SPEAKER_00: The title of my message is today.
SPEAKER_00: What is the problem with predestination and election?
SPEAKER_00: The short answer to that is absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It is one of the most glorious and beautiful doctrines in the entire Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It is the very foundation of God's mercy toward us, of Christ's redemption, and of the very gospel itself.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned a while ago that the Lord had kind of turned me 180 degrees from how I wanted to approach this.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes us preachers can be dry as a Sahara desert, and that's not good for anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And when a preacher gets up and says that, hey, we're going to talk about a historical doctrine, man, doesn't that just excite you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it should, but let me put it this way: the thing that the Lord turned me 180 degrees about is this is that instead of me just diving straight off into the doctrine and let's approaching this like that way, I actually want to approach the doctrine from the standpoint of somebody who doesn't agree with it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the very reason that we started this uh quote-unquote study of the catechism, which again, that is an older fashion word that just simply means a series of questions and answers.
SPEAKER_00: And the very reason that we started this is because, brothers and sisters, I I'm jealous for y'all.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know the truth for your benefit.
SPEAKER_00: But not only do I want you to know the truth, I want other people to know the truth as well.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to see and understand and have the blessing of what we see.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think it would be of a benefit to approach the teachings, this series of questions and answers, uh, of the doctrine in a little bit different way.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh I recognize that this is a, and I and I I told y'all I was kind of a little bit uh involved or or head deep in all this.
SPEAKER_00: Um I had to, we're only gonna hit really two points this morning because I realize this is not a small subject, and I want to be very, very plain and not dry, and not so the Lord be my help to get out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: So when I ask the question, what is the problem with predestination and election?
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually asking that question from the standpoint of somebody who does not believe in predestination and election, and what are the things that are going through that person's mind as they consider this doctrine of predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean and and what ramifications does it have?
SPEAKER_00: And so so again, I I want to do a preacher thing and give you a few definitions, and then we're gonna get out of the way and dive straight into this.
SPEAKER_00: So the word predestination simply means to determine before, to limit in advance, to foreordain or choose ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00: The word election in the regard to the Bible means God's divine choice of persons to be an object of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: God's divine choice of persons to be an object of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I believe that many people do not understand predestination election is because they they don't approach it from the standpoint of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the King James Bible, you know, last uh, you know, Sunday before Brother Danny came, we were attempting to preach through the book uh starting in Ephesians chapter one, and we were giving some preliminary information about that.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna be back in Ephesians chapter one, and so this morning I want to start in Ephesians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna hit some of these objections and questions, and then we're gonna circle back around to Ephesians chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see in the language of Ephesians chapter 1 and the King James, I've mentioned before that in the King James Bible that there is almost a built-in dictionary, so that when you read the King James Bible, that the writer, whomever that is, inspired by the Holy Spirit, whether it's Paul or Peter or Moses, whoever it is, oftentimes they will say something, and then in a following verse or multiple following verses, they will say the exact same thing, but use different language.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like us uh not so good preachers like me tend to repeat ourselves because we want to hammer the point home.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible and the Holy Spirit is much better than that than I am, and so he will teach a doctrine or he will teach a point, and then he'll come back around and say the exact same thing that he just said, but using different words.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so that occurs in Ephesians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to show you that and uh before we get started because we're gonna preach through this message, good Lord willing, and then circle back around at the end, and we're gonna hit this exact same verse, uh, hopefully with new glasses on.
SPEAKER_00: So in Ephesians chapter 1, uh beginning in verse 3, I want y'all to see who is doing the action.
SPEAKER_00: That uh, and if you go back and you read through Ephesians chapter 1, you will notice that man, men, you and I, the people, are not the ones doing the action.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who is doing the action, who is getting the praise, who is uh doing this to people, not not a choice that people make, it's God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just look at that.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul rightly says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So you see right off the bat that the apostle Paul is saying, Look, God is the one who is blessed for what is about to transpire.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he's also saying, if y'all notice, and again, I'm not trying to re-preach this, but but he introduced this chapter, Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: So he introduced this chapter saying, Look, I, Paul, who am writing this, am an apostle by the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul didn't make that choice.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God made that choice.
SPEAKER_00: God chose Paul, and y'all tell me God's choosing of Paul on the Damascus road was a very clear example of someone who was not seeking after God, but instead God who purposely intervened in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So God gets that glory.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who chose.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was not seeking God.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, God was the one who struck him down and sought him and then borne him again and pulled him out of where he was going.
SPEAKER_00: So even from the beginning of this book, uh, we see that it was God's choice, not Paul's.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul ascribes or gives God the glory, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Notice this.
SPEAKER_00: Who hath blessed us?
SPEAKER_00: So he's writing the Ephesian church and all Christians, he's saying, It is God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Hard stop.
SPEAKER_00: If you and I were the ones who were responsible for our own salvation, if you and I were responsible for appropriating redemption to ourselves, then you and I would be, uh would get part of the glory that look, you made a wonderful choice, you made a right decision.
SPEAKER_00: The guy over there, he chose not to accept Christ, he made a terrible choice, he made a terrible decision.
SPEAKER_00: And so the guy who made the right choice to him be the glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way this language is here.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Paul says, Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Paul is giving all the glory to God because God is the one who did all the work.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So man doesn't get the glory for that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because wouldn't y'all say that it would be a heavenly blessing for you and I to actually go to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Correct?
SPEAKER_00: That's not too much of a stretch.
SPEAKER_00: So here it doesn't say, blessed be the individual person who chose Christ, who have blessed themselves with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It does not say that.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it says, blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is God who is doing the work, God who is giving us these blessings.
SPEAKER_00: Now that he's set that context, what are these blessings about?
SPEAKER_00: Again, all of this, you understand in the scriptures, all of this is logical.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is building upon itself.
SPEAKER_00: So you notice there's a colon in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: So this heavenly blessing all comes from what is about to follow.
SPEAKER_00: So what does it follow in verse 4?
SPEAKER_00: So Paul says, we are blessed in heavenly places in Christ, colon.
SPEAKER_00: So the thought continues, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Hard stop.
SPEAKER_00: Is that not clear?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not trying to say that rudely, folks.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to say, y'all tell me in the scriptures here, is this not saying that we are blessed in heavenly places in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Or how or on what basis?
SPEAKER_00: According as he, Father God, has chosen us in him Christ, and when did he do that choosing?
SPEAKER_00: Before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the person doing the action?
SPEAKER_00: Not the individual, not the human, not the man.
SPEAKER_00: Man is not choosing God here.
SPEAKER_00: God is choosing us here, just like God chose the apostle Paul to be an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: Follow that?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is not changing up everything.
SPEAKER_00: Like, did God send out a survey in the old world and say, hey, Egyptians, do you want to follow me?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Babylonians, do you want to follow me?
SPEAKER_00: Or did he select for himself a people, Israel?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God is not changing up his standard mode of operation.
SPEAKER_00: God is a sovereign God who operates in a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: He chose Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He chose Paul.
SPEAKER_00: He chose Jacob and not Esau.
SPEAKER_00: And here he chooses his children.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: God is not breaking from the mold.
SPEAKER_00: God is staying with the way he normally operates.
SPEAKER_00: And here, Apollo properly ascribes the glory and the blessing to God because God is the one who has done this action.
SPEAKER_00: So we are blessed according as He, God, has chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so when did He choose us?
SPEAKER_00: Did He choose us in time?
SPEAKER_00: Did He choose us when we chose Him?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He chose us before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God has declared us to be that.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so the same thing that the Holy Spirit is telling us in verse 4 is going to be the same thing that the Holy Spirit is telling us in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Here is that built-in King James dictionary that he tells us something, and then he turns around and tells us the exact same information but using different words.
SPEAKER_00: So he told us in verse 4 that God has chosen us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of that, you and I are holy.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's what he told us in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now in verse 5, what does he tell us?
SPEAKER_00: God having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling us the exact same thing in verse 5 that he told us in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 told us that God chose us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 says God, having predestinated, that word means to decide beforehand us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And why did he do all this?
SPEAKER_00: He did all this according to the good pleasure of his will, God's will, not man's.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Those two verses are telling us exactly the same thing in two different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to see is that it's plain in the writing that God is the one who is doing the work.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who is doing the choosing, not man.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why so let's wrap this up in verse six, and then we're going to jump into our questions.
SPEAKER_00: So why did God choose to do it this way?
SPEAKER_00: Why did he choose this manner of salvation and not some other manner of salvation?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: God did salvation of man in this manner, so he gets all the glory and man gets none.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Because, see, if the person, if you had two people, and man truly had free will, and you could just choose God or deny him, and you could appropriate, or basically, for lack of a word, you could choose salvation unto yourself, eternal salvation, then and one man made the decision, yes, I'm gonna follow Christ, and another man made the decision, no, I'm not gonna follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if it was the case that that was the deciding factor, that man was the deciding factor, then that man, oh, good on you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the wonderful decision that you made, because otherwise you were gonna bust hell wide open.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, because you made the right decision, you saved yourself from a burning hell.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's the way that a lot of people understand salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: If that's the case, then man gets some of the glory.
SPEAKER_00: The individual gets some of the glory, and then the preacher who brought the message, he gets some of the glory.
SPEAKER_00: You follow what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: And man didn't get any of the glory because man didn't do any of that work.
SPEAKER_00: God did all of that work.
SPEAKER_00: So now let's jump into these questions.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's jump.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this, and we're gonna we're gonna go through a series of quote-unquote questions and answers about predestination and election and adoption.
SPEAKER_00: And let me ask y'all this real quick before we dive off into this.
SPEAKER_00: When you think about adoption, does the three-month-old baby, is he or she the one who chooses the adoptive parents?
SPEAKER_00: Or is that little baby incapable of choosing the parents?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's the parents.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, people in the world who are outside the church understand the concept of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: That it's the parents who choose, you understand?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Bill Josh, what about somebody who's later in life?
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that adoptive child is a 16-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, you will see in some of the Hallmark movies that, you know, parents will ask the question, well, well, do you want to come and live in this family?
SPEAKER_00: You know, again, I'm not denying that, that that's in some of the Hallmark movies.
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, but ultimately that 16-year-old is not the woman who just says, all right, well, I've been in this office long enough.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, lady, I want you, the the lady who's over the doctor's house, I want you to get me some folks on the phone, some potential candidates, and I want you to drive me around to all their houses.
SPEAKER_00: And once I go and see their house, see how clean their home is, see how big their backyard is, what kind of cars they got, you know, what kind of money they got in the bank, I want to look at their finances, and then after I've vetted all of these candidates, then I'm gonna choose me the best candidate for me, a mom and dad.
SPEAKER_00: Even the 16-year-old doesn't get to do that, you understand.
SPEAKER_00: People in the world understand the concept of a job adoption, and it is not the recipient child who makes the choice.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It is the parent, it is the father who makes the choice.
SPEAKER_00: That is no different in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start from that framework.
SPEAKER_00: So the idea of predestination, the idea of election, can be somewhat summarized in the idea of adoption.
SPEAKER_00: That God has adopted us to be in his family.
SPEAKER_00: We were not worthy and we were not capable, but he chose us.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't choose him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so my first question about the idea from the idea of someone who does not understand predestination election is that what so what is the problem with predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: That is my question.
SPEAKER_00: My first answer is this.
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians don't understand the doctrine because it hasn't been properly taught and widely taught from the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: What is the problem with predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm specifically talking about in our modern world.
SPEAKER_00: Are there churches out there preaching predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: And praise the Lord that they are.
SPEAKER_00: Is this a historical doctrine that has been taught for thousands of years?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the new kid on the block.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, the idea that man actually chooses God is actually the new kid on the block, Arminianism, and it's a false doctrine that has just sprung up in the last couple of hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: So what we are preaching this morning, brothers and sisters, let me make this crystal clear, is biblical doctrine that is thousands of years old and is not a departure from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Modern mainstream understanding of quote-unquote man choosing God, that is a new doctrine, a false doctrine that has reared its head in the last 200 years and is not founded in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let's get that out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is the problem with predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: The first problem that I see is this doctrine has not been properly and widely taught from the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, uh people are ignorant of this doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: Now, please don't give me your uh please don't misunderstand me.
SPEAKER_00: I do not mean an insult by the word ignorant.
SPEAKER_00: Um I actually like the word ignorant.
SPEAKER_00: What you mean by Joshua, in our modern day times, the word ignorant is an insult, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell y'all that uh I am ignorant of nuclear physics.
SPEAKER_00: I am.
SPEAKER_00: I do not know the ins and outs of nuclear physics.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a I'm not a physicist.
SPEAKER_00: And if I was sitting in a conference on nuclear physics uh other than the English language that the men might be speaking, I would probably have no clue of what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, if I did a tremendous amount of study, you know, over a course of a long period of time, could I get to the point where I had a basic understanding of that and what they're talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Probably, and you could probably too.
SPEAKER_00: But but I want to tell y'all right now, as I stand in this pulpit this morning, I am ignorant of nuclear physics.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: The word ignorance simply means the absence of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: So I would venture to say one of the quote-unquote problems that there is with predestination election is there there is a general ignorance or lack of knowledge about what this doctrine actually says among the larger Christian community as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: That is one of the problems that it has not been properly and widely taught from the pulpit in modern times.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into it.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 28 and verse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those verses in the Bible that we ought to underline.
SPEAKER_00: So Solomon writes in Proverbs 29 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
SPEAKER_00: So what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Where there is no vision, the people perish.
SPEAKER_00: The word vision in the King James means prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: It literally means the public administration or the expounding of the word.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, when there are not ministers that are publicly explaining the word of God in an understandable manner to the people, either by neglect because it's just not being done, like hey, there's no churches there, there's no preachers there, or the preachers that are there are not talking about this subject, or they're not properly talking about this subject.
SPEAKER_00: So the idea in Proverbs is where there is no vision or prophecy, the people perish.
SPEAKER_00: Where there is no proper expounding and explaining of the word of God, in that case, the people perish.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does the word perish mean?
SPEAKER_00: It's not talking about they die in hellfire.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what it's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The word perish here literally means they are exposed and they are naked.
SPEAKER_00: They are exposed.
SPEAKER_00: How would y'all like to go outside in the dead of winter when it's raining in South Mississippi and being caught out in the woods when it's you know 29 or 30 degrees outside and pouring down rain and having to walk seven or eight miles back to your house and only be in the lightest t-shirt and shorts with no shoes on?
SPEAKER_00: By the time you get back to the house, you would uh probably be headed to the hospital if you even made it back to the house with hypothermia.
SPEAKER_00: You would be naked, you would be in danger, you would be exposed.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all tell me, would y'all be in a healthy estate?
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all be in a strong state?
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all be in a joyous state of mind?
SPEAKER_00: Would y'all be in a position to help anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You would be weak and downcast and sickly and in harm and you would be unprotected.
SPEAKER_00: You would be in a terrible estate.
SPEAKER_00: So where there is no vision or prophesying or preaching of the word, the people perish.
SPEAKER_00: They are in an exposed and naked estate.
SPEAKER_00: So here, let's fast forward to America in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: And so now when you have quote-unquote, and again, let's let's for the moment lump our church in with all the other quote-unquote evangelical Christian churches of all face and order for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just lump us in there.
SPEAKER_00: As a whole, as an entire whole, Christians don't understand this doctrine because it has not been properly and widely taught as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: People are ignorant of this doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: They just don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of them not knowing, now that has exposed them to danger.
SPEAKER_00: They're in a bad estate.
SPEAKER_00: They can be weak and sickly as a result of this doctrine not being widely taught.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And you will see the same thing that has just been mentioned over here in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: You will see the exact same thoughts here in the New Testament as the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesian church.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to pick up in verse 11, and then we're going to read through verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: So, so if I if this little bitty section, so let's just dive into it.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4 and 11.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul writes to the Ephesian church and tells them, and he, God, gave some men to be what?
SPEAKER_00: Apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: And why did God do that?
SPEAKER_00: The next verse.
SPEAKER_00: God did this for this reason.
SPEAKER_00: For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Hard stop.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why God put these men in the church was for this end.
SPEAKER_00: So that the word it says for the perfecting of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: That word means for the complete furnishing of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: It's so that the little Christian wasn't walking around in the forest in his shorts and his t-shirts, freezing to death and half naked.
SPEAKER_00: So he called pastors to go out there and to help find the little Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Again, he's already a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The pastor didn't make him one, okay, you understand.
SPEAKER_00: He helped pastors to go be shepherds and under-shepherds, as it were, to go out and find that little sheep and to go and put a coat on him, to dry him off, to bring him something warm, to put shoes on his feet, to help him, to equip him and help him lead the way back to a safe place.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why God put these men in the church for the perfecting of the word means complete furnishing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The word edifying means to build up and strengthen.
SPEAKER_00: If pastors don't do their jobs, their churches are weak.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: If preachers do not do a good job, their churches are weak.
SPEAKER_00: They are not strong.
SPEAKER_00: They are not.
SPEAKER_00: That is one of the reasons why I want to preach through the catechism of this series of questions and answers.
SPEAKER_00: So y'all folks not only know the answer, it's not that I want you to go out there and get in a debate with other people.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know for you.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know so that when your grandchildren, in a loving manner, say, Papa, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to say, well, we'll have to go to church and hear it from the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: No, I want you to explain it to your grandchildren.
SPEAKER_00: Mother and father and local, I want you to explain it to your children.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, who are the primary disciplers of their home?
SPEAKER_00: Mother and father.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know whose ultimate responsibility it is for children to know the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Be taught the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: Parents.
SPEAKER_00: Pastors just come alongside of that and help and equip the parents.
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
SPEAKER_00: Brother Sisters, it's and see this modern, again, let's talk about the modern church as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we have youth pastors in the church?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, I'm just not equipped in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I'm just going to drag my children to church and get the youth pastor and teach them everything they know.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, it's not how that works.
SPEAKER_00: You know what we're supposed to do?
SPEAKER_00: The whole family is supposed to come to church together.
SPEAKER_00: And mom and dad are supposed to learn the word of God along with the young people, however little or big they may be.
SPEAKER_00: Even when they do have questions, or even when they don't have questions, mom and dad are supposed to come alongside and teach and train their children in the word of the Lord every day, diligently, purposefully, intentionally, proactively.
SPEAKER_00: It is their job to do that.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the quote-unquote youth pastor job, which we don't even have in the old Baptist Church, because it's not found in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Josh, y'all just old and inequality, that's why y'all don't have youth pastors.
SPEAKER_00: No! The reason why we don't have youth pastors is because God doesn't want youth pastors.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm not saying that those men aren't good men and they don't love the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying instead is that the model that the Bible sets is the pastor is supposed to come as an under-shepherd and teach the whole family, and then mom and dad are supposed to take that meat off of the table and then go disseminate that to the children and actively, purposefully, intentionally train their children up in the word of the Lord in the home.
SPEAKER_00: That is the very foundation of the church and society.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, that's why our society's falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: Because we've outsourced that job to people that it was not ever their job to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Not their job.
SPEAKER_00: It's mom and dad's job.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what's pastor's job?
SPEAKER_00: The pastor's job is to edify the body of Christ, to build it up, to strengthen it, to bring you the clothes, the cover you up, to show you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he says, for the the ministry's calling, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till or until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man and of the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When are we going to get to that fullness of our faith and the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ when we go to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: So in other words, it doesn't matter if you're eight or eighty.
SPEAKER_00: A pastor is supposed to minister to you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're an eight-year-old in the church or an eighty-year-old in the church, the pastor's job is to feed you, feed the lambs, feed the sheep, you understand, right?
SPEAKER_00: To build the eight-year-old up and to build the eighty-year-old up.
SPEAKER_00: Until the eighty-year-old goes to be at home in heaven, and that's when they have reached the measure of the stature of fullness of Christ, when their sins are burnt away.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally, when they're where they're made like unto Christ and given a new body.
SPEAKER_00: That's when we're going to know fully as we're fully known.
SPEAKER_00: But until that time, it is my job as a pastor to feed y'all folks, right?
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual food.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of Christians in America who are starving to death.
SPEAKER_00: They're starving to death of spiritual food.
SPEAKER_00: They have the appearance of religion and religiosity because their churches are busy and they're bustling.
SPEAKER_00: But where's the depth?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the meat?
SPEAKER_00: Where's the food that feeds the soul?
SPEAKER_00: There's so many churches that we're so busy with all the things, but yet we're starving to death.
SPEAKER_00: They're eating Twinkies.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it tastes so good.
SPEAKER_00: They're not eating homegrown garden vegetables.
SPEAKER_00: The pasture killed meat.
SPEAKER_00: It actually feeds the body and strengthens it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go on.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part that is exactly the same as Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: And God did, you understand that God gave all these men to edify, to build up, to equip, to what end?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, one of the first problems, what is the problem with predestination and election?
SPEAKER_00: Most Christians don't understand the doctrine because it hasn't been properly and widely taught from the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is ignorance on the part of the church as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, therefore, because people are ignorant, they are not, they're not strengthened.
SPEAKER_00: They're not grounded in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And now instead, they're tossed to and fro like a ship that's ungrounded on the sea.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have an anchor down.
SPEAKER_00: It's just carried about with every wind of doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: It's tossed by the storm, every trend, every fad.
SPEAKER_00: Let's follow this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a modern thing.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't want us to be children in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be, He wants us to grow up in knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when first pastors and second parents don't do their job.
SPEAKER_00: That's what happens to children.
SPEAKER_00: They get tossed about in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That is what causes that problem.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So what are we supposed to do as ministers?
SPEAKER_00: And parents.
SPEAKER_00: But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is my job to tell y'all folks the truth, but not do it like some self-righteous Pharisee.
SPEAKER_00: But to do it in love, because I want y'all to know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be established in the truth.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to be naked and exposed, and I don't want your ship to be tossed to and fro on the sea.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to have knowledge and have a foundation and for you to go to be able to lead your own household.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: That's my job.
SPEAKER_00: And shame on me if I don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And shame on you if you don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's enough shaming.
SPEAKER_00: Second question.
SPEAKER_00: So y'all can see that this is one of the things that I believe is the reason.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what is wrong with predestination election?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most glorious and beautiful doctrines in all the Bible and the very foundation of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what is wrong with predestination election from the standpoint of somebody who doesn't believe in it?
SPEAKER_00: What is wrong about it is they are ignorant of it.
SPEAKER_00: They do not understand it.
SPEAKER_00: And they haven't been properly taught about it.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they're afraid of it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a foreign thing.
SPEAKER_00: And what do I do with that?
SPEAKER_00: So I get that.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all not get that?
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Second thing.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I told you we only covered two of these today.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: Not a big only two.
SPEAKER_00: The second problem with predestination election is that people simply don't like it.
SPEAKER_00: People simply don't like it.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Mozia?
SPEAKER_00: That is not their idea of how salvation is supposed to work and who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that one more time.
SPEAKER_00: One of the second main problems with predestination and election from the standpoint of somebody who doesn't understand it is they simply don't like it.
SPEAKER_00: The little bit that they might know about it, the surface information that they might know about it, that I don't want things to operate that way, and that's not my idea who God is.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Let me make this statement.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm going to make this statement.
SPEAKER_00: And again, scripture is more important than this.
SPEAKER_00: Always.
SPEAKER_00: But if there was one singular statement that I made today, that you got, that you chewed on, that you recorded, it would be this is the statement that I'm about to make.
SPEAKER_00: God's adoption changes the focus from man's choice to God's decision and makes election rather than faith the deciding factor of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That is a true biblical statement.
SPEAKER_00: But y'all see where the we and the, again, just for the time being today, we're just going to lump ourselves in the modern American church, because we're in America, and we're living in 2026, right?
SPEAKER_00: Not that we practice this, but the church thinks that the focus is all on the person, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's all about the person.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about me.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about I.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about me and you and I.
SPEAKER_00: It's about God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He gets all the glory for everything.
SPEAKER_00: Man didn't have anything to do with his own salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God did it all.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God gets all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: That's also why it's secure.
SPEAKER_00: Because man had nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: If you and I had anything to do with it, then we could lose it.
SPEAKER_00: But we didn't have anything to do with it, therefore we can't lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's just dive off into this.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Romans chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: Man, I gotta hurry.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 9.
SPEAKER_00: This objection right here, this second objection, that uh people simply don't like the idea of predestination election because that is not what they would have chosen God to act like and operate like.
SPEAKER_00: Well, my first response to that is, who do you think you are?
SPEAKER_00: You're not God.
SPEAKER_00: And did y'all know that that's actually Paul's response in Romans chapter 9?
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
SPEAKER_00: Paul said in Romans chapter 9, nay, but oh man, who art thou that replies against God?
SPEAKER_00: Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, is it the potter's, I'm sorry, is it the pot's job to critique the potter?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I really wanted to be a real big vessel to hold wine, but instead, you made me some little dainty thing that sits on top of a lady's mantle in her house, and I'm just offended, Lord, that you made me this little dainty pot instead of making me some big working vessel out in the marketplace.
SPEAKER_00: God, I'm just offended by that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for you to say.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, when you and I simply say, God, I don't like the fact that you chose to choose people or let people or adopt people or predestinate people.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you and I?
SPEAKER_00: That we can reply against God.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think you know better than God?
SPEAKER_00: We don't.
SPEAKER_00: We're the pot.
SPEAKER_00: He's the potter.
SPEAKER_00: To him be all the glory and honor.
SPEAKER_00: He chose better than me or you.
SPEAKER_00: Always in every instance.
SPEAKER_00: But let's dive into this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to hurt people's feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 9, beginning in verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Paul deals with this exact question.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just dive into it.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, Romans 9.9, very quick.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul writes again, for this is the word of promise.
SPEAKER_00: At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
SPEAKER_00: And not only this, but when Rebekah also hath conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, verse 11, for the children, talking about Jacob and Esau, for the children, being not yet born, there neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.
SPEAKER_00: It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
SPEAKER_00: Now stop right there.
SPEAKER_00: Do y'all know that God used a lot of words in this passage of scripture?
SPEAKER_00: But he did it on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: God left nothing to the imagination here.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what he says.
SPEAKER_00: For the children, and he's going to name those children in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to call them out by name, Jacob and Esau.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no question that he's talking about a real occurrence.
SPEAKER_00: For the children.
SPEAKER_00: Being not yet born, hard stop.
SPEAKER_00: These boys are still in their mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: Still in the belly.
SPEAKER_00: These boys have not had an opportunity to say yay or nay, to choose Christ or deny Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Neither one of them.
SPEAKER_00: They're literally still in their mother's womb.
SPEAKER_00: So God goes to great lengths to spell out all the detail here to show us exactly what he's talking about, so there is no confusion about this doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: For the children being not yet born, and then he takes it a step further.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that they're in the womb means that neither having done any good or evil.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're not seven years old, they're not on the playground, and one didn't pick up a rock and throw it.
SPEAKER_00: Another boy, and the other one said, Oh, no, no, no, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Or one didn't cuss in secret or go smoke a cigarette behind the bleachers, and the other one says, No, you shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: No, that no, they're in the womb.
SPEAKER_00: They're in the womb, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: They haven't done any good or evil.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say, I gave you these details, that the purpose of God according to election, hard stop.
SPEAKER_00: At the purpose of God according to election, at the purpose of God according to predestination, at the purpose of God according to adoption, same thing.
SPEAKER_00: All the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: That the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, not of whose works, men's works.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't have anything to do whatsoever with Jacob and Esau, nothing to do with them.
SPEAKER_00: But instead it had everything to do of him that calleth.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it was God who called, that's who did the work.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
SPEAKER_00: Now see, that goes out of order.
SPEAKER_00: The younger was supposed to serve the elder.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way it was done in ancient times and in the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: But God said, nope, not in this instance.
SPEAKER_00: The elder is going to serve the younger.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reversing the order.
SPEAKER_00: Well, see, that's a departure.
SPEAKER_00: That's different than the folks were already thinking, you understand?
SPEAKER_00: And see, he just told them something that is different than they're thinking.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me that God picked one of these boys when they were in the womb before they smoked a cigarette behind the bleachers?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: He chose one of them and not the other one.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated, and there's not some kind of tongue-twisting English word here that means that God didn't really hate him, but he just loved him less.
SPEAKER_00: No, God actually hated Esau.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to go into a tremendous amount of that, but now, let's read on then.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I wanted to get to.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the next verse.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that after Paul and the Holy Spirit wrote all of this, okay, all of this, just that we we attempted this morning as best I can to make clear what is the next words out of Paul's mouth.
SPEAKER_00: What shall we say then?
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
SPEAKER_00: Is there unrighteousness with God?
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
SPEAKER_00: God forbid.
SPEAKER_00: You know what Paul literally said here?
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew what he was writing.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that it meant what it meant, what it meant, that God chose Jacob and didn't choose Esau.
SPEAKER_00: And just as soon as I get that out of the mouth, you're going to say, that's not right.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God do that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't like the doctrine of predestination and election.
SPEAKER_00: God should have done it a different way.
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
SPEAKER_00: That is not a new sentiment, brothers and sisters, in 2026.
SPEAKER_00: People 2,000 years ago raised the exact same question, but I want you to see that Paul knew exactly what he was writing.
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
SPEAKER_00: And he knew.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, Paul really didn't mean that God actually elected or adopted the people by his choice.
SPEAKER_00: And that, you know, well, why did Paul prepare that they would be inflamed or mad at what he just said?
SPEAKER_00: And why are people inflamed and mad today at people preaching that God chose and man doesn't choose?
SPEAKER_00: You understand?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing new under the sun.
SPEAKER_00: Same question.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul just wrote it more eloquently.
SPEAKER_00: Is there unrighteousness of God?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, did God make a bad decision with how he chose to do salvation?
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: Is there unrighteousness of God?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God should have done it a different way.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, what God should have done is he should have saved, you know, given everybody the opportunity for salvation, and then whoever picks God, that's who gets to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way that God should have done salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you and I to question God's methods?
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know better than God does.
SPEAKER_00: But 2,000 years ago, Paul knew that would be the prevalent question.
SPEAKER_00: People are gonna choose, the people are gonna tell me that God's not right.
SPEAKER_00: God's not right in doing salvation that way, and I don't agree with it.
SPEAKER_00: So what is wrong with predestination election in 2026 is that people simply don't like the doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: See that they didn't like it 2,000 years ago because it takes control out of man's hands and it puts it all on God.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't like that.
SPEAKER_00: Our flesh doesn't like that.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to wrap this up.
SPEAKER_00: Very quickly, let's read on.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, that's God's choice, not man's, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: So then it is not of him that willeth, that's man, nor of him that runneth, that's man, but of God that showeth mercy.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, man can't make God show him mercy by something he did, by some works.
SPEAKER_00: For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this cause, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh, I'm going to use you to bring my glory, to show you that you're not the God that you think you are, Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm God.
SPEAKER_00: You're too big for your breeches.
SPEAKER_00: You want to lord it over everybody, that you're God and your ruler, and that you're king, and you're not, you're not in control, you're not who you think you are.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he, God, hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
SPEAKER_00: It's not man's choice, it's God's choice.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Thou wilt say unto me, Why doth he yet find fault?
SPEAKER_00: For who hath resisted his will?
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
SPEAKER_00: Nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God?
SPEAKER_00: Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
SPEAKER_00: Hast not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?
SPEAKER_00: You can take out of the same lump, and you can make a pig pen or a pig trough out of one lump, and then you can make a vase out of the same lump of clay to go in the king's palace?
SPEAKER_00: And the potter can choose out of the same lump of clay to do that.
SPEAKER_00: He has a right to do that, and nobody has a right to question him to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel in honor, another undishonor?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, what if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the wrestles, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?
SPEAKER_00: Now let me get this out of the way right here.
SPEAKER_00: I want this to be as clear as a bell.
SPEAKER_00: God has never predestinated a person to hell.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: Man did that all on his own.
SPEAKER_00: In the Garden of Eden in Adam.
SPEAKER_00: As in Adam all die.
SPEAKER_00: We all like sheep have gone astray.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, brothers and sisters, God predestined no one to hell.
SPEAKER_00: God does choose and predestine people for heaven to show mercy, whom he wills.
SPEAKER_00: Man doesn't decide that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Brother Josh, what does he do with them people that he doesn't choose us?
SPEAKER_00: He leaves them alone.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves them in their natural fallen estate that they were born in Adam, and then on top of that, they by their own nature willingly enter off into sin, and they by nature, their minds are literally hatred against God.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't send people kicking and screaming to hell that want to serve and follow Christ and the Lord and God.
SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Because a man who's going to hell is not a man who has a desire to serve the Lord and to follow Christ at all.
SPEAKER_00: God does not, nor never has, predestinate a person to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Man did that all on his own.
SPEAKER_00: You know what God does do?
SPEAKER_00: God is willing to let those vessels of wrath that are fitted by their own sins to hell.
SPEAKER_00: He shows them mercy, some of them for hundreds of years.
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, during the time of Methuselah and them, when men lived to be hundreds and hundreds of years old, some of them were wicked men.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what God did?
SPEAKER_00: They had neighbors and they had friends and they had family members who loved the Lord and served the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And for literally centuries, their godly family members blessed those wicked folks.
SPEAKER_00: They served them, they loved them, they were patient with them, they were kind to them.
SPEAKER_00: And God didn't just strike them dead in a moment and take them off the earth when they were 16 and a half and throwing rocks at another bulloy on the playground.
SPEAKER_00: He let them live to be a 300-year-old man.
SPEAKER_00: Or in modern day times, he lets a wicked CEO of a company who just takes advantage of everybody, live to be 85 years old and lives in a mansion with$100 million in the bank, and he's bound for a devil's hell, and he hadn't served anybody in his life, he served his own life.
SPEAKER_00: God, with great long-suffering, allows that man to exist in the world and doesn't eradicate him off the face of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: To show you and I, who are his vessels of mercy, just how long-suffering he really is.
SPEAKER_00: If God is willing to be that patient with a terrible, corrupt human being, then how patient is he with us?
SPEAKER_00: That's what this is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So let's conclude all this.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it this way.
SPEAKER_00: People simply don't like when they don't understand, when they're ignorant of the doctrine of predestination and election, they simply don't like the doctrine because in their mind, that's not the way God should have done things.
SPEAKER_00: And I want y'all to see this, and we're going to close.
SPEAKER_00: In their mind, God should have sent Christ to die, and then given Jacob and Esau both the opportunity to choose Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That would have, in a worldly sense, that would quote unquote be fair, right?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: You're looking at Jacob and Esau wrong.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Brother Josh?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob and Esau both should have been condemned to hell because they were both bad individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: When you think about God's salvation in a proper manner, no one should get salvation except the Lord Jesus Christ, because he was the only holy person that ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, you see a heathen, a terrible human being like Jacob, who God chose, and he left his heathen brother alone.
SPEAKER_00: But God chose Jacob, even though Jacob didn't deserve to be chosen, and God showed him grace and mercy that he didn't deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly the same thing that he showed to me and you and every other person ever that's been saved, including King David, including Moses, including Paul.
SPEAKER_00: See, people think about it, well, but Josh, I don't like predestination election because I don't like that God doesn't give everybody an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Friend, well, all right, well, now that you actually, at least in part, understand the doctrine, let's step over in my shoes for a minute.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that I partially understand predestination election, I love it.
SPEAKER_00: I rejoice in it.
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I realize how terrible a human being I am at my very core, that I'm a lost sinner, and that God intervened in my life, and by his grace alone, and by his intervention alone, and by his choice alone, he saved me, and he saved you, and he saved the apostle Paul, and I could have never done that myself.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, that humbles me and makes me want to serve him every day of my life, to strive until the minute, the second that I die, to want to follow after him, because God, you did something for me that I couldn't earn and don't deserve, and therefore I owe you every minute of every day of every hour of my life forever.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, give me strength to work with you, work for you in that way, not to go to heaven, but to serve you for what you've already done and you've already accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: And it makes me humble and it makes me thankful, and it gives all the glory to God for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That other doctrine steals the glory from God and puts it in the hand of the preacher who did a good job, in the hand of a person who made a right choice.
SPEAKER_00: And then it makes them less thankful for the salvation that they actually have by the grace of God because they don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they take it for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Did y'all know that believers in grace ought to be the most thankful and humble people in the world?
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta end there.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're out of time.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob nor Esau deserve salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And neither do you and I.
SPEAKER_00: But it's by God's grace that we get it.
SPEAKER_00: And that is God's electing, adopting, and predestining grace.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been an encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to close in a word of song.
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, we will forego a handshake, and then uh after that, we'll set up for the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask for the Don if he would come up and have to close in a word of song.
SPEAKER_00: Church doors are always open.
SPEAKER_00: You desire to unite with membership of.