purpose. So that is the first distinction that we must note because sometimes in modern evangelical circles, we get a sense that God is working out all things according to my purpose, that somehow God is working ultimately to fulfill my agenda, that becoming a Christian is just enlisting somehow a powerful being that will further my plans, my purposes, my ambitions, and my goals. How many of you sometimes get that sense, right? When you hear modern Christianity and what gets taught and preached. Indeed, God is working for our good. But it is an ultimate eternal good that has to do with God's eternal purpose. Where is, if we were to ask, where is God's eternal purpose found? In other words, when God begins to create, when God goes beyond or outside His Trinitarian life and self-existing, being, what is God's purpose? Can anybody maybe just brainstorm that? What do you think God's purpose is with creation, with humanity, with His outside of Himself works? Say that again. Redeem, certainly. Redeem, deliver, save. Now, is that ultimately the purpose of God? That is certainly one objective, right, of God. Something that He wants to accomplish. Yes. The glory of God. His own glory. So, God has His own glory. In other words, the universe is God-centered. It is not man-centered. It is ordained, it is arranged, it is disposed for the purposes of God, which is His own glory. His own glory. And if we were to understand that, it would spare us much agony. and much confusion, and sometimes being perplexed about things, to understand the nature of the universe that we live in. It is God's universe. It is unfolding according to God's purpose, and the ultimate end is God's glory. Any questions on that, that God's purpose ultimately is His own glorification, His own glory. Okay, so with that in mind, now, having said that, the glory of God is the good ultimate ends of creation. Because the God revealed in the Bible is not some diabolical evil, wicked, demon, right? It is a good God, and we see the attributes of God being revealed through the Word of God. He is a good God, so He's working all things for His glory in keeping with the goodness of His character, in keeping with the goodness, the justice, the righteousness, the grace, the love and kindness of His character. So, the purposes of God are not divorced, disconnected from the attributes of God. Do we get that? Okay, so, with that in mind, understanding the purpose of God as regards His own character and His own glory, Then we can see what He has done regarding redemption in verse 29. And it begins with God's foreknowledge. Notice, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. So from the standpoint of our redemption, right, we see that it's all done according to God's mind and purpose from beginning to end. It begins with God's foreknowledge, God foreknowing us, believers, and God glorifying us, believers. So that is the goodness of His redemptive plan that He has set in motion in time for us. And it's all a shot case, a done deal, from beginning to end, eternity past, being God's foreknowledge, and eternity future. Eternity past being God's foreknowledge of us, believers, His people, His elect, and eternity future being God's glorification of said people, of that same group. that is being referenced here. So, our security lies in the fact that God has ordained from the beginning our salvation, and He carries out this salvation all the way to the end, to glorification. It is assured. It will not be derailed. It will not be thwarted. It will not be frustrated. The God of the Bible is such a God that is able to begin with an end in mind, foresee that end, and accomplish His purposed ends, okay? So those are the bookends of the chain. The bookends of the chain is on the one hand that God foresaw us, believers, His sheep, the elect, and God glorified us. As far as God is concerned, these actions have been assured. Obviously, as far as our experience, we're still in the process of sanctification with the ultimate goal of glorification. And that will be when we are raised in Christ and receive a new body in the image of Christ and receive our eternal inheritance with Christ. But as far as God is concerned, you can see in this chain of redemption that the first link and the last link hang together. And from God's standpoint, it has been decreed. It will come to pass. It is assured. God is working all of these according to His will, according to His purpose. Now, that is from the standpoint of our redemption, right? Now, what about that brings glory to God? What about this said redemption brings glory to God or accomplishes the God-centered aim of His own glory? Where in the passage do you see a statement that accomplishes God's aim of His own glory? Yes, who said it? Right, yep, so it says here in verse 29, notice it is somehow bracketed in there in the golden chain, in verse 29, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he, the son, might be the firstborn among many brethren." So the firstborn meaning here that preeminent one. The one that receives the glory. The one to whom all things are ordered, disposed unto. the one that all things are given to. So the firstborn, that is Christ Jesus, the rite of the firstborn, this was a rite, a ritual, right? It was a tradition to be had among the people of Israel that the firstborn would be consecrated unto God. that the firstborn will be consecrated unto God, that the firstborn will receive a double portion, right? That the firstborn would be the heir, the head, right? So through the ritual of Israel in the rite of the firstborn, it was already foreshadowing that God was working. to make Christ Jesus, his Son, the heir of all things, to make him the preeminent one, to exalt him above all creation. So God's purpose is hidden, hidden and revealed in his Son, in Christ Jesus, for the glory of his Son. in Christ Jesus we have been saved for the glory of God, for the glory of Christ. And we shall be praising the glory of God in His Son, in the firstborn, in the preeminent one, in the heir, in the head of the church for all eternity. So, with that in mind then, seeing that God has created all things for the sake of His glory, for the exaltation of His Son. And in His Son, then, we find our redemption, our good, which is our salvation, our deliverance from sins, and ultimately, our glorification. This is conceived in eternity past in God's foreknowledge. In God's foreknowledge. So the question then becomes is, what is God's foreknowledge? And for many in Christendom, it has been just an instinct to say, well, God's foreknowledge is simply that He sees ahead of time what's going to happen in the future, right? That He sees ahead of time what's going to happen in the future. God is some sort of a cosmic foreseer of sorts. How many of you perhaps had experience as a pagan, as somebody that didn't know Christ, and going to a seer in the occult, and they either, you know, they somehow read your future. you know, through different means, they peeked into the future and read and told you things that were gonna happen. So, sometimes this is the way that God's foreknowledge is construed. Some sort of a huge, overarching, all-encompassing knowledge of all things as God peeks into the future, right? looks down the corridors of time and sees all the possible events that could take place, all the contingencies that could happen, all the counterfactuals of what could, given a set of circumstances, could take place or not. And on the basis of God seeing, on the basis of God sort of having engaged in this prior exploration, investigation of the future, then God interacts with that knowledge, interacts with the knowledge that he gains, with the knowledge that he acquires from his foresight, from his foreknowledge, and on that basis then he orders affairs, he disposes affairs. he sort of, you know, manages to accomplish his purposes. What do you think of what I have just said? How do you, how many of you perhaps with a, raise your hand if you had heard this before. Go ahead, you wanna? You have heard it before, anybody else? Okay, anyone else has heard this before? Had you had any experience with the foreknowledge of God, with this doctrine before? You had never thought about the foreknowledge of God before? You have thought about? Okay, got you. That's right. From a pure instinct of the concept of God, He knows it all, right? Now the question, how does He know it all? because he's God, good, so that definitely is a good answer. It's a good, plain answer. However, more has been said, and depending on how we conceive God's foreknowledge, we're going to be either led down a path of faithful biblical interpretation, which leads to good application or living faithful lives in light of God's knowledge, or may lead us down a path that is not faithful to the biblical witness, which always presents practical sort of roadblocks along the way, right? So, Did you understand what I just said in terms of the big sort of overseer looking down into the holes of time in the future, and then discovering, learning, right? Interacting with all the different possibilities, and then sort of arranging them in keeping with his will, right? And I don't know why I feel led to add to the best of his ability. And that may betray my bias here. So what do you think about that particular view, if you have heard it before? You said you had a comment on it? What I think of that is when we describe God like that is because we try to make him as a creature, not supposed to be. and spiritual and material. He wasn't created in the universe, therefore he doesn't play by the rules that creatures play in the universe. Therefore he doesn't have a future, he doesn't have a present. He doesn't foresee, like the way we see it. I see, yeah. He lives outside. Is that sort of intuitive to you, right? Yeah, context. Okay. Got you. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. Okay. Hmm. That's, you're right on, I can't disagree with that. So it's no right or wrong answers right now, I'm just trying to survey where you're at on this point. Yes, go ahead, Frankie. When you prayed earlier on, you said, you know us more than we know ourselves. That really sunk in. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Anyone else, anyone else, back there? Anyone else? Okay, well, indeed, we have to establish a difference between the creator and the creature in the way that we know things. Because we know things by learning them, right? By being exposed to them. We know things by interacting, by experience. We know things by arranging, experimenting, right? Handling, by learning, right? So, is that the way that God works? No, that's a human statement. That's creaturely, right? Learning. Does God know things the way that we know them? Right? In the sense of, God also learns. God also experiments by trial and error. God also discovers. God also grows. No. No, that is not the God of the Bible. He doesn't learn. He doesn't discover. He doesn't grow. Right? He knows all things. because He knows what He within Himself has ordained, what He within Himself has decreed, what He has willed. So He's not dependent on anything outside of Himself. This has to do, I don't know if you remember way back when we dealt with the attributes of God and we spoke of the aseity of God. That God is of Himself. Of Himself. Meaning, God does not depend on anything outside of Himself, right? To complete Himself, to finish Himself, to accomplish himself. He is complete of himself. He has no need outside of himself. Okay? So, when he does something outside of himself, as in this case, both creation and redemption, it is because it is a finished vision in the mind of God. A finished deal in the heart of God, so to speak. It is in the conception of God a work that is done, that is in keeping with His will, with His pleasure. He does not fail. He does not put something out to a test, because there's nothing outside of Himself to dictate on him, to demand of him, to push on him, to press against him. He doesn't have any outside pressures for anything, to conform himself to anything. If that was the case, we would have to say that there is some sort of an outside rival or at least equal force, cause, reason, being equal to God. But the Bible declares unequivocally the supremacy and the sovereignty of God in all things. That is the God that is revealed in the Bible. Any alteration of that is done by committing violence upon the revealed Word of God, by playing tricks, and sometimes there are very astute tricks and playing with the knowledge of God in the Bible. Because of our man-centered expectations and visions, then we try to tinker with what God reveals in His Word that is not to our liking, that challenges every fiber of our being as creatures. And then we try to tinker, conform, and adjust the knowledge of God to our own liking. But, as we will see, the foreknowledge of God, it is basically the foresight of His decreed of His will, of His purpose. It begins with the end in mind. From eternity past, God has seen the end. He's seen it all. He's seen His will being fulfilled. And this will, then, we have added, is fulfilled in whom? In whom? In Christ Jesus. which gives us then another clue now to add to this doctrine, and we'll see if that holds. If that is the case, who would be the first that God would foresee? Before God foresees us, who does God foresee? Who should he foresee? In other words, if his purposes are all actualized, realized in Christ, right? And if he begins with that end of bringing glory to the Son, if he then within himself has this foresight of the end, then who does he foresee according to that end? Christ Jesus? Christ Jesus, in other words, God begins with the end of mine, which is an intra-end within Himself, and that intra-end within His Trinitarian life, when He's going to, for the sake of His outside works, right? In other words, there is the life of God within Himself, that is, His Trinitarian life, And there is the life of God or the works of God outside of Himself that would be the works of creation and redemption. Are you following that? Okay? So, because everything that He does outside answers, responds to what He has within Himself, of Himself, decreed, purposed, and willed. and this is in and through the Son, then the Bible must reveal that He foresaw the Son, that He foresaw Christ. Now, let me ask you, if you were to come across a verse like that in the Bible, Would you, where the Son was foreknown before the foundation of the world, right? What would be your interpretation of that verse if you had not heard anything that I have heard, that I have said so far? God, the Lamb of God foreknown before the foundation of the world. But how would you interact with that? Would you interact with that in terms of how God knew what the Son would do? That doesn't really work. Does that make sense? That God the Father had to look into the future the way creatures discover and learn? He would have to look and learn in the future what the Son would do? in order to foreknow the Son? Is that God's foreknowledge? No. Why would that not make any sense? Because the Father and the Son are what? They're one? They're one. They're two persons of the Godhead. So there is nothing to looking to the future and learn. In other words, if the definition of God's foreknowledge is looking down into the future, is learning about future events, is somehow experimenting with variables that He simply passively sees, was the sun a variable in the future, a circumstance in the future, something to discover and learn in the future? Not at all. Not at all. So it was something that God in his foresight, right, foreordained. Foreordained. Let's take a look at then, first, yeah. Before, before, hold on to that thought, before, let me just share the scripture that I had just referenced so you can, you can see it, 1 Peter, because there is such a verse in the Bible and it's found in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 20, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 20. So God is saying that we have been redeemed, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now verse 20. He indeed, Christ, was foreordained. What is the word for foreordained here in the Greek? It's the word for foreknowledge, proginosko. It's the same word. It gets translated here, the Lamb of God was foreordained before the foundation of the world. but was manifest in these last times for you." So the Lamb of God was foreknown. That's what it's saying here, literally. The Lamb of God was foreknown before the foundation of the world. In other words, in eternity past, the side of God of the future, was the side of the Lamb slain, the Lamb crucified, the Lamb then raised, exalted, ascended, and the Lamb is the heir and the head of all things." It's the glorification of the Lamb, of His Son. That's what God foresaw. He foresaw His own glory. He foresaw. He foreordained. He predetermined this end in Christ Jesus. So God's foresight is not a mere passive discovering, learning, experimenting, deciding by looking at the variables in the future, but God's foresight God's foreknowledge is the foresight of His blessed end in Christ. It's the foresight of His blessed end in Christ. That is God's foreknowledge. Perhaps, you know, when we try to come up with illustrations, which, granted, you know, it's hard to I mean, it'd be impossible. An illustration, by definition, would fall short because of the creator-creature distinction, but sometimes we speak, we humans, when we have a project, we speak and we say, man, I have conceived this project, right? I've conceptualized this sort of dream in my head. and we see it, right? We see it with our mind's eye. It's sort of that moment that's been said where somebody says, Eureka! I got it, I got it, I see it. I see it, right? I see it, I got it. How many of you have been there? Now, the only difference is that you may very well see it with your mind's eye, but putting it into execution and making it happen is what? is something else altogether. Why? Because we're not gods. We're not gods. But, now, apply that to God. God sees it. God has conceived it. He has conceptualized it. He has the idea. Right? He has his thoughts that regards his Son. And He will certainly provide for it. and make it happen and make it come to fruition and to God's desired end. Does that make sense? Okay. So another passage here, and we're going to come to your comment, Pastor. Another passage here is found in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, verses 22 and 23. This is Peter's sermon, and he is speaking of Christ, what happened to Him. Trying to explain, you know, what happened at Pentecost. And he says the following, Acts chapter 2, verses 22 and 23. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him, Christ, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death." Wow. I mean, Peter here inserts high theology into a sermon that's dealing with Pentecost, and dealing with the history of redemption and what happened in Jerusalem. And this provides tremendous grounds for assurance as to what's taken place. What's taken place, all you guys, notice, you guys crucified Jesus. On the one hand, you have what we do. You have our actions. The reality of human causes and agency. The actions, the reality, right? The happenings of creaturely action and agency and events. But behind it, Behind it, we have to contend with the ultimate reality behind those events, behind those secondary causes, agencies, and actions, and that is what? The determined purpose and the foreknowledge of God. The determined purpose and the foreknowledge of God. So these two are intricately related. The fact that God foresees what He has preordained, what He has predetermined, what He has predisposed. According to His eternal counsel and will, Christ Jesus was delivered. And we might add here, now that we're speaking of secondary causes, right? And hopefully you're following this manner of speaking. Primary cause behind Christ's death. What's the primary cause? Who primarily caused, if you follow what we're saying, right? The event of the crucifixion happened because of? Certainly, certainly. Yes, because of the foreknowledge of God. God foresaw it. God foresaw it, which means it was in God's mind and sight according to His eternal decree. God preordained it. In other words, could the crucifixion of Jesus not happen? Was it up for grabs? Was it maybe God was maybe, man, I hope, you know, I really, really make sure that those 20 pieces of silver were really powerful and enticing, right? Otherwise, Judas is not gonna betray him. Man, is God just tinkering with things externally, outside? Maybe God is just trying to find ways to see what's going to happen in the future. He's trying to arrange pieces like an ultimate, most powerful chess maker, chess player. Ultimately, God's divine will here is the reason why Jesus Christ was delivered. Yes, then it was because of our sins. Yes. Absolutely. It was to save us from our sins, right? That's part of the powerful, redemptive reason behind it. But we're looking now at ultimate causes. Right? Ultimate causes. God's foreknowledge is the ultimate cause of our redemption. God's, now we could say, God's determined purpose and foreknowledge is the primary cause of our redemption. And not negating, annulling, or setting aside that it would involve a series of secondary causes. What would be the secondary causes? The actions of sinful men. The convergence of certain historical events in time. So these would be secondary, even the actions of Satan. That's another secondary agent in place. So God is able to act in keeping with His will, purpose, and ultimate decree, and still in, through, and with the nature of secondary causes. Secondary causes are at work, they are at play. Again, example, Judah betraying Jesus. So Judah betraying Jesus obeys God's ultimate cause, God's ultimate decree. That was not something that happened outside of God's foreknowledge. It's in keeping with God's foreknowledge and foreordination. Does that make sense? Right. So that is one example of a secondary cause. Judas was an agent with a will. A will. He was a willing agent. Secondary cause. Another secondary cause is Satan. It says that Satan entered the heart of Judas. Right? Who's behind that as an ultimate cause? Who's behind that? God's foreknowledge and God's foreordination, right? So, He's behind that. Now, did God put evil into the heart of Judas or into the heart of Satan to make that happen? No. No. Ah, thank you, and we can come to that, right? So notice then how there's a convergence here of God ultimate in his foreknowledge and foreordination. delivering Jesus, the Lamb of God, foreordaining, foreknowing Christ as the ultimate cause, and yet, without doing violence, negating or annulling the nature of secondary causes. You following that? Perhaps, I mean, one illustration, and I know it's always gonna be drawbacks to what we try to illustrate as regards the knowledge of God, but it's just a very simple illustration. Am I doing violence to this bottle? What am I simply doing? If I want this bottle to fall, what do I do? Right? I'm not throwing the bottle, am I? As long as I'm holding it, it holds, right? It holds. Does anybody have a container, a cup? There with you? Okay, so if I had a cup here, and I pour water into the cup, The water goes as far as I desire it to go. As far as I desire it to go. If I turn on the light here, but turn off the light next classroom, there's darkness in the next classroom, right? And there's light where? Here. Right? So just illustrations for you to see that, in a way, we act as little gods of sorts when it comes to actuating and moving secondary causes. Actuating and moving secondary causes that move, flow, of their own secondary natures, right? This falls because he has a mass and a weight, right? I am not, you know, I'm not the one that, what? That put the mass and the weight there, right? So, God's foreknowledge then is the foresight of His blessed end in Christ that He will then provide for, including all secondary causes and contingencies that will lead to that ultimate end. God's foreknowledge is not mere foresight. It's not passive learning, reacting, or even interacting, for that matter. God's foreknowledge is the grounds, the motivation, the blueprint, that He preordains, predetermines unto a certain future. Unto a certain future. God foresees whom or what He preordains or predetermines in keeping with His eternal decrees and purpose. Any questions on that? Now we could proliferate here versus, and we're gonna come back to them, but we want to obviously stay within the golden chain, but I thought it was really important, right, to address the beginning of this chain, the first link. because of all the confusion and the debates that even today rage on this subject. Even today. There are ongoing debates raging, okay, on this subject. And it's important. It's not insignificant. Yes, indeed. People that think otherwise are our brothers and sisters. Because we're not saved by our grasp and the faithful understanding of God's foreknowledge. Thankfully, we're saved by the simplicity of the Gospel. By believing and trusting in Christ. by the conviction of the Holy Spirit that produces faith and repentance and regenerates us to be born anew through faith in Christ Jesus. So that's all that it takes. However, it is important, it is significant. We don't want to minimize high doctrine. Yes, indeed, this is high doctrine. This is deep, getting sort of deep into the knowledge of God. But there are things that God has revealed here in His Word that is for us to know, to consume, to grasp, and to base our lives upon, which provides then the case for security, for assurance, for comfort, for strength, for perspective in the world. It's really, it's really practical. Theology is always practical. This is, this connection, why do I need to know that, pastor? You know, and some of you may be struggling, like all of us are struggling with so many things. And what I found is that this knowledge of God had sell me in my struggles. has held me in sort of dealing with a world that seems so out of order and chaos, so random, so loose. The fact that God in His foreknowledge has seen the end, has decreed, has willed all things in keeping with the counsel of His will. Let me show you a couple of verses to whet your appetite for next week. on how this looks when it comes to God's foreordination and foresight of all things on practical matters. Obviously, there's nothing more practical than the death of Christ, but you catch my drift, right? For example, let's go to Proverbs. You want to get really downright practical. Let's go to a few verses in Proverbs to sort of lighten the load, the intellectual load of what we have shared tonight and take a look at some practicalities here. In Proverbs chapter 19, Proverbs 19 verse 21. We hear the following. There are many plans in a man's heart. How many of you have plans? Right? And they are many. Alright. So what does it go on to say? Let me see. Let me take one over here. Go ahead. What does it go on to say? I will stand. Wow. Many plans, many thoughts in our heads. But the Lord's plan, the Lord's counsel will stand. Does anyone else have another version? Another version? I know, I know. But that takes some maturity and sort of understanding spiritually to come to grips with that. Is there any other version of Scripture that says it in other words? Yes, go ahead. It says many are the plans of an immense heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Oh, that's great. That's why I like different versions. Wow. Wow, tremendous. Another one, another one. Do we have another version in the midst? Wow, wow. You see that? That's why we say, and it shouldn't be a cliche, God willing. I don't know when this phrase came into being. I'm sure maybe, I don't know who first came up with that manner of speaking. You know, I'm going to do this. Well, we know the Bible has it in James, right? We should say, oh, we're going to go to this city and trade and do business, and we're going to do A, B, and C. But we should say, if the Lord wills, God willing, Man, that's high providence, high sovereignty doctrine right there, right? Do we understand that? Okay, Proverbs 16, Proverbs 16, verse 1. The preparations of the heart belong to man. But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. Man, that's heavy. Other versions out there. Proverbs 16.1. What you got? To man belongs the plant of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue. You remember David when he was running from his enemies? And there was a guy that followed him, cursing him. Remember that? And then one of his camels said, let me just go and chop his head off, man. Who's this guy to be doing this to you, David? What did David do? Let him, let him curse. Maybe it's the Lord's doing. You know? It's very practical, isn't it? It's very practical. Wow. Any other versions out there? No, not yet. Yeah, but let me give you a sixth one. It's this one, I mean, it's surprising that, you know, we are, how many of you sometimes are saying, I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna say that, and I'm plotting this and that in my mind, right? And then what comes out of our mouths, right? Sometimes it's just blunders. We just, you know, completely mess things up royally. Sometimes it's something that brings astonishment. It's like, wow, man. I kept my cool there, right? It's up to the Lord. It's the Lord's doing. It's the Lord's doing, right? 69, go ahead, Jose. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Yeah, we notice secondary cause, meaning, I plan. I'm not a robot. Sometimes people have painted a caricature of this doctrine by making, oh, you think people are robots. No, we're not. We have thoughts. We have will. We have affections. We're thinking. We're planning. We're speaking. But there is a superintending will above us. There's an almighty God over us. There's an almighty will over us, working out an everlasting plan, course, and decree. He, the Lord, directs His steps. Did you see that? And last, Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21. Verse one, now this one, get ready. Get ready for this one. God is the perfect gentleman. He will not force your, how many of you have heard that? He will not force your heart. Okay, Proverbs 21 verse one. Who can read that one? Who wants to read this one? Proverbs 21 verse 1. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and the rivers of water. If he turns over his will, Which so, okay, gotcha, you got it, that's it. You're getting in trouble for having that old verse in there, sister, that's okay. You wanna read it again? You wanna give it another? Mm-hmm. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. He turned, he withers over, he wills. Wow, wow. He trusts in whatever he, Yeah. Another version out there? Go ahead. Go ahead, Maria. You have that other version. Yeah? Okay. Okay. Anyone else want to read it? Wow. The King's heart. The most powerful man. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He turns that heart wherever He wishes. God turns the heart of the King. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord. Wow. He's sovereign over the hearts of men, isn't He? That's why He was able to open the heart of Lydia. Huh? That's why He opened the eyes and the hearts of the disciples. That's why He's opened your heart. That's why He actually gives you a new heart. He replaces your heart of stone with a heart of flesh. He gives you regeneration. He regenerates you. He calls you, you a dead sinner, and He calls you and makes you alive by the power of His Word. God is that kind of a God. He is the sovereign Lord, the sovereign Lord. who in His foreknowledge has elected a people unto salvation, and we shall have more to say in this, and speak of His predestination, and His calling, and His justification, and His glorification. This is all God's doing. All God's doing. for the glory of his name. Questions or comments? Final questions or comments? Yes, I'm sorry, I never got back to you. Yeah.