Our scripture passage this morning is Romans chapter 14. We will read the first nine verses, Romans 14, one through nine. Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day observes it for the Lord and he who eats does so for the Lord. For he gives thanks to God and he who eats not for the Lord. For the Lord, he does not eat and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself and not one dies for himself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." The Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. Well, let's seek the Lord together. Let's pray. Our glorious, our everlasting King, We come to you, the one being that is so far beyond our intellect. And yet you are not beyond our hearts. And every believer here this morning. Who has known what it is to be loved by you, not just in words, but indeed. Who has felt the great battering ram of love break in the gate. To charge in and invade our little lives, not to destroy us, not even to bring a righteous judgment. And to let justice have its pure way. But that you came with mercy. And with the arms of compassion, you have broken the chain of sin and shame and despair, and you have brought us into light and life and hope. You have stolen us away from the old enemy that was a tyrant to us, and You have brought us into the kingdom of Your Son, the Son of Your love, a kingdom of grace, where everywhere we look it seems that grace comes one on the heels of another. And when we come to you afraid that you don't want to hear our voices because of the coldness of our hearts and the stumbling steps of the last week, we find grace. And when we come to you confused because we don't know what to do and how to live for you, and it's almost as if this book hasn't even opened our eyes and we wonder if you'll be disappointed in us, and we find grace. And we come to you at times, God, with the pain of love in our hearts where we want to give all that you deserve. We want to say all that we mean, but we're like little children, God, and we stumble through a few sentences and we wonder, do you reject it? And we find grace, grace upon grace and the fullness of your infinite son supplying our lives. And so we gather this morning, God, not because we're the spiritual and strong and good people, but because we are a people who have tasted your mercies. And God, we voluntarily lay our lives before you again as living sacrifices. And we want our gathering here. And we want the way that we live when we get in our cars and drive home today to be nothing less than a living sacrifice, an act of worship. Pleased our king with what we offer you. Be pleased our father with our childlike efforts washed in the blood of Christ, made complete through his perfect obedience. God, we glory in belonging to you. And we look to your son who rules over all things now, as we've just sung. the astonishing facts that we're able to sing this morning without fear that we've overstated anything, without fear that this is for other people, not for us. We come to you, you who have saved us from so much, but saved us to so much more. Until we stand complete with every other believer before the face of Christ in all his unapproachable glory, until creation itself shares in that great wave of completion and is made new, will you help us to live by faith now, to believe that you don't lie, To trust you above our own emotions and our present frame of mind. And even if, like Abram, all we have is your word and nothing else seems to support it. May it be enough for us. We ask God that you would, across this world, cause the gospel to be preached today with great power from big pulpits and little homes. From individuals going about their daily duties, from parents to children, from friend to friend. God, we ask that this day would be a day which many can look back on as the first time that there was a sweet meeting between Christ and their soul. And we pray, God, that your name would be set apart, that your kingdom would spread with an irresistible might and that your will would be done happily. Fully. And we ask this of you because it is your kingdom. It's your power. It's your glory. None of it's ours. But it is yours forever and ever. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, turn to Romans chapter 14 and we'll pick up with verse five, which we mentioned last week. So if we kind of get a running start, what would Paul say to believers who have the question, okay, how am I supposed to live for God, especially in areas where Christians might disagree, what we call secondary areas? Well, Paul starts in chapter 12 by saying, for those of you who have tasted the mercies of God, the undeserved friendship, not of a man, a governor, a president, but of God. Present yourself as a living sacrifice. Don't let your thoughts put on the mask of the old life again. Don't be conformed. Don't put on the outward clothing of your old life, but let your mind be refashioned by the word of God and your lives transfigured. And you remember in chapter 13, he said, what we're talking about in all these specific commands, really, it's just love, giving to people what we owe them. Love. And there is an urgency here at the end of chapter 13. Remember the timing. Remember God's calendar. Remember God's clock. The night is almost over, Paul says. The day is right here. It's at hand. So lay aside the old habits, like laying aside your pajamas when it's time to get up and go to work. And put on Christ as your provision. Put on Christ as your pattern. And we said last week or two weeks ago, and don't make any provision for self. We could say, don't pack any lunch for self on this journey. But now, how do we do that in these secondary areas, these areas that have been called areas of indifference or areas of conscience, gray areas? I really don't like any of those descriptions of these areas because each one of them could be misunderstood, but you get the idea, all right? Now, last week, we talked about this in verses 1 through 4. Paul brings up the issue of food. Is some food right and some food wrong? Is some food more holy and some food less holy? And to the Gentile, that may not have been a very difficult question, but to the Jew, it certainly was. Under the old Mosaic law, there were certain foods that were forbidden, and they were part of the Jewish witness to the world. The Jew was distinct. He ate certain ways, he observed certain holy days, which we'll talk about in a moment in verse 5. And so everyone that saw Jews knew that they were a different people, and it was meant to be a picture of the difference of belonging to a living God. I mean, nobody else had this God. You have a rock in your house you worship, you have a fine carved chunk of wood, but you don't have a living God. And if you did have a God, He wouldn't be holy. So the Jewish life was a living demonstration of something about God. But when Christ came, those food laws were fulfilled. The holiness that they could only foreshadow, now we have it. And so inside the young church, there's a lot of questions. Do we still observe these food laws or don't we? And Paul gives a general principle. It might surprise you that he doesn't actually give a list of rules. This is what you do. He gave principles and basically said this, these secondary areas. Don't let them become areas where you damage each other, but show love to each other. Remember, what is a secondary area? It's an area of belief or practice that does not directly affect the essentials of Christianity. In other words, we would say it like this way. It's not essential to salvation that you understand this or do this. It's also it might be an area that's not directly spoken to in scripture. So it requires that you back up and take a general the general teaching of the Bible as a whole and try to apply it to that situation. It may be an area where true believers have in which they've disagreed throughout the centuries. Even after searching the scriptures, remember when we talk about these gray areas, they're not gray. because you don't believe in the lordship of Jesus Christ, because you don't believe that everything should be devoted to him. There are areas that we're not quite sure we have enough clarity for our decisions, but the person next to us may have a different decision. But it is because we believe that they matter to us. They might be an area that in itself is neither right nor wrong. And so for some Christians, because of their conscience, it would be wrong for them to do it. But for other Christians, it would be right for them to do or not to do a certain thing. And because these things aren't essentially right or wrong in themselves, these secondary areas might be a fine thing for a Christian to do. on one day, but the next day the circumstances are very different, and so the choice is different. It wouldn't be right to do. We talked about all this last week. So in chapter 14, verses 1 through 4, we had a couple of don'ts and a couple of dos. Don't despise the weaker brother who, because of their conscience being bothered, because they've not yet fully applied all that Christ is to the present situation, They don't feel they have a freedom to do something. And you are not to look down on them as immature, silly people who just theologically are dense. All right. So be patient with them. Give them time to grow. and the younger believer whose conscience is bothered. And so they feel that they must be very strict in a certain area. They are not to look at an older believer who, by applying Christ, has a legitimate freedom in this area. They are not to look at the older Christian and think, ah, compromised. Obviously. I mean, I couldn't do that, but you seem to feel that you can do that. And so you're not to judge the older Christian as one who is sinning. What do you do? Use your freedom. that Christ has given you for the good of others. For the younger Christian, do you remember when Paul talks about we read other places other than Romans, particularly in the Corinthian account? What do you do when you're sitting across from a person and they offer you food? And what do you do if eating meat that's been sacrificed to an idol offends the young Christian across from you? Well, Paul says, consider the benefit or the good of the person across from you, the believer. Do not harm them. Don't lead them to do things that would go against their own conscience. So in all these areas of freedom, consider the other Christian. But he also says, what happens if a pagan gives you food to eat? He says, don't ask him where the food came from. But if he says to you, this came from my idol, then you need to refrain from it for a clear testimony so that the lost person seeing you do something in what we would call a gray area isn't confused. So thinking of other people. Now, in chapter 14, verse 5 and through verse 9, which we'll look at this morning, Paul mentions a new area of conscience, a new area of indifference, a new secondary area. that is bothering the Christians. And that is the area of special days. And then in verse 6, 7, 8, and 9, Paul lifts the whole matter, the whole motivation of gray areas in the Christian life. He lifts them to the highest possible level of motivation. And I think we can say clearly, there is no higher description of the Christian devotion or the Christian life found anywhere in the Bible than what we're about to look at this morning. Strangely, it's not in the context of some horrible sin, murder, adultery, theft, idolatry. It's not in that situation that Paul says, let me explain to you the highest level of devotion, the highest portrait of love to Christ. But it's in the gray area. And I think that one thing we can say right at the beginning is it is the gray area that tends to be the thermometer of our soul. Probably believers here this morning have not been tempted to murder or to embezzle money or to do a number of the things that we think of. Those are really outwardly unacceptable sins. But you don't really have to love Christ not to murder people. You don't really have to love Christ not to steal from your employer. There are a lot of lost people that live lives that are in those ways admirable. But it's in these areas where there isn't a direct command and there's a question mark. And you think, well, as a Christian, should I or shouldn't I? In this particular situation, should I or should I not? And there's where love to Christ really shows itself. What moves you? I mean, what motivates you in an area where there isn't going to be someone following up behind you, blowing a whistle, saying, ah, that's a wrong one? I mean, you can look at them and say, actually, this is one of those areas that we have freedom in. OK, so what choice did you make? And why? In these secondary areas where it's neither a sin nor not a sin, it is the why that's so important. It's much more important than the what. Are you going to eat the food or not eat the food? Paul's going to say it's why that's important. Are you going to observe the holy day or not observe the holy day? It's why. So we are going to look at that. Let's start with the days, verse 5. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. So again, we have to leave people to their conscience. These are sets of believers. They want to please the Lord with regard to this question of days. Are there special days or not? Do I treat some days as more holy and others as less holy? So these are Christians who want to please the Lord, and yet they're coming to different opinions. Now, in the old covenant, there were many special or holy days, and they were part of the Mosaic law. And like the food laws, they were a very distinct part of setting the Jews apart in the eyes of the people as a different people. So think of the Passover. Think of all the lessons that are contained in the Passover. The mercy of God on his people. The wrath of God passing over a family. How? By the sacrificial blood of an innocent lamb. I mean, the cross is painted out there, but there were other holy days. Feast days, fast days. Unique realities of God demonstrated even in these special days. But the Jewish holy days, these special days like the Passover, are fulfilled now in Christ. And so they are no longer necessary to be observed. Imagine a Jewish Christian. All right. So a young man, young woman embraces Christ. The family is upset. Why are you following this Paul? Why are you listening to his his gibberish about Jesus of Nazareth? How can you say that's our Messiah? Well, things are pretty rough at home and then maybe they settle down. They let you be a Christian. You try to live in a way that's a witness to your family. And then the Passover comes and the parents say to you, If you want to be right with God, you're going to have to have your Jesus stuff, but you've got to keep the Passover too. Right here it is written in black and white in our Bible. What do you do? You know it's fulfilled in Christ. Do you keep the Passover or don't you keep the Passover? If you keep the Passover, what kind of message are you sending to your parents who think it's essential? If you don't keep the Passover and explain to them, I because of Christ, we don't have to do that. Would that unnecessarily offend them? And so in these kinds of questions, the early church has different opinions. Imagine the Jewish Sabbath. All your life, Saturday, the seventh day, has been set apart as sacred because of the law of God. But now, as a believer, the Christians are meeting on the Lord's Day, on the first day to celebrate the resurrection. This is the Christian Sabbath. Do you ignore the old Sabbath? Do you go to church with mom and dad on Saturday and with the Christians on Sunday? Some people feel that this passage and other passages like Colossians 2 that talks about why are you still paying attention to Holy Days, that that actually demonstrates that in the new covenant, because of the fulfilling work of Christ, he has become our Sabbath, our rest, which is true. And Him having become our Sabbath means there is no day that we need to meet together to worship. Whatever day we want to meet is fine. It could be on a Sunday, that's fine, but it's not required. You can meet any day of the week and it would be equally pleasing, or maybe you don't have to meet at all. Now, we're going to talk about the Sabbath in detail at a later date. All right. But just for this morning, let me say I don't believe that that's the truth. I don't believe that this passage is talking about the Christian worship of God on the Lord's Day. I don't believe that it undermines a Sabbath day for a Christian. And I'll just give you my quick reason. The Jewish Sabbath, unlike the Passover and other ceremonies, special feast days, special fast days, the Sabbath was not based in the Mosaic law only. It predates the Mosaic law and is based all the way back in creation. Six days God labored and one day he rested. Why would God need to rest? Why would it take God six days? And it was a pattern for humanity. But the Passover and these others came with the Jewish law. When the Jewish, when the ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ, then those are fulfilled. But the pattern of six days of work and one day of rest and what that teaches us about the work of Jesus Christ, I do not believe has been replaced when Christ came. Also, while the other holy days have been fulfilled in the coming of Christ and in the death and resurrection of Christ, I don't believe that the Sabbath has yet been fully fulfilled. It's started. So every believer can look within and say, I have rest with God by the finished work of Christ. But that perfect fulfillment of the Sabbath is yet to come in the new creation, in glorification, when we stand before Christ and it's all made right. And there's no more struggle, no more coldness, no more sin in the soul as you approach your Savior, no more need for forgiveness and confession, but all the infinite provision of God is given to us without mixture forever and ever in a new creation. We'll talk about that later. Now, with regard to these special days, Paul doesn't actually give a direct answer, does he? He doesn't say, how dare you not pay attention to holy days? Nor does he say, how dare you pay attention to holy days? So he lifts the argument out of the specifics and gives a general direction. But there is a difference here. So like with verses 1 through 4, when he dealt with issues of food, gray areas in the Christian life, and talks about a general principle of freedom and of love, Paul's going to talk about a different general principle. He's going to pick up with the theme that he mentioned in verse 4. Look at verse 4. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand." So in the midst of this talking about freedom, Paul warns us, don't be quick to judge another. In these gray areas, you have no right to turn to your brother or sister and say, you're doing wrong, or you're just a theological infant. Why not? Because they belong to a master and their master will teach them. And it's to the master they must stand or fall. The master's approval or disapproval is really all that matters. And you're not their master. Well, he picks up the theme of master again. And here he's going to talk about a devotion that rises above the concern for other believers. or the concern for the lost. And in verses 6 through 9, he gives us a list of facts. Now, I'm going to read it with you again, but I want you to notice something. There aren't commands here. There are facts. It's like in Romans chapter 1, verse 1 through chapter 6, verse 10. Do you remember the unique thing about that long stretch? One of the things is that there are no commands. We don't actually get to any commands in this book until verse 11 of chapter 6. And then it's a command to think differently. So what Paul's going to do is, again, he's going to follow this pattern. He's going to lay out for us a series of facts, things that are objective, things that don't change whether you're doing well or terrible this week as a Christian, if you are Christ's, if you are in Christ, if you have embraced Christ by faith and repentance. If you are His and He is yours, then there are a series of facts that exist. And these facts are laid out for us in a very logical way, and they form the basis of new choices even in gray areas. So let's look at verse 6 through 9 again quickly. He who observes the day, all right? You decide, yes, I think I'm going to pay attention to those holy days. He observes it to the Lord or for the Lord. And he who eats, okay, I feel free to eat all food, does so literally to the Lord or for the Lord. For he gives thanks to God, he who eats not to the Lord or for the Lord, he does not eat and he gives thanks to God. All right. So whether you observe a holy day or whether you ignore the calendar of the holy day, whether you say I am not allowed to eat that food or whether you say I am allowed to eat that food, here's the general principle. You do it or you don't do it in these gray areas for the Lord. Now, verse 7 and 8 and 9 explain why that's the fact of the Christian. Now, you notice that wasn't command. He didn't say, every one of you that are about to eat, here's a command. I want you to do it for the Lord. No, he says, it's a fact. Every one of you that eat, every one of you that don't eat, every one of you that keep the holy day, every one of you that don't. Listen, because of verse 7, 8, and 9, you understand you're doing it to the Lord. Well, what's the foundation of that? Verse 7 says it negatively, verse 8 says it positively. So verse 7, for, here's our explanation, not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself. Life and death being just taking everything about you, no exceptions, all right? No moment in life, no moment in death is outside of this statement. Not one of you, in any aspect of your life or death, is for you anymore. It's not to you. You can be selfish, you can be sinful, but you have acted outside of the reality that everything about you, well, nothing about you is still to you. Verse 8, positively, for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. All right. Nothing you do is to you, toward you, for you. Because everything you do now is to him, for him, because you belong to him. How did you become his property? Verse 9. For to this end, for this purpose, Christ died and lived again. The cross and the resurrection, that he might Be Lord, both of the dead and of the living. Now, that's his argument. But what Paul really is doing here is he's starting in verse six at the pinnacle. All right. So it's like climbing the mountain. It's like going up in a skyscraper. He's on the top floor and he's pointing to all of life. And he's saying to the Christian, look, some of those areas in life are so very clearly spelled out, but some of those are gray. What do you do with those gray areas? Because your brother next to you, who also loves the Lord, he's been doing he's been making different choices than you. Which one's right? How do you make that choice? So Paul, at the pinnacle of the building of the skyscraper, says, look out on every area now. None of this is to you anymore. It's all to Him because this is the reason He died on the cross and was raised from the dead, that you would be His and everything would be for Him. That's wonderful. Verse six is the top. And then verse seven, eight, and nine, he kind of walks you back down the skyscraper, back down the path to the pinnacle of the mountain. And he says, do you know how we got there? I mean, that's the only Christian life. I was reading a commentator, a preacher, Charles Simeon. You've heard me quote him before. One of my favorite, very simple, friend of John Newton, Anglican minister in the early 1800s. And Simeon said to his church, If you were to look around at religion today in England, you would think that Christ required very little of a Christian. And what's it take to be a Christian? A baptism, two visits to church a year, Easter and Christmas, and you could be a Church of England member. But Simeon said, and yet the Word of God is our guide and not our culture. And what does the Word of God say? Whether you eat or don't eat, whether you observe a day or don't observe a day, you eat or don't eat to the Lord, and you observe a day or don't observe the day to the Lord, gray areas and black and white areas, all of the Christian life is to Him. So that's the pinnacle. But then we walk down. How did we get there? Well, He explains all the way down to the base. Verse 7, verse 8, verse 9 is the base. It's because of the work of Christ that you belong to him. And there has been a change in his position that changes everything about how you relate to him. Well, let's look at verse 9 and kind of pull it apart since it's the great heart of the section, and then we'll think of some applications. First thing about verse 9, there is a divine purpose in Christ's death and resurrection that goes far beyond the cleansing of your sin. Now, notice that Paul doesn't say here, right, because we're talking about a divine purpose. There's a plan. There's a goal. There's an intent. Paul doesn't merely say this, look, whether you eat or drink, whether you observe the holy day or don't observe the holy day, whatever we're talking about in the Christian life, you just remember Christ's Christ is the boss. Christ is Lord. Well, he could have said that. And you think of. Luke chapter 6, where Christ says to the disciples, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? I mean, he could have approached it that way, but he doesn't. There is something deeper here, something bigger, and the obligation is felt in a more heavy way. He says this, there is a divine purpose behind the Lordship, behind the death and resurrection and the Lordship of Christ. Jesus of Nazareth has become something now that He was not previously. Now listen, in Romans 6, 7, and 8 in particular, we have been looking at the changes that belonging to Christ brings. To every believer, present yourselves alive to God from the dead and your bodies as instruments of righteousness. And don't ever again present these bodies as instruments of unrighteousness. How can you say that? Because you're in a completely new position. You are new. Your position is new. You are now alive. The old you is dead in the grave when Christ went into the grave. The new you is raised when Christ was raised. And by virtue of that union, everything that happened to him literally happens to you spiritually. So now you're in a new realm with a new life, a new king. You're ruled by grace. So sin will never again rule you. So it's the change in your position that affects all your behavior. Be what you are, we hear often said. And that's a pretty good saying. Christian, be what you are. But this I find so exciting because it's actually not about your change. It's about the change of his position. Christ, his position has altered in such a way that changes everything about the way we live, that leads us to the pinnacle of that spiritual skyscraper where we quit saying, oh, what's so wrong with this? Well, I mean, well, what's right with this? Or how often do I have to do it? Or do I have to do it to step back and to say whether I eat or drink, whether I Don't, whether I observe the holy day or don't, gray areas, black and white areas, everything I do is to him. Well, the change is this. It's what we read of in the book of Acts, the book of Philippians, and Hebrews, and Ephesians. So I want to read some verses to you that are very familiar to you already, but I want you to notice the shift, all right? Acts chapter 2, Peter's sermon on Pentecost. After explaining to the people that Jesus is the son of David and they've just crucified their own Messiah, he says to the Jews this. Therefore, verse 36, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him the man you just crucified, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you've crucified. God has made him both Lord and Christ. Philippians chapter two, have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But emptied himself. Taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. even death on a cross. We know that, right? Then Paul writes this for this reason. God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. He is the radiance of His, the Father's glory, and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Or Ephesians chapter one. He, that is God, raised him, that's Jesus. God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church. Now, let me ask you, is there something new about Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man, after His resurrection, death and resurrection, is there something new or is He simply returning to things as they were in eternity past? Remember John 17? Verse 4, he says to the Father, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you've given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. Isn't Christ simply going back to what he had before? Revelation 5, we looked at in our prayer meeting. He enters into heaven, He takes the scroll, He sits at the right hand of the Father. Isn't that really where He was before in eternity past? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, the Eternal Son, co-equal with the Father. John's simple gospel begins in the deep waters of the Trinity. In the beginning was the Word, the expression of the Father. The Word, the Son, was with God. Face to face that Word means. And he was God. So somehow there's a person facing the Father who is God with the Father, not three gods, but one God, three persons. So when he goes back to heaven and he receives the worship of angels and his glory is restored to him, isn't he just going back to what he already had? How can we say that there's anything new? How do we understand Peter's sermon or Paul's words? that He was made Lord and Christ after His resurrection. Well, becoming Lord, the installment at the highest seat of authority in the universe, the gift of all the power and all the dignity of the King of all. was not just an effect, a cause and effect. You died, you were raised, automatically you become Lord. But it was actually the plan of the Father and the Son and the Spirit from eternity past. Look again at verse 9. For to this end, For to this goal, for this goal, toward accomplishing this goal, Christ died and lived again, that He might be. All the rights and dignity and power of heaven's throne are handed to the God-man as a reward for his suffering, and that was always the intention of the Father. But how is it different? How is he now something, how has his position changed? How is Jesus of Nazareth's position different now than it was before the death, and how does that affect the way we live? Well, I think the simplest way of explaining it is this, and this may not be a mystery to you at all. When I say this, you might say, well, duh, that was a no-brainer, right? Here's, I think, the answer. We're not speaking simply of the deity, the Son of God, everlasting. who has always been God and was God when He was united to the humanity, no less God. And yes, so in a sense, the Son of God, the deity of Jesus of Nazareth is returning to heaven in that human body, unaltered, coming back to what has always been His. But the humanity, as your representative, as Christian, your relative, as one of you, Jesus of Nazareth is, for the first time, entering glory as the God-man. And Jesus of Nazareth, the suffering servant, the Messiah, is now awarded lordship, or as the governor of all creation. We looked at it in Revelation 5. The Father hands to Him all that the Father once done, and the Son of God and Son of Man, a man, is on the throne. And the hands of a man hold the book, so to speak, and the eyes of a man and the voice of a man and the will of a man united to the deity now rules over everything. But that man is your man, Christian. So I think there's a there's more than one facet to this diamond. It is as man returning God and man together. that Christ is now no longer suffering servant, but exalted Lord or King over all. And all the authority and the power of the uncreated God is now entrusted into the hands of the God-man. But it's also that the Father has exalted Him to this position as one united to us, to you. I mean, so if we go down the line. You know, if we just list off every Christian here, your brother is exalted and he is exalted by the father knowing that you're related to him or that he's related to you. All the royal weddings that have gone on. I wonder if princes get lectures from queens. I wonder if the queen says to the prince, I know she's pretty, but her family is atrocious. Do you want that in the news every day? Look for someone else, please. When Christ is exalted as Lord, he is made something he was not before. The God-man has been made the ruler of the universe on behalf of the Father. so that all will be done that the Father delights to be done, so that all will recognize the Son's infinite worth as the God-man, so that in the end, He'll be able to hand it all back to the Father, so that the Father, the great architect of our salvation, will be praised. But it is with the full knowledge of God that He's related to you. So it is also a wonderful picture, like the resurrection, that God has accepted His sacrifice, and God has accepted your relative, and He has accepted you in Him. So that's what's new. This is how the theologians say it. As God, He has a universal dominion over all. But as mediator, he has a more special dominion over all which the father gave to him. This dominion he purchased at his death and had full exercise of it when he rose again." I'll give you another one. Quote, Christ died and rose again to secure the lordship which he exercises over his people. It is a lordship which therefore belongs to the sphere of redemptive accomplishment. So we're talking about a lord that's connected to our rescue as triumphant mediator. He has been invested with absolute sovereignty over both the dead and the living. Now, Jesus mentions this before his resurrection, I mean, before his ascension, after his resurrection, during that short period where the resurrected Jesus spent time with his disciples. Listen to Matthew 28, 18. And Jesus came up and spoke to them all, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. In other words, I, by my resurrection, the Father has made me, not just servant, but Lord. But if you read the Gospels, you will find that only in two places, and it's a question of whether that is the best reading of the original manuscripts, but only in two places is the phrase the Lord Jesus mentioned. It is in the book of Acts, from Peter's sermon forward, that the favorite title of the believers for Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ or just the Lord, the master. The one we slept with, the one we walked with, the one we ate with, the one that had to rebuke us, the one that had to explain things to us over and over is the Lord. Oh, wondrous story. That means that every verse that we read about the sovereignty of God can, in some wonderful way, some mysterious way, now be read about Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man. Let me just give you a few. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 15. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You can say this about Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, the blessed and only sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords. What about the psalmist words? Apply them to Christ. Psalm 93. The Lord reigns. We could say the Lord Jesus reigns. He is clothed with majesty. Jesus is clothed. He has girded himself with strength. Surely the world is established so that it cannot be moved. Jesus, your throne is established from of old and you are from everlasting. Psalm 135, I know that the Lord, I know that Jesus is great and our Jesus is above all gods. Whatever Jesus pleases, he does in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all the deep places. What about Job's statement about God's sovereignty? I know, he says at the end of the book, that you, God, I know that you, Jesus, can do everything and no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. Now we understand Daniel's vision when he says, I was watching in the night visions and behold, one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him. Then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom so that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His, that's Christ's, dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. And his kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed. I'll give you one more. Peter, first Peter, chapter three, Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to him. So Christian, when Paul talks about gray areas, he mentions loving other people, other Christians, considering the good of the lost person as your witness, and then he raises us high above everything and says, this Jesus is now Lord of the universe. That has always been the plan of the Father. That is why he died. That is why he was raised. So how does that affect us? Well, verses seven and eight. along with verse 6, but let's just look at 7 and 8. For not one of us lives for himself. In the Greek, it just says to himself. No one lives to himself. No one dies to himself. If you live, you live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. Now, Paul uses a special preposition in a special way, and you don't need to know the Greek term for it because I forgot to write it down. All right, so I don't remember. It's a dative. It's a dative of something. But basically, this is what it is. In the Greek language, there is a way of using the little word to, to mean to or for, and it can be used in a way that shows that the object I'm talking about is the beneficiary of all this action. Simple way of saying is what our translators already did. The little word for. The object of your not eating is to the Lord. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ is the beneficiary of you not eating. The object of your eating. You choose not to do things because you love Jesus Christ. Christ is the beneficiary of that. You choose to do some things because you belong to Jesus Christ. Christ is the beneficiary. You choose not to observe special holy days. Christ is the beneficiary. You observe some holy days. Christ is the beneficiary. Whether you live or die, that means every event, every moment, every relationship, every purchase, every sunrise and sunset and everything in between. Christ is the beneficiary. It's to him. But Jesus doesn't need anything. I mean, he's on the throne of heaven. How can we say he benefits? Well, think of 2 Timothy 2. Paul writes to Timothy and says this, you've been enlisted as a soldier by Christ. Now, live in such a way so as to please the captain that enlisted you. Christ is the beneficiary of what you do, Christian, because it is done for his pleasure. God, I refuse to do this in this situation. for your pleasure. God here, I will do this for your pleasure. In the black and white areas, yes, but in the gray areas, I want to live for the pleasure of the one whose position is now not just a suffering servant, but an exalted Lord. Also for his honor, so not vertical, but horizontal. Christ is the beneficiary when he is honored by our behavior among those that we live with on earth, Christian or non-Christian. People see you in gray areas, make careful choices, not because you're a legalist, but because you love Jesus of Nazareth, because he is master. And when they see you live under the rule of a perfect, kind, invisible master, then they think, this Jesus, there's something to him. I've never seen anybody be impressed with a list of do's and don'ts. You go to work, you don't. You don't. I don't. I don't. I don't. No, I don't. Why not? Because I have a long list. What an impressive life you have, you know? If someone lives like that around me, I just think, could you never show me your long list? I don't want to know your list. But if you see someone come to work and they happily live differently, And you say to him, why? Why not? What's so wrong with it? And they say, because of love. I have met a king and he has loved me. So I could do or could not do. But for love of my king, I choose not to in this situation. Then I'm impressed with their king. There's a wonderful passage that parallels this. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 5. Second Corinthians 5, verse 15, it's like we get it all summed up in a verse. We get the purpose of his death and we get the result. Second Corinthians 5, verse 15. He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves. but for him who died and rose on their behalf. Let me give you just a couple of applications. Christian. This is the difference between a counterfeit Christianity and the Christianity that gripped Paul. Counterfeit Christianity might say this. If you want to be a Christian, there's a long list of very strict rules. You better act right. Or it might say this, if you want to be a Christian, you'll be saved by grace. So there's no rules. Live the way you want. But how does Paul say it? Verse six. He who observes the day observes it for the Lord. He who eats does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. And he who eats not for the Lord, he does not eat. And he gives thanks to God for not one of us lives for himself. Not one of us dies for himself. If we live, we live for the Lord. If we die, we die for the Lord. Whether we live or we die, we're the Lord's. That's a very different standard. When a Christian ignores those facts and doesn't let those facts, everything I do is toward Christ, the Lord. When we ignore that he is no longer suffering servant, when we ignore that he is the absolute ruler of every molecule and the reason that he died and rose again was not just to wash your sins, but to rule over all. If we forget those facts, we can live selfish lives and we can be living in a way that goes counter every purpose of the cross. So Paul says in Philippians 3, many walk of whom I have often told you and I tell you now even weeping, they're enemies of the cross of Christ. Are you an enemy of the cross of Christ at times? Do you let yourself slip into that pattern? Does your lifestyle of Christianity, does your view of Christ produce more selfishness in the gray areas? Woo, I'm free to do what I want. And that is good news because I like to do what John likes. Or does the lordship of Christ and the freedom he's given you producing you a sweet carefulness? I am free to live for a king and I don't have to waste another moment living for this little tyrant, John Snyder. Unbeliever, what a terrible thing it is. Right. What a terrible thing it is not to break the rules only, but to live against the one king. What if all you did wrong in all your life was not think much of Jesus of Nazareth? It would be enough to damn you. Psalm 2 gives us such good advice. Before the king comes, Psalm 2 says, before he gets off his throne and arouses himself in anger and comes and deals with his enemies, with his armies, you have an opportunity. It was written thousands of years ago, but it's still open. You may come to the king you're offending and you may surrender, hoping in his mercy. And he will become your hiding place. He himself will protect you. If you think of this picture, Jesus Christ, whom we crucified, now made Lord of all the universe and all the authority and the power of deity is invested in the hands of the God man and you've lived against him. What hope do you have? Well, here's the hope. Why is he on that throne? Why is a man on the throne of heaven and not just God? Because God crucified his son and raised him for the dead and Christ embraced that plan to save his enemies. So when I see Jesus at the place of highest power, it can be pretty frightening if I've rejected him until I remember the whole reason he went through that. The whole reason he is Lord is that he might be the redeemer of a people for his father's glory. So I can go to him and plead his mercy. Christian, highest motivation, the new position of the one that you love. You only love him because he first loved you. I know that, but you do love him. And you don't love him the way you ought to love him. I know that. But you do love him. The one you love most, the one who is altogether lovely to you, that you love even though you haven't seen him. His new position changes the way you act, even in the gray areas. Now, I mentioned the royals and their marriages and their family. When a prince marries a girl and she gets brought into the royal family, immediately the paparazzi go to her weird cousin who lives out in the woods and says crazy things, right? And they say, Princess so-and-so or Duchess so-and-so's half brother says this. And then he gets to be on the front page of the Enquirer every week. You can imagine the phone calls. I'm gonna get married to the prince. Would you keep cousin Elroy shut up? Would you try to behave yourself? Mom, would you? Don't, no, don't do it, no. Dad, don't say what you normally say. Don't embarrass the royal family. Christian, your brother, your relative, your kinsman, Jesus of Nazareth, has been seated beside the Eternal Father. It changes the way you behave. Your brother's the king. You're not free to embarrass him. There are obligations there. And there's an unexpected joy. Never again is Monday morning just a wearying, empty, worthless, meaningless list of tasks that we do, wishing that there was something more spiritual about it. No, I belong to the king. So whether I eat or drink or whatever I do, Paul says to the Corinthians, I do it to the glory of God, to him, not to me. And so I review these facts, verse six through verse nine, and then I go out and I live in whatever area I'm living in to him. It's quite a, I think it's quite a thrill to be able to live for a king. Even when you're just driving down the road or fixing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for somebody, it's for the king. It makes it different, doesn't it? Well, may the Lord help us. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.