In the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying, Go and say to his akiah. Thus says the Lord, the God of your father, David. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend the city. And then let's also turn to the parallel passage in Second Kings chapter twenty. And once again, we'll read verses one through six. In Second Kings, chapter 20. In those days, Hezekiah became mortally ill and Isaiah, the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said to him, Thus says the Lord, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, saying, Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in my sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And it came about before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Return and say to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Thus says the Lord, the God of your father, David. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you on the third day. You shall go up to the house of the Lord, and I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you in this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. And I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. So second Kings, just going just a little bit further in depth, letting us know a little bit of the time that the Lord responded to Hezekiah. We're going to do something a little different this evening. I don't want to steal any thunder from Brian, so we're going to we're going to take a discourses. We're going to use this passage as a as a springboard, basically, to discuss a couple of topics. And the key thing that I want you to take from this passage right now is found in, first of all, the first half in verse one, where the Lord says, set your house in order for you shall die and not live. So he declares twofold. First of all, positively, you shall die, and then negatively, you shall not live. And in the second half of what we're going to look at, after the prayer of Hezekiah, in verse five, the Lord responds and says to Isaiah, go and say to Hezekiah, thus says the Lord, the God of your father, David. I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add 15 years to your life. So on the one hand, in verse one, you see the Lord declaring you shall die and not live. And in verse five, we see the Lord. Relenting from what he had just declared. And say in giving, adding another 15 years to his life. And out of the things that we're going to raise up, the first one is God's immutability. This is a fancy word for saying that God does not change. And is this passage right here, is it a threat to the belief that we hold that God does not change? Here he had stated one thing in the very beginning, and now has he changed his mind? Has he relented? And we're going to look, just to show you that this is not an isolated case, that this is something that occurs in a number of places, we're going to look at two other passages, one being in Exodus chapter 32, starting at verse 9. Exodus 32 and verse 9. And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now they let me alone that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them and I will make of you a great nation. Then Moses entreated the Lord his God and said, Oh, Lord, why define anger burn against my people whom thou has brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak saying with evil intent? He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth. Turn from my burning anger and change my mind about doing harm to my people. Remember, Abraham, Isaac and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thyself and didst say to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens and all this land of which I have spoken, I will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people. And in the last passage, just calling to your attention there that last verse. So the Lord changed his mind. And that's the same thing we're going to be looking at. But turn to Jonah chapter three. This is probably one of the more most famous of these occurrences in Jonah chapter three and verse 10. And actually, to give us a little background. Let's go, let's go to chapter three in verse two. Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation, which I am going to tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three days walk. Then Jonah began to go through the city, one day's walk, and he cried out and said, Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. And then in verse 10, after the Ninevites have repented in sackcloth and in ashes, verse 10, when God saw their deeds that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared he would bring upon them. And he did not do it. So this is what we're going to look at this evening. First of all, is God immutable? Does he change or not? And just to just to give the other side of the biblical witness, we're going to go to a few passages. We're actually going to do quite a bit of Bible turning this evening, but in Numbers chapter 23. and verse nineteen will find our first verse numbers twenty three and verse nineteen where it states, God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? And the next passage being in 1st Samuel chapter 15. 1st Samuel 15 and verse 29. and also the glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man that he should change his mind. And just moving over to Psalms, Psalm 139 and verse 29, Psalm 139 and verse 29. Okay, that's not the right passage. Let's go to Malachi 3, verse 6. Malachi 3, verse 6. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. So on the one hand, we have these passages that speak of the Lord changing His mind, relenting, deciding not to do what He was about to do. And then we have passages that state didactically, that state explicitly that He does not change His mind, that when He speaks, He will do it. and that he does not change. And so, how do we resolve this? We have a seeming conflict here. And the way that we look at these and resolve this tension between us is by a certain rule of interpretation. And it's that those passages which are didactic or teaching passages, which make explicit statements doctrinally, those passages interpret the historical or the narrative passages. So when you read something and it's making a distinct doctrinal statement and it says, I the Lord do not change, then that takes weight and helps interpret the other historical passages. For example, here's in a different situation, the commandments say not to lie. But when you look at certain historical passages, you'll find Abraham, on two different occasions, lying and saying that his wife was his sister. Well, if you were just to read the historical passage alone, and not the didactic teaching passage, then what would your interpretation be? It would be that Abraham was not punished for that, well, is lying okay? But we know from the direct didactic teaching statement that it's not, and so in the historical passage we can interpret that just because Abraham was not punished in that situation does not mean that lying is alright. Now in this case, we have three didactic passages that we looked at which state explicitly that God does not change, that He's not a man that He should change His mind, that he's not a man that he should repent? And so, how do we resolve these historical passages? And now, I want to talk about this next section here, which I called anthropomorphic language. And anthropomorphic is made up of two words, and basically its meaning is simply to give attributes of humankind to something that's not human. And you could do that to a plant or a dog, but in the Bible, what we see most often is that we attribute human attributes to God. And let's look in depth at a certain example. If you get your fingers limber here, the first passage is Exodus 31 and verse 18. And you'll see this in action. Exodus 31 and verse 18. It states, and when he had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony tablets of stone written by the finger of God. Now, turn to Psalm 18, verse eight. You'll see where I'm leading here in a moment. Psalm 18 and verse eight. Smoke went up out of his nostrils and fire from his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down with thick darkness under his feet. So what I'm trying to point out here is we've got a passage with with a finger, with nostrils, with with God's mouth, with God's feet. There's other passages that talk about the eyes of the Lord. Ron quoted one in prayer. The eyes of the Lord go to and to and fro throughout the earth. Let's turn to Psalm 90 and verse four for another one. 90 and verse 4, 91 and verse 4, Psalm 91. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark. So Right now, if you were just to look at these passages, and I'm a little short on time, so we won't read some of the others, but we've looked at, it describes God as having a finger, as having eyes, as having nostrils, as having a mouth, as having feet, as having pinions and wings. There's other passages. For the Lord of hosts had planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for his outstretched hand, who can turn it back? He talks about God. measuring the waters of the oceans in the palm of His hand, and measuring the span of the... measuring the heavens with the span of His hand. And yet, in John 4 and verse 24, it states that God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth, but God is Spirit. And so what does it mean? All of these descriptions of God as having hands, and fingers, and feet, and legs, and all of these. Well, it's just being used as anthropomorphic language. It's being used to express a point in our own language. If you want to think of it like we're little children, and the Lord trying to communicate to us speaks in a way that we can understand. And so, we give certain attributes to God that He really doesn't have, and not literally anyway. But the meaning is, is that, like with the eyes of the Lord, roving to and fro throughout the earth, what it means is that He sees all things. It doesn't mean that He literally has physical eyes that are running around the earth. No, it's stressing the fact that He knows all things, He sees all things. And it's doing it in language that we can understand. Now, this is the same type of language that's being used in this passage in Isaiah. When it says that the Lord relents, or there's other passages that talk about God remembering Abraham. Well, does that mean that he had forgotten Abraham? The all-knowing God? No. What it means is that God was mindful of him. Not that he had, oh, well, I forgot all about Abraham. No, it's speaking in in terms that we can understand better. Now, in fact, let me read a quote from from Stephen Charnock, he says, God accommodates himself in the scripture to our weak capacity. God hath no more of a proper repentance than he hath of a real body. Though he in accommodation to our weakness ascribes to himself the members of our bodies, to set out to our understanding the greatness of his perfections, we must not conclude him a body like us. So because he is said to have anger and repentance, we must not conclude him to have passions like us. So just as the scripture uses language which ascribes our bodily parts to God and our passions to God, it doesn't mean that we can ascribe those bodily parts or specific passions to him. So God is immutable and does not change. but it's just referring to what God is doing externally in language that we can understand as men. Now, the next item I have there, I've put freewill theism. And really, that's something of what I wanted to camp on this evening. And the evening is half over already. But freewill theism, or the openness of God movement, is a new movement that's basically led pretty much by Clark Pinnock, Richard Rice, John Sanders, and some others. And in essence, it's taking Arminianism to its logical conclusions. It's taking it a little farther than the Arminians are willing to accept. but it's logical Arminianism in a sense. And to try and explain this, I refer to it as free will theism, and that's one of the main names that it goes by. Well, theism is just simply a belief in God. If you're a theist, you believe in God, as opposed to an atheist, who does not believe that there's a God. So that's just what the theist section means. Well, what does the free will part refer to? When we, who hold to the doctrines of grace, refer to free will, we're usually just saying that people are making choices that are in accordance with their character or their nature. I'm trying to decide if I should go into that tangent or not, and I think I'll skip it. The Arminian, however, when he goes into free will, means something different. We refer to free will as acting in accordance with our nature, so there's something determining our actions. Our actions are not random, and this is an illustration I used to a youth group one time. If you have a silver dollar and you're flipping it and you're tracking down, taking statistics of what's happening, you would expect that you'd get pretty much a 50-50 occurrence because there's nothing determining the result. It's random. But now, when I had all the youth line up and I put two bowls before them and told them they could pick one item from one of the bowls, It was heavily cited in favor of the candy rather than the dog biscuits. Now, now, why is it that when they came up and they had a choice between candy or dog biscuits, that that it was heavily cited in favor of the candy? Well, that's because there's something that determines our choices. There is something that governs them. There is something that that that guides it so that it's not random and it's not a 50-50 result. And basically what that is, and you can think about this in terms of the candy as well, is why would they pick one or the other? Well, they like candy. Your affections, that part of you that is your desire, your wanter, says, okay, I have an attraction to candy and I have an aversion to dog biscuits. So this is part of the thing which governs our will, is our affections. We have this attraction to one, and this aversion to the other. But there's something else which also governs our will, and that's our mind. It's the mind who looks at the two choices and says, OK, I'm looking at the shape here, it's in a wrapper, and I know from past experience that that is a piece of candy. And it looks at the other one and says, okay, different colors, shaped like a little bone, that is probably a dog biscuit. So the mind is telling you, identifying what your two choices are, and your affections are gauging between them. So the mind says, this is one thing, this is the other, and the affections say, I'm attracted to this one, I'm repulsed to the other one. And the will is a slave to those two things. And so, putting this into an unregenerate person's life, someone who has not had the operation of the Holy Spirit to open their eyes, they're blind, their mind has been darkened to the truths of Scripture, so they can't identify. This is good, this is bad. They don't know the difference between them yet because their mind is darkened, for one thing. But also, their affections or their desires are corrupted. And so, all of mankind, the whole part of man's nature being corrupted, it desires evil above good. And so, when it sees its choices, it's going to be have an aversion to doing good and a desire to doing evil. And that's why we refer to the bondage of the will. The will is enslaved to sin because desires and because the mind has been corrupted by sin. So this is our belief. But the Arminian believes in an undetermined will, that if he comes up to a choice, he's free to make either choice. Now, we would say that the choice would be made determining on the character of the person. A bad tree produces bad fruit, and a good tree produces good fruit. Out of the character comes the action. But the Arminian would say that the will is free in choosing. to choose either one. There is not a cause to that decision. Now, when the Arminian looks at the scriptures and sees the passages about God's sovereignty, the fact that he has decreed all things, and he tries to defend this freedom from God's sovereignty, God's sovereignty becomes a threat to him. Because how can a man be free to make a decision when that decision has been decreed? And so what he does is in protecting his his free will, quote unquote. He limits God's sovereignty and says that God limits his own sovereignty. Well, the free will theists take it a step further, because really, with God's omniscience, The fact that God knows all things, if He knows something, is certain. And so, you've got a timeline in history and all the certain events are marked out on that history. There's just one line. There's not a bunch of paths breaking up. The Lord knows exactly what's going to happen because of His omniscience. Doesn't that place some type of necessity that when somebody faces a decision, They have to choose the way the Lord knows He's going to choose. And that's a little deep, but basically what the freewill theists do is as the Arminians jettison sovereignty, the freewill theists jettison God's omniscience and say that God limits Himself in His knowledge or in His omniscience. So in this case, they would probably look at this passage in Isaiah, and they would say, the Lord didn't know that Hezekiah was going to repent. The Lord had no idea. And in order to protect, because they know that denying, they know that denying omniscience to God is a bad thing. In order to protect omniscience, they redefine it. And they say that God knows all things that are knowable. But a decision that hasn't been made yet by man is not knowable, and therefore God can't know it. But under all of the words, they're really denying God His omniscience of man's future events. Now let's look at some of the consequences of this theology. As far as under the heading, For Knowledge and God's Deity, Let's turn to Isaiah 41. And in this section in the 40s in Isaiah, the Lord is drawing a distinction between himself and the idols. We see this in Isaiah 41 and verse 22. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place. As for the former events, declare what they were and we might consider them and know their outcome or announce to us what is coming. Declare the things that are going to come afterward that we might know that you are gods. Indeed, do good or evil that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. So what is it that the Lord is challenging these so-called gods? that they might know that their gods will declare the declare the things that are coming. And let's look also at at Isaiah, forty four and verse seven. Isaiah, forty four and verse seven. And who is like me, let him proclaim and declare it, just let him recount it to me in order. from the time I established the ancient nation and let them declare to and let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Or is there any other rock I know of none?" So, what's the challenge? He's laying before these idols of wood and stone. He says, okay, you know, go ahead, you stump or you rock. If you're really a God, declare to me what's going to happen in the future. Haven't I declared to you what's going to happen? And has not it come to pass? So, when the freewill theologians, when the freewill theists are limiting God's omniscience, now our God fails the test that He laid forth for the idols of wood and stone. Now, not only does the Lord know future events, but he has knowledge of man's future actions. So it's not like he just has some general knowledge of certain things, certain things that he plans on doing, but he has knowledge about what certain men are going to do in certain situations, and we see this in several areas. An excellent one in 1 Samuel, chapter 23. 1 Samuel, chapter 23. This is when David is being persecuted by King Saul. And in verse 12, it states, Then David said, Will the men of Kaelas surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will surrender you. So this is something the Lord specifically would know what these men would do. Well, if they could do one or the other, then how can he know that? And yet it states right here that he has knowledge of those actions. Let's look at another couple. Let's look at 2 Kings chapter 8. As long as we're in the Old Testament, we'll look at this one. 2 Kings 8 and verse 11. Now, the king of Aram has become sick and he has asked his servant to to go and meet the man of God and inquire whether he would recover from the sickness. And we come in in verse eleven after. And let's go back to ten, actually. Then Elisha said to him, go say to him, you shall surely recover for the Lord has shown me that he will certainly die. And he fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed and the man of God wept. And as I all said, why does my Lord weep? Then he answered, because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel, their strongholds, you will set on fire their young men, you will kill with the sword and their little ones, you will dash in pieces and their women with child, you will rip up. Then Hazael said, But what is your servant who was but a dog that you should do this great thing? And Elisha answered, The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram. So here's something. How many decisions and actions would Hazael have had to make in order to do the things which the Lord had revealed to Elisha? Quite a few. And yet the Lord knew what he was going to do, and he knew the future in that sense. Let's let's go to at least one more in the New Testament in Luke 22 and verse 31. Luke 22 and verse 31. Luke 22, 31, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to shift to shift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and you when once you have returned again, strengthen your brothers. And he said to him, Lord, with you, I am ready to go both to prison and to death. And he said, I say to you, Peter, the cock will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know me. So, at least three decisions had to be made when Peter would deny three times the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ also knew that Peter would return. He says, when you have turned again. So, there's at least four things the Lord knew, and yet they were decisions of men. But not only does God have knowledge of future actions which men are going to take. He also has sovereignty over those actions. And let's look at a couple passages. There really are so many passages. It was very difficult for me to choose which ones. But the first one is Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20. Genesis 50 and verse 20. This is where Israel, Jacob, has died, and the sons of Jacob are concerned, saying, Joseph, what's he going to do to us now that our father is dead? And this is Joseph's response to them in verse 20. And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." So, notice that it's not something along the lines of, you meant evil against me, but God turned it to good. No, it's God meant it for good. God had ordained the whole thing beforehand. And if you just read through the story of Joseph in Egypt, you can see the Lord's sovereign hand in his providence acting throughout. How many decisions were made? I mean, I mean, and these are all men's decisions. Potiphar's wife decided to try and seduce Joseph. She lied and accused Joseph. Potiphar decided to send him to jail. The Pharaoh decided to send his cupbearer to jail. I mean, over and over and over, there was human decisions that led to Joseph being second in the land of Egypt so that the Lord could save his people and save many others as well. And the Lord had sovereignly brought this about. But let's look at a couple others that are even more clear in Exodus chapter four and verse twenty one. Exodus four and verse twenty one. And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. And then a few chapters over in chapter seven and verse three. Chapter seven and verse three. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt." So the Lord is taking direct action. You think He's sovereignly acting on Pharaoh's process of decision? Very much so. There's a bunch of these here. Let's just go to a few more. In 1 Samuel, chapter 2, is one that we saw some Sunday evenings ago. First Samuel chapter two and verse twenty five. Eli is rebuking his sons. And he says in verse 25, if one man sins against another, God will mediate for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father for the Lord desired to put them to death. Why is it that they didn't listen to the voice of their father for because the Lord desired to put them to death? In 2 Samuel, I'll just read a couple more of these to you since we're short on time, but on 2 Samuel 17 and verse 14, Absalom has taken over the throne, at least for a short time, and David has planted a counselor to give him poor advice. And in 2 Samuel 17, 14, it states in Absalom and all the men of Israel said the council of Hushai, the the archite, is better than the council of Ahithophel, for the Lord had ordained to thwart the good council of Ahithophel in order that the Lord might bring calamity on Absalom. Now, really, when you look at the council, the council of of Ahithophel was better. then hush I. But the Lord had ordained that not only Absalom, but all the men of Israel would see his counsel is better. And another another one in first Kings, chapter twelve and verse fifteen. It had been prophesied that the Lord would take. Take all but two of the tribes from Solomon's son and give them to Jeroboam. And Rehoboam would only have two tribes. And Rehoboam, he falls into peer pressure. He asks his father's advisors what he should do with the people, and he asks his friends what he should do with the people. And in First Kings, chapter 12, verse 15, So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of events from the Lord that he might establish his word, which the Lord spoke through Ahijah, the Shillonite, to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which was the prophecy which I just told you about. So and there's there's numerous, numerous of these in Proverbs. The king's heart is like is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. So God is sovereign over man's actions, as well as the things that He does directly with His own hand. So, and I want to close on this point, if God is sovereign over man's actions, then how is it that men are responsible for those actions? Notice, I'm not trying to gauge the difference, I'm not trying to weigh Well, how is how does man have free will and God be sovereign, which is what the what the Armenians try to do, because we believe in the bondage of the will. But there's still a tension here between man's responsibility and God's sovereignty. And let's turn in Isaiah to chapter 10. Familiar with with this passage, you could have seen this coming, perhaps. In Isaiah chapter 10. And verse five, it states, Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hands is my indignation. I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of my theory to capture booty and to seize plunder and to trample them down like mud in the streets. So I mean, notice a few things. First of all, woe to Assyria. This is a woe oracle upon Assyria. But he calls him the rod of his anger, and he's the one who sends them against the Jews. But also down in I'm trying to find the verse. In verse 15, is the axe to boast itself over the one who chops with it is the saw to exalt itself over the one who wields it, that would be like a club wielding those who lift it or like a rod lifting him who is not wood. So what is he saying there? He says, he says, Syria, you are my axe. I'm the one who wielded you. You were the rod in my hand. And you're the tool that I used. So he's exerting his sovereignty over the king's action. Yet how many decisions had to be in that action? But notice also, besides the fact that it confirms the Lord's sovereignty. It states, woe to Assyria, and then in verse 16, it states, therefore, the Lord, the God of hosts, will send a wasting disease among his stout warriors and under his glory, a fire will be kindled like a burning flame. And the light of Israel will become a fire in his holy one, a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briars in a single day. And he will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body. And it will be as when a sick man wastes away and the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in number that a child could write him down. So what is he saying? He's going to be bringing punishment upon the axe. upon the rod of his anger. And what I'm trying to point out by this passage and a couple others in a moment is that in the very same passages, it affirms both God's sovereignty and man's human responsibility. I'm not trying to explain why that can be true right now, but I'm showing you that the Bible holds both of them up in the same passage and doesn't feel any need to explain how those things work out. Let's look at another one in 2 Samuel chapter 24. 2 Samuel 24. And we'll look at verse one and then we'll skip down to 15. So verse one. Now, again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and incited David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah. And then Joab says to David, you know, you shouldn't do this thing. I mean, and basically, what's the problem? What's the problem with taking a census? I mean, I don't know if you got one in the mail or sitting on your door, but I just filled out a census a while back. What's wrong with David taking a census? And the problem is, is that he was relying upon the arm of flesh in the number of the people rather than relying upon his God. And notice what happens. When did the anger of the Lord burn against Israel? Before David numbered the people. And it caused David to number them in order that there might be an occasion, to punish them. And this is something the Lord does is when someone is in sin, he gives them over to further sin. And you see that downward spiral take place in in Romans one. God gave them over. God gave them over. So God is giving them over to further sins because his anger is against them. But then note down in verse 15. So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And 70,000 men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough. Now relax your hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Arana, the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people and said, Behold, it is I who have sinned and it is I who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let thy hand be against me and against my father's house. So who was it who incited David to number the people? Well, it was the Lord. And who is it who claims responsibility for his actions? David says, behold, it is I who have sinned and it is I who have done wrong. And so once again, we see God's sovereignty in working upon men's decisions and men's actions, and at the same time, in the same passage, human responsibility. Let's look also at Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. Acts 2 and 23. Peter states, This man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Let me read that again. This man delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. In the same verse, what do you have? He was delivered up according to the predetermined plan of God. And you nailed him to a cross and put him to death by the hands of godless men. You have that human responsibility and the sovereignty of God in the very same verse there. So I know that I didn't explain how both things could be. But but as I was stressing that God was sovereign, I didn't want that. I didn't want anybody to go away thinking that that could be an excuse for for not taking responsibility for something. And so I wanted to show you that the Bible affirms both things and holds them in tension. Well, actually, we're forced to hold them in tension. I'm not sure we can say the Bible holds them in tension. And this is what I wanted to cover in Isaiah this evening, is just simply that. That God is not immutable, although the Bible may use wording, may use verbiage, which would give him attributes of humankind. and that God foreknows all things, even the actions of men, that He sovereignly decrees all of those actions, and that we by no means escape our own human responsibility simply because He sovereignly decrees those things. Are there any questions? Don? What is a didactic? Didactic simply means It comes from the Greek word that means teaching. And so those passages, didactic passages, would be more along the lines of the epistles, as opposed to historic passages would be like the Gospels and Acts. So a didactic passage, you're actually putting forth doctrine and teaching. And in a historic passage, you're actually declaring events of history. There's other generes in Scripture too. There's apocalyptic and there's poetic. Another question? It's important that we keep our eyes on that which we should do in spite of. We're not going to figure it out. We're not going to cross the bridge in full understanding of the chasm in life between the perspective of this sovereignty and the business of man's accountability. You can't lean against the post and say, well, there's no sense in doing this because I'm in control. But you can be comforted by God being in control because he is merciful. And this is a conjecture on my part. As far as my life is concerned, there's been a lot of thirst running in my soul because of the sin that I've chosen. A thirst for God that I'm not sure wasn't allowed just because I knew that And we know that God has a purpose in all of those actions, although we might not be able to determine that purpose. But we certainly don't want to use God's sovereignty as an excuse, an excuse to be lacking in prayer or an excuse to be lacking in evangelism or an excuse to be very proficient in sin. And what Ron stated reminded me of something, and that is that here we have these two truths, God's sovereignty and man's human responsibility. It's the Calvinistic doctrines which uphold both of those truths. The Arminian upholds the human responsibility at the expense of God's sovereignty. And the Hyperist or the Hyper-Calvinist goes on the other end and he gets rid of man's responsibility at the expense of God's sovereignty. So we stand in the middle and uphold both intention. and which is the biblical process. Yes? Where do you put, I guess it would be in sharing with someone or counseling someone, what appears to be the integral part between someone's responsibility to God's sovereignty, the responsibility of this person's family, stillness. When you say that a person has come to know, Okay, so someone is suffering for another person's sin? If you're trying to console somebody or comfort somebody, I mean, you would talk about the sovereignty of God and how God is merciful and He is good and He does good. And so somehow in this, He's doing good through it. And you would stress that God is a faithful God, a loving God and sovereign over all things. Now, if you're talking to somebody in a different situation now, you're evangelizing to somebody, or you're trying to confront somebody of a certain sin, now's the time to pull out the verses on human responsibility and say, you know, you have a responsibility to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and come to Him. This is not the time to say, you know, God's sovereign, and if He's going to choose you, then He'll choose you. No, no. You give a general invitation to Him and you declare, you know, God commands you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, it depends on the situations. Let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for this evening, for gathering us together. We thank you, Father, for your Holy Spirit who gives us eyes to see, who gives us ears to hear, and minds, Father, that are not clouded or darkened or blind, but can understand your word. Lord, we would ask that you would be with those who we prayed for earlier this evening, and when we think of Pastor Brian, and Ariel and the family, and would ask that you would be with them and travel, that you would be with them as they attend the funeral, that, Lord, you would cause your name to be glorified through them, and, Lord, that you would allow them to sow seed in the hearts of Ariel's family gathered for that funeral, and, Lord, then watch over them as they return to us, and we ask that you would bring them safely to us. We ask also, Father, that you would come and meet with us this coming Lord's Day. Lord, that you would exceed all the expectations that we have in the preaching of your word and the fellowshipping with our brothers. We would ask, Father, that we could depart from Sunday and say truly, our God was among us. Lord, we praise the rest of this week in your hands and we would ask that you would be glorified in our actions. Father, allow us to be used in the building up of your church and the increasing of your kingdom in Christ's holy name. Amen.