 Asha, if you could, you know, lead us in prayer, please, even as we start our session. Yes, master. Dear God, thank you, Lord, for this class, guys. We're about to learn about Galatians, which is a Philippian school that we will be growing in wisdom and knowledge. And I'm sure that as master, if you guys teach more, that your spirit will pour out on her as she teaches and that we may grasp everything that she's teaching God. Thank you for your loving kindness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Oh, yes. So we have finished the Epistle to the Galatians, it was a rather hurried job but then you know in the time available to us we were able to cover quite a few important points. So now we are moving into the book of Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians which Paul has written to them. And so in the light of this maybe we can begin by looking at the background to the book, to the letter. We could maybe look at the city of Ephesus itself, the kind of setting in which these believers were living. We will look at the ministry that Paul did in that place. Now all of this is there in your notes so you can always go back to it and refer to it. So we see that this city of Ephesus was one of the important cities in Asia Minor. Now that's not a term that we are familiar with today where today when we think of Asia we think of the current places in Asia. But then in the Bible where ever it's talking about Asia, it's basically talking about Asia Minor which basically was this peninsula of Anatolia where you basically have Turkey and modern Turkey, modern Turkey and its surrounding regions. All of that would make up, all of it is basically sitting in the peninsula of Anatolia and that entire area is called Asia Minor. So it's not really Asia, it's a minor Asia. Okay, so in that sense. So Ephesus was one of the most important cities in this Anatolian peninsula and it was considered a great metropolis. Now that's a term that we are very familiar with here in India especially with all our metro cities which have come up. So these are basically huge cities which are supporting people from different cultures and different nations and they are huge in size. So for those times, for those ancient times Ephesus was a big city. It had a population of 225,000. So in our Indian terminology that would be 2,25,000. So that was a rather large number for that time. Because they would not have had the kind of facilities that we have today. But of course today a metro would have much higher populations. Bangalore itself has got 13 million people living in it. So but in those times with the technology that they had in those times to be able to support 225,000 would have been quite a great task. And why did this city attract so many people? Just like the modern metros are attracting people because of the money that they can make over here. Because you have companies here where you can work and then there are a lot of construction sites so laborers can come and earn over here. So people get attracted to these metros because of the livelihood that they can make in these places. So Ephesus was a seaport town and so it was this really solid trading center. So you would need people of all classes. You would need merchants, you would need workers who will be able to maintain accounts, the learned people who will be able to take care of all the different processes involved in the trade. And of course you would need the labor force. We can make all of this happen. So it attracted a lot of people and there was also this other spiritual angle to it. Because this city of Ephesus is basically where you had the temple of Diana. Now among those ancient Seven Wonders of the world, the temple of Diana was one. So it was a very palatious and grand construction because it took 220 years to build it. So you can imagine how much effort would have gone into it. The entire building was made of marble. It's not just that. Even the pathway leading up to the temple was all paved in marble. So I can just imagine the amount of money that would have been spent in constructing that over 220 years. And the greatness of it is the legend which went along with it. The statue of Diana sitting over there inside had literally fallen down from heaven. At least that's what they believed. And so this temple was considered very important. And so you had an entire business flourishing just around this temple as well. It provided livelihood to a whole lot of people. So this was this huge city. And wherever you have huge city setups, you have a lot of grandeur. You have a lot of rich people. You have a lot of the latest trends in society happening. And at the same time you would have this really under trodden wretched bunch of people who are just managing to hold on. And so all the good things and evil that you would find in a modern metro, those are the things that you would have found here in Ephesus. So Paul comes into this kind of a setting and he does his ministry. Now, of course, during the second missionary journey, he just makes a very brief stop in Ephesus. He doesn't stay there for long. He just comes and preaches for a bit and because he's kind of wanting to go on to Jerusalem. So he just stays there for a little while. But he brings along Akhila and Priscilla with him and he leaves them over there in Ephesus. Just a minute. He leaves them in Ephesus over there. And so it's Akhila and Priscilla who kind of take the initial steps in getting the believers there together and in training up people and adding new believers to the church. So they do a lot of groundwork. And so when they come across Apollos who is preaching his heart out with what little knowledge that he has, they take him under their wings and they train him up. They teach him about the Lord Jesus. So he becomes a believer and then after they have trained him and discipled him, they send him to Corinth. So even when it's initial stages, the Ephesian church had already become a missionary church. They were sending out people to other places where the ministry could spread. And so Apollos is sent off to Corinth. And in fact we learn in Acts chapter 18 that Apollos became a great blessing to the church in Corinth. So these are all the initial things which took place in Ephesus under the leadership of Akhila and his wife Priscilla. And then in the third missionary journey is when Paul is able to give more time to this church. So he comes here and he stays for three years during this third missionary journey. And so we learn from Acts chapter 19 that for three months he actually goes into the synagogue, the Jewish synagogue and he shares with them about Jesus Christ. But then the reception is rather hostile. The people are very angry and upset. And so then he moves out from there or probably he's been kicked out from there. So he moves into this place called the Hall of Tyrannus, the School of Tyrannus. And he begins to do ministry from there. He in fact teaches from there for up to two years. So while he's busy doing his teaching within the city, he's also equipping people and sending them out. And so you have people going all over Asia Minor and the gospel is spread throughout. And so the seven churches which we see in revelations chapter 2 and 3, these people, the Ephesian church might have had a role in establishing all of these churches. They probably would have sent some people from their side as well in establishing these churches. What else do we have in your notes? We learn that when Paul first begins his work over here, he meets a few believers. No, he meets a few disciples of John the Baptist who have been very sincere to the teachings of John the Baptist. But they don't yet know about Jesus Christ. They only know that John the Baptist said that the Messiah will come. And so Paul introduces them to the Lord Jesus and they get baptized in water. And even as they're coming out of the waters, they're baptized in the Holy Spirit and they begin to speak in tongues and they prophesy. We have all kinds of unusual miracles that take place here in Ephesus where you have even pieces of cloth. Over which Paul has prayed or whatever. Even those have the power to heal. So you have all these unusual miracles taking place. You have one passage where it talks about how people who had been involved in witchcraft and sorcery, which would have been at quite a high in the city of Ephesus. Because that was this kind of spiritual center. So a lot of spirit controlled activity would have been going on. And so all of those people, they repent of their association with Satan. They come over to the side of the Lord Jesus through the ministry of this efficient church. And so in Acts chapter 19 verse 19, we are told that all these former sorcerers, they come together and they burn all the scrolls of all the sacred chants and all the sacred rituals which they had been holding on to. They burn all those things. Those are not exactly just scraps of paparai. Those are highly valuable documents. They probably would have inherited it from their ancestors or they would have purchased it with much money. Because we get to know that the total value of those documents turns out to be 50,000 drachmas. So one drachma would be one day's wages. So if a person were to work all the way from morning up to evening, he would earn one drachma. And these documents together, their value comes up to 50,000 drachmas. So which means some of these sorcerers who owned those documents must have been pretty rich. They had a good business flourishing through their sorcery and witchcraft. And now they give up all of that and they don't want it to spread further. So if they had sold that, they would have made money out of it. But they don't sell it. The idea is to extinguish, to destroy it. And so they destroy all of these scrolls and documents. And so we see that the ministry of the Kingdom of God is being done in a very powerful way here in this efficient city. And Ephesus is also the place where a lot of young leaders get trained up. They all have all kinds of names. I mean, it's there in your notes. You have Sopater of Viria, Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians. All these people who go out to other places, they've actually got their training over here in Ephesus. So this is like one major missions center. So I mean, this should kind of give you an idea that you're not talking about just some little local church. This is like one solid established mission center. So people who are getting trained over here, they go from here to Thessalonia. They go to Viria. They go to Lystra. And they go to Corinth. And you have Erastus who goes to Corinth. You have a whole bunch of leaders being developed. And then we also have the church in Ephesus influencing other churches. So Paul comes in contact with Philemon and Epaphrys of Colossae. So the church in Colossae was started by Epaphrys. And then Paul meets with him and he probably ministers to him. And so while staying in Ephesus, Paul writes two letters, the Galatian letter here, right? And also the first Corinthians letter to the Corinthian church. The first letter are written at Ephesus. Paul also comes in touch with the ministers, the elders in Miletus, another place. And there too, you know, his influence spreads. He kind of, you know, counsels them and guides them as well. Because it says in Acts 20 that he gave a very powerful message to the elders of the church. So we have all of that now coming to the letter to the Ephesians. When does he write it? We get to know that Paul goes to Rome. After his third missionary journey, he goes to Rome. And when he goes over there, he, along with him, you have Luke and Aristarchus and Timothy also going along with him to Rome. And that is where his first imprisonment in Rome takes place. And so during that imprisonment, the first imprisonment in Rome, that is when he writes this letter to the Ephesians. He also writes the letters to the Colossians, Philemon, Philippians. And so these are all called the prison epistels of Paul. That is when he writes it. So this would have been about three years after he has finished his work in Ephesus. That is when he ends up in prison for the first time in Rome. And that is when he writes the letter to this Ephesian church. Now after the first imprisonment, he comes back and he brings Timothy with him. And that is when Timothy becomes the pastor of Ephesus. A young man placed over one of the most powerful mission centers. So probably he was heavily anointed by the Holy Spirit, you know, called to this particular task. A huge responsibility for a young man to take up. But, you know, this is where, I mean, the Holy Spirit places him. So Timothy becomes the main leader. And so Paul sets up Timothy over there in Ephesus. And then he himself, he goes on to Macedonia. And then from Macedonia, he writes two letters to Timothy. Timothy was probably having a tough time. A young leader not being taken very seriously by all these established leaders who are already there in Ephesus. So Timothy must have had quite a tough time in ministry, you know, in the beginning stages, you know, until people accepted him and he became established. So during that time, you know, Paul writes two letters to him so that he can hold on to the ministry work that God has given him and so that he can succeed at it. So, you know, as we all know, the second letter is written when, you know, by that time he's again got, you know, imprisoned. And so just a little while after he finishes writing his second letter to Timothy, you know, he is martyred. So we learned a little detail about what was going on in the Ephesian church, even from the letters to Timothy. And also we get to know that from Revelation chapter 2 that Ephesus was one of the seven churches that the Lord, you know, has represented in his presence. There are seven lamps in his presence, which represent each of those churches. And so he's, you know, those churches are constantly in front of his eyes, you know, through the symbol of those seven lamps. So that was a rather detailed background. But then, you know, it's good for us to have a feel of what this, you know, this letter is all about. The letter is being written to a church that's very, very influential, that has produced great leaders, highly anointed leaders. It is filled with people who belong to a very, very metropolitan culture, you know, where they've been exposed to all kinds of influences. And so there's a chance that they can be very worldly, they can be rich, they can be proud. Among them there are also people who are very, very poor, because those are the kind of, you know, you always have this divide. You have the very rich and the very poor in places like this. So that is the kind of congregation to which he is now writing this letter. He's already ministered with them, been there for three years, done all of that. And now, you know, during his first imprisonment in Rome, that is when he writes this letter. And so let's, you know, begin. If someone could read out, Ephesians chapter one verse one. This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be the apostle of Christ Jesus. I'm writing to God's holy people and it says who are the faithful followers of Christ Jesus. Yes. So, Paul introduces, I mean, or rather begins his letter with the words, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. So it was God's will that he should become an apostle. It was God's will that he should go out and, you know, help established churches. And so, in fact, when he's writing to the first corner, to the Corinthian believers in 1 Corinthians 16, 8 and 9, he talks a little bit about his ministry and Ephesus. He kind of just briefly refers to it. And he says that even though he's got this great opportunity to do ministry in Ephesus, there's been a lot of opposition. So a great work of God took place in Ephesus, but it was not an easy thing. There's a lot of struggle that went on in the background. And, you know, Paul is able to hold on in spite of all of the opposition and persecution that he faces, because he knows that he is in God's will. So, you know, I mean, these courses that we are conducting, we have people from all walks of life attending. We have people who are in the secular stream. And just to build themselves up in the Lord, they are joining our courses. But then we also have some people who are in full-time ministry. So if you are in full-time ministry and you are going through a tough time, and maybe you are like Timothy and people are not taking you very seriously, or maybe you are like Paul who is suffering a lot of opposition and persecution, even as he is doing a successful ministry. So whatever your position may be right now, know this that if God has called you and it is his will for you to be there, he will cause you to succeed. You will flourish in the ministry that has been given to you. There would be hardships. There would even be persecution. But you can hold on, you know, in solid faith knowing that you are an apostle, or a teacher, or a prophet, or whatever it is, whatever full-time ministry that he has called you to, you can just be sure and confident that because it is by the will of God, you will succeed at it. Okay, so even if you were to take an Old Testament example, Moses, I mean, how did he begin his ministry? I mean, things didn't go too well for him. God appears to him in a burning bush and says to him, you know, go and save the people. Moses goes, Moses faithfully speaks to Pharaoh. And what's the next thing that happens? You know, Pharaoh increases the workload of the people. They were suffering, they were crying out to God. And this great leader, Moses intercedes for them and things get worse. So the first step in Moses' ministry was looked like a huge failure. The minute he started his ministry, the condition of the people got worse. And then, you know, in fact, in Exodus 522, Moses, you know, he comes back to the Lord and says, is this why you sent me? I mean, just to make the people suffer more, is this why you called me into ministry? You know, is what he says. So, you know, we may have our drawbacks, you know, when we are in full-time ministry, but if we know that it was the will of God for us to be in this place, to be doing what we are doing, then we can be confident that God will cause us to succeed and God will take care of every detail for us. So this man Paul, who is an apostle by the will of God, you know, he goes on to say, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says, he says in verse 3, he makes an important point in verse 3, if someone could read out, Ephesians 1 verse 3, please. Hey, I really hope someone is listening to this class. Can I read the question? Yeah. All praise to God, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Yes. So we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. Now, why is it that, you know, many Christians are living in spiritual poverty? It is just because they have not quite understood how to access these riches. So here it says that we have already been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. It's like as if there's this huge treasure trove, you know, this huge bank account of Jesus Christ, which is filled with all the spiritual blessings and we've been given checks. So if we were to submit those checks, we can, you know, withdraw what is required for us, for our needs. So what are the checks that we have? They are the scriptures because Jesus Christ is the word of God, right? So you go to Him and say, Lord, this is what you are saying in your word. And so, oh Lord, even as I have this need or my church has this need, you know, you go to Him and you present your request. And so by faith, you are able to withdraw from the heavenly account. So a lot of people just do their Bible reading as a Bible reading exercise, you know. On the other hand, if they were to just, you know, really meditate on the scriptures, then God would speak specific words to them for their life situations, for their ministry, for their church, you know. And then those are not just logos that the Reema word, right? Reema word, logos is of course the entire Bible, but Reema versus are basically those words which are directly spoken to you by the Holy Spirit for your specific situation for that particular trial or that season of time. And so those become your checks. You hold on to those and you say, God specifically spoke this for me and so He will fulfill it. And so you stand in faith and you stand in faith till it becomes yours, you claim it. And so that's basically how we can in fact access all of the spiritual blessings which have been given to us in Christ Jesus, in the heavenly realm. So whether it is a spiritual struggle that we are going through, whether it is a crisis that we are facing in our family, whatever it is, once we make a practice of regularly spending time in God's presence and meditating on His scriptures, those Reema words that are specifically spoken to our hearts, they have so much power, we can claim them. You can say, God said this to me, so God will fulfill it in His perfect time. And so we stand in faith and once we stand in faith, believed in through Jesus, that will be done for us by Jesus. So this is the beauty of what has been offered to us. So most people kind of fail to do this. So the Reema word is something that we can depend upon. So for that we would have to spend time in God's presence and hear from Him for ourselves directly. Well, that would make a huge difference. All right, let's move into verses 4 and 5. If someone could read out, Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 please. And it reads, For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the one He loves. Do you want me to continue? Yeah, all right. So it says over here, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world. So even before the world was created, we have this other scripture where it talks about how the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world. So even before the world was created, God already knew all that would take place. He knew that the humans that He has created would fall into sin. He knew that a redemption plan would have to be set and so He already set it in place for humans. So all of this was already done. So in the same way, before the creation of the world, He also knew who would respond to this redemption plan and come under the covering of Jesus Christ. So He already knew that and so it says over here, He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless. And then in verse 5 it says, He predestined us for adoption. So a lot of controversy is there surrounding these verses. People talk about predestination. So the main two schools of thought are the Calvinists and the Armenians. So the Calvinist school will say, salvation is for everyone. When God sent Jesus Christ into the world, He was sending Jesus Christ for the whole world, not just for some appointed people who will be just the only chosen ones. On the other hand, the people who belong to the school of harmonism, they would say, no, no, no. God has predestined certain people for salvation. Only they will get saved. Everyone else has been predestined for hell, is what they would say. So based on this word predestined, which is used in Ephesians 1.5, you have a lot of wrong doctrine coming out of that. Now we have many good believers who believe in this. There are some who will say, no salvation is for everyone. But there are believers who also say, no, no, no salvation is reserved for a few. For me, that was a bit of a shock to discover that because I've always been in churches where it was very clearly believed that salvation is for everyone. And so when I was suddenly exposed to a Bible college where it was being taught that salvation is only for a few and I had to teach over there and take a stand and say, no, no, no salvation is not reserved for a few. And then I had a whole bunch of people debating with me and bringing up scriptures and giving their interpretation of it. It was all a bit of a shock and I was thinking, these are good people. These are people who are ministering. But what are they ministering with? What idea are they ministering? They are actually ministering thinking that maybe some of the people that they're ministering to are not even destined for heaven. I mean, I don't know. It was all a very new, shocking experience for me. I tried from my side, whatever I could explain, I did. I'm not sure how many were convinced, but it was my strong prayer of a spring very much and saying, Lord, you please help them to see that salvation is for everyone, not just for a few. So I mean, I am very aware that there are believers who even believe in this other belief that salvation is reserved for a few. So I thought maybe we could just look at a few scriptures just so that we would have some clarity regarding this issue because just in case someone suddenly comes to you and says this, at least you should know what the scriptures have to say on the subject. So before we actually get into that, just one simple example from the Old Testament. See, when Jesus Christ, specifically at that time, it was just the Godhead, Yahweh the Godhead. He says to the people of Israel, He says, I will choose you as my chosen ones. So He says, build a tabernacle to me and once you build a tabernacle, I will literally come and dwell among you and I'll be your God and you will be my people. Now, whom did He choose as His people? It was the entire nation of Israel, right? It's not like He said, okay, these three tribes, I'm going to choose for myself. The other tribes can watch out for themselves. He doesn't say that, right? When He says, I will be your God and you will be my people, He's talking about the entire nation of Israel, all the 12 tribes, all of them become His people. But we know their history, you know how they fall away from the faith. They don't follow Yahweh, they don't obey Him and they go through that entire process. Finally, in the prophetic books you have God saying, there will be one remnant who will stay faithful to me and I will restore them, I'll bring them back to the land. God says all of that and He even talks about the end times. He talks about the end times when Zion will be established and only the true followers of Yahweh are the only ones who will enter at that time into Zion. So all of these things God begins to say. And if we can just maybe look at Galatians chapter 6 verses 15 and 16. If someone could please read out Galatians 6, 15 and 16 please. It does matter whether we have been circumcised or not. Our account is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle. They are the new people of God. Okay, so I'm not sure what translation she is using. It kind of makes every sentence very simple. But yeah, I mean sometimes it doesn't catch the original phrase. So over here, if you were looking in your NKJV or looking in your NIV, the verse 16, it will say, peace and mercy to whom? To the Israel of God. Not to the people of God. So over here, it's not all of Israel which is being referred to as His chosen ones. The peace and mercy is being extended to only some specific people who the people, we looked at this in Galatians. The people who are no longer trusting in circumcision but they have chosen to place their trust in Jesus Christ. So they alone in the end become the chosen ones. Okay, so at a general level, God chose all of the nation to be His people. But depending on their response, depending on whether they wanted to believe in Him or not, finally only one portion ended up as the chosen ones. They became the Israel of God. They became the people of God because they chose to respond to what He is offering. So in the very same way, Jesus Christ, when He was sent, He was sent to save the whole world. So let's just look at a couple of scriptures and then we'll move on to the next thing. If someone could read out 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 4 to 6, please. 1 Timothy 2, 4 to 6. 1 Timothy 2, 4 to 6. You want me to read 4 to 6 or 3 to 6? I have it down over here in my notes as 1 Timothy 2, 4 to 6. No problem. I just wanted to give context as well. Okay, it says that who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one mediator between God and mankind and the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. Yeah, I was a little bit distracted because, you know, Kung has put up a question there. But right now I'm in the middle of this. But Kung, I'll most definitely answer your question maybe a little later. You know, let's just kind of get through this first because we're kind of in the middle of this argument. Okay, so in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 4 to 6, it says that God wants all people to be saved. He wants all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. Okay, so and then in verse 6, it says, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. If you have made up your mind that you're going to save only some people, then you're not even going to give yourself as a ransom for all people. You'll only give yourself as a ransom for those specific chosen few whom you have predestined. But that is not at all what comes through over here, you know, in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Here it so clearly indicates that this salvation is for all people and for that purpose Jesus Christ came down to give himself as a ransom, not just for a chosen few, but as a ransom for all people. So everyone is getting covered. But when you come to John 3.16, the really, really famous verse which we all know by heart, if someone could actually read out those words, John 3.16, if someone could read out for us please. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son and that whosoever believes in him will not perish or would have eternal life. It says here that God so loved the world. It doesn't say that he has now decided to show his love to only some portions of the world. Here it's talking about the entire world. God so loved the world, the entire world that he gave his one and only son. But who becomes the chosen ones? It will be only those who choose to believe in him because they are the ones who will not perish but have eternal life. The rest of them, even though he has loved them, even though he has sent his son for them as well, they will not be saved because they have chosen not to believe him. So what God has done is done for everyone. But depending on the response of these people to whom he's making a free offer, if they say yes, we want this free offer, then immediately he accepts them. On the other hand, they say no, we don't want the free offer. Then they lose out on what God has to offer. So kind of keeping all of this in our minds, let's just look at Romans chapter 8, 29 and 30 because here again you have that word predestined and let us look at the way this entire idea is presented over here. Romans 8, 29 and 30 please. Romans 8, 29 and 30. For those God for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Now he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. Amen. And so you have people saying, see, see, look at these verses here. It says that certain people alone have been predestined before the creation of the world. They were predestined to be called, to be justified, to be glorified as to the rest of them. They were predestined for hell. So it's what they would say. But look at the, I mean, I looked up in Bible Hub just to be sure to see whether that is the way the sentence construction is in the Greek. So you can just go to Bible Hub. It's free of cost. You know, just look up your Romans 8, 29 and 30 in the Greek and look at the ordering of the words. Okay. Which, which word comes first, which word comes second. So we see over here, those God for new. He also predestined. So the ones that he fore knew, he fore knew who would be accepting him. He fore knew who would be placing their faith in Jesus Christ. He fore knew that. So based on the fore knowledge which he had, he chooses to predestine those people. So it's not like I said, God, you know, starts off by predestining some people and saying, oh, only these people I'm going to choose for myself. No, it, the whole process begins with the fore knowledge of God. God knew beforehand. He fore knew in the same way he knew that there would be a fall that, you know, Adam and he would sin. And so he right at that time itself before the creation of the world, he already, you know, set in place the lamb of God who would be, who would be the sacrifice. So he fore knew the fall of humans. In the same way, he also fore knew who would be the people who will place their faith in the lamb of God. So based on that fore knowledge, then you have the word predestined being used. So first you have God fore knowing something and then based on that fore knowledge, he also predestines those people. Okay, so over here, it's very clearly brought out that salvation is for everyone. It's just that God knew who are the people who would be choosing to place their faith in him and based on that, he grants them the privileges which he has promised everyone. He has promised it to everyone, but whoever wants to take it will receive it. So we'll just simply, you know, talk about this and not go into further detail on predestination because it's, because the debate on that has been going on for centuries and we can't devote our entire time to that, you know, in our class right now. Uved, yes. Mangi, I remember your name pronunciation. So yes, if you can go ahead with your question. Yeah. Thank you, Quasar. The question is on Paul's life. How we know that God called him to be his minister, but Paul didn't choose to be an apostle. God had to call him by force. So how can we connect the predestination and the calling of Paul? I don't know if you understand my question. Yeah, I'm kind of trying to, you know, catch it. Here we looked at how, where is our verse? Romans 8 30. So those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified. Brother, you're referring to this particular verse. You know, the calling which is mentioned over here, the predestination and the calling mentioned over here in this specific verse. Isn't it? Yes, yes. Okay. So now this over here is referring to all the believers who are going to be placing their faith in him. So he predestines them to be confirmed to the image of his son. So he, you know, he foreknows all those who are going to say yes to Jesus Christ. So all of those people, he's predestining them to be confirmed to the image of his son. And then he calls them to whatever purposes he has for their lives. And having called them, you know, they can't exactly go and serve in a sinful state. He justifies them as well. So those he has called, he also justifies. So in the same, the same process would have happened even, you know, for Paul. So Paul also got new beforehand that he would say yes. So God had a calling for him. And so God says to him that, you know, you will be an apostle and you will go and, you know, share about me, you'll talk about me with people. So we see that in apps. Why do you say that it was, it was like forced upon him? I mean, I mean, why do you say that Paul was not keen on the idea? No, because I say that because if, if something is predestined, yeah, that means it is designed for, for that. So a car is designed to walk on the road and that you cannot. Yeah. So if God designed you to be a preacher, all your life you should be a preacher. So Paul was on his way to the Damascus and Jesus met him and said, no, don't do that. But instead you should go and preach to the Gentiles for masik. Yeah. So over here there is no compulsion. As in when you say predestined, it's not like as if the person is forced and has no choice, no free will. Free will is always there. So God has told Paul that now you know, now you know that I am real, that I have indeed been resurrected from the dead. And so now you know that I am divine. I am God and savior. So, you know, choose to accept me. And this is the mission I have for your life. Now, Paul, if he had wished to, he could have said, no, I don't want to do it. And he could have walked away. So God does not control people. So even today, I mean, all of us, we can always say no and we can say, no, I don't want to be doing this. I'd rather go to something else. So predestination does not mean that he forces people to, you know, stay predestination doesn't mean that you literally get programmed in such a way that you have no choice. You have to do that. And you have, you know, you cannot walk away from it. You can walk away from it. It's just that you would be walking away from all the beautiful plans that he has for you. So you choose, you know, in your wisdom, you choose to stay within his calling. But it is not a forceful act that you cannot resist. If you choose to resist his calling, you can. You have full freedom to resist it. We choose not to because we know that he's a good God and he has good plans for us. So a car is predestined to be a car on the road. It cannot turn into a washing machine. I mean, there's no choice. It's been programmed and predestined to be like that. But humans are not like that. In the sense, I can be an apostle if I'm called to be an apostle. On the other hand, if I say no, I'd rather want to go and be a trader and make money. I mean, God would say, you know, fine. Of course, God would not just leave it like that. He loves his people so much. So, you know, he would send the Holy Spirit again and again to convict me, to convince me. He would send godly people to come and counsel me. Oh, he would do everything. He would turn the heaven and earth over just to get through to me. So he would not just give up. But at the end of it all, if I'm still stubborn and say, no, I want to go and be a trader and make money, God will say, fine, you know, it is your choice. So I am not predestined and controlled and literally forced into becoming an apostle, whether I want it or not. So that word predestined is not that. It's just that he's giving them a privilege is saying, you know, I am predestining you to be this. Would you like to be a part of it? And most people will jump up and say, oh, yes, you know, if there is at all anyone who says no and holds on to his no in spite of all the convincing of the Lord. And that is that person's free choice. We'll take our break because people, you know, need their break. And then if you need further clarification, we'll come back after the break and deal with that. So 10, if all of us could log back in once again, please. Thank you.