529 -1 CHRIST – LORD OF ALL?
January 27, 1980
Henry F. Kulp
Here we have a very special passage that every believer should know and put into practice in his life.
1/ To start with, I’d like to ask you two questions. Two very important questions.
a/ I want you to look at your life, and ask why are you living?
b/ Why did Christ die?
These two questions may not seem be related but they are. They go together. To answer the first one, you have to answer the second one. I am sure many people think Christ died just to save them, to get them a place in Heaven. To spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus Christ. But that is not true.
2/ The book of Romans is a very basic book. When a believer comes to me and says, what book should I read? I usually tell them, read and study the book of Romans. Romans is a book of doctrine that every believer needs to understand.
3/ Romans starts out by talking about all of humanity. Here we are given a very remarkable bit of information. Man discovers there is a barrier between Man and God. He discovers that all kinds of men are behind that barrier. The immoral man, the moral man, the religious man, as a matter of fact all who are born into the world, are born behind that barrier, and we find that barrier has separated them from God.
4/ The immoral man recognizes himself for what he is. And the immoral man is easier to reach for salvation than the moral man or religious man, but all are in the same boat. All are behind this barrier.
5/ This barrier, of course, is sin. Not just personal sin, but the fact that man is a born sinner. He is born in Adam, and has inherited Adam’s sinful nature.
6/ Romans shows that the Lord Jesus Christ removed this barrier by His death on the cross of calvary, and that we are saved by grace plus nothing. We are saved by faith in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of calvary.
7/ But now we come to the 14th chapter and God is talking to the believer - one who has had this barrier removed by Jesus Christ’s death on the cross of Calvary, and there are two types of believers in this 14th chapter – The weak believer and the strong believer. The weak believer is a legalist. The strong believer is a grace believer.
8/ The weak believer believes he is spiritual by what he does not eat, and then he thinks he is spiritual by esteeming certain days. The strong believer does not esteem special days, but he considers every day a day of the Lord. Every morning when he wakes up, he considers this as a day of the Lord, a special day, a day in which the One, the Lord Jesus Christ can use him.
9/ In verses 7 - 9 he shows the principal that will enable us to be strong in the Lord and will keep us from being legalist but will make us grace believers.
10/ To truly understand this verse, I want to read it to you as I would translate it from the Greek. NO ONE LIVES TO HIS OWN ADVANTAGE. This is an idiom. We do not live for our advantage. We do not live for our benefit. We are to live to glorify Him, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we have another idiom, and this again in the Greek, WE DON’T DIE TO OUR ADVANTAGE, WE DIE TO HIS ADVANTAGE. So our present life is divided into two parts as we live on this earth. The living part, the dying part. Let us look at the dying part. How often we say, when we die we are absent from the body, present with the Lord, and how wonderful this is – and it is true, but let us show you another verse.
Psalms 116: 15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saint. Why is this true? Because we die for the Lord’s advantage. He loves us so much, He wants us to be with Him. And when our work on earth is over, He takes us to be with Him.
11/ Verse 8 Let us show how this should be translated. For it is an amplification of verse 7 It explains why verse 7 is true. IF WE LIVE, WE LIVE AS THE PERSONAL POSSESSION OF THE LORD. IF WE DIE , WE DIE AS THE PERSONAL POSSESSION OF THE LORD.
Every believer is the personal possession of the Lord. No matter what kind of a believer he is – spiritual, carnal, legalistic, grace, mature or immature, he belongs to the Lord, and that is the point I want to drive home to your heart this morning. You are the possession of the Lord, whether you live or whether you die.
12/ I Corinthians 6: 19, 20 What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and you are not your own for you have been bought with a price.
God has purchased you with His blood, that is why you are His possession. So you are the personal possession of the Lord Jesus Christ.
13/ Vserse 9 The words, and rose, are not in the original, and it should read, to this end, Christ both died and revived.
Notice the words, to this end, and it simply introduces a purpose clause. Why did Christ die? Christ died for a purpose. Not just to be your Saviour, not just to see that you get to Heaven, but to be the Lord both of the dead and living. The word, Lord, means TO BECOME SOVERIEGN.
14/ The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the greatest possible subject with which our soul has to deal. I make no apology for preaching Jesus Christ as Lord. How few people recognize that He died for this purpose.
15/ To understand the Lordship of Jesus Christ, to become a Sovereign, let us notice what Jesus Christ said in Luke 10: 1, 2 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Here Jesus Christ declared Himself to be the Lord of nature. Commissioning the 70 and sending them forth, He said unto them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few, and then He called Himself the Lord of the Harvest.
This has a spiritual application, but it also has a literal interpretation. The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things John 1: 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Then Colossians 1: 16, 17 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
He is the Sustainer of the Universe. Things which we behold with our eyes did not just merely happen by chance or by some blind force. They came into being by a direct result of a creative act of Jesus Christ, and they continue by the fact that Jesus Christ sustains and holds everything together.
16/ Jesus Christ demonstrates His power over nature. Luke 8: 24 And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm.
When He rebuked the winds and the raging water, and they ceased and Scripture says there was a calm. Was it any wonder the disciples beheld this manifestation of divine power, and they cried out What manner of man is this for He commandeth even the winds and water and they obey Him. So nature all about us shows that Jesus Christ is the Master of creation, of nature.
17/ The Lordship of Jesus Christ reaches out to the world of evil spirits, there in the realm of darkness, one might be inclined to think that His authority ceased at this point. But the Word of God teaches otherwise. Psalms 139: 7, 8 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
There is no realm where His Lordship does not reach.
18/ Luke 8: 26, 27 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
Here we have the story of the maniac of Gadare, who was possessed with a legion of demons or unclean spirits. Think of it – 6,000 demons in one man. No wonder he was a terror of the whole neighborhood, and all feared him. Verses 30 - 33 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
Jesus Christ uttered a word of His power, and out they came and entered into a herd of swine which preferred suicide rather than be possessed with this army of unclean spirits. The demons were no match for Jesus Christ and could not resist Him. Only His power could deliver this man from the power of demonism.
19/ We need to realize there is no power in the universe, which is not subject to Jesus Christ in His Lordship.
20/ But to be Lord over the church, the Body of Christ, He had to die. To be able to say to the believer, both the dead, and living believers who are His possessions, He had to go to the cross of Calvary and there suffer and die and be resurrected from the grave.
21/ Now let us see how He is Lord both of the dead and the living. Acts 7: 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Here we have Stephen standing before the Sanhedrin, delivering that tremendous message to the leaders of Israel, and the result was they stoned Him, stretched out upon the ground and being stoned to death, called upon God and saying, now notice, Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit.
Undoubtedly, a few moments later, a great stone crushed his skull, and he was rushed into the presence of God. Absent from the body, present with the Lord, but in his dying statement, Stephen was bearing eloquent testimony to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the realm of death. He did not expect to take a leap in the dark, nor to step into some vast unknown region. He knew the risen Christ was waiting to receive his spirit, and that he would be in the presence of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
22/ I am sure you are familiar with doubting Thomas. John 20: 25 - 28 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
He had said, except I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe, then the Lord Jesus Christ appeared unto them again with Thomas, and He said to Thomas, Reach forward thy finger and behold my hands, reach thither thy hand and thrust it into My side. Notice what Thomas said, verse 28 My Lord and my God. Thomas recognized that Jesus Christ was Lord.
23/ It is important to see, He is not a lord as though there are thousands of others, and many other lords, but He is THE Lord. But many people brag about their self-mastery, rather than submit unto the mastery of Jesus Christ.
24/ I read the parable of the painted house, and it made a deep impression on me, so I would like to pass it along to you. I am going to paint the house, said the big can of paint, waiting, already mixed in the woodshed. No, I’m going to paint it, bristling with impatience. Oh, you are, are you, sneered the ladder lying against the wall – how far would either of you get without me? Or without me to pay the bills chimed in the check-book, in a voice muffled by the jacket of the house owner. Just then, the painter who had overheard the proud remarks, ventured to say in a word, perhaps I’d better take a holiday. I wonder if the house would be painted by the time I got back. Even the most efficient of us is only a tool in the hands of the infinite Worker.
25/ When we read verse 9 that Jesus Christ died to be Lord of the dead and the living, we can understand another Scripture, Hebrews 12: 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It talks about the joy of the cross. The joy of nails driven through His hands and feet, joy of being lifted up and being placed on a cross, a criminal’s cross. There being naked before a jeering crowd. How can there be joy in this? For a long time this passage was baffling to me, but I find the answer in the Old Testament prophecy.
26/ Isaiah 53: 3 - 6 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This is one of the greatest chapters on the death of Christ in the Bible. He was despised and rejected by man. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Than we are told He opened not His mouth, like a lamb was led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shearers is dumb, He was cut out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of His people Israel. How can there be any joy here? Then comes the answer.
Isaiah 53: 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
It was the will of His Father to bruise Him, He had put Him to grief. Here you see the Father putting the Son to death then it says, when He shall see Himself an offering for sin, He shall see His offspring, He shall prolong His days, He shall see the fruit of His travail of His soul and be satisfied.
Think of it – satisfaction, joy – the satisfaction, the joy of grief, sorrow, and suffering, Yes, a thousand times, yes, for what was the satisfaction of His travail – it was the joy of child-birth.
27/ Romans 14: 9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Now we can understand this – the Lord, thy God is a jealous God. What? Jealousy in God? Yes, in the best sense of the word. He wants to be our Lord because He knows what is best for us. Father and mother see their son enamored by a young girl who is unworthy of him. If he marries her she will wreck his life. They are concerned lest he make this mistaken and plunge into matrimony, they seek to show him the true nature of the girl, they grieve over him, they watch over him, they are jealous for him. Not for a moment are they jealous of him, nor are they jealous of the girl. Then the affair breaks up, he meets a girl who is suited to him and now the parents are joyful and welcome her as a daughter.
This is the way God is jealous over us. He wants to be Lord over us, and He is jealous for us, because He knows what is best for us. We know not how to direct our own lives, we know not what is best for us, but He does. He created us for Himself.
AMEN
Ref: 01/27/1980 529-1 CHRIST—LORD OF ALL? / June 16, 2020
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