You know, like I said last time we were together, there's three primary names that the Bible uses when it refers to God. The first of those is Elohim, which of course is a plural for God. So it's, you know, it's used for false gods, it's used for God, you know, in person and so on. And the way you can tell the difference is context. That's how you know. You know by context. You know, this is talking about the Lord God in one way. Sometimes it'll actually say the Lord God, you know, Yehovah Elohim. So it'll actually say that. But normally when it's talking about God, it's talking about God as a plurality. But, as is the case with most things, that's not always the case. There are times when the Bible's talking clearly about God, and it's in the singular, El. I don't know. I've never been able to figure this out. It's just one of those anomalies that, in writing, when these guys wrote, that's just how they did it. Don't really understand that. Well, Adonai is the same way. Adon is the singular. Adonai is the plural. Well, you know, again, in the book, he actually says something that I don't believe is true, and that is that every time the Bible's talking about God, it talks about Him in the plural, it talks about Him as Adonai. He says that in the book. That's not true. I can show you actual cases and point where the Bible uses the word Adon, which is the singular, and it's talking about God. So what is this all about? What's the big deal? What's the difference? And I think when you get right down to it, there is no difference. It's just the way in which the Bible was written. It was written as God spoke to people and God gave them certain things. And there are times when he spoke to them and it came to them in this plural form of Adonai. And then there are other times when it comes to him and God speaks to them in the singular. Why? We don't really know. I'm sure there's a reason. But to actually come up and say dogmatically, this is why, this is the reason, I don't think anybody can do that, just to be frank. But it is fascinating to me that throughout the scriptures, the vast majority of times when God is speaking of himself or when a writer is speaking about God, he speaks to us as God in a plural sense. Elohim instead of El. Adonai instead of Adon. So there's gotta be something to that. There's gotta be some kind of reason that God speaks to us in the plural. And there are also other places in scripture where he, when God is speaking, especially when God is speaking, that he speaks and says the name of God more than once in the same sentence. It doesn't really make any sense the way it's done. For example, here, I'll just give you an example. Go over to Psalm 45. to give you an actual case in point. And then I want to look at a very important verse to show you another use of how this is done. But in Psalm 45, starting in verse 6, it says, it says, Thy throne, and then it says, O God, in most Bibles, that's Elohim. So, Thy throne, Elohim, is forever and ever. A scepter of uprighteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. So he's saying here that this scepter is the scepter of God's kingdom, of Elohim's kingdom, right? It's pretty clear. He says, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, Elohim, your Elohim. Wait a minute. Why are we saying that? Well, actually, it's Eloheinu, which is the possessive form of God. So, therefore, Elohim, Eloheinu, so why would it say that? Well, look at what he says. He says, therefore, Elohim, Eloheinu, your God, has anointed you, So now we're talking about three separate people. Did everybody see this? There's three separate people being discussed here. He says, therefore Elohim, Eloheinu, has anointed, anointed, and the word anointed there is Mashiach, which is the word we get Messiah from. So we have this, your God has anointed you, who is God, because it says you have a scepter above all righteousness, has anointed or has Mashiach you or rubbed you with oil is basically what that idea means. Okay, but it's also the word we get Mashiach from with the oil of joy above your peers. So now he's saying God has peers. Okay, so does everybody see the craziness of this particular I mean just just I'm just talking about on the face of it. Just just why would it be written like that? Why would he say that? First of all, he's talking about the fact that it's God who has who's on the throne. The Bible tells us clearly there is no place in Scripture where anyone else is on the throne except God. Right? Remember Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah goes into the throne literally gets transported up into the throne of God. And it says, in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. So, wait a minute, I see the Lord high and lifted up. Well, what's the word for Lord there? Well, that's Jehovah. That's Yehovah. So, he's saying that I see the Lord high and lifted up. on the throne. There's no place in scripture that talks about the fact that anyone else is on the throne. In fact, what it goes on to say is in the New Testament, in the book of Ephesians, it says that once Jesus paid the sacrifice, this is Ephesians chapter 2, It says, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ and has seated us in heavenly places with who? With who? With Christ. Okay, so he's saying now, he's saying that now Jesus has been seated on there. So now we go back to Psalms, and it tells us, your throne, O God, Elohim, is forever and ever a scepter of uprighteousness, a scepter of your kingdom. So this is clearly talking about God. And then he says, therefore Elohim, Eloheinu, has anointed thee, Mashiach, you, with the oil of joy, which by the way, whenever you find the oil of joy in scripture, it's always talking about the spirit of God. Just an FYI. If you want me to get into a whole series on that, I could do that. We just don't have time to do it this morning, but trust me on that one. So whenever it talks about the oil of joy, It's talking about the Spirit of God. So this idea of anointing, or Mashiach, or Messiah, is all incorporated in this whole thing, and they're all called God. They're all called God. So, how do Jewish people, for example, wrap their arms around this idea? Because, by the way, you show this to an Orthodox rabbi, and they're going to come up with a very, very good reason Anybody have any idea what the good reason might be? What would you say? Matty, what would you say? I got nothing. I'm sorry. I would say that he's telling someone else about God. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you. Right. But at the very beginning it says that this is the person that's speaking is the God that's on the throne in heaven. I cried blasphemy. Where is that, Don? What verse is that? That's the very first line in that verse. When he's talking about your throne, he's talking about God the Creator. Then he goes into a different aspect, entity of God. Correct. That's exactly what you're going to get. So what basically he's saying here is that God is a multifaceted is what most Jewish rabbis would teach you is that God has many different characteristics. He has the characteristic of being ruler. He has the characteristic of being creator. He has the characteristic of being helper. And by the way, we're gonna get into all these characteristics starting next week when we get into all the names of God where it takes Jehovah and adds another expression to it. So, Yehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness, Yehovah Nissi, and so on. So all these different expressions, and that is basically the explanation for it. And by the way, that's, I think, a plausible explanation. I don't think there's anything wrong with that explanation. except for the fact that in this particular section we see the triunity of God actually demonstrated. Where he clearly says that God is on the throne, that there is a second who is called the Mashiach, and then we see this I'm muting you there, Johnny, FYI. Okay, so it's just this fascinating conversation that you can actually get into of all of the attributes of God. Does everybody see where I'm coming from on all of this? But having said that, it is very, very obvious as you study scripture that God reveals himself as being tripartite. that he reveals himself, that he is in fact three very distinct beings, yet, as they'd say in Hebrew, echad, one. So, you know, which by the way is just the number one. Echad in Hebrew is just the number one. But it's an interesting word, Echad, because typically it is used when two things become one. So, for example, it says, and a man shall leave his mother and his father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become what? and that's the word echad. Whenever in Hebrew you're talking about something which is an absolute one, only, the word only, as we would do it in English, is the word yachid. So it's a different word. So we have this really interesting expression that goes on within the Bible, which I think we have to pay attention to, is my point. We have to pay attention to it. Okay, so now, we get down to this third name. First name Elohenu, second one Yehovah or Jehovah, Yahweh, all of those are the same. Some people just say the Tetragrammon. which is the four letters in Greek, which is obviously Yehovah's, we've talked about this, has no vowel points, so it's just four consonants. It's never been added any other way. The only vowel points that they've added is where they've taken this word, Adonai, and layered it on top of the four consonants for the name of God, and that's how we get the pronunciation. But technically, there is no pronunciation for Jehovah, for those four letters, which are, in Hebrew, just considered the most sacred of all letters. And so, As a result, most Jewish people do not even say that word. So the word that they use in lieu of that is the word Adonai. So the most important verse for Jewish people to memorize, almost every Jewish person you'll ever meet, no matter how religious they are, if they've had any religious training at all, of course, if they're a-religious, that's different, but even, it's so interesting. I was speaking to a fellow at our club one day, and he told me, this is how he started the conversation off, Don, I want you to know I am Jewish by birth, but I am an atheist. I don't believe there is a God. I don't have any idea why you think there is. It's a big joke. I don't understand it. But unfortunately, and he actually said that, but unfortunately, I have to deal with this. And I said, why? And he said, well, because I'm Jewish. And I said, well, if you don't believe there's a God, then you're not Jewish. And that really blew him away. He was like, what? I said, yeah, it's an assignment by God. If you don't believe that there is a God, then you're just a Shemite at the end of the day. I mean, that's really what you are. You're just from the line of Shem. So that kind of got his attention a little bit. But I said to him, I said, do you know, and this is interesting, do you know the Shema? Now, to a Jewish person, if you say, do you know the Shema? They know exactly what you're talking about, but I'm guessing that most of you in this room don't know what that means. Exactly. It's Deuteronomy 6.4. Deuteronomy 6.4 says, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Now, it's interesting. I just quoted that in Hebrew. But I did not quote it the way it's written. Because no one quotes it the way it's written. Why? Because of Yahweh. Exactly. Okay? Who's got a BLB on their phone? Just pull up a BLB on your phone. Go to Deuteronomy 6.4. If you guys, you know, anyone who's got a BLB on their phone, just go to your phone right now. Go to the BLB. Right so now what I want you to do is I want you to touch on the verse so it brings up the the next screen and at the very top it says I'm sorry yeah inner linear all right so click on inner linear and okay now it's gonna bring up the actual verse and on the left hand side and most of them it's gonna have the Hebrew in the middle it's gonna have the number and then it's gonna have the name on the right hand side. Everybody see that? Is that difficult? So now I said the words were and I want you to watch them as you read down okay I said the words were Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. But is that what it says? Anybody? Matt, what's it say? Yahweh, Israel, here, one, Yahweh, our God. Yeah, so basically what it's saying is Shema, same word, right? That's here. Yisrael, same word, Israel, right? But then I say Adonai, but in the scripture it doesn't say that. It says Yehovah, right? It's the four letters. Okay, it's the four letters. And then it says, so Shema Yisroel Adonai Adolhenu, that's possessive our gods. That's a plural too, by the way. And then it says Yehovah again, right, Matty? And then it says Echad, one. So notice there what we got. We have three Hebrew words, actually two Hebrew words, one repeated. So we have Yehovah, we have Eloheinu, we have Yehovah, which by the way is exactly the same thing that's happening here in Psalm 45, where he says, therefore Eloheinu, I'm sorry, Elohim, Eloheinu. So it's really, it's the same idea. What are we talking about here? Why is this a big deal? Because God has always revealed himself in this triune nature. He's always revealed himself that way. So when we talked about Jehovah last week, we noted that that was the actual name that Moses was given by God to say to the people, this is who sent you. When they ask, because they're gonna ask, who sent you? You're gonna say, Jehovah, I am. I am that I am. Well, what does that mean? Well, we talked about that last week. But now we look at this word Adonai. Now, Adonai in Hebrew means ruler. That's what it means. It means Lord. So for example, Lord with a little L is someone who is in charge, runs the household. Okay, so we see this in British culture all the time, right? Because there are lords and they basically run the household and so forth and so on. And in Greek, those would be called adon, singular. Or excuse me, in Hebrew, rather. In Hebrew, that would be adon. Okay, just the singular word for lord. Whenever we're talking about people, unless we're talking about multiple people, it's going to be adon. If there's multiple masters, then it's going to be adonai. But when the Scriptures talk about God, or the Lord, and especially when it talks about the Lord God, now that's an interesting one, because when you see that in Scripture, when it says the Lord God, sometimes it's Adonai Eloheinu, sometimes it's Adonai Elohim, and sometimes it's Adonai Jehovah. And Why? Who knows? Again, it's just one of those anomalies in Scripture. So like, for example, in the book of Genesis in particular, when you see Abram talking to God in Genesis 15, and he makes, remember, they go and they make the sacrifice together and so forth, and they walk through the parts, and Abram doesn't ever go through the parts, just God alone goes through and makes this unilateral covenant. Well, before that all starts, He calls God Adonai, or this is the way Moses wrote it anyhow, he wrote it as Adonai Yehovah. Every single time. Adonai, Yehovah, the Lord God. Yeah, the Lord God. So this idea of Adonai being something related exclusively to God is not true. It is not. It's a word that's used in a lot of different ways. And that's why Jewish people don't have any problem saying Adonai in lieu of Yehovah. Does everybody see where I'm coming from? Because they don't want to violate the third commandment, which says you should never use the Lord's name in vain. That's the reason that they do that. So all of this to say that when we see in scripture God being called out an eye, we need to understand that that is referring, and this is right in the book, that is referring to this benevolent ruler. The benevolent ruler. I'm going to mess with some people's heads here, especially those of you that are really, really strong, not Democrats, strong believers in democracy. But the Bible does not teach democracy. Did you ever think about that? The Bible does not teach democracy. It's a fact. Now, man, I'm telling you what, I remember the first time I said that, I thought there was this one guy, I thought he was gonna come out of the seat and rip my face off, man, just like, what are you talking about, man? And it's like, whoa, you know? Okay, so I'm careful now when I say that, but the truth is the Bible does not believe in democracy. The Bible teaches benevolent dictatorship. I'm sorry? Well, not necessarily, no, no, no, not really slavery. No, the Bible does not really actually teach slavery. In fact, just the opposite, actually. Slavery is a choice. Well, ownership is... It's a theocracy. It's a theocracy, exactly, which is what a benevolent dictatorship should look like. The fact of the matter is, a theocracy means God is in complete control. God is the one who runs the country. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, they're rejecting me. Right. And so this idea that the Bible teaches democracy is not true. Just be aware. Now, I'm not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with democracy, although I do think there's a lot of things wrong with democracy. Sometimes you get the wrong decision because the crowd is not always right. That's just a fact. Crucify him. Yeah, exactly. Crucify him. There's a great example of democracy. That's really good. Thank you. I mean, the fact is that Yeah, that really did escalate really quickly. But at the end of the day, what I'm basically trying to say is the Bible teaches that we need a Lord. Does everybody see where I'm coming from? That we need a Lord. We need someone to direct us. We need someone to guide us. And the reason we need a Lord is because we need somebody who can get outside of the fray of the situation and help us make good decisions. We need that. We really do, as just human beings. We need someone who can be objectively looking at a situation without emotion, without adding themselves to the situation. That's what lordship is really all about. Lordship is the idea that I can go to this lord and that lord can actually help mitigate or the circumstances possibly, but can definitely mediate the circumstance. Does everybody see what I'm talking about? And that's what lordship is all about. So this idea that God can be our mediator is something the book of Hebrews talks about. When it talks about Jesus, it says, He is our what? He actually uses that word, that He is our mediator between us and God. He's the one that creates this connection. Why? Because it says in Isaiah 59 that our sin has separated us from God. And so much so that God has had to hide his face from us, which is fascinating. Because you can actually do a whole word study on the word face and come back to the fact that Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 that God is revealed in the face of Messiah Jesus, which is an interesting little sign. Say that again. He's revealed in the face? He's revealed in the face, read it, 2 Corinthians 4.6. So God has revealed himself in the face of the actual image of, that's what the word face is. Face is an image. The word in Greek for face is actually the same word that we use for image. So it's fascinating. So he's the picture, effectively, of who God really is. When we look at Adonai, we need to understand that Adonai is the word that was given to us by God to reveal that we have a need for someone to intervene on our behalf, to give us direction, to give us supervision, because there's nothing worse than an unsupervised person. I mean, think about that logically. It's true. I mean, unsupervised people leads to what? Anybody want to guess? Chaos, that's exactly right. Could you turn that air conditioner down, Matt? Would you mind? So, this idea that Adonai is anything that is a lesser form of God is another mistake that people make. You hear that, especially in Judaism, that, well, we can't say Yehovah, but we can say Adonai, well, because it's not as important, it's not as big, it's not as massive and so forth, because the word is used in other ways. Well, I would suggest that we could say the same thing about Elohim as well, because Elohim is used in other ways and so forth. But Yehovah is not. Yehovah is a separate name, just identified for God. A separate name that even has no vowel points. A separate name that is just these four letters. And, you know, so that to me is really a big deal. So, Adonai, in Scripture, in the Old Testament, is used 445 times, referring to God. I didn't count it, I looked it up. Okay? But Yehovah, the name of God, is used over 6,000 times in the Old Testament. So God clearly prefers his real name, not his title. Yeah, for lack of a better term. Thank you, I was looking for a word. And by the way, I would say that's true of most of us as well. We don't want to be called by our title. I remember early on, some kids were starting to call me Mr. White, and I remember saying to this one kid, Well, that's my father, and he said, not anymore. I thought that was pretty interesting, but it's fascinating. What I wrote in my notes here is, studying which name God uses when he reveals himself to whoever, like abram or or to isaiah or two jacob or whoever doesn't make any difference is is something that you can uh... that you can grasp but it really is just giving you a greater uh... glimpse of the nature of god that's all it's doing it's giving you a glimpse of of of just another aspect of of who the lord is and says so I think that's a big deal, but if you understand lordship, and to really understand lordship, you have to think of it in context of how it actually plays itself out in the real world. Lordship requires submission. I want you to think about that. If I am subject to a lord in a feudal system, uh... that i am submitting to that person's authority i'm saying you know what i'm uh... you know what you know what someone is my lord i'm trying to think of a lord right now trying to think of somebody up at that you know at that level but uh... you know uh... charles okay charles the king that that's not a good one uh... you know but but what is what what his guys that he puts in charge of a thief because it and uh... in in In most kingdoms, there's kingdoms and then there are little fiefdoms, and these fiefdoms are run by lords, and those are people that are in charge. So if Orlando owns this particular section of land that I live in, he's the lord of that particular region, okay, we call that a fiefdom, and so he's the lord of that. I am submitting myself to Orlando's authority, Lordship or authority. That's the word, authority. Thank you. I don't know why I'm struggling with words this morning. So the fact of the matter is, is that if I am subject to that, now here's what's really cool about this. If he is a benevolent Lord, he's going to not only honor that submission, but he is actually going to make that submission something that's good for me. Does everybody see that? He's going to make that submission a good thing. He's not going to make it one that is where he is lording it over me, right? Remember that expression? Okay. It's going to be a win-win, exactly. And so if he is a benevolent Lord, he is going to make my submission a good thing. And the more I submit to Him, the better our relationship actually gets. And here's what's really interesting, the more He then gives me. So the more I submit to that Lord, if He's a benevolent Lord, the more He's going to want me to be in His little circle. And He's going to reward me for that. And by the way, the same thing is true when we refer back to this idea of God as our Lord. And what's really interesting to me is, go over to Romans chapter 10, because this to me is one of the most interesting verses, especially where Paul placed it. I find that to be the most interesting part of this particular verse is where it's placed in the book of Romans. It could have been placed in the book of Romans in a lot of different places. First eight chapters of Romans, we're going to go to Romans chapter 10. But the first eight chapters of Romans, it's called the Roman Road by most people. Paul talks about the sin of man, and he talks about how God is going to forgive us for that sin. He talks about Jesus being the intercessor. He talks about the spirit of God. He talks about the war between the flesh and so forth. And then he gets to Romans 9, 10, and 11, and in Romans 9, 10, and 11, he just kind of shifts gears, moves to another direction, and talks about the relationship between God and Israel. And in the middle, I mean almost the dead center of that little section, which are represented by chapters 9, 10, and 11 in our Bibles. They weren't when Paul wrote it, though. He just wrote it. He didn't have chapter breaks. He just wrote it. So when he gets to this middle of this section on God's relationship with Israel, he talks about what brings salvation. In Isaiah chapter 12, of course, Orlando did an amazing job on this when I was away, teaching Isaiah chapter 12. And it talks about the fact that God has given us salvation and he lets us draw out of the wells of salvation. Just this incredible picture of where God lets us literally drink in his salvation because he is a benevolent Lord. But look at what he says, starting at verse 8. It says, but what does it say? The word is near to you in your mouth and in your heart. That's Deuteronomy 30.14, by the way. It's a direct quote. So he says he says the the word of is near to you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith Which we are what? Which we're preaching. Okay, so what so that's what he's doing in this little section here He's a little little preaching exercise and he says and this is what we're preaching that If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Look at verse 10. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Two-step process. Now what's interesting is, and he talks about this in the book, is that this is the only place in Scripture where it actually says it's a two-step process. Every other place in Scripture it just says by faith. John 3.16, for by faith are you saved through faith. Excuse me, that was Ephesians chapter 2. By faith are you saved through faith. It is not something you do at all. you know, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him. That's, you know, John 3.16. I mean, so, this idea of belief. But here he says that it's a two-step process. It's a process of the heart and it's a process of the mouth. There is a belief within your heart and then there is a confession from your lips. It's a two-step process. But what's interesting to me, as I said, is the placement of this. right smack dab in this middle of the section dealing with Israel. And what he's doing is he's saying to Israel, look, if you want to have the salvation that Isaiah chapter 12 talks about, you've got to first believe in your heart, what? That Jesus is what? Lord. That he's Adonai. Now, what's interesting to me is that Paul understood very clearly, by the way, that Lord was an expression that was not to be held lightly. And so as a result, you don't see Paul use that word a lot. The word in Greek, by the way, is Kyrios. You don't see him use that word Kyrios very often. It's a very infrequently used word in Paul's writings. Why? Because it's a very important word. and he understood the gravity of it. But here he clearly says that unless you acknowledge with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that same thing that God has raised him from the dead, that's what makes, that's the proof that he's Lord by the way, then You're not going to have any kind of a relationship with God. You're not going to experience Isaiah chapter 12. And if you're not familiar with Isaiah chapter 12, it's six verses. Go read it. It's amazing. And to me, it's just one of the great expressions of what he's saying here. For with the heart, man believes. Now, the truth is, we all believe in our heart something. What do you think about that? We all believe in our hearts, something like my friend who I met at the club and said, you know, I'm Jewish, but I don't believe in God. Okay. Well, he believes something. What does he believe? He believes that he is not. Okay. But here's what's really interesting. So when I asked him, do you know the Shema? Get back to that. I asked him, do you know the Shema? He said, well, of course I know the Shema. I said, well, I thought you didn't believe in God. He said, yeah, but unfortunately, my father, when I was like eight years old, forced me to do this, and I had to say this. And I said, well, isn't that interesting? Is it still in your brain? Can you say it right now? Now, he is about 70. Young guy. Young guy. Okay. Well, he might not be that old. He might be 69. Anyway, I'm just kidding. But he's definitely in his 60's or 70's. He's close to 70 at least. And he immediately said to me, without me even suggesting it, he said, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Just like that. Just came right out of his mouth. Why? Boom. Why? Why did that come right out of his mouth? Why? Yeah, because at the very early parts of his life, his father basically put that into his brain, and the Bible tells us clearly, raise up a child the way he should go, and when he is old he will not forget those things. And sure enough, he didn't forget it. Now, what's interesting is, as much as he says he doesn't believe it, I actually think he does believe it, he's just fighting it. Which is very interesting. Whole other story, we don't have time for that today, but here's the deal. The deal is, Is God Lord? So the question is, is He worthy to be Lord? That's the first question. Is He worthy to be Lord? And I think the answer to that is absolutely. And so when I come to that point and I ask this fellow the same question, you know, is he worthy to be Lord? He can't even answer the question because he can't say no. Okay, so here's the interesting part about that question. He can't say no, but he doesn't want to say yes. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it's just a wretched man that I am, you know. But this is the amazing thing about this. And so what I wrote in my notes was Adonai takes a surrendered person. Listen to this. Adonai takes a surrendered person, takes the raw material that God gave him at birth, really, and through his training, He sprinkles on that his power by his spirit, and that's what he's looking for. He's looking for someone who is surrendered. That's what he's looking for. And I'm telling you, the more you surrender to God, the more God does for you, the stronger you become. which is the complete opposite of the way the world would teach you about strength. The world would teach you that the last thing you want to do is surrender, especially if you surrender unequivocally, right? Correct. Except God. So there is this difference in mentality So, I want to surrender to Him because when God is at an eye, He can give me the ability to do things supernaturally that I couldn't otherwise do. I think that's one of the greatest parts of the whole entire thing. I can experience supernatural life because of Him. I can understand that. And so what God wants us to do is He then wants to take the next step, which is what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying, now I want you to take the next step. If you understand that God is your Lord and you've got no problem with that, now I need you to understand that thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, a scepter of your kingdom. Therefore God, thy God, has anointed thee, has made you the Mashiach with the oil of joy above your fellows." In other words, what he's saying to them at that moment is he's saying, now I want you to get the next step in this. And the next step is that Jesus comes into your life as Lord. And he seats you at the right hand of God, full of grace and truth. But that's what this is all about. Yes, sir. Yeah. And that was the point that I wanted everybody to hear. I wanted everybody. I didn't care if you didn't read any of this chapter except that one paragraph. Because it's that big a deal. Read it again, because it's such a big deal. I'm just telling you, when God gave me this analogy or this example, whatever word you want to use, of a benevolent Lord, and the more I submit to that benevolent Lord, the more he wants to bless me. It started to just revolutionize this whole idea of Jesus as Lord. Jesus is Adonai. Well, you know, it's interesting. Bob Dylan has a song. You got to serve somebody. You got to serve somebody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The question is, who are we going to serve? It might be the devil, but it might be the Lord. So it's got to serve somebody. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You know. Submitting part. Because submitting tells us that you literally saying, I give up my rights. Yeah. That's what submitting said, I give up my rights. And none of us want to give up our rights, because we think it's our rights. That's right. Well, we also want to dabble with the world. Because it's an awfully fun place. I don't think so. I think for us who are believers, us who are believers, I'm not talking about those that live in the world. I'm talking about us who are believers. It's a constant battle within ourselves to submit. That's why when we get into a debate or argue with somebody, we want to be heard. We don't want to hold our peace. You know, when we want to, we want to fight somebody, we want to be against because it's all about us, and it's stressing us out. And I was in the Bible study yesterday, and being Clarkson, not Clarkson, but Chuck started going in, I said, Chuck, we can sing together, but we can't talk together. You know, because we were getting taught over each other. I said, we can sing together, but we can't talk. One of us got to sing. You know, and when you see, listen to that, you have to ask yourself, which one will hold your peace and allow him to, and that's saying, Lord, I submit my will. And that's what the Lord should be. You submit your will. And then when you do that, what you said, we receive abundant where we can even think or ask. He's just after them. Yeah. Yeah. important important it was over there sleep this is my my youngest he's my most passionate when it comes to this and and he just stopped that and he's like i don't like that word i'm not a slave to jesus i'll be a servant and it just it's to that point right i'm not going to take that full submission A servant can quit. Yeah, but a servant can quit. So there's a big difference between a slave and a servant. Slave can't quit. And what's really fascinating is the word bondservant, dulos, was used in an entirely different context in Greek culture than doulo. Because doulo means that you were bought. Doulos means that you chose it. And there's a big difference between those two. But here's the deal, at the end of the day, you can't get out. Once you're in, as a bond servant, you ain't getting out. But as just a servant, or excuse me, as a bond slave, I should say, but as a servant, I can quit. Well, you can walk off the job anytime. Yeah, but you can't do that if you've given yourself over to slave ownership. That's what they say about Jesus. You've been bought by the blood. You've been bought by his scepter. So if you believe in this, you're now a slave. You've been bought. Someone was trying to say something on there. Was it you, Stevie? Yeah, it's voluntary versus involuntary. Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. Yeah, very good, thank you. That's fantastic. Yeah, that's it. It's free will. Yeah, we make a choice to be slaves. That's an incredible thought. We choose it. Okay, now here's the deal. We have a history in this country of some pretty bad slavery. I mean, let's just be honest. I mean, there's some pretty bad slavery went down in this country with some pretty bad masters, lords. Pretty bad. Probably as bad as you can get, as far as I'm concerned. And when you read the history of it, if you don't pay attention to it, you can get right back into it. And that's a fact. So now, having said that, the opposite of that is slavery, which is benevolent. which is a hard concept to understand in the context of our history. Everybody see where I'm coming from? Because it's a supernatural God thing, man. It's just, it has nothing to do with people. Well, it has everything to do with people, but it has nothing to do with the authority of people, right? It has to do with the authority of God, which is completely good. Completely good. So it's a really hard, concept for people to get their arms around. And I think it's one of the reasons why people are so hesitant to give themselves completely to God. Like your son. Alright? Your son's saying, I don't want that. Why? Because his view of slavery is bad. Well, exactly. And once he starts learning history, and he starts learning about how awful slavery was in this country, and how awful it was in other countries, I mean, the fact of the matter is, is that that is something that you cannot just throw out. Okay, I mean, that's in your brain. It's there, man. I mean, it's in your history. It's part of who you are. Okay, so what I'm trying to say is that God supersedes all that. He is above all that. And the truth of the matter is, is that when we understand that He is the Lord God, that He is Adonai Yehovah, He is that important. He is that big. He is not only Lord, Adonai, but he's also Yehovah. He is Jehovah. So we have this incredible picture. So whenever I see that expression, Lord God, I've gotten in kind of the habit of marking up my Bible because I'll look it up. I'll look it up. And so in my Bible, I have all sorts of marks where it says, Lord God, and I'll have Is that talking about, does it say Adonai Eloheinu, does it say Adonai El, does it say Yehovah El, which occasionally it says that. So you'll see all caps LORD, and then God, that's usually Jehovah Eloheinu or Jehovah El, which is really interesting, because then he'll flip it and he'll say Adonai Jehovah, which is really fascinating. Again, I don't know why, I mean, I would really like to be able to tell you, I know exactly why that is. But the more I study it, the less I know about it. Because I'm telling you, there is no rhyme or reason to it. There is no methodology to this. It's just crazy how it just doesn't ever have any kind of like, you know, correlation. And I wish it did, but it doesn't. But maybe that's good that it doesn't. Yeah. What about the psalm that says the Lord said to my Lord? Psalm 110. Yeah. Yeah. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Yeah. I mean, that's No, that's actually Adonai talking to Jehovah. The LORD, small letters, said to my LORD, all caps. So it's a real interesting little piece of scripture as well. By the way, the only reason why I know all these verses is because I took the time to study all this stuff a long time ago. I mean, this is something that when I was really young, Ray Cohen got us and just basically pounded us with it. He said, I want you to know all these verses. Okay, well that's how you know, because you just get there. But at the end of the day, these verses are not just there for show, they're there to really teach you, to grow you, to make you stronger, to make you understand the benevolence of God. That's the point. And at the end of the day, that was one of the things that I'm trying to express when we teach on Sunday, Isaiah, is that This idea that God has suddenly in the New Testament started saving people by grace is absurd. God has always redeemed people by grace. There's never been a situation in Scripture where people were redeemed by works. Abraham wouldn't have made it. Isaac wouldn't have made it. Jacob wouldn't have made it. Moses wouldn't have made it. Keep on going. Joshua wouldn't have made it. Nobody would have made it. Yeah, nobody. Nobody. The truth of the matter is that salvation has always been by grace. You know, what did God say to Abram before he walked through the parts? He said, it says, it says, Abraham believed God and he counted it unto him as righteousness. Actually, the word there in the King James is reckoned. I love that. He reckoned it unto him as righteousness. And that, to me, is really just an incredible expression. He counted it unto him as righteousness, reckoned it unto him as righteousness. What? What did he reckon? Did he reckon his works? No. He reckoned his belief. Paul said, he says, if you believe in your heart, and confess with your mouth." It's not about works there. You know, for by grace are you saved through faith. It is not anything that you do. It's not of yourself. It is the what? The gift of God. The gift of God. Charis. you know, in Greek. I mean, just this idea of, you know, charis is just this idea of doing something without any expectation of return. You know, it's really interesting because we talk about words, and you know I'm a fanatic about words, okay, so you know that I'm kind of nuts about this, so, you know, that's a given, okay? But there's, I think there's a real reason why he picks the words that he picks. He could have picked another word, but he didn't. Why did he pick charis? Well charis, in its word, it's the word we get charity from, charis is to experience, to be able to give without any expectation of return. That's what charis means. True charity is when you give to somebody or something that you will never get any benefit from. That's true charity. You ever think about that? So like for example, when we reach out and we help a kid over in Cambodia or Uganda or wherever it is that we're working these days, I will never meet those kids. I will never experience them. I will never have anything to do with them. I'll never meet their parents. I'll never meet any, I'll have nothing to do with them. And when I do, it's really an amazing experience. But the truth of the matter is, is the vast majority of kids that we reach out in our foundation, we never meet those kids. Well, to me, that's true charity. I give to my church, but that's not charity. I know that sounds weird to a lot of people. I don't believe that giving to your church is charity. I believe it's just what God wants you to do to make sure this place doesn't go broke, okay? But at the end of the day, you're getting something back from this, I hope. What's that? There you go. That's exactly right. To pay that bill, that's exactly right. So, I just want to end it on this thought, I really do, because I think this is really a big deal. The first sermon that we read after the filling of the Holy Spirit is in Acts chapter 2, right? First sermon. And what's interesting to me is that people, when they talk about Acts chapter 2, almost without exception, they talk about what? Acts chapter 2. When you think Acts chapter 2, what are you thinking about? The Holy Spirit, right? You're thinking about the Holy Spirit filling and coming in and filling the whole entire place and just rocking and rolling. Do you realize that that entire idea is caught up in that chapter in one verse? Acts chapter 2 verse 8. One verse talks about that. But there's not, how many verses are there in Acts chapter 2? There's 36. Okay, there's 36. So someone open their Bible. We're gonna end on this. Go to Acts chapter two and go to that very last, that very last word in that chapter. After he's filled with the spirit of God, the apostle gets up and he preaches this sermon. Peter preaches this sermon and he ends it by saying, what's 36 say, anybody? Therefore let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. That's how he ended it. Be assured of this very thing. That the one that you crucified, this Jesus that you crucified, be assured that God, not me, God has made Him Lord, and Messiah. He's made them both. He's made Him Lord and Messiah. That's how He ends that sermon. And does anybody agree with that? Well, everyone's not too bad either, but everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Yeah. But I'm talking about the way he ended it there, Stevie. I mean, at the end of the day, that was not too bad. Yeah, no, that's pretty good too. There's a whole lot of good verses in Acts chapter two. That's not my point. I just want you guys to get, I just want you guys to get this understanding that what he's talking about is he wants us to understand him and accept him for what he really is, which is Lord. There's no greater gift than to understand that we have a benevolent Lord out on high. in our lives, he rules, but he does not rule like with an iron fist, you know, and so forth. He rules in a way where he's saying, come, let's talk about this. Let's reason together. Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as wool. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as white as snow. So that's what he wants us to do, because at the end of the day, that's why he's Lord. And I want you to know, guys, if you don't get anything out of this whole entire book, get this, that his Lord, making him your Lord is the best thing you could ever do in your life, period. There's nothing better. And it gets better and better. and better. So let's get out of here. Hey God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your Lordship. We thank you for allowing us to come and to study it and to be just your children. We are just ever thankful for that. So bless our time today and throughout the weekend. And Lord, just again, cause us to come back next week and just be able to enjoy this word one more time. We thank you for Jesus and we pray in his name. Amen.