October 11, 2026 Elder Josh King - "Is God a tyrant?"

Very thanks to be gathered here this morning with you.

Um we are going to uh continue what we have been working through a series of uh questions or oppositions that people have at times to the biblical teaching of predestination election.

And we primarily want to deal with uh one this morning, and that is does predestination make God a tyrant and unloving?

Does predestination mean that God is a tyrant and unloving?

Well, first off, I want to read for you a scripture.

So when it's it sounds terrible even to say that, which it is, because God is God is not a tyrant.

And God is the opposite of unloving, he is loving the uh the most quoted verse in the entire Bible, John chapter 3, verse 16.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Does that sound like a tyrant?

And does that sound like someone who is unloving?

No, it's exactly the opposite of that.

So does predestination make God a tyrant and a loving?

So people who would say that would say, well, you know, Brother Josh, I, you know, I know that God is not a tyrant.

I know that God is not unloving.

That's very self-evident in the scriptures.

But they would conjecture that we have it wrong when it comes to our belief that God predestines people.

Well, I find it interesting that in that very same context of John chapter 3, the context of that chapter is when Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again to see and enter in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven.

John 3 · chapter mention

And that uh he also told him that in uh Roman, I'm sorry, John 3 and 8, the wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, and canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

So Jesus told Nicodemus that salvation is not of man, that salvation is in the hands of God, that just like somebody being born again, that God controls our natural birth, our spiritual birth, he controls the wind, the weather.

That is the context of this chapter.

But then you come down past John chapter 3, verse 16.

John 3:16

It says in verse 20, John chapter 3, verse 20, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

John 3:20

Well, so the idea of predestination and the idea of God being a loving God absolutely do coincide.

Because even in this chapter, we see that God is a loving God, and he uh for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

We know that verse.

But that's in the context of Jesus explaining to Nicodemus that a person being born again or saved is completely the result of God's work, that God has to born him again by his power, or like the wind, which is out of man's power, God does that.

And here at the end of Jesus speaking, for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

So if we are all sinners according to the Bible, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, what men and women are coming to Christ?

What men and women are asking for salvation, as it were?

What men and women are pursuing that?

Well, he tells us in verse 21, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God, that they are forged or framed in God, that in other words, brothers and sisters, what I'm trying to say here, and this wasn't even the main focus today, I just wanted to chase this rabbit for just a minute.

The idea that God is uh, if he predestines people to heaven, that he's a tyrant or unloving, those two things uh they they are not in agreement.

That God does predestine people to heaven, but he also is loving.

And the reason uh he is loving is because he has predestinated us.

So I just want to dive into that this morning.

Last Sunday we mentioned out of John chapter 6 that uh Jesus made the statement in John chapter 6, verse 37.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6:37

He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Last Sunday we made the point that there are no people that are going to hell, kicking and screaming, saying, I want Christ.

I want to follow him, I love him, I want to serve him.

That is not the case.

Biblically, we see here Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me, that's election, shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Brothers and sisters, the only people that want God, that want to follow him, that want to serve him, that want salvation, that want to please him, the only people that want those things are people who have been born again, who have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, who, as Jesus said, that you know, those that are seeking him, those whose eyes have been opened.

Well, if someone has been born again, then they're going to seek God, they're going to come to God, and Christ said that I'm not going to cast them out.

He's going to save every single one whom the Father has given to him.

Well, again, I just want to hammer that to a point that there is no one who is truly seeking after God that will not receive him.

Jesus says, All that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Now, so when people charge that those who believe in predestination election, that makes God a tyrant.

Why do they say that?

Why do they say that?

Well, for a couple reasons.

Number one, because in their mind that is an unfair thing.

That God would make that choice and that man doesn't get to make that choice.

Y'all tell me, is that true or not?

In other words, that is one of the reasons why people say that predestination and election, that God would be a tyrant for choosing that for somebody, that man does not have the choice to make that decision all of his own.

Well, there's a problem with that line of thinking.

The problem with that line of thinking is this.

Those people are assuming that they have the ability to make that choice and also that they are good people.

And see, that's the problem.

One of the things that you and I believe in as believers in grace is we believe in the tulip doctrine.

That's just an acronym that stands for a biblical progression of doctrine.

T-U-L-I-P.

The first one of those doctrines is total depravity.

It doesn't mean partial depravity, it doesn't mean that men are mostly good, we're a little bit bad, we have a little bit of sin sprinkled in there.

No, the picture that the Bible paints is that man is totally depraved and that his mind is opposed to God, hates the things of God, will never come to God, will never seek God.

That is why the doctrines of grace start with total depravity.

But see, that is a misunderstanding from a lot of people because they assume that at their core they are good people.

They assume that at their core they would be seeking Christ, loving Christ, choosing Him.

And even Christians who don't believe in predestination election, they assume that all the world thinks like they do.

So this Christian of another faith and order, who uh is a recipient of grace, who's been born again, who has a regenerate conscience and a regenerate mind, even though he does not have a full understanding of the doctrine.

Again, I'm not claiming that I have a full understanding of the doctrine.

I do believe in that the grace is real and the predestination election is real.

But my point is this that Christian who does not believe in predestination election, and when they think in their mind, well, I want to serve God, I want to seek God, I do feel convicted of my sin, they assume that other people, everybody else, is just like them.

That is not the case.

That Christian of another faith and order is the recipient of the Holy Spirit of God, has been born again by God's grace, who does have a conscience that pricks their mind, that is sensitive and soft to the things of God, and it's not hardened by sin against the things of God because God has already pulled them out of their own jail cell.

Well, they assume that the lost person walking around out there on the street thinks just like they do and has the same kind of conscience that they do, but biblically they don't.

They don't have that conscience.

They don't have that born-again mind of Christ.

Well, so many Christians think that, well, if all these other people think like I do, then God must be just so unfair.

He must be so tyrannical to be sending all of these people to hell that otherwise they would choose Christ and follow after him.

That is not the case.

And we're gonna look at those scriptures this morning that show us that.

That is not the way that man thinks, that is not what man wants.

Men and women that want Christ and are calling on him are men and women who are already born again by God's grace, who have had transformed minds.

They are recipients of grace.

But one of the reasons people assume that predestination election makes God tyrannical is because they think that it's unfair.

That God is just sending all these people that love him to hell.

That is not the case.

And they also assume that other people are good.

A person who is a Christian does have a quote-unquote good side.

That good side is his born-again nature.

But before he was born again, he was of the earth earthly or the flesh fleshly.

So people assume that if I were to tell a lost person on the street, did you know that you have a terrible illness?

It's a fatal illness, it's a disease.

Well, Brother Josh, I'm perfectly healthy.

You have a disease called sin.

That there is no human remedy for.

You are a terminally ill patient.

You you have uh you have all the symptoms of sin.

And it has a death sentence, and you cannot, you cannot do anything about that.

Well, I don't I don't really think that it's that bad, Brother Josh.

I mean, yeah, you know, I've I've I've said a few curse words in my life, or I've, you know, I've I've thought a few bad thoughts, or I've every now and then I'll I'll do what I'm not supposed to do, but it's really just not that bad.

I'm not some kind of terrible, condemned sinner.

Brothers and sisters, most people think that way, right?

Y'all tell me.

Don't, even as Christians, don't we downplay our sin?

Well, it's really not that bad?

That is not the view that the Bible has of sin.

So let's dive off into this.

Man's sin, our sin, mine and yours, they deserve judgment and damnation.

It's just that simple, according to the Bible.

All sin.

You mean, bro Josh, one little sin.

If a man only committed one sin in his life, he just said one lie, that that would condemn him to hell.

Absolutely it would.

But I can also assure you that there's not a single man that has ever lived on the face of this earth except for Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ never committed a single sin.

Every other human being has committed multiple thousands of sins.

No man has ever been limited to one.

Our sins deserve judgment and damnation, and that's what the Bible teaches.

Second thing.

In our lost, fallen estate that you and I were born into, we hated God.

Well, Brother Josh, I'm just I'm just not that sick.

I just I'm I'm really a good person at my core.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

I'm not here today to beat up on y'all.

I'm just telling you that in a the, according to the Bible, the truth of the scriptures is that man in his lost natural state is totally depraved.

That his mind is set against God and his hatred against God.

We're going to dive into the scriptures pretty deep here in just a minute, but I want to give you this preliminary.

Man doesn't think that he's as bad as he is.

We all think that we're better than we really are at our core.

Third thing.

God chose, he unconditionally loved, and he sacrificed Christ for a sinful and a rebellious people.

Think about that for a minute.

God willingly chose, he unconditionally loved, and then on top of that, he sacrificed his pure and holy son for a sinful and a rebellious people.

Y'all tell me, does that make God a tyrant?

Or is it the exact opposite of that?

That a man, that our creator would give all, that he would choose a wicked people, that he would unconditionally love a wicked people.

Anybody here want to volunteer to marry a spouse that is a notorious harlot?

Like Hosea in the Old Testament?

Anybody here want to have a spouse like that?

And then not only were they notorious before they married you, but they went back into their old wayward acting even while they were married to you, and then took them back again and unconditionally loved her.

See, that's what God did with us, right?

Because we are the wicked harlot.

We are the sinful, wretched people.

But we think ourselves better than we really are.

And that's the way the world thinks about it, and that's the way that a lot of other Christian faiths and orders think about it.

Well, sin is really not that bad.

We're really not totally depraved.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

So, but y'all tell me, did God who chose a wicked and horror, he taught, I can't even say that word.

Let's not, God who chose a wicked and adulterous people, by the way, you see that all in the Old Testament, right?

That he uses that terminology.

So, God who chose a wicked and adulterous people, and then on top of that, he sacrificed his son for them.

Y'all tell me, is that a tyrant?

Or is that the most purely loving entity in all of history?

Because we wouldn't act like that.

We wouldn't go to that great length.

And then on top of that, he has shown us grace and mercy that we do not deserve.

He has shown us grace and mercy that we do not deserve.

God is not a tyrant and he's not unloving.

So let's just dive in the scriptures.

Y'all turn me to Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

So let's break down some of this.

Beginning in Romans chapter 5, we're going to look in verse 6.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

We'll begin reading in verse 6.

And what I want you to see is, I want you to see the names or the descriptors that are placed on people in this passage of scripture.

How are the people being referred to in this passage of Scripture?

What are we called or how are we characterized?

So beginning in Romans chapter 5, verse 6, we read, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:6

Stop.

Well, Brother Josh, you believe in predestination election, and therefore in this passage of scripture, those whom Christ died for, that would be the elect, right?

That would be God's chosen people.

So you're telling me that according to the Bible, God's chosen people, the ones whom Christ died for, even in this one singular verse, are characterized, look at it this way, for when we were yet without strength, that's us, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

So I want to define what he's saying here.

So you and I are referred to as when we were yet without strength.

So that's when Christ died for us.

Well, what does that mean?

That means when you and I were sick.

That means when you and I were feeble, without strength.

A person who is bedridden because they don't have the strength to get out of the bed because they're cast down with a sickness, that means that they're weak, right?

That they are without strength.

And so that is what this is referring to.

That when you and I were without strength, Christ died for us.

Well, look uh so, Brother Josh, you're saying that I was sick?

Yes.

What kind of sick?

You were spiritually sick.

You were sick with sin.

Your whole body was eaten up with it.

In other words, every single person except the Lord Jesus Christ has a terminal illness, and that is the cancer of sin.

Amen?

Is that a reality in the Bible?

Yes, it is.

And there is no human cure for that ever.

God had to provide a supernatural cure in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And did y'all know that's the essence of the gospel?

Right?

That man is sinful.

We're wicked.

We're entrapped and dead in our sins.

We have that terminal illness, that there is no human cure for that.

But wait a minute.

Well, the Rudy, that's terrible news.

The doctor just told me that I have an incurable disease.

Yes, you're correct.

The Bible tells us that you and I have an, of our own accord, we have an incurable disease that you and I cannot do anything about.

That's terrible news.

You're right.

But let me tell you the good news.

The good news is that God took care of that problem.

The good news is that he provided the Lord Jesus Christ.

He sacrificed the Lord Jesus Christ for all of his chosen children, and every single one of those sheep will be born again and saved.

God saved everyone.

He cured their cancer by the result of what Jesus Christ did.

That is the gospel.

The gospel is not an invitation, the gospel is a proclamation of what God has already accomplished and Christ has already done.

Now, so when we were yet without strength, when we were sick with sin, in due time Christ died for who?

The ungodly.

That's you and me.

That's King David.

That's Moses.

That's the Apostle Paul.

That's every born-again saint that's ever lived.

And by the way, all mankind is ungodly.

The word ungodly just simply is defined as wicked.

See, when you and I understand our ungodliness, when we understand our wickedness, when we understand our total depravity, we understand then that you and I need an intervening Savior to do something that we can't do.

So one of the problems that people have in understanding predestination and election is they don't think they're as bad as they really are.

Do y'all see that?

Well, Brother Josh, at my core, I'm really a good man.

No, at your core, you're not a good man.

You're not a good woman.

You mean the doctor who's a surgeon who saves lives and donates 50% of his income to charity that he's not a good man?

Well, I'm thankful that that man does that, but if he's if he's doing it for a show, or if he's doing it some way by way of uh to earn his way to heaven, then he's missed the mark.

I'm thankful that people do that.

But the Bible says that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

Filthy, blood-soaked rags.

It's like me handing God a pile of the dirty cleanup rags after I skin a deer.

And saying, God, this is what I have to offer you by way of my righteousness.

That's literally the picture that is painted in the book of Isaiah.

That this is the best thing that I have to offer God, it's filthy, soaked, polluted, bloody rags.

It's terrible.

That's my best righteousness.

So if I donate 50% of my income or save other human beings' lives and I do it selfishly or from my own accord and not glorifying to God, then God is saying that all of that is tainted.

Tainted by what?

Tainted by your sickness.

The sickness of sin and by your own wickedness, by your own pride, by your own arrogance, by your own, by your own self-desires.

So Christ did not die for righteous men who God would look down through time and that men who would have faith in him know.

Christ died for sick men, and Christ died for the ungodly.

Look at verse 7, verse Romans 5, 7.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

I love that God threw this verse in the middle of this.

That God is saying, you know what, there is a rare exception in the world when men will choose to die for other men.

You know, you can think about that like in a military context when a man would jump on a grenade and you know he would willingly sacrifice his life to save the other men that are in the group or whatever.

That's an example of that.

And that is a rare occurrence.

And then you'll have things like the the president will award that man, even though he's dead, posthumously, he'll give you know his wife, you know, like the medal of honor because the the man gave up his life to save all these other people.

And so God is saying here, you know, in the very rare instance, a man will die, choose to die for other men.

That does occur.

But but look at the next verse.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Stop.

So the military man who jumped on the grenade to save his brothers, he felt them to be brothers.

He felt them to be good men, he felt them to be men just like him, right?

That's why he was so willing to suffer and bleed and die for them, because he felt them to be worthy and deserving and just men, and therefore that's why he was willing to do that for them, because in his mind, the sacrifice of his life was worth more, you know, that I want to save these men.

But then the next verse here tells us God is clarifying this.

He says, but that's not what God did.

That's literally what he's saying, but that's not what God did.

But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

In other words, it's like it's like the man jumps on a grenade to save pimps and prostitutes and gangbangers and murderers and adulterers and wicked drug dealers.

Well, Brother Josh, that's a different story.

Nobody would do that.

Christ did.

Well, Brother Josh, I'm not some gangbanger.

Or I'm not some terrible, you know, mob boss.

Why are you comparing the church house to terrible people like that?

I'm not, brothers and sisters.

Because when I look out at you, I do see saints of God, born-again children of God, who love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to honor him and glorify him.

But what I want you to understand is the reason why I'm looking on those people is because you personally have been transformed by the grace of God.

Amen.

You have been brought out of the jailhouse of sin and wickedness and the terminal disease that you have.

And then those gangbangers and those prostitutes and those people, they've not been brought out of that.

The thief on the cross was one of them.

Christ brought him out on his last day on the earth.

King David was a murderer and an adulterer.

And Christ died for him.

Moses was a murderer.

Brothers and sisters, you and I have committed murder in our minds.

Adultery in our minds.

Have you ever been angry at your brother?

Have you ever lusted after your sister?

Go back and read the Sermon on the Mount.

Christ took all that to a higher level of accountability.

But y'all tell me, Brother Josh, I'm not a gangbanger.

I'm not like Gomer in the Old Testament.

Yes, we are.

But we think we're better than that.

We think we're good people.

That's one of the problems that people have with predestination and election is they don't understand the level of our sin and our own depravity.

We want to feel ourselves better than that, higher than that.

Oh, that's a lesser class of people.

Those are greater sinners than I am.

Well, you know what?

If you were born again at six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old when the Lord came into your life, and you never had an opportunity to be a gangbanger or something like that, then praise God that He transformed you when you were a young man or young woman, and you never lived that terrible, awful life of sin in the world.

Because, yes, there are testimonies of people who have come out of those horrible, terrible lifestyles that they lived to be 20, 30, 40 years old before God brought them out of that.

And they did live a time in the ways of the world, in the ways of sin.

And some of them are in the jailhouse today, who are born again brothers in Christ, that have murdered people, that God borne them again behind physical iron bars, that they're born-again brothers in Christ, who will literally have to live the rest of their days incarcerated because in their time of flesh in the world, they committed heinous crimes against mankind.

And y'all know that's true.

You and I have brothers and sisters in Christ who are in the jail house today, who during their time of flesh in this world, they sowed the seeds of flesh and they are suffering the earthly consequences, yet they're born again and bound for heaven, and you and I will see them in heaven in a mortal glory because of God's grace.

Well, Brother Josh, do they deserve to go to heaven?

No, and neither do you and I.

Can I get an amen on that one?

I don't deserve to go to heaven, brothers and sisters.

It's only by God's grace that I get to go there.

We all think ourselves better than we really are.

But see, God didn't die, jump on the grenade for good men.

He died for bad men like me and you.

But God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

You're saying, Brother Josh, that I deserve wrath because I was sin sick, and because I was wicked, and because I was ungodly, yes, we all deserved wrath.

Look at verse 10.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Brothers and sisters, you and I were characterized as sick, ungodly, sinners who are enemies against God.

That is the way that the elect were characterized in our natural estate.

That is a terrible picture painted of you and me.

And brothers and sisters, that's the best of folks in the world, you understand, right?

This is the he's talking about the elect.

He's talking about born-again sinners.

This is the best of people in the world.

This is how we and I were characterized before we were born again.

For if when we were enemies, the word enemy literally means hateful.

Actively hostile.

An adversary.

When you and I were actively hostile against God, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

That actually agrees with Romans chapter 8, when it talks about that the uh natural mind is enmity or hatred against God, it's saying the same thing.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And this is actually being written by the same author.

Verse 11, Romans 5 and 11.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Brothers and sisters, y'all tell me, does this sound like a tyrant?

Like an unloving God who willingly gave his son to die for terrible human beings like you and I?

No, it's the exact opposite of that.

God didn't die for good men, God died for bad men like me and you.

And so God is not a tyrant, instead, God is the most God is the most loving in purity and holiness that there creature that there is.

You and I can't even love like God loves.

Because if you and I went into the jailhouse and we were sharing our testimony or seeing our brother in Christ, would you and I willingly go and give our life to let that, you know, well, Brother Josh, why don't you just come in here and you know what?

You can finish out my 30-year sentence.

You know what I'll go home to my family, and then you can not ever see your family again?

Would you just willingly go to the jailhouse for me?

Brother Sister, I wouldn't want to do that.

Christ did.

God did.

But we think we know better than he does, and we think that he's some kind of tyrant.

Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

He goes on to tell us beginning in verse 11.

For the children being not yet born.

He's talking about Jacob and Esau, 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.

It's not about the works, it's about the him that calleth.

It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

And we've already talked about the fact that both of these boys were bad.

But God loved one and he left the other one alone.

What shall we, and this is one of the verse I wanted to get to.

Verse 14, what shall we say then?

Is there unrighteousness with God?

See, when when people who don't understand God's electing grace say that God is a tyrant for choosing some, they're assuming that they're good people, and that God is condemning good people to hell, and that God is unfair and choosing some and leaving others alone.

Number one, there are no good people.

God is not condemning anybody to hell that wants to serve God and go to heaven.

God is not doing that.

And God is actually being loving toward wicked people, not toward good people.

So even back then in Paul's day, Paul knew that people would charge God falsely, that God is unfair in doing things this way.

Verse 15.

For he saveth saith to Moses.

And I want y'all to notice the language here.

He doesn't say, I will condemn who I want to condemn.

Instead, he says, He saith the mercy, 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.

Now stop right there.

Why did he say it that way?

Because, see, we're the guilty party, you understand, not God.

God is not guilty of condemning good men to hell.

You see what I'm saying?

No, God is guilty of saving wicked men to heaven.

Amen?

See, that the cornerstone, the focal point, is supposed to be on his mercy and compassion.

See, we think ourselves better than we really are.

Oh, I can't get on board, Brother Josh, with that predestination election thing, because that just means that God is attired and he's condemning good men to hell.

No, he's not.

No, instead, God is showing mercy and grace and forgiveness to wicked sinners like me and you who don't deserve it.

Therefore, the cornerstone and the focal point is his mercy and his compassion.

We did a jam-up job of condemning ourselves to hell, Adam, in our own sinful ways.

We condemned ourselves to hell.

God didn't do that.

God doesn't condemn anybody to hell.

They just suffer the just condemnation of their sin.

Let's read on.

Verse 16, so then it is not of him that willeth man, nor of him that runneth man, but of God that showeth mercy.

That's where salvation comes from.

For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, I have raised thee up that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

There you go.

There's that hardening.

You know what God did?

God hardened Pharaoh's heart against God, but Pharaoh's heart was already hard.

Pharaoh thought himself to be a God and didn't want to serve God.

And when God did all the works and the miracles that he did, that caused Pharaoh to be even more indignant against God than he already was.

And so look at verse 19.

Thou wilt say unto me, Why doth he find fault?

For whom, for who hath resisted his will?

Nabut, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?

Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?

God has that right?

What if, verse 22, and this is the key, what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?

What if God put up with all those wicked men of the world?

Very long suffering, and allowed some of them to prosper in this world.

Well, why would God do that?

He tells us.

Verse 23, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath before prepared unto the glory.

In other words, you're telling me, Brother Josh, that if God is so patient and long-suffering and allows a wicked man to live to be 92 years old, that doesn't, that deserves hell, is going to bust hell wide open, if God doesn't just destroy him, the man who's been so prideful and arrogant and wagged his fist against God, if God doesn't take him out of this world and lets that man live a long, full life and see his grandkids, grandkids, why did God do that?

I don't understand that reasoning.

The reasoning is that God is saying, you see, Lord, God, how patient he is with the wicked of this world, he's even more patient with the recipients of his grace.

If God is that patient with a wicked man, how patient he is with his own children.

Tenfold, a hundredfold.

So, let me try to wrap this up.

I want to uh I want to read very quickly, because most of the time we cut this short, this passage of scripture.

And I want to read down through at least verse 29, and I want you to see what Paul goes on to say after he talks about this electing grace.

So, so we'll back up verse 22.

What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and we fitted ourselves.

God didn't fit us for that.

That was the uh the people that are going to hell.

That he might, verse 23, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, whom he hath afore prepared unto glory, even us, that's the elect, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

Verse 25.

Now listen to this.

As he said in OC, that's in the King James Version.

You know what that is?

That's Hosea.

The word OC here is the is the prophet Hosea.

As he saith in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved.

So he's talking about his children, his mercy, his grace, his compassion on his heart to his wife.

Verse 26.

And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God.

Isaiah, that's Isaiah prophet, also crieth concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

Now, this is what I want you to pay attention to.

Look at this next verse, verse 29.

Look at what it says.

And as Isaiah or Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabbath hath left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah.

What does that mean?

That tells us who we really are.

In other words, what Paul is trying to explain, he said, if God had not left us a seed like Jacob, in other words, God chose the one bad brother, and then he left the other bad brother alone, okay?

But if God hadn't chosen Jacob, they both would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.

You see what I'm saying?

In other words, if God hadn't intervened in the world by his electing merciful grace, if he hadn't shown mercy and compassion, then we would all be like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Well, how was Sodom and Gomorrah?

Brothers and sisters, it was a perverse hell on earth, right?

It was a city where wickedness abounded, that all manner of unspeakable, terrible human perversions abounded.

So much so that God literally rained hellfire out of the sky and obliterated that city off the face of the earth.

He burnt it to a crisp.

There's a minute, and I found this fascinating when I studied about Sodom and Gomorrah, that there is a mineral found where they believe historical Sodom and Gomorrah was burnt up, and it's a mineral called atomite.

It is the same mineral that results when an atomic bomb is dropped on a particular area of ground because the intense heat and pressure melts the elements that are located in that location like a furnace and molds them into a made mineral called atomite, i.e.

atomic bomb.

But that same mineral has been found in the places in the Middle East where they believe that historical Sodom and Gabor is they have mined or found a tomite in those locations.

And that's where God literally caused a furnace to erupt because he eradicated the human wickedness off the face of the planet at that time.

And God said, Except I had left you a seed, you would be just like them.

So, yes, today in the church house, I am talking to a group of beautiful, wonderful sons and daughters of the king who are bound for heaven.

And I love you folks, and I respect you folks, and y'all have taught me much.

I hope that I've taught you things.

And you know what?

And I praise God for you.

But you know what?

That is a result of God's transforming grace in my life and yours.

But if God had left us alone and not put his burning again seed in us, then you and I would be just like Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I don't hear too many amens.

But brothers and sisters, that's That's the truth.

And see, one of the problems that people have with predestination election is they don't think they're that bad.

See that?

But, brothers and sisters, when you know you're that bad, you know God had to do an intervening work that was all of him and none of us.

So, what does all this do?

Knowing predestination lecture.

This changes the focus in evangelism and preaching and witnessing from getting a man to make a decision to choose God to proclaiming God's adoption and mercy for sinners and Christ's finished work of salvation.

Brothers and sisters, that's the gospel.

That's the good news.

That you and I can't save ourselves, but look what God did.

He saved us when we didn't deserve it.

That is the essence of the gospel.

God's election is the deciding factor of our salvation, not a decision that man makes.

God's election is the deciding factor of salvation, not a decision that man makes.

And God gets the glory for all that.

I want to close this morning by reading just a couple scriptures.

We're not even going to comment a whole lot on them.

It's in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We're going to hit all of those famous verses this morning.

Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We're going to read verses 3 through 7.

So when God was accused of being a tyrant and of being unloving, let's see what the Bible says about this falsely accused tyrant and unloving God.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3.

Ephesians 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

Yep, so let's just accuse God of being a tyrant who adopted a bunch of unworthy, sinful, wicked children and sent his pure, holy, righteous son to die for them and redeem them, and then he brings them into his own household and feeds them from their own table and makes them sons and daughters of God, and he becomes to them a father.

Yes, this is the supposed tyrant who is unloving.

No, not at all.

It's the exact opposite of that.

The gracious God who adopts us according to the good pleasure of his will, not ours.

Verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

The word grace, by definition, is the free, unearned, unmerited love and favor of God towards sinful man.

That's exactly why we named our middle daughter that.