Jesus is Lord Bow to Him

One of my favorite Bible commentaries is Believer's Bible Commentary, written by the late William McDonald. Bill and I were good friends and we often talked about what true Christianity was. I want to read you some comments of his today about what he wrote regarding the lordship of Jesus Christ and today's diluted gospel.

Bill was spot on when he said the following. We want to keep the message simple, uncluttered by any suggestion that man can ever earn or deserve eternal life. Justification is by faith alone, apart from the deeds of the law.

Therefore, the message is only belief. From there, the message is reduced to a concise formula. For instance, the evangelistic process is cut down to a few basic questions and answers as follows.

Do you believe you are a sinner? Yes. Do you believe Christ died for sinners? Yes. Will you receive him as Savior? Yes.

Then you are saved. I am? Yes, the Bible says you are saved. At first blush, the method and the message might seem above criticism.

But on closer study, we are forced to have second thoughts and to conclude that the gospel has been oversimplified. The first flaw is the missing emphasis on repentance. There can be no true conversion without conviction of sin.

A second serious omission is a missing emphasis on the Lordship of Christ, Jesus' first Lord, then Savior. A third defect in the message is the tendency to keep the terms of discipleship hidden until a decision has been made for Jesus. Our Lord never did this.

The message he preached included the cross as well as the crown. The result of all this is that we have people believing without knowing what they believe. In many cases, they have no doctrinal basis for their decision.

They do not know the implications of commitment to Christ. They have never experienced the mysterious, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration. I agree with what Bill McDonald had to say.

Listen, friends, we have to admit that in your day and mine, the gospel has been cheapened to make it easier for folks to swallow. We've made it too easy to become a Christian today when Jesus never made it easy. Rather, he said, Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

What modern evangelism has done in your day and mine is to make the straight gate a lot wider and make it easier for folks to get into heaven a lot easier than Jesus made it to be. The gate of which Jesus spoke of was hard to find and harder still to get into, and the passageway was narrow. Self must be denied, and one must bow to his Lordship in surrender of all they have, not holding anything back, for whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

My message today, friends, is entitled, Jesus is Lord, Bow to Him. And my text is found in Paul's letter to the Philippians in chapter 2 and verses 9 through 11. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

You see, friends, the gospel of the Son of God has been so cheapened by modern evangelism that it doesn't even resemble itself anymore. I really believe that the greatest tragedy in our day in regard to evangelism is the omission of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. This is hot territory.

There is a battle line drawn here. A lot of feuds have begun over this. When you have seminaries teaching an only-believed gospel, you omit the need of repentance and Christ's Lordship.

We have separated Jesus into two things today, Savior and Lord, and we have made two things out of one. Jesus is Lord and Savior. He is both.

You cannot separate them. If you want Jesus to be your Savior, you must bow to him as Lord. If you don't, friend, then you sit upon a false bottom of carnal security and a false profession of faith.

Let me read you our text from Philippians. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and 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. Now, if you want to get out your pocketknife and whittle down the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man, then you go ahead.

But you will be treading dangerous territory, because the souls of men are at stake. We must return, friends, to the real gospel, which declares the Lordship of Jesus Christ and man's duty of repentance. Christ is Lord, and if you want him, you must come to him where he is, at the right hand of the Father.

He sits on a throne. He is exalted. He is Lord.

Our text says that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Listen, friend. Jesus is Lord.

Bow to him. Our trouble today is we have changed the wording of the gospel and made it something it is not. Your typical pastor or evangelist will talk about accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but you today will be honest with you and talk about surrendering to Christ's absolute authority in your everyday living.

Christ must be Lord of all in your life, friend. You don't just accept Jesus as your personal Savior and still hug your sins in rebellion to him. You must do what the gospel declares, take up your cross, and live a life of denying yourself and following him.

Jesus must be Lord of all, or he isn't Lord at all in your life. You can't divide him into two things, Savior and Lord, and take the one and leave the other alone. No, you acknowledge his Lordship and bow to him and submit to all his rights and claims on your life.

He is now a complete master. You see, friend, when a person receives the Lord Jesus savingly, something happens. Self is dethroned and another is enthroned there.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you either believe that or you don't, but be careful about swallowing some evangelist gospel invitation to you without reading the Bible for yourself and seeing what it really says in regard to salvation. Listen, friend, the Jesus of the Bible is Lord of all, and a salvation that does not enthrone him is not God's so great salvation.

The devil has done a good job at cheating in the gospel. So sinful man will believe himself to be a Christian and serving God when in reality he's still in the kingdom of darkness and serving Satan. Satan wants to deceive the masses with a religion that has no rights or claims upon a person.

So you can take Jesus as a savior and remain in your sins. But Jesus never preached a sin and religion. Rather, he said, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

And if you have never experienced repentance toward God, then Jesus is addressing you, friend, that you will perish into a burning and everlasting place of misery and torment called hell. Now, I'll have a fight on my hands with this one because the majority today believe otherwise. But just because the majority believes a thing doesn't mean that thing is right.

Some pulpits will be close to me because I preach the lordship of Jesus Christ and the need of repentance. A lot of pulpits would close themselves to that message for it's too strict, too severe, too harsh. But those are in the same group of individuals who would gladly accept the rich young ruler and make them chairman of the deacons because they have widened the gate and made the way more broad than it should be.

It was prophesied of Jesus and Isaiah that every knee should bow and every tongue confess him. And that is what the apostle Paul is referring to here in our passage in Philippians. Listen, friend, if you don't submit to the Lord Jesus Christ's throne rights in your life every day, you are not facing the fact of his authority over you in salvation.

He must be a complete master. Your life is not your own. Your time is not your own.

Your body is not your own. Your money is not your own. The Lord Jesus has all rights and claims to you and all you have.

Do you believe that or are you going to reject that? Listen, friend, the Lordship of Christ is a reality whether you like it or not. The Lordship of Christ is a reality whether you submit to him or not. But if you do not bow to him now as Lord, one day future, you will bow to him then when he makes his enemies a footstool.

If you reject his Lordship, you stand with the same crowd in the Bible who cried out, we will not have this man reign over us. Perhaps there is a point of rebellion in your life, friend, where you have driven a stake in the ground and told God that he can have all but that one thing. You refuse to surrender that one thing.

And it's a place of rebellion in your life that has not been submitted to his Lordship. It's open rebellion to a king and God will have no rebels in his kingdom. If you want Jesus, you must come to him as Lord and throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the feet of a sovereign.

What would you say if an earthly king had a man in his court who was a traitor to the crown? A king demands subjection. A king rules. How can you live your life in rebellion to God and believe yourself a Christian? Now, there is a difference between a backslider and a hypocrite.

A backslider is a sheep who has gotten off in a ditch somewhere and he needs a shepherd to fetch him back. The sheep needs the grace of repentance to reenter fellowship with the shepherd. But a hypocrite wants the glory and benefits of heaven and still wants to sit on the throne of his life and rule there as king.

And the gospel of our day will let you do that. But God won't. American Christianity has stripped Jesus of his Lordship.

But if you want Christ savingly, friend, you must come to him on bended knees with a surrendered life and bow to him as Lord. Jesus is Lord. Don't be deluded by the diluted gospel of this day, which has been watered down and cheapened, and in the process has cheapened the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The gospel of our day will allow you to accept a Jesus who can relieve you of the guilt of sin while you remain in it. And it's a no gospel gospel. The real gospel, friend, has power to save.

And Jesus came to save his people from their sins. He saves us from the penalty of sin and the power of sin. But he must be Lord.

You cannot separate his Saviorhood from his Lordship and still preach the true gospel. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is a fact. And men do not make Christ Lord, for God has made him Lord of all.

The Christ of the Bible must reign in your life, friend. He is a living Lord. And for you to be saved, you must be united to a living Lord.

Maybe it's time, like my friend Bill McDonald said, and we must be honest with folks and tell them that the Christian life is more than an acceptance of Christ as a personal Savior, that there is a cross in Christianity that must be taken up and self must be nailed upon it, for there is only room for one to rule over the human heart, and it's either self or Christ the Lord. Jesus is Lord. Bow to him.

Remember, friend, Christ must be all in all or not at all. The Apostle Paul declares in Romans that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Our response to a Lord is found in one word, and that word is obedience.

For Jesus spoke of those who were in a false profession from the passage found in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 7, which states, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Friend, Jesus is Lord. Bow to him.