Chosen For Glory (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 Jeff Kliewer)

Church Announcements and Upcoming Baptism, Picnic, and Prayer Events

Service group and a second service group. I think we still have a zoom group but I'm not sure if it's zoom it's online. But please come back stay here after second service is done. There is a significant number of people wanting to be baptized and next Sunday afternoon we are going to have a baptismal service right there out on the lawn.

This is a time of blessing and just proclaiming the faith for those who are being baptized. For those of us who are going to get to witness what a time for encouragement and to be building up of our faith.

Let's be in prayer for that baptism and then there's going to be a picnic afterward. Now I was kind of thinking just by looking at Pastor Jeff's pastagram this must be a BYO. Pastor Jeff then informed me Dad's Deli.

Now how many of you are writing down I'm coming I'm coming I'm coming for Dad's Deli. Oh does that count as baptism? Can somebody choose to be baptized on the water slide? No. All right let's enjoy a time of celebration with God for the baptism then a time of fellowship together.

Come back then later that evening for our prayer meeting and then if you can't make that but please come back later at 7 15 we have a movie Show Me the Father. It is specifically focused towards the men but the women are definitely invited to see what this teaching is all about in today's culture.

Today's culture just driving us in such weird ways. Men need to be men according to the Bible and come and watch and listen to this teaching. Next Sunday we are also having a special emphasis offering in addition to your tithes and offerings you know we're getting ready to close on land and then we're looking towards God towards a new building.

We have a capital fund which is an ongoing fund you can always contribute to it but next Sunday will be a special offering toward what's going on and how God is leading us. So go ahead and put that in your prayers for the week.

Tomorrow morning gentlemen is that time of month we get to wake up early for the men's prayer breakfast at six o 'clock so join us for that and in just 10 days we Lord willing will be closing on that land on Phillips Road.

Then looking forward to where does he take us beyond that a big emphasis of prayer. Our regular schedule this week with prayer meeting with men's apologetics ladies precepts small groups Wednesday right here in the sanctuary we have our Isaiah teaching which then goes online.

Love life is not this Saturday but the following Saturday on the 18th our love life prayer walk put that on your prayer list. Let's turn to prayer. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good his steadfast love endures forever.

Prayer of Thanksgiving, Baptism, and Ministry

Lord we thank you for your presence in our lives. We thank you for your son who willingly went to the cross his blood shed. We thank you for your grace that he can even can awaken our dead hearts. We thank you for the Holy Spirit working within us for your word that we're even called to be your witnesses.

Lord we thank you for the baptism that's coming for those who are ready to be baptized that this would be a week of spiritual preparation that they would be coming excited that we would come excited to witness to it.

Thank you Lord for calling us to ministry and to testimony in a world that is dark. We have your truth that we can proclaim your truth but we don't go alone we go in the power of the Holy Spirit. We go knowing Lord that you go before us equipping cultivating hearts.

Lord we thank you for the gifts that you've given to each one of us to be used for your glory and for the one another that we have here at Cornerstone being with each other. But most of all Lord we thank you for your son.

We thank you for his obedience his bloodshed. We thank you for salvation for the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the hope that we have. Father we also continue to lift those in our midst in need. This morning Lord as Pastor Jeff comes and speaks to us about the sovereignty of God's choice and the most important of all decisions a person can make.

We pray Lord that you would empower him prepare our hearts. Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Amen. Let's all stand before we sing.

Let's read together Revelation 22 17. The spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who desires to take the water of life without price.

My soul will wake. My soul will wake. My soul will wake. My soul will wake. My soul will wake. You're my comfort when I feel forsaken. My refuge and my sure foundation. My soul will wake. My soul will wake.

This is love I can't explain. This is mercy unreserved. Through your sacrifice so great. I have peace that's undeserved. For the battle has been won and I fear no shame or law. Last hope that won't be shaken.

My soul will wake. My soul will wake. You're my comfort when I feel forsaken. My refuge and my sure foundation. My soul will wake. My soul will wake.

The doxology always a great thing to have when we're in worship. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. We could speak for 45 minutes just on that one but let Jeff I'll let you have your time. We also sang about how we are washed in the blood and what an amazing truth that is.

The Upper Room, the Cross, and Communion

As the time approached Jesus called his followers to an upper room where they shared the Passover and many things happened in that room. Some amazing teaching. He washed their feet. He said it's good for you that I go and they're going.

Huh? He said but if I go I will send another and he will be with you. In fact in acts as he departs he says you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. He had a plan for his people but at that time in that room in the upper room he takes bread and he breaks it and he says this is my body broken for you.

He takes the cup and he said this is my blood shed for you. I don't know that there could have been any really understanding of what was going on. Well first of all we know that the Holy Spirit does not yet indwell.

Although these messages are important what's about to happen in just a few short hours is so dark and deep and full of despair as they saw their rabbi, their leader on a cross. That very, very dark moment where he says my God, my God why have you forsaken me?

The reality that we now know is that my sins, your sins, the sins of all eternity on him for that one moment and God had to turn his face away. That's the agony and then he said to tell us die. What he had proclaimed in that upper room was completed.

Satan thinking that the prophecy all the way back from Genesis 3 that he would destroy the Messiah was not to be so you see. He died for our sins and then on the third day he rose again and that we who know this truth who are regenerated by his grace so that we can hear this message and respond in faith we become new people.

It says we're a new creation. The old is past all is new and now we know and now we understand and then Paul writes this letter to Corinthians for us. You see in front of us right now are some elements the world can look at and say all right we got some crackers, you got some juice.

No, no we have representations of his body broken and of his blood shed so that when we when we come to this table we come in remembrance of him. We come celebrating. How do you celebrate a death on a cross?

My brothers and sisters if it wasn't for that death on a cross, if it wasn't for Jesus in that garden saying if there's any way yet not my will but thine be done. The extent of the depth of that love.

Our coming here is foolishness. His rising from the dead. Our hope eternal risen like him and so these elements are laid in front of us and we're about to share in that. It says in 1st Corinthians chapter 11.

For I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus on the same night he was betrayed took bread. Now at the end of this passage is a very important challenge to each one of us.

Wherefore whoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lord's body. Let's not come trivially or let's not uncome unworthily. Let's not uncome with sin that we know needs to be confessed.

Let's confess and prepare ourselves and so in prayer take a moment and confess. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Father through your blood my sins have been forgiven. I'm no longer a slave to sin but Lord I do confess my surrender to sin.

I do confess Lord knowing it says if you walk in the spirit you'll not fulfill the desires of the flesh yet Lord I choose at times to believe Satan's lie and I fulfill that lust of the flesh. I confess that to you.

I pray Father our confessions are sincere and specific as we come to this table.

In remembrance in Jesus name. Amen. If the servers would come forward. For I have received.

Of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat. This is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me.

God what reveals the father's love. What can lead the melt a heart of stone. What can free the ginseng blossom. God knowing that in my sinful state I could not offer a sacrifice sufficient.

Sent his son on that cross his body broken take he didn't remembrance of him. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as oft you do it drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the Lord's death till he come.

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins and so the pure spotless.

Lamb hung on the cross his blood shed so that my sins might be washed. White as snow we do this.

In remembrance of him take drink. What a privilege to take communion isn't it to come to his table.

Let's pray. Father thank you so much for sending your one and only son Jesus. Thank you so much for loving us to the point of shedding your blood and spirit. Thank you for applying this truth to us that we would believe.

It is a Trinitarian work by which we are saved and so we want to say thank you. Help us Lord through the preaching of your word now to become a more thankful grateful people. Help us to give all glory to you and give us joy in the holy spirit.

Thank you so much now for the opening of your word. Speak your servants are listening in Jesus name. We pray amen. I was sent a video from someone in our congregation and it was of the Marlton Evesham board of education meeting that happened last week.

The Marlton-Evesham School Board Video and the Culture War Over Children

It was an astonishing video to watch because many of the people were were just filled with anger and vitriol and it was it was quite a thing to behold the board of education was listening to one man go on and on about how they might cut funding for speech therapy for some of the children.

Now if you mask children in the classroom for years you can expect that their speech will be affected by this. And yet thinking that the government has some kind of money other than what it takes from the people they assume an endless supply of funds for things like speech benefits to help children which we support and yet there's not an endless amount of money.

A second issue that he was just beating them up with was with reference to health benefits that teachers might not have the same benefits that they had prior to the pandemic or something of this nature.

But what stood in my mind is that he said these are not hard choices they're evil on the level of cartoon villains. So he labeled these board of education people cartoon villains who are absolutely evil now.

He had a third gripe and at this point i began to think if the whole world stinks check your mustache this litany of just grievances and anger and vitriol. Well the last of them was directed at 1776 christian nationalists who are no different than the taliban in their quest to impose extremist views.

He was for the sexual education of minors in the lgbtq direction and called those who resisted such a thing cultists and hate-filled christian nationalists and said that we are a threat to the very fabric of society kind of insane.

And yet what was even more surprising is that his cohort of friends cheered loudly and wildly applauded which is a bit of a disnerving unnerving i should say thing that it wasn't regarded as just him being unhinged.

In fact he went on to say the unhinged and dangerous extremists should be canceled. He chastised the board of education for even listening to the other side and says that they should just make them sit down.

Well i look at a man like this online and i think to myself what makes me different than him. Because i couldn't be more different than this man. It's night and day. It's as different as light is from darkness.

How is it that i would come into the light. And this man has not. And our world views are just polar opposites. What makes us who sit in this room christians who see the world through this book as opposed to the secular worldview and the lens that others see with.

But for the grace of god there go i. The point of my message today is not to say that i'm anything because i'm nothing. The point of my message is to remind you brothers and sisters that everything we have every spiritual blessing comes from god and not from us.

It is all of grace and nothing more humble inside of us nothing better about us that would make us choose christ where the people of the world reject him. It's all of grace. And we'll see that in the text as we come to it today.

But first a word about the month designated by our president as pride month. The world sees the sexual expression of people very differently than we do and they go so far as to identify their movement as pride.

But the scripture says pride goeth before the fall. In fact the very definition of love given in first corinthians 13 which i read when i'm conducting weddings all the time. First corinthians 13 the famous love chapter in verse 4 it says.

Love is not proud. Pride has always been regarded as one of the seven deadly sins in the history of christianity. Pride lust anger greed gluttony envy sloth. I memorized that when i learned that in middle school in a public school pride has always been regarded as an affront to god.

Jesus said all evil things come from within and they defile a person. Pride of course is the root of other sins because it is the creature saying to the creator you cannot tell me what to do. It's the elevation of man to the place of god.

And this is the month in which we live in this country and a moment which marks the state of affairs in our country. How are we to respond. That's the question. And the answer is but for the grace of god there go i as we come into second thessalonians chapter two turn with me.

We have been learning about where this trajectory takes us. According to second thessalonians chapter two we have to expect that the world will continue in this direction of apostasy. The great apostasy in second thessalonians chapter two verse three referred to as the rebellion.

I've called it the great reset referring to a once christian society turning away and rebelling from that authority. It is called the apostasy of the rebellion. This must come and then the antichrist will be revealed and he will set up the abomination of desolation in the most holy place proclaiming himself to be god.

And this will then usher in what is called the day of the lord. It is the tribulation as spoken of in the book of revelation a day of wrath on earth revelation 617. These things are to come but they haven't started yet because the restrainer is keeping it at bay.

You see the tribulation and the end times are not on satan's time table but they are held and controlled by god. And the holy spirit is restraining these these things until their time when god has ordained for them to come to pass.

Last week we saw in verses 9 to 12 that the fundamental spirit of the age is rebellious against the truth. People do not love truth. They despise the truth of god's word and they reject and suppress that truth.

Therefore there comes a point where god may give a person over to the delusion. Verse 11 says. God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false. It's the truth versus the lie. That's the that's the struggle that we're experiencing in our culture as world views are colliding.

Those who hold to the christian worldview are clashing with those who reject that worldview and believe the lie the pseudo the false in verse 11 in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

So that leaves us at a very down moment in the text right the promise of of hell to those who have rejected truth and the strong delusion that's come over the world. The tribulation the antichrist. Not exactly a pep talk.

Right. And the context of this book is a church that is going through persecution. Now in america we have not tasted even the first fruits of genuine persecution. We are so blessed in this country because it's been founded by the puritans who established a country on inalienable rights.

The constitution that governs our land built upon biblical principles of individualism and the esteem of individuals made in the image of god. We have inherited that blessing and so we have not had to endure persecution very much.

Well there will come a day when that hand of restraint will be lifted and america will suffer the same way as the rest of the world will. But around the world you have people already enduring terrible suffering being martyred in nigeria.

But the news doesn't report on those hundreds of christians being slaughtered. It's a common thing from boko haram and all around the world the persecution in china and in russia and in the ukraine and all over the world christians are being persecuted.

We have been blessed to have been protected as we have to this level. But in thessalonica they were losing their jobs they were being killed they were being persecuted. And so how then can a christian hang on to the faith in a culture like that.

That's the question. And the answer comes in verse 13 and 14. But it's surprising because it's deep and theological. Here's how i want you to think about it. Think about the answer as like ballast in a ship.

I've used this metaphor before ballast is weight put into the bottom of a ship that keeps it from capsizing. Now a light ship is high on the water and it can move quickly with the wind as it drives it along the sail cap capturing.

Capturing the wind. It can move quickly and it's agile. But what the the captain knows is that if the ship is too high on the water a strong gale can what. Blow it over tip it over. It'll capsize. And now you'll be treading water in the middle of the ocean.

How can the christian keep from capsizing. He needs ballast in his ship. He needs the depth the weight of god's word of doctrine. Doctrine matters. And as we add these doctrines to our mind to our thinking it's like adding ballast to the ship of our life.

When the wind comes and the waves kick up. You will not capsize when the persecution comes when difficult times diagnoses of cancer or some other condition the things that all of us will face in this life when those times come.

You're going to need ballast in your ship. So that's why i'm going to ask you right now to pay attention to a doctrinally difficult sermon. But i'm only going to preach what is written in these words.

I'm not going to bring you my calvinism because john calvin would have run me out of geneva. Do you know that he was a pedo baptist and he thought that the anabaptists were heretics. And i would never baptize a baby only a believer.

So calvin would have given me the boot in geneva. So i'm not a follower of the man calvin but where he spoke rightly about salvation and god's choice and election. We're only echoing what the word of god has said at those particular points.

Let's read it. Don't take it from me. Don't take it from old john calvin. You can take it from john laskin. Let's read it from the text of god's holy word verses 13 and 14. And it's a surprise twist because we're talking about the antichrist.

And all of a sudden we're talking about election verse 13. But we ought always to give thanks to god for you brothers beloved by the lord because god chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth.

To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our lord jesus christ. Three things i want you to see in the passage today. Number one is choice. Who chooses if there's only one ultimately free being in the universe his name is god not jeff.

God chooses not you. We'll see that in the text secondly means so the first is choice. The means by what means are we saved. God ordains the means of sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth.

And thirdly to what end. So choice means an end. We are chosen to the end of glorification that we would obtain the glory of our lord jesus christ. Let's break that down. First choice. As soon as i begin to teach on election and god's choice there will be philosophical objections in the room and online.

And let me assure you that everything that you might wrestle with is something that my mind has also struggled with over the years. But let me tell you where i ultimately settle. It's not philosophy. Colossians 2 8 warns us about that and how the fairness of this that and the other might appear to my little brain.

I settle wherever god tells me to settle. And the word of god could not be any more clear than in this particular passage. Because some will say well his choice is maybe for conformity to the christian in the image of god.

But god would never choose who will be saved. What does the text say in verse 13. But we ought always to give thanks to god for you brothers beloved by the lord because god chose you as the first fruits to be saved.

He literally says that right there in the text god chose you to be saved. Now the first big idea that you might not have seen in a quick reading of the text is that these two verses are trinitarian. See if you can find all three members of the trinity in verses 13 and 14.

But we ought always to give thanks to god that's the father whenever god is without a um a reference beyond just that he's god. It's referring to the father for you brothers beloved by the lord kurios master is jesus.

And that's confirmed at the end of verse 14 where our lord our kurios is identified as the second member of the trinity jesus christ. And look dead smack in the middle through sanctification by the spirit.

I love this verse because it's kind of like a miniature version of ephesians 1 3 to 14. In ephesians 1 3 to 14 we see it expanded and you see the father electing the son interposing his precious blood at ephesians 1 7.

And then the holy spirit in verses 13 and 14 of ephesians 1 applying that redemption. But now we have it just in short order a condensed version. And here's what i want to say to you. Salvation is a trinitarian work and the trinity as father son holy spirit are always in perfect harmony.

There's no disharmony between the one the father elects and for whom jesus dies or the work of the spirit in the life of a person. There's no disharmony between that and the one that the father elects.

Look in our text it was god the father who did the choosing. Next it was the son here that does the loving. Do you see that. And all. There's a perfect harmony. So there's perfect love. God is love first john.

But here in the text it says. Brothers be loved by the lord. Listen. It is true that god so loved the world the entire cosmos all people. He has a general love for people. He's not a harsh and strict god who's just looking for someone to condemn.

He's a loving god and he has a loving gracious disposition to the world. John 3 16. Amen. It is also true that god has a special saving love for his bride. The the groom lays down his life for the bride.

In ephesians 5 the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And it says here brothers beloved by the lord he's calling you a delphoid brothers. You specifically who believe in him are under a special love from jesus christ himself.

You're loved by him. He said this. I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. No. From now on i call you friends. His friends. His brothers in hebrews 2 are those whom he represents in going to the cross.

And his love is this. Greater love has no one than this the one who lays down his life for his friends. The father elects the son then lays down his life in a particular love to pay the price of the sin that i have committed.

His blood actually intercedes for me and atones for me. He knew me as he hung on the cross. As jesus hung on the cross he knew you as the one the father elected. And that the spirit would regenerate in time which brings us to the third person.

It says here sanctification by the spirit. In order to believe the truth one must be sanctified by the spirit. The spirit's role in redemption is to take what belongs to the son and apply it and thus glorify the son setting you apart for belief in the truth.

Now this teaching about election the father elects even before the foundation of the world is a difficult one to be sure. But it's not muddy. It's not unclear. It's very clear. In fact in john 644 jesus is teaching and he says.

No one comes to me unless the father draws him. And i will raise him up on the last day jesus taught that he goes on to teach. Remember. You did not choose me. No i have chosen you. In the book of acts paul is sent on a missionary journey.

Do you remember this. In acts 13. And he goes preaching the gospel. And we're told by luke as he records these events in chapter 13 verse 48. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Now i want to stop there.

And have you think about that for a second. How have you thought about salvation happening. Someone preaches the gospel. And you must do the believing that has to come from you. And if you do that then what you'll be appointed to eternal life.

That is the teaching of most american churches in evangelicalism today not for the history of the church but ever since john wesley and the second great awakening in the united states of america popularized that view.

But what the text actually says. Turn with me to acts. Chapter 13 verse 48. What the text actually says. Acts 1348. I don't know how i used to miss this because i didn't have a robust doctrine of salvation in my younger years.

But through reading. And actually i wrote a commentary on the book of romans. And as i was studying through the book and writing on romans 9 romans 8 and 9 i had no choice but to believe what was right there in the text.

And so i did finally submit to that teaching. But for some reason whenever i would read the book of acts i probably read it hundreds of times over the course of my life. Whenever i would read read verse 48 i missed the order that luke was inspired to write.

Do you see this here brother. And when the gentiles heard this they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. It's not that belief appoints them to eternal life.

It's that being appointed that means elected chosen by god results in the believing. So this faith itself is a gift. Turn with me to ephesians one. I've already referenced it but i just like you to see it with your own eyes lest you you doubt me as some of you no doubt do.

That's okay. Ephesians one three to six. We'll stop there. Ephesians one three to six says. Blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ who has blessed us in him in christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

So the idea here is that we're blessed. It's not coming from us. We're just blessed. And then verse four it says. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us for adoption as sons through jesus christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. Now some have taught that it's not that jesus has chosen an actual person.

It's only that he's chosen the church a group of people. And that group will be populated by our own decisions. Have you heard that teaching. Because it says he chose us in him. And so some will say well it's christ.

Who's the chosen one. According to first peter 120. That's true. Christ is the chosen one. But the way that you're part of that elect group is by your own choice. And it's really up to individuals to join it.

Can you look at verse four with me for a second. The bible clearly says even as he god the father chose us that word us is hamas in the greek. It's a personal possessive pronoun. It cannot be read as group.

It is us. It is you and you and you who believe in christ. It is us the adelphoi the brothers. It is the ones to whom paul refers. Now let's go back to second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. It is the ones that he here calls brothers beloved by the lord.

It is a beautiful teaching. It's a teaching about love. The father has fixed a special love upon certain ones that he has chosen. And it goes on to say because god chose you as the first fruits. Now look at your bible.

Does anybody there have something other than as the first fruits. Raise your hand. Everybody reading the esv has as the first fruits right. But if you've got the nas or the the king james or the niv it will read from the beginning.

Now from the beginning mirrors what we just read in ephesians four. So why is there a difference there in our bibles. The answer is that there is a textual variant in the manuscript tradition. There was a manuscript discovered before the writing of the esv the earliest manuscript of second thessalonians.

And it actually has first fruits rather than beginning in archaic. Or the first fruits which is it. Well the majority text meaning the byzantine majority the number the the huge number of texts that come later on but are more predominant has from the beginning.

So where does that leave us. It leaves us slightly unsure. Does the esv handle it right. Or do the king james and other versions handle it right. Here's the point that prepositional phrase does not change the active verb and what it modifies.

Look more carefully at the text. If you read it as as the first fruits it simply means you thessalonians are among the first to be chosen right. You're among those who are first to believe. If your version reads from the beginning that means you were chosen.

And that prepositional phrase is moderate is modifying when you were chosen it's modifying the the verb of choose. So it's an adverb. It says because god chose you as the first fruits to be saved. In either case the teaching is really simple.

So far we've looked at some deep theology and compared it to other passages. Wouldn't it be nice if we could just boil this down to something really simple right now the first point is about choice no matter how you slice it.

Here's what the bible says. And here's what's at stake. What's at stake is clarity the doctrine of perspicuity that when the scripture speaks god speaks clearly right. If this word choice doesn't mean that he chooses we're in trouble.

But the simple thing that it says right here is that god chose you. You have a problem with that. You don't have a problem with me. You have a problem with that right. That word chose is hey lotto. In the greek it comes from areo.

It's only used two places in new testament it always means to pick. To pick out of the other place that's used is philippians 122 where paul is saying he had just said in 121 for to me to live as christ to die as gain.

And he goes on to say but what would i choose. What would i pick. To go on. Living in the flesh is better for you because that means fruitful labor. But to die and be with christ is better for me. And he has these things in the balance.

And he asked the question which thing will i. Hey lotto which would i choose. Paul is thinking which would i pick. And ultimately he says which one i'd rather remain. Because that's better for you. Right.

But the point is the word means pick or choose. Which would paul pick. In philippians 1. And in the context of our verse right here what does it say. God picked you. God chose you. So the first big point is actually a really simple one.

As hard as it is for us mere men mere mortals to get our minds around. Remember. You did not choose him. No he has chosen you. Okay. Well that leaves us at kind of an awkward spot. Right. Because. Well then why should we even go preach the gospel.