April 10, 2025 • 32 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:19):
Live from the Saints Headquarters in Tolleson,
arizona, spreading the Gospel,equipping the Saints, standing
for the word of truth,proclaiming God's grace.
Now on a podcast near you,welcome your host, pastor Joshua
, on.
The Saints Will OvercomeMinistries, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
We are back.
God bless you.
I want to say Happy New Year.
This is going to be acombination between a Christmas
slash New Year's podcast.
I just want to say God blessyou all.
I've been thinking about all ofyou.
I'm finally back.
Things have been tenuous,things have been busy, but today
(01:16):
we want to get in some meat andwe want to get in some potatoes
about why Christmas is what itis, why we worship God, what is
the meaning of what we do andour worship behind Christmas and
the new year?
Hey, you know what?
We're a new creation, so we'regoing to wrap them both up in
(01:37):
one Instead of going the routeof a baby in a manger.
We're not going to go thatroute.
Ladies and gentlemen, there wasa lot that was done with that
just recently, through thechurches, through the radio,
through Christmas.
But what was the actual gift ofChristmas?
Christ mass, worshiping Christin the mass.
What was the actual meaningbehind it?
(01:59):
Most people, probably manypeople, don't even know.
Well, god sent His onlybegotten Son, jesus Christ, so
we can all experience salvation,and we got what's called a
distinguished.
Well, we can distinguishbetween two different things a
general call versus an effectualcalling.
We'll get into that later John3, 16, not today.
(02:23):
We'll probably do thatsubsequently, after this podcast
.
But let's talk about the giftof salvation, shall we?
Ladies and gentlemen, I loveyou, I missed you.
So, ladies and gentlemen, herewe go.
(02:54):
We just want to praise God,worship and bless him for this
morning.
Now we're going to get intosome meat and potatoes.
Ladies and gentlemen, this mightthrow some people through a
loop.
They might have a hard timediscussing this.
They might have a hard timejust recognizing this situation
for what it is.
And so whenever I talk tosomebody about the gift of
(03:15):
Christmas, the gift of God, thegift of Him sending His only
begotten Son, I hear in thechurch a lot this statement.
Well, I responded to the call.
I chose to accept God when thepreacher minister, when my
friend, when an evangelicalbrought the gospel to my
(03:36):
attention.
Now I must admit and prefacethis before I start with this
statement I am reformed in mytheology, so let's get that
right out of the way.
Even though I can debate withmy brothers and sisters, I
choose not to divide.
But I believe that the Scriptureshows us unambiguously that God
does 100% of everything.
(03:58):
But what do you mean by that,joshua Kapia?
I believe that God searches out, I believe that God calls and I
believe the Scripture teachesthat God regenerates and faith
is a subsequent reaction from aninward reality that we call
regeneration.
(04:18):
So regeneration precedes faith.
So when somebody says precedesfaith, so when somebody says,
well, I made a declaration toaccept God and chose Him and
demonstrated my faith, myquestion is how can a dead
corpse respond in faith whenthey're at enmity with God, when
(04:43):
it comes to original sin andwhen it comes to defiance and
when it comes to total depravity?
The tea and tulip and totaldepravity doesn't mean that we
exercise the full extent of evil, ladies and gentlemen.
What it means is sin hascorrupted every part of our
being and it's alienated us fromGod.
(05:06):
So we want to take this verseand springboard off this verse.
So what we're going to use,ladies and gentlemen, and I want
you to just understand whatJohn 6, 44 has to say about
(05:29):
God's drawing us A disciple ofChrist walked with them on the
boat, saw Christ walking onwater, saw Him raise the dead,
cure the blind the only person,a prophet's never done that.
Now let's read John 6, 44 outof the ESV.
Here we go.
(05:50):
This is John 6, 44, verse 44,chapter 6.
No one can come to me unlessthe Father who sent me draws him
, and I will raise him up on thelast day.
There's a lot of theology packedin this verse and there is a
benefit of knowing Greek,knowing Hebrew, and even if we
(06:12):
go to the authority of thetheological dictionary, which is
known as Kittel's GreekDictionary.
We're going to break this down.
We're not going to get too deep, but I want you to see how,
reading it in English, you kindof go ah, okay, I chose a verses
Wow.
And as I was explaining to mywife which, after she understood
God's grace, his justice andhis mercy because we had a Bible
(06:36):
study on it, she actually brokedown crying and she said it's
so much sweeter when youunderstand what God rescued you
from versus what you thought youdid for yourself, based on
one's own arrogance, which istrue.
God rescued us through a lifepreserver to us when we just
(06:58):
wanted to drown, when all wewere doing was drowning.
So let's read this verse again,ladies and gentlemen no one can
come to me unless the Father whosent me draws him, and I will
raise him up on the last day andwe might say, well, okay, god
(07:19):
draws me, he woos me with theHoly Spirit, he woos me with the
Holy Spirit and I simply haveto respond.
But let's look at that Greekword, translated draw, and that
word is helkuo.
Okay, and that word means todrag, literally or figuratively
(07:39):
meaning, ladies and gentlemen,or figuratively meaning, ladies
and gentlemen, that clearly thedrawing is a one-side affair.
God draws all of us tosalvation.
We don't come to Him, we don'tmake a decision, we're not there
(08:04):
to respond.
There is no doubt that God does100% of the work and he does not
have to use us.
And if we look at how cool, howit's used in John 21.6, and
let's go back to John 21.6 whenit says he said to them cast the
net on the right side of theboat and you will find some he's
talking about fish.
So they cast it, the disciples,and now they were not able to
(08:24):
haul it because of the quantityto fish.
And we look at the actual word,when he casted the net, and
it's haul.
But if you look at the sameword how it's used in the Greek
in John 6, 44, as compared toJohn 21, 6, it means they
(08:45):
dragged it to the shore.
When we look at what God didfor us, when we look at God's
love, we take that word draw,which is translated in the
(09:09):
English.
That's how it's translated.
And we look at the Greek andit's translated drag.
God does all the work andpeople.
It just boggles my mind andbaffles me that they say I chose
him.
I heard the call and I've gottensome tenuous debates with my
evangelical brothers, with mysemi-pelagius brothers.
You know prescient viewbrothers and sisters, and, like
(09:32):
I said, I'm a, I am reformed inmy theology.
I love Edwards, calvin, youknow Martin Luther, st Augustine
, thomas Aquinas.
You know the juggernauts thatwe stand on their shoulders in
history.
So let's look at 510.
(09:52):
Why does God need to actuallydrag us, based off His grace in
His predestinated plan?
Why, well, let's look at Romans5.10.
For if, while we were enemies,we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more,now that we are reconciled,
(10:18):
shall we be saved by His life?
So we were enemies, we were atenmity, we didn't want God, we
actually despised that call andJeremiah, if you think about it,
says it in Jeremiah 17, chapter17, verse 9, and he talks about
(10:40):
the heart, the condition of man, the sin of man.
And Jeremiah says this the heartis deceitful, above all things,
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it, ladiesand gentlemen?
And you know what we go toEphesians 1.18, and this is what
(11:04):
we read "have in the eyes ofyour hearts, enlightened, that
you may know what is the hope towhich he has called you, what
are the riches of His gloriousinheritance in the saints".
So if you just think about it,ladies and gentlemen, that word
helkuo, and how we were atenmity with God, how we were
(11:25):
forsaking Him, god came to usand he promised us a new life in
Romans.
He predestined us, he called us, sanctified us, he glorified us
.
And you got to remembersomething God, Jesus Christ and
(11:48):
the Holy Spirit are one, but Iunderstand they're separate but
they're one.
And it's something that we canapprehend, rest in thought, but
we can't comprehend and deducewith our finite mind, because
God is infinite.
And we got to remember Godpromised Jesus Christ an
inheritance and he assured thatinheritance by locking in the
(12:12):
deal, so to speak, and was goingto send his son to be crucified
.
And so a lot of people sayJoshua, pastor, joshua, so
you're saying that God chooses,god actually chooses.
Who is determined, based offhis predestination, the
salvation of people found withinJesus Christ, I said yes,
(12:36):
absolutely.
He does.
In that sense people to atipping point, sends them over
the edge.
They actually consider itheresy in a sense.
But if you think about ThomasAquinas and there's an argument
about that a little bit in StAugustine, back in church
history, this was thepredominant view.
It wasn't until the westernizedculture actually adopted and
(12:58):
really took a stance on thismethod of interpretation when it
comes to salvation.
But God does it all, ladies,and God is the creator of
(13:18):
everything.
God is the judge of all.
So, if we think about it, ifhe's a judge and judge is a
legal term and he's going toproclaim and initiate his
justice on a bunch of fallencreatures that are at enmity
(13:39):
with him, that cannot come tohim unless God drags him
literally near by his grace.
Not draw to where we have adecision.
We're all destined to hell,ladies and gentlemen, for
eternity.
Well, pastor Joshua, how do Iknow that?
How do I know that I'm adepraved sinner?
(14:01):
Pastor Joshua, how do I knowthat?
How do I know that I'm adepraved sinner?
How do I know that there's nohope in me?
How do?
I know that my decisions willalways fail?
Why am I having these thoughtsof suicide, depression, turmoil?
Why do I feel lost all the time, pastor Joshua?
Why do I wake up and look inthe mirror and ask myself are we
(14:22):
just puppets in a cruel,cosmopolitan evolutionary
universe, in some type of playthat's destined to end and I'm
destined to destruction?
What's the point?
Well, ladies and gentlemen,we've all felt that way in life
(14:45):
lost.
What's the point?
Right?
But there is a point God hasinstilled in our hearts.
Like Ecclesiastes says,information locked eternity in
there.
We know, just by being human andwaking up in the morning, we
(15:06):
can never be good enough and weviolated God's law.
That's the point.
And I always tell my fellowbrothers and sisters, my
Christian brothers and sisters,this beloved I go through life
every day sinning.
(15:26):
I cannot go through one daywithout sinning.
Thought, word or deed Justcan't.
That's part of my fallen nature.
Paul even says it the thingsthat I want to do, I don't do.
The things I do, I don't wantto do Meaning I'm a sinner.
The flesh is alive and it's sobeautiful that God doesn't taint
(15:50):
salvation with ourdecision-making, because we
would never come to God, wewould never come to Christ.
God drags us by hisirresistible grace.
Well, pastor Joshua, what's theuse of preaching then?
What is the point?
(16:10):
If God chooses, predestines,the elect, calls them,
sanctifies them, glorifies them,what is the point?
We want control, I tell people.
We want control, so bad that wewant to take it away from God.
(16:31):
Subconsciously, even if we'renot consciously, thinking.
Well, pastor Joshua, what do youmean?
We want control.
We got remotes for everything,and what do they call them?
Remote controls?
Our Bluetooth on our vehicles,our remote controls for our TV.
You got Roombas cruising aroundthe house right now as you're
listening to this show, and yougot a remote control for that on
(16:55):
your cell phone.
We got controls for everythingin life.
Why?
Because society tells us thatthe destiny of our future is in
our literal hands, ladies andgentlemen.
So God, choosing the electbefore the foundations of the
world, predestinating?
(17:15):
No, I don't think so.
I still have to have a decisionin this, because I have to have
some sort of control.
And, ladies and gentlemen, thatis why people cannot accept
this view, because it's verydifficult to relinquish some
(17:35):
control, because they don't haveany, ladies and gentlemen, and
that's the whole point.
That's the pains that Paul goesthrough to keep explaining this
situation and it's just themost difficult thing for people
to understand, and I used to beopposed to that view until the
(18:00):
Bible started explaining it tome and I really started
researching, like Martin Luther,that God fulfills his purposes.
If you think about Philippians2.13, this is what it says, for
it is God who works in you, bothto will and to work for His
(18:24):
good pleasure.
John 6.44,.
No one can come to me unlessthe Father who sent me drags him
.
Think about that.
Hell cool.
Paul keeps affirming this andeven in writing to Timothy,
(18:49):
correcting his opponents withgentleness.
God may perhaps grant themrepentance leading to the
knowledge of truth.
God has to grant themrepentance.
Ladies and gentlemen, god is aloving God.
God is an amazing God.
(19:09):
It is so sweet to know that Godcame in, searched for me,
searched for you, found.
You found me where we were at.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wasjust a washed up drug addict
back in the day, gangbanger,drug addict, just a low life.
(19:30):
I wasn't even searching for him, just a low life.
I wasn't even searching for him.
And God found me, called mewhere I was at, based off his
irresistible grace.
Why do they call itirresistible, because I cannot
resist it, ladies and gentlemen,it's the effectual calling.
(19:51):
You have a general call whicheverybody hears and no one has
excuse not to come to God, butyou have an effectual call where
God rebirths the individual.
That is the story of Christ'sbirth, that is the story of
(20:14):
Christmas.
Is God sending his Son?
Because he predestined us asthe elect in his Son, chose to
save us, to sanctify us and toglorify us.
Ladies and gentlemen, that iswhat God did for us.
(20:37):
Think about what Paul says inRomans 3, 10 and 11.
As it is written, none isrighteous, no, not one.
No one understands.
Are you ready for this, ladiesand gentlemen?
Think about Helkoua understands.
Are you ready for this, ladiesand gentlemen?
Think about Helkoulo, the Greekword drag, not draw.
(20:59):
Think about this.
Are you ready for Romans 3.11?
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
I don't understand how thesemi-Pelagians get around that,
ladies and gentlemen, and saywell, I chose.
Think about this, ladies andgentlemen.
Every time that I'm preaching,every time that I'm talking to
(21:22):
somebody, this is what I tellthem and answer this for
yourself, and it's somethingthat you have to meditate on,
read the scriptures andunderstand for yourself.
But I tell people do you reallywant to stand in front of God
the last day and say I chose you?
(21:46):
You know, paul says we shallnot boast of anything unless
it's in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says we shall not boast ofanything unless it's in our
Lord Jesus Christ, unless it'sin God, and standing in front of
God saying, well, yeah, I hadthis island of righteousness in
me and I chose you.
(22:10):
That's a pretty big I to boastabout, probably the biggest I in
the universe and the existenceof the creation of everything by
the infinite loving God.
I don't know about you, ladiesand gentlemen, but I'm not going
to stand in front of God andtell him I did the work.
It's such a beautiful thingthat God rescued us.
(22:33):
And some people will say well,pastor Joshua, what about those
that weren't chosen?
What about those that were notgiven the opportunity?
And I always tell people firstof all, you got to understand
one thing salvation's a mystery.
Second thing you have tounderstand is this God does what
he wills and what he wants.
(22:54):
Well, pastor Joshua, simple asthat.
Yes, god does it, because hecan Remember what he told Job.
Who are you?
Oh, man, who are you?
You weren't there when Icreated the universe.
You weren't there when Icreated the universe.
(23:17):
You weren't there with Orion'sbelt, the Pleiades.
You weren't there when I didall of these things.
He told Job that and he wantedto bring his case in front of
God and he covered his mouth andhe thought he was gonna die
when God appeared in a whirlwind, because this is the amazing
God we serve.
(23:39):
The only thing we deserve,ladies and gentlemen, is hell.
The only thing we deserve isjudgment.
The only thing we deserve iscondemnation.
The only thing we deserve isGod's justice.
And what is justice?
Justice is a legal term.
It means you're going to bepunished and the punishment will
(24:04):
fit the actual crime.
And since we're alienated fromGod for all eternity, the
punishment for the crime isdeath, for the wages of sin is
death.
And what is mercy?
People like to use them twothings as synonymous in the
church and just their generallife, and they don't really
(24:25):
understand them.
Two terms are not synonymous.
Mercy is being exonerated.
Mercy is being exonerated fromthe crime that we've committed,
the cosmic crime calledrebelling against god.
And god sent his son to becrucified so we can experience
his mercy, and he chooses thosehe is going to be merciful for.
(24:52):
He chooses, ladies andgentlemen, and why?
People ask me why, pastorJoshua?
Why does God choose to bemerciful of those that he wants
to be merciful to?
And I simply tell them thisbecause he can and he wills.
(25:13):
Think about that, ladies andgentlemen.
He can and he wills.
Can you say that?
Say that with me right now.
Because God can and he wills.
Because he's not human, hedoesn't think like us, he
(25:34):
doesn't have to think like us.
Paul says can God make twovessels, one for glory, to
exercise his power, and one fordestruction?
Meaning God can use twodifferent people for his purpose
(26:01):
, to accomplish things for hisfull counsel, any way he wants.
We serve a loving, infinite Godthat we cannot possibly begin
to understand.
Beloved, if you're saved, thinkabout the story of Christmas,
because the story of Christmasis about the story of the elect,
the story about the effectualcall versus the general call.
(26:28):
Everybody gets to experienceGod's grace by simply being born
and experiencing the elementsthe rain falling over your head,
the food that we eat, hearingthe gospel, but that doesn't
equate to salvation.
You ever have somebody in yourfamily and never stop praying
(26:51):
because we don't know who God isgoing to regenerate and spark
and make alive.
We just don't know.
I always say that the mostpagan person in my family can
make me look irrelevant.
If God chooses him and he canbe the greatest preacher in the
world.
I don't know, but I'm supposedto pray and I'm supposed to be
(27:13):
an instrument.
I don't know, but I'm supposedto pray and I'm supposed to be
an instrument.
And to me, when I read thegospel, it's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing that Godcan do this, that God has loved
us so much.
He's exonerated many peoplefrom going to hell and Jesus
said most people are going to go, most people are going to take
(27:35):
the wide path and very few aregoing to take the narrow.
And you got to ask yourself wasthat a foreknowledge or was that
just a platitude?
Was that just speculation?
Or was Christ really speakingabout something he foresaw and
he really knew about?
(27:56):
Well, he really knew about it,ladies and gentlemen, and he
really understood.
Based off the foreknowledge,because Jesus Christ is God he
revealed himself to the Jews andhe says I am the tech.
He just did it, ladies andgentlemen, he poured it out.
(28:18):
Tetragrammatron is what it'scalled.
Yah Yahweh, god's the I am,what does?
I am even mean.
I am who I am.
You can't understand me.
God is not like any man.
So when you think aboutChristmas, when you think about
(28:43):
God, when you think about love,when you think about grace, when
you think about truth, thinkabout what God did for us, think
about what God did for you,think about Romans 9.22.
(29:06):
What if God, although choosingto show his wrath and make his
power known, bore with greatpatience the objects of his
wrath prepared for destruction?
God can do what he wants to do,and that's a hard thing for
people to understand.
(29:28):
So the story of Christmas,ladies and gentlemen, isn't
Santa Claus.
Christmas, ladies and gentlemen, isn't Santa Claus.
It isn't a baby in a manger inthe sense of look at, this is
such a cute story, and I'vetalked to a lot of preachers
that say I don't want to talkabout hell in the church.
I don't want to talk about sinin the church, I don't want to
(29:50):
talk about what we all deservein the church, because a lot of
people are baby Christians andit'll just drive them off.
I don't want to talk about it.
What's the point?
It's not going to be appealingto people.
They're not going to appreciateit.
(30:11):
But you know what I say, ladiesand gentlemen.
Christmas is about the story ofhell.
Probably got some gasp.
Probably got some sighs,probably got some.
Oh my gosh, did Pastor Joshuareally say that?
I've never heard that preachedin a church?
(30:34):
Christmas is about the mosthorrific event culminating into
the most beautiful event ourdestination.
Standing on a creaking woodbeam over the unquenchable fire,
with flames licking at ourheels, waiting for it to break
(30:59):
and descending into eternalflames and chaos, and God
sending his son to redeem usfrom that destruction to spend
eternity and love and life withhim.
That is the story of Christmas.
(31:22):
That is the story of truth.
And what is truth, ladies andgentlemen?
People say, pastor Joshua, whatis truth?
Truth is God's perspective.
That's what truth is.
Truth is the reality thatcorresponds to God's perspective
(31:46):
, or Meaning reality is God'struth.
God's truth is reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, god blessyou.
I wish you the best.
I wish you a happy new year.
(32:08):
This is, pastor Joshua signingoff.
I love you all.
Until next time.
Live from the Saints Headquarters in Tolleson,
arizona, spreading the Gospel,equipping the Saints, standing
for the word of truth,proclaiming God's grace.
Now on a podcast near you,welcome your host, pastor Joshua
, on.
The Saints Will OvercomeMinistries, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
We are back.
God bless you.
I want to say Happy New Year.
This is going to be acombination between a Christmas
slash New Year's podcast.
I just want to say God blessyou all.
I've been thinking about all ofyou.
I'm finally back.
Things have been tenuous,things have been busy, but today
(01:16):
we want to get in some meat andwe want to get in some potatoes
about why Christmas is what itis, why we worship God, what is
the meaning of what we do andour worship behind Christmas and
the new year?
Hey, you know what?
We're a new creation, so we'regoing to wrap them both up in
(01:37):
one Instead of going the routeof a baby in a manger.
We're not going to go thatroute.
Ladies and gentlemen, there wasa lot that was done with that
just recently, through thechurches, through the radio,
through Christmas.
But what was the actual gift ofChristmas?
Christ mass, worshiping Christin the mass.
What was the actual meaningbehind it?
(01:59):
Most people, probably manypeople, don't even know.
Well, god sent His onlybegotten Son, jesus Christ, so
we can all experience salvation,and we got what's called a
distinguished.
Well, we can distinguishbetween two different things a
general call versus an effectualcalling.
We'll get into that later John3, 16, not today.
(02:23):
We'll probably do thatsubsequently, after this podcast
.
But let's talk about the giftof salvation, shall we?
Ladies and gentlemen, I loveyou, I missed you.
So, ladies and gentlemen, herewe go.
(02:54):
We just want to praise God,worship and bless him for this
morning.
Now we're going to get intosome meat and potatoes.
Ladies and gentlemen, this mightthrow some people through a
loop.
They might have a hard timediscussing this.
They might have a hard timejust recognizing this situation
for what it is.
And so whenever I talk tosomebody about the gift of
(03:15):
Christmas, the gift of God, thegift of Him sending His only
begotten Son, I hear in thechurch a lot this statement.
Well, I responded to the call.
I chose to accept God when thepreacher minister, when my
friend, when an evangelicalbrought the gospel to my
(03:36):
attention.
Now I must admit and prefacethis before I start with this
statement I am reformed in mytheology, so let's get that
right out of the way.
Even though I can debate withmy brothers and sisters, I
choose not to divide.
But I believe that the Scriptureshows us unambiguously that God
does 100% of everything.
(03:58):
But what do you mean by that,joshua Kapia?
I believe that God searches out, I believe that God calls and I
believe the Scripture teachesthat God regenerates and faith
is a subsequent reaction from aninward reality that we call
regeneration.
(04:18):
So regeneration precedes faith.
So when somebody says precedesfaith, so when somebody says,
well, I made a declaration toaccept God and chose Him and
demonstrated my faith, myquestion is how can a dead
corpse respond in faith whenthey're at enmity with God, when
(04:43):
it comes to original sin andwhen it comes to defiance and
when it comes to total depravity?
The tea and tulip and totaldepravity doesn't mean that we
exercise the full extent of evil, ladies and gentlemen.
What it means is sin hascorrupted every part of our
being and it's alienated us fromGod.
(05:06):
So we want to take this verseand springboard off this verse.
So what we're going to use,ladies and gentlemen, and I want
you to just understand whatJohn 6, 44 has to say about
(05:29):
God's drawing us A disciple ofChrist walked with them on the
boat, saw Christ walking onwater, saw Him raise the dead,
cure the blind the only person,a prophet's never done that.
Now let's read John 6, 44 outof the ESV.
Here we go.
(05:50):
This is John 6, 44, verse 44,chapter 6.
No one can come to me unlessthe Father who sent me draws him
, and I will raise him up on thelast day.
There's a lot of theology packedin this verse and there is a
benefit of knowing Greek,knowing Hebrew, and even if we
(06:12):
go to the authority of thetheological dictionary, which is
known as Kittel's GreekDictionary.
We're going to break this down.
We're not going to get too deep, but I want you to see how,
reading it in English, you kindof go ah, okay, I chose a verses
Wow.
And as I was explaining to mywife which, after she understood
God's grace, his justice andhis mercy because we had a Bible
(06:36):
study on it, she actually brokedown crying and she said it's
so much sweeter when youunderstand what God rescued you
from versus what you thought youdid for yourself, based on
one's own arrogance, which istrue.
God rescued us through a lifepreserver to us when we just
(06:58):
wanted to drown, when all wewere doing was drowning.
So let's read this verse again,ladies and gentlemen no one can
come to me unless the Father whosent me draws him, and I will
raise him up on the last day andwe might say, well, okay, god
(07:19):
draws me, he woos me with theHoly Spirit, he woos me with the
Holy Spirit and I simply haveto respond.
But let's look at that Greekword, translated draw, and that
word is helkuo.
Okay, and that word means todrag, literally or figuratively
(07:39):
meaning, ladies and gentlemen,or figuratively meaning, ladies
and gentlemen, that clearly thedrawing is a one-side affair.
God draws all of us tosalvation.
We don't come to Him, we don'tmake a decision, we're not there
(08:04):
to respond.
There is no doubt that God does100% of the work and he does not
have to use us.
And if we look at how cool, howit's used in John 21.6, and
let's go back to John 21.6 whenit says he said to them cast the
net on the right side of theboat and you will find some he's
talking about fish.
So they cast it, the disciples,and now they were not able to
(08:24):
haul it because of the quantityto fish.
And we look at the actual word,when he casted the net, and
it's haul.
But if you look at the sameword how it's used in the Greek
in John 6, 44, as compared toJohn 21, 6, it means they
(08:45):
dragged it to the shore.
When we look at what God didfor us, when we look at God's
love, we take that word draw,which is translated in the
(09:09):
English.
That's how it's translated.
And we look at the Greek andit's translated drag.
God does all the work andpeople.
It just boggles my mind andbaffles me that they say I chose
him.
I heard the call and I've gottensome tenuous debates with my
evangelical brothers, with mysemi-pelagius brothers.
You know prescient viewbrothers and sisters, and, like
(09:32):
I said, I'm a, I am reformed inmy theology.
I love Edwards, calvin, youknow Martin Luther, st Augustine
, thomas Aquinas.
You know the juggernauts thatwe stand on their shoulders in
history.
So let's look at 510.
(09:52):
Why does God need to actuallydrag us, based off His grace in
His predestinated plan?
Why, well, let's look at Romans5.10.
For if, while we were enemies,we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more,now that we are reconciled,
(10:18):
shall we be saved by His life?
So we were enemies, we were atenmity, we didn't want God, we
actually despised that call andJeremiah, if you think about it,
says it in Jeremiah 17, chapter17, verse 9, and he talks about
(10:40):
the heart, the condition of man, the sin of man.
And Jeremiah says this the heartis deceitful, above all things,
and desperately sick.
Who can understand it, ladiesand gentlemen?
And you know what we go toEphesians 1.18, and this is what
(11:04):
we read "have in the eyes ofyour hearts, enlightened, that
you may know what is the hope towhich he has called you, what
are the riches of His gloriousinheritance in the saints".
So if you just think about it,ladies and gentlemen, that word
helkuo, and how we were atenmity with God, how we were
(11:25):
forsaking Him, god came to usand he promised us a new life in
Romans.
He predestined us, he called us, sanctified us, he glorified us
.
And you got to remembersomething God, Jesus Christ and
(11:48):
the Holy Spirit are one, but Iunderstand they're separate but
they're one.
And it's something that we canapprehend, rest in thought, but
we can't comprehend and deducewith our finite mind, because
God is infinite.
And we got to remember Godpromised Jesus Christ an
inheritance and he assured thatinheritance by locking in the
(12:12):
deal, so to speak, and was goingto send his son to be crucified
.
And so a lot of people sayJoshua, pastor, joshua, so
you're saying that God chooses,god actually chooses.
Who is determined, based offhis predestination, the
salvation of people found withinJesus Christ, I said yes,
(12:36):
absolutely.
He does.
In that sense people to atipping point, sends them over
the edge.
They actually consider itheresy in a sense.
But if you think about ThomasAquinas and there's an argument
about that a little bit in StAugustine, back in church
history, this was thepredominant view.
It wasn't until the westernizedculture actually adopted and
(12:58):
really took a stance on thismethod of interpretation when it
comes to salvation.
But God does it all, ladies,and God is the creator of
(13:18):
everything.
God is the judge of all.
So, if we think about it, ifhe's a judge and judge is a
legal term and he's going toproclaim and initiate his
justice on a bunch of fallencreatures that are at enmity
(13:39):
with him, that cannot come tohim unless God drags him
literally near by his grace.
Not draw to where we have adecision.
We're all destined to hell,ladies and gentlemen, for
eternity.
Well, pastor Joshua, how do Iknow that?
How do I know that I'm adepraved sinner?
(14:01):
Pastor Joshua, how do I knowthat?
How do I know that I'm adepraved sinner?
How do I know that there's nohope in me?
How do?
I know that my decisions willalways fail?
Why am I having these thoughtsof suicide, depression, turmoil?
Why do I feel lost all the time, pastor Joshua?
Why do I wake up and look inthe mirror and ask myself are we
(14:22):
just puppets in a cruel,cosmopolitan evolutionary
universe, in some type of playthat's destined to end and I'm
destined to destruction?
What's the point?
Well, ladies and gentlemen,we've all felt that way in life
(14:45):
lost.
What's the point?
Right?
But there is a point God hasinstilled in our hearts.
Like Ecclesiastes says,information locked eternity in
there.
We know, just by being human andwaking up in the morning, we
(15:06):
can never be good enough and weviolated God's law.
That's the point.
And I always tell my fellowbrothers and sisters, my
Christian brothers and sisters,this beloved I go through life
every day sinning.
(15:26):
I cannot go through one daywithout sinning.
Thought, word or deed Justcan't.
That's part of my fallen nature.
Paul even says it the thingsthat I want to do, I don't do.
The things I do, I don't wantto do Meaning I'm a sinner.
The flesh is alive and it's sobeautiful that God doesn't taint
(15:50):
salvation with ourdecision-making, because we
would never come to God, wewould never come to Christ.
God drags us by hisirresistible grace.
Well, pastor Joshua, what's theuse of preaching then?
What is the point?
(16:10):
If God chooses, predestines,the elect, calls them,
sanctifies them, glorifies them,what is the point?
We want control, I tell people.
We want control, so bad that wewant to take it away from God.
(16:31):
Subconsciously, even if we'renot consciously, thinking.
Well, pastor Joshua, what do youmean?
We want control.
We got remotes for everything,and what do they call them?
Remote controls?
Our Bluetooth on our vehicles,our remote controls for our TV.
You got Roombas cruising aroundthe house right now as you're
listening to this show, and yougot a remote control for that on
(16:55):
your cell phone.
We got controls for everythingin life.
Why?
Because society tells us thatthe destiny of our future is in
our literal hands, ladies andgentlemen.
So God, choosing the electbefore the foundations of the
world, predestinating?
(17:15):
No, I don't think so.
I still have to have a decisionin this, because I have to have
some sort of control.
And, ladies and gentlemen, thatis why people cannot accept
this view, because it's verydifficult to relinquish some
(17:35):
control, because they don't haveany, ladies and gentlemen, and
that's the whole point.
That's the pains that Paul goesthrough to keep explaining this
situation and it's just themost difficult thing for people
to understand, and I used to beopposed to that view until the
(18:00):
Bible started explaining it tome and I really started
researching, like Martin Luther,that God fulfills his purposes.
If you think about Philippians2.13, this is what it says, for
it is God who works in you, bothto will and to work for His
(18:24):
good pleasure.
John 6.44,.
No one can come to me unlessthe Father who sent me drags him
.
Think about that.
Hell cool.
Paul keeps affirming this andeven in writing to Timothy,
(18:49):
correcting his opponents withgentleness.
God may perhaps grant themrepentance leading to the
knowledge of truth.
God has to grant themrepentance.
Ladies and gentlemen, god is aloving God.
God is an amazing God.
(19:09):
It is so sweet to know that Godcame in, searched for me,
searched for you, found.
You found me where we were at.
Ladies and gentlemen, I wasjust a washed up drug addict
back in the day, gangbanger,drug addict, just a low life.
(19:30):
I wasn't even searching for him, just a low life.
I wasn't even searching for him.
And God found me, called mewhere I was at, based off his
irresistible grace.
Why do they call itirresistible, because I cannot
resist it, ladies and gentlemen,it's the effectual calling.
(19:51):
You have a general call whicheverybody hears and no one has
excuse not to come to God, butyou have an effectual call where
God rebirths the individual.
That is the story of Christ'sbirth, that is the story of
(20:14):
Christmas.
Is God sending his Son?
Because he predestined us asthe elect in his Son, chose to
save us, to sanctify us and toglorify us.
Ladies and gentlemen, that iswhat God did for us.
(20:37):
Think about what Paul says inRomans 3, 10 and 11.
As it is written, none isrighteous, no, not one.
No one understands.
Are you ready for this, ladiesand gentlemen?
Think about Helkoua understands.
Are you ready for this, ladiesand gentlemen?
Think about Helkoulo, the Greekword drag, not draw.
(20:59):
Think about this.
Are you ready for Romans 3.11?
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
I don't understand how thesemi-Pelagians get around that,
ladies and gentlemen, and saywell, I chose.
Think about this, ladies andgentlemen.
Every time that I'm preaching,every time that I'm talking to
(21:22):
somebody, this is what I tellthem and answer this for
yourself, and it's somethingthat you have to meditate on,
read the scriptures andunderstand for yourself.
But I tell people do you reallywant to stand in front of God
the last day and say I chose you?
(21:46):
You know, paul says we shallnot boast of anything unless
it's in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul says we shall not boast ofanything unless it's in our
Lord Jesus Christ, unless it'sin God, and standing in front of
God saying, well, yeah, I hadthis island of righteousness in
me and I chose you.
(22:10):
That's a pretty big I to boastabout, probably the biggest I in
the universe and the existenceof the creation of everything by
the infinite loving God.
I don't know about you, ladiesand gentlemen, but I'm not going
to stand in front of God andtell him I did the work.
It's such a beautiful thingthat God rescued us.
(22:33):
And some people will say well,pastor Joshua, what about those
that weren't chosen?
What about those that were notgiven the opportunity?
And I always tell people firstof all, you got to understand
one thing salvation's a mystery.
Second thing you have tounderstand is this God does what
he wills and what he wants.
(22:54):
Well, pastor Joshua, simple asthat.
Yes, god does it, because hecan Remember what he told Job.
Who are you?
Oh, man, who are you?
You weren't there when Icreated the universe.
You weren't there when Icreated the universe.
(23:17):
You weren't there with Orion'sbelt, the Pleiades.
You weren't there when I didall of these things.
He told Job that and he wantedto bring his case in front of
God and he covered his mouth andhe thought he was gonna die
when God appeared in a whirlwind, because this is the amazing
God we serve.
(23:39):
The only thing we deserve,ladies and gentlemen, is hell.
The only thing we deserve isjudgment.
The only thing we deserve iscondemnation.
The only thing we deserve isGod's justice.
And what is justice?
Justice is a legal term.
It means you're going to bepunished and the punishment will
(24:04):
fit the actual crime.
And since we're alienated fromGod for all eternity, the
punishment for the crime isdeath, for the wages of sin is
death.
And what is mercy?
People like to use them twothings as synonymous in the
church and just their generallife, and they don't really
(24:25):
understand them.
Two terms are not synonymous.
Mercy is being exonerated.
Mercy is being exonerated fromthe crime that we've committed,
the cosmic crime calledrebelling against god.
And god sent his son to becrucified so we can experience
his mercy, and he chooses thosehe is going to be merciful for.
(24:52):
He chooses, ladies andgentlemen, and why?
People ask me why, pastorJoshua?
Why does God choose to bemerciful of those that he wants
to be merciful to?
And I simply tell them thisbecause he can and he wills.
(25:13):
Think about that, ladies andgentlemen.
He can and he wills.
Can you say that?
Say that with me right now.
Because God can and he wills.
Because he's not human, hedoesn't think like us, he
(25:34):
doesn't have to think like us.
Paul says can God make twovessels, one for glory, to
exercise his power, and one fordestruction?
Meaning God can use twodifferent people for his purpose
(26:01):
, to accomplish things for hisfull counsel, any way he wants.
We serve a loving, infinite Godthat we cannot possibly begin
to understand.
Beloved, if you're saved, thinkabout the story of Christmas,
because the story of Christmasis about the story of the elect,
the story about the effectualcall versus the general call.
(26:28):
Everybody gets to experienceGod's grace by simply being born
and experiencing the elementsthe rain falling over your head,
the food that we eat, hearingthe gospel, but that doesn't
equate to salvation.
You ever have somebody in yourfamily and never stop praying
(26:51):
because we don't know who God isgoing to regenerate and spark
and make alive.
We just don't know.
I always say that the mostpagan person in my family can
make me look irrelevant.
If God chooses him and he canbe the greatest preacher in the
world.
I don't know, but I'm supposedto pray and I'm supposed to be
(27:13):
an instrument.
I don't know, but I'm supposedto pray and I'm supposed to be
an instrument.
And to me, when I read thegospel, it's a beautiful thing.
It's a beautiful thing that Godcan do this, that God has loved
us so much.
He's exonerated many peoplefrom going to hell and Jesus
said most people are going to go, most people are going to take
(27:35):
the wide path and very few aregoing to take the narrow.
And you got to ask yourself wasthat a foreknowledge or was that
just a platitude?
Was that just speculation?
Or was Christ really speakingabout something he foresaw and
he really knew about?
(27:56):
Well, he really knew about it,ladies and gentlemen, and he
really understood.
Based off the foreknowledge,because Jesus Christ is God he
revealed himself to the Jews andhe says I am the tech.
He just did it, ladies andgentlemen, he poured it out.
(28:18):
Tetragrammatron is what it'scalled.
Yah Yahweh, god's the I am,what does?
I am even mean.
I am who I am.
You can't understand me.
God is not like any man.
So when you think aboutChristmas, when you think about
(28:43):
God, when you think about love,when you think about grace, when
you think about truth, thinkabout what God did for us, think
about what God did for you,think about Romans 9.22.
(29:06):
What if God, although choosingto show his wrath and make his
power known, bore with greatpatience the objects of his
wrath prepared for destruction?
God can do what he wants to do,and that's a hard thing for
people to understand.
(29:28):
So the story of Christmas,ladies and gentlemen, isn't
Santa Claus.
Christmas, ladies and gentlemen, isn't Santa Claus.
It isn't a baby in a manger inthe sense of look at, this is
such a cute story, and I'vetalked to a lot of preachers
that say I don't want to talkabout hell in the church.
I don't want to talk about sinin the church, I don't want to
(29:50):
talk about what we all deservein the church, because a lot of
people are baby Christians andit'll just drive them off.
I don't want to talk about it.
What's the point?
It's not going to be appealingto people.
They're not going to appreciateit.
(30:11):
But you know what I say, ladiesand gentlemen.
Christmas is about the story ofhell.
Probably got some gasp.
Probably got some sighs,probably got some.
Oh my gosh, did Pastor Joshuareally say that?
I've never heard that preachedin a church?
(30:34):
Christmas is about the mosthorrific event culminating into
the most beautiful event ourdestination.
Standing on a creaking woodbeam over the unquenchable fire,
with flames licking at ourheels, waiting for it to break
(30:59):
and descending into eternalflames and chaos, and God
sending his son to redeem usfrom that destruction to spend
eternity and love and life withhim.
That is the story of Christmas.
(31:22):
That is the story of truth.
And what is truth, ladies andgentlemen?
People say, pastor Joshua, whatis truth?
Truth is God's perspective.
That's what truth is.
Truth is the reality thatcorresponds to God's perspective
(31:46):
, or Meaning reality is God'struth.
God's truth is reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, god blessyou.
I wish you the best.
I wish you a happy new year.
(32:08):
This is, pastor Joshua signingoff.
I love you all.
Until next time.
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