We turn in our scriptures today to Romans chapter 14. We have been going verse by verse through this book, and today we're going to focus on verse 9. To get the context, we're going to read Romans 14, 7 through 9. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Whether we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. Cause us to understand these words, Lord. Have them to be used as sword thrusts, that thy word labor as a hammer, and may we have revealed to us the thoughts and intents of our heart. In Christ's name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. And the title of today's message is Lord of the Dead and the Living. Let's start with a little background as we've been looking at Romans chapter 14. We see that people of different religions, ethnic, social, economic, educational backgrounds are getting saved and they're all coming into the same church. That's a big city, Rome. And so you're going to have a real diversity of life experiences, of ethnic groups, religious experiences. What do you do when they all come together? New in the faith, don't learn everything in a day. They have certain sensitivities. They have certain cautions. They have certain peculiarities to their own background. Observance of certain festivals, dietary laws, ways to wash, ways to eat, ways of interacting between the genders, tender consciences toward temptations to return to the old sinful ways. This could be a real trouble as all these people come together and some who have liberty in the area look down and condescend on those who don't have liberty in that area. Haven't they learned yet? Those who are being judged react to those who are judging them concerning what are their liberties and is there no room and is this not the place of God to deal with these things? All sorts of issues can arise. And that's not an issue unique to Rome there, the church, not unique to that time period, but it's always been an issue in the church and that's why I believe we have Romans 14 written for our benefit today. There is an inclination of us people to evaluate or presume what's going on in other people. Now we are to be discerners, we have responsibility, but there is a line we can cross over. And it's not always easy to know what that line is, and yet it's so important for us to know it. This is a topic we really need to labor with the Holy Spirit's guidance. So we discern, but we do not judge. We might wonder, what did that look mean? Or are they handling this death in the right way? And why were these people late? And what does she mean by that comment? Myriad other such temptations, questions we can find. So how do we fix this destructive temptation to judge one another? Paul gives answer in verse 9 particularly. He says, for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. And if I can just sort of give a summary statement on the front end, not way to the end, he's saying, look, you see the price Christ paid that he could have this job, this job of evaluating? He'll take care of this. We all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give account of the things we did in the body, whether it be good or bad. Twice we're told that, we're told here, in this chapter. We're told it back in 2 Corinthians 5.10, same message. He'll take care of this. He's taking note. He's discerning accurately. He is going to have us stand before him. We're going to go through all of this stuff. He doesn't need our help. In fact, it would be an irreverent, disrespectful, presumptuous move to step in and help him. Not your job, if I can put it in three words, what chapter 14 title could be. Let Christ do his work. We read again in verse 9, to this end, to be Lord of all and therefore judge of all. To this end, Christ died. Think of all the torture Christ went through. It was to procure this right to judge, this right to be Lord. He paid that price. Let him have what the Father has bequeathed to him to do. The death of Christ and also the most remarkable new life of Christ, Him rising up from the dead, never to die again. These phenomenal events, two of the most remarkable events of all history, the death And the rising again of Christ, it is by that means that Christ has the right to do what is Christ's job and not ours. That's the theme here. Now, I think what I'd like to do as far as explaining the verses that we have for today is to take it in a simple who, what, when, why, and how outline. So those are going to be our five points. Who, what, when, why, and how. Let's start with who. Who is Lord? That's the question here. Who is Lord? The question has gone all through the ages. It goes back to the book of Genesis. This is the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. He says, eat the fruit of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, for ye shall be as gods. You can evolve into being the people who determine for themselves, who are their own lords. Temptation was there in the Garden of Eden. We go to the next book of the Bible, Exodus. We look at Exodus chapter 5 and verse 2. Remember there we have the words of Pharaoh, who is the head of Egypt, which represents the world. So Pharaoh could be seen as a type of the devil. And he says in Exodus 5-2, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Again, the focus is on Lord. Who is Lord that I should obey his voice? We go on to Psalm 12 and verse 4. Psalm 12 describes the disposition of the world and they say, our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? I'm going to give some statistics, the Lord willing, this afternoon about the percentages of people who believe there is any God at all. It's one of the things we learned in the seminar, because perhaps you have seen this in some of the recent polls. But in countries such as France, only 27% of the populace believe in any kind of God at all. In other words, 73% of the nation are atheists, according to this poll. And that's not unusual. We learned in our seminar, over half of all the European Union profess there is no God. Not God of the Catholics, God of the Muslims, God of Protestants. There's no God of any sort. This is the trend of our world. And so here's the temptation of the devil going farther and farther in a more expansive way to our populace. in questioning if there is any Lord. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 31. The question is, wherefore say my people, we are lords. See, that's the way we can go. We reject the lordship of Christ. Even we can suddenly do so in the home, in the workplace, in the nation, in the world, in our own souls. But the Scriptures say, 1 Timothy 6.15, that Christ is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. That's the message really in this text today. The Lordship of Jesus Christ. Who is Lord? In the home, well, I decide what we do. Well, she decides what we do. Well, the things that we enjoy, that determines what we're going to do. No, Christ is Lord. Jesus is Lord. So the who is Lord is the first question there. That's the question the world's asking. That's what's asked in the churches. That's what's asked in businesses. That's what's asked in the nation. That's what's asked in the world. That's what is asked in the soul. That's the who. Let's go on to what. What do we mean, first of all, by the word Lord? looked it up in the dictionary and it said the following, Lord is a master, a person possessing supreme power and authority, a ruler. Who is Lord? Who is the person who possesses supreme power and authority? And we see in the scriptures five attributes of a Lord, our Lord. The first is that He is our possessor. Let's go back to a familiar text, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. You all hear this? The Lord owns every believer here. owns everything about them. He owns us. This is what a Lord is. He owns all of our body. 1 Corinthians 6, starting at verse 18, why? Why should we flee fornication? The word there, porneo, from which we get the English word pornography. Why should we flee it? See, every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own soul, excuse me, against his own body. I was reading a commentary on that this week. It said any wicked thought that we allow to trail through our minds has an after effect of pollution. You just sense the dirtiness that it leaves in the soul. The opposite of what we read in Psalm 23, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That is, if the Lord is your shepherd. But if one allows himself to be exposed and to contemplate wickedness, there's an aftertrailing of pollution that follows. And so we read, we should flee wicked behavior, morality, because Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God? And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. In fact, if we were to flip over to 2 Corinthians 5.15, we see not only our bodies, but all of our life is God. He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. We don't live for ourselves anymore. We live for God. This hair is God's hair. These eyes are God's eyes. These are God's ears. This is God's tongue. These are God's hands. These are God's feet. God is my possessor. Secondly, the Lord is our planner. Would you please turn to Hebrews chapter 13? This is what we believe as Christians, so I'll try to step through these truths quickly, that he possesses us, the Lord does, that he plans for us. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath planned ahead of time, before ordained, that we should walk in them. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 21, that God make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. For every good work according to the will of God. God has a will for you, my friend. He possesses us. He plans for us. And he provides for us. There is no work that God would have us to do but that he supplies it. We came here, we had four children, soon had a fifth and then a sixth, had no sending church, very little money, but we saw God in every need, His provision. But my God shall provide all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. We read in Philippians 419. 2 Corinthians 9.8, God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound unto every good work. Every work that God lays out, he provides sufficient to get it done. He's our possessor, he's our planner, he's our provider, he's our protector. First Corinthians 10.13, we quote at times like this, telling us that there's no temptation taking us but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer us to be tempted beyond that we are able. But we are with the temptation, make the way to escape that we may be able to bear it. God is our protector. The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. He maketh us to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. He goes on to say, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. God is our protector. And that leads us to the fifth point, that God is our appraiser. And that's our point in our text here today. Romans chapter 14 and verse 10. As you're turning back there, I remind you of the flow of thought here. The question is, who is Lord? That's the question every individual must answer. Is Christ your Lord? He died, He rose and was revived to this end that He might be your Lord. What is the Lord? He's a master, a person who possesses supreme power and authority. As such, he is our possessor, our planner, our provider, our protector, and then our appraiser. Chapter 14, verse 10. Why didst thou judge thy brother? Why didst thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And again, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, we have the same truth stated. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. So we can leave the judging to him, and he'll do it perfectly. He's taking record, all of our words, all of our motives, all of our deeds, and we shall give account to him for our works. Which leads us on to the third question, when? We've answered, who is the Lord? We have answered, what is a Lord? And now thirdly, when? When is he Lord? Now obviously, as we look here in Romans chapter 14, in the text that we just read, it is current, whether we live, we live under the Lord, whether we die, we die under the Lord. This is present tense. We're living now. He is our Lord. We might ask the question, then why is this rule not seen at present? We want to assure everybody soon enough it'll be seen. The honor to God is that we don't see it now, yet we believe it. We walk by faith, not by sight. But we are assured in Revelation 1 in verse 7, behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. that which is invisible will be seen soon enough and when he comes every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things on earth things under the earth and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father our honor is to respect him as Lord now before he is seen a more pressing time question is what does it mean then that he is Lord both of the dead and living That's verse 9 of Romans 14. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. Well we have to look at what the word dead means. The scriptures explain there's a kind of death you can have while you're still alive. Paul speaks to Timothy and he speaks of a woman who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. She's alive and she's dead at the same time. And so what does this kind of death mean? Well there's a spiritual meaning to the term. What did God tell Adam and Eve in the garden? The day that you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and good and evil ye shall what? Surely die. So death is a spiritual phenomenon, and that is when the soul is separated from the body. One of the blessings for me when I take time off is I get to read some stuff I may not read otherwise, and I came across the Journal of George Whitefield. The great thing, he started writing it when he was a young man. There's five, six hundred pages of it before he got done. And he speaks about the revival. He speaks about his own conversion. It's fascinating reading. But he describes salvation in terms of your soul meeting God. Your soul being joined to God. And that really is a biblical definition because death, spiritual death, is when your soul is here and God is here and there's a gap between us. We're separated from God. Now one may not be totally cognizant of that, he may have gotten used to the sort of gloom, the lack of joy that is possible, perhaps a foreboding sense of guilt, perhaps not much of anything because he's successfully suppressed and he's been numbed to this message that he is still separated from God, that his soul is yet in jeopardy. But any soul that's been born into this world is separated from God. Behold, in sin did my mother conceive me, David says. So from conception on, we have a sin nature. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. So that's one meaning of death. Wages of sin is death. Behold, all souls are mine, we read in Ezekiel 18.4. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Fundamental truth. We are to proclaim it from the housetops. Everybody understand this. You sin, you die. We learn it from Genesis to Revelation. Jesus is Lord over those that are dead. and those who are alive, and that includes those who are spiritually dead. Now then, the living is just the opposite. We read in Ephesians 5.14, Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. We read earlier in Ephesians 2.1, Ye hath he quicken, that means made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin. Once I was dead, now I am alive. That's the testimony of every believer. Once I was separated from God because of sin, now all my sin had been washed away, not due to my effort, but to the effort of Christ who died in my place. I believed on him, and all of that separation was washed away, all that guilt, all that pollution, and I have been united with God. I who was dead am now alive. So, returning to our text, I believe one message here in this verse is that Christ is Lord over all humanity, the spiritually dead and the spiritually alive. Again, the text says, to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. But there's a second meaning of this dead and living. And that refers to the eternal meaning of these terms. Those who are spiritually alive to God are in the Lord's care either side of the grave. Some see this verse as being an assurance, a comfort to the ones who had dearly loved ones depart. And they're being assured, look, Christ is Lord whatsoever side of the grave you're on if you're saved. When you're alive, He is your Lord. You die, He's still right there, your Lord. Whether you're dead physically or alive physically, you are eternally the Lord's. And that's a comforting truth. And I believe we have that confirmed in Matthew chapter 22, starting in verse 31. Jesus said, but as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac? and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob still alive, just in a different state. And so God is still their God. He is still their Lord. So what Christ has won through his death, burial, and resurrection is his lordship over us as believers, whether alive or dead. In other words, it's an eternal lordship. It's a relationship that never ends, the eternal relationship with Christ. And that takes us to the fourth topic. The first was, who is the Lord, Christ? Second, what is a Lord? We said He's a possessor, planner, provider, protector, and appraiser. Third question is, when is Christ Lord? And the short answer is, now and for all eternity. He is one in the eternal post. We've seen him as Lord, we have him as Lord forever. But that leads us to the fourth topic, why? We know from our text that Christ underwent all that he did to the end of being Lord. We know that it was for the joy that was set before him that Christ endured the cross, despising the shame. Now he sat down at the right hand, the throne of God. But why? Why undergo all this? Why aspire to be Lord of the living and the dead? Why did Jesus do this? What is it about Lordship that appeals to Him? Why did this need to be done? And I believe there are three answers. To restore, to rescue, and to redound. First of all, to restore. Let's go to Romans chapter 5. I want you to know that all heaven rejoiced when Christ rose from the dead and became Lord over all. Because that meant the restoration of all things. With Adam lost, Christ regained. He came to restore everything to its prelapsarian state. The devil wasn't going to get his victory and leave us in this destroyed, chaotic, dark world. Christ came back as the last Adam to reverse the troubles that the first Adam introduced. Christ came to be Lord to restore all things. Adam had a type of lordship, he relinquished it, Christ wanted it back as a son of man. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12, wherefore as by one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for that all have sin. Now we go a little bit farther, verse 15. But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Turn a couple pages to Romans chapter 8 and that's explained. There was this organic unity, there's this relationship between Adam and all the lower forms of life that when Adam sinned, he lost his dominion and everything that had been under his dominion got corrupted. But we don't want to leave it that way. God won't leave it that way. And creation, in some manner, understands it won't stay that way. And so we read in Romans 8, starting in verse 19, that all creation has what's called an earnest expectation, a looking forward to, when all this is reversed, where you don't have lions and tigers and dogs and all these other animals that bite and that are bloodthirsty and that are wild and are terrible, All that's going to end. And all that happened because of the curse of the fall is going to be reversed. The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Yes, when those of us who have been redeemed are fully given to immortal and like Christ bodies, it's revealed who are the sons of God. That's the time when all creation is restored. Boy, do they look forward to that. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Yes, Christ came to restore what Adam lost. Secondly, he came to rescue. We go back to Romans chapter 5. Yeah, let's not forget this, that when Adam sinned, corruption extended on all through to all the generations. And now we are in peril. All human beings are in peril save that somebody save us. Now we read in Romans 5 and verse 6. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, if for adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we are reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Rescue. And then thirdly, to redound. The question is, why did Christ become our Lord? What was in it for him? What was the motive behind it? The answer is to restore creation, to rescue souls from damnation, and thirdly, and most importantly, to redound to God's glory. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we'll start reading in verse 14. 2 Corinthians 4.14, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also by Jesus us up and shall present us with you for all things are for your sakes that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many, here's the verb, redound to the glory of God. Read Ephesians 1, everything's done to the glory of God. Why did Christ take on this labor? Why did he suffer these things and then arise again from the dead? to restore creation, to rescue fallen humanity, but to redound to the glory of God. Now that leads us to the word how. We're looking at Romans 14.9. We're told that for to this end Christ both died and rose and that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. We ask the question, who is this Lord? It is Christ. What is a Lord? A possessor, planner, provider, protector, and appraiser. When is Christ Lord? Now and for all eternity. Why did he come? To restore, rescue, and redound. And now finally the question of how. By this we mean by what means? What's the system? Why do you get lordship because you die and rise again? What's the logic? What's the theology behind it? And as I thought on this, I'd like to suggest to you that Christ appears to have a right to lordship in two regards. One is the son of God and one is the son of man. In both offices, he has the right to be Lord, although I think the sphere and the responsibilities are a little bit different. Remember, Christ is deity and humanity. He's eternal deity. He's always been God, always will be God. Point came in time when he was born of a woman under the law and became man. He did not lose his deity, he kept that. He willingly laid aside some prerogatives for a season, but he's holy God, hence he's called Son of God. And he's also holy man, so he's called Son of Man. By the way, that is a unique term he had for himself. In all the scriptures, every time he refers to himself, he's the only one who refers to himself as Son of Man except for one time in the Book of Acts. Otherwise, it's his name for himself. Now, there are other people called Son of Man, like Ezekiel, but it's one of Christ's favorite names of himself. And He speaks of Himself as Son of Man to speak of Himself as the last Adam. The responsibilities He fulfilled as a man and not as God. Some roles He fulfilled as God, some as man. And I say as both Son of God and Son of Man, He has claimed a Lordship. First of all, as a Son of God. Christ has rights to Lordship based on His role as Creator. Could you support this truth? Scriptures tell us that if God made all things, he owns all things, therefore rules all things. Do you see why evolution is such an offense? Because if God didn't make all things, he doesn't own all things, he doesn't rule all things. It just dethrones him if evolution is true and God is not our creator. So could you support this doctrinally, scripturally, that if God made all things, then he's Lord of all things? I think you're going to find verses all over. Let's just take a couple examples from the book of Psalms. Psalm 121. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, for whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. See, he's Lord because he made heaven and earth. That's the one we look to. We're watching the horizon as you watch for the rising of the sun. We watch for the Lord that made heaven and earth. That's our help. He's Lord because He made all things. Psalm 100, verse 3, know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. He owns us because He made us. God made us. He owns us. He's Lord over us. He can do whatever he can. I was counting up this week how many times in the scriptures the Lord uses the picture of the potter and the clay. And I forget the exact number, but it's all over. It's not like one or two times, but many times, and then it's repeated in the New Testament. And in there, God says in very simple terminology, we can all comprehend, look, see these hands? They're forging the clay, which I own. And do I not, as artist, as potter, have the liberty to do whatever I want to do with what I own. I'll shape that clay into anything I want. And if I want to use this vessel for this use, my call. If I want to use it for this use, my call. If I want to make it very plain, if I want to make it exotic, if I want to do anything in between, if I want to bust it into a hundred shards, my call, because I am Lord. We must see ourselves as the clay and trust in the hands of our artist, of our possessor, because the Lord Jesus made us as son of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. That's an introduction to the Son of God. Now this Lordship based on Christ's deity is very broad, very expansive, reaching to the end of the universe. You follow the rim of the entire universe and all the trillions of heavenly bodies out there since Christ made them all. The Lord Jesus made them all. The Son of God made them all. He owns them all. He can do whatever He wants. They're the work of His fingers, His handiwork. But the Lordship in our text today, going back to Romans 14, has to do specifically with the work of the son of man, not the son of God. And it has to do with this fear that he regained, which Adam lost, which I don't know if it exactly extends to the universe. I'm not going to give this as certain doctrine, but there's an extent to the corruption occurred due to what Adam did. And the medieval theologians, they used to say as high up as there was atmosphere, and all that was corrupted. And I don't know, I won't draw the line. but the particular liberty which Christ won was for the creation here related to earth. It is as a man that Christ reclaimed the dominion which Adam lost. We read that in Romans 5 and Romans 8. And if you go to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 45, We read, the first man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last, Adam, was made a quickening spirit. So first Adam, Christ, the last Adam. And when he was made a quickening spirit, it didn't just mean that he was living, but he could make alive. And this he did, as our text explains, by dying and rising again. This is my final point and will be done for today. We have been sold under sin. Romans 7 verse 14. So in that sense you might say sin owns us. The devil owns us. We are never just God-free and nobody owns us. Because we sinned, we're sold to sin. Sin owns us. Back when I lived in New Orleans, there in the French Quarter, there was an area, there was an elevated space that goes back to the late 1700s, early 1800s, where the slaves used to be sold. You can still see where that place where they stood and were bought like they were machinery or something. Well, there's a sense in which you and I were on that block. We had been sold first to sin because we had sinned, always sinned or slaved to sin. Then Christ came and died, and therefore, rose again from the dead, and he bought us off of that slave market and said, now they are mine. We are purchased. Hence, Christ paid what's called the ransom. First Timothy 2, 5, and 6, where there's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave his life a, what's the next word? Ransom for all, to be testified in due time. He paid the ransom. He redeemed us. He purchased us. That's how we became his. Sin owned us. Christ bought us out of sin. Now we are not our own. He can do what he wants with us. And that, friends, is our point of our text today. If Christ paid so dearly for his dominion over our souls, and has such a just and undisputed right to exercise that dominion. And God has so highly honored him and given him a name above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. We must not so much as consider invading that dominion, nor usurp it by judging the consciences of our brethren. We must consider that Christ is Lord and that of the dead as well as the living. If people are dead, they've already given up their account. Let that suffice. And if they are living, he will take care of them too. In other words, this is all about honoring our Lord, letting him do his work. He earned the right. That's why this text is here. Applications, I think we should apologize to the Lord if we've ever wrested from him his job. and that we ought to live now with an eye to our own judgment to come. May we pray. Truly, Jesus is Lord. All that he went through, the most phenomenal death and the most phenomenal raising back to life, was to attain the lordship that he now has. as the last Adam, as the Son of Man, even as He's already Lord, as the Son of God. Oh, we pray Christ for forgiveness for any encroachment that we have. presumed upon thy turf. We are to be discerning. We are to rebuke. There is a place and a time for counsel one to another. But we can cross over that line and presume upon motives that and conscience issues that are beyond our capability to perceive and beyond our right to assume. And for any and all ways that we've done this, God, give us all grace to humbly ask for forgiveness. And may we now look to what we are called to do and do that by thy power. And if there are souls here who have not been restored yet to God through Christ, may they understand with clarity today, Christ died for our sin. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.