In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having the right attitude towards time. He compares time to a valuable commodity that needs to be redeemed and not wasted. The preacher encourages discipline and prioritization in order to make the most of the limited time we have. He also references the story of the Duke of Wellington, who valued time greatly and chastised someone for being five minutes late. Ultimately, the sermon highlights the need to use time wisely and not squander it on trivial matters.

I'd like to greet you all this morning in the name of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. I see some friends back there from this far, nothing like the fellow... Well now, we today are concluding a theme that we have been pursuing now in our morning worship. The theme of... We began this series by noting that Jesus Christ is Lord in His own person. Before He does anything, before He accomplished anything, He came here as the Lord of glory. But then of course, as God-man, He accomplished certain things which further establish His right to rule in the lives of His people. He paid the price of our redemption, paid it to the full, paid it alone. He treads the winepress of the Lord and He finished the work alone. And so He alone, as the one who has purchased our redemption and is risen from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, He has crowned right, not only because of His... From there we noted how our Lord claims to be Lord in certain areas of our lives. Now these, of course, were mere illustrations. We could not cover every area. But He claims to be Lord over the mind. He claims to be Lord over the heart. He claims to be Lord of the will. He claims to be Lord of the conscience. He claims to be Lord of the whole of our inner life and of our relationships with the outer world of people. And we ended up with Jesus Christ as Lord of our money, if you please. And we spent three... I wondered whether... Now today... Oh, there are many more things that one might say about the extensive lordship of... But I felt the time had come, at least for the... Elsewhere. Today we speak of Jesus Christ as Lord of the business of living. You're living now. I'm... You may be sitting in the pew. I may be standing in the pulpit. You're listening and it's given for me to speak. We shall go out from here and we shall go back into a workaday week. Or we shall be on vacation. Jesus Christ claims to be Lord of our living now. Not just of our coming in here and of our lives and of our thinking when we are within four walls. Shot in from the world outside. He claims to be Lord over us in the business... Now, I shall try to elucidate this aspect of Christian teaching by focusing particularly upon the matter of our aims in living. Or goals, if you like. And then secondly, in the matter of our attitudes. Aims and attitudes. And if you bring these two together, I think you have a very large chunk. A large parcel of... First of all, the Lordship of Jesus Christ in determining the aim or goal of our life. Every man, every woman is living for something. Generally there are one or two predominating motives or goals that we have in life. Invariably they're related so that we may speak of it as one goal or one aim. Well, I don't mind whether you use the singular or the plural. But generally speaking, it is true of all of us. We live for something. And if our life in and out, day in day out. If our life were known to someone and could be read as a book. It would be evident that we are living for something. We're aiming at something. We're wanting to achieve something. Whether we're successful or not. Now, Jesus Christ claims to be Lord. Lord that you... And that of course, that is a challenging word right at the very beginning. Anyone who is a stranger to Christian teaching and to Christian experience might say immediately, now, now, now, that's going beyond it. It's all very well for us to come to church occasionally and to pay our dues and to... But why meddle with our private lives? What right has the Lord Jesus any more than anyone else? To meddle with a man's private life. Those familiar with the Christian gospel and those who have any awareness of the work of grace in their hearts that is saving. If you're a Christian this morning, then you will know that Jesus Christ is a part, a role to play in your creation. Plays a role in your preservation from day to day. And in your salvation from sin to glory. And He will be your judge. And on any one of these four counts, He has the right to determine how you live and what you live for and what I live for. But put all four together. And the Christian claim is that none other than the Son of God who made you, who sustains you, who saved you, and who will judge you. None other has the right to determine your life. You yourself have not. I myself have not the right. Permit me, therefore, right at this point, let me ask the question. Who are you living for? Yourself. Who determines the line that you have taken in life? Yourself or Him? And there may be some here this morning who are wondering why they're making such an awful mess in life. Others, even though they're totally fulfilled materially. And they have all that they sought out for materially. Yet in their hearts there is. I suggest to you a major reason why it is as it is. Because you're not living under the love ship of Jesus Christ. And not until He chooses your way of life, and your reason for living, and your purposes, and your goals, and everything relative to that. Not until He is in total charge. Will you know in your heart of hearts the joy of the Spirit in your soul. And the sense of being fulfilled. And the giving of a cup of cold water. You need to come to terms with the claim of our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel Webster's father found his two boys, Ezekiel and Daniel, one day lounging aimlessly. And if you know anything about Daniel Webster, he didn't like anybody who appeared to be lazy. And he turned to the first and he said, Ezekiel what are you doing son? Nothing father, he said. And Daniel, what are you doing helping Ezekiel, sir, he said. The New Testament calls upon us to rise from the dead and from sloth and from sleep. To wake up to reality. Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead. Start the business of living and you don't start. Until you are under the lordship of the only one who has the right to rule. And the qualification to rule successfully. Now, this is exactly what happened you know in the gospel. This is what happened with the first Christians, the first disciples of our Lord. Jesus Christ summons them and he said, now look fellows, I've got a rule. I've come to rule. The kingdom of the heavens has come and it's personified in me. And I've come to rule. Let me read to you a passage. Let me read from Matthew chapter 4. From that time on Jesus began to preach. What did he preach? Repent. Telling people what to do morally. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake. So they were fishermen. Come, he says, follow me. And I will make you fishers of men. At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there he saw two other brothers. James and John. Sorry, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets. Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Now you notice what's happening. Jesus is coming and he is saying first of all to all on sundry, repent. That is something that is trumpeted out by the Lord Jesus Christ to everyone in his day and age. Repent for the kingdom of the heaven, the rules of the heaven, the rule of the heaven has come personified in me. But then on the basis of the fact that the rule of the heaven or of the heavens was personified in him. He turns to these guys who were fishing by the lakeside and he says, Now you four, I want you to leave that kind of thing and I want you to come and follow me. Live in closest proximity. He claims to be Lord. That's the Lord we preach. Now there are certain specifics involved in the acceptance of heaven's rule. There is first of all a general plan that embodies God's will for all his people. A plan that must be accepted by all his subjects, all the subjects of his kingdom. You see it in the Old Testament, you see it in the New. Basically in the Old Testament, the God-fearing man, the man or woman of God, accepted the rule of God as that was enunciated in the Ten Commandments. Moses applied it to life. You know the whole sacrificial system was just a means of making amends when someone disobeyed. Now this is oversimplifying it, I'm aware of that. But let's put it in its simplest form. And basically the prophets did nothing other than this. They took the main teaching of the Ten Commandments, applied them and amplified them here and there to life. I know that's oversimplifying it, but basically that's what they did. And when the nation or individuals had done wrong, had broken the commandments of the Lord and broken loose from him, they were required to repent and to turn back again. Move on into the New Testament. In the New Testament the rule of heaven as we've said is personified in our Lord. And our Lord proved himself to those who were around him for three to three and a half years that he was indeed none other than the Son of God. God incarnate. Even a man who was not at that stage certainly a committed Christian could say it's fine what you are doing unless God is with him. That was Nicodemus. He called men to repent and believe the good news which he had proclaimed and was embodied in himself and he bade men enter the community which affirmed loyalty to him as Lord before anything else. Matthew has organized his gospel in this way. That he has the King. He represents Jesus as the King particularly. Not exclusively, but particularly. And right at the very beginning of Matthew's gospel you have the King enunciating the principles of his kingdom, the Sermon on the Mount. So that matching the old law given through Moses you have the new law the exposition of the old in the light of the new age and of the coming of Christ. And Jesus says now these are the terms fellows and I demand of you that you live like this. This is my kingdom, this is my rule and I'm calling you not simply to follow me physically to hear what I say, but I'm calling you to obey. I'm calling you to put the harness on and get to work with me and obey, obey. Now that's Christianity. There is a more personal plan however within that general. There is the discovery of God's very purpose for me. Now one of the tragic things that come into life through the teaching of the theory of evolution that we have this to believe or those who have accepted that philosophy that understanding of things find no reason to believe that there could be any real purpose in life for a little bit of slimy. But when the word of God says that we were made by God and for God something happens. You have a place in God's plan? You don't look different from anybody else. I don't look different from anybody else. Well we may have some queerism but we're not superior to any one of us. We're just made of common clay. But I have a place in God's eternal plan. You have a place in God. And when God made you in the womb of your mother he had that plan in mind and he endowed you with certain gifts and capacities. And when he saved you and the Holy Spirit came into your life he gave you further gifts or capacities. And by the reading of the word and by prayer and by fellowship some of those latent capacities should be coming to light and to life. Did you know that God had a purpose for you? Have you discovered it? If you haven't discovered it what is there anything in your life brother or sister which is more important than this? I tell you there isn't. There is nothing in life which is more important than knowing why God made me and saved me and keeps me and provides my bread and butter and my life from day to day. Nothing whatsoever next to this. It's no wonder that so many of us are going through life with a very heavy head and heart. We've never really taken trouble to discover the will of God for us. And we're living in constant rebellion. And that's why we just don't really recognize our destiny and the glory that is. Now the lordship of Christ in determining the aim and goal of our life is our most vital subject therefore. Sorry to be so personal but I have to. A story is told of two men. Oh 70 years ago now. The one had been brought up as a great English sportsman. The other had gone out also from the United Kingdom as a missionary. They were coming back. They began to chat. The sportsman was rather snoopy and he wanted to of course turn to this missionary returning and he said well he says I've been in India for 25 years and I've never seen one of the heathen converted to Jesus Christ. My my said the missionary. How long did you say you've been there? 25 years. So what have you seen? He says I'm a sportsman. I've been shooting games. He says I've been after tigers. They've been my main main main main object. He says killing tigers. I said have you seen any tigers? Seen them he says. I've seen hundreds of them. I've actually killed probably over a hundred. Isn't that amazing says the missionary. I've been in India for over over 25 years. I've not seen a tiger yet he says. But there's hardly a week that goes by that I see one of the natives of this great country leaving their sin. Leaving their idols. Leaving all and embracing Jesus Christ as Lord. See one went out to catch tigers. The other went out to look for the aim. The goal. What's your goal? Oh brother or sister this is serious. Don't think of this as rhetoric. Don't think of this as pulpit rhetoric this morning. God help you. God help me. This is serious. This is biblical Christianity. What are we living for? We achieve what we self out to achieve. And if you and I don't set out to achieve what God had in mind for us and has in mind for us we shall not achieve it. Determining life's aims. Life's ambitions. Life's goals. Jesus Christ. The other thing I want us to dwell upon for a moment is this. Now it's coming quite naturally in the wake of that. The lordship of Christ in determining the attitude of his servants. In living to achieve the goals set by himself for each. If we are to achieve the goals set by our God for us. Set by our Lord for us. Then there are certain attitudes to life that we must cultivate. And there are certain other things that we must speak to. First of all let me say a word about this. Jesus Christ demands a particular attitude to oneself. If I may return for a moment to the passage we refer to in Matthew 4. With reference to the first four disciples of our Lord. Peter and Andrew, James and John. You will notice that they had to be willing to let their self appointed plans go by the lord. Therein is reflected an attitude towards themselves in relation to their Lord. Somehow or other they had already come to the conclusion that this person had the right to tell them what to do. And that it was he, not they, that was to rule and determine what they were to live for. And now emerges therefore the attitude of submission. Now you and I must some cultivate an attitude of self surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ. We must by the grace of God, by the power of the spirit, by the ministry of the word. In the fellowship of the saints on our knees and on our feet. We must somehow or other learn to cultivate this attitude of submitting and yielding the self to him. He must be lord. Now here we are touching something of course which all of us find difficult. You know it is one thing for many of us to even to hand over some of our money. But it is even still more difficult to put out. Believe it or not my friends this is a battle that all of us have to face. I guess every one of us in Christian service today. Every one of us who have had to abandon some employment or other in order to do the word, the work of the Lord. We've had to go this way. And in a sense every Christian has to do it. If he is going to achieve the purpose for which he was made and remade and redeemed. I happen to be reading just the beginning of the week, reading about John Wesley. The great founder of Methodism. I thought I would quote this to you. John Wesley a classical scholar, I knew that. And gifted with a virile mind, I knew that. Gave himself fully to God and consecrated all his powers to his service. I knew that. But listen. Possessed of a scholar's love of books. Yet he spent the most of his life in the saddle. And in the active duties of a most... Especially for music and architecture. He turned away from their charms to blow the gospel trumpet with all his might. With a more than ordinary longing for the sweet inly bleeding heart. And gave himself unreservedly to the work of binding up the broken hearted for Jesus Christ. Visiting the beautiful grounds of an English nobleman on one occasion he said. I too have a relish for these things. But there is another world. Oh I'd like you to hear that tub from the soul of a man. Exposing himself for a moment. He had love of art, he had love of music, he had love of architecture. But he spent most of his life on horseback. And when he wasn't on horseback he was standing in front of people from five o'clock in the morning to late at night. Preaching the gospel of grace. John Wesley how could you do it? There's another world. There's another world. And another world. And there are things in your life and mine that may be quite legitimate in their place. But in order to do our Lord's will we've got to put everything. I don't, I don't believe that the modern church has realized yet what the early church had to suffer to follow our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I want to give you this kind of list this morning if you'll forgive me. The early disciples knew that when the man decided to take up his cross it was virtually a sign that he was prepared to die. We wear the cross somewhere today or a little crucifix. People will enjoy it and look at it and say isn't this attractive. When Jesus spoke about taking up the cross he said look you're symbolizing the fact that you're prepared to die for me. And die they did. Now I don't know whether this is fool proof. I don't know whether the list I'm going to give you now is all together accurate at one or two points. But it's sufficiently accurate for me to quote it. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in the classic land of Greece. John was first put in a cauldron of boiling oil. From which he escaped in a miraculous way. He was afterwards branded a papaw. Peter was crucified at Rome with his head down. James the greater was beheaded at Jerusalem. James the less was thrown into a lofty pinnacle of the temple. And then thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple. And then beaten to death with a fuller's club. Bartholomew was slayed alive. Andrew was bound to a cross whence he preached to his persecutors until he died. Thomas was run through the body with a lance of Coromandos in the East Indies. Jude was shot to death with arrows. Barnabas of the Gentiles was stoned to death at Thessalonica. Paul after various tortures and persecutions was at length beheaded at Rome by the emperor Nero. Now never mind, some of them may be questionable. It may be traditional rather than accurate. I don't know, but there is enough truth there to bring over the point. When you take up the cross to follow Christ. It's not to have everybody smile at you and say you're a lovely person. Well it means that you're going to follow him to death. There is something serious about becoming a Christian. There is something serious about calling Jesus Lord. Now if you're squeamish I suggest you switch off for a moment. Not only did those apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ have to suffer. For the next 300 years Christianity was a forbidden thing. Its adherents were publicly whipped. Dragged by their heels through the streets until their brains ran out. Their limbs were torn off. Their ears and noses were cut off. And their eyes were dug out with sharp sticks or burned out with hot iron. Sharp knives were run under their fingernails. Melted lead was poured over their body. They were drowned. They were beheaded. They were crucified. They were drowned between stones. Smothered in lime films. Sprayed to death by sharp shells. And killed all the day long. Lest you think that all that took place in the turbulence of the Middle East. Let me add one other illustration. A little nearer home. In 1651. Not in the year 1 A.D. In Massachusetts. The Reverend Obadiah Holmes. Because he held a prayer meeting in his home. Was ordered to be whipped by Governor Endicott. So severe was the whipping that for days he could lie only by resting on the tips of his elbows and his knees. And yet when the last lash had fallen. He looked up at his tormentors and through bloodstained lips cried to them. Gentlemen. You have whipped me with roses. A redeeming Christ has given us a future filled with hope. Having that hope. He expects us to spend and be spent. For the glory of his name and the ingathering of a lost world. To know something of the hope that he has first implanted in our own souls. If any man would come after me. He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. I tell you the truth says Jesus. Unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies. It remains only a single seed. But if it's his life in this world. We'll keep it for life eternal. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am my servant. Lastly let me come to this. Very briefly. Jesus Christ demands from his subjects. A particular attitude towards time. Towards time as well as towards oneself. Said Jesus. Do you not say four months more and then the harvest? I tell you. Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe. Learning to use time aright is a man's most important. You see time cannot be replenished. There are no repeats. You're sitting down. The time is going on. I'm standing. You may go to sleep. The time is going on. And listen my friends. You can't play it back. All we can make. We can make a tape recording of this service. And we can play it back. And then we kind of think that you know. It's just as if we were there. Well in a sense. But you cannot turn. There are no repeats. The moment through which you're passing now you'll never see again. Now it may well be that you'll have another opportunity. A weekend to worship even within these walls. By the grace of God. But it'll not be the same one as you've had today. It'll be a different one. The Apostle Paul very clearly enunciates the truth. I'm concerned to stress in closing it. When he writes these words to the Ephesians. Be very careful he says then. How you live. Not as unwise but as wise. And there are two translations of the words that follow. Redeeming the time is one. Or making the most of the opportunity is the other. If the correct interpretation is redeeming the time. Paul is thinking of time you see. As being in the power of evil. There's an evil power that somehow dominates the time process. How many of us would say that that must be true. The way we lose time. The way we fritter away time. The way we are stubborn. We want to do something. But oh we just get absorbed with something that is altogether trivial. And we say. Well I haven't started what I wanted to do. What Paul is saying there. If that is the truth that he wants to underscore. Is this. Just as a man or a woman has to be redeemed. He uses the word. Same word if we're taking this. Time has got to be redeemed. You've got to buy it back. You've got to buy it out of the market. You've got to be prepared to pay the price. You've got to be disciplined. You've got to get up early in the morning. And you've got to discipline your schedule all the way through the day. You've got to pay the price. And perhaps you've got to go to bed early at night. In order to get up early the next morning. But you've got to live a disciplined life. Even if there is no thought of buying back. He is certainly saying this as the NIV puts it. Make the most of every opportunity. We must if not buy time back. From the power of an evil enemy of our souls. We must buy it up as it comes. Now the apostles emphasis is most necessary. There are so many opportunities for us to waste time and to fritter it away. And we've simply done nothing. And we're that much nearer eternity and nearer the judgment day. The great Duke of Wellington was one man who certainly appreciated the value of time. He fearlessly chided a certain civic dignitary in London on one occasion. When the latter turned up five whole minutes late for an interview. And the Duke let go. And the man was cowed. The next time he had to go and see the Duke he thought he'd make amends. And he went five minutes earlier. When the Duke was told about this as he was going into the room where this man was waiting for him. He said well surely he says that adds insult to injury. And as he went into the room he says to the man himself. Look man he says if you only knew the value of time you wouldn't waste five minutes this end. Now five minutes that end. You'll never get them back. Have you ever seen time like that? The most important commodity in your life men and women young or old is time, time, time. You can't repeat it. You can't call it back. You may go on strike but time goes on. You may say I'm not going to move but time moves and moves you with it. Buy up the opportunity says Paul. If there's need buy it back. Give any price to get hold of time and use it for God. I close. Jesus Christ claims to be Lord of our living. Lord of our time. Lord of ourselves. Lord of the business of life. On one occasion the great Dr. Robert Moffat the missionary of Africa was in London, England. He was addressing a public meeting. The meeting was to be chaired by a very wealthy man whose sole interest in life really was wealth. He didn't know much about the gospel. He didn't know much about Dr. Moffat but for some reason or other he was there. The only thing he had to say about Dr. Moffat in introducing him was this. That he knew the pearls, the diamond fields of South Africa very well. He said he had moved in this area and he moved in that area and he knew all about the diamond fields. And Dr. Moffat got up to speak. He deemed it necessary to disabuse those present of any exceptional knowledge of or of interest in diamonds as such. Oh yes he said. He had often walked across those diamond fields and had even been reported as having trampled. He was too busy with what was in front of him to look what was under his feet. He was too busy in the quest of souls to look for diamonds he said. When after that meeting a young woman asked him to sign her autograph. Look he put the same message in different words and different metaphors when he wrote this. My album is a savage breath. Where darkness reigns and tempts the right. And points to realms both bright and fair. Is my supreme delight. Oh can you see the picture? Can you see this good man running over diamond fields? Christ was lord of himself. Lord of his time. I'm going to ask you this morning without any apology whatsoever on him the lord. You need a very good reason to withhold the crown from the head. You need a very good reason to withhold giving the honor of lordship to the one whom God has exalted to be a prince and a savior. A king of kings and lord of lords. Why should you be out of step with me? There's only one reason. Because of sin. Some of you have been with us as we have gone through this series. And it may well be this morning that you're prepared. You feel in your heart of hearts you ought to do something. And you ought in a way you never have before. Acknowledge the sheer unrivaled lordship of Jesus Christ. And by way of your attitude before him put your life into his hands. Maybe that some of you visitors today and the theme has shaken you a little bit. And you don't quite know what to do. Well, that's no excuse for not doing anything. Because it's not the preacher that asks you to. Your days are fast fleeting too even though you're on vacation. You may never get that home. But you will meet your God. And you're answerable to him what you do with your life even on vacation. I ask you this morning with all solemnity and with a sense of privilege. Join me in placing the crown on his brow. As far as we can. In acknowledging him to be not only the Lord but my Lord. Do it in your heart. Do it definitely. Don't put the decision off. Do it whilst you're in the house of God. Last week we were seeing how the Apostle Paul asked Christians to put money aside on the first day of the week. Why? In the context of the death and resurrection of our Lord which we commemorate every Lord's Day. That's the time to make your sacrifice. That's the time. You see the world will bring its influence in upon you. And it will dampen every fervor. And it will take the desire away from you. Says Paul every Lord's Day set it aside when you're thinking of the glory of your Savior. He died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. And he's alive forever more. That's the time. My friend that's the time for you to put the crown on his brow. In your heart do it now. Sitting where you are. When you go home write it down on a piece of paper. Put it in your Bible. Make a note of it. Tell your wife or your husband or your children or your whatever about it. You've done it. And you ask for their prayers that you'll be able to keep it up. We don't normally do this kind of thing here. But I want to say this morning if you, if you feel it would be a help to you. Come right down these aisles. Kneel at this communion table. Make your vow before God. These truths are not just to be heard. They're to be obeyed. And if it helps any man or woman, old or young, fellow or girl. If it helps you this morning to clinch this. We are going to sing. At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. You bow your knee. And bow your neck. And crown him Lord of all. Then do so. Do so as we sing this great hymn. We'll turn to it immediately.