Starting this week, we are going to be starting a series, a topical series, and this topical series is going to be on our church's tenfold membership covenant. Now I know a lot of you guys here have reviewed it, have seen it, and some of you aren't members, so you know, you're kind of wondering, "Oh, why are we going to be doing a series on that?" Well, because the way that we have framed our tenfold membership commitments, it really summarizes what we believe the Bible expects of your life in church.

It kind of summarizes what the scripture expects from you as a Christian trying to exercise your faith. Now in order to introduce this, remember I want to remind that we have a very important fourfold vision for the church. Collectively, as a body, we believe that these fourfold visions summarize for us the scripture's expectation on us as a community.

The fourfold vision we've set up, written like this, that we are going to glorify God as the greatest ambition of our lives through worship, through scripture, through understanding and equipping people with this truth, through building a community that reflects this character of holiness and love, and then we're going to be a witness to the rest of the world.

Those are our fourfold visions that encapsulate what the scriptures say should be the regular pattern, should be the distinctive traits of this community, every community. However, we have on top of that then, ten commitments, ten covenants that we ask people to sign off on when they become members here.

And the reason why is because in order to actually fulfill those visions, in order to actually execute or implement those visions, we have to have each individual Christian committed to walk their lives in the church. We have to have individuals who are desiring to fulfill God's expectation for them.

So I want you to understand and present this series not by way of saying, "Hey, here are like ten just simple keys to become elite Bereans." We never presented it that way, that as though these are above and beyond what the scriptures expect of you, but rather, no, these are the things that the scriptures say is going to be a description of your regular pattern in the life of the church, should be the regular pattern for every Christian.

Okay? So with that said, today we're going to be starting with the very first of those tenfold commitments and covenants of the church membership. And the first one is, "I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior." To introduce this first one, I have an interesting kind of thought I want you to engage with me.

And that is thinking about this very strange and very sad phenomenon that I think is happening. What is this very strange and very sad phenomenon? It's when somebody wants eagerly to have a personal relationship, but applies it in a completely wrong way. Let me repeat that, okay? You take a personal relationship that you really, really want to have, and you apply it in a completely wrong way.

Let me give you an example. Just think with me, okay? For me, I have certain personal relationships that are true of me. These are things like, I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a son to my parents, I'm a pastor, I have these distinctive roles, right? But these roles are not isolated tasks that I do.

These roles are relational roles. Does that make sense? So that's what I mean when I say there are these personal relationships. Now let me apply it in the wrong way. Can you imagine if I tried to apply my husband relationship with you? So you're at church minding your own business, maybe you're participating in our cleaning crew and you're just cleaning the window.

And here I come, it's gonna be cringy, and I come around and I wrap you from behind with my arms, and then I sniff your hair and I say, "Hey, baby." Okay. Now if I did that by accident, I mean, ha ha ha, we'll laugh about it for a long time.

But imagine how strange, how weird, how off it would be if I meant to do it. And I tried to actually apply my husband role with you, right? That would be inappropriate. You slap my hand away, like, "What are you doing?" And even if I said, "I wanna take care of you," it would make it worse, right?

It would be even worse. Now I wanna give another example, which is I want you to imagine... Let's stop imagining that. Let's go to something different. Imagine if, because I'm a father, I wanted to apply my personal relationship that I have with my son with you. And so you're minding your own business, maybe you're participating by, you know, one of the events that we just had, which is picnic day, and you're just out there playing games.

And I come around and I was like, "You're so cute." And I just start ruffling your hair. And you're looking at me like, "What did he just do?" And for those of you guys who are older than me in this room, how would you feel? Would you be like all warmed and say, "Aw, he thinks I'm cute," right?

Or applied in the wrong way, actually, it would be very offensive, wouldn't it? Like pinch your cheeks, slap you on the butt, and say, "Go do your homework," right? How would you feel? It would not only be... In the first scenario, when I applied the husbandry to the wrong individual, inappropriate, strange, like cringey 7,000, you know?

Over here, offensive, wrong, very condescending, yes? So I'm talking about a strange and very sad phenomenon that's potentially inappropriate and also offensive, but I do believe in history, Christian history. In modern-day Christianity, this strange and sad phenomenon happens all the time. And you know what I'm talking about is when an individual presumes their relationship with God, treats God according to what they think and wish, but they're not really sure where they stand with the Lord.

Here's an example from the Bible, Matthew 7, verse 15 through 23. Okay, Matthew 7, verse 15 through 23. The scriptures say this, "Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits.

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.

Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" That is beyond strange, that is beyond cringy, it's wrong. But clearly it happens, and it will happen. It's strange and it's difficult because they will say, "Lord, Lord." It's strange and it's difficult because they will actually do the actions and be confused like, "But we did your work.

We did spiritual work. We were doing kingdom ministry, weren't we?" And Jesus will say, "But I never knew you. I never commissioned you, and I don't think you know me." That would be incredibly, incredibly off. And so by this introduction, I want to highlight something for you, is that in the context of talking about Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are talking about a relationship.

When you sign off on the document, yes, you are signing off on a doctrinal statement. Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, but it is more than a doctrinal statement. It is a status of your relationship with Christ. And the context by which we're talking about this is in the world right now and throughout history, there has been confusion and a strange phenomenon, and the error has been presumption.

Okay, let me repeat that. The error has been presumption. People have mistakenly presumed a relationship with God they did not have. People have presumed and then also then asserted their own desired relationship with God. "God, you do this for me. God deliver us. God, win this battle for me.

God, X, Y, and Z, I have expectations of you that I think you're obligated to do for me." But that is not the case. God regularly says, "I'm not a man that I should be bribed by you. You don't buy my affection. You definitely don't buy this relationship. You don't demand it." This is something that is a unique privilege that cannot be assumed.

But unfortunately, I believe this is the case. So as we talk about this first covenant that I confess Christ as my Lord and Savior, it is such a huge topic, but I want to focus on this truth, and I want to remind you that the reason why our church goes over this is not to make you feel like, "That's right.

If you want to be a member, you better show up and represent." Right? Because I have had people tell me like, "Man, you know, Berean expects a lot out of his members." And I always want to say, "The Bible expects a lot out of men." It's not just that Berean wants you to be some kind of elite Christian, and you have to measure up to these things.

No, I want to explain to you our heart. We do not want you to be mistaken about where you stand with Jesus, because that is to you the greatest good. And then to you on the reverse side of that, for you to stand confused about whether God accepts you, for you to stand confused about whether He is your Lord, that would be to you your greatest tragedy.

I believe it. And so our heart is to minister to every single person who desires to be a member here. We want to give you clarity so that you stand with God, not in your own confidence, but by faith, confidence in the Lord who accepts you because of your faith in Jesus Christ.

That kind of assurance is the desire of Scripture for you to have, and that to you is going to be the greatest foundation for everything you do. And that's why this is covenant number one. So with that said, I want to set a second kind of background to this.

So this is introduction part two, which is, I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior then is at the greatest importance, that you get it, you understand it, and you see the full picture of the relationship you have with Jesus. But then one might say, "Hmm, why do you word it like that though?

Isn't it sufficient for you to say, 'I have been saved by Christ through faith,' period? Why do you have to add this idea that He's your Lord and Savior?" Now you understand, in setting up the context, that in our modern generation, there has been some wayward theology that had to be corrected.

Okay? Meaning just bad thinking that needs to be fixed according to the Bible. What is that? I want to quickly summarize it for you because I believe the vast majority of you in here probably have already heard the term "Lordship Salvation." Right? Lordship Salvation has been a certain issue, a controversial issue, perhaps in more recent history, meaning more like the last 15, 20 years.

But let me summarize why there was this even need to say Lordship Salvation and not just salvation. Because it should suffice. If Jesus is Savior, that's it. But the reason why is because there were some thought. I have here a summary that says, number one, you cannot divide Christ's character.

Meaning there were some people who believe that you can accept Jesus as your Savior, but not yet be ready to accept Him as Lord, and that's okay. Meaning I could accept Him as my Savior to deliver me from hell, but it does not necessitate that I accept Him as my Lord yet.

And so there were some people who give their testimony, and they give a sequential testimony. Well, here I accepted Him as Savior. I was kind of running away and doing a Jonah thing, and then I really decided to follow, and then later on I realized I have to make Him my Lord, and so I made Him my Lord here.

That kind of thinking is not biblical. Why? Because the person of Jesus Christ, He's one. You cannot simply accept and then reject parts of Him. He cannot be divided. Two, you cannot divide your own relationship with Christ, meaning you cannot refuse Him and have Him at the same time.

You cannot persistently refuse His commands, accept sin in your life, be unwilling to forsake your previous life, and then say, "But I want Him here." That's your relationship to Jesus that you cannot compartmentalize. That is also absolutely unbiblical. And then what kind of by deduction ended up happening in the church, and perhaps maybe they were well-intending, but it's really bad theology, was that people have divided the Christian people.

You cannot divide Christ's people. There had been an effort to say, "You know, we have cardinal Christians, we have converts, we have babies, and then you have disciples." That is not a biblical thought. Do you see how that kind of computes? If you believe you can only accept parts of Jesus, if you believe you can relate to Him only in parts ways, then you have to also make part categories of the people of God.

You have converts and you have disciples, and some people think that way. That is unbiblical. If you're not a disciple following Jesus, you're not a convert. That is at the heart of when we say lordship salvation. And again, remember I said, although as I run through this, that might be a lot, and also it might sound intense, this is not to say that Berean has this unique elite standard for Christians.

This is how Scripture speaks. And the way I want to prove that to you is not talk about, "Okay, let's talk about the Christian when he does, let's talk about how salvation works, let's talk about modes of belief." What I want to talk about is Christ the Lord. Because what we're saying is, when I say I confess Jesus as my lord and savior, that is not just a doctrinal statement, that is my relationship with Christ as I understand him and who he is.

And who he is is going to dictate everything of what I believe and what I do. So let's follow along now into that trail of thought. I begin with this number one point, which is Jesus Christ is Lord, and this is the greatest picture of him. The greatest picture, when you think about the gospel, the message of truth reveals to us spiritual realities that we did not know before, and the biggest piece of that gospel message is not, "How do I get to heaven?" The biggest piece of that gospel is, "This is God." That's what I mean.

And what I would like to also say is this idea that Jesus is Lord is the most natural and prevailing designation and picture of Christ, above and beyond his servanthood and above and beyond his humility. That's really interesting. What I need to do is prove that to you by scripture.

So now we're going to walk through a bunch of Bible passages, and I want to forewarn you, this sermon has long excerpts from scripture, so we'll need to follow along together. The first passage I have for you is from Isaiah 9, verse 6 through 7. What I like to say is, prior to Jesus being born, clearly there have been prophecies and introductions and teachings about Jesus.

The primary picture that those prophecies tried to teach God's people was that this Messiah is going to be Lord. What does it say in the Bible? "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father and Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace, and on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this." Wow.

People could camp out and meditate on that, but if you just ask the question, "What is the picture? What is the impression of the Messiah to come?" and you would immediately say, "He's going to be one amazing king." Righteousness and everlasting kingdom. That's what you would think. What's more, when he was actually born, he was announced as Christ the Lord.

Luke chapter 2 verse 11, the scripture says, "When he was born, for today in the city of David there has been born for you," look at these titles, "Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Remember that Christ is not Jesus' last name. Okay? I know you know that. Christ means the anointed one.

He is the Messiah. And to say he is the anointed one already gives you the picture of one who is like a king, the anointed king. He is the Lord. What's more, while he was doing ministry on earth, so many people literally wanted him to be king right now because that's what they expected.

This isn't this verse, John 6, 15, says, "Jesus perceiving that they were intended to come and take him by force to making king, withdrew to the mountains." But the other passage is Matthew chapter 16, verse 13 through 16. This is when Jesus is talking to all the disciples and it says, "Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say I am?' Simon Peter answered, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" If Christ is a designation of the one who is prophesied, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of God actually takes it to the next level, right?

He is not just the messenger of God, he is the Son of God. And if you're thinking appropriately, you should be thinking the prince of the world, right? One with authority, power, and the glory of the Father. Now continuing forward, even when Jesus is about to die, you recall that Jesus was before Pilate.

Jesus himself acknowledges and affirms he is a king. John chapter 18, verse 36 through 38, Jesus says to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place. You are a king then." That is the right conclusion.

And Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Think about that. Jesus prior to coming on the scene, living on earth, and upon his even death, he is king.

And upon Jesus' resurrection, Thomas' affirmation is so profound. In John chapter 20, verse 28, this is what the scripture says. "Then he said to Thomas, 'Reach here with your finger and see my hands, and reach here with your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing.' Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord, my God.'" That is an amazing affirmation by Thomas.

And Jesus did not reject that. I want you to think about that because currently right now, we have the resurrected Lord. And so what I'm going to say is, there is a picture of Jesus that has been given to you. There has been a picture of Jesus that has been given to the people before us.

And all through the entire full spectrum of the picture, the picture has been that Christ is Lord. The future enemies of God from here forward about things to come reveals to us that Jesus Christ is going to be revealed as the king. Revelation chapter 17, verse 12 through 14 says this, "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.

These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords, king of kings, and those who are with him are called and chosen and faithful." The picture of what Christ is going to be revealed as is Lord of lords and king of kings.

And before I read this next passage, which comes from Revelation chapter 19, verse 11 through 16, I just want to reiterate so that you understand what I'm saying. Not just a picture of Jesus in history, not just a future picture of Jesus that's going to come by way of prophecy, but I believe the most appropriate, most prevailing picture you should have right now in your mind when you think Jesus is this.

Is it true that yes, Jesus is a humble servant? Yes. Scripture tells us to be humble just like him. But the picture we have cannot be so limited to a box. And if you grew up maybe in a Christian home, you might have had that picture of Jesus where his skin is fair, his hair is perfect, and he's right at the door about to knock.

Right? You guys had that picture? I had one in my home on the wall. Now that picture comes also from Revelations where the whole idea is he's ready to knock on the door of your heart so that he might come in. The thing about it is this is also an accurate picture of Jesus that you should have in your mind.

Where is the painting of that on the wall? Let me read it. And I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself.

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood. His name is called the Word of God. And in the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword so that with it he may strike down the nations.

And he will rule them with a rod of iron and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings, Lord of lords. This is a challenge to you. Whether you've been a Christian a long time, whether you've been Christian a short time, this is the image of God that is given to us at the end of the Bible.

We are looking forward to not eternity and long, long times ahead. We are in what's called the last hour. There's not a whole lot on the plan of God left, right? This is then to us the closest picture of Jesus we should expect. Have you thought of Christ this way?

This all matters because in summary, the proper way to view God, the greater picture of Christ is him as Lord, the Son of God with absolute authority, power, strength, glory, and dominion. That's the truth. And it is that Lord who saves. It's that Lord who lavishes love. It's that Lord who has come down so that we would be lifted up.

That kind of great contrast is where we find the amazing part of the gospel. To such great sinners, such great grace by such a great Lord. I want you to think about that. And what's more, not only is it because of this depiction of Jesus, but God says this is his very purpose.

Turn your Bibles over to Philippians chapter 2. I know some of you guys are memorizing, so I want you guys to recite it now. I'm testing you. No, I'm just kidding. We're walking through Philippians and this portion of it, we have to understand the purpose of God in salvation is actually for this very point that we're making to understand Christ as Lord.

I'm going to start reading. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 9 through 11 says this, "For this reason also God highly exalted him, 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, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." If any of you are wrestling with that theology of, "But wait a minute, isn't salvation just simply by an easy kind of like simple request to have salvation, to have heaven?" My answer is going to be yes.

But this concept gives you a fuller picture that the purpose, the purpose that God is trying to accomplish is not devoid of your salvation resulting in the praise and glory of Christ as Lord. And so if you dissect the two and say, "No, I can have salvation outside of his Lordship," you missed the whole point.

That's my admonition to those individuals who think, "No, no, no. Salvation is supposed to be a free gift and I'm supposed to be able to receive it. And if you add anything to it, you're a legalist." I'm going to say, "Man, it's hard to debate you when you missed the whole point.

I'm not arguing with you. When I say you, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about the person I'm picturing in my head. Salvation is by faith. It's that simple. You humble yourself and you ask God Almighty, "Forgive me. Give me your grace." So yes, could someone be saved right now, today, in this moment?

And the answer is yes, because it is not of your works. It is by grace. But if you do not understand the one who's giving you the grace, the one who's giving you the entire context of why you could even ask, you missed the whole point. And so, when we talk about this lordship of God, I am saying and challenging you, how do you perceive the Lord?

Because that predicates how we're going to do everything else. And therefore, if you have this limited view of Jesus, where perhaps He is just a giving tree, He is the one you go to and you pray, "Lord, could you please grant me this? Lord, help me this and help me that.

Lord, please help me with school, work, family, and every single hurdle that comes my way." There is a fine line between dependency and a fine line between abuse. "I want you to give me this. I want you to give me that. I want you to give me this." If you just see Jesus as a comfortable friend that you go to for companionship when you're lonely, if you just see Jesus as a love interest where you sing wonderful songs and you engage in romantic kind of relationship, I'm going to say, "Christ is so amazing.

He can provide all of that, but don't miss the bigger picture. Christ is Lord, King of kings, Lord of all, and this matters because by the nature of who He is, then it has natural ramifications of our response. Because He's Lord, I don't get to just ask for stuff.

Because He's Lord, now it demands me to give praise. Now it demands me to give my service. It demands me to give actually all of myself in trust because it is a unique, unique privilege for me to have His Lordship and His reign. Does that make sense? Because He's deserving, now I am able to subject myself to Him and joyfully obey.

This relationship now takes on an incredible, new, dynamic kind of interaction. Why? Why? Not because of modes, not because of this and that, but because simply of who He is. And I believe the grave, grave mistake, again, of that kind of theology that has been prevalent, you kind of missed the big picture.

And so here's an interesting thing that I was thinking about, which is, do you remember the passage in John chapter 3 where the rich young ruler comes in and he asks Jesus, "Rabbi, you're a good teacher. I want to ask you. I've done everything, but how do I get into heaven?" Is that a good question?

The answer is yes. Everybody should ask that. But for this man, his biggest problem was not that he was so wrong about how one gets into heaven, because I think he knew you needed a certain level of righteousness. He should have instead asked, "Lord, who are you?" His mistake was he presumed he knew this teacher.

I know you're a good man. I know you're a worker of miracles. I know God is with you. But I think you have some special knowledge that'll help me get there." The problem is that person should have asked, "Lord, clearly you have come for a purpose. Who are you?" Those that Jesus commends for faith are the ones who recognize, "You're a Lord.

You have authority. Just say stuff and I know it's going to happen." And Jesus says, "That's right." He commends that kind of faith. What needs to happen is there has to be this eye-opening realization that Christ is Lord and that predicates then everything else that happens afterwards, and that's my point.

So I want to move now to point number two. If we understand that Christ is the big picture, His Lordship is a greater image, then the drama of that picture, the action of that picture is reconciliation. See, if you don't understand Christ to be this Lord, then yeah, of course.

Of course I'm going to be with you. Of course I'll accept your offer of grace. Of course I'll accept your offer of heaven. Why would I not? It just makes sense. But when we recognize that Christ is Lord of Lords, we now all of a sudden feel the chasm, and there has to be a reconciliation of this chasm.

Unless you understand who Christ is, you're not going to appreciate the bad news of the gospel, or so the primer of the gospel, which tells us of this existing chasm between us, and the scripture says we have to reconcile, we have to deal with God, before whom we have to give an account.

What I'd like to do is share with you John 8, verse 31. Please turn your Bibles there. It's a long passage, and we're going to walk through it. Jesus Christ is doing this very work, trying to reconcile the Jewish people to the Lord. And what he's going to say is, "You listen to my word.

You follow me." And what's very interesting is the very sin that I'm trying to present to you today, the sin of presumptuousness, the sin of assumptions, the sin of thinking you have a relationship that you don't, is prevalent through this entire exchange. So John 8, verse 31, this is what the scripture says.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "What? We are Abraham's descendants, and I've never yet been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?" Pause there for a moment. That's a lie. I mean, if it's a Jewish person, they should know. It's like, "Have you ever heard of a thing called Exodus? Remember, there was a time of slavery?" That's a lie, right? In verse 34, Jesus answers them and says, "Well, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's descendants by flesh. Yet you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things which I have seen with my father.

Therefore, you also do the things which you heard from your father." They answered and said to him, "What? Abraham is our father. Do you see the presumption? Do you see the false confidence? Do you see the assumptions? What? We're the people of God," right? And they're going to expose who they are even more.

Going forward, Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. This Abraham did not do. You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to him, "We were not born of fornication.

We have one father, God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I've not even come on my own initiative, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear my word.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies.

But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God." Period.

Take a moment to pause right there. You know, there are times when you share the gospel, you're going to have to convince people of many things of the gospel truths. You're going to sometimes have to just simply convince them, "No, no, no. There exists such a being as God who is powerful." Right?

"No, no, no. There exists such a thing as heaven." One of the hardest things to do is convince them this, "No, no, no. There is no righteousness in you. You are not of God. He is not always on your side. You are not good. You cannot claim any righteousness.

This part of it is not just some kind of angry rant. Yes, there is this clear indication. Jesus is like, 'Why don't you get it?' But this is Jesus preaching the gospel because he is giving them truth. And he says it, "I'm giving you truth of God. You are not with the Lord.

You are not of the Lord." Now, you don't have to say it in this way, but Jesus makes it explicitly clear, "Your father is the devil." Right? I actually recommend, please don't do that when you're sharing. You know, like, "You're daddy." You don't have to do that, right? But this much is very clear.

You are not of God. He's not with you. Do not be presumptuous. Let's follow on a little bit. The Jews answered and said to him, "Do we not say rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon, but I honor my father and you dishonor me.

But I do not seek my glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my words, he will never see death." And the Jew said to him, "Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets also. And you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.'" It's so silly how the Jews respond.

They're like a child. Jesus says, "Your father is the devil." And pretty much they're like, "No, you." Right? Because that's what they're doing. It's like, "No, you. What about you?" Right? When they say, "You're a demon." And what's really interesting though is there is this strange moment of so close and yet so far.

They hear what Jesus is saying and naturally their mind goes to, "Wait a minute. Who are you trying to say you are?" Take a look. Verse 53, "Surely you are not greater than Abraham, our father, who died. The prophets died too. Whom do you make yourself to be?" That is such an important question.

To what we're talking about today, this is such an important question. And Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God. And you have not come to know him, but I know him. If I say that I do not know him, I will be a liar like you.

But I do know him and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." The Jews said, "What? You're not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham?" And Jesus said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." What is he saying?

Those are some crazy words. And so the Jews respond in a natural humanistic way. Therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself. The mid-corollary of this, meaning I know that maybe this was a long passage kind of thinking through like, how does this relate to us now?

You don't know how many times I sat down with somebody who's grown up in the church and I asked them, "Can you tell me about your relationship with Jesus?" Right now, this point number two is talking about reconciliation. And the whole question really is, it begs the question, what's your relationship status?

Is it in a relationship, married, whatever it may be? Are you confused? What's going on? The question is, what's your relationship status? I don't know how many times I've sat down with somebody and just said, "Oh, you know what? I've always been Christian." And I go, "Oh, you know what?" I'm like, "Okay, the answer is no, okay?

You're not always a Christian." Sometimes people will say, "You know, I knew God was always with me." I'm sorry to say, He was not always with you, right? I always believed in God, ever since I was young. Did you always believe in God? Because scripture says we're born in ignorance.

We're literally born as mute, deaf, and blind people who can't see God. God has made it so by His nature because He's so holy, you can't see Him, otherwise you die. The whole history of the nation of Israel was a case example how you can only come a certain distance because to see His glory would mean your death.

But here you are saying, "Since I was a baby, you always saw Him?" I'm sorry, I think you're wrong. Do you see the presumption? Now here's my question to you because not only that, but when I ask this question, "What is your relationship status?" I get all sorts of different kind of answers sometimes.

There are people who are like, "Yeah, it's complicated. My relationship status is complicated." There was a part where I was all excited that I was in this relationship and then I got distracted, I fell away for a while, I took it a little seriously, and then I came back, and the next thing you know, I got apathetic again, and then now it's kind of like a girlfriend and boyfriend who was off and on and off and on and off and on.

It's complicated. You know how it is. And I'm standing there like, "You see, it's hard to talk to you about that because I don't think you get the point. Jesus is Lord, and to think you can do an off and on, off and on, and off and on with Him, I don't think you understand Him.

Does that make sense to you?" Right? To presume that you can do that with the Lord means you don't understand Him. Because if you set these terms, if you set this timeline, you set these parameters of when you're ready, then you'll be serious, but when you're not, you won't.

And then when you feel like it's good for you, then you will. I'm not ready for this yet. So then, of course, God, you'll understand, right? I don't think you get it. And so that's why we're talking about today, the Lordship matters, understanding Him matters, and that reconciliation must matter.

I've literally asked people, "What's your relationship right now?" Sometimes they've almost talked to me like, "You know, this reconciliation is like two parties who are at fault. God needs to kind of repent, basically, for the kind of horrible life He gave you, the hardships, lack of parental care, lack of friends, whatever it may be, various difficulties, physical ailments, and then you forgive Him, and then He forgives you, and then you make peace." That is not the kind of reconciliation the Bible describes, right?

We are in a moment of impending doom by the wrath of God Almighty, and this has to be reconciled. If you are not sure whether you have been reconciled with God, and you are ready to sign the membership covenant, don't sign it yet. That has to be cleared with God.

Does that make sense? And if you think you can just keep going anyway, I don't think you understand who He is. That's my point. There must be a reconciliation. And therefore, that is why the Scripture says that we must confess Him, that we must confess with our mouth, believe in our hearts that Christ is Lord.

I'm going to move to a point three, which is then this is our corporate confession. This is our corporate experience. This is what binds us together. This is who we are by identity as a community, and nothing else. This is what matters. We are held together by the confession that He is Christ, that He is Lord, and that He, Jesus the Lord, is the one who saves.

And the reason why you and I have the greatest affinity, the greatest sense of, "Wow, you and I are like the same," is because we've reconciled with the Lord. There's a passage, just listen to this, Ephesians 4, 4-6 that says, "There is one body, one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." That's it.

There is our bond. As brothers and sisters in Christ, that's it. Everything else peripheral. Everything else secondary. This is the core thing. And just like we read right at the beginning, Peter read this passage. I want us to read it together. Acts 10, verse 34. Opening his mouth, Peter said, "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation, the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.

The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching priests through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all." What Peter is doing, he's looking at the landscape of the gospel ministry. He's thinking past and realizes God has been teaching the gospel to the nation of Israel, and now it's going forth to the nations, and what I see is God making peace.

In the conclusion, he says, "Jesus is Lord of all." Jesus is Lord of all. This is the amazing truth. And I want to make mention of this because when we think about this corporate confession, this is so vital to the health of the church. I mentioned at the introduction, we have a vision.

We have a commitment. None of those things can be accomplished unless we have a clarity about who is a genuine disciple of Jesus. It has been an incredible detriment and a disservice to the church when there has been this trend. Let's make the door to the church as wide as possible so that non-Christians can feel comfortable here.

That was an immense disservice to the church. Maybe well-intended, maybe it was a good desire to serve the people who are not Christians, but it was horrible for the church. Why? What we are doing here right now, we're just sitting next to each other. By faith, I believe this is not a business, this is not a social exercise.

Let's see how they can do if you put them together. This is not any kind of academic endeavor where I'm just teaching you and you are gaining knowledge. This right now, even though by my human eyes, it's just a bunch of people sitting together, this is a spiritual exercise of giving God worship, amen?

Not possible if we're confused about who is in Christ. When we think about building this community after the character of Jesus' love, not possible if we do not have the Lordship of Christ reigning in our hearts. When we desire for you to witness and to be this invisible yet visible, shining, glorious light of the Lord Jesus, that is a spiritual activity that has to be empowered by the Lord.

Not possible if we are confused. How can I expect you to do that when you're not sure about your standing with the Lord? If we muddy the lines of who is a Christian and who is not, we will ruin the church. And that is why this is of such high importance.

And what's more, remember, I want to reiterate again, we're not doing this just to make Berean great. We don't say all this kind of stuff to be like, "Yeah, we want to be elite Bereans who are like soldiers ready to take over the world." Okay? None of the leaders think like that.

Our hearts beat and like passion is like the apostles when they say, "The greatest treasure to you is to know you are a son and daughter of God." And so 1 John, he says, "I write to you. I write to you these things so that you might know." We want you to hold fast and know that there is a possibility of an assurance of salvation.

That if you know the truth of God, that if you know that He is Lord and you confess it and you believe in your heart and because you know that because He is Lord, He is truly the only way, He is the truth and He is the life, and therefore I have entrusted my life to Him, you can be assured.

You could have the peace of the Lord. That is to you the greatest privilege. And it would be a sad, sad tragedy if you were confused. And so we walked through a bunch, right? We walked through Jesus being Lord and walked through the passage. We saw that there needs to be reconciliation and we saw that the Jewish Pharisees of the time, they couldn't do that reconciliation because they presumed a lot.

They presumed that they were more righteous than they were and they presumed that God was obligated to accept them. We're learning also then that this kind of mentality and confession has to be the core of our church together. The last part I want to talk about then is this.

There is this assurance that you are supposed to exercise that is going to be the heartbeat of our church. What you do is predicated by your belief that Jesus is Lord, right? We do not want you just to do the red tape, jump through the hoops, and just do the things we tell you to do.

We are so thankful because, especially as I think about it, as a pastor, I'm so grateful. I'm just a young man, but the church gives a lot of weight and respect to the leaders here and you guys pretty much try and do what we try to instruct. That's like an amazing thing.

But as I think about that, I'm wary. I don't want you to just do the things we say because I said it. We want you to operate by the full assurance Christ is my Lord, Christ is my Savior, and therefore, whether any human leader is there or not, you have a sustaining, you have a steady devotion to the Lord.

Now for the sake of time, I'm going to quickly move to a kind of conclusion and wrap things all up, okay? In this whole debate and thought about the controversy of Lordship Salvation, there have been people who've asked this question. And I've actually pre-started Lordship Salvation in many other contexts and I've had people come to me and say, "Dude, I get it.

The Bible says Jesus is Lord. I'm not going to deny that because it says that. That's good and great." But it still, for me, feels like it goes against the concept that your salvation is a simple gift. Don't we call it grace? Doesn't that mean gift? And so they say, just kind of like any gift, like if someone gives you this gift, then you receive it.

So why are you doubting people's salvation based on their Lordships and submission and are they bearing fruit and are they professing to, are they committed to forsake sin and all that kind of stuff? Doesn't that seem legalistic? Doesn't that seem like you say you don't want elite Koreans, but that's what it sounds like to me.

Because for them, they're thinking it's a simple gift. And so if you receive it, it doesn't matter if you're having your ups and downs through life, you shouldn't be doubting whether you receive this or not. Why are you doubting that? Now again, remember I said when we focus on the mechanics of how do you receive this gift, I am not debating with you.

I am affirming the scriptural truth. You receive this gift simply by faith. Lord you're gracious, you give this to me so I receive it with really, really appreciative and grateful and broken hands. That much is true. So I'm not actually arguing with you. So what am I arguing? The question is, do you have any idea what gift you received?

If you think this gift, I mean I want you to think about the greatest and biggest gift you've ever received. Maybe to you it was like a new cell phone. It's like, "Oh, the iPhone!" Maybe it was something bigger. Maybe you received like a home, like a condo. A lot of people, they get married, their parents are like, "I want you to have a great start." So they buy them a condo.

You're like, "Oh my goodness, a condo? That's crazy." And so you receive it with great earnestness. And so yeah, the analogy makes sense. How would you even doubt whether you have it or not? Because our theology says the chasm between a house, a car, and receiving the Lord as your gift is so, so great and grand.

If you're sitting there having this option of, "You know, I'm just going to neglect them for a while. You know, I have other priorities. You know, I'm not even sure." If you do not understand the gift you receive and you cannot articulate that you as a sinner has received the Lord, then I'm not sure I can say you had any idea what you were doing when you received it.

To say that you can receive this gift and yet not transform you, I don't think you were fully aware of what you were doing. To say you received this person, the Lord God, the one who is eternal, the creator of all things, the sustainer of life, and yet have no effect in your life, I don't think you get the point.

Does that make sense? It's not so much about the mechanics. The more so is actually just simply focused on who it is you have received. And so again, that's why we say the scriptures tell us that what God is doing in our lives is not so much giving you just simple things like freedoms, powers, energies, and gifts.

For us as Christians, it's God in you, with you. And he's going to do such a work where confidence says he will carry it through to the end. And we dare not diminish that by saying, "You know what? I can only go so far." Let's make sure that we understand in all of this who it is that we say we confess is our Lord and Savior.

Let's pray. Lord, we know that God, we're going to be learning for the rest of our lives what it means to have you as our Lord. We also confess, God, that because we are like children, learning in progressive manner, there's a lot we don't know yet. And God, we confess that, we acknowledge that, but yet, Lord, we pray for more.

I pray that we will grow to understand both in truth and experience what it means to have this amazing privilege to have the righteous King of all be our King, to have the most humble, gracious, and loving King of all be our King. We know that this is a unique privilege that we didn't even think of, draft of ourselves.

We didn't ask for it, but you have presented it to us. And so, God, we recognize this is a unique, unique privilege, and we thank you. I pray that this truth would affect us so deeply. I pray we would never take it for granted. I pray that we would never diminish it or just simply assume it's ours because I happen to be at church.

I ask, Lord, that we would dig deep into what these things mean and so that, Lord, our life at church here would genuinely be by faith and an understanding of this, this person, Jesus Christ, He is my Lord. I again pray also, Lord, that if there is anybody in this room who feels unsure, if there's anybody in this room, Father God, who does not know where they stand with Christ, would you grant to them that humility, would you grant to them that urgency to clear the air with you to make sure, Father God, that they are seeking your acceptance, that make sure that they are seeing that, Father Lord, acceptance is possible in the precious name of Jesus.

And so I pray, Father God, that there would be such a confidence in the Lord, such an assurance of your great saving power. We thank you, Lord. It's in Christ's name we pray.