The Lordship of Christ

(Article for publication week of 2-27- AD 2014)

"The LORD said unto my Lord, 'Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool' " (Psalm 110:3).

 

Our text this week is one of the most quoted texts in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus Christ quoted it to the unbelieving Jews in Matthew 22:44 to prove His Deity. Peter also quoted it on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:34. In this Psalm we are permitted to eavesdrop in the Holy of Holies and hear God the Father speak to God the Son.

If you will get your Strong's concordance and do a quick word study, you will see there are two different Hebrew words translated "Lord" in our text. The first is "Jehovah" which is generally translated into English with all capital letters. The second is "Adonai", which is generally translated with only the
"L" capitalized. Both words truly designate the Deity, but the translators help us in the distinction of the capital letters. What we have in Psalm 110 is the Father speaking to His Coequal and Eternal Son. We have in our text a clear proof of the Tri-Unity of God. God is One in His Being, but Three in His Personality; He is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One Glorious God, yet Three Glorious Persons. God has communion with Himself, and interacts with Himself. So we see in our text. Whether or not an anti-Trinitarian can be saved we leave to the Lord Who knows infallibly who are His. But since our Lord commands us to judge men by their fruits, we cannot receive any into our fellowship who deny the doctrine of the Trinity as the Bible clearly teaches (I John5:7; e.g.).

Now hear what God the Father says to God the Son. "Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." The Lord Jesus Christ has eternally subordinated Himself to God the Father to be the Sin Bearer and Substitute for His people. He died for our sins, and was buried and rose again the third day. He has now ascended back to His rightful Throne in Heaven. There He now sits, for His work of redemption is finished. He sits on a throne to rule over the universe and to intercede for all who receive Him by faith. One Day He will return to raise the dead, judge all men, and finally take His elect people to live and reign with Him forever. All those who are His enemies, He will trample under His omnipotent Feet and send them to the Lake of Fire forever to be punished, really and consciously. It is a dreadful thing to be an enemy of Christ. Though he lets you cumber the earth now, He will finally exercise His Lordship over you and make you His footstool.

Those who receive Christ by faith as their Lord and Saviour are most happy to have Christ rule over them. They would not want it any other way. Here is a fundamental difference in the saved and the lost- the saved are just tickled to death that Christ is their Lord, and the lost are mad about it. Dear reader, in reality there are only two kinds of people, those who are Christ's friends and loyal subjects, and those who are His enemies and are in rebellion against their Lord. Which are you?

Receiving Christ as Lord

(Article for publication week of 2-20- AD 2014)

"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12).

The poor sinner who receives Christ by faith alone, must receive Him for all that He is. You must receive Christ as Lord and Saviour, or you cannot be saved. I have heard a number of people say, when asked of their salvation, "I accepted Jesus as my Saviour when I was twelve years old (for example), but I made Him Lord of my life when I was thirty (for example). Dear reader, if you have "accepted Jesus as your Saviour", without receiving Him as absolute Lord, you are not saved. There are many of you, who were brought up in or around the church, and you walked the aisle and joined the church, but you kept on living like the world. You went to the football games on Friday night, and you went to the dance on Saturday night, and you went to Sunday School on Sunday morning. You "accepted Jesus", but you never repented of your sins, and you continued to live like you wanted to. You were not saved, and if you are still living like you want to, you are still not saved. You can't have Christ as Saviour, without receiving Him as Lord. You can't have Christ and the world too. God hath made His eternal and coequal Son both Lord, and Christ (Acts 2:36).

Now there are some of you who "accepted Jesus" ( as some say) when you were a child, but remained unconverted, who have matured and settled down. You got married and had children, got a good job, and you live quite respectfully. Perhaps the preacher convinced you to start "working in the church." You describe your experience thusly, "well I accepted Jesus when I was quite young, but I backslid for awhile, but now I am serving Him again." Friend, if you got morality and ethics and respectability, without being born again, you are still lost.

There are a few of you who I hope are really saved (the Lord knoweth) who "accepted Jesus" (as some say) when quite young, and continued to live like the devil, who now say you have made Christ your Lord, and appear to be walking with Him. The only thing I will say to you is that if that is really true, that you "made Christ your Lord" sometimes after a profession of faith, that is when you were truly saved. But you ought to examine yourself if you really are in humble submission to Christ as your Lord.

Dear reader, you cannot have Christ as Saviour without receiving Him as Lord. When Saul of Tarsus was converted, he cried out , "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?"! Unless you are totally surrendered to Christ and to His will and His ways, you are not saved. You cannot have Christ while your heart is wedded to the world. God has raised His eternal and coequal Son from the dead and seated Him at His Own right hand and hath made Him both Lord and Christ. You will one day confess His Lordship and bow down to Him. Every knee shall bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, and every tongue will confess His Lordship. Christ is Lord over everybody and everything. Saved people are tickled to death about that and love to bow to Him now. Lost people are mad about it, but at the day of Judgment, you will be forced by an omnipotent God to bow down to His Son. Dear reader, if you are not presently rejoicing in the Lordship of Christ, you are not saved. You better listen to Brother Floyd and heed my warnings. I am trying to be faithful to your souls because I will have to face you on the day of Judgment. May the Lord conquer you by efficacious grace, and bring you to bow to the Lordship of Christ. Eternity will be long and miserable without Christ.

Faith, an Empty Hand

(Article for publication week of 2-13- AD 2014)

 

"But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name:" (John 1:12).

 Receiving Christ is shown by our text to be practically synonymous with believing in Christ, hence we say that receiving Christ is a principle act of faith.

To receive Christ as Lord and Saviour as He is revealed by the scriptures is an act of faith. To believe in Christ to the saving of the soul is to believe from the heart (Romans 10:10) that you are a poor lost sinner, and trust in Christ Alone for the salvation of your soul. To receive Christ by faith is to reach out with an empty hand and receive Christ and all spiritual blessings in Him. Augustus Toplady, who was a faithful minister in the Established Church of England in the eighteenth century (there were still a number of men in that Church at that time who believed the gospel) poetically describes saving faith in his hymn "Rock of Ages" in the line that says "in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling." Saving, or justifying faith is indeed an empty hand.

The believer in Christ confesses by his faith that he is  spiritually bankrupt without a cent to pay. You cannot come to Christ with any of your own righteousness, for you have none (Isaiah 64:6). Salvation is not a partnership between you and Christ, but it is all of the Lord. Christ does not save sinners by Him doing His part, and the sinner doing his part. Christ does it all! Christ does not make up the difference, He pays the whole price. We sometimes sing "Jesus paid it all", and dear reader He certainly did! You cannot be saved as long as you are trying to do your part, or helping the Lord save you. You must acknowledge that you are utterly lost and receive Christ as the Saviour of the lost. Christ will not be received by a hand that has some pretended good works, or morals or ethics in it. It must be an empty hand that receives Christ.

The empty hand that receives Christ, believes in Christ, and receives salvation in Him Alone. The very moment a sinner believes in Christ, that sinner is thoroughly cleansed from all his sins. The recent snow we had reminded me of Isaiah 1:18, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." The very moment dear reader that you confess your sins to God, and plead the righteousness of His Son, you stand justified before God. When you receive Christ with the empty hand of faith, you will be forgiven for all your sins and receive a free and full pardon from God your Righteous Judge. We sometimes sing, "the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives." There may be someone reading the Narrow Way this week that feels that you are too sinful for the Saviour to save. Poor sinner, Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners such as you and me to repentance.

I preach Christ to you as the able and willing Saviour of all who will repent of their sins and reach forth with empty-handed faith, and receive Him as their personal Saviour. That's right- Christ is the personal Saviour of everyone that receives Him for all that He is. Believer, Christ died for you as if you were the only sinner who needed to be saved. Christ died for a number that no man can number, but He died personally for everyone who would ever believe in Him.

If you have received Christ as your Saviour and Lord I would love to hear from you. You can call me any time at 601-927-5070 or email me at brickfloyd@bellsouth.net.

Receiving Christ by Faith

(Article for publication week of 2-6- AD 2014)

 "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13).

 

The Lord has laid on my heart to bring you a series of articles on the subject of saving faith. Having considered some simple truths regarding the subject, and having shown that there is a faith that will not save, we are proceeding to describe saving faith by some of its principle acts, the first of which is "receiving" Christ as declared in John 1:12-13. (If any of our readers wish to review past articles, they are all archived at matthesevenfourteen.blogspot.com. We wish to publicly thank Brother Dale Wiscaver for maintaining the blog site.)

Our text here in John 1:12-13 virtually equates "receiving" Christ with "believing on His Name." This is the reason we say that receiving Christ is a principle act of saving faith. Verse 13 makes it clear that regeneration precedes faith (note well that they who receive Christ "were born... of God".) No one can believe to the saving of his soul until he is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And when a sinner is regenerated, He will believe on the name of Christ, actively receiving Him by faith. Though an elect sinner be passive in receiving the gift of faith by regeneration, he must actively receive Christ, for faith is active. Two of my good friends who know the New Testament Greek confirm to me that the word translated "receive" in our text is indeed in the active voice.

To receive Christ to the saving of your soul is to actively receive Him for all that He is. You cannot have part of Christ; you must have all of Him or you will never be saved. You must receive Him as the only Saviour of sinners, and as your rightful Lord. You must receive Him as the only Mediator Who can get you to God. You must receive Him for your whole and sole righteousness. You must receive Him for justification and sanctification. You must receive Christ as He is revealed in the word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

Believing on Christ is an act of an empty handed beggar, receiving the gift of salvation that comes through the only Saviour of sinners. The person who receives Christ must admit that he is nothing but a poor bankrupt sinner ten thousand talents in debt, and not a penny to pay. No one has ever truly received Christ by faith who did not first come to see himself as a vile wretch and completely undeserving of anything but hell. Augustus Toplady poetically describes saving faith in his hymn "Rock of Ages" (incidentally President Davis'  favourite hymn): "in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling."

Poor sinner, I urge you this moment to actively receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour to the salvation of your soul. Reach out the empty hand of faith and receive Him. Boast not of thy doings. Give up all pretensions of your own goodness and receive the Person and Work of Christ as the LORD your Righteousness. You will never be disappointed with Christ, nor will you ever regret receiving Him. May the Holy Spirit work faith in you that you may receive Christ, believing on His Name.