Okay, in your book, Chosen by God, go to page 35. In your, good morning, in your book, okay, in your, now, there's different versions of the book, right? Okay, so we're in the chapter of the sovereignty of God. And I'm on page 35. Let's see. And I'm on the chapter, The Non-Reform Thinker. OK, so I'm on 35. And I guess the other book is behind or ahead? 21. Way behind. You're way behind? Way behind, yeah. Page 21 up here in this book, page 31. OK, the purple book. The purple book is page 35. Purple book is page 35. Then it's not. I mean, I have a purple. So my purple is not your purple? It's on page 21. 22. And this is in the purple book. Try that. Anyway, here's what we're talking about. And I'm bringing up the segments of the- It's this paragraph right here on page 25. What page is it, darling? 21. Okay, so last week I brought up some of the nonsense that is trotted out trying to explain the sovereignty of God over our salvation and how people within Christianity are skewing the scripture, skewing their thinking. I brought up a guy by the name of Clark Pinnock, and that's P-I-N-N-O-C-K, if you care to look him up. He used to be a very strong reformed thinker, theologian, writer, and he totally went to the dark side, which makes him an interesting character. And the reason, and if you look him up, you see this clearly in his testimonies, is that he just couldn't deal with the fact that man was totally evil in the sight of God. He couldn't resolve that in his head. He saw goodness in man, and that goodness in man that he saw had to be rewarded by God, which took him off of Reformed theology and on to some really crazy stuff. What I mentioned to you last week was just one of my favorites. From him, he's the guy that started the theory that God sovereignly limits his own sovereignty. Now, you've got to take that for what it means. So what he is saying, and what Kinnick was saying, and what that realm talks about, and this is kind of rampant in community churches, is that God blocks his own knowledge of certain things and from that point on he doesn't know what's gonna happen. He sovereignly limits his own sovereignty. I put that in the nonsense category because it is total nonsense. It's baloney, it's fallacious as it can be. I mean because in a real sense, in a logical sense, How can it happen? Okay? If you have the sovereignty of knowledge where you know everything, then how can you, I mean, logically, how can you limit what you already have if you don't have unlimited power? You get the drift of that? Okay. Nonsense. Here's another installment, not from Pinnock. That's what I was trying to get you to my page 35. And the paragraph is this, the non-reformed thinker, which you all used to be, right? Maybe you did. Did you used to be Baptist? You were Baptist. No. Eva was Baptist. The non-reformed thinker, so everybody pointed Eva, the non-reformed thinker, the Roman Catholic thinker, the Lutheran thinker right there, Non-reformed thinker usually responds talking about God and his power and his sovereignty. Non-reformed thinker usually responds by saying that for God to impose his power on unwilling people, if God was to impose his power on unwilling people, that would violate man's freedom. To violate man's freedom is sin. Since God cannot sin, then he cannot unilaterally impose his saving grace on unwilling sinners. To force the sinner, to force the sinner to be willing when the sinner is not willing is to violate the freedom of the sinner. Which is crazy. Okay. Who's the creator here? Since when did the Bible say we were free? Now see, isn't that the flying ointment? Where do you get from the scripture that we have real freedom? We're slaved to sin? Do you think you do? Do you think you are a free man? No. Was I free to stream peacock last night in order to watch the Kansas City Chiefs? Was I free to do that? That was sin. It was a violation of my freedom. So in order for me to make a decision, did I make a free decision to not stream the Kansas City Chiefs. If you had $5.90. I've got $6. That wasn't the issue. But I was so inclined in outrage that I was not able to make a free and willing decision. I was blinded by my indignity and my contempt for the NFL. You get the drift of this? They are taking, these people take the concept, just what you said, they take the concept that man actually is free when it comes to his spiritual ability. That's a key factor in this whole talk that we're doing on election. You want to keep that, and if it's already in your head, put it in your head and look at the question because that is foisted on you, all of your backgrounds, all of you came in non-reformed, right? All right, I'll ask you a different question. Did any of you come into the door of Christianity with a reformed mindset? You did not. You did not. You're skewing the average. All right, I'll take it. Go ahead. Tell me. No, I grew up with it. You grew up with it. Yeah. OK. All right. Good. All right. Jerry? What? Yes. Didn't you teach us in the last couple of classes that the last person that had real freedom was Adam, and then from there, Well, I'll say Jesus, but yeah, the last man, the last true man was Adam. He was totally free. Why was he, this is an important piece, why was Adam totally free different from you? Because he had no sin nature. Okay, he had no mother and father to pass on a sin nature to him, right? He was free to sin or not to sin. Very good. He was free to sin. So Adam really did have the freedom not to sin, but he also had the freedom to sin. He had true freedom. Do you think you have any semblance of that? No. I don't have any illusions about that. The struggle for holiness proves that to me every day. All you've got to do is try, try to be holy, to prove to yourself that you are not free. That's all you've got to do. Now, if you don't try, no problem. I'm setting up some of these mileposts because you have to know where they are in order to navigate around them. Because my second question is, what do you still struggle with in this hole? So you're here. Maybe you're fresh out of a freewill church. Maybe you've been in a church. that doesn't teach Reformed theology, doesn't teach grace the way we do. And you come in here, you hear it, you like it. I'll tell you who's responsible for this class is Gail Young back there. So you can blame her for putting this class together. She came to the session for membership. We get her membership interview. And typical for us when we do that, is we say, now where are you now? Tell us, this is a very normal and membership interview, tell us what your view of Jesus is, tell us what you're reading, tell us what your struggles are, all along those lines. Gail is very forthcoming, and she said, I'm really struggling with this whole concept of predestination. Follow-up question of us is, OK, well, how are you trying to get over it? Well, I'm reading, and I'm trying to get over that. And I said, good, what are you reading? Well, she had, and I'm not criticizing. She was reading a Roman Catholic author on the concept of predestination. So we kind of jumped in and said, whoa, whoa, whoa. So we put Gail Young on two books. We put her on The Holiness of God and Chosen by God to try to orient her thinking to more what the reformed principles of predestination are. And I think it helped. Gail, would you say that those two books helped you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And so now here, so we can openly discuss what's lacking in our faith on this. Now, you get doubt. So I'm saying, OK, all these varied backgrounds, what are you still struggling with? What? I'll say it this way. I'll say it the way Sproul said it. I believe it. But I don't like it. What don't you like about it? Just so far, what don't you like about it? It's a rhetorical question. What don't you like about it? Ms. Eva, do you like all of it? You know, I think I probably like all of it, because I like God. I like the Trinity. Yeah, that's a good point. It's been a year since I've read this, but I think what most people struggle with is they feel like they can add to their salvation. They can work it, which scripture tells us to work out our salvation. Absolutely. earning a place, a better favor with God, or they are losing favor with God by not measuring up to Christ. Instead of trusting the Lord that He has saved, He has chosen, He will keep those that He has called. and we'd get to rest in that. Well, that's the issue at stake, because there's most of Christianity that don't buy that. Right. Right? Okay, so we're the ones that are swimming upstream on this. Most of Christianity is going the other way, and that's what I'm saying to you. You came out of those systems. Jerry, one of the things I don't like about it is, in the circles that I run outside of this community at Grace, I'm always in the minority. It's always a tension with other Christians. Well, particularly if you tell them you're a Presbyterian. Yeah, right. Wow, do the flags go up. But what I love about it is it frees you up. It really does, particularly in the area of evangelism. It's not my problem. It's not my responsibility. I don't have the force for you to do it. It is. It's definitely an interesting journey when you're out there in the Christian world. Now, let me say something out front. Reform theology does not exclude people that would say, I want Jesus. Give me Jesus. Take me to Jesus. Show me Jesus. We're not opposed to that. Not opposed to that at all. There is some imprint that gets imposed on us that we would take that person and push them aside. That's not true. That is not true. Come to Jesus. You hear that out of Dr. Jacobs every Sunday. You don't hear anything different than, come to Jesus. That's the message. Now, the Reformed principles are that your salvation actually can be true. It doesn't have to be guesswork. It doesn't have to be left to the swaying that we do in terms of our holiness. All right, so here's what we were trying Out of the first chapter, there's a little bit of review, but we want to understand predestination. Predetermined is a biblical doctrine. Gotta be sure we're clear on this. Now, if you've got your study guide, this is on page three. The predestination is a biblical doctrine. It is not a myth of the Presbyterian church. We did not make this up. and has been a central and mainstream teaching of the whole church for 2,000 years. So when the apostles, excuse me, when Martin Luther and that bunch got into the period of history called the Reformation, so we're sitting at around 1500, 1600, 1700, all they were doing was recapturing apostolic teaching. That's all they were doing, and that's all they claimed to be doing, that they were picking up what the apostles said. So there is nothing new about this concept. There is a question, and I'm going to get to this, but I want to be sure that you understand the three main views. of the church, as is currently taught. We're going to talk about that. You're going to get graded on a test. To define predestination, predestination as God's freedom in salvation. Predestination is the exercise of God's freedom in your salvation that was made before the foundation of the world. These are these basic principles we are laying out. And if you don't buy the basic principles, you're going to struggle with the rest of it. And understand that the issue here is not whether God, whether he predestinates. So the question is not whether he does it or not. The question is, how does he do it? That's what's left to you. You're not in judgment about whether he does or not. The question is, because it is a biblical doctrine that he does. And as Steve Rothkopf made the point, is because I went to Ephesians, and we're going to go back there, you don't have to go to Ephesians. Go to Genesis. You know, the idea of God's freedom at being exercised is throughout the Old Testament and throughout the New Testament. You can't go anywhere that you don't land on. Okay? All right. Let me see. Where else did I want to poke holes at you? Page five. Page five. You're using the study guide. Okay. Here's some questions, and again, I encourage you to get the study guide, because here are some questions that come right out of here. So what are the three, we talked about this last week, what are the three historic views, three historic views in the church as they regard the grace of God and salvation? What are they? Pelagianism is one. Semi-Pelagianism is to? Augustinianism. There you go, Augustinianism. All right, everybody get that one? You're on the honor system for the points. So you got three points, or two points, or one point. Did anybody get zero points? Peggy, did you get zero points? You did? I've heard these terms. You've heard these terms, yeah, you recognize those. Okay, so give me a short definition. Pelagianism is what? Don't need God, you don't need the Holy Spirit, you need no divinity at all, you have everything in yourself, and from a humanistic standpoint, as a human, you have everything you need to attain to Godhood. But they do say that the Holy Spirit can assist. Well, but here's the operative word, not necessary. Not necessary. So if I was to ask you a pointed question, what is not necessary in the Pelagian system, you'd say? Nothing. What's necessary in the Pelagian system? Nothing. God doesn't have to do anything. Man is totally capable and able. I'm fairly clear about that, because that is still a viable system, considered to be, even though Pelagius was excommunicated. And that's what the world's striving for today. Well, you're taking Jesus out of the equation. Well, you take Jesus totally out of the equation, as every other person in the Trinity. I mean, you take them all out. Man is able to define his own godhood, and therefore you get religions that say, I am God. Okay? All right, so. That's the Pelagian system. Short definition of the Semi-Pelagian system says? We can help. Okay, and our help, Paul, is our help necessary? Yes. In the Semi-Pelagian system, is our help necessary? Absolutely so. In the Pelagian system of theology, your help is absolutely necessary. Now Billy Graham was famous for saying that even 99% of your salvation is up to God, but that 1% you must do of your own free will. It's huge. Okay. Yeah, Lizzie? The semi-Pelagian, let's say, foreknowledge would be God looking down to see what you are going to decide. So he chose you before the foundation of the world. There you go. Foreknowledge really means God is all knowledge. He is not before. He's not after. He's not during. He's not limited by time at all. He works outside of time. That's right. That's the tenet of semi-Pelagianism and the way it was always explained to me, probably you too. that God looks down through the corridors of time, and he sees who will choose him. And then he actively elects those people that have already chosen him. See, that could have been an entry on my nonsense board. It says that at some point, God didn't know everything. There you are. He had to look and see what was going on. See, that's very good. If you know the character of God and the being of God, you hear that and you say, that's nonsense. That there was some gap in the knowledge of God at some point in his existence. Now, just to be clear, there is no gaps in his knowledge. There has never been any gaps in knowledge. The concept of infinity in God is that he has always had all. So when you hear things that skew that, You said, nah, that can't be. Jerry, isn't another way to say that? I've heard this said that if you ask somebody, the holders of those views, say to them, do you believe that God calls people, they'll say yes. Oh, yeah. Then you say, can man say no to that call? They say yes. And that's basically the same thought process as man It's the driver of his salvation. Okay, so one of my nonsense ones, one of my entries to nonsense, I think I said this last week, is the parallel railroad tracks. Did I say this right? God's sovereignty, God's freedom to do what he wants to do, and man's sovereignty, man's freedom to do what he wants to do, are parallel railroad tracks. And they run parallel, they are equal. And then, as you look off into eternity, those things meet. Well, then they wouldn't be turned off. See, that's why it's on the nonsense meter. It's an optical illusion. It's an optical illusion. It's exactly right. There's nothing else that it meets. I accept it. But I always wondered, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. The kid wasn't even born yet, and yet, Okay, so I fight the premise that you would say or could say or feel comfortable saying that God's freedom and your freedom are equal. Do you believe that? I mean, do you think that? that you are in any way equal to God in any of his divine attributes. Do you? You see what I'm saying here? How it's not hard to come to a reformed period where you say, I've been believing lies. It's hard to be Chuck, isn't it? It's hard to be Chuck. I like the way Sproul describes it, though. OK, go ahead. He says there's nothing more obnoxious than a drunk. A reformed drunk. A reformed drunk. Because they're always proclaiming their sobriety. Well, Armenians, there's nothing like a converted Armenian. in our countenance. You see that I was crazy. I was out of my mind. Wasn't I, Pam? She said, yes, dear, you were. OK, so. But I have to tell you, the Bible that I use for my teaching and stuff is by J.I. Packer. He's the theological editor of the ESV Bible. And I use that for my teaching. Yes, growth is possible. Okay, so you've got what Pelagianism, we've got what Pelagianism, we've got what semi-Pelagianism, we're shortening this up. Semi-Pelagianism really came out of that period where I said there were these great debates, and this is Calvin and Arminius. Okay, so this is in the 1600s or so. Arminius was adamantly opposed to the idea that man did not have sovereignty over his own salvation. And so it was Arminius and mainly his followers that wrote the five tenets of what they called the remonstrance, the objection. And it was Calvin and Calvin's followers, actually, that wrote Tulum. So it was not tulip first and then the objection, it was the objection first and then tulip. Okay, you know what tulip is? Does everybody know what tulip is? Well, I'm hopeful they do, because I want to move on. They didn't believe Jesus was God neither, did they? Well, I don't know that there was any of that, but they inserted the cooperation of man, that man must cooperate. Now, you're asking yourself again, what do I cooperate with? Do I cooperate with goodness that I believe resides inside me, that's just dying to get out? Now, I don't know about you, I don't think that in my personal confession. Dear God, I've got too much goodness in me dying again. That's not one of my confessions. OK, Augustinianism. So we've got three. We've got Pelagianism. We've got semi-Pelagian, which is 90% of the churches in America, some form of it. And then you have Augustinianism. These are the three historic. All right, Augustinianism says what? It's all God. It's all God. We need the Holy Spirit. It's one, one true soul. It's all of God, according to God's sovereignty, that he would have mercy on any. Okay? So, if you say, what is necessary with Pelagianism? You'd say nothing. What is necessary in semi-Pelagianism? Man's free will. What is necessary in Augustinianism? God's sovereign mercy. God's sovereign mercy, yeah. Mercy on who? I'll have mercy. Is that OK? I'm assuming all those things are clear, right? Are we good? OK, these are pillars. All right, go to Ephesians 1. And there are some questions I want to be sure we're clear on. Because other than the theoretical sense of which I'm operating with you on, One of the objectives of the class was that you would know clearly what the scripture says, and not the scripture twisted. So go to Ephesians 1. And Jonathan, you did such a fabulous job last week. Jonathan is going to read Ephesians 1, 1 through 14. And we're going to be looking for four things. So as you're reading, you're looking for four things. Who's credited with the work of salvation? Keep this in mind as you're reading. Who is credited with the work of salvation? When did predestination occur? Who? When did predestination occur? Is man's will mentioned? That's question number three. And four, and this is a biggie, look for the purpose. a predestination, okay? Now, we're gonna talk about this some more. Okay, Jonathan, you go. Okay, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us for adoption to himself, as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Are there any non-reformed thinkers here? After reading that, OK? And particularly when you read it in a specified way, where you go into the reading looking for certain things, all right? So here were my questions. Who is credited in that passage in Ephesians, who is credited for the work of salvation? Anybody have any other answer? Well, don't you really start out by the will of God, okay? Yeah, I'm saying any other answer? Is there any other intrusion in your personal theology Any other intrusion in your personal theology that would negate what is stated in Ephesians? Now, part of this is an open forum for you to say if that's happening so we can look at it. I personally fought with Ephesians. I personally fought with Ephesians in the early days. I did not like the implication. I was offended by it. And what you do, okay, so here's puny little man. Here's God's express word. Well, God, I just don't like that. I'm offended by that. And if you're gonna be that kind of God, I'm not gonna play. Maybe you don't express it just that way. How do free will churches and other churches deal with this? I've actually heard that passage preached on in a free will church. Wow. What do you think? Well, I mean, okay, all right, so I'll say this. I was already reformed when I heard this, and so I had to kind of plug one ear. But anyway, the way they twisted it was, well, that was God's side, but that was not man's side. That there's a man's side, and that was God's side, that's what he wants to do, but man has to coalesce to his desire, so they continue to put man's freedom in there. Okay, so who is credited the work of salvation? Is it clear that it's God? And truly, sincerely, if it's not clear, please say so. And this is not sanctification we're talking about. Who is credited for the work of salvation? That was the question. Who is credited for the work of salvation? That's what this passage is talking about. All right, number two. When did predestination occur? According to these verses, when did predestination occur? Before. See, the key word is before. Okay? Thank you, Eva. Eternally. What does eternally mean? Forever. Always. And, you know, what God said to Moses, is. You know, I am who is, in other words. Is. Eternal, there's no beginning and no end. When did God know everything? Always. Okay, so I mean, are you getting the warm fussies with any of this? I mean, isn't it a wonderful thought that if you are truly included in the church, that has always been? Okay, so that's when did it occur? All right, here's a big one. Is man's will mentioned? Anybody see any inference to man's will? Anne Thompson is an attorney, an attorney could find some loophole in that, right? Obviously man's will is not mentioned. Okay, here's the big one. And I want you to think about this from both sides of it. What does this say as being the purpose of predestination. To the praise of his glory. What does it not say? To save mankind from a wretched fall? Doesn't say that. To be sure that Jerry Padin makes it to heaven? Doesn't say that. to somehow answer all the prayers that are coming from all the good people all over the world? It doesn't say that. It does say that the purpose of God's predestination is to his glory. Now, do you like that? You see why people get their back all up? It should be humbling, too, though. I mean, it should absolutely make you just happy. Yes, it should. God, I'll do anything. After all you've given me, I'll do anything. Ask what you will. I mean, Paul, Elizabeth and I were reading in Acts. Paul gets knocked to the ground. His first reaction is, what do you want from me, Lord? Is that not right? What do you want? I'll do anything. And he did. Well, he asked a poll. He sure did. OK. So are you getting the nature of this? I'm just trying to set this up to be so that it's not muddy. It won't pass. OK? Because we're going to talk about evil, and that gets muddy, and there's other subjects we're going to have to get into. But these pillars of the foundation have got to be very firm in your mind and where you go to reassure yourself of that. Because occasionally, you've got to go back. What is it that I believe? And why do I believe that? And there are times you've got to go back and say, oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember driving the stake in the ground over that one. OK, now, if we took the time to go to Romans, and then I'm not. Romans 8, 29 makes a very clear case of the five major steps in salvation when we did the distinctives of grace. And if you don't have a copy of that, tell me and I'll get one for you. But the distinctives of grace was our effort, we did this five or six years ago, to explain what Grace Presbyterian is from a historical back point and how we got to where we are. And then the other half of the teaching was what is Reformed theology and how we teach it here. So it's a book, and it's recorded on our system. If you don't have a copy of that, please get it. It's free. And if you don't have a copy, I'll get one for you. It's online. It's online as well. But I'm talking about if you're like me, book, open, highlighter, pen. So a major portion of that teaching, which I had the pleasure of doing, was what's considered the golden chain. This is Romans 8. And the question is, what part, if you can think through that, of being called and predestined and sanctified and glorified. Okay, what part does man play in the cause and effect that you see in Romans 8, 28 to 30? When Romans 3, 10, it says, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. Yeah, that's a rough one. How do you get around that? Hey, Terry. through the golden chain, is the word that's missing is some. Some of the people that, you know, predestinedly also, and then some of them were chosen, and then some of them, it does not say that. Okay. So it says, I mean, it's predestination. And it's all determined by God. Thank God. Thank God is right. Thank God you violated my evil will, is what I say to him. Thank God that you ran me down because I was running away. Yeah? Isn't that true about us? I was running away. Thank God you are faster than I am, which isn't hard. Yeah, okay. Okay, now in the study guide, but as far as your reading is concerned, on God's sovereignty. It's important to realize, and we're gonna get to this before I stop today. And we're gonna take two weeks on sovereignty, obviously. We've got more time than the book has. The book has only eight chapters. We've got 13 weeks, so I've got time to massage this. But according to God's sovereignty, we need to realize that God could, has full authority and all power to save all, some, or none. All, some, or none. Now those are your only options. All, some, or none. You don't have any other options as far as God's action is concerned. And so this is my version, and actually this is not mine. I stole this from somebody. I don't remember who I stole it from, and so now it's mine. I created it. Taking full credit for it. So if you use it, you've got to credit me. If you use it, you've got to credit me. He made a comment. What did he say? He may be a Harvard president. All right. I'm not going there. OK. Now, all this is, I think, a bit simpler of what Sproul said in the book. So Sproul said there's only four ways in which a sovereign God can relate to a fallen world. He says four. God would not have to offer. He is not compelled to offer. He has no impingement on him. He is not forced to do anything. You understand that, you believe that, that God would be good and within he would be almighty and forever and infinitely good if he did nothing for you. Now how do you like that? I don't like that either. Okay, I don't want you violating my will but I don't want you to leave me alone either. Right, now we're just talking about this kind of a in a logical viewpoint, okay? God would not have to do anything. Please understand that. I mean, the church teaches that in a different way, that God is standing in heaven and he's wringing his hands, just waiting for somebody to choose him. That is not what is going on. We are talking about Almighty God. Okay. Doesn't have to do anything. He could. He could intervene. Now, you want to say, does he? So here's your options in a simplified version. God could forgive all of the sin of all of the people. So everybody ever lived, no matter what they did, forgive all of the sin of all of the people, which would include you, and Hitler, and Stalin, and Ho Chi Minh, and... Remember, this is being taped. Does anybody like that? Do you like that? that God would forgive all of the sin of all of the people, which well would include you, okay? Now, here's another option. He could forgive all of the sin of some of the people. You like that better? He could forgive all of the sin of none of the people. OK, that's him doing nothing. But it's a possibility. And Elizabeth is saying, that's what you call justice. Right there. You have violated my expressed laws. I have told you that death would result. I am choosing not to extend mercy to you. Therefore, you are damned. Now, would God be within his expressed rights to do that? All right. And again, these are just expressions of what Sproul has said. He could forgive some of the sin of all of the people. Now that I don't like. You don't like that one. He could forgive some of the sin of some of the people. And he gave for you some of the sin of none of the people. Now, the nones are just, you know, that's in there because logically they need him. OK? All, some, none. Now, which one of those do you like? Tough one, because none of us are worthy. And we would be terrible if we said, well, I don't want your son forgiven. Yeah. If we look at someone else and say, my sins, I believe, need to be forgiven. But Jerry, I mean, the things you've done. So you think he ought to forgive all of the sin of all the people? No. No. But I think your comfort level as a human realizing you're a sinner should be at the top one, because you're not worthy. Okay, now that's called universalism. Okay, are you clear about that? That's called universalism. That no matter where you've lived, what you've done, what you continue to do, how deep the sin of unbelief is in you, Jonathan Reilly is saying, that that person should be forgiven. Not should be forgiven. But that God could do that. But that God could do that. And as a human, you should be comfortable with that. OK. All right. Could. God. Could. Could. Because he is God. Could. What's the hitch in that? Could God have done this without the death of Christ, then? Or would he have violated his own nature to do it? Oh, isn't that the sticky wicket? Yeah, very good. Isn't that the sticky wicket? He's violating his own nature because he is very good, all good, and pure. And what's he going to do? Invite into his kingdom? That? That Jesus would be unnecessary. Jesus would be unnecessary, which? And the Son of God is, remember, eternal. See, you got this eternal thing working in here. So, we'll pick up there. Think about that. Because, as I'm saying to you, those are your only options. Those are the only ones you got. And if you come up with some others, bring them next Sunday. And we're going to stay in chapter two, which is sovereignty. And so if you didn't get a chance to read it, this is your chance to read it, or reread it, as the case may be. Lord, thank you for your grace. And we are absolutely humbled that you would have any consideration for us. And we count it. to be a fabulous blessing that we can't ever give back to you on. And let that dwell in us, Lord, that, you know, we have really greater appreciation for you and the work that you have done, the efforts that you make towards relationship that most times we try to fight off. You know, make us holy in the name of Jesus. Amen.