Transcription
[Music] We mentioned last time that as we come to Romans chapter 9 and particularly the verses we're going to continue looking at this morning, that we're looking at a passage of Scripture that has been the subject, perhaps no passage outside of this one has been the subject of more theological, you know, articulation, exegetical speculation. It's, you know, there's people use it to draft positions and prop up supposition theological positions. There are others who have no idea what to think of what they're reading here and so instead, you know, they just put a big question mark next to it in their Bible and say, "Yeah, I'll come to that later," and so end up skipping over it.
But as we said last time, and we saw last time, what Paul is doing here in taking us through this argument is he is exposing us to very powerful truth. He's really helping us understand where confidence lies, where assurance lies in God's promises. Why we can say that the promise stands, that God's true to his word. And why is that in question? The reason that's in question as we come to Romans 9 is that at the end of Romans chapter 8, actually beginning in verse 28, the Apostle Paul says, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 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." In other words, God's promise is that you can have this assurance, you can have this rock-solid confidence that if he started it in you, he's gonna take you all the way across the finish line. Then if he began a good work in you, he's faithful to complete a good work in you. That's God's promise.
But as Paul gets into chapter 9, he starts chapter 9 by recognizing then not everybody who should be experiencing the promise, or you would think, is experiencing the promise. In actuality, is. And he points to the nation of Israel and he says, "Here are the chosen people, and I'm in anguish, and I'm brokenhearted because so many of them are living, living alienated from the promises of God." And Paul's heart is broken when he watches that, which prompts a question that we looked at last week in Romans chapter 9 and verse 6. The question is simply, "Okay, Paul, if you're brokenhearted for Israel and the chosen people are separated from the promises of God, when you said nobody at the end of chapter 8, you said nobody can be separated, well then how do I have, how do I have any confidence that if it, if it didn't work for them, why would it work for me?" And we saw Paul answer this "why" question, why God's Word never fails, as we looked at verses 6 through 18 last week.
Now, as Paul continues in that line of thought, he begins to talk about how those promises are received. How do you, okay, if you're wondering, "Okay, why didn't they experience that?" Or maybe you're sitting in this room and you're wondering, "How do I experience? How do I enter into the promises of God? How do I walk in those promises? How are those promises applied to a person's life? How is God's goodness, His grace, and His blessing applied to a person's life? How does that happen?" That's where Paul is picking it back up for us in verse 19. But as we start unpacking and answering that question, I actually want to take you back just a few verses to verse 16, so you get a little context for where we are in Paul's line of thinking. Romans chapter 9, verse 16: "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 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, 'Why then does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?'" This is where we pick it up. "Why does he still find fault?" If all of that is true, how can God 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 the 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 vessel for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and 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?"
Here was what Paul does. He begins to unpack how God's promises are received, how God's promises are applied to a person's life. And he says the first way that the promises of God are applied to a person's life are by recognizing who God is. We're to recognize who God is, which is why he starts interacting first and foremost with a question that we see posed in verse 19. And this question that comes is right here. It says, "You will say to me then, if all of this is true from verse 6 to 18, if God hardened Pharaoh's heart, then what then signifies he?" This person is saying, "Okay, God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Well, if that's true, then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?" That's the, that's the question Paul's going to interact with for the rest of these verses. "Can it be true that if God hardens a guy like Pharaoh, and we see Pharaoh's resistance to God's command out of that hardening, and Pharaoh's hardening is hard, well then how can God justly judge Pharaoh?" And then he follows that up, the secondary question is, "Who can resist his will?" And from the context of this passage, we're going to find that the answer is resolutely no one can. No one can resist his will. That when God makes a sovereign decree, it is settled. That's what Paul's unpacking for us. What he's bucking up against is this idea that you have ultimate determination over your own life. You don't. We aren't ultimately self-determinative. That's not, that's not the world we live in. That's, as humans, that's not the zone we inhabit. And yet, Paul is not saying that your choice doesn't matter, that you don't have real choice. You and I have real choice with God. We make real decisions that have real consequences. We have real moral accountability before God. God rewards our righteous choices and he punishes our evil choices. And to the person who says, "Well, that sounds like a contradiction in the argument of the Apostle Paul," it's not. It's like, it may be a cultural contradiction, but it's not a logical contradiction. That in the economy of God, both are true. Both God is sovereign and his will is ultimate, and yet our choices have real effect. They have real cause. They carry real weight with God.
Paul is saying all of this, and he's setting this up because he's headed here. He's going to respond to this question in greater detail, and he's going to really provide two responses about that deal with this question. Two immediate responses in regard to the question that we read in verse 19. And the first response is, "You're not God." I know that might be a shocker to somebody. They're like, "You're not God?" Paul says, "Okay, no. When you interact with the question like this, you have to come back to the fact that you're not God." And so we look at this in verse 20. What does he say? "But who are you, O man? Who are you, humanity? Who are you, mankind, to answer back to God?" You're not God.
Here's what Paul is getting at. He says he uses this phrase "answer back." It's really, it's really one word in Greek, and he's getting at, he's getting at a deeper issue. Because when you read this and it says, "Who are you, O man? Who are you, humanity? Who are you, mankind, to answer back to God?" It could sound like, "Well, God is not in the mood for questions." Like we can see that Paul is, "Why is Paul so upset?" And you can feel like when you read something like this, like maybe God doesn't want your questions. Maybe God isn't interested in you asking questions. And so you hear people say, "God doesn't, he doesn't, you know, you need to stop asking questions and you need to just have faith." "God's not, God's not interested in asking." "Say, you know, he's not interested in you querying him. You just need to, you know, you just need to shut up and sit down." Is that what Paul is saying? No. Is that what God would say? No. A hundred percent no. You know what? God can handle your questions. There's no question that you're gonna bring to the sovereign of the universe that he's gonna go, "Yeah, that's a tough one. I'm really not sure what to do with that." No, he's quite covered on the questions.
So if the question is not the issue, what's in play right here? It's what's behind the question. It's the heart of the question. It's the intention of the question. How do we know that what I mentioned to you, this phrase "answer back," is really one word in Greek, and it only shows up one other time in the entire New Testament, which gives us a clue of the sense of the word. And the place where it shows up is Luke chapter 14 and verse 6. And what's happening here? When you get to Luke 14, is that Jesus is teaching. Jesus is talking. And at the end of Jesus talking, he's made a bunch of people mad, namely the Pharisees, the religious teachers. He has riled them up. He has made them angry. But it says, "And they could not reply to these things." Now, the word here is the same word that we read in Romans 9, "answer back." Meaning they weren't just going, "Hey, Jesus, we have a follow-up question on that. Are you gonna take questions right now?" No, that's not the scenario. Reply as in counter. So they heard what Jesus said, and now they're wanting to contradict what Jesus is saying, but they can't contradict it. They're kind of tied them in knots, as it were. And so they can't say anything to that. That's the same word that we get in Romans chapter 9 and verse 20. This is not a question. This is a counter-offensive against the God of the universe.
Paul recognizes it's the heart of the issue. This is the person who says, "Yeah, I'm reading all this stuff in Romans 9, and you know what? I just, that, it just doesn't sit well with me. God is wrong. Like, I just don't, I hear what you're saying, I just don't think that's the way that works because, you know, if I were God, I shouldn't, you know, I just wouldn't do it that way." And I struggle with that. Or it's the person who says, "You know, I know God has asked for all of my life. I know that God wants to be in charge of my life. I know that it says the Bible says that you are to confess that Jesus is Lord, which means he's in the driver's seat. What he says goes. But there are some parts of my life that I just, you know, I really like the way that things are right now. Pretty good with that. And so if it's, you know, and I honestly, I just really believe that God would want me to be happy. So, you know, God, I think, you know, this relationship makes me happy. And so I'm not, I can't, I can't lose that." What, what that person in essence is saying is, "God, I see what you're saying, and you're wrong." Paul says, "That's not the way it works. He's God, and you're not. He's in charge, and you're not. You need to recognize he's God."
And as you're wrestling with all of this in Romans 9, I want to give a little picture to kind of help frame our thinking. Becky and I have four children. The youngest is our two-year-old. His name is Calvin. Calvin Wilder Lindell. He's, he's the baby mailmouse is what I call him. Cal Cal, baby Mel Mel. This is him. That's Mel Mel right there. And so he is a wild man. Like, he just, we have, he has a lot of fun. He, he gets a lot of, he has three older siblings, so they tend to hand him whatever he wants, which is not good. But they, they love him so much. But he's too small. So if I, if I go to Lowe's and I get a bunch of great poplar lumber and I bring it back and I arrange it all in the garage, and I get a bunch of nails and I put those in the garage, and I get a hammer and I put that in the garage, and then I take Calvin and I put him in the garage and I say, "Hey, buddy, what we really need is we need a new dining room table, bad. And you got a lot of gifts, you got skills. I just need you. I'm gonna give you a couple hours here. We've got the afternoon. Don't you know, don't rush. You're good. Got the afternoon. I just need you to make us a new dining room table." And then I go and eat a sandwich and I come back. What do you think I'm gonna find when I come back in two hours? I'm gonna find a pile of wood, a pile of nails, and probably one very unhappy two-year-old. And Calvin is infinitely better at building a dining room table than I am at being God. That's what Paul's saying here.
And to accentuate that point, he quotes the prophet Isaiah. Actually, two quotes from Isaiah end up in Romans 9. And here's what the prophet Isaiah says. Prophet Isaiah says, "Shall the potter," because Paul's used this metaphor of the potter and the clay, "shall the potter be regarded as clay? That the thing made should say to its maker, 'He did not make me,' or the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'He has no understanding'?" In other words, what Paul is getting at is there are two mistakes, huge mistakes, that clay pots can make. They can make a lot of mistakes. There are two that Paul's concerned about. He says, as a clay pot, it is a huge mistake to say, "I don't have a creator. Nobody made me. I am a self-generating pot. That's me." Paul says, "That's a mistake." Like, "You're not okay." He says, "The other mistake you can make is you can say, 'My Creator doesn't know what he's doing.'" "Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles'?" Here's what Paul envisions: you as a clay pot looking at God and going, "Hey, I don't have any handles. How is anybody gonna use me? How is anybody gonna tip me over?" And God says, "You're a vase. You belong on the mantel. Like, you don't need handles." But this is this picture of the pot saying to the potter, like, "Hey, you don't know what you're doing. You don't know what you're up to."
Paul says, in answer to the question in verse 19, where this whole thing starts, where you accept and where you walk in the promises of God, starts with an acknowledgment that he's God and you're not. He's God and I'm not. The second part of his answer to this question is that God is showing us. God is showing us who he is. God is revealing himself to us. In fact, throughout redemptive history, God, in interacting with people, God, in reaching out to people, God, in calling people to repentance, God, in judging sin, God, in doing miracles, God, in sending Jesus, God, in sending the Holy Spirit, in all of that, what is God doing? He is revealing to us his character and his nature. He's showing us again and again and again. He's showing us who he is. And Paul says the same is true here. Go back to verse 22. He says, "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and 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?"
Here's what can happen. This is where any one of us runs into trouble as we're reading a passage like this, is that all of our questions, like the person who's asking questions in verse 19, all of our questions can begin to revolve around us. "Well, what does this mean for my decisions?" And I mean, what philosophically, what does that mean? And then I mean, and if, as far as the way that I process, what does that mean? And what does that mean for my family? What does it mean for this? Those questions aren't bad unless they're the primary question. And Paul says the primary issue in play is not how this affects you. The primary issue in play is God. God's saying, "Look at me. I'm, hey, get your eyes off yourself for a minute." But what can happen is on our salvation story, it can quickly become about all the things we did. "I came and I responded. I lifted my hand. I went for it. And I did this and I did that." When the primary actor in your salvation, did you play a part? Oh, absolutely. You played a part. Who was primary, though? God. Who was, who is thinking about you before you were thinking about him? God.
Paul says he is desiring to show himself. He's desiring to make himself known. That's what he's doing. That's what he's doing. He's even doing that by, he's making known. How is he making himself known? He's making himself known in two ways primarily. He's making himself known through a display of his wrath and his power. There's some of you who thought, who have perhaps heard, "Well, God's wrath is intended to keep you distant from him. God's wrath is something that keeps people far from him. God's wrath, God is coming after you. And when you hear about his wrath, you better run because God's wrath is an indication that he's going to get you. God's wrath is an indication that he doesn't want you. God's wrath is an indication that he wants to separate you from himself." But the opposite is true. God's wrath is revealed against what primarily? It's revealed against sin. Why is God's wrath revealed against sin? Because sin is everything God is not, and sin separates people from relationship with God. So God reveals his wrath against what separates people from him so that you can come close. God says, "You want to see my wrath? It's a warning. My wrath is a harbinger of judgment because I don't want you to experience judgment. I don't want you to be separated from me. So watch what my wrath is carried out against, and run to me. Run to me." God's wrath as a prophet of his love. His wrath against sin. His wrath against what? Hate. He hates. His wrath against what will destroy you. He wants to reveal his power. What is this? How is he revealing his power? In that he saves people from what his wrath is aimed at, namely sin. He saves people from the clutches of sin. He saves people from the clutches of death. He saves people from the attack of anything. And we aren't good people who save ourselves. All of us are sinners. Nobody's righteous, not even one. That's what the Bible says. Therefore, you're a sinner who needs a Savior. And it's only by God's power that you can experience that. So he wants to put his power on display because he wants relationship with people.
But he says he also puts on display something else. He wants to make known his power. He has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. God also shows himself. He reveals himself as patient. He endures patiently. How does this come up? It says he patiently, he's, with much, he's endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction. Which this can become a hang-up for people because they say, "Are you telling me that God prepares vessels to destroy them? Is that what Paul's saying?" Here's the answer to this. I gotta look very carefully at what the Apostle Paul is laying out. He says he's 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. Who prepared the vessels of mercy? He has. That's absent up here. What does that mean? Who prepared the vessels of wrath? They did. How did they do that? They said, "No thank you, God. No, I'm gonna do it my own way. I've got this. I'm in charge." "I know you're calling me out of sin. I know you're really revealing your wrath against it, but I'm not interested in that. And I'm gonna say no, no thank you. No thank you. Not interested." But, and so what is God doing? If they're preparing themselves for destruction, what is God doing? He's enduring with much patience. Constipation? Do you know, did God know Pharaoh was going to say, "I'm not gonna let the children of Israel go"? Yeah. Did he know Pharaoh wasn't going to repent? Yeah. Did he know Pharaoh was going to do a fake-out on the Israelites and say, "You can go"? No, he can't go. Do you know that God was, did God know that Pharaoh was going to spurn him and saying, "I'm not gonna obey you, and I'm not gonna seek you, and I'm not gonna pursue you"? Did God know all of that? Yes. Did he destroy Pharaoh right away? No. He was patient. His patient. Why does God allow evil and evil people to exist in the world? He's patient. He's not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone have an opportunity to come to repentance. He's patient.
This morning, if you've come into this place and you're not right with God, and there are things in your life that shouldn't be, and you've said, "You know what? To this point, I've just kind of done life on my own terms, and I haven't really surrendered my life to Jesus." What is God's attitude toward me? You can know two things. One is that you are preparing yourself for destruction, but that God is patient with you. And even in the midst of you doing your own thing, going your own way, God says, "I want relationship with you. Wake up. This isn't gonna work. I came that you might have life and have it to the fullest. Turn from sin and turn to me." God is patient.
Paul says, "How do we, how do we walk in His promise? How do you receive His promise?" You acknowledge that you recognize that he's God. You recognize that who God is. But also, there's another thing you have to recognize. You have to recognize that judgment is coming. To recognize judgment is coming, look at verse 24. Paul says, "Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." Now, there's a new word that shows up here. It's the word Gentiles. A new word in Romans 9, not a new word in Romans. What is a Gentile? A Gentile is anybody who's not a Jew. Not anybody. Anybody who's not an Israelite. So Paul is setting this up and he's saying, "Hey, God's promises are available not just to Jews, but also to Gentiles. This, this applies to you. This applies to you. This isn't just some theological treatise about Israel. This has real implications for you, for your life, and for your eternal life."
So what does he say? Now look at this. Verse 20, go back to go to verse 24 through 27. And as we read this, you need to remember that this whole thing starts out, Romans 9 starts out with Paul saying he's brokenhearted because so many Jews have rejected Jesus. And out of that brokenheartedness, he says, "You know, I want them to come to faith in Christ." And so he begins through Romans 9, he's interacting with Jewish objections to the promises, into God's, God's the way God is working. And he's interacting with all of these objections in order that they might come to faith in Jesus. This is Paul's heart. He wants them to believe. Says, "Even us whom he called, not old, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles." So he starts with the Jews, he moves to the Gentiles. "As indeed he says in Hosea, 'Those who were not my people I will call my people,' who are not my people? Who are not the chosen people? Gentiles. And / who was not beloved? Who is not beloved? Gentiles. 'I will call beloved.' And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' Gentiles, there they will be called sons of God." So he's saying the Gentiles, the promises of God are going to be available to them. But it's interesting here. This is what I wanted to see. He starts with the Jews, then he moves to the Gentiles. But then instead of going back and dealing with the Jews, he speaks to the Gentiles. And now he says, "And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel." So now he's going to deal with the Jews. "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved."
What is Paul say? Judgment is coming. God's righteous, just wrath is going to be poured out against sin. What's the significance, though, of Paul dealing with the Gentiles and then with the Jews? What Paul is doing here is he knows he's got to talk to them about God's wrath. He knows he's got to talk to them about God's judgment. But he pushes that as far back in the conversation as possible because he wants to win them. Should you stand for absolute truth? Should you lend your voice to truth? Absolutely. You should lend your voice to truth. But don't lend your voice to truth into an argument at the expense of people. You can do both simultaneously. How did Jesus teach? He taught with both grace and truth. That's how Jesus taught. Paul says, "You know what? I know this is coming, but I'm not gonna elevate this in the discussion till I absolutely have to because I want you to understand my heart is for people. I want them to come to faith. I want them to come to salvation. I don't want to just win the argument. I want to win people."
You know what? Paul here's the thing. Paul's walked us through all of this, and now we're seeing Paul, what he's doing is he's modeling for us what we have to do. And that is to say, "God's been patient with me, so I can be patient with you. God's been gracious with me and gracious to me, so I can be gracious to you. God's been long-suffering with me." Can somebody give me an amen? He's been suffering with me. I can be long-suffering with you. What that means is for some of you, you're in environments in the workplace and you're saying, "I just need to get out of here. There's so many people who don't think like me, believe like me, they get on my nerves." And God's saying, "No, you don't. Your calling is to do what I do, and that is to be long-suffering. Your calling is to be patient. Your calling is to be gracious. Your calling is to be kind." Why? Because it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. There's a place for you to be light in the darkness, the salt of the earth, to model how it is that God comes to people. He comes with patience. He comes with grace. He comes with gentleness. He comes with compassion. He comes with mercy. That's how he comes to people.
Paul says, "You have to recognize, though, that judgment is coming." Judgment is coming. And this is why he says what he does in verse 27: "Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth, fully and without delay.'" And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah." Done. If God didn't care about you, if God didn't want relationship with you, if God didn't wasn't pursuing you, you'd be gone. But he wants to show you his mercy and his grace because judgment is coming.
Finally, Paul says, "We have to recognize this. We have to recognize that the promises come by faith." The promise of salvation, the promise of eternity, comes by faith in Jesus. It comes through faith in Jesus. You know, the question that hangs over this entire passage is, you know, "What, what about, what about Israel? What about for all those people who are separated? What's gonna happen? Wait, what, what do we do? We know how do you walk in God's promises? How do you know God's promises applied to your life?" And Paul says, "I'm gonna wrap up the chapter by telling you what you cannot miss." What you cannot miss is that this is gonna require you to put your faith in Jesus. It's gonna require you to say, "I'm not in charge of my life. I'm gonna surrender my life to him." And this is what he says in verse 30: "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law." In other words, Israel said, "We've got the law. Israel said, 'You know what? We see God's standard, and we're gonna meet that in our own strength, in our own power.'" "You know what? I can measure up. I can be a good, I'm a good part. I'm better than a lot of people I know. I mean, I'm better. You know, Israel said, 'I'm better than a lot of nations. We know I'm better than a lot of people. I, I, you know, I know a lot of Christians are not as nice as I am or as kind as I am. I think I can measure up.'" And I think, "I think you know what? I think I can earn God's favor. I can earn God's approval." And in the end, God will really, he'll have to understand that I deserve, I deserve to be let in. I deserve to be considered right with him. Paul says, "That's where Israel was. They didn't, but they didn't succeed." Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They looked at their relationship with God, or their rightness with God, or their acceptance before God, on the basis of their performance, instead of on the basis of Jesus' purchase.
Paul says in verse 32, "They have stumbled over the stumbling stone." Who's the stumbling stone? Jesus. "As it is written, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.'" Here's the thing. There's got to come a moment in your life where you surrender to God. If you're gonna experience this promise, if you're gonna experience this grace, if you're gonna experience this power, if you're gonna walk in relationship with him, he's gonna require surrender. What was Israel not willing to do? Say, "I can't do it on my own. I need a Savior." Why did they stumble over the stumbling stone? Pride. "I can do it. I can measure up. You know what? If God was really just, he would know that I'm a good person. And if God was really, if he's really as good as everybody says he is, then he would know that I tried really hard and I did my best." And God says, "You know what? Your best will never make the grade." If it was about your performance, if it was about what you could do, if it was about what you deserved, if it was about what you could earn, then Jesus wouldn't have come. There would have been no need for the cross. But God said, "I know, I know they will never be able to make it on their own. I know that they'll never be able to bridge the gulf that separates them because of their sin. And so because I love them so much, and because I want relationship with them, because I want relationship with people in this room, and I want relationship with people at the West Campus, and I want relationship with people at the North Campus, I want relationship with people in Joplin, and I want relationship with people all over the world, because I want relationship with you, and I want you to experience my goodness and my grace, what am I gonna do?" The Bible says, "For God so loved the world, He said loved you." How has he loved me? How has he loved you? "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever, whoever, it doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter what you've done or haven't done, it doesn't matter what you've thought, it doesn't matter what you've said." Say, "You know what? I'm a really bad person. I don't think God wants me." Wrong. He already knows that. And so he set in motion before time began a plan of salvation, and he sent His only beloved Son, Jesus, to die in your place for your sin, to purchase what you can never do through your performance. You won't experience God's promise. You want to experience this grace. You want to experience this mercy. You've got to put your faith in Jesus. It's gotta be in him.