Great Doctrines of Salvation

We are on lesson 14 on predestination and March Bank's basic doctrines of salvation. Unless anybody can remember more than I. We'll start at 4. We had one that said I ended at 3 and one we ended at 5, so we'll compromise and go to question 4. Does predestination affect in any way God's calling to the unsaved?

Why or why not? Can I read it again? You're crazy. Read it, okay? Oh yeah. It's on the page. It's alright, I can read it again. Does predestination affect in any way God's calling to the unsaved? Am I going to have to take a vote? Do we live in a democracy here? Yes or no? No. No. Did you were on the yes last week? You're now changed. No, it doesn't.

Let's get back to God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. Miles, I think I quoted the paper he has on it, says, the natural mind is not able to give due place to both sovereignty and responsibility. Hence, all theological systems fail on one side or the other. But it's clear that Scripture maintains both, and the spiritual mind is always in accord with Scripture.

And then looking at 1 Timothy 2, 3, and 4, These are just things, now this is putting into perspective about predestination and to the unsaved. 1 Timothy 2, 3 and 4, this is good and acceptable in sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Okay? So especially for, so God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

And then also we can look at John 3.16, very familiar, it's everywhere.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Continuing on. For God did not send the Son of Man into the world to judge the world, but the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son.

If predestination deals with predestination of who would believe, so it was predestined for the unseen. Okay, Monique, Bruce, no. If predestination, God did that, how do you reconcile these verses? In Timothy, God who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth, if that's what his desire is, How can you reconcile if you believe that predestination means to unsaved? How can you say that, okay, God desires all men to come to a saving knowledge, but he's going to pick you and not you and you and you, and you can't reconcile that. Yeah, you can't. So the people who say that predestination is for, you know, you were predestined to be a believer and you were, oh no. You know you have that you can't reconcile this verse because what is God's desire?

All that's his desire, but it doesn't change that it's his desire It's me and as you said his responsibility to seek out the truth right and and see that's the whole thing when when you when predestination never deals with the unbeliever. Never is associated with that. Because otherwise it contradicts this. Scripture would be invalid. He desires all, but if he chooses, then how can he desire all but choose only a few? So predestination never affects the unbeliever.

I don't know whether it's March Banks or whether it's in Stanford's position paper, position paper said that it has to do with the bringing to pass of certain things God has before determined for his own. Yeah. It doesn't pertain to the unsaid. Right. Correct. That's correct. It's to his own. And that's like all the ones with election, you know, remember election, the calling, all those.

And that was never meant in salvation. Predestination is not meant in salvation. It's never applied to that. Remember, there were six times in the first question we looked at, there are six verses that the word predestination is used. And one of them is talking about Christ and what He would suffer. The others are about believers, talking about believers. And we'll go through, I think, one of the next questions is, what's predestined for us? Because He's talking about us. But God does not pick. He knows. You or I are going to be saved. What did Miles say? The natural man is not able to give due place to both sovereignty and responsibility. That's true.

That's why I like the door analogy that he has in here, in this section. That was one of the ones, I think we did that on Tuesday at the Tuesday men's Bible study years ago. That was the first time, I mean, with the in hymns, made sense about the door, because all those things that are true about us, those predestined things, it's always the in him's. It's because we're in him that those predestined things are true about us.

And the door analogy, if we go back, the door analogy is as a non-believer, the door is there, you by faith believe in the Lord Jesus Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. So you go through the door, you believe. And belief, faith, is a non-meritorious act. There's nothing that's credited to you. It's just you believe. Once you step through the door, you look back.

Now your history, the identification truths, the history, we are now placed in Him, in Christ. Our new identity is in Christ. So what's true about Christ, except for his deity, is true about us. It's like with Adam. Because of Adam, we're all under sin. To get out of that, we have the co-crucifixion. We're placed into who? The new Adam, which is Christ. So we're now under this lineage. And so what's true about Christ is not true about us.

So when we look back through the doorway we just did, what has Christ passed? Eternity past So if we're identified with him, what is our what is our past? We're all identified with him now so Like I said you you you walk through the door But before the door before you the door and I use the door but before you believe Your history is tied to Adam The minute you believe your history is tied to Christ. Well, what's his history? I Eternity Past, so did God know about everything back here with Christ? Yeah. So if He knew about Christ back in Eternity Past, and we're placed in Him, does He know everything about us from Eternity Past? So we can say He knows us, He knows everything about us, He's predestined because He knows Christ. Eternity Past is really a screwed up word. I don't get it.

We do that, you know, we have all these these things and and that's why in my I'll say you can't you can't understand this stuff I mean, it's hard to because we have a finite mind but the the thing I try to always do about and You know, there's so many different things you can try and do about how to explain things.

You know, here's Here's time here's attorney future here's attorney past and And so, you can look at it this way, God sees everything, all along this line. The way I like it better is, if you look at it this way, God sees it all at one point, one time. Past, future, present, so it's a dot. Everything's compressed into one spot. Because he sees it all at one time. So eternity past is the same as eternity future, he sees it all the same. your brain would figure it out.

Eternity passed. We deal in time. No more watches after that. Time means nothing. That's why I think, you know, I always think about this, you know, believers will go before us, you know, I think of Hal. Say we'll take Hal. Hal stepped into eternity. You know, for us, we're still locked into time. I always think believers who go before us, you know, they step into eternity.

The minute they, the second they look behind it, we're there. Because time doesn't mean anything to them. We're still locked into time. So if you think he's, he's in a non-time situation, so he's immediately there. So it doesn't matter when we show up because we're immediately there.

So for us who remain, we're the guys who think of time and how much we miss somebody. For somebody who steps in eternity, the minute they turn around, we're there. Just a weird thing, engineer brain, sorry. Monique, we can't figure that kind of stuff out. It's eternity, and we have finite brains. All right.

Question five, what is predestined for the believer? And now, I put the ultimate restraint on you, or requirement. Give verses that support your answer. What's predestined about us? Conformed. 829, Romans 829. 829 says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. What else?

What about Romans 8.30? Call justified and glorified. Justified and glorified. And these whom He predestined, He also called. And these whom He called, He also justified. And whom He justified, He also glorified. Okay?

What about the Ephesians 1 that we had up there? Ephesians 1.5. What are we told there? Adoption. We are adopted. We have sonship. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself according to the kind intention of His will.

What about Ephesians 1.11? An inheritance. An inheritance. Yeah. In Him we also, and remember, I love the Ephesians passages. In Him. So it's telling about what's true about us in Him. Also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will."

Remember I had that, which is I think in here. If I still have it, I probably threw it in something else. The riches of His grace, the 215 things. I don't think I brought it this time. Remember that, 215 things that are true about you? Do you have that? Oh, yeah. Well, I guess I was just going to show people. 215 things that are true about you. I was just going on the list. If you haven't, things are true. Where did you get them? What? You have to take the identification classes. And it's for a very expensive price, and we'll sell that to you.

We go through Lucifer and Schaeffer's 33 things that are true about you. And then this, I don't know, was this Merriman? George Zeller. Yeah, Middletown Bible Church. he went beyond. He said, okay, not only 33 things are true, but he listed out 215 things. You know, where's one? Those are kind of the withouts. Yeah, here are the positive ones. It's the ones that have changed. Here's a little different than the one I have. I have a different one. Yeah, things are true about me.

I am made nigh by the blood of Christ, bought near by the blood of Christ, Ephesians 2.13.

I have been delivered from the power of darkness, Colossians 1.13.

I will not come into condemnation or judgment, John 5.24 and Romans 8.1.

I am a child of God, John 1.12, Romans 8.16, Galatians 3.26, 1 John 3.1 and 2.

I belong to Jesus, Galatians 3.29, 5.24.

The point that I get on with these, what if you just pick up one or two of these things and actually grasp it, get a hold of it? I tell you all the time, mine is intimacy with God. I think about that at all times. And God's sovereignty. You know, the cogs keep kind of coming together when all these things are true about us and Him. And then these things are true if we're in Him. You know, all the things are true about us.

He's sovereignly in control. If you believe He's sovereignly in control, things that happen, do you get mad because something happened? I'll tell you this one. It's been one of those weeks, you know. And I know the Lord is in control. Totally. I've been all over the state, all over everywhere. I've done everything.

On Wednesday night, I have a project. I had to teach two classes at the certification class for these water operators up in Steamboat Springs. Not a bad location. So I had a cruise up there on Wednesday night. We're just bringing mom out of the hospital. We're trying to get dad. And I hadn't gotten prepared. I still needed a couple hours of preparation time when I got up to Steamboat. About 8 o'clock, I'm coming down the backside of Rabbit Ears Pass. And I'm going down and doing about 60 miles an hour.

Just where it opens up, you see the beautiful lake down there. Go around the corner. And I said, look, a deer flies out in front of me. And the forest comes right down to the road, a little three-foot ditch. So I had no shot. I mean, I'm looking all the time for wildlife at our house. I was worried I was going to hit deer at our house.

So this thing flies out. I'm hitting the brakes. I see the tail go right beside me. It came from my passenger side. Flew across and just out of nowhere. So I'm just getting, I miss this guy. Just when I'm starting to turn back, all I hear is, boom! And it's really a weird thing. I'll tell you, this is an off subject.

Did you hit another one? Well, no. I did not hit another one. another one hit me. It flew and jumped. It hit right behind the headlight. It flew up. I hear the boom. It's a really weird thing. For a millisecond, it's a really strange thing. I thought I may have hit a person or something, just for a nanosecond. just because I heard this boom and I see all of a sudden Brown going by me this way.

So yes, I had a deer commit suicide on my truck. So I pounded in. I had to spend until 11 o'clock or so at night going to CSP and filing reports. You'll love this too. I didn't have a gun, so I couldn't see where it went, but I thought it was bad to hit the truck. Could you go up and maybe take care of it? Shoot it. You have a gun.

So I called the O.W. first, and we don't call CSP, so Colorado State Patrol. So I call the guy. Oh yeah, we'll get it. I've got to file some reports first. I've got to do some other stuff. Why don't you come by? And you can come by the office. We're on the other side of town. And we'll fill out that. So I get over there.

Yeah, I've got to do a few other things. This poor deer is either trying to be the merciful thing and go and kill it. Well, I'll take care of it in a few hours. I don't know. When I went back up, I actually found my sign. My company sign was torn off the side of my truck by the deer. And I did find it going back up, but I did not find the deer. So I don't know if it just had a really bad headache by the time or whether I killed it. But it attacked me, not the other way around.

But those are those things that are God sovereignly in control. I'm totally at peace. It was fine. It was just, yeah. But those are the things that when you really grasp a hold of a lot of these things. If you're sovereignly in control of all of these things, how do you get mad? If you know that you... A couple of things. Sovereignly in control and can you ever be separated from his love? No. No. In an instant. No. You can get mad. Don't tell me you don't get mad. I don't get mad really, I mean, not that often. I mean about things that happen.

You know, if my kids do something, none of my kids are in class today, so they could tell you, no. I really don't get frustrated by things really much anymore, because if you really grasp a hold that he's sovereignly in control, and these are just mine, the intimacy, sovereignly in control, and you can't be separated from his love, Anything that happens in your life, you know he's in control.

So we allowed it, and he still loves you. It's meant for your good. It's meant for something of his purposes. And so, you know, whatever happens, if you have that, you get through anything in life. You know, I used to be, you know, Allstate and soccer and lacrosse. Then, you know, parents who were alcoholics or whatever and this kind of stuff and and you know then you know academics oh but then this you know was up and down and all around you know the highs and the lows were you know I have super high super lows it's now a lot more even keel because if he's sovereign control of this stuff what are you worried about he allowed it to happen you know he take I you know it's my business I've always said that you know I don't think My wife is sometimes comfortable with these thoughts that, you know, if the Lord takes my business away, did he know about that? Does he want that? And it's for my best good and he loves me? Sure. Right. So, you know, my business has gone down. I mean, it went down a little bit last year, but now it's gone crazy. I'm perfectly at rest at either of those.

If you just, and that's, I guess, the whole point being of these things, If you start grasping a hold of some of the things that are true about us, that are predestined about us, true about us, positional stuff that helps us in our condition and our walk. If you just start grasping hold of just a couple of these things, it can make an entire difference in your life. And I think that's what he wants. I mean, you start understanding who you are in Christ. Wow. Life-changing. Sixth, was the cross predetermined? That's an easy one. Yes, yes. It was God's will that redemption should be accomplished by the means that He determined.

So if you look at Acts 4.28, this is when Peter and John, after their release from the chief priest's council, Acts 428, For truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur. So, he's basically saying, Peter and John are going to get out and they're proclaiming this, basically that You know, even though Pontius Pilate, Herod, all these things, they're predetermined. It was predetermined what Christ...

And when was this decided? What's my favorite term? Your favorite term? Eternity past. It was predetermined. So, if you look at 1 Peter 1.20, Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in his last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God." So he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Eternity passed.

And then Matthew 12, 18, if you look at that, this was to fill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles." Okay, he was chosen. You know, when you look at Isaiah 53, 52, 53, whatever it is, about his suffering on the cross.

It's predetermined. That was hundreds and hundreds of years in advance. of Christ's coming. So was it predetermined? Absolutely. Alright, question 7. Have you, the believer, been foreknown, elected, and predestined? Explain why and to what end? So this you have to go back to our terms for predestined, election, and foreknowledge. So, let's start with foreknowledge. What does foreknowledge mean? It's before you. Yeah, foreknowledge, right? So what is foreknowledge? Before knowledge? You have an inkling. Is that before you knew anything? What was that? You had an inkling?

Yeah. I mean, if you cross the street, you best look both ways or you get killed. No, that is common sense, I think. That's throwing the fleece out there. Yeah, I'm a believer. God will protect me. I'll go in the middle of I-25 and just walk blindfolded. No, that's not smart.

God gave us wisdom and knowledge and things like that. No, foreknowledge means that God was acquainted with and knew us before time began. Okay? The Greek word is prognosis, and from Zodiac it means foreknowledge, prior acknowledgement, favorable recognition, or consideration beforehand. So, so he was acquainted with us before time. So, everybody understand that? Okay? All right, then predestination.

Election. Oh, election. I can do election. What is election? Chosen. Choose, select. The Greek word for election is eklogai. I can never get the pronunciation right. Which means to choose, select, or election choice selection. Marchbanks puts it as, election speaks of the fact that God has chosen or selected certain to compose the elect groups and has also chosen certain individuals for special work or service. Again, so that, does the election pertain to unsaved? No. It's always speaking of groups like, remember there's corporate groups and individuals So Israel, is Israel a chosen group? Yeah, so that's a corporate one.

Remember in Thessalonica, Paul talks about the believers there, the select group, the chosen ones there. So he's talking about the believers there. Those who, of those believers, the chosen or select ones. Those who are believers. So he's identifying the believers as a corporate group as elect or select. So it's always talking about believers. Or in election it can talk about corporate groups like the Jews or Israel.

But it never talks about choosing of an unbeliever. never talks about that that you were called you were caught you weren't but you know it wasn't like that it's never in that in it's never used in that way with unbelievers and then predestination predestined or did so to determine or decree beforehand remember all things we have been predestined for the 215 things Those are what are predestined about us.

They're already positionally true. Some things are being worked on now. Are we conformed to the image right now? No. But we are to be conformed to the image. But right now. So I mean, these are things that are predestined for us. Again, think about that. You're going to be conformed to the image of Christ. Do you even get a grip of that? Do you even, I mean, just take a tiny bit of that and try and think of that. You're being conformed to his image. Yes.

Did you just say that we are not being conformed at this point in time? No, we are. We are being, if I did. We are not conformed. We are not conformed. Yeah, yeah, we're not completed. Yeah. We are being conformed, but not fully conformed to his image now. At the end we're still totally flawed. What? At the end we're still flawed even though we believe we will be with God. We're flawed. We're still sinners. Oh, we still have two natures until we step into eternity. Yeah, we'll always have that. You know, we're to reckon ourselves dead unto sin. So, I mean, we still have two natures.

But the conformity, the spiritual maturity, you know, as we walk, I know you love that term, walk in the spirit. But if you think about it, just grasp that little thing that you'll be conformed to the image of Christ. I mean, it's like eternity. How do you even grasp that? But if you start even just appreciating and realizing that, that has a change in your life. You're being conformed now. You will be conformed to His image in eternity.

That's amazing. You know, when we step into the Millennium, too, I think Mike's talked about that. They're going to just look at us and know that we are believers in Christ. They'll just be able to look at us and know that we're believers. What's that going to be like?

Well, that's why the identification trees are so critical, because that is all part of the performance. It is, you know, and I really stress the identification so hard, because if you don't do that, you'll be kind of like me for 20 years, trying to improve the old guy, make him really good. Because now I'm a believer now, I'm able to make Adam, my old endemic nature, pretty. That was the mindset.

Or if I do something, build a church, missions, or I help a camp, or if I fill in the blank, God will be a little happier with me. Because I need that. I need to be bettered a little bit. Spiritual push-ups. That's it. And with the identification, you realize the transaction at the cross co-crucifixion, now replaced, and that's why I like Ephesians, in Him. What more is there? I mean, I'm in Him.

Is God going to smile on me a little bit more for teaching this morning? No. Bonus points. No. If it was any way predicated on what I do, I'm in a world of hurt. I'm absolutely in a world of hurt. If it relies on me for God's acceptance in any minute way, I'm in trouble. So when you understand that and you rest in that fact, it's not what you do.

He's already blessed you with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. He has placed you in His Son. Yeah, otherwise you'd be in competition with your neighbor or whoever. Anyway, I keep bringing up the same examples, but memorizing scripture, I just thought that was the way. That's what a real brother does, is to memorize scripture. And the more you memorize, you're just a little higher on the ring here. You're climbing up the ladder a little higher because you got all of James and John and Mark all memorized. I'm impressed.

And if you do it for that reason, to be accepted a little bit more, or to be thought of as a little better, it's wrong. God accepts you in Christ. That's it. That's it. The more we rest in that, the more we will be conformed to Him. Because it's not us, it's Him. Life gets so much easier when you start realizing that. You don't have to do all these things. God loves you with all of his love right now. It doesn't matter what you do today.

You know, when you stumble or you sin, you step away from that fellowship. And whose loss is that? Yours. Yeah. God still loves you with a love that can't be separated. You're the one walking away. Start grasping these things. What's true about you, it will change you. Those highs and lows go away. The effort goes away. The rest that he talks about, the peace that surpasses all understanding, that's when you start realizing these things. Who you are in Christ.

It's not what you do. It's already done. So, alright. Eight. If God has predestined something about it, can it be changed or not come to pass? Sure. There's always one in the class. God changed his mind. Yeah, God changed his mind. Well, about you, Bruce. About you, Bruce, I think he's checking the contract out again and seeing Is there anything predestined that can be changed?

No. What is the logical outcome of that if you say yes? It's not predestined. Number one, it's not predestined. That's true. I mean false but true. What are the ramifications if something is predestined can be changed? What are the ramifications of that? God is not omniscient. He's not omnipotent. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. What's my steadfast hope of anything at that point? If the predestined things don't come true, it's all over. It's all over. Because if things are predestined, then how can you put any faith or trust in anything at that point? Well, you have to believe that one of his attributes is not veracity, it's not immutability, it just kind of downgrades God. It does. And if you take 3 out of the myriad of attributes away. What's the value of all the other attributes?

Zero. Okay, but we don't know what the predestination is except that nothing. We know, I mean the 215 thing, we know lots that are predestined about us. Now, let's put it this way. Does your knowledge of the predestination change anything about the predestination? If you don't know what's predestined about you, that God is predestined about you, does that change in any way, shape or form, His predestination?

No. No, because it's God. It's God. So our knowledge of it doesn't mean a hill of beans about whether it's happened or, you know, the things are true positionally about us or the works He's predetermined for us, those type of things. It doesn't matter.

Our knowledge of it Well, the only knowledge I think we have then is because we believe, so we will be with God. And you could tell that that's a predestination. And so if you believe, you know that that's about the only thing I know about me. But the point being, you said, well, if you don't know what's predestined about you, what does that mean?

Well, it doesn't mean anything. It's still true. Whether you know it or not, it doesn't change God. The question we just said, if something's predestined about you, could it be changed? Does your knowledge of it change anything? No. I think it's important to understand that especially Paul's epistles and Hebrews and other places, there's paragraph after paragraph after paragraph about what God intends to do with You can't believe in something you don't know. And so when you find out these incredible things that God is now doing, and going to do in the future, because their pre-destiny can't be changed, that information and your faith in Him is what causes you to rest and settle down.

But the knowledge of it doesn't change any of it. I change. Right. The condition changes. Your condition, your conformity, all that is moving along because you know that and you rest in those facts. But the knowledge of it doesn't make any difference. If it's predestined, it's predestined. But we go back to that question. And what it does is it increases exponentially your trust in God. Oh, yeah.

Because everything he tells you, he says, well, you know, at first God appears to be But as you go along and you read these things and you find out that what he has in store for those who love him is just, and he means it, he's not kidding, and he's already settled on it. You know, as he takes you through things, that's what he's doing. It's making you trust in him. You know, the more you trust in yourself, where does that lead?

The thing is, what God predetermines or is predestined about us, conformity, inheritance, glorification, He gets to that by all of the events that come into our life. If we focus on the events, You know, a lot of things, I always go through that, you know, Lord, what do you want me to learn?

I can do this over the next ten lessons or I can try and learn it over the next lesson. What do you want me to learn? Am I not trusting you? Am I not whatever? That's what I think. When I go through a trial, that's the first thing I do is, Lord, what do you want me to learn here? Pack a concealed weapon and shoot the deer next time. You wasted one of my creatures.

All right, well, quickly, we can go, the bell's gonna ring in a second, but Romans, question nine, Romans 8, 29 and 30 in Ephesians 1, 4. How do these verses impact you and your condition in light of your predestination? You know, we've covered a lot of those about we're being conformed. We have adoption, sonship, all those things. Those should affect your walk. If you start really grasping a hold of those things, it should change your walk. You know, do you believe you're adopted? You're a son. You have an inheritance. Man, what an inheritance. You know, going with my mom and the inheritance, we're going through all this right now. A very limited little inheritance, you know, my mom and all this. What is your inheritance in Christ?

What more do you want? What more do you want? Yeah, I mean, these things should change. As you start thinking about all you have in Christ, now and forever, what are you worried about? Quickly, I just want to go into question 10. Quickly, is predestination by God a good thing or something to be feared? Good? Good. Who's afraid of it?

Romans 8.15. 8.15 which? You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. That's right. You have received the spirit of adoption. That's why we cry Abba Father. Abba Father. I know that verse. Why am I sitting here? The Abba Father.

That's one of my favorites. Now, you know, the other one I'd have you look at, and I wish Holly was here because we've talked about this before. Look at John 17. If you look at John 17, just look at all that's in John 17 with what's predestined about us when he talks about it. I mean, I have 20 things listed out here.

God's given us eternal life. We're made perfect in Him. Glory of God is given to us. We'll behold His glory. We're to be with Him where He is. We are loved by the Father as He loves Christ. We are sanctified through His Word. We're set apart. We're not of the world. We have His joy fulfilled in us. Just read John 17 with respect to predestined. What's true about us? And what's true, what He's doing in our lives, what He has done in our lives and in the future, all that stuff. Read John 17. It's really the Lord's Prayer. That's the intimacy between God and the Lord Jesus. And we're included in that. And when you put that in perspective, all the things that are given to us in that prayer, it's amazing.

All right, let's close. Father, we thank you for this time. Father, we just thank you for any time. Again, just so we can get into your Word, we thank you for just all that's true about us, that is predestined about us. You know, we have lists of 33 and 215, and Father, that is not even close to even understanding all that is true about us now as believers. We just rest in that fact. We just marvel in that fact. of all the things that are true about us right now and through eternity and all the things you're doing in our lives. Father, we are just humbled by that. We are just in awe of that and we just thank you for all those things that you have predestined for us. Father, we just again thank you for this time. We pray in advance for Vern upstairs. Just give him the message. Prepare our hearts to receive it now. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.