Knowledge of the Father — Robert B. Thompson

Alright, we're still reading John 17, verses 1 -5. It isn't because I didn't have time to pray. I did. That's what I came up with. We don't have any afterglows around here, I'll tell you. Everything is fresh.

No canned fruit. Alright, and here we are. After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed. Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people, that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Now when we finished up last Sunday morning, we were talking about eternal life and how Paul was seeking to know Christ in Philippians, which is eternal life. So this morning we'll go on with verse 4.

I have brought you glory on earth. And I gave the definition before of giving glory or glorifying is to enlarge, make more important, ascribe more value to, lift up to an exalted position, give honor to, make worthy of allegiance or worship, empower with authority and strength, give praise to and make radiant in appearance.

So when he says, I have brought you glory on earth, he's saying I have lifted you up and exalted you. He's talking about his Father. And notice this, by completing the work you gave me to do. Now, that to me is an extremely important concept.

And the idea is that God has given people some specific work to do. And I think a good many people go through life and never have a sense of destiny or a sense that there's something they're supposed to do.

They just kind of breathe and eat and sleep and work and play. And there's really no focus. When they finish their life on earth, they can't say I finished the work that you gave me to do because they don't know what it is in the first place.

And they don't know whether they finished it. All they know is they're approaching death and they may be in a hospice and they're scared and angry. And the worst thing possible thing that could happen to them is happening to them.

They're dying. Well, that is not really a very nice way to look at things. Not very comforting. The idea is that you have something to do and you have to find out from God what it is. And then you have to finish it.

And when you finish it, you're out of here. Most of us have seen fruit on a tree. Well, there comes a time when the fruit is ripe. And that's when it's plucked. And the Bible says that. It says that God plants things and it grows, comes to maturity and then he puts in the sickle because the harvest is ripe.

So there's a time in your life when you're ripe. We don't die because we spun out so many trips around the sun. If we lived in God, there's a growth that goes on. And when we're ripe, then God picks us.

Nice thought. The fruit hangs on a tree and it isn't picked. Eventually it gets rotten and the hornets get in it and it falls to the ground. It's a mess. You've got to get it when it's ripe. And, of course, in our culture, we put people through long, drawn-out, they're on tubes and electric life support and everything else.

I know that people don't have that hope of life after death and their relatives don't have that hope of life after death. And the end of it is they'll go up beyond the stars and they'll never really see them again.

And so you plug the machine in and you keep it going as long as possible. Well, what a way to go. That's no way. That's like an animal. We certainly ought to have a better view of life after death than that we'll never see anybody again and we'll be up there somewhere beyond the stars and the bells will tinkle and God knows what's happening up there.

Well, that isn't any kind of a Christian view at all. Dying is going to another stage of life where we're waiting for the resurrection. I mean, it's only a waiting area up there and waiting for the resurrection.

And how alive we are and what we do will depend on how we've lived on the earth. And we see Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration and they were discussing with Christ his crucifixion because they were interested in the atonement.

They were as alive as they had ever been. But I don't think everybody's like that. You go wherever you're prepared to go. And if you've just been an ordinary decent person, you go into the great sea of mankind and wait for the resurrection.

If you've attained resurrection life in this world, then when you die you're conscious and maybe the Lord will give you something to do while you're waiting for the resurrection. So the way we live, we ought to really be living in two worlds at the same time.

Jesus did. We ought to be living in two worlds at the same time. We ought to have one foot in this world and one foot in the next. And if we don't, we're missing out on all the security and good thoughts and everything that when life gets rough, we can just think about where we're going in the next life and rejoice in it and it puts this life in perspective.

We don't get crushed with the problems of this world because we realize someday we'll be out of here. It isn't an escape, it's reality. And so when we die, it's not at the end of everything at all. It's out of the most miserable time we'll ever experience in our existence, which is our life on the earth, filled with pain and dread and worry and every other kind of problem.

Well, we were created to play. We were not created to live in this valley of the shadow of death. God created us to play. That's why we were created. And we see Adam and Eve in the garden before they sinned.

What they did, they took care of the orchard there and it was play. Whenever you like what you're doing, you're playing. Whenever you're having to do something that you don't like, you're working. And they were driven from the garden to work in the fields.

Well, I don't know how many of you have worked in fields. I have. And there is no harder work on earth than farm work. Boy, is that hard. And people may look at it and say, isn't that lovely? Well, it isn't.

You want to go out sometime and get a job, work along with the Mexicans and pick some cucumbers and string beans and see what it's like to work eight hours in the sun. Your back is broke. And you see, they were playing in Eden.

That's all God created them to play. God created the angels to play and they were playing until Satan sinned. And it's sin that prevents us from playing. And you have to earn the right to play. What goes wrong in this life is we try to play before we've earned the right to play.

So you have to earn the right to play. Satan cannot play because he's filled with sin. When you're filled with sin, you cannot play. You cannot play with a child. You can only destroy it with your lust.

Satan cannot play. The ability to play has been lost to him forever. And God has created us to play, but we can't play until we get the sin out of us. We've got all eternity to play. Now, what goes wrong in people's lives is they try to play now before they have earned the right to play.

And whenever you do that, you sin. You avoid responsibility. You betray those who trust in you. You're a treacherous person without integrity. We see that. I saw in the paper two instances of that this last week.

One man they interviewed, a criminal who was convicted, said, I'm not like everybody else. I take what I want when I want and I do whatever I please. I mean, here is a convicted criminal and he's explaining to the newspaper reporters what kind of a person he is.

He says, I do whatever I want when I want. And in other words, he wants to play. But he's playing. He hasn't earned the right to play. And when you haven't earned the right to play, you play at someone else's expense.

And that ain't good. Because then you'll have eternity. You won't get to play at all. So God has created us to play. But we have to earn the right to play. Now, earning that right, part of it is finishing the work which God gave us to do.

And if we don't know what it is or what our purpose on being on the earth is, we should ask the Lord. Why am I here? What is it that you have for me to do? God is a businessman and he doesn't waste time or personnel or money or anything else.

He has something for you to do. And you can look forward to finishing that work. If you're serving the Lord, you will not die until that work is finished. I have finished the work which you gave me to do.

What a wonderful sense. You know, there's people who knew when they were ripe. Aaron knew when he was ripe. Moses knew when he was ripe. Paul knew when he was ripe. Jesus knew when he was ripe. What a wonderful thing it is to know when you're ripe.

And then when the Lord takes you, it's all glory. And if the relatives have any faith at all, they won't crave. They'll just say, see you later. That's right. See you later. Like that sign up there that Grace put up there.

How did that go, Grace? It was something about Brian. What was it? You don't remember how it went? You put the sign up there? Bye for now. Bye for now. Isn't that perfect? Right? And Brian, bye for now.

That's not forever. For heaven's sake, Brian's very much alive to have a wonderful time. Bye for now. So that's a wonderful thing. When we die, we lose some relationships, but we regain others that were lost.

Faces long gone are suddenly there. So the world, the spirit realm is a very real place. It's inhabited by conscious people. Many of them surround us as witnesses because they're learning and they're growing and we're learning and we're growing.

And it says the Lord said, I have brought you glory on the earth. Speaking of His Father, He lifted you up. I made you more important. He brought honor to you by completing the work that you gave me to do.

What is your work? Do you know? Do you know what it is? It's a good idea to find out, don't you think? You'll never know when it's finished if you don't know what it is. You can find out, you know, if you ask God what it is, He'll tell you what it is.

Isn't that neat? Or direct you into it. He may not speak words to it, but if you are willing and obedient, God will lead you into the thing He wants you to do. And it isn't two things, it's one thing.

He's got something for you. And the trick in life is to find out what it is. That's called entering the rest of God. Where you say, well, you tried it your way and that wasn't great. Why not try it God's way?

Find out. And when you enter into that which God has for you, you'll find you're really more suited for that. And you'll have peace. That's the rest of God. But otherwise, you're just scrambling around trying to make money and more money and pay the bills and everything.

That isn't life. That's part of the curse. Amen. And now, Father, glorify me in your... No. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. I complete it. He finished it. It was 33 years old.

It was finished. Your work can be finished when you're 10 years old. It can be finished when you're 15. And why drag out a miserable existence on earth after your work is done? Have faith. The next world is better.

God always moves from the lesser to the greater. So don't perseverate on this earth. Think this is all there is and clutch it. Get a sense of eternity. All right. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world was.

And God did that. God did that, but in between that prayer and the restoration of his glory, there was the crucifixion. And sometimes when we pray for the things we really want, not some superficial thing, but the thing that comes up out of our viscera, the next thing that happens is trouble.

So Christ prayed for glory, and what he got was crucifixion. But he ended up in the glory, and we see that in Revelation 1, verses 12 through 19. This is the glory that he had with the Father before the world was.

This is what Christ looked like before the world was. Revelation 1, 12 through 19. I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands. What are the golden lampstands?

The churches. And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man. That expression comes from Daniel. A son of man. Christ often referred to himself as the son of man. He's son of God and son of man.

And so are you. So are you. You were born of God. You were born of man. He likes this. He could have said he was someone like a son of God, but he says someone like a son of man. This is what man is destined to look like.

We're being made in this image. Isn't that something? You'll look like this someday if you make it. Dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet, which speaks of the fact that he's a priest with a golden sash around his chest.

It speaks of the strength of God in him. His head and his hair were white like wool. Speaking of the righteousness that comes from those who are older. Gaining the righteousness that comes with experience.

And his eyes were like blazing fire. Because when he looks, he does not see the external. When we want to see something in science, we use an instrument, a spectroscope. And what it does, it heats the element under observation until it incandesces.

That until it glows. And the spectroscope will, as it glows, will analyze that glow and detect all the elements that are present. Spectroanalysis. And that's why his eyes are like fire. Because when he looks at you, he doesn't see the obvious.

He sees what there really is to see. You cannot fool Jesus. Because his eyes are not like our eyes. They're fire. And he looks with fire. When he wants to see what you're made of, he brings you into fire.

And then you incandesce. And then he is able to see what is present in your life. You can't fool Jesus. You can fool people. But you can't fool Jesus. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace. Bronze in the Bible represents judgment.

The reason for that is that bronze can withstand fire. And in World War II in England, when they had a room that had to be protected, they put a layer of bronze on the door. It will not burn. And so, the feet of the Lord, where they go, they bring judgment.

When you and I are in the image of the Lord and are following the Holy Spirit, everywhere we go, we bring judgment. Everywhere we go, we bring judgment. When we're walking in the Spirit of the Lord, the ultimate will be when Satan is crushed under our feet.

Romans 16 .20 My God shall crush Satan under your feet. Now, if you have not been through judgment with the Lord, if your sins are unjudged, if they haven't been confessed and repented of, and you go trying treading on serpents, Psalm 91, you're going to get burned because your feet are still flammable.

But when God brings you through judgment and you incandesce and He can read what's in you and He shows Himself and He shows you what is in your personality and you confess those and ask the Lord to help you turn away from them, you develop bronze in your personality.

We have to have silver redemption, gold divinity, bronze fireproofing. All of this must cover the wood so that you don't burn in the judgment because you will be judging men and angels. So now, for God's victorious saints, one of the real buzzes now in the spirit realm, one of the real pressure points in the spirit realm for people that have been saved and filled with God's Spirit, one of the real pressure points is judgment.

And when you're in a church for a while, as is true of this church, where judgment is practiced and then you go in a church where it has not been practiced, you will see the difference. It may not be tangible to you.

There's something different there. It's like when you are used to Pentecost and you go back to a church where they don't speak in tongues. There's something different. It's not the same. It's not the same level of worship or assembly at all.

The same thing is true when you're used to a church that practices judgment and then you go into a church where the people are oblivious of judgment. They're waiting to be caught up into the presence of Christ, which would be the most excruciating pain they ever suffered in their life because they haven't been judged yet.

Well, God wants everyone in this church to be judged. Remember 1 Corinthians 11? If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. And you don't go out seeking what's wrong with you. You wait and let the Lord show you.

But you see, when He shows you, it's important then that you do not blame people. That's so important. You do not blame the tools or circumstances that God uses. You do not do that. If you do, the program of judgment and deliverance will stop and you will become bitter.

And when God is using people to cause you to incandesce, to glow so that the impurity in your personality is revealed, there's a great temptation to develop hatred and bitterness. You get your eyes off the Lord.

When these things go up, the temptation is to look at people. It's your fault. You're the one that caused this. You caused this. And you don't do that. You will never grow if you do that. You'll never grow.

You don't look at the people that are causing you pain. You think about them as little as you possibly can. You look to Jesus and say, Jesus, why am I losing my rest over this? What is it in my personality that's causing me to lose my rest?

My peace? My peace? And if you'll do that, the Lord will show you. Because when someone takes your rest from you, it's because there's something wrong in you. He's just using them. See, you've come forth out of the tomb like Lazarus, but you're bound with grave clothes.

But Jesus did not take off those grave clothes. He let the people standing around there take the grave clothes off Lazarus. And you've been saved. You've been brought into eternal life. But you have grave clothes.

And the Lord doesn't take them. He lets the people around you take them. And they peel them off you in God's time. And it hurts. It hurts. You don't want to let it go. But you have to keep turning to the Lord.

Keep turning to the Lord. Just refuse to blame people. Just keep turning to the Lord and saying, Lord, why is this taking my rest from me? If you'll do that, the Lord will show you then you say, that's right.

That's wrong in me. Not wrong in the person that's causing this pain. That's wrong in me, Lord. I repent of this. I turn from it by Your grace. It's history. Every time you do that, you add bronze to your personality.

Every time you do that, you add bronze to your personality. Then you'll be qualified to ride behind the Lord when He comes like that banner. When He that is faithful and true comes, you'll be with Him.

But if you don't, but if you pass this off and blame people, blame circumstances, blame the world, blame the government, blame the homosexuals, blame whoever you want to blame, you won't grow. You'll remain a baby.

And when you die, you'll be whimpering and crying and full of pain and fear because you didn't do... you didn't handle life correctly. You didn't learn obedience through the things you suffered. The pain didn't remove sin from you.

1 Peter 4 .1. He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. You didn't let that happen. Instead, you turned and said, this is not right what this person has done. This is unjust. You can't do that.

If you're looking for justice in life, you're in the wrong life. There's no justice in this world. The wicked prevail and have a ball while you're suffering because of their selfishness. Okay? If you fret about that, you're only destroying yourself.

Let it turn you to the Lord. No one suffered perversity worse than the Lord Jesus. No one suffered perversity, but it's a man full of joy. Why? Because he gave it all to God. He didn't point the finger and say, it's your fault.

It's your fault that I'm suffering. It's your fault. Why don't you believe me, etc. and so on. Save your strength. It's an unjust world. I've got a nice amen corner over here. Thank you very much. Everybody else is thinking.

Alright. So we find that his feet were like bronze glowing in the furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. When I was in Iceland, Einar took me to one of the waterfalls, the mammoth waterfalls they have there in Iceland.

And it makes a tremendous sound. And he said, this is like the voice of the Lord. Power. Power. Power. Power. All speech is water. And the more power we get, the more it turns into a river, finally into a great rushing waterfall, a great cataract, so that when you speak, the communication is immense.

In his right hand, he held seven stars. That's the angel of the churches. See, that's all under the control of Christ. Nothing to worry about angels. And out of his mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword.

The Word of God. Mightiest power in the universe. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. That's the radiance of righteousness. Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the glory of their Father.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. And that was John that had leaned on him all the time when they were eating. The beloved John was scared to death until he fainted. Well, that's the glory.

It says, glorify me. Lift me up in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world began. And that's the glory that he had with him. But in between this prayer and that glorifying was what?

The crucifixion. And so it is with us. We want the glory of the Lord. I pray for the glory of the Lord. But there may come first a necessary crucifixion. Of course, in his case, it was to make atonement for the sins of the world, which we never do.

Sometimes we have to fill up the sufferings that are behind for his body's sake. But you know what? If you don't exercise, you lose your muscle tone. Did you know that? You get flabby. It also affects your bones.

You lose calcium. You have to exercise to keep muscle tone. Otherwise, you get to be like a jellyfish. You just kind of flop around. Look for the nearest chair. Well, the same thing is true in the Spirit Room.

And the reason that we have the trouble that we do is so that we'll keep our spiritual muscle tone. That's exactly why we have it. Because if we didn't have a problem, we wouldn't pray and pretty soon we'd get flabby spiritually.

So the Lord keeps us praying, keeps us praying, keeps us praying, keeps us praying, keeps us praying. Well, it keeps spiritual muscle tone. That's the truth. It isn't because He doesn't love us. It's because otherwise we get flabby and we become vulnerable to Satan.

Alright, He says, I have revealed you. Now, I like that because there's been so much confusion about the Trinity as though Christ and the Father are the same person. If Christ and the Father were the same person, this whole prayer is a racket.

It doesn't mean anything. If Christ is the Father, He's praying to Himself. Me? Answer my prayer, me? Ah, it's craziness. Theology can get you into more trouble, I tell you. It's amazing the light that the Bible throws on the commentaries.

He said, I have revealed you. You're talking about two people here. One is I and one is you. So, there's a Father there. There's a Father and the Father is not Jesus. Jesus here is praying to the Father.

Does that make sense to you? To me, that's so simple. Why gum it up with all this stuff you can't understand? Alright, now there's several things here. First of all, I want to mention the revelation of the Father.

That is Matthew 11 .27. Matthew 11 .27. God, it is sure a big mystery, isn't it? Jesus is God's Son. What mystery? Oh, Lord. Talk about making something simple difficult. All things, Matthew 11 .27, all things have been committed to me by my Father.

No one knows the Son except the Father. No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Then He says, come unto me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.

That rest is the knowledge of the Father. That's what it is. So, if you don't know the Father, you can look forward to it. When we're saved, we know about Jesus. When we get the baptism, we know about the Holy Spirit.

Now we're coming to a third... It isn't revelation because when we have Christ, we have the Holy Spirit and the Father and everything. But it's third platform, whatever you want to call it. But Christ is typified by salvation through the blood and the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and power.

But when we come to the Father, the big issue is obedience. I just finished a booklet on that. Mark, it's in my room. Obedience. I think sometimes Christian people don't have a clue as to how important it is to obey God.

We've been taught that we're saved by grace and nobody can serve God, blah, blah, blah. Well, the most important thing for a son is obedience. Obedience. Well, I can't obey God. Nobody can obey God. That's the devil's lie.

Well, I say we're supposed to keep the commandments and then you know what's brought up? But the Lord commanded us to be perfect and nobody's perfect so therefore we don't have to keep the rest of the commandments.

Did the Lord command us to be perfect? You don't know, do you? Well, He did. You say that's impossible. Well, let me tell you something. He told a man how to be perfect. Yeah, He did. You know who it was?

The rich young ruler. He says, I kept all the commandments. And the Lord said, well, if you'll be perfect sell what you have and give it to the poor. So much for all this baloney. Of course you're not perfected.

There's such a thing as a perfect child, a perfect teenager, a perfect adult. You're perfect for the moment. What do you think? God wants you imperfect? He wants you disobedient? He wants you to obey Him strictly, promptly without having to have everything explained to you.

So that's impossible. Well, it's nothing of the kind. It's impossible to please the devil, but it's easy to please God. The Bible says His commandments are not grievous. Not grievous. Grievous. Okay? His commandments are not grievous.

They're not a pain in the neck. They're simple and straightforward and He expects them to be obeyed. Imagine if you said to your child, I want you to go upstairs and go to sleep at 9 o 'clock and not a second later.

And your child says, well, you've got three wills. A good will, a better will, and a best will. A perfect will. Whatever. So I'll go up at 10 o 'clock and then I'm keeping your acceptable will, but not your perfect will.

You know, that's what church people do. If you tell your child to go to bed at 9 o 'clock, turn off the television and go to sleep, what is your will? Is it that he goes to bed at 9 .30? No. So you don't have two wills for your father and God does not have two wills for you.

He only has one will. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth. He doesn't have a good, perfect, and acceptable will. That's a phenomenon associated with the King James translation. They say God's will, which is good, acceptable, and perfect.

They're not three wills of God. Doesn't God know what He's doing or what He wants? Well, what I told you to do is this, but this is okay and that's okay. We have been taught more nonsense. First of all, you have to obey God.

If you don't obey God, what are you doing? Disobeying God. It's as simple as that. You're either obeying your parents or you're disobeying your parents. There's no middle ground where you're almost kind of sort of.

And it certainly is possible to please God. You'd think God was giving us a whole bunch of stuff to do that no one in his right mind could ever do. Well, that's a devil's lie to keep us separated from God.

You want to realize that Satan's big motive is to keep us separated from God. And everything he does has the purpose to keep us separated from God. It's like making Jesus and the Father the same person.

It keeps us separated from God. You're telling us that we're saved by a state of grace and we don't have to keep God's command. It's to keep us separated from God. God wants us to come to Him. God wants us to be close to Him.

He's a Father. God is our Father. He wants us to be close to Him. Satan wants us to be removed from Him. It's as simple as that. And when we're told we don't have to obey God, that is coming from Satan.

Of course we have to obey God. And if we don't obey God, there's a price to pay. God loves us. Indeed He loves us. And He's always gently trying to bring us along to where we will trust Him and love Him and accept Him and draw near to Him.

He's always doing this. And religion is always pushing them off in a box. Let us make three tabernacles. Whatever we do, get them out of sight. Can't stand here talking to Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Put them in a box.

Get them out of sight. Charge admission. That's why there's no temple in the New Jerusalem. God wants His children all around Him climbing all over Him. Audrey was talking about coming back on the plane.

Were you going to talk about the Jewish Father? Can I talk about the Jewish Father? Is it okay? She was watching a Jewish Father and His children were climbing all over Him. And He was just laughing and grinning and having a great time.

And then what? You saw a contrast to that. What was it? Yeah, the child was horsing around the garden too and the Father well, I don't say He did wrong, but I'm pointing out God wants His children climbing all over Him.

And any doctrine you hear that separates you from God is not of the Lord. Because God loves you. And the closer you are to God and climbing all over Him, you know how kids do because they're of the kingdom.

And when we're adults we get educated beyond our intelligence and we don't know what we're doing. It's a simple father-son relationship. And God sends His Spirit into us crying, Abba, dear Father, He wants us to love Him.

No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one the Father except the Son. And He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. But then in another place He said to receive children because their angels always see the face of my Father.

So we want to draw near to God not develop theological positions that put God in a box. Am I making any sense to you? I'm talking about the knowledge of the Father. And the only way you can walk with God is to obey Him.

He wants you to come to Him like I told the Lord I was willing to go anywhere as a missionary and God says I love you. So much for my zeal. If you go to God and say I'll do whatever you want, give me the grace, I'll do it, you'll find out that you're probably doing it anyway and you don't have the satisfaction of knowing that you're serving Him.

Because you're afraid to call His hand. Get down sometime. Maybe today. Maybe after I get through yakking. And tell God you'll do whatever He says. When you take communion this morning, tell God I'm here.

Here's one Son that's going to obey you no matter what. And see what happens. Huh? I dare you. Yeah. I double dare you. I dare you with sugar on it. Tell God you'll do whatever He says. That you'll want to find out what your work is?

Get it done and complete it and get out of here. Not mess up the world when you're not needed. Well anyway, something like that. Alright now, here's another angle here on this fifth verse. Is that what we're on?

Fifth verse. Six verse. Six verse. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have obeyed your word.". They have obeyed your word. Now, this opens up a can of peas big time.

Because it suggests that the kingdom does not operate according to democratic principles. I mean, there's no way you can get anything democratic out of this. Those whom you gave me out of the world. He said, I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.

Well, how about the other people? What about them? This isn't fair. Call your lawyer. It isn't fair, Hal. How can he have given some people out of the world and not other people? That's the way the kingdom is.

You know, this causes an immense problem to people with a philosophical turn of mind. Because they say, if God's doing everything like this, how in the world can he judge us for doing evil? Well, Paul got up to that point, and he said, don't be sassy.

He didn't really solve it. But I'll tell you how it works once. At least, this is the way I see it. God, it's very clear in the Scripture, and we'll go over some if we have time, we're almost through it.

That God, that salvation and everything, the priesthood, the whole thing, the setup of the kingdom, all comes from God. All comes from God. The Scripture is very clear, and this is just one instance here.

It all comes from God. In fact, later on in the chapter, he says, I don't pray for the world. I pray for those that you gave me. Well, OK. But there's a couple other Scriptures. There's one in 2 Timothy that says, God made some vessels unto honor and some unto dishonor.