 Good evening, hope you all are doing well. Hope this afternoon, this day, whatever day it is, wherever you are in the world finds you doing well. I wanna go ahead and jump into it. I have a pretty, pretty, pretty busy day. So without further ado, I wanna talk about obviously this controversial, I don't think it should be, but a controversial topic. I'm gonna tell you why I think it's controversial in just a little bit. I don't think it needs to be, especially if we are submitted and humble and just give it an honest assessment of who we are and how we are, but let me just say this off the top before we go into it. Somebody who doesn't want to, well, let me just put this, well, I won't even go there. Somebody's gonna wanna say this is a Calvinistic topic. This is Calvinism. Again, I'm not a Calvinist, okay? Let me just say that upfront, because you're gonna wanna call me a Calvinist. I am not a Calvinist. All together class. Cory is not a Calvinist, okay? Belief in election, belief in God, choosing is not a Calvinist doctrine. Do Calvinists hold to that? Sure, they're not the only ones. So that being the case, I'm gonna make my points because I think what it actually shows is the, you hear this term, the sovereignty of God. And by the way, what does it mean that God is sovereign? We don't think about this often, but we should. When we just give you a rough understanding. For God to be sovereign means that he can do what he wants when he wants, when everyone wants to whom everyone wants, just cause he wants. Why? Because he is God, he is sovereign. So because of that, you also ought to understand that you're not sovereign, meaning you need stuff. You need somebody to help you. You need the very air that you breathe. You didn't create that. You can't sustain that, that's God. The gravity or the gravitational force that you need for your body to stay working and for us not to fly off. Yeah, you need someone to keep the food that you have. Yeah, I understand that you go to the store, you go to Kroger or wherever, or Walmart, wherever you go to get your groceries, then they provide it. We'll know someone provided before then and all the way down the line, you find that it goes back into the hands the providence of God. That being the case, what about our salvation? Now, before we get into arguments, because somebody's gonna wanna argue, that's fine. All right, at your age, I'm not sure what your age is, but whatever your age is, you're old enough to be able to disagree and not argue and none of the name calling. So we're not gonna tolerate that today, okay? Some other time, but not today. All we're talking about, all we're talking about, all we're talking about is not what's required for salvation. That's what we're talking about. Because we all should, hopefully, you understand that what's required for salvation that you place your faith in Christ and is a toning work on the cross. You couldn't save yourself, you needed saving, he saved you by way of him sacrificing himself on the cross, and that you then place your faith. Anyone that's placed their faith in Christ, they're saved. I don't care if you are Armenian, I don't care if you are Calvinist, and then there's another group, Provisions. I don't care what your doctrinal teaching is, your bent is, you gotta believe that. If you don't believe that, news flash, you're not a Christian. So the question is, how does that come about? Well, I believe, and I think it's biblical, I think it's more than biblical to say that God does a work in you. Now, that being the case, I believe, and this is where I would differ from Calvinist, I believe that a human being has the ability to make a choice. I don't think a human being has the ability to make a consistent choice to continue in that choice. I do not believe he can. We don't have an example of someone doing so. I think that it's always God working in someone I think in the Old Testament, externally, I think in the New Testament, internally, that's where I differ. In other words, you need something to keep you believing. There are passages in the Bible where people believed for the moment, and then they stopped believing. They were never considered the believing. I won't belabor that point, even going to that point about the voices, tense, and moods of that particular word of believing, which is how the Bible describes us as Christians. We are continuing believing. But how do we get to that point? And I believe there's an issue with our heart. Now, first things up, somebody's gonna say, and I chuckled it, because someone made mention of it, about free will. I'm not gonna fight you on free will today. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not going to fight you on free will. You can have all the free will that you want. You can have all the free will that you want. Rick says, you don't believe in what you say? Then you don't believe, disagree with Calvinist on that point. Well, when I started drilling down, the Calvinists come at me. I think I do. Maybe I don't. Maybe I'm a three and a half point Calvinist. Maybe I'm 2.7 Calvinist. Or maybe we should never call ourselves Calvinists. Maybe we should never call ourselves anything, but that's a whole other story. But Anola says, do we have free will? I don't know, do you? And I'm not being fun now or snarky, but do you? Think about it. Do we have free will? What do we mean by free will? Now, by the way, it's not a term in the Bible. There is a term that's called free will offering that is nothing like when we talk about free will, but do we have free will? Meaning that we have the ability to exercise our will independent of anything else. Does anything influence your will? If there's something that influences your will, well, then it ain't so free, is it? I believe that prior to salvation, we are a slave to sin. We are riddled with sin. We've got an issue. We have a true pandemic that has affected the globe since the fall of man. That is sin. And so we obey sin, even when we don't want to. We end up, you know what, let me check on, let me check my sin meter. Yep, I've got a full tank. I've got a full tank of sin. Now the issue is what's gonna happen with that sin as it wants to kind of reach ugly head because you still have this flesh. I don't care how long you've been saved, how great you got saved, who preached the sermon when you decided to place your faith in Christ, it doesn't matter. You still got this flesh. If you are a believer, then obviously as a Christian, you are, your will is tied to the Holy Spirit. If you think the Holy Spirit has no influence on your will, well, then it's probably because you're not a Christian. That's just, that's just it. See, the troublemaker's a chorus of Calvinists. I am not, okay, okay. I'm gonna play that video again. I'm gonna have to play that video again. Matter of fact, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to Layton Flowers channel and just tell everybody I'm not a Calvinist. You're gonna join their club. I'm not a Calvinist, I'm not a Calvinist. But listen, I'm honored that the Calvinists want me to be in their club, that I feel special. Here's why. Here's why, because we agree on this and I'll fight, I'll fight beside them on this point. That is that the Lord, and we're talking post-cross. The Lord is going to do a work in us. Let me just, let's just, let's go back. I always cover this passage. I think it's necessary to cover this passage in the Old Testament. God has already stated, you got a problem. The problem, the problem with you guys is your sin. But more to the point, as God knows, as we drill down the issue with us and our sin is our heart. And so what does he say? I've covered this a billion times before. I'll cover it again. Here we have in Deuteronomy 36. He says, moreover the Lord, your God will. Guys, this is future tense. He will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants. Well, when is he gonna do that? Well, all throughout the Old Testament, we keep reading that he hadn't done it yet. He's going to, he's going to. I will, I will, I will, I will, I will. We see it in Ezekiel 11. We see it in Ezekiel 36. We see it in Jeremiah. We see it in Jose. We see it in Isaiah. We see it all throughout the Old Testament about what God is going to do and the reason why, because he is sick and tired of your sinning ways and my sinning ways as well. He's tired of mankind sinning. God is perfectly just to destroy the world and just him alone throughout eternity. He could just destroy us all and sentence all to hell and there would be no problem with that. He would not be unjust in doing so. And so, by the way, as we're talking, we're talking about, I'm wrapping it all together. Election, predestination, choosing, all of that. Think of it all, all synonymously because that's what we're talking about. So, God would be just if he says, you know what, every last one of you, go to hell. I'm not, you know, being cussing. I'm not being profane, but he could say, you know what, all of you, go to hell. You deserve to. Well, I didn't do anything. Oh, yes, you did. You got a bad heart. I don't like the way your heart, I don't like the way your heart is. So, go to hell and you can do that. But I think that God looks through the lens of time and sees that nobody, that he makes his offer that nobody is going to accept on their own. There has to be something. I won't deal today with how it was done in the Old Testament, but looking through the lens of time, nobody, and if you think you're special, well then my question is, if you're so special that you chose, why did it take you so long to choose the first place? All of you with your hands up that are Christian. If I say, hey, raise your hand up to your Christian, raise your hand, I'm a Christian. When did you become a Christian? The first time you heard the gospel? No, took a long time. Took a long time and so therefore, you, sir, ma'am, aren't as holy or godly as you thought. You, sir, ma'am, aren't the kind of person that you think you are. There's something about you, there's a stubbornness, there's a nature about you that shows that you just don't want to do right. And oh, by the way, this is what God says. He says, you, sir, ma'am, don't want to do right. You have a bad nature. He says the heart is desperately sick, wicked, all of those things, you have a bad heart. And so because you have a bad heart, I've got to, I can do one or two things. Let you die in your sins or do something about it. He decides I'm going to do something about it. How, what is he going to do? He is going to touch our heart. That's what he just says in Deuteronomy 36 that I will circumcise your heart. I'm not borrowing from Calvinism, stop that. I'm not borrowing from, Calvinism is borrowing from the Bible, so I am too. How's that? Does that work better? I'm borrowing from the Bible, so too is Calvinism. So we're on the same page in this regard. If I drill it down, you'll say, okay, yeah, Corey, you're not a Calvinist. You are, they would call me a three point Calvinist, depending on who I've talked to as a Calvinist. By the way, you can't find two Calvinists in our life. So anyway, he said, I'm going to, I'm going to circumcise your heart. Well, what does that mean? Well, we look at in Jeremiah, he says that he's going to take this rotten heart of ours. I'm adding words to it. My emphasis added. He's going to take this bad heart of ours and change it to a heart of flesh by doing what? By putting his spirit, there I go again, doing this by putting his spirit into our heart and changing our heart. So what does that do? Well, he says in chapter 36, verse 27, when he does so, cause us to walk in his teachings. Cause us to walk in the way he wants us to walk, because otherwise you won't do it. You're going to keep messing up. And if you're going to keep messing up, I've got to have you have all these offerings and sacrifices and days of atonement and so forth. So that being the case, what do we do? Look at the two year old who messes up again. I use this example at the funeral I did the other day. Guys, the two year old, just learning the lesson from a two year old. You know the two year old, you've seen them a bunch of times. Can I have a cookie? Can I have a cookie? No, can't have any cookies. It's time for dinner. Walk away, come back. The bag of cookies just busted open. Cookie crumbs everywhere. This kid has cookie crumbs all over his face and got some cookies in his mouth and you asked him, did you eat the cookies? No, no one taught him how to lie. No one taught him how to be disobedient. He didn't go to class. He hadn't gotten on YouTube to figure this out yet. It's just in him. So because of that, God has to fix our heart. And it's what we're talking about. And so we have to have this heart that needs to be circumcised by God. Are you with me? Amen, amen. So look what he says in Colossians 2.11. He says, in him, that's Jesus, you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So we go from him saying that he will circumcise our heart to saying that it has been done. So, and that's of a believer. So the believer has had their heart circumcised and the circumcision is not yours. The circumcision, you didn't do it. You didn't circumcise your heart. If you circumcise your heart, I want you to go explain to God what did he mean when he said that he will. You didn't do that. You don't have the ability. Now God does say get your heart right, fix your heart right, fix yourself up. But I tell you what, since you won't do it and really, well, since you won't do it, I will do it. Now, let's go ahead and look at a couple of passages. There are those that are gonna say that God has, since he has chosen people to be saved, since we believe that people have been chosen to be saved, that that necessarily means that there have been people that have been chosen to go to hell. This issue of double predestination. Before I go further into this issue of election, predestination being chosen, I want to go ahead and deal with this passage. I know I'm gonna address it again because someone's gonna come in a little later, but I need to address this issue of double predestination. And so let's go to 2 Peter, chapter three, verse nine. Says, the Lord is not slow about his promises as some count slowness, but his patient towards you, not wishing that anyone were to perish, but for all to come to him. And this word that's used over here, not wishing for anyone to perish. There are a couple of words in the Greek that will tell us that use the word or are defined as wishing. One is the leo, which is, or the leo, which is to wish this is what I want. But this word right here, bulimai, or bulimenos, in this sense, means that I have not appointed. I have not planned. I'm not the one causing you to go to hell, so when he says, I'm not wishing that anyone should perish, this wishing is I'm not making you go to hell. I'm not making you perish. I'm not causing you to perish. Truth be told, you're on your way. But that's him saying that that's not me destining you to go to hell. There's no passages in the Bible that says that God has destined or planned anyone or chosen or elected them to go to hell. They have done so on their own. All right? Now, let's say life says, what did you say? Believing in Jesus is a choice followed by an action. Well, where's the choice come from? Since we're told by John that we didn't choose him, he chose us. We loved him after he first loved us. Now, we're called to choose. We are called to choose. We are called to follow. We're called to believe, but then we don't. Then we don't. And so what does God do? God is gonna show two things and we see this, Paul brings this out in Romans. What if God wants to show, he's gonna show two things, he's gonna show his justice and he's gonna show his love, his mercy. How so? Well, his justice dictates that sin is supposed to be taken care of. You sinning, so there's gotta be of necessities. Someone's gonna pay the price. But because of his love, he has put together a way to where this love overrides, I shouldn't even say overrides, but makes a way to get past what he justly ought to do. So now, I wanna go to, I wanna go to Ephesians one. There's just no way to get around this, guys. And so I'll start with the easy verse first. And I said I was gonna put the Greek warning in here, put it back, but I have not done it so. So let me go to, let me just give you a warning. We are going to some Greek. Sorry, might not like it, then I don't want to tell you. I don't want you to leave. I want you to get a healthy appreciation for the language that was given to us, the way that the Bible was given to us, Hebrew, Greek, and some of our make, and then translating to other languages. So here it is. Ephesians one, four. You know, let's start in three because someone said let's start in three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Then he says just as, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. Now, before I go to verse five, let's just unpack that real quick. So he says just as, so let's go to the other side, the right side, kathos, which is even as, so this is partnering with what he said in the first part, even as he, and here's that word, exoloxata, which is he chose us now. Once you look down at the bottom, this is the singular heiress, heiress means in the past. Okay, it's a past action. There's another word that's also referring to something that happens in the past that gives a little bit more emphasis on some things that is the perfect tense. But we're out there, we will see some verses or some passages that have an important perfect tense word, burb. But this is the heiress, so he did in the past, it's in the middle voice. What is the middle voice? Middle voice is when you, rough way, you do something for the benefit of yourself. Okay, in this case, so he chose us for himself. We didn't do it, he chose us. Okay, this is what he said that he chose us. So the question is, not only did he choose us, well, the question is, what did he choose? The question's gonna be, did the Lord choose for Jesus to be the vehicle by which we must be in? So he chose to say, so he chose that you have to be in Jesus to be saved. Is that what he's saying? Or is he saying that he chose us believers that we will be in Jesus? Well, it literally says, it literally says, and see, here's a problem. You come in here with a statement, but I want you, live life to the fullest. LLTTF, I want you to answer this question. Now, I'm gonna assume, since you typed in English, I'm gonna assume that you graduated at least from high school. Okay, I'll come back to that, Rick. I'm gonna assume that you graduated high school. And if so, if you graduate in high school in America, I know even high schools have gotten bad lately, but you had English class. In English class, they talk about nothing deep, but they talk, subject, verb, agreement, stuff like that. We also know what a direct object is and what an indirect object is. The reason why that's important is because we go here, we're gonna see what the direct object is and what the indirect object is. If Jesus chose, God chose the direct object. The indirect object, by definition, could not be what he chose. It's the direct object. Are you with me? The direct object is what he chose. Who is or what is the direct object? Let's go back to it. The direct object is he chose, and here it is, us. Hamas, Hamas is the direct object. How do you know? Look down right below me. You'll see what it says. It says the accusative, plural accusative. The accusative in Greek is the direct object. The indirect object is the dative. So, and auto, auto is the dative. That is the indirect object. So now, here's the question for anyone that wants to, and I understand, you might wanna disagree. At one point in time, I did too. He chose what? That's the question. We'll get to that. We'll get to that LLTTF. I like that LLTTF. We'll get to that. But we need to deal with this because I want you to explain what this passage means. And so my question is, what did or who did God choose? Did he choose us or did he choose Jesus? Who is the direct object? The direct object, again, is us. He chose us in him. In him is the indirect object, guys. That is the, so he chose us just by regular understanding of English and same in Greek. You can always take off the indirect object and the sentence still makes sense. Are you with me? If I say I threw the ball, well, the ball is the direct object. If I put the indirect object on there, if I threw the ball to John, that adds extra information. But ladies and gentlemen, here's my question. Do I need to have the indirect object on there for the sentence to make sense? So I'm asking, do I need to have the indirect object on in order for the sentence to make sense? The answer is no. I threw the ball. Now, if I wanna say I threw the ball to John, that just adds extra information, but the sentence is still, is still complete without the indirect object. So here's why I say that. If I take the indirect object off, it still makes sense. He chose us before. Now, take the indirect object in him. He chose us. The question also on that is, when did he chose us? See, we've got folks and it's the problem, guys. I understand you wanna not believe this because it just, it bothers you. It bothers you. I'm saying, listen to the argument. Listen to the argument. You're not gonna be, I would love for someone to refute the argument if that's the case. Yeah, Balo's the first word I learned in Greek to throw Balo or to cast out a cast away. You'll see this term ekbalo also when it deals with salvation, I will not cast you out ekbalo. Anyway, so what is the direct object? Well, the direct object is us. We don't need the indirect object, the indirect object adds extra information and good for us, but he chose us. The question is when, when did he choose us? He chose us before the foundation of the world. My question is, does that necessarily mean that you could not have made a choice? You could not have made a choice before he made a choice. You didn't choose before he chose because you weren't around. He chose you before, he chose you. You are part that is if indeed you are a believer, if you are saved, if you are, if you truly save, that means he chose you before the world was. That's literally what this says. Chose you for when, before the world, for what in him? Are you guys with me? This isn't, yeah, I know it bothers you and what will have a tendency to do is judge the scriptures based on the world. Here what I just said, we will do this and Rick, you know this as well. Ed, you guys know this, we will judge the scriptures in light of the world. What do I mean? Well, I've seen some Christians who stopped being Christians. Well, who told you they were Christians? They didn't, you believe them. This is why, okay, listen, brother, can I just be honest with you? You're getting an F for class participation today because you're not paying attention. Let's just read what you just said. You said us means believers, right? Believers are those who chose to believe. God chose to send Jesus before the foundation of the world. That's what choosing means, not individuals being, what did it just say? Now, I don't have a whole lot of time I've got to get moving, but what did it just, it literally just said, this is the problem. All right, y'all, can we have some, can we be, and I love you. I love you to death, but can we just, let's just be family for a second, be friends. Let's be honest family members. You didn't pay attention what I just read, did you? Let's just be honest, you tell the truth, shame the devil, make your family happy. You didn't listen to what I just said. I literally, let me read it again. Let me just read this again so we can see who chose who. Now in this passage, I know we do ultimately choose God. We do, and anyone who chooses Christ shall be saved. But do you think anything caused you to choose him? That's my question. First of all, did anything cause you, and I'm using this word specifically caused you? Do you guys think, by the way, let's do a quick little poll and I'll answer your question just a little bit. A-Z-B-Boy, I'll answer your questions in a second. Do you all think that anyone caused you to choose? Answer in the chat please, yes or no? Yes, I think someone caused me. All of us who are believers, we chose Christ. Did anyone cause you to choose Christ? Yes or no? That's the question. Did anyone cause you to choose Christ? That's the $15 trillion question with inflation, $64,000 extrapolated over 50 years, no, 70 years now with this inflation and the economy and Biden and the White House and so forth. I'm sorry for you Democrats, but yeah. It's now $64 trillion. Did God cause you to choose? And I'm using this, I'm using this word cause intentionally, purposefully, hold that thought if he caused you in just a second. Cause I would ask the question if I didn't have an answer already for it. I've literally covered that part before but we'll get back to that in a second. So let's go back to the past. Let's read it again. He says, what'd you just, wait a second, what'd you say, hold on, hold on, hold on, wait a second, wait a second. My man just said, yes, he sent his son. That was him choosing us. That's not what it said. Wow, well, you know what, you know what? Not only are you getting an F for class participation, I'm sending a note home with you to your parents. And I know what you're gonna do. You're gonna untie that note, note, note, note, note. I'm gonna use some duct tape, tie a knot around it and I'm calling your father. So yeah, you're in trouble now. No, listen, listen, okay, what you said is basically there's some things that you said is true. He sent his son, that's true. That is not him choosing us. That was our lifeline to be reconciled to him. So, because what happens is you're basically saying that you, something in you that made you choose, okay, fine, fine, fine. We're gonna see if that's the case though. We're gonna read that back. So let's go here. He says, he chose us, not chose Jesus. He chose us. He didn't, God didn't choose himself. He chose us in him. And you can even say technically, you can actually say chose us to be in him. But he chose us when, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless. So he chose us before the foundation of the world. He chose us that we would be holy and blameless. Are you reading this? Because we're talking about a participle phrase, you can take off of before the world, he chose us that we should be holy and blameless before him. That's also what he chose. He chose us that we, before the foundation of the world, what do you choose us to do, to be, not just in him, but also that we would be holy and blameless before him. He chose that of us, of me and you and everyone else. So if he did that, that necessarily means that you will be saved. Look what he says in verse five. He predestined us. There is that word that folks don't like, for a resus, which is he determined beforehand or limited in advance. He determined he destined prior, prior to what? Well, we just read before the foundation of the world, before there was a world, he destined us to do what? He destined us prior to become adopted as sons through Jesus Christ. Didn't say he predestined Jesus so that we could become sons, he predestined us. He predestined us that we would be adopted as sons. According how? Why in the world, God, why would you do such a thing? Why would you do such a thing? Well, he said, according to the kind intentions, kind intentions, Yudhokyan, his kind, his good and kind intentions of his will, not just some arbitrary reason. And by the way, even if it was arbitrary, he's God, he can do what he wants to, how he wants to, what he wants to, because again, we've established that he is sovereign, you're not. So according to the kind intentions of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace. You know why that part's right there? You know why that part's right there? To the praise of the glory of his grace. Because that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to praise him. Think about his goodness, his, this God of ours chose us, saved us. And so we in turn praise him. I use the example all the time. Matter of fact, I was talking to my buddy yesterday, my adopted buddy. I didn't adopt to be my buddy. He's my buddy who was adopted by his family. I should have said that better. He can testify, I got a couple of them. Matter of fact, I talked to two of my adopted buddies in the last two days, look at that. I don't have a lot of buddies that are adopted, but I got those who I talked to. And they can get this, if you are an orphan and someone comes and adopts you, was that you, Mary and Margaret? I mean, Mary, oh, wow, not Mary and Margaret, Mary and Mark, I said Mary and Margaret. Mary and Mark come through and they're looking for a baby. And there you are, one tooth, a bad hair, funny looking kid. You don't say, give me those parents. No, they choose you. This is what's happened here. Through no goodness of your own, you were chose. You were chosen. And because of that, doesn't that make you love them more? Doesn't that make you love them more? It should. It should. Yes, sir. Doesn't that prove one saved, always saved? Yeah. Well, a lot of folks would move away from that election because election predestination necessarily gets rid of that, this ability to lose your salvation. How did he choose you and then lose you? He didn't do that. We're the only people, we're the only creatures that would choose something and lose something. That's just us, our nature. But he's not one like that. John 6, I'm hoping to get to John 6, but John 6, Jesus makes that point. He gave, the father gave us to him and went to the father, give us to him. Oh, by the way, that's a perfect tense. He gave us completed action in the past, gave us to him and he says that he will lose none. And we can go further into the scriptures if we look down to verse 13, 14, about the Holy Spirit who was given as a pledge. Who is given? Who is our born? As a matter of fact, Wednesday was given. He is our bond. He's our down payment, our earnest money, our money deposit as a pledge of inheritance with a view to redemption. Some of you may say until we receive this, to receive this possession, which is heaven. So no, no, we cannot. Also, thank you David for the superstiggers. Well, thank you so much. So now I asked a question. Yes, we're supposed to choose. We are supposed to choose. My good friend, LLTTF or LLTT, is the LLTT, is the LLTTF, LLTTF, LLTTF or LLTTL? I forgot, LLTT, let's go with that. No, a person can't reject the Holy Spirit. Not a third believer. Not a third believer. I'm still so used to BJ. You got a logo, man. I'm still, I'm still, no. If your heart has been regenerated, you will not. You will not. Here's why. As a matter of fact, that's a good question leading into this. Because I asked a question, yes, you choose Christ, but does anything, there's anything, or anyone cause you to choose it? Well, according to the scriptures, Peter, who know Peter, Peter knows Jesus. He knows Jesus. And he was also inspired to write these scriptures. First Peter 1-3, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, which we just read in Ephesians, has caused us to be born again to a living hope. My question, fellas, who disagree with me, caused us to be born again. So what caused you to choose? That passage right there. That passage right there caused you to choose him. That passage right there did so. He caused us to choose him. May I ask a question? This is just a simple question, easy question. Is it really so bad to think that God caused you, that he chose you, that he moved upon you? Is it really so bad to think that he put the fix in? I don't have a problem with that. God made sure, God went out of his way to make sure that I got saved. Is that really so bad to think of? That's not bad to think of. Matter of fact, that's a wonderful thing to think of. Let me ask you guys a question. I like giving analogies and stories. Any of you guys live in a major city or have driven through a major city? Pretty sure you have. And they have these overpasses, like in Dallas, we've got a bunch of those little, what do you call those little mix masters? Where this road goes this way and this road goes this way. Where this road goes this way and this one goes that way and it's all this. Well, you go over one of those bad boys and they don't just go straight, they go up and turn, right? When they go up and turn, have you ever noticed that they have something on both sides of those, on both sides of the road, both sides of the highway, both sides of the overpass? They've got something up there. They've got a guard rail over here and a guard rail over there. Which one of you horrible drivers have ever hit the guard rail? Cause you had to be a horrible driver to hit the guard rail. You're going too fast. You're not paying attention. But the guard rails are there just in case. And you do not tell the state of Texas or Indiana or Florida, whoever put that guard rail up. You never come back and say, I don't like the fact that you have stopped my free will intention of being able or my ability to go over that guard rail. You're happy the guard rail's there. You're happy that there's something there in place to keep you from going over. Why would you not be happy that God has something in place to keep you safe, but also to make sure that you stay safe that brought you to him in the first place? Why wouldn't you be happy? I'm happy about that. You ain't got to be happy about it. That's fine. That's fine. Now, at some point in time, you're going to give him the credit. At some point in time, he did the work you did. How do I know? Do y'all remember? Jesus, where am I at? Jesus makes a statement. Now, we know that everybody has to be born again, born above and the born above, you being born above, that's not you, that's God. And the being born above, born from above, you didn't do that after you placed your faith in Christ. Nope, that's not what the scripture says. The scripture says that you were born from above prior to you having this eternal salvation, prior to you having the kingdom of God. Before that, he has to cause you to be born again. And it doesn't make sense if you believe first, then you were born again, you believe first, but then he caused you to be born again. That app makes no sense. So if you're born again, if you're born of God, born of the spirit, you are saved. Where we found out Peter says he caused it to happen. And look what it says John says in John 112. He says, but as many as received him, that's you at the bottom, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, you weren't born of blood, nor of the will of flesh that is not of your own will, nor of the will of man. So you're not not born of the will of flesh or your own will, but of God. So you were born because of who, how, what caused you to be born? Cause you wanted to, nope. You were born because your lineage, nope. You were born because you, yeah, you know what, I thought it was a good idea. I thought it was a good idea. See, this is the problem. That's not what it says. All those who freely choose him were allowed to be God's children. What passage can you tell me that? By the way, I've noticed, I've noticed what you've done. Those what you've done. You've made statements, but you don't give the passages. So which is fine. No, I'm literally giving you passages. But you were born not of your own will, but of his will. You don't want to give him credit, huh? You are the kid who gets a birthday gift from your parents and praise yourself for getting the birthday gift. You are the person that gets the Christmas gift and thank yourself for getting the Christmas gift. I was such a good kid, I deserve this. No, no, you're rotten a little no good. And I'm saying that because of me. Same way, I'm a rotten a little no good, whatever. Everyone else in the chat, rotten a little no good, whatever you want to call us. So you are too, you did not do that. If you ever realized that you, wow God, are you serious Lord? Me, me, me, thank you Lord. How awesome are you? Cause I'm not. How utterly amazing are you, God, for what you've done? Cause I didn't, I couldn't. And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God, to those who are called, to those that are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he predestined, for a reason, he predestined those people. We don't have to worry about the whole foreknew part because folks are like, well, that means he just saw what you were gonna do. That's literally not what that word means. That is not what that word means to foreknew. Now, could foreknew means that he foreordained, it could be, or he saw you, fine. We don't have a problem with, I'll go with your definition of foreknew. He saw you, but I will not go with the definition if you add to say he saw what you were going to do because that eliminates the second word, predestined. He could not have saw what you were gonna do and then predestined you. No. Yeah, Rick, but I was so adorable. On your way to hell, looking adorable, you're gonna look good in fire, but then God decided to stop it. He also predestined. He predestined those people that he foreknew, not because he knew what they were going to do because he already told us there is no one that is seeking after him. There's nobody good and there's nobody seeking after him. What do we do with that passage, guys? There's nobody, that includes you. Yeah, I said your mother. Your mother, she wouldn't even seek after him. She's no, your mama's no good either. Your daddy's no good. You're talking about my mother and father? Yes, I am because their mom and dad is no good. Well, you can't talk about my mother and father. I just did. Cause I can talk about my mother and father. They were no good also. And why weren't they any good because my parents, their parents were no good. And yours the same way, all of ours, all of it. Listen, news flash, your mom and daddy wasn't that good. Your grandparents, I know you think Granny is awesome. She's sweet. Listen, she was on her way to hell. She was a hellraiser. She was ready. She had her ticket punched. Great grandma, yep, yep, on their way to hell. Why? Well, because it goes all the way back to our parents, our four parents, ancestors, all the way back to Adam and Eve. Or we should say even more so to Noah and his three boys and daughters. I mean, three boys and their wives. Okay, okay, okay. I'll go to second Peter. Matter of fact, Rick wanted me to go there. I'll go there. I'll go back to first Peter. Where are we at? Where is it? Oh, there it is. So, hold on. You said, oh, first Timothy. I'll go to, okay, let me go to first Timothy also. Or second Timothy, I'm sorry. Let's go to second Timothy. What do you say, second Timothy? I mean, first Timothy, first Timothy too. Wait a second, first Timothy. All right, let's go there. This is a good and acceptable sight in the sight of God, our savior who desires all men to be saved. Well, okay, fine. He would like for all men to be saved. This desire is different than, it's not, he's planning for them to be saved. If this word would have been the Greek word bulimai, then you'd have a point. He does wish that all men would be saved. He would love for all men to be saved, which is why he makes the offering to all men. He makes the offering to all men, are all men going to be saved? You yourself would even agree that all men are not going to be saved. So you yourself would agree that this desire is not him causing all men to be saved. So we know that. No, so my interpretation does not contradict that. I can want something to happen. I wish, I wish all of my kids could have some cake. Or you know what, I wish all my kids would eat tonight, would eat steak tonight. Now I've got two that I am responsible for. The other two are, well, the other two are grown and out of the house. The last two, one is 17. The other is 20, 20, wow does Hannah, Hannah is 25. She is my daughter living in my household and so I'm responsible for her until she gets married. So guess what? I wish all my kids would eat steak tonight, but if I'm buying steak, the two that's in the house, they're getting it. Did I contradict that statement? I wish you all could eat steak, but I'm gonna make sure that these two, who I'm responsible for, eat it. I've chosen, that's not contradictory, my friend. It's not contradictory at all, okay? So let's go back to my Romans passage. He predestined you to do what? To be conformed to the image of his son. I think that's pretty, I think that's pretty good. Thank you God. To be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the first born among many brethren. Jesus is going to be the first born among many brethren, but the only way that can happen is he's gotta conform some people to be that way. Well, he predestined us to be that way. And those he predestined, he also called, those we called, he also justified those we could, justified, he also glorified. He did that. He did that. Someone brought up free will again. Amen, amen. Have your free will all you want to. Here's my question. By the way, how many of you all believe in free will? How many of you all believe in free will? I don't even care how you even define free will. However you define free will, that's fine. No problem. If you can say it's your will free of, I don't know, anything that inspires it or anything that affects it is your will. You have a hard times trying to prove that your will is independent, that there's nothing that influences your will that's not dependent on anything. That's fine. That's fine. That is fine. So now it's gonna be, there's a split. I see some folks that believe in free will. There's some folks that don't. Rick says free within boundaries. Let's just say you have the ability to run the full gamut. You can go do whatever, first of all, you can't. You can't fly. You can want to. It's independent from, wow. Listen, you fight for your cause, not well, but you said it's independent from influence, just not forced. Well, we just read he caused you to be born again. He caused you, but it's not forced. Whatever, whatever. God says that I'll put my spirit in your heart and cause you to walk. That's not, it literally means to make, to do, to force. So, okay, that's fine. You won't accept the scriptures. You're gonna accept your own bit. That's fine. That's fine. By the way, guys, there's not a person ever who's ever existed except for Jesus whose will was independent. Something's influencing it. But let's just, everybody, there's a split. I don't even care if it's a 89, 80, 20 split, 90, 10 split or 50, 50 split, fine. You believe you got free will. Here's where I also believe everybody's gonna agree. I ask you, do you believe that you or mankind has free will? I'm gonna make your answer completely irrelevant. I'm gonna make your answer to whatever the question, to have you answer that last question that you're relevant. Here it is. Now, you know what? Let me add some more drama to this. Let me add some more drama to this. Let me add some more drama to this. For you guys that believe you have free will, all of you guys that believe you have free will, here's the question before I get to my Trump card, my ace, my joke or whatever. For all of you that believe you have free will, to do what you want to. How many of you that believe you have free will, is it your will to not sin? Sure, all of you with free will, you also have a will to not sin. Your own free will to not sin. That's your will. So if you got free will and you have a free will to not sin and you will to not sin, my question is, why do you? Why do you keep sinning? You will to not sin, you don't wanna sin. You don't wanna sin, you will to not sin and you have free will, but then you sin. Wait a second, I'm confused. You got the free will to not sin but then you turn around and sin. Somebody help me out. How could that be? I'm really on time since that was a trick question. How can that, how in the world could that be? Thank you, Tina. Tina says, Tina says, smash the like button. I'm gonna disagree with Tina. Don't smash it, cause we need it next time. I want you to gently touch it. Cast a theme out of it. You can anoint it. You can speak in tongues over it, whatever you wanna do. But you know, save the button. We're gonna save the like button, but I do want you to visit the like button and just give them a good blessing. But how in the world do you have this free will to not sin but you keep sinning? That's my question. I'd love, how do you keep sinning if you have the free will to not sin? Well, that's when my old nature kicks up. I thought you had free will. I thought your will was not, was independent. You don't care. Listen, all you want to, cause that's what is your line to yourself. Not intentionally, not being, not being spirited in your life, but listen, you are deceiving yourself. Either intentionally or unintentionally, that's fine. But here's the question that I'm gonna ask you that you're gonna agree with. All 100%, if you got any sense, you're gonna agree with this question. Since you believe you have free will or some of you believe you have free will, everybody's gonna answer this next question the exact same way. I believe that. I'm prophesying. Here's my question then. Madam, sir, you have free will. Does God? That's the question. Does God have free will? Now, I would love for you guys who say you have free will, fine. Does God have free will? I don't think I'm gonna get a no. Don't think I'm gonna get a no. God has free will. Daniel Jackson says no, God didn't have free will. Daniel Jackson, you're not a Christian. Daniel Jackson, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you're not a Christian or you don't understand God. Something's wrong with you, my friend. I'm sorry. I have to say that. God certainly has free will. If there's ever anybody that has free will, certainly is God. God has free will. Now, maybe the guy just misunderstood what I was saying. So you can go back and rephrase your answer. God has free will. So if God has free will, what does he do with it? What does he do with his will? God, listen. God has free will. Well, okay, somebody said, well, he didn't have free will. He cannot lie. Well, okay, first, all right. I'm gonna leave that alone. I won't even bring up the passages where he sent a deceiving or distressing spirit. I'll leave that apart because we've covered that in the past. I'll leave that alone. But you tell me if God wants to exercise his will, he can't. And if God wants to exercise his will over choosing you, which the Bible says he does, you get in a ring with your will and with his will, who wins? Let's say you get into a fight with somebody who's bigger, badder, stronger than you and wants to throw you to the ground. Your will is to throw him to the ground, but he's bigger, badder, stronger than you. He throws you to the ground. Now who will win? See in this match, if God shows up, which he does, his will wins. The question is, does he exercise his will over you? Yes, he does. If he chose you, he didn't choose you because you made him choose him. He didn't choose you because you made him choose you. He did not choose you because your will impressed upon him to choose you. No, stop fooling yourself. You are not that great, not that special. You were chosen before the foundation of the world. This Ephesians 1's passage that I'm, you're not getting past that passage. And I'm just using just simple old English rules and Greek rules. This really isn't, guys, all that difficult. It's just somebody wanting to be stubborn. All that the father gives, all that the father gives, all that the father gives, he says, will come to me. Here's my question. Did you cause yourself to be given? Did you make God give? Did you make God give you to Jesus? That's the question. Did you make God give you to Jesus? I don't see any condition, anything that forces God to do it. I see that all that the father gives will come. So before you come, before you come to him, the father gives you, all that the father gives. Now, who is the one giving? The subject is the father. He's giving, okay? He's the one that's giving. All that the father gives will come. And the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out for I've come down to do not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This will of him sent me, that all that he, there it is, has given me, all that he has given me, all that he has given me, I will lose nothing. Now, I mentioned before that there's a passage that we'll read that has the perfect tense. Here it is, this right here. In order that, in upon ha, the doken. This the doken is what's called the perfect tense. The perfect tense is a completed action in the past. So, you being given to him happened before you were. You were given to him in the past. When? Well, we don't know, but it was a distance in the past. You were all that the father gives, then he goes on and said that those same people, they were given in the past to him. Put it back on the screen, this is the will of him, that all that he has given the doken. This is the perfect tense. Perfect tense means that he gave you in the, it's a completed action in the past. So he gave you in the past, guys. You are not, well, you know what, you can't get around it. You can, listen, you can be stubborn. You can, you know, I ain't listening. You can do this, I don't, okay. You can do this, I'm not looking. That's fine, but that's literally what the word means. I'm giving it to you, I don't like it. Lord God, I don't like the fact that you're making me be given. I'm bothered. Let me ask this question, it's a good question. Why, Cory, would Christ die for those who are not elect or would never believe? Because I think this is where I depart from Calvinism. God makes a good faith offering here. He's even said to Israel, I've stretched out my hands all day long to this adulterous, this unfaithful nation. The offering is there, but you did not choose. You did not choose. So no one could even come back and even impugned God's integrity. God, that wasn't a real offering. You knew good and well that I couldn't, no? I just knew you wouldn't, but the offering was there if you had came. And so since nobody, this parable of the wedding, he throws his wedding, that's where he ends up saying that many are called, but few are chosen. I'm called all of you. Come on, I'm bidding you to come, and you don't. But so now I go and choose. So he says, go in the highway and start choosing some people and bring them. Do I believe they can choose? Sure, the Bible tells us that there are those that chose. The Bible says that there are those that chose but chose for me. Their belief was temporal. Go to Luke eight. I use that example over and over again. In Luke eight, we see some folks that believe duh, but their belief was a different tense, different, a different tense. It was not the believing. They believe duh past tense one time. Well, okay, so they made some sort of mental sense. Yeah, I believe Jesus died on the cross. I accept that, amen. And then because their heart hadn't been changed because what happens is the heart has changed. Here's the question guys, don't believe this. Do you believe a person can place their faith in Christ if their heart has not been changed? Can they place their faith in Christ, have that saving faith, that continual faith if their heart hadn't been changed? The answer is no, because we don't see anyone that has that. And if that's the case, they're gonna have this continual faith. This can, I mean, their heart has to be changed. Well, who caused their heart to be changed? You? No, God. God does. I understand, he called everyone to come choosing. He called him, but Jesus, but Jesus. But Paul says that no one seeks after him. No one is seeking after him. It's out there. The reason why no one will is because no one can get past themselves, can get past their sin. Even in this chat, we see people who are, who think more highly of their own will than they do of their own failures. You have a wicked heart. And so I can make it, I can put it out there, but you're not gonna want to. You're not gonna put it out there, you're not gonna want to. So I offer it to you and you don't. So now you know what? Because I love, I wanna show my love on some and choose it. Now the people that I don't choose, they can't come back and say, they can't come back and say, no fair, God, no fair. Well, no, I offered it to you and you didn't. So if I have a party and I invite all of you guys to come to the party and nobody wants to come to my party, I said, my party's at five o'clock and then you don't show up to the party. You don't show up to the party. Am I to blame because you don't show up to the party? Am I to blame because you don't show up to the party? Well, no, no, I'm not to blame. You didn't show up. Now, supposing I decided to get in my car and go drive and pick up some people. I go pick up my friend here. I go pick you up. I go pick up RCU and, okay, first of all, get you a new name on you. This is too much. I pick up Bain Miller. I pick up Dutch. I pick up Layla. I pick up my main man, Gino, who's falling in love. I'm sorry, I had to say that. I pick up Daniel. I pick up Xavier. I pick up Dinah. I pick up just a few people and bring them to the party. I'm like, man, we had a wonderful time and I give them, I shower them with money. We have good food. I give them door prizes. No camera, no, you can't come camera. You come next time. No, I pick up Cameron too. I leave them and go pick up Cameron too. I put Dinah out because she's a cowboy. No, I want to put her out because she's a cowboy fan. I, okay, I can't get all of you. I can't get all of you because I'm trying to make my point. So I just pick up a few. Now, I invited everybody that's in the chat, 300-something people. I invite everybody in the chat, but you guys don't show up. Here's my question. Here's my question. Can anyone that was invited that didn't come be mad at me for going and picking up Dinah and Layla and everyone else, for going and picking up Lisa, I'm sorry, picking up Baymela, for picking up these people, for picking up Matrix, for picking up CG. Can you get mad at me for doing that? No, you cannot. Here it is late in the hour and I see you're not coming. I know you're not coming. Matter of fact, I'm tracking you on GPS. You're on the other side of town. You have no intentions of coming so I go pick up some people. You can't get mad at me for doing that. You cannot blame God for doing that. God decided to go get those people who by the way, they weren't coming either, but I went and picked them up anyway, they came. You know what? When they get there, I'm sorry, I picked up Neelan. I picked up Neelan. I picked up Neelan. Neelan was up there. I went and picked up Neelan. Sorry about that. I picked up Neelan and so Neelan, everyone else who didn't wanna come in the first place, they show up, they show up. Even Neelan's grumpy self, he's happy now. Whoa, I'm so glad you picked me up, man. I was listening, I was about to watch a movie. I was gonna put on Netflix. I was gonna do something, take a bath, take a bath and go to bed early. I'm so glad you came and picked me up. One, who gets credit for bringing them? I do. I get credit for bringing them and the people that don't show up, they can't blame anybody. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Where's the question? I gotta answer this question. So the question, David says, by the way, Derek Perry, thank you for the super chat. He says, did God invite all the nations to the party or only Israel? He invited Israel first, but he also invites all the other nations. Now he didn't specifically invite the nations. He invites all, but he makes a special specific invitation to Israel. When he says, I stretched my hand out all the way along this adulterous nation. That's what he's speaking of. Matter of fact, in that parable, in that story in Matthew, he's speaking of Israel. And so I said, you know what? Fine, let me go get somebody else. People who are worthy and not worth good and bad, as he says. Did God predestined Adam to eat the forbidden fruit? Now, okay, so we're talking about what they call determinism. Did God determine that would happen? No, now, personally, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think God knew the weakness and then fallibility of man. And I think, I know God knew that. I know that God knew what would happen when once the devil shows up, but the man couldn't make any, the man could not make an excuse. You know why? Because the man is the only man and the only woman that's ever seen the fullness of God. They had no sin. They were the only ones that ever lived at a point in time where they were not with sin and they could be before God. No, don't go on it. Don't go on it. Oh, no, I got to. No, Corey is not a smart Christian. I mean, not a smart Christian. That was bad. That was bad. Corey is not a Calvinist of reading your deal. No, I'm not a Calvinist. But this is the part where it sounds like I am. So I understand that. But then I'll have a debate with Calvinists that, and they like, yeah, you ain't no Calvinist. If you are, you're not a very good Calvinist, which is fine. So, no, I'm not. Cameron says, I'm a leaky Calvinist. I'll take that. I'll be a leaky Calvinist. But what I want to be is tied to the scriptures. So no one can blame God for him not choosing and those that he choose, you can't take credit. You can't take credit for what God has done and that's what he's done. You in and of yourself, you just will not do it now. I won't get to the issue about when you're made alive and so forth, whatever. But he tells us, going back to John, let's go to, he says, no one can, matter of fact, let's keep it in context. Let's keep this in context. Let's start in verse 41. He says, therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. They were saying, it's not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How does he say I have come down out of heaven? Then he says, Jesus says to them, do not grumble among yourself. Don't grumble. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm getting there, Rick. I'm getting there, Rick. He says, don't grumble. Do not grumble among yourself. Notice what he says. He says, listen guys, don't trip. It's okay. Do not worry, don't trip. Now he didn't, Jesus did not say, don't trip. This is me saying it. This is me helping you all understand in your own modern vernacular. Jesus says, don't grumble. Why? Look what he says. He says, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up in the last day. You know what he said? He's actually giving a put down to them. You couldn't, you can't come. Let's don't worry about it. You good, you fine, stay over there. You can't come because you weren't given to me by the father. He says, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Now there are some that say that this means to enable them. When you say that this word, al-Qusay means to enable. That is, that's not what the word means. Now, can you say that, yeah, can it be used in the sense that he attracts you? That he drags you? Cause I think when people focus on his factor, I think this means that he attracts you. No one can come to the father unless he attracts you, unless he makes it attractive. How does he do that? How does he attract you? Cause when we drill down, how does he attract you? Someone challenged me to a formal debate. Yeah, I'm not ever doing a formal debate ever again. Lord, I hate that. No, we can have a conversation for not a formal debate. Can you be a Christian and reject Calvinism? Sure you can. I invite you to. Sorry, Rick, could not resist that. But you have to be, there's this drawing from the Lord. There is this drawing from the Lord and it's not, hey, let me just tell you something really nice and see if you like what I'm saying. No, that's not how that works. That is not how that'll work. That's why I said, for this reason, I have said to you that no one can come unless it has been granted. And let's look at this another word. This is a perfect tense, middle voice, perfect middle. This is past tense guys, this is perfect. So no one, look what it says, verse 65. And I'm coming to Rick's question. For this reason, I have said to you that no one, nobody, nobody, nobody, Hattie Ude's that nobody, do not tie his, has the ability to come. This is an infinitive. So this is what we are doing. This is the state that we've been put in guys. By the way, this also helps make the point of internal security. No one is in this infinitive state, this state of coming to him unless and may, unless it has been granted. This word granted, this word, this is also the same give. But look what, look, look at the tense of it. This is the domin'on, which is perfect tense. This is a completed action in the past. And who did this? God for his own benefit, because it's in the middle voice. You didn't do this, you can't do this. I wish someone would just catch on this like, man, that's awesome. God, you're awesome. You are extra awesome with super sauce on top. Yes, he is. Rick says, can you explain first Peter 2-8 if you have time, sir? Well, I've got to make time since you are badgering me and messing, oh yeah, I'm just kidding. Where is it? First Peter 2-8. First Peter 2-8, let's go there. First Peter 2-8. He says, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumbled because they are disobedient to the word. And this, and to this doom, they were also appointed. Okay, so you hit, they were appointed to do so. Now this word appointed is from the word tithomy, which they were placed in that. They were placed in that. Why? Because of their stumbling. I can't go too far into it. But guys, I think it's pretty clear. I think it's abundantly clear. I think it's abundantly clear that salvation is a work of God first. I know you feel like you had so much faith that you did something. I know you feel like that you were the cause of it. I know you feel like that you were the impotence. I know you feel you have so much faith, but you need to give credit to God who gave you faith. But let me, I wanna make sure that it actually gave enough time because I was doing three things at once when I asked you a question. Let me go back and read and make sure I answer the question thoroughly. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That's Jesus for they stumbled because they are disobedient to the word. And to this doom, they were appointed. Now this right here, this isn't them saying that they were appointed to doom. So no, or they were appointed doom because of this. They stumbled and then were appointed to it. This isn't in the, yeah, this isn't like in the perfect tense. So this tithum me, or tithum me, tithum me, I'm sorry. It's not in the perfect tense. So because of that, this is not that preceded. But their stumble was because of this. They just wouldn't, they wouldn't accept it. And so everybody who doesn't accept it, who God has not chosen, there is a place for you that God has appointed for you to go to. Let me see what you said. It's not binary. We can still be responsible and have choice for accepting the gift and God will still get credit. Okay, if you say so, I wish you'd deal with the passage that I gave, but just fine, which is fine, which is fine. I'm so great. God, I'm so grateful that I was able to choose you. If that's how you wanna look at it, then fine. Robert, hey Robert says, why aren't you a Calvinist? Lemon and toman is the only alternative to universalism. No, it's not. No, it's not. I'm not to see, my point is not that everyone gets saved. I'm saying that he made, he paid the price for everyone, though everyone, just like with Israel. Remember, this is a continuation of what he did with Israel. The shed blood for the sacrifices in Israel was shed for everyone, but it was not affected for everyone. Everyone did not place their faith in it. It was placed for everyone, but it did not benefit everyone. You still have to place your faith in it. You have to humble yourself. You have to show up. So therefore, so therefore in that regard, no, and I don't think it's universalism. So if God saves his sheep only, why don't you believe in limited atonement? Well, have you ever asked a person what's the definition of what they mean by limited atonement? If I believe that, if your definition of limited atonement, which would be different than other people's definition of limited atonement, that limited atonement necessarily means that he made the atonement for everybody. Though he atoned, he gave his blood for everybody. Did he, now did he save everybody? No. So you ask if God saves his sheep only, well, that's different than asking, why don't I believe in limited atonement? He atoned, he made the payment for every single human being on the planet. I believe, but every, but truth be told, every single human being will not accept it or believe, but he calls some to believe. He calls some to believe and so, so, which by the way is the big issue of some of these groups and some of these labels because different Calvinists believe different things, different, so this is why, hey, you know, let me just hear what Cory has to say. Well, Cory, I think what you're saying is different than what I believe. Okay, fine. So, I think there's another question. If God doesn't destined anyone to hell, how do we understand Romans 9, 22, 24? Who are the vessels of wrath prepared beforehand? That's a good question. Who are, so let's go there. Let's go to Romans, oh God, I should not have, hold on, Romans 9, put a space in there. That's the one thing, that's the one thing I like about Lagos, if I type it the wrong way, it'll fix it for me. Here, no, spelling counts. Let's start in verse 22. For what if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction, prepared for destruction, and he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for our glory. So, did I, wait a second. So, your question was, let's put it back on the screen. How do we understand Romans 9, 22, 24? So, he says, if God doesn't destined anyone to hell, well then who are the vessels of wrath prepared beforehand for destruction? Let's go back to the passage. The vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. The vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Ow, something just bit me, prepared for destruction. And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand. Let me see something real quick. Okay, different words. Notice what he says. Now, I just wanted to make sure, I had to make sure that I didn't see the wrong way. The vessels of mercy, they were prepared beforehand. Now, we got the same word that's used, but we've got a difference. If you look at the word, here we've got this word here, pra, etomoxin. So, we have, I'm sorry, I moved it. If you look at the bottom, you see this word etomus, which is to be prepared, pra beforehand. This other word up here, this word kata arti, which is now, or created, this is not prepared beforehand. They were just prepared for destruction. Are you with me? So, we've got a difference in the words that are being used, that's all. So, the vessels of wrath were not prepared beforehand or prepared before something else. In other words, he didn't destined them to be prepared or to be destroyed. I'm sorry, I'm saying it the wrong way. He didn't prepare them like, and that's just before the foundation of the world to be destroyed. He didn't have to. We're already on our way. Tamara, thank you for the super chat. I appreciate that. All right, so, question. What if, or what is John 317? I'm sorry, how is John 317 true? If selective salvation is true for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Okay, so he sends his son into the world to save the world. In order that the world would be saved. Now, depending on how you look at it, are we saying that he sent his son to save the entire world? Now, you can say that he sent his son to save the entire world. Doesn't mean that he was going to effectively go and grab everyone in the entire world. Are you with me? So, I came here to save you guys. Just like I came here to throw a party, the example that I used earlier. I came here to do this and you wouldn't choose. As a matter of fact, he said he came to his own, but his own and not receiving this way. I came to you guys, but his own, and like in John 1, did not receive him. So, here I am, I'm coming to save you, but you won't receive it. Okay, fine. I'll choose who I'm gonna save. But I can always be able to save. I'll always, God will be able to save. I'll always be able to save that you had an opportunity. I made an opportunity for you and you, now this is, again, I'll just, I'll differ with some people on this, but I gave you the opportunity and you didn't choose. So, you can never hold me accountable to the fact that you did not choose. Well, again, I don't know. I think double, double predestination is, is a scapegoat because he just said, I didn't choose you. I did not place you or appoint you for Hail or to Paris according to 2nd Peter 3.9. And so, and I don't think the passage you gave, I certainly don't believe that that's what that passage is saying, but we can have a discussion. So, I think the whole point though, guys, someone says, well, Corey, when you go out and share the gospel, do you ever talk about this? No? Nope. I never bring up election predestination being chosen. I never bring that up when sharing the gospel. Never do that. What I bring up is our fallen state and the fact that you're on your way to hell and that you have this need for a savior. And then here it is. If you would only place your faith in, that's the first step. Because heck, even at 25 or 35 or 45 or 55, we still will struggle with this, this concept of God doing it. So, someone who is brand new or trying to become brand new or a younger person might not make sense of that, which is fine. We're not saved by what we know, what we know, we are saved by who we know. After that, what we know about who we know will get us closer to who we know. So, we learn these things. The reason why this is important, the reason why this is important is it should cause you to give him glory. It should cause you to give him thanks because of what he's done. It should cause you to just worship in a way that is uncommon to mankind. That's what it should do. The fact that hell is what you should receive, but you won't. Not because of your will, not because of anything that you've done, not because I have great sure, but because of him, because of that. That's why you should give him glory. That's why you should give him praise because of what he's done. So, thank you guys for listening to me. I'll look carefully at what you guys put in your comments. I'm sure some, I'm gonna get some. I'm gonna get some. Corey, you're an idiot, which is fine. Yeah, I've been called up before. You don't know what you're talking about Corey. I've been told that before. Corey, you're not, this is the dumb Christian channel. I've been heard that a thousand times. I would say deal with the text that we've come up with, especially the ones that were given to us in the Greek. And by the way, if I'm wrong about the double predestination and no problem, what I am right about is the fact that he chose us. And so I think that's really the most important thing. I don't think that people can come by and say, hey, I chose you to go to hell. No, no, I don't think that. But the most important thing, the most important thing is that, and babe, I believe that everybody will be preached to. I think it's just the elect that will actually respond. Like Act 1348, all of those that were appointed to or destined to, they believed. Those that were appointed to, they will believe. So anyway, guys, thank you so much. I look forward to seeing your comments in the comments section. We will do this again. In the meantime, I'm getting ready to go to the next live stream. I'll see you all over there in just a little bit. Amen, amen.