Ah, it's good to see each one of you out. I didn't catch what our brother was saying there about people leading out in prayer, whether it's one or two, but I'm up here anyway. And, uh, maybe he'll eat his words before I'm through, but, uh, it's good to be here and share the word of God with you. We're looking at the matter of the free will of man and the sovereignty of God, which people cannot seem to bring them together. They're like two railroad tracks that never meet, they say, but I don't believe there's anything in the Bible that's like railroad tracks that never meet. They harmonize. And in the Bible, we're told that we shouldn't turn to the right hand nor to the left. We should make straight paths for our feet. And when we pick two things in the Bible that appears to be opposites, and we pick one of them and leave the other, we're neglecting something because the other one's important too. So both the sovereignty of God and the free will of man is clearly taught in the Bible. And if you were, if you were here Sunday, we looked at the free will of man, and we started with Adam in the garden, how he had a choice. Then we went from there to Cain. Cain who made the wrong offering but still had a choice. God came to him and said, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And we looked at the last verse in the Bible, in Revelation twenty two seventeen, and we still see the choice there, and whosoever will may come and take the water of life freely. The free w- the will of man and the, and the, and the, and the sovereignty of, and the, the will of man and the manner of salvation is clearly taught in the Bible that man must be repent and believe and, and can repent and believe and be saved. Now, tonight we're going to look, we're going to read a couple of verses in the book of Ephesians. I want to talk about the sovereignty of God. In Ephesians chapter number one, Ephesians chapter number one and verse number nine. The first chapter of Ephesians is a beautiful chapter. It starts in eternity, and it ends in eternity. It goes all through time into eternity. It talks about before the foundation of the world, and then it talks about the fullness of time it that's yet to come. In verse nine we read this, how that God, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, now notice this, which he hath purposed in himself. So God has purposed certain things in himself, and God's purpose is he's going to do. That's where God works in a sovereign way. Now, look over in Ephesians chapter, look in verse eleven, for instance. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him which worketh all things after the counsel, the design, or the purpose of his own will. So God does have a purpose. That purpose is in himself, it's toward himself, it's apart from man, it's, it's in himself. Now, chapter three of the book of Ephesians and verse eleven, we'll read this. According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, God has purposes that are eternal, and those purposes are in Christ. And those purposes are toward himself. And those purposes is he is going to fulfill those purposes. He uses men along the way, but he doesn't need them. He's going to fulfill them anyway. And nobody's going to stop him. We're going to look at some verses to to show you that and prove that. Now, if you flip back into a fe- in the book of Romans chapter nine, you're going to see a favorite verse of the Calvinists here. In Ro- in Romans chapter nine and verse number eleven. This is in connection with Rebecca, who is pregnant, and she's going to have twins, Jacob and Esau. She's a little concerned about it, and she, she asked the Lord about it in Genesis chapter twenty five. And we read here in verse eleven, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God. God had a purpose for those two boys. And even before they were go- born, God had a purpose for one of those boys, Jacob. And that the purpose of God, that's the purpose of God toward himself. He has something he wanted to do, something he was going to do, something no- nobody's going to stop him from doing it. According to election, it might stand. Now, what you got here isn't the electing of Jacob so much, it's the purpose of God, and he had a purpose, and he elected Jacob to fulfill that purpose. He's not electing Jacob to be saved. He's electing Jacob for a certain purpose he ha- he he's going to do, and we're going to see, we're going to see that purpose. We're going to pick that purpose up in Genesis and look at it a little later. Now, just to set your mind at ease, let's look back in Genesis chapter twenty five while we're looking at that verse. Genesis chapter twenty five, where that verse is quoted from, and then Genesis twenty five and verse number twenty two. Rebecca wasn't too sure what was going on within her, so the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, notice what the Lord said to her, two nations are in thy womb, not two boys, not two twins. That was true. God was seeing in those two twins, two nations, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder, that is Esau, shall serve the younger. Now, God could see in those two children before they were born, he could see two nations, the nation of Israel and the nation of Edom. And he says, Jacob, I've selected him for my purpose, eh, to be the, the father of the i- nation of Israel. That's what he selected for. There is no thought here that he selected one to be saved and one to be lost. Maybe Esau was never saved, I don't know. I'll tell you when the, when the rapture takes place or when I get there, but, uh, that's beside the point. He saw two na- God had a purpose, so he made a selection in Romans chapter eleven. Before those boys were born, he made a selection. They were already conceived, but he made a selection. He said, I'm going to take the younger one to serve the elder. And you're going to find out, we'll get to get to that a little later, you're going to find out God never picked the firstborn, ever. It's always not never the firstborn. Only one firstborn has a place in the, in the eyes of the Lord, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all right, so God has a purpose. Let's look at some verses in Isaiah chapter number fourteen. In Isaiah chapter number fourteen, we're going to read about some of the purposes of God. And verse number twenty six. This is in connection with the, with the, the Assyrian, that the, the uh, Assyrian that was in the land, but verse twenty six: This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Nobody. God has purposed something, nobody can cancel it out. His hand is stretched out, who can turn it back? You've got many, many verses like that in the Bible, uh, uh, that that clearly states God's purposes. Look in chapter number forty six of Isaiah. This is one of the most amazing acts of the sovereignty of God, I s- believe one of the more, uh, amazing ones in the scripture. In, in Isaiah chapter forty six and verse number ten— Verse number nine: Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. When you see that phrase, when it says, I am God, and there is none else, it means God is saying, I am God, and I'm going to do what I'm going to say. I- I- I'm going to do my purpose. I am God, and there is none else. He says, I declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, my purpose shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird. Now this bird is Cyrus, the king of Persia, and he's the man that came in in Daniel chapter five and, and overthrew the Babylonian Empire under Belshazzar. And, uh, calling that ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel, my purpose from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, and it, and I will also do it. So here's God is going to overthrow Babylon. He, he, he raised up King Nebuchadnezzar to chastise the people of Israel. Now he's destroying that nation. And the Persians and the Medes are coming in, and they're overthrowing that, that nation. Now you look back with me in Isaiah chapter forty five at that man Cyrus. A very interesting person. In Isaiah chapter forty forty five. uh, you bear with me just a minute, and verse forty four and verse number twenty eight. The Lord says of this Cyrus, who was the king of Persia, he is my shepherd. Now this man wasn't saved. And shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built. And to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. Verse chapter saith thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him. I will loose the loins of, of kings, to open before him the two leaf, leafed gates, and the gates shall not be shut. Now he says in verse, uh, uh, verse fo- 4, for Jacob my servant's sake and for Israel mine elect, I have called thee by thy name. That's Cyrus. I have surnamed thee. Thou hast not known me. I am the Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, thou hast not known me. This was a heathen king. Now, what he's talking about, this man, this man never lived for a hundred and fifty, about a hundred and fifty years after that. He wasn't even born. God is prophesying about a man one hundred and fifty, about one hundred and fifty years before he was born. He's prophesying about a man. He says, that man's going to be my c- that man's going to be my shepherd. He's going to do my will, and he's he's the one that's going to give the issue to rebuild the temple and to lay the foundation, uh, uh, uh, and build up the city again, and to Ezra, Nehemiah, and some others. Though he did not know the Lord, God used that man mightily, gave him the kingdoms of the world, took it away from Babylon, and gave him the kings of the world. And yet the man didn't even know the Lord, but God used him, God chose him, God selected him, said that he's my shepherd. And there's no evidence this man was ever saved. See, God is sovereign. There's a verse, what is in the, in the, uh, Proverbs, is it, that, that speaks about the, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and he turneth it whithersoever he will, like the rivers of water. He turns it whether way he likes. Eh, eh, God, God uses people to work his purposes. They might not even know it, but he uses people to work his purpose because he's the sovereign God. So, you s- can see a little bit of the purposes of God. Look with me in the book of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, chapter number four. Daniel four and uh, and uh, verse number Four God was teaching a king, Nebuchadnezzar, that he raised up by his power for his own purposes. He was teaching him that he was the sovereign God, and he s- and this is what we read in verse number seventeen: This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the, of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basis of men. Powerful verse. God rules in the affairs of men. The civil rulers, according to Romans chapter thirteen, they are ordained of God. That's why I never vote. If I voted and lost my vote, I'd be voting against God. If you voted and lost your vote, you're voting against God. The powers that be are ordained of God. This verse makes it very clear, that the living might know that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdoms of men. And God wants to raise up a Hitler for a purpose, the basis of men. He can raise up a Hitler for his purpose. I don't know what his purposes are, but he works out his purposes, and he uses men. Unawares, he'll use men to fulfill those purposes. Now, there's a few verses that show you that God is sovereign. He has purposes. Now, you remember I told you that the purposes of God is the realm of his sovereignty. And in that, you've got the words like chosen, election, predestination, uh, foreordained, and all those words are associated with the purposes of God. And then, on the other hand, you've got the will of God toward men, and God's will toward men is that all men should be saved, in First Timothy two four. And yet all men aren't saved, and all men never will be saved, and the will of God toward man will never be saved. If God purposed for men to be saved, they'd be saved, they'd all be saved. He hasn't purposed that. That's not in his purposes. When he, when his will toward man and his purposes toward himself are two different things altogether. And you put all this election and choosing and all that, as we'll show you, you put that over into the purposes of God. And God chooses unsaved people, in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, in the case of Cyrus, in the case of the baser men that he raises up. He, he, he rules in the affairs of men. What for? To, to promote, to work out his own purposes. So the purposes of God, he works them out himself. He makes selections, he makes cho- choices here, there, and everywhere to work those purposes out. Now we're going to see that a a little bit later more clearly. Now, there are only three things that we read about God purposing before the foundation of the world. One is Christ. Christ was his elect in Roman, in, in the, in the book of Isaiah forty two and verse one. He was God's elect before he ever came into the world. First Peter one and twenty says he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in the last times for you to shed his precious blood, as it were, for our sins. So he was foreknown, as Acts chapter two verse twenty two says he was delivered by the determinate counsel of God, the purposes of God. So he was foreknown, foreordained, he was in the purposes of God before the foundation of the world. Now, in Ephesians chapter one and verse four, it says believers. God has made purposes for believers before the foundation of the world. He hasn't made that verse, let's look at it, Ephesians chapter one and verse four. It does not say anybody was chosen to be put in Christ. It says they are, they were chosen because they are in Christ. We read according as he hath chosen us in him. And you remember Sunday how I pointed out that I was not an American, you are. I'm a Canadian, and I wasn't a Canadian until I was born in Canada, and you'll never, I'll never become an American until I become naturalized in this country and become an American. So I was never elected to be put in Christ, but the moment I was in Christ, I was in, in the elect, so I'm elect. I'm one of the elect. You're one of the elect. Not elected to be put in Christ, elected because we are in Christ. And God's purpose, what you got in this verse here, the same as Romans eight twenty nine, you've got the purpose of God before the foundation of the world for his elect, his people. It's a good thing God did have a purpose for us, because we'd never make it to the image of Christ. We never, we'd never make it. We, we could live a thousand years, we'd never be conformed to the image of Christ if he doesn't purpose that and do it himself. So, there you have a three and then in second Peter chapter one and verse nine and ten, you have the purpose of God there for those in Christ before the foundation of the world. And that's the grace. We look at the verse, second Timothy chapter two and verse nine, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us. Where were they given us? In Christ Jesus. When were they given to us? Before the world ever came. We weren't given to Christ before the world ever be- came. The purposes that we have in Christ was, they were given to us before the foundation of the world. Now, these are the only three places in the Bible that we read about God doing something before the foundation of the world. All God's other purposes are time. He picks them up in time. He makes those choices in time. There's no evidence God ever chose Jacob before the foundation of the world to be the father of the chil- children of Israel. There's no evidence he ever chose David, uh, uh, to be the king and to make a covenant with him before the foundation of the world. Those are time choices that God purposes along the way. Now look at one more verse in, in Revelation chapter thirteen that's often used by Calvinists to teach that our names are in the book of life before the foundation of the world. Look at it. Twice in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter thirteen and verse eight. we read this. And all that dwelleth on the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, not before. From the foundation of the world. If A- if A- if Adam or Abel was the first person who was to save his, his name was the first one that went in the Lamb's Book of Life. And the last one that's ever got saved in a minute or two ago around this whole world, that's the last name that will be put, that's, that's then put into the f- to the Lamb's Book of Life. Your name was put in the Lamb's Book of Life the moment you got saved. Mine was put there the moment we got saved. It's all from the foundation of the world and not for. Nobody's name is in the book of life before the foundation of the world. So you got these time periods and these purposes. Now we're going to look, we're going to look back. God has purposes to fulfill. I want you to look back with me in Genesis chapter three. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning, and he knows them right to the end. So to got to find God's purposes, we have to go back to the beginning. In this case, we could go back before the fall of man, and we could see God's purposes for the earth and for man on the earth. That's good, but we just want to look at it from God's purposes after the fall of man. So in re- in chapter three of the book of Genesis, we got the fall of man. And we know this account very well, I'm sure. First he consulted Adam, where art thou? Adam blamed Eve, he consulted Eve, and Eve blamed Satan, and the old blame game has been going on ever since. Blamed the serpent, and so God dealt with the serpent first, then he dealt with Eve next, and he dealt with Adam last. Now, what you got in verse fifteen is often called the first messianic promise of God in the Bible. It isn't. There's no promise in that verse. The verse is not spoken to man. It's true, the Messiah is there, but it's not a promise of the Messiah. It's a, it, it's a prophecy of Messiah, but it's more than a prophecy. We missed the whole purpose in calling this a promise or a prophecy, and yet it's both of those. It is the Messiah that's in view, and it is a prophecy that a woman would have a child that would bru- but he's talking to Satan. He's talking to the serpent. He's dealing with the serpent. And this is where limited atonement falls flat on its face, because if Christ did not deal with all sin on the cross, then he did not deal with Satan. And his primary purpose of coming into the world wasn't to save us, it was to destroy Satan. And we're just getting this, let's say, the, this side benefits of it, the side benefit. Sure, he died to save us, but we missed the whole point. Hebrews chapter two and verse fourteen makes it clear that he partook of flesh and blood that he might destroy him that had power over death, that is the devil. That's clear and plain, isn't it? Hebrews nine twenty six says he came into the world to put away sin. That little word sin is a noun. It's a corruption, a defilement that's entered into God's universe. It's not confined to man. It's the angels have it. Satan i- i- is the originator of it. So he come into the world to destroy all of that, save a people for his name's sake. But anyway, let's look at this. What you've got in Genesis three fifteen is the purpose of God in destroying this devil through the seed of the woman. Now, I will put en- enmity between thee. Who's the thee? It's the serpent he's talking to. He's not talking to Adam. He's not addressing mankind. He's addressing the serpent. I'm going to put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It, the seed of the woman, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, it is a prophecy, if you want to call it that, and it, and it is a promise of a Messiah, but it's more than that. It's a purpose. It's God's purpose. He's purpose-based. It's the- a promise is conditional. A purpose is not conditional. God makes a promise, he says, you do this, I'll do that. If we do this, God does that. Those are promises, and they're conditional. But God's purposes are not conditional. He, he makes a purpose, he's going to fulfill that purpose, and you miss the whole point when you see this verse and you don't see the purpose of God in the verse. The purpose is to send a seed into the woman to destroy the serpent. And of course, the, the, the language is clear. The seed is going to have to suffer in order to destroy the serpent. It's going to bite his heel, as it were, while he crushes that serpent. Now, for four thousand years, God's purposes was to bring that seed into the woman, that seed of the woman into the world. Remember Ephesians three verse eleven. All God's epur- eternal purposes are in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, God couldn't fulfill those purposes wi- uh w- as long as the Son of God was in heaven. He had to become a man, he had to become the seed of the woman to come into this world for God to fulfill his purpose to destroy Satan, to destroy the fallen angels, and to redeem a people for himself, and destroy all the rest of the wicked that would not repent and come to Christ. So this is the purpose of God. It's not a promise, it's a purpose. God will bring that seed of the woman. There's nobody could stop him. Now, if you read carefully through the Bible, you'll find in many, many cases the devil tried to stop him. I personally believe the devil started right off from the first two boys to destroy that seed of the woman. God evidently never chose Cain to bring that seed into the woman, but he chose Abel. And you know the story. Abel got mad, and he killed his own brother Sa- h- his own brother Cain. And the devil, eh, he was, eh, First John three says he was of that wicked one that eh hated his brother and killed him. And that's Satan trying to kill the, the thought of the seed of the woman. Satan knows quite a bit. He's not all wise, but he knows quite a bit. Revelation chapter twelve, he knows that his time is short, he comes down to earth in a great rage. Well, he evidently knew this. God spoke to him in verse fifteen and said, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to bruise your head. I'm going to use the seed of the woman. And the devil started right away to work on it. Now, I want you to notice in chapter four of the book of Genesis and verse number twenty five how, how Cain had killed Abel. God needed another seed. Here's his sovereignty. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son and called his name Seth. For God, she said, notice this, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel. And you'll follow that seed right through the Bible, right straight through the Bible, and you'll follow that seed right through the Bible, and therein is the sovereignty and the purpose of God. You go right on through, God ha- God destroyed the world in the flood. Noah had three sons. God cho- chose one of those boys, Shem, to be the father eventually of the people that would become the Jewish nation. Abraham, God called Abraham out of the land of the Ur of the Chaldees in chapter number twelve of the book of Genesis. Abraham, I'm going to make your name great. Sovereignty there. I'm going to make your name great. I'm going to make a great nation out of you. I'm going to bless the whole world through you. Now, Abraham wasn't the firstborn either. If you read in Genesis eleven, you're going to find Terah had three boys, and Abraham, I don't believe, was the firstborn. I think there's evidence he wasn't the firstborn. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael, the firstborn, and Isaac. Now, God never s- God didn't choose Ishmael, the firstborn. He choose- chose Isaac. In Isaac thy seed shall be ca- ca- called. Now, God not only was doing this, but he was confirming it with an oath. Then along comes Jacob and Esau, those two boys that we're reading about. And God said for the first time, I don't see a- just another boy, I see two nations now. I see the nation of Israel. I see that great nation I said to Abraham I was going to make. I see that one in a- in Jacob. I'm going to select Jacob to be the father of the- that great nation and not Esau. Again, not the firstborn. Jacob did his best to steal the birthright. He didn't have to do that. God was going to give it to him anyway. Then he had those twelve boys that eventually become the, the father of the twelve tribes that formed the nation of Israel. And remember who the firstborn was? The Reuben. I never chose him. He didn't choose the next two either. He went down to the fourth one, Judah, and he chose Judah, and so on. Judah down the line, you follow right through, right through the Old Testament. There were times in the days of a wicked queen, I think it was Jezebel's mother, a wicked queen, when she tried to destroy the seed royal and almost succeeded because the devil did not want God's purposes to be fulfilled. See, there's a battle going on between God and the devil. We're sinners, we're enemies of God, but God's not fighting with us. But there's a battle going on between God and Satan all the time. They're constantly at war, and Satan was doing his uttermost to hinder the seed of the woman from coming into the world. But who can disannul the purposes of God? No devil, no demon on it, no devil or no demon in hell can ever, or man on earth can ever hinder the sovereignty of God in his working when he, when he purposes to do something. Another time in the book of Esther, you read that book, and the name of the Lord is not mentioned in that book, but it's a very vital book. Because they wanted to do away with all the Jews, but it didn't work that way. Mordecai, uh, saved the day, and the Jewish people were saved. You can read much in Malachi chapter two of how Judah, who had no children, no firstborn, no children, when it took his own daughter-in-law, who played the harlot, and she was become pregnant, she had twins, and again, it was not the firstborn that was chosen, it was the second one. And yet God used that. Got to a place where there was nobody of view, as it were, for Boaz, so a ger- a Ruth, a Moabitist, came over and married Boaz. And Boaz, of course, is in the genealogies of Christ and of David and so on, and right down the line. Think of David, I want seven or eight boys, and the prophet went to take a king out of, out of, from just these boys. Not this one, not that one, not that one, the last one, a little boy, a young lad out looking after the shepherds in the field. Uh, David was the chosen one. See, God is working out his purposes. He chooses whoever he likes. It's not a matter of choosing it for salvation. What's he trying to do? He's bringing the seed of a woman into the world, and he's using the nation of Israel, uh, to do that. He's preserving. Just the last week or so, mostly since I've been here, I go to bed at night, and I usually have some verses in mind, and I lay there and meditate on them until I go to sleep. Good way to get sleep. And, uh, I've been thinking, why did God choose the firstborn child in Exodus twelve? Why, why did God choose the firstborn child and destroy the firstborn child of Egypt? Now, the male, of course, the firstborn male. Why didn't he choose the father or the mother or some of the sisters or some of the other boys? Why the firstborn? There's a reason there. Why did he destroy all the firstborns of Egypt? There's a reason there, and the reason is very obvious, because the firstborn is the, I guess you call it the progenitor of the, of the race. They are the ones that, when the father died, they took over the helm. They were the ones that got a double portion of the inheritance. They were the ones that were the priests of the family. They were the ones that were the judge of the family. If a sister or a do- a s- a sister or somebody wanted to be married, it had to be the firstborn child. If the father was died, they took over the father's place, and that's, that's continuing in the Jewish nation, and also it's destroying, on the other hand, it's destroying the Egyptian nation. So that firstborn that was saved kept that nation going, kept that nation going, kept the family unit together, kept that nation going. And it went on, and it went on until it come right up to the, to the, uh, to the time that Christ was born. He brought the seed of the woman into the world. Now you can read that in Romans chapter nine, Who are Israelites? And you read all about them, and the final part that you read about them, of whom Christ came in the flesh. He was born of the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, and the seed of David. Genesis, uh, Matthew chapter one and verse one opens up. This is the generation of Jesus Christ. What's he called? The s- the s- the son of, the son of Abraham and the son of... I'm, I'm not right on that. I got that for you, man. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David and the son of Abraham. Why the son of David and the son of Abraham? Because God made a covenant, an everlasting covenant, both of those men. He made an everlasting covenant, Genesis chapter fifteen with Abraham to give him a land. He made an everlasting covenant with David in Psalm eighty nine as well as in second Samuel seven. He made an everlasting covenant with David to sit a, uh, give him a throne and the kingdom in that land and set a king on that, on that throne. And, and he not only made that, if you look in Hebrews chapter six, you're going to find that when God makes an everlasting covenant, he, he confirms that with an oath. God's promise, you got two immutable things in Romans chapter six in verse seventeen, Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of his pro- of promise the immutability of his counsel, he confirmed it with a new. Now, a promise, God makes a promise, it has a condition. Once we keep that promise, God meets, God fulfills it. Once he fulfills that promise, then he make, he, he confirms it with an oath. That's what you got. The two immutable things here is God's promise, that's conditional, and his oath that confirms that promise, and that oath go- goes into an everlasting covenant. You got that in the birth of Christ in Luke chapter one, I think it is, and maybe verse seventy or so. Luke chapter one, we read this. In Luke chapter one and verse number seventy two, in the coming, the the birth of John the Baptist and eventually Christ, we read this. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant and the oath which he swore to our father Abraham. Now, God swore with an oath to Abraham after he made an everlasting covenant with him. He swore with an oath to I- Isaac. He swore with an oath to Jacob, and that oath goes all through the Bible because God's purposes are involved in that oath. Now, we're under an everlasting covenant. Hebrews chapter thirteen and verse twenty, we read about the blood of the everlasting covenant. There's five at least in the Bible, and we're under one of those covenants. And an everlasting covenant is unconditional, but those, that covenant was based on a promise. We had to come as sinners and put our trust in Christ as our Savior, and once we put our trust in Christ as our Savior, God fulfills his promise and gives us eternal life the very moment we repent and believe. Now he confirms that by bringing us in under an everlasting covenant, the blood of the everlasting covenant in, in, in Hebrews chapter thirteen verse twenty. So you see how God is working out his purpose, and of the, in the Old Testament, all through the Old Testament, he picked out a nation to do that. He often picked unsaved people, like the king of Syria. He picked out the king of Babylon for his purposes to deal with Israel. Uh, he, he brought a, a, a Rahab out into the line, and you know the interesting thing that there's no man in the genealogy of Christ that was not a Jew, was not an Israelite. The Israelite woman, uh, could marry, uh, other people, but the man, the man, the f- the the the man in Israel, they they they did not marry other women. That was wrong. They did, but that was wrong, and God reproved them for it because God wanted to keep a distinct, pure race of people, and he's done a very good job at it for twenty six hundred years now, and he's still going to keep every promise and every covenant he ever made with that nation. That's another thing I mentioned about this covenant theology, Reformed theology that you hear about kingdoms now. That's a very grave danger to the Lord's people, because there's a tendency today of, of believing that God's all through with Israel, and all the promises and covenants with Israel, God has transferred them over to the church. Imagine God making a personal promise to Abraham and filling it to anybody else but Abraham, making a swore with an oath, and he said, I will not lie to my servant David. In Psalm eighty nine, he says, I'm going to give him a king to sit on his stone and his seat, and it's going to be forever. Forever. So God is faithful to his promises, but he's sovereign in his purposes. And what God has purposed, he is going to do. What God has promised is conditional. Now, salvation is a promise, it's not a purpose. God has not purposed the salvation of sinners. He's willed it. That's his desire. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But there's, it's a, it's a promise. You remember I mentioned that salvation was a provision? He gave himself a ransom for all. It was a, it was a proposal. Whosoever, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's a promise. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. See, it's a, it's, it's a proposal that must be accepted. The will of man is involved in the matter of salvation, of the salvation of a man, and man must respond. God does work and makes a proposal, but man must respond. Remember the simple illustration of a marriage. A young fellow proposes to a girl, but he cannot marry that girl until she says she will marry him. And that she can't marry him until he makes the proposal. And so they go there and they make their, they they exchange their vows, and that's marriage. They receive one another, and that's, that's marriage. When a sinner and a savior meets one another and they receive one another, that's salvation. The, the, the difference is that Christ has already made the proposal. He's already said, him that cometh to me, I will know is cast out. He's waiting for the sinner's response. That's that side of God's salvation. God is sovereign. He has purposes. He's going to work those out, and yet man has a free will, and there's no clash between the two. We're going to look tomorrow, uh, again, maybe Sunday. We're going to look, and we're going to see, use the words chosen election to show you that many, many times election in the Bible doesn't have anything to do with people, sinners being saved. Some, in fact, many elected people were lost and never will be saved. We, Lord willing, we look at that on Sunday. Shall we pray? Our Father, we come to thank thee for thy holy inspired word. We thank thee that thou has inspired holy men of God to speak and write this word. And we ever pray to help us along life's journey to have insight, to be led and guided and taught by the Holy Spirit, that we might see the truths of thy word and walk in paths that are straight in a wicked world, a crooked world in which we live. So we ask thy blessing upon each of us, that we would not be carried away to the right hand, to the left, that we would make straight paths for our feet, knowing that those that are lame are turned out of the way. So we ask thy blessing to be upon us for good, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Thank you.