Blessings in Christ (part 2)

Okay, well, I'm going to start, and I've just noticed that my notes do not have page numbers.

I failed to put page numbers on my notes. I'm not sure what page it is. But we stopped, page four. The conference says page four. We were about to step into number three.

And we're talking about, remember, what I'm doing is highlighting, focusing on some of the key verbs that appear in chapter one.

And we'll continue to do that. We got through one and started to look at the next two, chosen us, predestined us, those two verbs, and putting those together because they go together.

And so we just kind of got into that. And I believe last time I covered number two, it is difficult to make a clear distinction between these two verbs.

We talked about that last week and then gave you kind of a definition of the words, the Greek words that are translated for us in our copy of God's Word.

We have the verb chosen, remember, and the verb predestined. And my point is that they are very similar in meaning.

And there's a significant difference, but I'm not going to spend any time really talking about the difference. You can look at the definitions of those words that I gave you in your notes.

Chosen, eklegomai, and it just means to pick out from, out from. I didn't have the word from in your notes. You might add that to it.

To pick out from. Or to choose out for oneself. Or to choose one out of many.

Or you could even add the word some. To choose some, a certain number, out of a larger number, or out of many. And that's what the word chosen, eklegomai, means, basically.

And then we have the verb predestined. Prochorizo is the Greek term, Greek word. And it means to predetermine.

And now some would debate on that, but the word does mean that. It means to predetermine, predestine, to decide beforehand.

Or to foreordain, appoint beforehand. So I gave you those definitions of the words. And this is just simply what the words mean. We're not talking about doctrine yet.

But doctrine is made up of words from Scripture. And those words mean something. And so before you start forming any particular doctrine, then you must be sure that it comes from Scripture.

And if it comes from Scripture, then it's going to come to us based upon the meaning of words that the Bible writers were inspired to use. So it's important that we understand the terminology before we can understand the doctrine itself.

All right, so then you can see that the two verbs, as they appear in the text here, are very similar in meaning. Third, and here's where we'll spend quite a bit of our time tonight, in fact, probably all of it.

And I want to go very slowly on this because a lot of people have questions about these terms and these doctrines, and not only questions, but kind of troubled insight about some of these things, some of these issues, and so I want to take a little time here.

And what I'm not going to do is get out a systematic theology book and tell you what the doctrine of election is according to whoever wrote the systemat.

What we're going to do is look at this verse in Ephesians chapter 1 and find out what it says. We'll just pick it apart. And we have possibly one of the best, at least certainly one of the most concise statements from Scripture about the doctrine of election.

Now, the word election doesn't appear in the text, but election is the subject here. And so we can learn a number of things about this doctrine from these two verbs, chosen and predestined.

The first one is this. Election is God's business, not man's. That's really where we need to start. And that's where Paul started.

Because he said, He chose us. Now, I've been your pastor long enough now, I think, for you to kind of get used to my approach to teaching and preaching Scripture.

And I like to look at every word and pull out of every word the intended meaning. Because, you know, when we talk about the inspiration of Scripture, that God's Word is inspired, we're not just talking about the concept or the truths of God's Word.

We're talking about the very words are inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so if every word of Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, then every word has meaning.

And we need to discover that meaning. And so that's what we're going to do here. We're going to look at nearly every word in these couple of verses. Verses 4 and 5.

And beyond that. So election is God's business, not man's. He, He chose us. Now, we had, had people voting in here yesterday.

And, and I got to thinking, you know, when you have an election, you always have someone who's running for, I mean, there's not always someone running for an office, but when you think of an election, you think of someone who's running for an elected office.

And, you know, and typically there are others running for that very same office. And in that scenario, you know, the candidates do not elect themselves, do they?

They do not choose themselves. Now, they chose to run, they chose to seek the office. But just, you know, the bare illustration, the candidate does not elect himself or herself.

The candidate is chosen from among the others running for the same office. Now, similarly, though, much more seriously, in the context of salvation, the Christian did not choose himself for salvation.

God chooses him. And you say, how can you say that? Well, because that's what, that's what the Bible says. He chose us. God chooses us.

God chooses us. Certain ones are elected from among others. Many others. And that is not only the meaning of the word chosen.

We not only understand that from the meaning of the word chosen, the very word that Paul was inspired to use. But it is logical as well. We do not choose him.

We do not choose salvation. And we could talk a lot about why we don't. Because we're totally unable to. And if the choice was actually there for us to make, we wouldn't make it.

Because there's nothing in us to make the correct choice. God's at work there because God has already chosen us. We did not choose him. He chose us.

So, election is God's business, not man's. Second, the doctrine of election pertains to the saving of individual people and not to a plan and a purpose for saving people.

They say, well, what does that mean? Well, what does the Scripture say? Paul said, he chose, what? Us. He chose us.

That is, he chose people. He didn't choose a plan to save people. Well, I mean, he did, but that's not what Paul's talking about. He didn't choose a purpose.

You see, think of it in these terms. And I didn't give you all of these notes. If you think this is important, you ought to jot it down. I hope you have enough space there.

But in terms of a plan, some have tried to explain election in terms of God choosing in eternity past a plan of salvation.

As I say, well, when there's election, election is talking about God deciding how people would be saved. And so it's a plan. Or, in terms of a purpose, I said, remember I said election refers to people, not a plan or a purpose.

In terms of purpose, some have tried to explain election in terms of God predestining a purposeful outcome for those who are saved. Or for those who have been elected.

That is, what he elected or what he chose or what he predestined was that you would become like Christ. That's what election is by some. This is what they would conclude.

And they would point to the latter part of verse 4 that says that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So, you see, they would say, those who would object to my view of the doctrine of election, they would say, see there, that's what God's electing, that we would become like Christ.

Not that we would be saved, that we would be like Christ. But that's, alright, now I'll give you a concession here. Certainly, God did choose in eternity past his divine plan of salvation.

He certainly did choose that. And God certainly did choose in eternity past his divine purpose for salvation. And certainly all that is true. But, that's just not what Paul is talking about in this particular passage.

Paul is clearly talking about God's choosing and predestining him. And those who are reading his letter. He's talking about people.

So, God has chosen, he has elected not a plan or purpose, but God's election is of people. He chooses people.

And, really, you know, God has revealed this in Scripture, or revealed his prerogative to choose people over and over in Scripture. For example, and you can just jot these examples down, first of all, out of all the people in Ur of the Chaldeans, God chose one man.

Who was he? Abraham. Later, God chose Jacob, but He did not choose Esau. He chose Jacob.

Psalm 135, verse 4, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. Romans 9, verse 13, As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

You say, well, that's terrible. How could God, that makes God some kind of a monster? Well, that's just what God said. And, and so, He chooses people out from among others.

In fact, He chooses an entire group of people. God chose the, the children of Israel over all other people in the world. Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 8, For thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the people. For you were the fewest of all people, but because God loved you.

He chose you because He loved you. He chose Israel. So, there are plenty of examples in Scripture that mirror the, this larger doctrine of election.

God chooses people. It's, it's the choosing of people, not a plan or a purpose that the doctrine of election speaks to. Third, this choosing and predestining or predestination took place in eternity past.

took place in eternity past. Paul put it this way, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Before the creation, before anything was made, before time even began.

And this clearly points to the fact that God's election is based upon an eternal choice. Not based upon anything of worth in me or any of us.

and, and, and, you know, this kind of brings up a common objection or belief about election. I guess I would call it a belief, a certain, certain way of thinking about the doctrine of election.

And, some believe that God chooses or chose based upon His foreknowledge. You'll hear this objection quite a bit if you do any kind of reading on the subject of the doctrine of election that really what it's about.

That God, you know, He knows all things. And so, God can see future, see the future, He can see your future. He can look down through, as they say, the corridors of time.

And, and then He can see those who will believe the gospel and, and, and He sees also those who will not believe the gospel. So, because of His foreknowledge, because He knows things before they happen, God chooses those who will believe the gospel and rejects those who do not.

And, those He chooses based upon what He sees them doing, based upon the fact that He knows they're going to believe, He chooses them to be in Christ. And so, that's what, what they say.

And, and those who hold that view, and there are many who hold that view, usually point to a couple of passages. In fact, there are two passages that, that I think are very key for the other position, but, but they choose typically Romans 8, 29, where the Bible says, and you know this, for whom He foreknew, or you, you know this passage, whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many.

That is, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many. So, they'll point to that passage and say, see, that's the order of things. God foreknew, He looked down through time, and He saw that you would believe, and so He predestined you to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Alright? Sounds very logical. And then, they'll also point to 1 Peter 1, verse 2, where Peter says that Christians are the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

And he says some other things too, but let me just point to that phrase. Elect, here's the doctrine of election, the very word is found right in Scripture that would say, so elect according to what?

According to the foreknowledge of God. That God knew something beforehand. And so, that's what they'll point to in these two passages.

And it sounds pretty good, it sounds pretty rational, logical, but does that accurately define what God has done in election? And I would say, no.

For one thing, the word translated foreknew in Romans, chapter 8, 29, for whom He foreknew, that word foreknew, and also the word translated foreknowledge in 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 2, are from the same root word in the Greek.

I mean, obviously so. Even in English, they look like the same word. Foreknew, foreknowledge, and one's a verb, one's a noun. And so, it's the same word, and it is the word progenosko, which is just two words put together, pro being before, that's a preposition, and gnosis or gnosko meaning to know.

So, before, know. For, know. Foreknowledge, and so the basic meaning of the word, taking it out of any kind of doctrinal context, the basic meaning is to have foreknowledge beforehand, or to have knowledge beforehand.

That's just simply what the word means. Problem is, with God, foreknowledge, by the very nature of God, has to carry the meaning of predetermination, or foreordination, or a predetermined choice.

So, when progenosko is used in the context of God, who is omniscient, and omnipotent, it carries the idea of not only knowing beforehand, but determining it beforehand.

And we can prove this from the very same chapter in 1 Peter. In 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. And again, you can jot these down and look at them yourself.

The Bible says, Peter said, 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.

So, you're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now, that part of the passage we're familiar with. But then he goes on to say, he, speaking of Christ, indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.

Alright, so, foreordained. Now, God the Father, you see, did not simply look down through the corridors of time and foresee or have foreknowledge that Jesus would come and redeem lost sinners.

It's not that God, Jesus didn't, God, Jesus was not preordained or foreordained because God was able to see that He would come as the Savior. That would be ridiculous.

I mean, this was God's plan from eternity past. And so, God rather, and it comes out, it's translated this way in the King James and New King James, translated foreordained, He foreordained this before the foundation of the world.

Alright, now, what is the, what is the word foreordained, translated foreordained, it's the very same word that we read, I read earlier in 1 Peter that is translated by most versions of the Bible foreknowledge.

Foreknowledge, which carries the idea of knowing something beforehand. Only when we get to what Peter says about Jesus and Him coming as the Redeemer, the very same word is used there, foreknowledge, and yet, at least in some versions, it brings out the meaning that it actually means foreordained.

So, it's not just that God knew that some would believe, God determined that they would. He chose them, predestined them, just the same way that God didn't just simply know beforehand that Jesus would come and be our Savior.

He determined that, it was foreordained. And so, in fact, we have the same language, very similar language that Paul uses here in Ephesians 1.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. And that's what Peter said in 1 Peter 1.20. Jesus was foreordained before the foundation of the world. And so, you can compare the two.

The same process, the same predetermination of God, the Father, applies not only to the coming of the Messiah and His accomplishing redemption, but the same foreordination or predetermination applies to those He has chosen to save, chosen to express His grace.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, I'm so glad that God chose me before the foundation of the world because He never would have chosen me after I was born. Think about that for a moment.

For another thing, while we're on this subject, Isaiah the prophet also put together God's foreknowledge and foreordination.

Isaiah chapter 46 verses 9 through 10, prime example, good example, where Isaiah the prophet says, For I am God and there is no other.

He said, I am God and there is none like me. Alright, so we get that, don't we? And then he says, declaring, this is what God says about himself, declaring the end from the beginning.

Declaring the end from the beginning. From ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

Now you can't come away from that passage and just simply agree that God's will is done because He knew it would be done or He knew certain things would happen.

It's not just simply foreknowledge, knowing something beforehand. It is a predetermination. He not only knows the end from the beginning, He declares it, determines it.

He says, My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. All my pleasure. And you also could consider that the Bible repeatedly supports God's foreordination in salvation and I'll just give you a couple of passages.

John 6, 37 where the Bible says, All that the Father gives me shall come to me. This is Jesus speaking. Speaking of His sheep. All that the Father gives me shall come to me and Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.

John 15, 16 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. Acts 13, 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, the preaching, the gospel, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.

Believed. It's just plain English. It's still troubling maybe, perhaps to us, but this is exactly what the Bible says and it repeats this and teaches this all throughout both Old and New Testament.

Alright, we're talking about the doctrine of election. Now we're to number four. Fourth, and we'll step, kind of, step back just a bit because I skipped and I did it on purpose, the order.

In fact, I changed this from your notes from last week, the order of it. Fourth, election is in connection with Jesus Christ. Okay, you can't, you can't leave Jesus out of this.

God didn't just simply choose and you were saved, you know, regardless of Jesus Christ. No, He chose us in Him. In Him.

See, apart from Christ Jesus, there would be no election. There would be no salvation. Oh, we know that, don't we? Apart from God placing us in Christ, there would be no election.

And when, by the way, did God place us in Christ? Well, there's two answers to that. One from the perspective of God, the other from our perspective or our own experience.

In the mind of eternal God, when did it happen? When were we united in Christ? In His mind before the foundation of the world. As a mean that you were born already saved, okay?

I've had a lady tell me that one time. Her husband was what I would call an extreme Calvinist, hyper-Calvinist, maybe even sub-Calvinist.

I didn't agree with a lot of what he thought. But I asked his wife, they were thinking about joining our church and I was talking to her about her commitment to Christ and so I just asked her, you know, when did she come to salvation?

When did she believe? When was she saved? And she said, well, I've always been saved. No, you haven't. I've always been saved. So I'm not talking about, you know, you were saved even before you were born.

We're talking about in the mind and purposes of God, in His mind, in His eternal mind, that union in Christ was decided and accomplished in His mind before the foundation of the world.

Now, in time and according to our experience, the experience of man, that happens at the very moment you believed, the moment you were converted, saved.

Someone has said that God so structured and ordered your life to accomplish in time what He has purposed in eternity. And I like it.

I think that's right. Number five, election has a purpose. It does have a purpose. I said earlier that election is, God elects people and not a purpose, but election itself, what it accomplishes, does have a purpose.

And according to the Scripture here, it has two purposes. One, a new nature. A new nature. That's the first purpose that is listed here by Paul.

A new nature. A holy, blameless, that we would be holy and blameless. He chose us, this is what Paul said, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

That is His purpose. God's purpose in election is that those He has chosen would be like His Son Jesus. And He's accomplishing that work in this life.

We know it by the theological term sanctification. And by the way, that's something that God is working and doing in the life of the believer that we can participate and must participate with Him in in sanctification.

That's one purpose. The second purpose is a new standing. And this is something that is accomplished by God and God alone.

Paul says, and He predestined us, here's where we get to that second verb, chose us, that's the new nature, predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself.

Now that's a glorious, glorious act of God. Now ladies, don't worry about it. Daughters too, okay? Not just sons. Adoption is a glorious act of God.

Adoption, by definition, and you can jot this down, did I give this to you? Alright, alright, so I did. Adoption is that act of God by which those who are not natural born children are placed in the position of full, a position of a full son, a full, I probably missed, missed, messed that up, didn't I?

Place us in the position of full sons and daughters, as full sons and daughters. You can work out the verbiage there because I messed it up. You understand, we have no right, we're not natural born, we are not his sons when we're born.

there is a concept in Scripture, a truth in Scripture that all mankind are sons and daughters of God in the sense of creation, but in the context of salvation, we are aliens from God.

We are not natural born. And so, God, by a gracious act of choosing and predestining us, He made us who are not natural born sons and daughters and brought us to a position as full sons and daughters.

Not just, you know, just step sons and daughters or, you know, just partially children, but full sons and full daughters. And that's a glorious and wondrous thing.

Number six, election is a sovereign prerogative of God. Prerogative of God.

According to, this is what Paul said, according to, all this was according to what? The good pleasure of His will. As it's His divine prerogative.

The basis upon which God elects for salvation is not found in the one, the one's chosen and predestined.

God did not choose you and predestine you, elect you, and save you because of anything in you. You know, that, that kind of goes against our pride.

You know, we, we somehow think we ought, you know, that we're somehow worthy of consideration at least. But God did not choose us based upon anything in us.

But rather, it's based upon the one choosing. Not the one chosen, but the one doing the choosing. God's electing or not electing.

By the way, it goes both ways. God's electing unto salvation or not electing. You notice, I didn't say elected to be lost because there, we get into some trouble there.

I don't believe in a, what's called equal ultimacy that God not only redeems, saves by His grace, but also damns and that's part of His choice.

No, we're all damned and condemned because of our sin and God in His electing grace decided to choose some of us from out of the larger number.

God doesn't send anybody to hell. God does not decree people to be lost and to be damned. I think that's just stepping over the boundary into saying that God is also the author of sin.

He is not. We're all sinners, born sinners, condemned and it is by God's grace that He would save some. And so, I say then, getting back to my notes, God's electing or not electing is not based upon anything outside of Himself that is not in us, not our goodness or our wickedness.

To elect us or not elect us, not our potential for good or bad. It's not based upon, not according to the world's view of kindness and fairness. You know, that's another problem people have as they approach this doctrine from a man-centered kind of emotional perspective that it just doesn't seem fair.

God is some kind of ogre. Certainly, that cannot be God. It's not according to fairness, not according to, you know, what we think ought to be the kindness of God.

You take the example of Esau and Jacob and you know the story of Esau and Jacob. You can go to Genesis to find their story. You can also go to Romans 9 and see what God says about this whole issue, about those two brothers.

There. And you know that the Bible says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau and we want to object to that. Say that's just not, that can't be, that can't be fair.

Or, some would take the view, well, I can understand fully why God would hate Esau. I mean, look at what he did. You know. And he was a wicked man and a sinful man and a fleshly man.

You know, he sold his birthright for some food. I mean, you do some of those things, God will hate you too. In fact, I heard a preacher say that one time. Preaching that at our seminary. In chapel.

And I couldn't wait to get to my next class because right after chapel came one of my theology classes and I just knew that we would be talking about that statement from that preacher.

because he said to all those students, he said, if you do those things, God will hate you too. Oh, really? And so, someone in the class, one of the students when we got to the class, it was before the professor came in, he wrote up on the board, and if you do those things, God will hate you too.

He just wrote it up on the board when the teacher came in and he looked up at that and he went around in front of his desk and sat down and he said, you know, the amazing thing is not that God hated Esau.

The amazing thing is that he loved Jacob. And that's the right perspective because Jacob was not, and Jacob was a sinner too. I mean, think about what he did. Tricking his father and, you know, in all of that.

And he was a sinner. The amazing thing is that God would love any of us and choose any of us. That's the amazing, gracious thing about it. And it's all according to his own prerogative.

Election is the sovereign prerogative of God. And then one more, seventh election has as its ultimate goal the manifestation of God's glory and grace.

Or God's grace. I don't know if I gave you two blanks there or what. And this is what Paul said, to the praise and glory of his grace by which he has made us accepted in the beloved.

So why did God do it? What was his goal? To manifest his glory and his grace. It's not to our benefit, but we do benefit.

Not so that we would look at ourselves and say, well, man, it must have been something special with me that God would choose me and save me. Not at all. It's by his grace so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2, 8, 9. And so here Paul says it's just very straightforward, very matter-of-fact. All of this is that he'd been talking about. He chose us in him for the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame, predestined us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise and glory of his grace by which he has made us accepted in the beloved.

And you put all this together and you have this definition and I provided this, I think, in your notes. I'll read it out loud. God, here's the definition of doctrine of election.

God, before the foundation of the world, chose certain individuals from among the fallen members of Adam's race to be the objects of his undeserved favor.

These and these alone he purposed to save. His eternal choice of particular centers for salvation was not based upon any foreseen acts or response on the part of those selected, but was based solely on his own good pleasure and sovereign will.

Thus, election was not determined by or conditioned upon anything that man would do, but resulted entirely from God's self-determined purpose.

That's a good definition. Now, I'm going to close tonight with and just mention a couple of common questions. And there are others, but I chose just a couple of them.

First question, and did I put this in your notes? I'm sorry about that. You can jot this down. Well, some of it. First of all, how can, and here's the question, how can both the sovereign election and human responsibility, how can both of those things, sovereign election and human responsibility, how can those two things coexist?

That's a big question. How can both those things be true? And I've heard, I think maybe even Tom has used this quote before, at least part of it.

Spurgeon was once asked how to reconcile sovereign election and human responsibility, and his answer was, I did not know that friends had to be reconciled.

Then the two go together, they're friends. And then he used this illustration. He says, as you stand looking down at railroad tracks, just kind of imagine yourself standing on a railroad track, and you see the rails, you know, the tracks, the rails, steel rails, and no matter how you look at them, you look at them and there's no way you can see how they could ever come together.

I mean, there's no way to make them meet. however, if you look far enough into the distance, the tracks seem to come together.

And his point was that what does not make sense to us here will come into sharp focus, these are his words, will come into sharp focus in heaven.

I prefer to think of it in these terms, that what doesn't make sense to us makes perfect sense to God. And there is just a lot of mystery to God.

I mean, God forbid that we would ever come to the place where we understand everything there is to understand about God. That would make us at least equal with him, to know what he knows and understand him.

There's a great deal of mystery, and especially in these two, from our vantage point, are irreconcilable. The divine, sovereign election of God and human responsibility to respond to the gospel.

How can they come together? In our minds, it's very, it's impossible to see how they come together. In fact, it is usually put in these terms that they are anti-laws.

They seem to be anti-laws. It's antinomy as the technical term and tie to one another. A law, sovereign election. The law of human responsibility.

And they don't seem to go together. And in our rational, finite, human way of thinking, we can't reconcile. but they make perfect sense with God.

So I believe that God chooses people to salvation for salvation, but I also believe that he will save anyone who will come to him for salvation, the whosoever wills.

And I think I've also mentioned this, Adrian Rogers, who did never professed to be a Calvinist in any degree, though I think he was probably more one than he admitted.

but he said that the door to heaven or the gate to heaven on this side says whosoever will may come.

And when you get there and walk through and you look on the back side of the gate it says God's elect only. We don't know who the elect are. And that leads to the second question, what about those God has not chosen?

That's what we want to think of. We want to always think about what about those poor people God did not choose? Well, who are they? Do you know them? No, you don't know them.

And so I guess it may seem a little bit cold and curt but I'd say just never mind about them. That is this fictitious or this undefinable number of people God has not chosen.

You don't know who they are anyway. And so what should we do? We're to just keep telling people about Jesus. Just keep giving them the gospel. And we leave the choosing up to God.

And we leave up to Him those parts of that that we can't reconcile in our minds. We can trust God. He'll do what's right. God said in Romans 9.14 Paul wrote it down but God said it.

Is there unrighteousness with God? This is a similar objection. You know. God's not right to choose some and not others. This is basically the objection.

And so God asked or Paul asked is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. He says. For he says to Moses I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.

And later on he says but indeed oh man who are you to reply against God to question God will the thing formed say to him who formed it why have you made me like this?

Does not God does not the potter have power over the clay? And I say we just have to leave it there. Now remember Romans 3.23 All all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

That means we're all doomed. All doomed. It's only by the grace of God that there's any hope in his sovereign choosing. And when someone comes to Christ in faith we can say hey there's one of God's elect.

And we can rejoice that God has manifested his glory and grace chosen by God before the foundation of the world. And we can say right there is a visible verifiable manifestation of the marvelous wonderful grace of God.

Grace of God. And it gives God all the glory. any other version of it brings some amount of glory to man.

And that just cannot do. Cannot do. Thank you.