Great to be here. This is our 8th, 9th, 10th conference together, something like that. We have at least one or two more planned in the future. I don't know if that means you invite Dr.
Renahan to clean up my mess or me to clean up his. When I got invited to speak at this conference, I said no. And then Pastor Butler said, shut up, you're coming. And I said, I've written books on chapter four, chapter 19, chapter 22, nothing on chapter three.
He said, you're coming, so I'm here. So if the lecture is good, thank the Lord for Dr. Renahan helping me understand the confession. If the lecture is bad, Pastor Butler is to blame.
But in all seriousness, this is a very sobering topic. It's a revealed mystery, this decree of God. And so my lecture, my first lecture is called Introducing God's Decree. And my second lecture was Appointed to Me, Is God the Author of Sin?
And if I have time, I'm gonna also ask and answer the question, does my sin work out for my good in every single instance? And then the third one is actually a sermon on Romans 11, 36, unless one of you guys are already doing that. I guess might have to change that. I'm not sure.
But this first one is just introducing the doctrine we're going to be looking at part of paragraph one of Chapter three. And I have to say this, that
Introduction
while considering the subject matter assigned to me of God's decree, I have trembled many times while preparing these lectures. And I take these words from chapter three, paragraph 7A very seriously. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination, and I'll include the entire decree, is to be handled with special prudence and care. the subject of God's decree, God's willing that something different from or other than God would be and would be the way it is, is a revealed mystery. We are able to discuss this doctrine because scripture teaches us, teaches a divine decree.
God has revealed the doctrine to us in his word. We know that God has decreed all things because our Bibles tell us so, but that does not mean we will comprehend the decree or comprehend the decreeing God. Let me say this. I meant to say this.
I'm going to be reading my notes because I worked really hard and carefully and I don't want to say anything dumb because there are like five theologians or guys training to be theologians in the room and I don't have to deal with your smack later. Only, I can name them if you want to, only God comprehends God, and only God comprehends God's decree. Only God fully and perfectly knows God, and only God fully and perfectly knows God's works. We only know the edges of His ways among us.
We can only know things about the decree to the degree that God has revealed them and to the degree that we accurately understand or apprehend them. We can know the subject matter of the decree either by God revealing it in his word or by God revealing it by virtue of his providence. For example, I now know that your presence at this conference was decreed by God. But I know this, not by God revealing that content of his decree to me in Scripture, or apart from Scripture, except by His providence in bringing you here.
So we can know the content of God's decree two ways. He can tell us, and second, we can watch as providence unfold. Providence is the execution of the divine decree. A second thing I'd like to discuss in light of the, that was a general introduction to the introduction.
I'm gonna present three guiding principles for our study. I think it's gonna, these principles, he already kind of stated them, but not in the way I am. But both the other lecturers, I think, are gonna use these principles, whether consciously or not. It's gonna be operating in their talks, because we all believe the same thing.
But I'm gonna state these three guiding principles at the outset. because I believe they're important to take with us during this time of studying God's decrees. Each of these principles need to be operating upon our minds as we contemplate God's decree to keep us within orthodox bounds. The first is this,
First Principle: Decree Is Not Duty
God's decree is not our duty to obey. God's decree is not our duty to obey. Theologians often distinguish God's will of purpose and God's will of precept. Some say God's secret or hidden will, and God's published or revealed will.
His secret will, that which he has willed to be, is hidden in him and known perfectly by him, but he does not command us to know or obey his hidden will or purpose. You know, it's like the guy that says, show me that I'm elect and I'll believe. How many people here that have believed the gospel did so upon the premise that God revealed to you that you were predestined before the foundation of the world? You didn't do it that way, right?
His revealed will of precept is found in the law of nature and scripture, scripture being our only infallible norm or ground for Christian faith and practice. So let me repeat it. First principle, the decree of God is not our moral law or God's decree is not our duty to obey. Second,
Second Principle: Decree Remains Veiled in Mystery
God's decree, though revealed in scripture, largely remains veiled in mystery to us. Though God has revealed in Scripture that there is a divine decree, Scripture does not reveal all that can be known about the divine decree. Since it is the divine decree, only God can and does know it comprehensively, perfectly, infinitely, eternally, and immutably. In fact, we will never know the decree in this manner simply because, if you haven't figured out yet, we are not divine.
We know things in a creaturely manner, God knows in a divine manner. We know by bits and pieces as things around us impress themselves through our senses and that which is impressed upon us is filtered through our intellects, which is the soul's power of knowing. Knowledge of the world comes to us bit by bit. We, as creatures, we gain our knowledge, we acquire knowledge, we draw from our previous experience of things to learn new things from other things.
God, however, does not know what he knows the way we know what we know. That's actually good news. God's knowledge of things does not come to him by virtue of the things he knows. Our knowledge depends upon God.
God's knowledge does not depend upon us in any sense. God's decree, again, second principle, though revealed in scripture, largely remains veiled in mystery to us. So this should call us to humility, especially when tempted to ask and attempt to answer certain questions. And I'll get to that later.
But simply because we can ask, you know, tough questions, doesn't mean it's like a holy thing to do so. We'll get to that. And the third principle is this. This is a simple one, but it's very important.
God is not like us. Okay, we have to keep remembering that as we study the divine decree.
Third Principle: Creator-Creature Distinction
Any consideration of God's decree demands and therefore must assume and utilize a robust creator-creature distinction throughout. Okay, so we're gonna, I'm gonna say, well, these three principles, the decree's not our duty. Number two, though it's revealed, we only know it in a creaturely way and we certainly are never gonna exhaust it. Number three, we gotta remind ourselves who we are and aren't and who God is and who God is not.
God is not like us. So we gotta bring these things with us. This distinction, this creator-creature distinction operating in our minds as we consider God's decree will remind us that God is not like us. I think it was James Dolezal in 2015, he might have said the same thing here last year, I'm not sure, but he's quoting somebody.
It would indeed be strange if God were not strange to us. You know, if we studied this decree and we said, oh, this is how I think, this is how I plan, I'm going, no, no, no, no, this is way different. God is not like us. Though God knows God and all things in relation to God, he knows these instantly, without succession, without increase or decrease, and with no dependence upon us for him knowing what he knows.
Though God knows and we know, God knows in a divine way of knowing and we know in a creaturely way of knowing. So, let me say the last principle again. Any consideration of God's decree demands and therefore must assume and utilize a robust creator-creature distinction throughout. God is not like us.
So
Chapter Three in the Doctrine of God
let me place the confession, chapter three, in a context. Dr. Ranahan kind of did this with the whole confession. but I just wanna put it in the doctrine of God. The doctrine of God is actually chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, and chapter five.
Chapter two is, I think they have a section in here, paragraphs one and two. If you wanna look at that, we'll be looking at a portion of chapter two, one, and chapter two, two. Chapter two of the confession is on of God and of the Holy Trinity, and it begins to address the doctrine of God. or God's being, God's oneness, God's attributes, and God's triunity. And this is God in himself, God primarily in himself without creatures, or God largely considered as God without creation, who is the same God with or without creation, right?
We don't say, well, once creation comes, God's changed. No. It is very important, therefore, to take our doctrine of chapter two with us as the subsequent chapters of the confession unfold, right? We read it horizontally.
He used to say sideways. Did I correct you on that one? No, I didn't, okay. We need to read it horizontally.
So we take previous chapters with us. We allow previous chapters to have their interpretive function in our understanding of subsequent chapters. Let me give two examples. One is at 2-1, it says,
2LCF Chapter Two and the Decree
working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory. So here we have a statement prior to the chapter on God's decree which begins to illumine the doctrine and provide some theological guide rails for us. The working of all things, divine providence, is the execution of divine power according to a divine blueprint, all for his own glory. You can hear echoes of scripture in that.
Second illustration from chapter two is paragraph two. It says, in his sight, referring to divine knowledge, for God does not have eyes, properly speaking, in his sight, All things are open and manifest. His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to him contingent or uncertain. Notice in the reading of some of the other sections in the Providence one, I think there's two places, second cause, there's contingency with second causes, but there's not contingency in the knowing of the primary or first cause.
God's knowledge comprehends all things, has no limits, has no cracks in it, and is not contingent upon what is, what will happen to what is, or what will be in the future. What is and what will be, in terms of that which does not yet exist, is what God knows because God has decreed all things that end up being whatsoever comes to pass because it was his mind and will to do so. Why are things the way they are? That's a good question.
God would have them to be that way. Could things be different? Yes. Why aren't they?
God did not will them to be different. Could God have willed him to be different? Could he have decreed me to be six, five and a half, instead of five, five and a half? Yeah, there's no absolute necessity in my five, five and a halfness.
And I know that in part, and my wife can tell you, because I used to be not five, five and a half. I was actually taller when I got married, but gravity won. Some theologians have distinguished what God knows into two categories, God's knowledge of simple intelligence and God's knowledge of vision. His knowledge of simple intelligence is defined by John Owen as follows, as for that knowledge, we call simple intelligence, the object of it is possible.
The measure of it is omnipotency, okay? Because of God's power, he could have ordained that I would be taller and executed the divine power and creation providence to make that happen, but he didn't. But he could have, it was possible. The measure of it's omnipotency and by it, he knows all he can do.
Does God know that he could have created the earth smaller or larger? Well, yeah, God knows, for example, that he could have created the, I should just read the notes, that he could have made the earth larger. So that's God's simple intelligence, but then there's this distinction he makes between that, and he's not the only one, a lot do, and God's knowledge of vision. And he defines it this way, that knowledge of God which hath for its object things past, present and to come, whatever had, hath or will have actual being, the measure of this knowledge is his will, because the will and decree of God only make those things future which were but possible before.
So this distinction is related to another distinction, God's will. absolute power and God's ordained power. God could have executed his power different from how he has executed it, but God ordained to execute his power the way he has executed it. He could have ordained it otherwise, but he didn't. In 2nd London 2.2, it speaks to the matter of God's knowledge, what he knows, all things, and the manner in which God knows.
He knows what he knows divinely. His knowledge is infinite, infallible. I hate these girly things. Real men put them right here.
They just pin it right there. You never have that problem with those. Deacons, did you hear that? Okay, so Second London speaks of the matter of God's knowledge, what he knows, all things, and the manner in which God knows all things, he knows what he knows, all things, divinely, in this language, his knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, not dependent upon the creature's being or moving.
One time I heard an illustration about election and predestination. God looked down the tunnel of time, and he saw. You start the Christian race, and then he watched you the whole time. You're going around the track of the Christian race, and you're coming to the finish line, and as soon as you finish, he saw that you'd finish well.
Boom, chosen in him before the foundation of the world. And I literally, I think I punched the dashboard. I was driving the car, I'm going, that's not helping anyone. God doesn't base his decree based on our actions.
Our actions are actually based. on his decree, and we'll deal with how that works out. So God knows in a divine manner. Everything outside God is known by God openly, manifestly, infinitely, infallibly, and independent upon the creature. So in chapter two, we have doctrinal assertions which directly bear on chapter three.
That is, the knowledge of God concerning all things not God, is not contingent upon the existence of creatures and their actions. It is important to read the Confession as a document which develops its later chapters by assuming assertions from earlier ones. And this provides proper controls for us. The third through the fifth chapters of the Confession take up that aspect of the doctrine of God which discusses his works.
Chapter three covers God's decree, chapter four, creation, and chapter five, providence. God's decree is God's work of decreeing, and we have to keep in mind that God was utterly and absolutely free to will or not to will what he has willed. There's nothing, we can't say what God decreed was absolutely necessary, and I'll deal with that a little later. It didn't absolutely have to be.
Once he decrees it, given the decree, then it has to be. But that which is decreed doesn't absolutely have to be. But since it's decreed, it has to be and it will be. God's decree is free.
It could have been otherwise than it was. Creation and providence, however, are two of God's external works. Creation and providence are the execution. of God's decree by virtue of the execution of divine power in accordance with the divine pre-temporal will. So we can say this, creation and providence involve the production of everything not God and the conserving and moving of everything not God in accord with God's eternal decree.
God's decree is God's work before time. Creation and providence are God's work with time and all other creatures. Creation and providence depend upon and are shaped by God's decree. God's decree depends upon God's good pleasure, God's choice or will.
So neither creation nor its subsequent motions have to be. You don't have to be. The only absolutely necessary being is God. We are. because he decreed us to be.
By the way, does God owe being to any creature? No. Does God owe well-being to any creature? No.
That should humble us. It says here, let me address one more issue. Oh, here it is, yes, I do need to say this before looking at the confession. What time do I finish, 4.30?
Good. God does not absolutely or necessarily owe creatures their being, what I just said. Somebody might say, but if God decreed me to be, God owes me to be, right? If he decreed me to be, then he owes me to be.
And let's say yes in one sense, but if God decreed you to be, there is nothing absolutely necessary for him to do so. God is free to determine or to decree what God decrees. So it is not absolutely necessary that God decreed in the first place, nor is that which God decreed of absolute necessity. In other words, God could have decreed me to be taller or shorter, God does not absolutely or necessarily owe creatures their being.
God does not even owe us well-being among the creatures that have being. I'll talk about that later. By the way, true or false, the only absolutely necessary being is God, who is not decreed to be, but just is. The answer is true.
Okay, so I wanna look at the portion of the first paragraph, I think, here, where we have this confession usually gives like a general statement of the doctrine, and then kind of a detailed elaboration. I have here the scope of God's decree is my first point.
The Scope of God's Decree
God hath decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass. So the scope of God's decree is clearly asserted here. The simple proposition is that God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. Nothing accepted, everything included, Dr.
Ranahan read the sections, including the first fall into sin and all the sinful acts of angels and creatures subsequent to the first fall into sin. I think the most mysterious thing to me in theology, as far as this side of the doctrine of God, is the first sin. And you'll see that, I think, in the next section, next lecture. So according to the confession, I want you to squirm in your seats here, the decree of God is comprehensive. all things whatsoever comes to pass.
We gotta feel the way to that because it kind of sets up the next lecture, is God therefore the author of sin, which the confession itself deals with. So of the many texts which support such a radical statement about the comprehensive scope of the decree, the confession refers to Isaiah 46.10, he referred to it, we're gonna refer to it in a second here, Ephesians 1.11, And I think the confession is like the Bible's use of the Bible. When a writer or a speaker in the Bible cites an Old Testament text or alludes to it, they don't want you just to go to Joel 2, 28 and 29 in Acts chapter two, and that's it. They're inviting you to a larger context.
I think the confession does that. So I'm gonna look at Ephesians 1, 9 and 11, because I think it helps. Hebrews 6, 17, and Romans 9, 15, and 18. So these texts clearly support this doctrinal formulation of the scope of God's decree whatsoever comes to pass.
For example, the
Isaiah 46:10 and Divine Counsel
Isaiah text describes God as one who declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God concludes, verse 10, by saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. I think the first time I heard somebody preach on that, his name was Albert N. Martin, who is absent from the body and present with the Lord, and he was thundering, and I think it was just a Sunday school class, because I could hear the chalkboard going, and he was thundering and pounding, and I used to listen to that thing on the way out to the prison to preach during seminary, and I think I just preached his sermons probably over and over to those guys, but it was just like, When God acts, who can slap his hand kind of thing, isn't that in the book of Daniel or something?
It's like, and it was the first time it really gripped me. It's like, this is pretty important. My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. So his decree, excuse me, God counsels his doing.
God has a blueprint according to which God does or acts or operates. His decree counsels or determines his providence. Now somebody might want to argue, but this verse does not say that God does everything according to his counsel, just the things in the context of Isaiah's text. Okay, fair enough, but let's go to Ephesians 1.11.
Oh, but
Ephesians 1:9 and God's Good Pleasure
we're gonna read Ephesians 1.9 first, because I think it's very important. Ephesians 1.9, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, this is Ephesians 1.9, New King James Version, which he purposed in himself. So, It sounds to me like Paul might have read Isaiah 46. The confession gets the language of God's pleasure from Isaiah 46, 10 and Ephesians 1, 9 and in himself from Ephesians 1, 9.
So let's go to Ephesians 1, 11, because that's the specific text they refer us to. Paul says that
Ephesians 1:11 and All Things
God works all things according to the counsel of His will. And in my version of the Bible, over here, my New King James Version, it has some references there, cross-references. And guess which text is cross-referenced? Isaiah 46.10.
By the way, chase down those cross-references. You'll be fascinated how much scripture uses scripture or assumes scriptural language. So God works everything, we're gonna just put that under the two-fold rubric of creation and providence, according to the counsel of his will. And the next question is, what does the all things signify?
The all things of verse 11 signifies the same Same thing that the all things of verse 10 signifies, namely all created things. So that we can say God's works of creation and providence reflect the counsel of God's will. God's decree counsels his works of creation and providence. Now, I remember being a new believer and I can remember that long ago, 1984.
April 1984 is when I think I was effectually called. I didn't call it being effectually called at the time. I called it something happened to me, okay, in April of 1984. And I remember talking to other single guys, does God, like, decree our wives, like, who we're supposed to marry?
They go, no, he doesn't decree those kind of things, just the biggies. And I started reading the Bible, and in the Bible, hairs fall off your head. Connected to the providence of God, which if providence is the execution of the divine decree, God decreed your baldness before the foundation of the world. And so that didn't work.
God only decrees the biggies. There are some things God doesn't operate as God. He doesn't tinker with his creation when certain things are being done. Like when the gospel's being preached, God backs off.
God turns his back. The first cause becomes no cause. And you become the only cause. And then when God sees the results, he comes back in and does what God does.
Our confession doesn't teach that. There's no operation of the creature apart from the operation of the first cause or creator. We don't become unmoved movers. There's only one unmoved mover, unchanged changer, and that's God, and as we're changing, God's doing the thing God does, and we're doing the things creatures do simultaneously.
So
Decree, Creation, and Providence Distinguished
the principle behind creation and providence is the divine decree, or maybe better, the decreeing God. That from which both creation and providence come is God's decree. God's decree finds its terminus, it's that to which it tends, in creation and providence. God's decree is an imminent work of God.
Creation and providence are transitive works of God. The things that have been have their being because God purposed that they would have it. And the things that have been have their being because God purposed when they would have it. He purposed that they would have it.
He purposed when they would have it. He purposed what it is that they would have. But things that have been due to God's purposing them to be do not have being simply because he purposed it. I'm gonna say that again.
Things that have been due to God's purposing them to be do not have being simply because he purposed it. Has God purposed the day of my death? Yes. Am I dead?
No, but God decreed it. The decree as decree does not bring being into being that which it, the decree as decree, I need some coffee, does not bring into being that which it decreed to be. You get it? God has decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass.
Has everything that was decreed to come to pass come to pass? Nope. God must execute the decree, the transitive work, the work outside of God himself, in creation and in providence. God causes that which he decreed to be through creation and providence.
God's decree does not give actual being to anything. You quoted John Norton, right? There's a word Norton used and then I saw it all over the place. The decree gives futurition to things.
It says some things will be. in the future, but the decree itself doesn't cause the things that will be in the future to be. That's God in the execution of divine power in the works of creation and providence. God's decree does not give actual being to anything. It is just God decreeing what will have been as he is pleased to endow it.
So the decree in itself says what will be, but that which will be is not until it is caused to be. I think I'm trying to reword John Norton there. I remember calling James Dolezal about two, three months ago, and he says, you're going up to Chilliwack. You guys are on of God's decree.
He said, how are you doing? I said, not well. He said, don't you have anything of God's decree? I said, I think I've read everything I have on God's decree.
Have you read John Norton? Yes. I don't know if I had read him twice at the time. And he said, well, good luck or something like that.
There's deep, deep waters in this, but Norton was very helpful.
Futurition Versus Actual Being
The decree gives futurition to things, but it doesn't in and of itself give being to things. What gives being to things? God, as he executes his power in creation and providence. So the decree gives futurition to what is decreed, but not actual existence simply by the decree.
For example, One may be decreed to be glorified, yet not really in body and soul glorified until glorified, right? Are all the elect decreed to be glorified? Yes. In the ultimate eschatological sense, are any of the elect really and actually glorified?
Well, if we want to call the mediator the chosen, we could say, well, he is for us and for our glorification. By the way, did you know that his glorification was for us? and for our glorification. So you can be decreed to be glorified, not really in body and soul glorified, until actually glorified. That's what I'm trying to get at.
So God causes things decreed to be by executing divine power in the creation of things or the production of creatures. Things can be in the divine mind without having actual being outside the divine mind. That's kind of basic but important. And this has to be the case, this must be the case, given divine omniscience.
Divine ideas, some of you have probably read about that, in this sense of divine knowledge of things to be. Divine ideas become products of the divine by the execution of divine power through the acts of creation and providence. Everything, And the divine mind, which is to have being, ends up having being exactly as God willed it, to have being. So the scripture is clear, and the confession asserts it, God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass.
Now,
The Decree and the Problem of Sin
a lot of questions come up when you just read that. I remember the first time I read the Westminster Confession in seminary. I went to seminary in 1986 to 89. And somebody handed me the Westminster Confession of Faith.
I think it was my second semester. Could have been the end of my first semester. And I read this part of it. I'm going, I don't know about that.
And then I started reading. Somebody said, you need to read Thomas Watson, The Body of Divinity. So I devoured it between first and second semester. You need to read A.W.
Pink, Sovereignty of God, which I had already read and put all these no, no, no in ink. I think I still have that copy. Because I read it like three months later, and I'm crossing out the no's. I don't even know where that went.
Is it up here? Is everybody getting ready to laugh at me or do you feel sorry for me or what? Both? It's a big statement.
God has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. I've committed hundreds, thousands, probably millions of sins and so have you. Whatsoever comes to pass? How can it be?
How can it be? God decreed this too. And even though I don't like it, he decreed you're laughing at me and scoffing me because of this. Security.
Does Cam do security for you? So a lot of questions, right? Are sins? How is God not the author of sin if he decreed sin to be?
By the way, what is sin? Is sin a thing? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God is the creator of all things, not God.
Sin is not God. Did God create? Is sin an entity? Does sin take up space?
Don't answer, because you might say something heretical. I'm gonna deal with that, I think, in the next one, in the next lecture, because we have to address that issue. Is God the author of sin? And you know what the confession does.
Yet, thereby, God is not the author of sin, or has fellowship with it, or something like that. So we have a comprehensive, the scope of the decree, and then the next thing we have is qualifications concerning that comprehensive scope, concerning God, creatures, and causes, or something like that. I'll deal with that next, but you see the difficulty there. The difficulty is God decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass.
David Charles sins. Therefore, God decreed that David Charles would sin. How do we work that out? And what does that look like in the execution of creation and providence?
What is the providence of God like? What is the unmoved mover doing when I'm being lustfully moved as a creature? Does God, does God, Were my friends right in Madera, California in 1984? Oh, God doesn't have anything to do with those little things in your life.
Just a bit, like a wife's a little thing. God doesn't have anything to do with little things, just the big things. He decreed the world to be and Jesus to be the savior, but not which wife we choose and not which color car we buy and all those kinds of things. The more I thought, well, are we Christian theists or deists? that God can create the world and then not tinker with the world and the world can just operate all on its own?
We're gonna see from Acts chapter 17 that's impossible because we have our life as it is now, we have our movement, the changes in our life, and we have our very being from God. God is operating constantly to uphold his creation. Our view of providence is meticulous, comprehensive providence, which, by the way, on the one hand, it can comfort you. On the other hand, you can say, okay, wait a minute.
So when the creature's operating, when I'm committing my sin, God's not absent. I still have my life as it is, and my movement, and my very being, because somehow, someway, God is causing me to be the agent that I'm presently being. He's doing the divine thing, okay? And I'm doing my creaturely thing.
That's kind of terrifying, actually. But you know what the good news is? as lousy as Christians that we are, we got a great Savior. I said this a few months ago. I'm a horrible Christian, but Jesus is a wonderful Savior.
Yes, God upholds us while we're rebelling, and He has decreed to do that, and we're going to deal with, I think, God's effective will which he has decreed, and God's permissive will. Have you heard theologians say that? I used to hate that. It's God's permissive will.
What do you mean like God, all right, do whatever you're gonna want, you wanna do, tell me when you're over and then I'll come back. That's not what it means. But we have to deal with all these things. So I'm just kind of mumbling.
I'm finished, it's 3.09, can we finish early? I have a hunch my next lecture is actually gonna be long and hopefully it'll actually be good.