1 Corinthians 1, 1 Corinthians 1, and I'll begin reading at the verse number 1. Let's hear God's word. Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God and Sothenus, our brother, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth to them, that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that ye come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful, by whom Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say. And every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius. Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household of Sophanus. Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved. It is the power of God. Let's pray. Our gracious and loving Father, we thank Thee for Thy word. We rejoice, Lord, again that we're found around it. We thank Thee for a people who desire to hear the word of God. Lord, they do not desire any other form of entertainment. They desire no other form, O God, of worship, but simply the preaching of the everlasting gospel and of the word of God. Lord, I pray, therefore, that thou wilt help this preacher. Lord, come now and fill me with thy spirit. And as the day goes on and as the sermon progresses and as the service continues, God's voice will be very much heard and that there might be a yielding to that voice and a willingness to receive that which we have already read in the Scriptures and that which will be preached today. So answer prayer, close us now in with thee. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's holy name. Amen and amen. The taxing that forced Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem was Caesar Augustus' most obvious impact on biblical history. His birth name was Gaius Octavius. He was the nephew, he was the adopted son, and he was the hand-picked successor to Julius Caesar. Upon Julius' death, Octavius, as he was then called, had to fight to consolidate his control. But when he eventually secured his position as the first Roman emperor, he reigned the longest of any of the Caesars, in Julius' line, reigning from 63 BC to 14 AD. Octavian was given the name Augustus. It means great, venerable. It also means worthy of reverence. implying that he himself was worthy of worship. With the title, the divine Julius being conferred on his father, Julius Caesar, by the Roman Senate, this led to his adopted son, Octavian, to be known as son of God, son of the God. It was a title that Augustus readily and happily embraced. Coins were issued by Augustus, featuring his image alongside inscriptions such as Divine Caesar and Son of God. Those coins would have featured and circulated throughout the Roman Empire, proclaiming the emperor's supposed divinity. Such a claim, however, contravened a claim of another historical figure at that time, Jesus of Nazareth. For he too claimed to be the divine Son of God. And so you can imagine the tension that started to arise between Christianity and the Roman agencies and the government agencies as Christians claimed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, while the Romans were claiming that Caesar was the Son of God. This tension would cause the early New Testament believers into, as it were, a collision course with the Roman authorities. As a test of their loyalty to the Roman governor, every citizen of the Roman Empire had to take, once a year, a handful of incense, and sprinkle that incense on an altar before the watchful eyes of government officials, and publicly recite the following formula. Caesar, curios. Caesar, is Lord. Caesar is Lord. Now by the early New Testament, Christians had no difficulty in obeying the civil magistrates of the day because they were taught that by the Apostle Paul and by the words of Jesus Christ. They had no difficulty in paying their taxes again, that which was taught in the New Testament scriptures. They had no difficulty with living at peace with the civil authorities of the day. They had no problem with regard to praying for their king and to all who were in authority. Again, New Testament teaching. However, the line was crossed. The line was crossed when they were called upon to call Caesar Lord. And at that point, the early New Testament Christians said, no, Caesar is simply Caesar. We'll pay our taxes. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. We'll call him whatever you want us to call him, but we will not call him Curios. We will not call him Lord." And so whenever some of the Christians were called upon to recite the particular formula, Caesar, Curios, they responded by saying these words, Isos, Ho, Curios. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. To declare that meant their martyrdom. to declare that Jesus Christ as Lord became a crime punishable by death. One man who suffered that fate was a man called Polycarp. At the age of 86 years of age, Polycarp, the second Bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of the Apostle John, was brought in before the Roman authorities and ordered to confess that Caesar was Lord. If he did it, his life would be spared, but Polycarp decided that he would refuse. And as a result, declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord, he was murdered and inspired many others to remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. The early confession of the New Testament Christian was that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that confession, brethren and sisters, remains the confession of every true and genuine believer in Jesus Christ. Every Christian confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. Eighty-five times in our New Testament Scriptures, Jesus Christ is referred to by the inspired penman, and writers as the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, the portion of scripture that we read today and we took time to read today, we find that formulation of terms on four separate occasions. Look at verse number three, verse number three, grace be on to you and peace from our God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 7, so that ye come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse number 8, who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 10, now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In verse number two we find, as it were, a little alteration, but the same kind of thought, for we read there at the end of verse number two, Jesus Christ our Lord. And you'll find that once again presented in the verse number nine. Unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The apostle Paul, as he comes to pen this first epistle, to a church that was wrecked by division, and by schism, and by heresy, and by false teaching with regard to many an issue, the Apostle Paul comes to declare that what I am writing, I do so in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I write in the name of the Lord of the church, the one who is Lord over His church. is the one that I now write. I'm not writing in my name, I'm not writing in the name of the presbytery body, but I am writing these things in the name of the Lord. The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. It would do well that all that we have read already would be put into practice. For it is the word of the Lord. It's the Lord's word. And we have come to hear the Lord's word today. Now, we have taken this statement, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to look at that first term simply today as this meeting progresses. I want to think about this term, Lord. When you think of first a number of things with me in this service, I want to think about the occurrence of the term, and then we'll want to think about what the term actually means. And then we'll think about the implications that flow out of the fact that Jesus Christ, He's Lord. He's Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. We think about the implications that flow out of that into our lives. Let's think about, first of all, the titles of occurrence in the Scripture. The term Lord appears with tremendous frequency in the New Testament Scriptures. In fact, it's a word that is found 728 times in the books that comprise the New Testament Scriptures. We'll not listen and we'll not hear them all today. The Apostle Paul, he uses the term 229 times in his letters and in his epistles. But every time you read the word Lord in the New Testament Scriptures, you need to remember that not every occurrence of the word is a direct reference to the second person of the Holy Trinity. You see, this Greek term kurios, this Greek term Lord, was used by the New Testament writers in three different ways. First of all, it reflects the secular use of the word, such as the Lord, or the owner of a vineyard, or a master of slaves, or even a political leader. An example of that kind of usage is found there in Matthew 20, verse 8, where the Savior, He tells the parable, off the vineyard owner, and this is how it reads, So when even was come, the Lord off the vineyard said unto his steward, Call the labors, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. Now that's not referring initially to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that there is reference to him, and there is a type there. The Lord Jesus Christ is pictured in that, but initially it's speaking simply about the owner, the Lord off the vineyard. The second time it's used, it's used of God the Father. Usage is seen particularly in the New Testament quotations of Old Testament scriptures where the word Lord stands in for the name Jehovah. For example, Paul in Romans chapter 8, or chapter 4 verse 8, he says, That's a direct reference from Psalm 32 in the verse number 2, which reads this way, But the word Lord in Psalm 32 is in the capital letters. It's referring us to God, Jehovah. And thus, when we find this word Lord in the New Testament, L-O-R-D small letters, it's simply referring to God the Father. There's reference to God the Father. The third reference or the third time it's used to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm told, reliably, I started to count and I just didn't have time to do it, but I'm told that 489 times in the New Testament, the word Lord refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. A very prominent example of that is with regard to Thomas. Thomas, having met the risen Christ, viewed his hands and viewed the kneel prince in his feet, Thomas will say directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord, my God. He's my Lord, and he's my God. In the scriptures you come to find, in the New Testament scriptures, you'll come to find that many, Many people, many kinds of people come to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. These are beings, these are people who maybe you wouldn't just automatically think of, but yet they come to affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord. I'm thinking initially about the angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord when coming to communicate the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary, He comes to acknowledge the Savior as Lord in Luke chapter 2 in the verse 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. That same angel, the angel of the Lord, he makes another appearance, this time at the end of the Savior's earthly life and earthly ministry. When the sorrowing woman, they come to the tomb on resurrection morning, they meet the angel of the Lord. And that angel, he makes the following declaration to them, he is not here for he is risen and come see the place where the Lord lay, where the Lord lay. And so I want you to get into your mind that he was Lord pre-Calvary and he's Lord post Calvary. But to complete the picture, I want you to turn to Luke chapter 23. Luke's gospel chapter 23. Look there at the verse number 42. The speaker here is the dying thief. In Luke chapter 23, in the verse number 42, And the dying thief, he says these words, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. He was Lord pre-Calvary, he was Lord post-Calvary, and he was Lord at Calvary, because he's always Lord. He's always Lord. He's always been Lord. And He continues to be Lord. There was a Roman centurion. We read of him in Matthew chapter 8. Now this Roman centurion, this was the man who was supposed to be enforcing in the nation the official line that Caesar was Lord. That was part of his job. He was engaged in that, trying to enforce it within the nation. This official line, Caesar is Lord, Caesar is Lord. But here's an unnamed Roman centurion in Matthew 8 in the verse 6, having found the Son of God, the centurion, he says these words unto him, Matthew 8 verse 6, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Lord, he called him Lord. Are you aware that some of the first words that came out of Saul of Tarsus' mouth, having met the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, that one of the first words that was almost out of his mouth was the word Lord. Lord, Lord, who art thou? Lord, Lord, what would thou have me to do? He doesn't make him Lord. Five years down the line. He comes to acknowledge at His conversion that He is Lord. He's Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. He who denied the Lord now comes to acknowledge the Lord. Because you see, you can't miss it, folks. Time and time again in the New Testament, you'll find this title, Lord, a title that repeatedly points us to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as Lord of all. And I want to ask you today in this house, do you know the Lord? Do you know Him savingly? Have you acknowledged Him as Lord in your life? Have you taken to heart the words of Romans 10, verse 9? That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. God requires that you call upon the name of the Lord. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved shall be saved now have you done that have you called upon the lord you say preacher i intend to do that no i'm asking you have you done that death is coming christ is going to return and soon you'll be out into god's eternity and you'll have no opportunity to acknowledge him as lord so i'm asking you today on this 21st of April 2023 24 is he lord is he lord have you acknowledged have you called upon the name of the lord are you a christian are you a christian let's move on from the occurrence of the word let's think about the meaning of this word lord you will know that jesus was the name that was given to the Lord Jesus, that was given to the second person of the Trinity at his birth. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. That's his name. The word Lord is not a name, it's a title. It's a title. But what does the title Lord actually mean? Well, the word kurios, the word Lord, it conveys the idea, now listen, It conveys the idea of one who is absolutely sovereign, absolutely sovereign. It means master. It means owner. It means the supreme one, ruler. Governor, one who possesses all authority, one who possesses all power. The title Lord is then a majestic title. It conveys to us God's sovereignty and divine power over all things. Philippians chapter 2, a passage where Paul describes and speaks and discusses the humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus Christ. We sung it in our paraphrase. It's a passage in which Christ is declared to be Lord. 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 of earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This Greek word kurios, It can mean a teacher who has authority over pupils. It can mean a master who has command over servants. It can mean a Lord who has power over all things. With Jesus Christ, all three meanings apply. He is our only teacher who has authority over his disciples. And thus when he speaks, it is our duty and it is our responsibility and it is our wisdom to listen to him. He's Lord. He's my teacher. Not only that, He is my Master, my only Master, a Master who has command over me, His servant. And so, where He says I must go, what He says I must do, I must obey Him, I must follow Him, I must listen to Him, I must take His direction, I must take the guide of my life from Him, because He is the only Master of the believer. And not only that, but He's the only Lord. who has power and authority over all. And it is for us then to submit to His authority. As the sovereign Lord over all things, both visible and invisible, He alone has the right, the right to demand the creature's obedience and the creature's submission. And so I ask you again, have you acknowledged God as the possessor and the ruler of all things, but particularly you as His child? Is He the one who has authority over your life. Is He your teacher? Is He your master? Is He your Lord? Does Jesus Christ as Lord, does He hold absolute sway over your life and over your future and over your ambitions and over your plans? Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. You're not Lord. He is Lord. He is Lord. Thus, we remember that He is the governor, He is the master, and it is for us to obey Him. But having pointed you to the fact that Jesus Christ is repeatedly referred to as Lord in the New Testament, and having explained, I trust just a little, what it means, the title means, let's consider the implications that flow from the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. And the Scripture says it. It is us for to receive it. Now, He's Lord. What are the implications of that? You know, men and women, and even some believers, they're happy to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ as being a prophet. They're happy to hear about Him being a preacher, being a teacher, being a healer, being a miracle worker, being a reformer, being Savior. But they're not so keen to hear about it whenever it's brought to their attention that He's Lord. He's Lord. They're not so keen to hear about it whenever He's preached in all of His glory. They're not so keen to hear about Him as the Exalted and as the Ascended and as the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. See, contrary to what is taught in some evangelical circles today, there is no taking of Jesus Christ as Savior without at the same moment submitting to Him as Lord. C. H. Spurgeon, he said these words, I cannot conceive it possible for anyone to truly receive Christ as Savior and not to receive Him as Lord. A man who is really saved by grace does not need to be told that he's under solemn obligations to serve Christ. The new life within tells him that. Instead of regarding it as a burden, he gladly surrenders himself, body, soul, and spirit to the Lord who has redeemed him, reckoning this to be his reasonable service. Jesus Christ is more than a good example. Jesus Christ is more than a friend. Jesus Christ is more than a teacher. Jesus Christ is more than a religious leader. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord. And when it comes to salvation, you receive the whole Christ. You receive the whole Christ. The whole Christ is received when we receive Him by faith. And it is only whenever we receive the whole Christ that we're actually genuinely converted. A person is converted when they believe on and when they receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just Jesus. And not just Jesus Christ. But the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you the biblical evidence of that. Paul and Silas are in the jail in Philippi. The jailer comes in, the earthquake has happened, he's about to take his own life, and he asks Paul and Silas this question, what must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas, they reply in unison, believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You take the whole Christ. You take the whole Christ. You take him as Savior, but you take him also as Lord. You take him as your advocate, and your redeemer, and your friend, and your teacher, and your master, and your owner. You take him as Lord as well. You take him all, or you leave him. That's a choice that is made. I heard this illustration once. I thought, maybe, well, it maybe brings it easier to understand. Just imagine I came to your home, and I knocked on your door, and you asked from inside, who is it? And I replied from outside, David Stewart, You wouldn't say to me, David, come in, Stuart, stay out. You wouldn't say that. David, you're welcome, but Stuart, you're not welcome. What happens is that either I come in in my entirety or I stay out in my entirety. I come in as David, Stuart, the entirety of my being. It's all of me or nothing. It's all of me or nothing on that occasion. And can I say the same is true when it comes to your acceptance of Jesus Christ. It's all of Him or nothing, folks. It's all of Him or nothing. Jesus Christ comes into your life as Savior and as Lord. The whole Christ comes. All of Him. He doesn't progressively come into your life in installments. He doesn't first come in as Savior, and then a few years down the line, he comes in as Lord. No, he comes into your life as Savior and as Lord. Paul was converted on the Damascus Road, and he acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord there and then. There and then. Not 10 years down the road when the work of sanctification has been going on well, going on fast. You come to some kind of crisis in your life, He is Lord. And whenever you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you also took Him as your Lord. You took Him as your Lord. He comes into your life as Savior and as Lord, and it's about time that we started to live in the truth of that, brethren and sisters. We receive the whole Christ. When we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and salvation, This is what we're doing. We're forfeiting our own rights. Before salvation, we thought ourselves to be the master of our soul, but really we find ourselves under the dominion and the power of Satan and under sin. But whenever you become a Christian, you forfeit your rights. There's no new master. We were simply saying when we come to Christ that we're no longer our own, we're confessing as it were that we're under new management. As believers we now obey and we now follow and we now serve and we now love a new master. One preacher put it like this, when you say Jesus is Lord, you're saying I live for him and not for myself. You're saying that He's ruler over my life. To say Jesus is Lord is to say He's Lord over my time. He's Lord over my resources. He's Lord over my tongue. He's Lord over my work. He's Lord over my children. He's Lord over my spouse. He's Lord over my checkbook. He's Lord over my recreation. I'm now under new management. The entirety of all that I have belongs to Jesus Christ. To confess that Jesus Christ is Lord means that I'm now on a new path. I have a new master. I have new companions. I have new goals. I have a new agenda in my life. I have a new direction. The Christian who lives in light of the fact that Jesus is Lord will understand then that it's not left for them to decide how they live their lives. The Christian who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord will have no difficulty in submitting themselves to the teaching of God's Word An acknowledgment of Christ's lordship is logically accompanied by submission to Jesus Christ's authority. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then he owns us. And if he owns us, he has the right to tell us what we ought to do. The Savior, during his earthly ministry, encountered people who claimed that Jesus Christ was Lord, but their lives demonstrated quite the opposite. Rather than the Lord Jesus Christ sweeping that glaring anomaly under the carpet, the Lord Jesus Christ confronted the people about it. Luke 6, verse 46, the Son of God, He asked the question, Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Now, the Lord Jesus Christ could have very easily as it were, turned a blind eye to this, this anomaly that was happening. There were people going about, Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is my Lord, Jesus Christ is my Lord, and yet they were living contrary to what he said. And Jesus Christ confronted them about it. And I am here to confront you as God's servant. I'm here to confront you about your claim to Christ's Lordship over your life. and asked you the same question as Jesus Christ, why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? The Savior called out the inconsistency between what their lips were saying and what their lives were showing. And I wonder, is there a similar inconsistency in our lives? We claim that Jesus Christ is Lord. But our conduct suggests at times otherwise. Jesus Christ is my Lord. He's my Lord. That's what you would say. He's my Lord. He's Lord of my life. That's what you would say. But I'll do with my money, and I'll do with my time, and I'll do with my talents, and my gifts, and my body as I please. But Jesus Christ is my Lord. It's hardly consistent with the term Lord and what it means. To the person who would take such an approach to life, I would say to you that the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, found in Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23, need to be considered more closely by you. Because in Matthew chapter 7, in verse 21 to 23, Jesus Christ said, 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 unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Who is it that demonstrates that Christ is Lord according to the Son of God? Who is it that demonstrates that Jesus Christ is Lord? It is those who do the will of the Father. They do the will of the Father. They do what the Father has said through the Son. That's the evidence that He's Lord. I care not about your profession as a child. I care not about your profession as an adult. All I care about is that Christ is your Lord, that He is your Savior, and that you are doing the will of God the Father. You're doing what He tells you to do. The question I put to myself, as I put to you, is whose will are you concerned about doing? Is it your own will or is it the Father's will? It's very easy to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Too easy in the 21st century. Take yourself back to the first century. Take yourself back to the time when the Roman authorities came around the neighborhood, knocked every door, brought out a little bowl of incense, and required every person to take a little piece of incense and place it on the fire and declare that Caesar is Lord. Take yourself back then. What are you going to do? Is Jesus Christ Lord? For if you declare him to be Lord, most likely you're going to be impounded and imprisoned, and you might eventually make your way to Rome, and you might actually be torn apart by lions in the Colosseum. It's easy to say that Jesus Christ is Lord. When the price has to be paid, is he really? Is he really Lord? It's easy to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but when a meeting in God's house conflicts with a gym session, when a meeting in God's house conflicts with a European football match, when a meeting in God's house conflicts with a favorite television program, with an extra work shift, With a night out with the friends? Is he Lord? Is he Lord? Our attendance in God's house, it's not, as it were, the high watermark with regard to our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. We should desire to be in God's house, but is he Lord on those occasions? I know that sickness at times can take people away. I understand that. I'm speaking about, you know what I'm speaking about. And can I say, brethren and sisters, that I struggle as much with this as you do. Any Wednesday night, I could sit at home. Thursday night, Friday night. I could do other things. But He's my Lord. And He's your Lord. I know He is. And it's always that tension, isn't it? And it's difficult. And the old flesh, it wants to be pleased. Of course it does. But it all comes back to this. He's my Lord. and He's also my God. And maybe today in the quietness of all of our hearts, and I say this to me, I honestly, I say this to myself, brethren and sisters, maybe I just need to get before the Lord and just once again acknowledge Him as Lord. And maybe you just say, I'm not Lord of my life anymore. Lord, you are, you're Lord of my life. We're not our own, brethren and sisters, we've been bought with a price. And whenever we're convinced of that and when we come then to appreciate the price that Jesus Christ prayed for our salvation, we'll have no difficulty in acknowledging in both lip and life that he is Lord, he is Lord. And as we do that, brethren and sisters, we need to remember the extent of His Lordship. He's not Lord over part of our lives. He's not Lord over the vast majority of my life. He's Lord of all my life, all of it. He's Lord in my personal life. He's Lord in my marriage. He's Lord in my employment. He's Lord of every part of my life. He's Lord of all. Acts 10, verse 36. Romans 10, 12. He's Lord over all. He's Lord of the Sabbath. What will you do for the rest of the Lord's day? Is he Lord? Is he Lord? He ought to be. He ought to be. And therefore, in light of his absolute Lordship, it is for us to love him, because, brethren and sisters, he's the best Lord. You should know that. If you're a true believer, you were once under the mastership or the lordship of sin and Satan. You know what it was like. But what a Lord he is. It's a little bit like that servant there in the Old Testament. Remember, he serves the master for seven years. And he has the opportunity to go out and to be freed from the servitude of the master. And he says, no, he says, I love, I love my master. Because he found himself under the greatest Lord. Why would you want to go anywhere else? Why would you want to serve any other Lord than Him? For He's the Lord of glory. He's the Lord of lords. He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of all, and therefore we love Him and we obey Him and we serve Him. For there is no better Lord than He is. Jesus Christ is Lord. But is He your Lord? Can you say with Thomas today, my Lord, my God? Maybe there's somebody in this meeting and you're waiting. You're waiting for another more convenient season to submit yourself to the Savior, to His lordship and salvation. I trust that there's no one here who waits for the day of Christ's appearing to confess that He is Lord, because if you wait until that day, such a confession has to be prized out of you, as it were, against your will. that Jesus Christ is Lord, it will be a confession of Christ's Lordship that is too late, because every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. As Lord over all, If you wait until that day to receive Him, it will be too late. To acknowledge Him as Lord, it'll be too late. But as Lord over all, He will then see to your condemnation, and He will see to your damnation. For you had failed to acknowledge Him, Lord of your life. He's my Lord. It impacts everything that we do. It impacts who we marry, where we work, what part of the service of God we engage in. It involves our home life, our educational life. It involves our recreational life. He's Lord, and I want to keep him as Lord. I want to acknowledge Him as Lord in how I live, not just by what I say, but how I live. I want to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is my Lord. He's my Lord. And then just do what your Lord tells you to do. I can only give you counsel. Some of that counsel may not be as you would have it to be, But if it's in the Scripture, do what your Lord tells you to do, for that's where you'll find your greatest joy. That's where you will find your greatest fulfillment. That's where you will get to know God as you live your life under His Lordship. May God bless His word to our hearts. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our gracious, loving Father, we rejoice today that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord of His church. He's Lord of creation. He's Lord of the Sabbath. He's Lord over all. He's Lord of all. Oh, that we will all be able to say that He is my Lord and He is my God. will help us, Lord, to live in the light of the fact that Christ comes to us in salvation as the Lord Jesus Christ. We receive him as our Lord and as our master. And therefore, the words of Mary, there at the marriage in Cana, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. May we obey the Lord in all things. May I obey the Lord in all things. Lord, I struggle with this. Help me, Lord. Help me. Help me with my flesh, Lord. The old nature, the old man, help me, I pray. May I live my life as one under the lordship of another, under the control of another, under, as it were, the mastering of another, and help, Lord, those who know thee not as Saviour and as Lord. Today they come and say, Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Saviour, and He is my God. Lord, we offer prayer in and through this evening.