Sunday School | Doctrine of Salvation - Unconditional Election

All right. So today we're gonna continue looking at unconditional election, walking through this thing. But almost certainly you have questions. And so what we're gonna do for questions is I want you to point your camera at that QR code if you know how to use one. That'll bring you to a Google form with one question: what's your question? You can type that in. And then as we walk through Tulip, I will address questions that are pertinent.

At the end of this, I promise once we're all done walking through this whole arc, which will take several weeks, we're gonna take all the time we need to work through the implications of this. But I think the best way to learn this is to learn it systematically, a bite at a time. So you can jot down your questions at any point and send them in and we'll put that up every week. I will just start collecting them and organizing them. We'll process through them. But I think it's best rather than chasing every rabbit that crosses your mind if we walk through Tulip first.

So we're gonna keep marching through. Ask anything you like and we'll get to it when the time comes.

Grace Across Theological Differences

I think perhaps you know that there are great Christians who have an enormous impact and walk humbly with the Lord that are Calvinists and those who are not Calvinists. And by the way, when I use the term Calvinist, I'm just using that as a convenient shorthand for this reformed understanding of soteriology. I'm not saying you subscribe to everything that John Calvin ever said. There's no such thing as subscribing to everything one person ever said.

There are people who love these doctrines, people who do not love these doctrines, who have both made a huge impact. I may have told you the story before about George Whitfield, who was a great Calvinist revivalist preacher in the early days of the colonies. He was once asked if he thought that he would see John Wesley in heaven. Wesley, by the way, is not a Calvinist. And Whitfield said, no, I do not. The reporter was somewhat taken aback by such a bold statement. And he said, John Wesley will be seated so close to the throne that from where I am seated, I doubt I will be able to make him out.

The posture that we should have toward one another even in the areas where we have disagreement should be that of grace and love and affection and admiration for the things that are truly admirable. And Whitfield had great admiration for Wesley. Wesley and his brother Charles were some of the greatest hymn writers of that century of the church. I would suggest to you, they could not write a song that lifted up the heart to worship the Lord without pretending to be Calvinists. They would write hymns that—these guys are not Calvinists, but the lyrics could not be anymore Calvinist. One of the Wesley songs is this:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

That is the most lyrical expression of Tulip that I have ever come across, and it comes from the pen of Charles Wesley.

So we are all in this together. We're gonna try to understand and make sense of the scriptures. And what I hope for you is that if I say things with which you disagree, it's okay. I like it. I find pleasure when people disagree with me because I like having conversations about those things. So we're allowed to have lots of space. Your questions can be gentle and kind. They can be chippy and mean. I don't really care. It's fine. But we'll process through it.

Faith and Regeneration

Where we left off on this document was we'd walked through a passage in Romans. We're just picking up in Ephesians two, and so we're gonna keep marching through. I hope to have some time for the biggie which is on the back of your document.

Here it is. Ephesians two, verses four and five:

But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5

I want you to notice: when did he make us alive? It was when we were dead in our sins. There's a question that is sometimes asked, and you kind of tease this out. Does faith precede regeneration or does regeneration precede faith?

What the question is recognizing is that when a person becomes a Christian, two things happen. One, they believe the gospel—faith.

The other thing that happens is that they leave death and enter life. And the question is, what's the sequence? Do unbelieving sinners believe the gospel and then they are rewarded with life, they come alive? Or are unbelieving sinners who are dead—are they granted life and having been awakened from their stupor, they then believe? Does faith precede regeneration or does regeneration precede faith?

I believe what the scriptures teach is that regeneration precedes faith. I believe there was a day that I came to believe. And the reason that I came to believe is that even while I was dead, God made me alive. That's what this passage right here in Ephesians 2 is saying. So my answer to that question is that regeneration precedes faith.

Election and Identity in Christ

Look at Colossians 3:

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. — Colossians 3:12

This is one of the passages that I mentioned last week. It's just kind of shorthand. It doesn't really unpack it. It just observes what's true of us, what's true of me: I have been chosen. Now you may think that it's an arrogant thing to make that observation. But it's not.

I used to be troubled with John's gospel, the fact that he would never name himself. What did he call himself? The disciple whom Jesus loved. There is a sense in which you could get the idea that John is basically saying, "You know, Jesus loves you, but let's be honest, I'm his favorite." And it could seem like he's being cocky. But I don't think he is.

If you were to ask me, "Tell me about yourself," I might say, "I'm a pastor of Church of the Holy Spirit. I lead Blue Ridge Fellows. I'm married to Kelly. I've got four kids." You might do something similar. You might say, "I run Virginia's Furniture Market." But if you ask John, "Tell me about yourself," you know what he would tell you? Jesus loves me. The most important thing in his life. That's not a boast. That's not a brag. He's not claiming I deserve that love. It's an observation that he has received that love.

For people that believe in this framing of salvation as I do, election is not because you're prettier, funnier, smarter, more athletic—pick your thing. This is humiliating. Paul is going to say, "You know why he picked me? I know why he picked me." Do you know why Paul thinks Jesus picked him? Because he's the worst of sinners. Why did he pick me? As an example of his limitless grace.

And if we believe in election, if we realize that God has picked me and we turn that into some excuse for our arrogance, it's like, it's insane. Paul says:

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. — Romans 3:27

God has chosen us because we're such a bunch of pathetic losers that there was no alternative. This is exactly what 1 Corinthians says:

Not many of you are wise. Not many of you were of noble birth. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are. — 1 Corinthians 1:26-28

Properly understood, election drives us to our knees. It affirms to us our total inability, our absolute unwillingness, and God's overriding mercy despite every reason he had to pass us by. We are—and I quote—"God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved." That is what this doctrine should produce in our hearts.

How Do We Know We're Chosen?

1 Thessalonians 1 says this:

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you. — 1 Thessalonians 1:4

Now this is fascinating. I mentioned to you last week that Spurgeon said, "Well, if the elect had yellow stripes on their shirttails, we'd be untucking people's shirts, but they don't. And so instead, we just preach the gospel to all men." So how do we know if somebody's chosen?

Paul tells you: How do I know that you were chosen?

We know that God has chosen you because the gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. — 1 Thessalonians 1:5

What he's saying is, "How do I know that he chose you? Because you believed. Because you responded. Because when you heard this message, it wasn't—or at least I would say it wasn't any longer what it is to most people, which is blah blah blah blah blah blah."

I've shared the gospel with thousands of people in one-on-one conversations, and I can tell when it's just like blah blah blah blah. But there are also those rare moments when the lights come on and they see it. And the beauty of Christ overcomes the wall of their blind eyes.

Paul says, right, that the god of this age has blinded the mind. By the way, the god of this age is Satan, not Yahweh.

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel, the glory of God in the face of Christ. It's stupid. It's gone. It's just idiocy to them. But then he also says, the same God, this is later in that passage. That same God who made light shine out of darkness made his light shine in our hearts. If he could do it in Genesis 1:1, he can do it again. And he has done it again. And when we see the lights come on, we're like, there it is. That is the work of the spirit because nothing else can explain it.

We know that he has chosen you because it worked. Right? Or second this, he says this:

But we ought always to thank God for you brothers, loved by the Lord because from the beginning, God chose you to be saved. — 2 Thessalonians 2:13

That little phrase, "from the beginning," gives a little more insight. It's another way that undoes this idea that God chose you because you chose him. Right? There's this kind of little reverse predestination that's really better described as post-destination. That God chooses those who choose him. Well listen, in the beginning, you didn't choose him. This is preexisting work.

From the beginning, God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the spirit and through belief in the truth. Now subsequent to that pre-choosing in real time during your lifetime, he called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And right there, Paul gives another little hint. We touched on this last week. Some have thought that the doctrines of sovereign grace undercut any meaning for evangelism. Why bother? If the game is gonna be won, why bother playing it? And from Paul's perspective, that doesn't make any sense. He's like, God chose you before the beginning of time. But what is the mechanism by which he called you? According to Paul, it's through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul shared the gospel knowing that it is the preaching of the gospel that God uses to draw people to faith. John Piper says it like this: "The God who is sovereign over the end is sovereign over the means. And the means by which he calls people to faith in conformity with his eternal purposes is the simple foolish preaching of the gospel."

The Dream Team Analogy

You might think of it like this. Do you guys remember when the US Olympic team let professionals play basketball in the Olympics? Remember the Dream Team? Do you guys know about this? This would have been, I don't know, what year was that? Is it '92? Okay. So it's like, you know, the Jordan era, right?

Now, I would suggest to you in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way that it was predestined that we were gonna win that game. Like when the United States sends in their professional players to play basketball on a world stage, we're going to win, absolutely going to win, right. And so you could have said to these guys, "Hey, do you want to be on the team?" And they're like, "Well, what's the point? The end is guaranteed. We're definitely going to win and so there's no fun in that." I don't think any of them thought that. They thought, "Oh that team is going to win. I want to be on it."

In a similar way, world evangelism is fueled by the certainty that we're going to win. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come. And so let's be on the team. We are on the dream team. This is it. You're on the winning side. The gospel will be heard by dead, deaf, blind, rebellious, willful sinners. And God in his mercy will open some of their eyes.

Which is why Paul says:

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

We do this believing that it's going to work. That he's chosen to save and he's going to save through our simple foolish preaching.

Or Titus. When Paul writes to Titus, he says it like this:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness.

He's writing. He's doing all that he's doing. All of his work is because he believes that on Crete, the island where Titus is working, there are elect persons.

We ended last week looking at this statement that happens in Acts 18 where God says:

I have many people in this city.

You guys, we believe that God has many people in many cities. He may have many people in Medina, right? So why do we send missionaries to Saudi Arabia? Why do we send missionaries to Iran? Why do we send missionaries to these outposts of Islam or Confucianism or Buddhism? Because God has many people in these cities and we will do whatever we have to do to get the gospel to them.

Or Peter puts it like this:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to God's elect, strangers in the world scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the father through the sanctifying work of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood. — 1 Peter 1

Couple things to note here. One, it sounds very much like Paul. Paul and Peter are of one mind. The New Testament is of one mind with this. It's not just that Paul is a particular explainer of this, but it's entirely consistent with the things that others wrote as well.

And what we're called to, what we've been chosen for is not just faith, but it's also obedience. He's chosen us to walk with him, to love him, to be hidden in him. His election is to the whole package, not just to begin some process that we might abort, but he's chosen us for a process that results ultimately not just in our calling, not just in our justification, but in our glorification. He called us to himself.

Here's how John talks about it:

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. All whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. — Revelation 13:8

This notion of a book of life is that there is some list somewhere that God has written down. These are those whom he will call out of rebellion to believe. There's a book of life. The most important thing in the world is to be included in it.

So that's a quick survey, a quick summary of all these texts. But I was rushing through that on purpose because I want to camp out with you for a little bit in Romans 9, which is on the back of your page. Any questions about my remarks in the last ten minutes before we jump into Romans 9?

We're good.

On Giving Up on Evangelism

Robin's question is: Is there ever a point in which we just give up on somebody?

There are places in the New Testament, Robin, that talk about when Jesus sends the 12 or the 72 out on evangelism missions. He does say, look for a man of peace and if they reject you, then you move on to the next city. There is absolutely a place where we in an individual relationship might move on. But that is not the same as saying that we have concluded that God will never save them. We do not have that kind of insight. We just don't have that altitude to see it.

It might be that there are particular relationships where I'm not going to be the best ambassador. If God is going to save somebody, he may not save them through me. And the wisest and best thing that I can do is to take a step back from that relationship. But I would not conclude from the fact that this relationship is torn or they're just not able to hear from me—there's some history here that just makes my words sound less effective. Paul says everywhere we go, we either smell like life or we smell like death. To some we're the fragrance of life; to others, the stench of death. There may be a relationship where I'm not going to be the ambassador and I'll step away. But you might actually be able to accomplish what I was unable to. And so I just don't think we're smart enough to know.

And very often, most people need to hear the gospel multiple times. Does that check out for you? It's not like you heard the gospel once when you were seven or eight or twelve or thirty and it just landed. It takes a while. Maybe you haven't fallen to the depth that you need to before your eyes are opened to see this.

So I would not conclude if somebody rejects me that, well, we're done with them. Like, who am I? I'm of little consequence. You might fall back in that relationship or you might persist, but you don't have to harass them every time you see them. This is why when Peter talks about wives and unbelieving husbands, they're not going to step out of that relationship. But he does say, maybe stop talking for a little while.

That maybe what you need to do in that relationship is you're patient and you're kind and you love them well, but you don't need to be moving your lips all of the time. Now I tend to think Christians should move their lips more than they do. But there is a time, I think it's a rare time, but there is a time where the best bet is just allow time to pass. There's other ways that we can show love to people besides the articulation of the gospel, though I think it's the highest form. Does that help? Is that good?

Questions so far?

Setting Up Romans 9

Okay. Let's go to Romans. We're gonna be in Romans 9, but let me set this up. If you've been here for any length of time, you've probably heard me say multiple times that Romans is the greatest thing ever written and it is. It's the highest revelation in the scriptures I think. It also happens to be, especially chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11, the clearest exposition of how salvation works of all the scriptures. There's little places we can drop in. I think 2 Timothy has key insights. Ephesians 1 has key insights. All these things we looked at. But this middle section of Romans is probably the most robust framing of how this works.

Now, for a moment, let me talk to those of you who organize yourselves as the most skeptical, right? Some of you on a scale of one to five are like, yeah, five. I'm a Calvinist. I believe all this. Some of you are like, one. Absolutely not. You're wrong about all of it.

Great. Ones, those of you, listen. Let's just say that nobody in the history of the world has ever been saved Calvinistically. Let's say I'm wrong about depravity, I'm wrong about election, and though we haven't gotten to it, I'm wrong about irresistible grace, all this kind of stuff. The apostle Paul was saved Calvinistically, period. You cannot dispute that.

Paul did not want to know Jesus. He was in full rebellion. He hated this stuff. He did not like it, did not want it, was overtly opposed, was running as far as he could in the other direction, was murdering Christians, and God said, "Hey, believe me, get over there." And that was that. I don't care how much you hate what I'm saying—you've got to give me the apostle Paul. If anybody was saved Calvinistically in all of human history, it is the apostle Paul. And he was.

But Paul was saved against his will as a sovereign act of God reaching over the wall to a rebellious sinner and saying, "Knock it off. You're a believer now. Let's go." This is indisputable. And then having saved him as an act of his overt will overriding Paul's rebellion, he assigned Paul to write the book that explains how salvation works. And what do you think Paul drew on when he explained how salvation works? Paul knows how this works because it's what worked on him.

When Paul writes Romans, in particular that middle section 8, 9, 10, 11, he's drawing from his experience. His experience is that of God overriding his will that he might believe. He came to believe in his will because God changed him. Because to a totally depraved sinner, God elected him, chose him, picked him. And Paul was drawn irresistibly, which we'll get to maybe next week. And it happened.

So what we're about to read is Romans 9. What we're about to read is the Apostle Paul who is saved against his will because nothing else would have possibly worked, who then sat down to write to the church for all of the ages how this works. You with me? I know I'm not giving you a lot of room to disagree but that's because it's all true.

Romans 9:6-11

So here's how it is. Romans 9, verse 6. The context for Romans 9 is this: Paul is deeply troubled, deeply grieved that so many Jews are rejecting the gospel. He loves his Jewish countrymen. He's deeply distressed that they're just rejecting and rebelling and they just can't see it. He's like, man, they have every advantage. What is this? And in the midst of talking about that and working out his angst, he says this in verse 6.

It is not as though God's word had failed for not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. — Romans 9:6

That's an interesting statement. What he's saying is not everybody who is a blood descendant of Abraham is truly of the people of God. There are phonies in that community. Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Now, when I read the sentence "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned," one word needs to be emphasized. What's the word? If you were reading this well, you would punch one word. What do you guys think? It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

What he's saying is that Abraham had two kids. He had Isaac and he had Ishmael. And it's through Isaac, not Ishmael, that your offspring will be reckoned. What he's saying is that not all of Abraham's kids are God's people. It's the Isaac branch, not the Ishmael branch.

He says, in other words, it's not the natural children, Ishmael, the ones with Hagar, who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise. That is the whole craziness—that Abraham's wife Sarah had babies and that's not supposed to happen. Isaac, who was Sarah's kid, not Ishmael who was Hagar's kid. It's not the natural children but it's the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring.

At the appointed time I will return and Sarah will have a son.

What's the word to punch there? Sarah. It's through Isaac. It's through Sarah. And here, what we've been talking about this entire time: it's some, not all. It is the children through Abraham but of Isaac—that is, Sarah—not Ishmael, not Hagar. Paul's making this case here that there's some, not all.

Then he says:

Not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works but by him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

Now, we're gonna have to clean up the "hate" there, all right? But not yet. Abraham, we are descendants of Abraham. He's like, yeah, but you're not just descendants of Abraham, you're of the line of Isaac. It's some, not all. You're of the line of Sarah who gave us Isaac. Not only that, but then under Isaac, now Isaac's got Rebecca and now we're gonna have Jacob and we're gonna have Esau. He's showing there's a winnowing. There's a something, not an all-ing. Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Not all who are descended from Abraham are troubled with the promise. There's this winnowing. There is a choosing. There is a sum, s-o-m-e, summing here.

The Problem of Justice

And then having said all this, Paul says:

What then shall we say? Is God unjust?

And once again, as happens over and over and over again in Romans, Paul brings forward this imaginary opponent, someone who states the objection, who says, "Point of order, that's not true." He's constantly bringing forth this voice that's gonna represent his opposition. And that opposition is like, "Woah, that's not fair. What do you mean? Only the Isaac kids? What do you mean? Only the Jacob kids? What about Ishmael? What about Esau? That's not fair."

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? And Paul's answer is this:

Not at all. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

Paul cites this famous statement that Moses made. And the observation is this: God is always just. He's never unjust. But he has the right to also exercise mercy. He is not obligated to give mercy to anyone. But in a lavish act of grace that is beyond our comprehension, he has chosen to show mercy to countless millions, maybe billions. We don't know the full number. And the exercise of justice is not unjust. God is allowed to punish sinners. He owes mercy to no one. It is justice or it is mercy. It is never with the Lord unjustice.

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

Now pause for a second. If you don't like the things that I'm saying here, that's fine. But I want you to recognize, I'm not saying them. Paul is. Everything that Paul is saying is one hundred percent consistent with the framework that I'm offering you as an explanation for how salvation works. And it is absolutely inconsistent with a posture that disagrees with what I'm saying. You cannot characterize Paul's words in Romans 9 to mean anything apart from this.

The reason the objection—"it seems like you're being unfair"—is because he's admitting that some will be saved, not all. And the some that will be saved are those that God has chosen to save.

I understand that this may be difficult for you. We'll have space to process the implications. Many of the implications that you think follow actually do not. We'll work on those in due course. But right now our only mission is to understand it.

Paul is teaching here in Romans 9 that God is the one who extends mercy in place of judgment wherever he chooses to.

I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not therefore depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. — Romans 9

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. — Romans 9

Now this is going to give an objection—if you didn't like it before, you're going to like it even less.

Now therefore, God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. — Romans 9

First of all, God has mercy where he wants to have mercy. He's obligated never. He doesn't owe me anything. He did not have to save me. He would not have been unjust for him to pass me by. But I'm grateful that he did not. I am grateful for his love and his kindness to an undeserving sinner like me.

Understanding Divine Hardening

When it says that he hardens whom he wants to harden, it's very important to understand the way this works. The way that God hardens people is he gives us over to our sin. You can see this vividly happening in Romans 1.

God does not take righteous, obedient, sweet, little worshipers and make them into rebels. That is not what this means. What he does is he allows the rebellious and the wicked to go their way. It says it three different times in Romans 1. He allows this to happen. To harden is to give over to sin and to allow it to happen.

Pharaoh had a hard heart all by himself before God hardened him. God did harden Pharaoh's heart. But he didn't take an obedient, righteous, worshipful Pharaoh and make him into a sinner. He took a rebellious, selfish, power-hungry slave master and said, "Fine, as you wish." And he gave him over. And then sometimes, countless times to many, he's extended mercy.

Now, if you're thinking, "No, no, no, no, no, you're misunderstanding all of this. Everything you're saying is backward and you're wrong about all of it"—fine. But can you explain the next paragraph? Because the next thing that Paul says is:

One of you will say to me, well then why does God still blame us for who resists his will? — Romans 9

I just think this is clear. I've never heard an Arminian framing of this that makes the slightest bit of sense. Clearly the objection that Paul anticipates betrays that he believes that God is sovereign in choosing to save some. And his response is:

Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, why did you make me like this? Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? — Romans 9

You guys, I don't know how you can escape this. You may not like it, but just be intellectually honest. What is he saying in this passage? God is sovereign and he chooses to show mercy wherever he feels like it. For his own purposes that are beyond our knowledge, it's inscrutable. It is lavish. It is extensive. It extends, I think probably to billions of undeserving sinners.

And we who are clearly the clay in this illustration, we have no basis to lament it. The Christian message is a call to receive mercy and we love mercy. But as much as we love and delight in mercy, as much as we take our joy in the salvation of lost sinners, we should not lose sight of the fact that justice is still just. And God is not evil when he does what is right. God is not unjust when he punishes the rebellious.

That is a lot. We are out of time. So I'm going to leave you to chew on that. Look through this document. You can read Romans 9. What is it saying? Am I misconstruing it? If so, I am way far from the mark, for I can see no reasonable way to understand Romans 9 apart from this framing that we're offering to you. I think it's clear that's what he's saying.

Preview of Next Week

Okay? So that's total depravity and election. How bad or far are we? Election. Why are some but not all saved? We're going to talk next week about limited atonement briefly because I don't believe in limited atonement. I'm what you would call a four-point Calvinist rather than a five-point Calvinist because I believe in the T, the U, the I, and the P. But I think the L is misconstrued and so I'm going to tell you why I think it's not true and we'll process that.

So we'll have more scripture to look at and I'll let you chew on this. But send questions in, load them in and we'll get to them in due course.

So next week is July 4, so there's no class.

And actually the week after that's just gonna be in three weeks because the twelfth, we're doing confirmation in here. So the next—so next week is nothing. The week after that is confirmation. And then the week after that, we'll continue our study of election. Cool. Thank you for that. Alright.