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Next question is, what is the 
difference between saving and common grace? Common versus true saving faith. 
I can start with common grace. Common grace is God's non-redemptive 
kindness and goodness toward all mankind and all of creation. And so we see that in Jesus does 
say in Matthew, is it Matthew 5, that the God, the rain falls 
upon the just and the unjust. In fact, in one of the earlier 
questions, we talked about the light of nature, but there's also God's 
goodness to this world and rain falls from heaven. There's fruitful 
seasons and full bellies. Paul actually uses the light 
of nature in Acts 14 as a starting point to get to the gospel. uh 
also in Acts 17 as well but specifically in Acts 14 does say there have 
been fruitful seasons and good gifts and things that God has 
provided and so um so common grace recognizes the the non-redemptive 
benefits there are things that are regulated, not regulated, 
but given to this world, but also he does do some things for 
this world as it's fallen, and namely he does restrain sin as 
well, which I think is where Genesis chapter 9 comes in as 
well. So, God's goodness to, common 
grace is God's goodness to this world that he made, also his 
restraining of sin as well, it's not as bad as it probably could 
be, And then also, this all comes from the 1924 Christian Reform 
Synod that kind of outlines some of these things that are helpful, 
but sometimes man, a non-believer, can do things that are civically 
good. They're not doing it to honor 
God or glorify God or praise God, but they're probably doing 
it for themselves, but they can still pay their taxes, they can 
still drive the speed limit and not run someone over. And so 
they can do those things. And so that's all what God is 
doing by way of his common kindness towards the whole world. And so then on the flip side, 
redemptive is God's saving work to save sinners out of this world. 
And so that only comes by way of the gospel, that comes by 
way of the saving work of God in the hearts and lives of sinners. 
It comes by way of the preaching of the gospel. It comes, faith 
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so we 
can recognize God's common kindness, but we also recognize that man 
needs to be saved from his sin. And so we can preach the gospel 
to them. And I think sometimes people stumble with the terminology, 
they say, there's no such thing as common grace. And I, whatever 
you call it, the fact that God has not obliterated the earth 
and thrown us all into hell, indicates that there's some kind 
of kindness on the part of God in a benevolent way to his creatures. 
So if the terminology common grace is, you know, That's what 
I have found. What do you prefer? Well, common 
mercies, okay. Whatever floats your boat to 
communicate that the rain falls even on the ungodly and such 
that Asaph himself almost stumbled when he looked at the prosperity 
of the wicked and the difficulties of the righteous. The issue, at least in his mind, 
was it just doesn't seem fair. So, you know, there is a sense 
where God, and I think, you know, I've thought about this more 
over the last few years, some exposure to a particular medieval 
theologian that, you know, it has helped me to pray more for, 
for instance, during the COVID time. I want God's people, the 
church, to be blessed. I do. I want them to be blessed. I don't want them to be oppressed 
or persecuted by the government. But I don't want my fellow image-bearer 
to be oppressed or persecuted by the government either. I don't 
begrudge a man. I mean, I don't, you know, he's 
in sin, he needs to repent, he needs to believe. All that's 
true, but I don't want him to have a miserable life under a 
wretched government because, you know, well, he's not a Christian, 
he doesn't deserve it. Well, in God's world, There's 
a lot of people who haven't deserved many of the benefits that they've 
been given. And so I think that when we understand, you know, 
nature, grace, common grace, special grace, I don't know, 
I just think it broadens, at least it has for me, my sympathy 
for and my desire for the prosperity of even the non-Christian citizens 
here in Canada. They don't deserve to have tyrants 
lording things over them. They don't deserve to be told 
that they can't play basketball during a pandemic. They don't 
deserve that. And so it really has evoked in 
me, I think a little bit, well, it's not like I'm Mr. Sympathetic 
or compassionate, but it's caused me to reflect that, yeah, I want 
the church protected, but image bearer qua image bearer. That 
means image bearer as image bearer. He shouldn't be tyrannized by 
other image bearers. That's just never right. I think 
it helps us appreciate creation as well in a way that we don't 
always have to bring it under apologetics. I don't know. Some 
people always want to, we need to defend creation and it's good 
to do that. We should defend creation, but 
we also need to recognize that creation as a subject matter 
falls under the doctrine of God, that God made this world. He 
is the creator. We are the creature and everything, 
not him is creature. And everything he has made has 
been called good. You know, certainly sin taints 
that and corrupts that and makes it low, but, and yeah, just destroys 
things. But at the same time, God still 
called it good. And he has been very good to 
this world to make it. He's been good to us to give 
us gifts. And he's also been good to us to restrain evil. 
I'd like, to think that he could restrain a little bit more, but 
I'm not God and he is, but he does do all of those things. 
And we can recognize that without, you know, forgoing the kingdom 
or trying to, you know, compromising the kingdom. I think also having 
those two terms and understanding those lanes, you know, really 
help us to how we interact with the world, but also what the 
church is and what our task is as the church. Yep. God is good. Amen. God is good.