his wife, but his wife was turned into
a pillar of salt when she completely ignored and disobeyed God. She
looked back But it was Jesus Christ who rained the fire and
brimstone from heaven. He's God. And not just Sodom
and Gomorrah, there are a couple of other cities also. And we
have so many other illustrations that we could give. Consider
Joseph going down into Egypt It was wicked brothers who sold
him into slavery, but it was God's purpose. We read this,
God controls everything. It was God's purpose to cause
Pharaoh to dream the dream that he had twice. Two different dreams
that differed one from another, but with the same meaning. And
it was God who gave Joseph the wisdom to interpret the dream,
saying to Pharaoh there would be seven years of plenty, and
then seven years of famine. to store up food during the seven
years of plenty so you'd have food during the seven years of
famine. It was God who brought the seven years of plenty. It
was God who brought the famine. And it was God who moved Pharaoh
to exalt Joseph to the position of prime minister where he was
more powerful than any man in Egypt except for Pharaoh. God
did that. And it was God who kept Israel
down in Egypt for over 400 years when they became a mighty nation.
So much so that Pharaoh and the Egyptians feared that they would
overthrow the Egyptians. And God raised up that mean,
wicked Pharaoh to impose hardships upon his people, treating them
like slaves and beating them. It was God who purposed that.
We read that God raised up Pharaoh for this very purpose to destroy
him. Anybody in their right mind would
have given up way before Pharaoh did. All of those plagues that
came upon Egypt, and God's in control of all things. He sent
the lice, He sent the flies, He sent the frogs, He turned
the water into blood, the rain of cattle, the darkness, the
killing of the firstborn. There were 10 different plagues.
That God is Jesus Christ. He controlled all of those things.
Those frogs wouldn't have jumped up out of the river and went
into the homes and the dwelling places of the Egyptians if our
Lord Jesus had not directed them to do that. So He's always been
in control. And it was God who hardened Pharaoh's
heart so that when the Israelites did leave and God allowed the
Israelites to spoil the Egyptians and He shut the mouths of the
dogs, not one dog barked. Not one dog barked as Israel
left Egypt. Can you stop a barking dog? From
barking? God can. He shut their mouths. That God is Jesus Christ. And
it was God who hardened Pharaoh's heart after Israel had left. He gathered his army and he went
after them. Can you imagine a fool doing
that after all of those plagues that he had been bombarded with?
But God hardened his heart. This was God's purpose. And that
God is Jesus Christ. And it was Jesus Christ who parted
the Red Sea, caused the land to dry up so that the Israelites
could pass over without getting mud on their feet. But did you
know that when the Egyptians went down between those two walls
of water, and I've said this more than once, it would have
taken something bigger than a man to get me to go down there. But there
was something bigger than a man that moved those people to go
between those two walls of water. As they went down through those
walls of water, their chariot wheels were falling off, and
they knew that God was against them, but it was too late. And
God drowned Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian army right before the
eyes of the Israelites to make His power known that God is Jesus
Christ. He sent Joshua to destroy Jericho
and cause the walls of Jericho to fall down and told Joshua
to go in and kill every man, woman, and child except for those
who were in the home of Rahab the harlot. And that home was
on the wall and that's the part of the wall that didn't fall.
I still remember Henry Mahan's message on that very thing. But
Jesus Christ is the one who told Joshua and the Israelites to
go in and kill all of those people. And 31 kings in different cities
fell under the leadership of Joshua, the same command. Kill every man, woman, and child. That sound like the Jesus that's
being portrayed from pulpits today? No. Why would God do that? Why would
He have Joshua and the Israelites kill those people? They were
ungodly people, bowing down to gods of their own imagination.
And listen to me. Listen. This Jesus that's being
preached from most popes today is a God of their own imagination. He doesn't even exist. They don't
bow down to His Lordship. They don't bow down to the God
who brought famines and floods and different kinds of things
upon this world that we read about in the Old Testament. And
we read clearly that it's God who did it. They don't believe
that. Well, listen to this. If you're in Philippians, Look
here in Philippians chapter 2, starting at verse 5. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in
the form of God, thought it not something to be grasped at, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. Now folks, we're talking about
the incarnation of Christ. This is what we read about In
Isaiah chapter 9, verses 5 and 6, or 6 and 7, I think it was,
this is what Isaiah wrote about. There's coming a day when a child
would be born, when a son would be given. Well, Paul writing
to the Philippians is talking about this very same thing. Christ
came into this world. He laid aside His glory for a
little bit, but not His deity. He was still God. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but He made Himself of no
reputation. He became a servant. That's what
God's people are. From the pastor, right on down
to the last one that was brought in, were all sinners, saved by
the grace of God, serving the Lord Jesus Christ for His glory.
Let that mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. But
listen to this. It says in verse 8, being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, verse 9,
wherefore, because of that, because Jesus Christ was obedient unto
death, I mean, obedient in all things, He did always that which
pleased God the Father. Because He obeyed God, even unto
the death of the cross, because of that, God also has highly
exalted Him and has given Him a name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus, Every knee should bow of things in
heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth, and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. That's the only way any sinner
can glorify God the Father, is by acknowledging His Son, Jesus
Christ, as the supreme controller. That's what the word Lord means.
It's taken from the Greek word Kurios, which means supreme controller,
Jesus Christ is our sovereign Lord. And He is in control of
everything in heaven. At the name of Jesus, we're to
bow of things in heaven. That's not just referring to
heaven where He sits on His throne. It does include that. All of
the elect angels behold His face, ready to do His bidding. Anytime
He bids, they're ready. Whatever He says do, they do.
When He says go, they go. And all the saints that have
gone on before us are around the throne of grace, worshiping
the Lamb of God, who suffered and bled and died for their sins.
So He's sovereign over everything in heaven. But there's another
heaven under that. I call it the second heaven. I don't know if it is or not.
That's the third heaven, in my opinion. The second heaven, I
believe, is what we refer to as outer space. He's in control
of all of that, too. All of those stars and planets
and everything that's up there, the moons, they're upheld by
the Word of His power. Every once in a while, we'll
hear about a comet or see a falling star. Nothing falls from outer
space except when our Lord Jesus allows to fall. Will you believe
that? He's in control of that. But not only the third heaven
and the second heaven, but that heaven that we know as our atmosphere,
where sometimes we see big, white, puffy clouds form and we see
things that we We say, well, that kind of looks like a big,
fluffy poodle. We just make images out of the
big, fluffy clouds and delight in seeing those clouds. And sometimes
they're dark, stormy clouds that rumble with thunder and lightning,
storms, severe storms. That's not Mother Nature. I don't
care what people say, that's not Mother Nature. That's the
sovereign power of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes
the clouds His chariots. He rides on the clouds. He moves
them as it pleases Him. The three ladies we have nothing
to do with. Mother Nature, Lady Luck, and Miss Fortune. Get those
words out of your vocabulary. We're just sometimes foolish,
blurring out words. Well, I was fortunate. No, you
weren't. That's giving credit to misfortune or fortune. If you have anything that you're
blessed with, it comes from Jesus Christ, our Lord. So He brings
the stormy clouds. He's in control of everything
in heaven, this atmosphere. Tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons,
all of these different things that come through the winds that
He Himself knows, sometimes killing thousands of people. At the name of Jesus, every knee
is to bow of things in heaven, things in earth. Famines, those
things that come that we have no control over, Christ controls
them. Those things that happen in the
lives of men and women, sometimes incurable diseases come upon
them, sometimes they fall and break their leg, sometimes they're
involved in an automobile wreck, Sometimes they're on the mountaintop
of success and have good health and good money in the bank, while
others are financially distressed and without enough money to buy
a Christmas present for their children. Christ controls all
of that. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. He gives as it pleases Him. He
withholds as it pleases Him. There are no such things as accidents. They're all controlled by Christ,
our Sovereign Lord. Things under the earth, I don't
know what's under there altogether. I know there are faults, which when the earth shifts a
little bit causes an earthquake. That's the same God. brought
an earthquake during the days of Moses when Korah and his followers
and their wives and their children rebelled against Moses. God just
opened up the earth and swallowed him and closed it right back
up on him. That God is Jesus Christ. He controls those faults,
that burning lava that makes volcanoes that sometimes spews
out the Things that come from an exploding volcano, rock and
debris and molten lava. Sometimes people are killed during
those things. That's the purpose of Jesus Christ
our Lord. So at the name of Jesus, every knee is to bow of things
in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth. And every
tongue is to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Now folks, I want to have you
turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. Our text in Isaiah 9.6, speaking
to us of Christ, says, The government shall be on His shoulder. And all of God's preachers declare
this God-honoring truth. Jesus Christ, our sovereign Lord,
rules over everything, working all things after the counsel
of His own will. This is the Christ of God this
world does not know. And those who do not know Him
not only trouble those who do, they're in more trouble than
they realize. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 starting at verse 7. And to you who are troubled,
And there are things that do trouble us. There are things
not only that trouble us, there are people who trouble us. But
to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They might trouble us
in this life, but they're in more trouble than they realize
if they don't know God. If they don't know Jesus Christ,
they don't know God. And He's coming in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on those who do not know God. They go through
the motions. They claim to be followers of
Jesus. Yet in their works they deny
Him. They have a form of godliness,
but deny the power of Jesus Christ our Lord. And from those people,
we're to turn away from them. Our Lord tells us that. So there's
a day coming. When our Lord Jesus shall return,
He's going to show that He is a blessed and only potentate,
King of kings and Lord of lords. All power in heaven and earth
belongs to Jesus Christ, our Lord. That God-man that's on
His throne right now is the same God that we read about in the
Old Testament. God is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Well, let me take you over to
Romans chapter 10, and I'll use this as a closing passage for
this morning's message. All of what I have brought before
you concerning Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, is true. But there's something else that
is equally true about our Sovereign Lord. And if I just left you
with these truths concerning His awesome, majestic power,
I would be wrong. The Apostle Paul said, knowing
therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. God is a merciful
God. He's not only a sovereign despot
who kills and makes alive. He's not only the one who commanded
Joshua to kill all those people. God is a merciful God. God forgives sinners. God loves some sinners, but there's
only one way our Sovereign Lord can show mercy on a hell-deserving
sinner, can have compassion on a hell-deserving sinner, can
love someone who has sinned against Him. And we need to know this. There's only one way, and that's
through Jesus Christ, our Sovereign Lord. We need to know that He
did come. Isaiah said, unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
His shoulder. We need to know about Him. We need to know His
awesome, majestic power. But we also need to know why
He came into this world. And He proved who He was during
His public ministry. He proved without a shadow of
a doubt that He controls the wind and the waves, didn't He?
He told His disciples when they were on that boat and they thought
they were going to drown. Actually, He displayed His power
by standing up and saying, peace, be still. And even the winds
and the waves obeyed His voice. That's God. After his disciples had fished
all night, commanded the fish to go under their nets so they
couldn't hardly even get their nets pulled under their boat.
He has control over it. Did you know he told Peter to
go to the water and cast in a hook because they didn't have any
money to pay tribute? And Peter cast in the hook. I
don't think he had to use bait. And the Lord directed the fish
to his hook. And I don't know if he had already picked up the
coin or if he picked it up on the way to Peter's hook, whatever.
The Lord directed that. And when Peter caught that fish,
there was the money for their tribute. And to deny that he's
God. And over and over and over again,
many, many, many different illustrations of his sovereign power. He opened
the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, gave legs
to men who were born lame. He raised the dead. And those
unbelieving Jews still would not believe on him. And they
cried out, crucify him, crucify him. And Pontius Pilate said,
why? What has he done? This is your
king. And they said, we have no other king but Caesar. And
they were telling the truth. They would never have crucified
the Lord of Glory if they had known Him. The Scripture says
that. They didn't know Him. And today's people who profess
to be Christians, most of them don't know Him either. So they're
just going through the motions. But when we do know Him, when
God does reveal Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ,
we see love displayed at Calvary that cannot be put into words. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." We need
to know why he came into this world. He came into this world
to die. He said that. And he came into
this world to establish a righteousness for his people. He came into
this world to endure the wrath of God in our room and in our
stead. He came into this world to establish not only righteousness
for us, but to perform a perfect work of redemption for His people
so that God can be just and justifier of those who believe. We must
believe that Jesus Christ by Himself purged our sins. If we
had One thing to what He has done, we've destroyed it all
and we're on our way to hell. We must rest in Christ and only
in Him. We must take to heart the words
that He uttered on Calvary 2,000 years ago. It is finished. And
enter into His finished work. We must believe that if it was
finished, it was a done deal. And we're complete in Christ.
And not one thing can be laid to the charge of God's elect.
If we don't believe that, then we have missed it. So that has
to be made known. But listen to this. In Romans
10, starting at verse 13, we read, For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's just as
true today as it was when the Apostle Paul wrote those words,
inspired by God to write them. Whosoever, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you called upon
Him? I'm not talking about this phony
Jesus that we hear preached from most pulpits today that's done
all he can and the rest is up to you. I'm talking about Jesus
Christ who is the sovereign Lord over everything, who redeemed
His people with His own precious blood. Have we cried out for
mercy in that name which is above every name? Well, look what it
says in verse 14. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? You will not call upon the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't believe that He is Christ
the Sovereign Lord. Even in Paul's day, he wrote
of another Jesus being preached. We must know who He is. We have
to believe that He's very God of very God. How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? And I might add
this. Nobody's going to believe unless God gives them a new heart. Miracle is performed under the
preaching of His gospel. Read on. How shall they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard? They have to hear. The people we preach to have
to hear about Jesus Christ. He's the creator of everything.
The government. has always been on His shoulder,
but not as the God-man. This God-man is on His sovereign
throne of power. How are we going to call on Him
if we don't believe that? And how are we going to believe
that if we don't hear? We must declare Him to be the Son of
God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. Jesus Christ came out of that
grave with all power and heaven and earth belonging to Him. He
said that. He told His disciples that. We
must. We must preach Him as a sovereign
Lord, but as a sovereign Lord who has mercy on those who call
upon Him. And we have to preach Him. It
says also, how shall they hear without a preacher? I wouldn't
walk across the street to hear a free will preacher. I would
not do that. But I'll drive hundreds of miles
to be with those who love the Lord Jesus and worship Him. Wouldn't you? How and how shall
they preach? It says in verse 15, except they
be sent. God sends his preachers. He sends
his preachers to preach his gospel. That's our primary business.
And I brought out Friday night that there are things that might
be important but not as important as preaching the gospel for every
pastor that's sent from God. We do socialize. We do in our
walk here on this earth have dealings with others apart from
the church that we pastor. But our primary purpose in this
life is to feed God's sheep. Feed God's sheep. We preach the
Gospel. And that's the Word of God that
we feast upon. It points to Christ. Our message
is Christ and Him crucified. The same message we preach to
feed the sheep is what God uses to call His sheep out of darkness.
So, God sends us. He sends His preachers. And that's
our primary business. And I leave you with the Word
of God that I quoted earlier. From 1 John, chapter 5, we know
that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. To know Jesus Christ is eternal
life. To know Jesus Christ is to know that He loves His children
with a perfect, pure, eternal love. And perfect love casts
out fear. We don't fear the wrath to come. We've already endured that in
our substitute. To know Jesus Christ is perfect peace, knowing
that He by Himself purged our sins. To know Jesus Christ is
to acknowledge Him as our sovereign Lord with a desire to follow
Him according as He moves us, accepting His sovereign purpose
and His sovereign will in our lives. To know Jesus Christ is
to love Him, knowing that He first loved us. To know Jesus
Christ is to love His Gospel, His people, and His providential
hand upon our lives, bringing those things our way for His
glory and for our good. To know Jesus Christ is to love
righteousness and hate sin. To know Jesus Christ is to have
a heart filled with praise and adoration for Him, to worship
Him in spirit and truth, giving Him all the glory for everything. I ask you this question. Is Jesus
Christ your Sovereign Lord? He is whether people acknowledge
it or not. He's Lord of all. He's Lord over
everything. Thank God that unto us a child
was born. Thank God that unto us a son
was given. Thank God for the government
being on the shoulder of our Lord Jesus Christ who loved us
and gave himself for us. He will never stop loving us,
and He which hath begun a good work in us will perfect it until
the day of Jesus Christ, till He returns. Thank God for the
gift of faith to believe His Gospel, true saving faith that
enables all of God's enlightened children to put our complete
trust in Christ our Sovereign Lord. who has complete control over
all things. The government is on his shoulder. Amen.