Why did God Command the Destruction of Nations?
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Part 4: The Sovereign Savior
Part 4: The Sovereign Savior
Over the past several weeks, we have been taking a careful look at Deuteronomy 7:1-11, with a particular focus on coming to terms with, or trying to answer, the objection that many people have to this and other passages of scripture in which God commands that certain people groups be killed, or plundered, or both. In this passage, 7 different groups of people are mentioned. For some reason, people have difficulty understanding that a good God, who the God of the Bible is, can at the same time be an avenging God, or a punishing God, who the God of the Bible is.
And there are many concepts that come into play here. God is just, and as a good judge rules justly. There must be a penalty or payment for sin. God is also Holy, so in addition to His attribute of being just, or righteous, another reason he cannot tolerate sin is that he must remain completely separate from it. And although sinful people can have no ill effect on God, if there were such an encounter between God and sinful people, the effect of God’s holiness on the sinful is that His holiness would consume them. Remember Heb 12.29
for our God is a consuming fire.
We have looked at three out of four doctrines that hopefully have helped us to answer the question of why God commanded the destruction of Nations. Perhaps it may be helpful to say instead that question could be phrased instead, “why was it right for God to command the destruction of Nations?” Today we will look at the fourth doctrine that I believe has bearing on answering this.
The Four doctrines are these: The holiness of God, the dangers of sin, the wrath of God towards sinners, and today we will look at the sovereign will of God, or God’s choice. We will look at what scripture tells us about the divine prerogative of God, that is, his right as the creator and self-existent, eternal God of all creation to choose whatever it is that pleases him. We will look at how, in our passage today, he chose Israel for no other reason other than that he loved them. Then we will shift our focus to how God has chosen to save the elect.
Let’s first read our Passage once again.
“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you,
and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons,
for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.
But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.
“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.
You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.
So we have said thus far that a the answer to our question involves a combination of these things: First, God’s holiness, which demands that sin be punished and eliminated. Second, the dangers of sin, the danger of being near sinful people and the natural consequences of our own sin. Part of those consequences being the natural consequences of life, such as violating the law against stealing and being punished by a human court. Ultimately, the worst consequence of sin is being subject to the wrath of God.
The people groups God demanded the Israelites conquer and destroy were exceedingly sinful people. They earned the wages of their sin, which is death. We said how we can be thankful that we do not receive those same wages immediately each time we sin. If this were the case, none of you would be here to listen to me this morning, and most certainly I would not be here preaching to you. We also know that there is absolute truth in the idea that being around people who are sinful and sinning all the time puts us in a situation where we will be more likely to be tempted into sin.
And the wrath of God is on all the unrighteous people. He is angry with sin always. And this in no way violates His love. After all, His love is perfect, and since He loves perfectly, His love also means He does not want his people to be in sin. So God’s Holiness, the danger of sin, and God’s wrath towards sin all give us insight into why not only God could order the elimination of those people, but he should do it. Or you could say that it was good that he did so.
But now we must ask ourselves, why does Israel get this special treatment? Why were they given authority by God to eliminate these sinful people? Hadn’t they shown themselves to be sinful also? Were they not also “bent” towards sin? They were bent towards sin, and yet, God chose them to be
vessels of mercy.
Keep that phrase in mind: vessels of mercy. We will be coming back to that phrase later.
In our main passage of study this morning, we see the reason God chose Israel is not based on anything within themselves, no special characteristic of theirs, no good deeds they had done, no payment they had made to him, no nice thoughts he detected coming from their heads, heads that Moses said were attached to stiff necks. No, none of that. Nor was it because they were largest nation. No, the only reason given for God choosing Israel to be his beloved nation is Deut7.8
but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Another way to say this is that in choosing Israel, God made a sovereign choice. God has the absolute right to do whatever He pleases because He is the ultimate Sovereign. What is a sovereign? It’s a pretty straightforward definition. A sovereign is a supreme ruler. A Monarch. Not the butterfly, but the King. Today, we do not really relate to what it is like to have a human sovereign. Queen Elizabeth was, and now King Charles is, the monarch of England, but because they have a parliamentary system, the crown does not hold nearly as much power over people’s lives as it once did.
If there were ever a perfect king, the people would love to live under his rule. They would enjoy it. While there is no perfect human ruler, Solomon came close. So full of wisdom and able to see justice done, that everyone wanted to serve him, including other kings and queens. The queen of Sheba came to see Solomon and commented how enjoyable it was for his people to be ruled by him: 1 Kings10.6-9
And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom,
but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard.
Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom!
Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.”
She then gave him a present of 120 talents of gold, or 9000 pounds, in today’s value about $250 million dollars. Living under King Solomon’s sovereign rule was a delight. There was peace and prosperity for one of the longest times in Israel’s history. Long enough to build the temple and the house of Cedars and to accumulate so much wealth that silver was valued at nothing during his reign. And yet, Solomon did not finish well, and so his reign near the end was marked by invasions and his own giving into the whims of his many wives, which only went to prove that what we are studying in Deuteronomy7. God rightly predicted that foreigners would turn his people aside to serve other gods if they married them. It came true with Solomon, who was granted one of the greatest gifts man has ever received from God, a wisdom beyond compare, yet even Solomon in the end did not rightly apply that wisdom.
He was sovereign, but only for a while, and only, as with any other sovereign, because it was God’s will and pleasure that he should rule. So a Sovereign is a supreme ruler. Within their realm, no one is higher, and their word and command is law. God is sovereign as creator of all, the self-existent, eternal God of all. His realm includes everything and everyone, from earthly creatures to spiritual beings, all are subject to the reign and Rule of God Almighty. According to the Lexham Survey of Theology, God’s sovereignty refers to his absolute and unrivaled rule over all his creatures and their circumstances. Put another way, nothing that happens anywhere or at any time, ever happens outside of God’s absolute and unrivaled rule.
Here are three thoughts I jotted down as I was considering how we ought to understand God’s Sovereignty:
If God says something is good, it is good!
If God says anything, it is right and true
If God communicates something, we are to respect it and honoring Him by believing what he has communicated.
Now, I am about to prove to you by God’s word that He is sovereign. These verses are going to be given rather quickly, so bear with me. What I would like for you to do is to not take my word for it, but to search the scriptures and see if this is true. You evaluate for yourself whether this is what the Bible teaches. Remember the Bible is true, it is without error, it is perfect in every way. But I’m not. So make sure that what I say is true, based on our only standard of Truth: The Bible.
God is sovereign in that he is the owner of everything. All of the entire universe. Here are 4 verses that teach us that God is the owner of everything.
But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted my hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth,
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
Why does it matter that he is the owner of everything? Because the owner of anything gets to decide what to do with it. He has absolute authority:
For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.
For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
He is in complete control, including in salvation:
Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
In Job 38 to 41 we find a catalog of God reminding Job that Job is in no place to question God, because he was not there when the foundation of the earth was laid, he did not know the measurements of the earth. He wasn’t there when the stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy. He doesn’t know how God kept the sea where it was, or how he formed the clouds. Job can’t command the morning as God does, or understand what death really is. He doesn’t know what causes the weather, or what the stars really are. God asks the rhetorical question of Job, who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds, who can make it rain, who makes the lion hunt, and gives the raven its prey. He asks if Job knows when mountain goats give birth; Question after devastating question God asks Job, tearing down any illusion Job may have that he understands God in His wisdom. Job’s complaint was that He did not deserve the things that had happened to him. God gives him the tongue lashing that causes him to admit that he cannot know the true reasons why God does what he does.
Job had not questioned God’s sovereignty, but he had questioned his fairness. Why me? But after this crushing monologue from the Almighty, Job is brought to admitting that God can do whatever he wants to do. Job42.2
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
The Bible also assigns many titles of sovereignty to God. He is King: Jer10.10
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
He is the Sovereign:
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
These sovereign titles show his sovereignty with the utmost and highest reverence:
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
He is sovereign over all nature, including hurricanes:
Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning.
They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world.
Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen.
“Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,
to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,
to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?
He is the sovereign over Human History
It is as I told Pharaoh; God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
He controls what seem to us to be random events
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
He is sovereign over events that seem to harm his people or thwart his purposes
So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
Acts 2:23 (ESV)
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Acts 4:27–28 (ESV)
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
He rules over all and does what He pleases
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.
What God determines to happen cannot be stopped or challenged
Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?
Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’ ”
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Our response to God’s sovereignty should be worship:
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!”
Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 19:6–7 (ESV)
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory...
You either believe God is sovereign or you have chosen to hate his rule and want to deny it, but in our hearts we know that God is in control. And so it is that he could rightly command Israel, and rightly choose Israel for salvation, even though they, like those they were to kill, were guilty of many sins against God as well. Yet God showed mercy and grace to Israel by loving them. That love included giving them the restraints of the law.
Just as God loves Israel because He sovereignly chose to love them, He sovereignly chooses the save the elect. We know that throughout history many people have hated the Jews. It is an indisputable fact that the Jews have been hated to the point of people trying to exterminate them, and in many ways, even when there were not Nazis, there were those who made life difficult for Jews. And we also know that many hate the elect of God who have found salvation in Jesus Christ.
I believe there is real anger against God by those who feel that because God loved the Jews, they were favored above others. And yet, we have seen that God’s favor did not mean an easy life with smooth sailing for the Jews throughout history, any more than it meant an easy life and smooth sailing for many believers throughout history. It turns out that God’s favor for eternity often comes with temporarily difficult living. For many that means persecution to the point of death. Some say it isn’t fair that God preferred the Jewish people. But people have been questioning God for all of human history, and just as he answered Job, he answers those who challenge his Sovereign will today.
And they challenge particularly in the area of election, or predestination. They say it isn’t fair, or that it is in equitable that God would choose some for salvation but not others. And yet, we cannot escape the fact that scripture practically screams to us that God does indeed choose those he will save. Even many Christians do not want to face what scripture clearly teaches. At the same time as many Christians would defend God’s right to give preferential treatment to Israel, they would deny His right to give preferential treatment to the elect.
But I plead with you again, do not take my word for it, but see what the scripture teaches about how God has chosen some for salvation. I believe that all of scripture shows us that God has the complete and unquestioned authority to do what is best, He is completely sovereign, including in salvation. He is the sovereign Savior.
But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Why did he do this?
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
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 to himself 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.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
These are just some of the passages in scripture that teach that God himself chose those He would save before the foundation of the earth. “He must be a Calvinist!”. Well, let me tell you something. Calvin did not write a single word of anything I have said this morning. I believe I have quoted from him in the past, but not today. No, these verses come from God’s Holy Word. I’ve seen people do quite a dance around them, trying to say they don’t really say what they do. Yet, the plain reading of scripture makes it plain that God is indeed sovereign in every area, and that includes salvation.
But some would say God doesn’t choose whom he saves. What could that possibly mean? That people have a choice, but God doesn’t? And yet, God does choose. He chose who would be his apostles, including Paul. He chose to harden Pharaohs heart. Paul knew very well the argument that would come from people who would say it isn’t fair that God elects some and not others. He predicted the argument and addressed it with a preemptive strike in Romans 9, Paul talks about how God chose to love Jacob and hate Esau. then Paul writes this:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”
But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ”
“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”
So God is sovereign. I have provided many passages of scripture to show this to you this morning, but here is what you must do: You must study God’s Word and believe it. Not because I told you this is what it says, but because this is actually what it says! I have seen Christians, including some who are very dear friends, dance the most crazy and contorted dance to deny that God chooses those he has elected for salvation. But what does the plain reading of scripture tell us? It is abundantly clear.
Why does it bother some? I think there are several reasons. One reason is that you may think of someone you love and pray for, and wonder if they may not be among the elect. Or perhaps you yourself are worried about whether you are or are not one of the elect. Or perhaps for some, there is a bit of survivor’s guilt. Do you know what survivor’s guilt is? You will find many people to our west who are feeling survivors guilt after the hurricane. It is not necessary to feel survivor’s guilt, but many do. My house and family came out ok, but look what happened to Sanibel Island. They feel happy to have been spared yet at the same time they feel guilty for being happy.
Many soldiers come home from war with survivors guilt. They saw their fellow soldiers gunned down before their eyes, and even in the joy of hugging their family when they get home, they cannot help but think of those widows and orphans who will never hug their father again. And I believe many Christians, unable to answer the question, “Why me? Why did God choose to save me?”, feel unworthy and maybe a little guilty that they were saved while another wasn’t.
And yet, should not a family whose home was not damaged from the hurricane rejoice and thank God? Should not the soldier who lives thank God for his life? And should not the one who was chosen by God for this great salvation rejoice?
Yes, the answer is yes. We should rejoice. Remember these three points I made about how we should respond to our understanding of God’s sovereignty:
If God says something is good, it is good!
If God says anything, it is right and true
If God communicates something, we are to respect it and honoring Him by believing what he has communicated.
If you are a believer, let me give you one more very positive note to end on. If you understand that God is sovereign in everything, that He truly knows what is best, then you will understand what it means when scripture tells us that He works all things for the good of those who love him. In addition to that thought, let me offer this: If you have put saving faith in Jesus Christ, and you understand that your salvation is the work of God and God alone, that He called you according to His purpose, that he foreknew you, that is loved you ahead of time, that he predestined you, that means your destination was chosen by him ahead of time, and he predestined you to be conformed to the image of his Son.
If you understand that those he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified, if you understand these glorious truths, then you can feel absolutely secure that your salvation is not in your own hands to keep, but God has sealed you from the moment you believed in the Holy Spirit. He will finish the work He began in you, He will see you through, it is his work, all of it, every single element of responsibility to see to it that you are delivered in the end is God’s merciful provision, and He always completes what He has said he will accomplish.
And once you realize this, that you could not have saved yourself, nor could you have possibly kept your salvation once you had it if it were up to you, then you realize that God himself holds your salvation secure, and now with this blessed assurance you will be freed to live for him, not in fear of losing your salvation, but with a fervor, a passion, to honor him with your life because of gratitude and because you want your life to bring him the glory! If you grab hold of this truth, my friends, your freedom is even greater, and your obedience to him will be better, because it will not be to obey him to continue earning your salvation, it will be because you realize your salvation was secure from before the beginning of time, before the foundations of the earth were laid, your salvation was secure.
This realization will also cause you to hate sin more and love righteousness instead, because you will realize that you are marked with the mark of Jesus Christ who completed the work on the cross on your behalf. So there is no need for survivor’s guilt, because the choice was God’s and not yours, and He is always right. Furthermore, instead of worrying more about those you are concerned with, may we all, with more energy than ever, plead with every person to trust in Jesus!
Here is the security we have in Christ: Jesus said in John 17 that he will not lose any of those the Father has given him. And Jude1
Jude 1 (ESV)
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
To those who are called, beloved, and kept.
If God has prepared vessels for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, who are we to question this sovereign God?
May the lives of the elect of Oasis Church reflect the riches of his glory, in Jesus Name, Amen.