Sermon Tone Analysis

Law of Lordship

HEAVEN'S FIXED LAWS

Ron Dunn

1 Peter 3:14-16

 

But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye:  and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:  Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good behavior in Christ.

Now, let me read the fifteenth verse again.

The King James Version reads like this:  but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts:  The Greek text reads this way, and I think most of your translations read this way:  but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts:  and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.

When you buy a new automobile or a new television set, a new washing machine, dryer, or refrigerator, the manufacturer because he knows more about it than anyone else includes with that item a little booklet or pamphlet called "Owner's Manual" or "Operating Instructions."

A great many of us have at times launched out with some new piece of equipment thinking we knew more than the manufacturer did, and we would just not humble ourselves and admit that we don't know anything.

We tried to operate some of these things and had to go back to the operator's manual and admit that sure enough the man who made the machine knows the best way to operate it and to run it.

I hold in my hand operating instructions provided by the manufacturer of your life.

I can assure you that when you have tried to operate your life without following the manufacturer's instructions, you have always ended up in a dead end.

Time and time again it has been proven to me that the only time my life has ever derailed is when I get away from the operating instructions found in this book.

There are certain laws and principles and rules for operation that God lays down in this book.

A person ignores and violates these operating instructions to his own peril and to his own disaster.

The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

That word fear does not mean a cringing fear.

It doesn't mean you are scared to death of the Lord; it means that you have a high and holy reverence for God.

The beginning, the very ABCs of being smart and wise is to recognize that God is God and to have a reverential awe for him.

That person who takes his life in his own hands and says, "I will do with it as I please and lean on my own understanding," is the person who does not have any reverence for God.

When I come to the place that I reverence God and respect him and know that he is the Creator of life, the Lord of heaven and earth, I say, "Lord, I reverence you.

I respect you.

I know that you understand all about me.

You made me.

You know my thoughts even before I think them.

You hear my words even before I speak them.

So I am going to bow and submit to you and take your instructions and operate my life according to them."

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

The person who takes the Word of God, those operating instructions, and lives his life accordingly is a wise man.

For the person who ignores the Word of God, it makes no difference how many college degrees he has or how smart and intelligent he is, the Bible says that man is a fool.

We have been talking about some of heaven's fixed laws.

I am going to speak to you this morning on what I consider to be the basic law of all human life.

This law is woven into the fabric of every part of human existence.

To me, it is the foundation of all that God is, and of all God does and of all God wants to do in your life.

The person who gets right in this one area will be right clean across the board.

The person who misses this one area will fail utterly in every area of his life.

Heaven's fixed law is a law of Lordship—the Law of Lordship.

That law, as I said a moment ago, is woven into the fabric of every part of our lives.

This is what God was trying to say to Adam and Eve at the very beginning of human history when he said of all the trees in the Garden you may eat.

They are yours.

Take care of them, till the ground, replenish the earth.

I've made abundant provision for everything in your life.

But that one tree you shall not eat of it.

Now, what was God saying?

God was saying that tree is a symbol of my sovereignty.

As long as you acknowledge my Lordship over your life and over this garden, everything will be all right.

But the day in which you eat of that tree, the day in which you violate the law of Lordship and sovereignty, that's the day you will die.

That very day when Adam and Eve violated that basic law of Lordship, they died spiritually.

As a result, physical death came upon them.

God has planned that every part of our lives be built around this law of Lordship.

Where this law is not present, you have anarchy and chaos.

Can you imagine what government would be like if there were not the principle of Lordship?

If there was not the principle of sovereignty in government, can you imagine what it would be like?

If every man could do as he pleased, if every man was able to do what was right in his own eyes, not one of us would be safe.

We are not very safe as it is, but can you imagine what would happen if everybody was free to drive like they wanted to?

They could drive up MacArthur Boulevard as fast as they wanted to.

Nobody would say a word.

If somebody wanted to break into your home, take your possessions, beat you up and kill you, nobody could say a word because the law of Lordship has been violated.

If a government does not acknowledge the law of sovereignty and authority, you will have anarchy.

What about in the home?

If the law of Lordship is not found in the home, you are going to have chaos and rebellion.

God said the man, the husband, is the head and the parents are the head.

I mentioned to someone the other day that nowadays it is the children who are bringing up the parents.

And they are not doing a very good job of it either.

I've seen some of these parents these children have raised, and they are not very fine specimens.

They are not doing any better at raising the parents than the parents have done raising the children.

In the home where the law of Lordship is not observed and yielded to, that home is going to be a breeding place of chaos and rebellion.

God has ordered it so.

He has woven Lordship into the fabric of government.

He has woven Lordship into the fabric of home life.

I want you to know the only way your home can be as God intended it to be, to be blessed and happy and fruitful, is for that home to be acknowledging the law and principle of authority and Lordship.

What about in the school?

You still have the principle of Lordship there.

How much studying do you think would be done, and what would the grades be if the teacher said we are not going to tell you what to do or ever grade you.

We are just going to let you do as you please.

If you want to come up here every day and color cartoons, that's all right.

Or if you want to stand up and throw spitballs at each other, that is all right.

Or if you don't even want to come to school, do your own thing, that's all right too.

Can you imagine what would happen in a high school or college classroom if everybody did what was right in their own eyes?

The law of Lordship must be present in the school if it is going to be successful.

I'll tell you why we are having so many problems in the government, in homes, in schools, and in universities.

It is because people are rebelling against authority.

The one chief characteristic of Satan is rebellion against authority.

He said, "I want to be like the Most High God."

That meant he didn't want to be answerable to anyone except himself.

If want you to know that it is distinguishing mark of our age.

I don't want to be answerable to anybody but myself.

I don't want to answer to the government.

I don't want to answer to mom and dad.

I don't want to answer to the teacher.

I don't want to answer to anybody but to myself.

The widespread rebellion that is sweeping across our country today is nothing more than a Satanic attack upon the laws of God.

This is setting everything up for the anti-Christ to come in because he will set up a reign of lawlessness.

What about your business?

Some of you men own businesses and you have employees.

The principle of Lordship and authority must operate in a business.

What if you said to your employees, "Whatever you want to do is all right.

If you want to work on this, that's okay.

I'm not going to tell you what to do.