Turn back to Joshua chapter 24. We bring you greetings from your
brothers and sisters in Christ there at Wheelersburg. Last Sunday,
Brother Greg Elmquist brought the Sunday morning message to
close our meeting, and he told a story He said he was anxious
to get back to Florida and tell our brothers and sisters in Christ
there about the meeting and how encouraged that he was that the
Lord was being gracious in this part of the country. And he told
a story. He said his father was the baby
of twelve children. And he said that was during the
Depression. And he said when Greg Elmquist's grandfather died,
his father was two years old and he was the baby of twelve
children. Can you imagine? And the mother,
Greg's grandmother, had to give away 11 children and kept only
Greg and raised only Greg and said after Greg grew up and said
his family moved to California. His father took the family, Greg
was about 15 years old, and said they went to California. And
Greg's father ran into one of his brothers, met him for the
first time. And he said it was just an instant
bond, just instant fellowship, just instant love for one another.
And that's what we experienced here this morning. I've known...
Me and Sandy were sitting there talking before the service. Cecil,
we were kids, like these little ones here. I've known Cecil all
my life. I've known Sandy all my life. I remember when Tara was born,
and Shawn, and Judy, and Andrea. Their parents were our neighbors.
I've known them all my life. And many of you, not near that
long, me and Gary Faulkner here, we hired into the mill together
almost 50 years ago. We worked together and Gary was
smarter than the rest of us. He found something else to do
and left. I stayed there, you know, me and Cecil stayed there
40 years, you know. But I'd look out here, there's
not a stranger in the crowd. I know, I know every one of you.
Known you years and years and years. And that's what's going
on here. Joshua chapter 24. If you'll
look up here in Joshua 23 and in verse 14, just right above
where we are, and Joshua says, Behold, this day I'm going the
way of all the earth. Joshua's getting ready to leave.
The Lord is going to remove Joshua from among these brethren that
he's known all his life. These are friends. These are
neighbors. These are brothers and sisters in Christ. These
are family. And Joshua is going to be removed this day. He said,
I'm going the way of all the earth. And this is his last message
to these people. These people that he dearly loves.
These people that he's known for so many years. And he takes
these people back. He takes them on a 500-year journey. Here just in 15 verses, he takes
them on a 500-year journey and tells them where they came from.
What God Almighty has done for them and to them and in them
And I thought that'd be good. That'd be good. Down here in
verse 15, this is the text that we'll spring from throughout
this message. Choose you this day whom you'll
serve. And one of these days, it'll
be the last time. It'll be the last time that we
speak one to another. It'll be the last time that there'll
be a message delivered. It always happens. It always
happens. There comes a time, no matter
how Much that the people love one another, there's going to
be a time when it's going to be the last time that we speak
to one another. And then we're going to be removed.
And Joshua calls all the people, the whole nation of Israel, and
he's going to be removed this day. He's going to go the way
of all the earth. He's going to be removed to his
long home. He's going to go and be with his Lord. And he calls
the people together, these that he's known and loved for many
years. And He called them together at this place called Shechem.
And Joshua said unto all the people, and this is where we
always begin, this is where we speak of, and this is where we
close. Thus saith the Lord. We've got to have this authority.
We've got to back up everything we say by this Word of God. This
that never changed. This that He's preserved and
given to His people throughout all the generations. If we speak
not according to God's Word, then I don't listen to them.
And here Joshua is speaking to these people that he's known
all these years, and he's getting ready to leave. And he said,
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other
side of the flood in old time. That word of flood, that word
appears 120 times in the Old Testament. And 98 times it's
translated river. It's not got anything to do with
the great deluge. It's got not anything to do with
the great flood when God purged this earth of all that. This
is that great river Euphrates. And Joshua was saying to these
people, these brothers and sisters in Christ, these that he loved
and these where he was getting ready to leave and not see them
again. He said, I'm going to take you back to where you came
from on the other side of that river Euphrates, down there in
that land called Ur of the Chaldees, an idolatrous place. A heathen
place. A place that worshiped false
gods and idols. And that's where we came from.
That's where we came from. Your fathers dwelled on the other
side of the flood in old times. Even Terah, the father of Abraham,
and the father of Nahor. And they served other gods. They
served other gods. That's where we came from. We
came from the same place that all mankind comes from. Fallen,
sinful, wretched, without God, without hope, without Christ
in this world. That's where we came from. And
that's where all comes from. But Joshua says, that's where
you came from. But God didn't leave us there.
He called our father Abraham. You see that, verse 3? And He
said, I took your father Abraham. All of these people that Joshua
is talking to, all of them could trace their lineage right back
to Abraham. All of them could trace them right back to this
man that was an idolater. Abraham was no different than
anyone else down there. Abraham, he worshipped idols.
He was an idolater. He was a godless man. He didn't
know God. But God said, I appeared to him. I went down there to
him. And we can all say amen to that.
And if he didn't, we'd still remain down there in Ur of the
Chaldeans. He said, I went down there to him. And I spoke to
him. And I said, Abram, get thee out of this place. Get thee out
of thy father's house and go to a place I'll show you. He
said, I took your father from the other side of the flood.
And I led him throughout all the land of Canaan. You remember
that? Abraham believed God. Abraham followed God. Abraham
left his father. And him and his wife, they followed
God. And God led him up to this land
of Canaan. And they walked through that land of Canaan. And when
they got there, after this promise to Abraham, go to a place I'll
show you, a place flowing with milk and honey. You've never
seen anything like it. I'm going to give it to you.
I'm going to give it to your seed forever. And Abraham and his
wife followed God. And they come up there and they
walked through the land. And there was a famine in the
land. And they walked right on through the land and they went
down into Egypt. And they were down there. And you know that
story. You remember that story about how God preserved them.
Abraham was afraid because his wife Sarah was so beautiful.
He told those men down there, she's my sister. But God protected
them. God had His hand on them. And
He judged those people. And delivered Abraham and Sarah. And they came back up into the
land of Canaan. And God said, walk through this land now. Walk
through it. Look through the length and breadth
of it. Look to the north, the south, the east and the west.
All this am I going to give you? I'm going to give it to you.
God said, Your father Abraham was an idolater. And I took him.
I called him. I amazingly and miraculously
called him out of that land and brought him up here. And he followed
me. And I led him up here to this land of Canaan. And I gave
him Isaac. Abraham's an old man. His wife,
Sarah, she's an old woman. Abraham's 100 years old. Hadn't
had a child. Not a natural child. Sarah was
90 years old. And God, in an amazing and miraculous
way, gave them that son, Isaac. That promised son. He said, is
this Eleazar, this steward in my house, is this Ereval? God
said, no, this is not the heir. I'm going to give you a son.
I've promised it and I'm going to give you a son. And God did.
He fulfilled that promise and gave him Isaac. when he was an
old man. Sarah lived another 37 years.
Abraham lived another 75 years after they were old, old, old
people when they had this son. Gave him Isaac in that amazing
and miraculous way. Verse 4, And I gave unto Isaac
Jacob and Esau. Twin boys born to that son of
Isaac. Twin boys born. And he said,
I gave Esau I gave them to Esau on Mount Seir. I separated those
boys. Do you remember that? God said before those boys were
born, He said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And He separated
Esau from this one that God loved, this one that the promise would
come through, this one that the Christ would come through, this
one that the nation would spring from. He separated Esau. He moved him away from Jacob. And he gave Jacob that promised
land. But Jacob and his children went
down into Egypt. And all this time through this,
remember this, remember this. Choose you this day whom you'll
serve. Choose you this day. As he talks
about Abraham, the God of Abraham that called him and brought him
out of that land of the Chaldeans where there was those false gods
down there. Those false gods couldn't keep Abraham from leaving.
Those false gods couldn't keep God from bringing Abraham out. And the argument through all
this, Joshua was saying, choose you this day who you'll serve. Who do you believe in? Who do
you trust in? Who's your hope in? The God of this world? Or
God who does all things according to His own power and purpose
and will and according to His sovereignty? Choose you this
day. And he gave him Isaac after they'd come up in there to the
Promised Land. He gave him Isaac. And then he gave Isaac Jacob
and Esau. And then that whole nation after
nearly 200 years. And there was only 70 of them.
And there was a famine in all the land. And you remember all
that that took place. That bride that Jacob loved and
went down there and served Laban for those years for Rachel. And then Laban tricked him and
deceived him and gave him Leah, the older girl. Well, through
them marriages, through them unions, the nation of Israel
sprang. Those twelve children that was
born, thirteen children, there was a girl born, but those twelve
patriarchs that was born to Jacob and those two wives and those
two concubines, after many, many, many years later, they sold Joseph
into slavery. And he went down and ended up
down there in Egypt. And then this whole nation, there
was only seventy of them. There was only seventy of them.
After a hundred and fifty years, there was only seventy that consisted
of the whole nation. And they went down into Egypt.
They went down into Egypt. And they were down there for
a number of years. And he said, I sent Moses. After a number
of years, after over 200 years being down there in servitude
and slavery and bondage, God said, I sent Moses. Do you remember
that? Moses was raised. He was one
of those children that was to be exterminated. Pharaoh, because
of the prosperity of the people, God blessed those people of Israel
down there in the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh hated that. And he
said, when those sons are born, he said, you take them out there
and drown them in the river. You take them out there and throw
them into the river. Well, this is the time that Moses was born. And
Moses' mother hid him for three months because she saw that he
was a proper child. And he was raised up. You remember
that story, how Pharaoh's daughter found him floating there in the
river and raised him up as her own son. And when he was 40 years
of age, he went out there and seen one of those Egyptians persecuting
one of his brethren. And he slew that Egyptian. And
he fled for his life and went into the backside of the desert
there in Midian. And he was there for 40 more
years. Now Moses is a man 80 years old. And he was out one
day and he saw a bush that was burning that wasn't consumed
by fire. And he went up to that bush. God spoke to him out of
that burning bush. He said, take off your shoes,
off your feet. This is holy ground. And he said, I'm going to send
you down there. I've heard the cry of my people. I'm going to send
you down there. I'm going to do that. I'm going to send you
down to Egypt to deliver my people. Go down there and tell Pharaoh,
let my people go. And Moses went down there. God
did that. And Moses went right into the
courtroom of the mightiest ruler on the face of the earth and
walked right up to him and said, God said, let my people go. And
he wouldn't let them go. You know that story. And God
plagued those people. They had gods all over the land
of Egypt. They had gods everywhere. Statues
and idols that they worshipped everywhere. And not a one of
them, and that's what Joshua was saying here, God plagued
them people. And not a one of those gods of the Egyptians could
protect them against God Almighty. And He said, choose you this
day whom you will serve. You want to serve one of them
gods like your father Abraham worshipped over there on the
other side of the flood? Or are you going to serve the true and
living God? I'm leaving. And this is my last message to
you. I've got something to tell you and to warn you of. Until
you follow God, you follow after Him. Cling to Him and trust in
Him. Rely on Him. He's the only true God. He's
the only sovereign God. He does what He will. Choose
you this day whom you'll serve. Verse 5, And I brought your fathers
out of Egypt, and you came into the Red Sea. I brought your fathers
out and those gods of Egypt couldn't keep me from it. There's none
that can resist me. There's none that can stand against
me. I'll do what I will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. I'm God. I choose you this day,
whom you'll follow." And he said, I brought them out and I brought
them to the Red Sea. Brought your fathers out and
you came to the sea and the Egyptians pursued after you, after your
fathers with chariots and horsemen, under the Red Sea. Can you imagine
this? This is these people, they didn't
have nothing. They didn't have, as we used to say when I was
a kid, they didn't even have so much as a gumsling to defend
themselves with. They had nothing but pick up
rocks and throw it at the mightiest army on the face of the earth.
And there they are, hemmed in, right there at the edge of the
Red Sea. And they look and here's this army, the finest army in
the world at that time, like ours is now. And here they were,
riding down on them. And they prayed to God. They
told Moses, said, go to God for us. And Moses prayed to God. And he told those people, don't
be afraid. You stand still. You stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. These you see this day,
you'll never see them again. Ever. Ever again. And God opened
up that Red Sea, put a pillar of darkness between the chosen
people. His people. God's people. Put
a pillar, a cloud of darkness. It was dark on the other side,
and it was light on this side where the Israelites were. And
we have the light of Christ. He's given it to us. He's visited
us with the light of the Gospel. We see Christ. And the world's
in darkness. The whole world's in darkness.
And the gods of this world can't do anything to change that. Choose
you this day whom you'll serve. Choose you this day. And I brought
the sea upon them and covered them. And your eyes have seen
what I've done in Egypt. Your eyes have seen it. This
was 60 years after this. This Joshua now, this is his
last day. And he's leaving. He's leaving
the people. And he's giving them this final
message. Giving them this final warning. This final word of encouragement. He's presenting this argument
of this is our God. There's nobody like Him. You've
never seen anything like Him. Now you choose you this day whom
you're going to serve. And this is 60 days after this
incident that took place at the Red Sea. Sixty years. Sixty years
later. And He said, your eyes have seen
it. What I've done. All these people that was there.
that was under the age of 20. All these men that were under
the age of 20 were now still alive here and in this crowd
that Joshua was talking to. Anybody between the age of 60
and 80 that was there in that crowd, they seen just what Joshua
was talking about. He said, your eyes seen it. Your
eyes seen it. He said, I was there. I saw it.
You remember that? You remember what God did? Did
you ever see anything like it? Can your imagination even fathom
something like it? Here stood this Red Sea. Stood up in a heap on either
side. And it was dry all the way. And they walked through
on dry ground. This is our God. This is our God. He protects
us and defends us and leads us and guides us and directs us. And then He goes on here. And
He says, and you dwelt in the wilderness a long season. Joshua
and Brother John, I think he covered that so well about how
it is that we're to deal with our brothers and sisters. Right
here, they came through the Red Sea and they went to the edge
of the Promised Land. And Moses picked out men out
of every tribe. Do you remember that? Twelve
men. And he sent them into the Promised Land to spy out the
land. And then men come back. There was giants in that land.
And there was warring people. There were seven nations of people.
All of them mightier than the Israelites. And they come back
with that report. And ten of those men said, well,
we can't whip them people. They said, there's big fellas
over there. You'll never see any people as big as these people
that's over there. And they said, they know how
to fight. They've got weapons. They've got armies. They've got shields
and bucklers and helmets and spears and bows and arrows. They
said, we don't have anything. We can't go over there. Let's
don't go. And Joshua and Caleb, they stood up and said, wait
a minute. What do you mean we can't go? God said, He's given
it into our hands. God said, God that brought us
out of Egypt with a strong arm. God that slew the firstborn in
Egypt and preserved us and delivered us and told us to slay that lamb
which pictured the Christ that will come and put that blood
on the doorpost and said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. And we were all delivered and spared and we come out of
Egypt, came to the Red Sea. He delivered us there again,
drowned that army of the Egyptians. What do you mean we can't go?
This is Joshua. He doesn't even bring it up.
He doesn't even bring it up to his brethren. And he's leaving
them. This is the last thing he's going
to have to say to them. And he just leaps over it. They all knew what happened.
They were all there. They were all there. They were all witness
to it. And they all said, no, we won't
go. We won't go. Those people are too strong for
us. God's not able to deliver us out of their hand. They all
stood there. And all Joshua says is, You dwelt
in the wilderness a long season. And that's all he says about
it. He could have blistered them. I mean, he could have wore them
out. He could have said, I told you people. I was one of them.
Me and Caleb was the only two. We told you that God would deliver
us. No, you wouldn't do it. So we went into the wilderness.
Had to go into the wilderness because of your obstinance, because
of your unbelief. He didn't do that. He said, we
dwelt in the wilderness a long time. Love covers all. All ills and ilks and ugliness. Love covers that. He loved these
people. He's leaving these people. Verse
8, and he said, I brought you into the land of the Amorites
which dwell on the other side of Jordan. They fought with you.
I brought. They fought. I gave them into
your hand. And it's always that way. It's
always that way when we deal with the world. God brings us.
He leads us. He preserves us and defends us.
They fight against it. They kick against it. They hate
the Gospel. The world hates the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Hates grace. The world hates
it. But he said, I've delivered them
all into your hands. I gave them into your hand that
you might possess their land and I've destroyed them before
you. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, he arose and warred
against Israel and sent and called Balaam. He called Balaam and
said, go curse those people. God said, you're not going to
curse My people. God wouldn't give him permission
to curse them. He said, you're going to bless them. Bless My people.
Bless My people. Choose you this day. Who are
you going to serve? Are you going to serve the God
of those people, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hittites?
Are you going to serve their gods who couldn't do anything?
Had to ask permission of Me to even curse you? And I wouldn't
give My permission? And I said, bless them. Who are
you going to serve? Are you going to serve their
gods who can't do anything? You're going to serve God, the
true and living God. Verse 11, And you went over Jordan
and came into Jericho. Now listen, this is 20 years
after Jericho. This is 20 years later. I thought,
what happened 20 years ago? I think in 1989, 20 years ago,
which would be starting here in another month, the world series
started in San Francisco. And the day of the World Series,
the day of the opening game, I believe I'm telling this right,
the day of the opening game of the World Series, God reached
in and shook that place. You remember that? They covered
it all over television. Covered it for days. He just
shook that place and brought that place to its knees. I mean,
roads and bridges and highways and fires and streets. He just shook that place. That's
20 years ago. I can't believe it. I've got
to think back. What happened 20 years ago? And I recall that.
I can't believe it's been 20 years. Time goes by so quickly. This is just 20 years after this.
That's what he's talking about here. When they went to Jericho,
you remember that? They sent them spies over there.
Two of those spies went into the house of Rahab. Rahab hid
them because she had heard about what God did at the Red Sea 40
years prior. And she hid those fives and she
let them down by that scarlet thread. That scarlet thread all
through the Old Testament points to the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. She let them down, held that scarlet thread in her window,
and they went down. And they're down there on the
ground. She said, be merciful to me. And they said, don't you
tell anybody. And when we come, when we come, you gather all
the people that you love, all your people, and you bring them
into that room right there where you are where the scarlet thread
hangs out of the window. And when we see that scarlet
thread, we'll spare your life. And Rahab did that. This is 20
years later. God marched through and destroyed
that mightiest city in that part of the world, Jericho. And now
20 years later. He's saying, you remember that?
Rahab's still here. It was just 20 years ago. Go
ask Rahab. Her husband, Solomon. Maybe Boaz
was already born. I don't know. Go ask these people. You saw what he did. You saw
what he did. These people that we defeated,
all of them, there at Jericho, and he gives a whole list of
them, all seven of them, they all had gods. They all had gods
that they prayed to and worshipped to and statues and idols. And
he said, God come marching through. And he said they just blew a
trumpet and the walls came tumbling down. He said they were vanquished.
They were vanquished. They were utterly defeated. Choose
you this day. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. They're gods, like your father Abraham served on
the other side of the flood, or God Almighty who does what
He will whenever He will. You went over to Jordan, and
the men of Jericho fought against you, and I delivered them into
your hand. And I sent the hornet before you. Does this surprise anybody? Does
this surprise anybody that God can do this? There's nothing.
Have you ever been out doing something? unsuspecting, just
out mowing the grass or taking a walk in the woods or just sitting
on the porch. And all of a sudden, you get
into a place where those wasps come out. And they're all over
you. They're just all over you. Right now, they're all over you.
I don't know what this is here. I really don't know what it is.
And I've not read anybody that does know what it is. But I just
believe it's just what it says it is. I believe God sent swarms
and swarms of these things to vanquish His enemies. There's
nothing too difficult for our God. And He said here, I sent
the hornet and I drove them out before you. Even the two kings
of the Amorites. And you didn't even have to pull
your sword. You didn't have to even bring out your bows and
arrows to fight. I did that. I did that with my
power. I did that with my absolute,
omnipotent power over everything I've created. Everything I've
created. is at my beck and call, whatever
I determine for it to do. And I think there's much comfort
here. Think about that. He used this that he'd created.
He'd used this to defend his people, to protect his people,
to deliver his people. God don't change. He does it
in our day. He does it continually in our
day. And we're not even aware of it. So much deliverance from
our God that we're not even aware of it. We don't even know what
to be thankful for. He sends these things and He does what
He will with this part of His creation. And verse 13, And I
have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities
which ye built not. And you dwell in that. There's
no labor here for these people. These people, they brought nothing. They had nothing. And God delivered
all these people into the hands and removed them from the promised
land. And these people walked in. And they took possession
of everything that God had determined for them to have. These people
had been there. These godless, heathen people
had been there. They'd been gardening and farming for years and years
and years. They'd built cities and built homes and roads and
had ways to water their crops and bring water into their homes
and all that. And they didn't even know it
all that time, all that 400 years, that God's people was down there
in Egypt. They was doing that for God's people. They didn't
even know. They were working sunup to sundown.
And they were making all this beauty and homes and villages
and all that. And God's people came in and
they took possession of it. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of our Lord? We don't work. We don't strive. We don't labor.
Our Lord has done it all. He has done it all and He's purchased
all. And He gives it all to us freely.
Just come on in and take it. Just come on in and sit down
and enter into my rest. Just come in and sit down. Don't
bring your works. Don't bring that that you've
done. Don't bring anything. You believe me? Take my hand.
Come, take my hand. And walk through this land with
me that I've provided for you and given to you. Well, that's
what Joshua was saying here. Now you choose this day. Who
are you going to serve? You're going to serve the gods that
couldn't do anything to protect you. All those gods of those
seven nations when God marched in and said, it's time to give
it up. It's time to give it up for my chosen people. And they
ran away and fled and was defeated. And their gods couldn't do anything
to help them. But our God marched in victorious, and He always
does. And He said, choose you this day. Choose you this day. Verse 14, He said, Now therefore,
from all this argument over 500 years, over 500 years, fear the
Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and
in truth. Put away the gods which your
father served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt, and
serve you the Lord." I sat down and I just tried to think. I just
tried to think back in my 64 years. I just tried to think
back of those times in my life. I should have died. I should
have been killed. Bunch of us kids went to the
county fair way back there. I was just 15 years old. You
remember the Gilliam Water boys, Ray and P.D. and John Gilliam
Water. John just turned 16, had a learner's permit. And his dad
had a brand new 1964. And we took our, all of us was
in the 4-H and was going to the county fair. Route 52 up here
along South Point had just been built. And John had his older
brother-in-law. He was an old guy. He was about
25. He had to sit beside him in the
front seat. We was going up through there and running about 50, 60
miles an hour. And we hit a rain just like that,
like you run into a wall. We hit rain. And John was driving
a pretty good clip in that old Ford hydroplane. And John was
all over the road. There was eight of us in that
car, eight of us kids. The oldest one was 25, and John
was driving his 16. And we slid sideways out of the
road and there was a big culvert, it must have been 8 foot in diameter,
huge big culvert down under the road there. And that old Ford
slid out of the road sideways and we hit that culvert and run
out that culvert sideways and flew out, it seemed like, it
seemed like we was in the air for five minutes. And we just,
all of us, I'll never forget that feeling. It's the craziest
thing ever was. One of us had rabbits. We took the rabbit project
we was taking up. We had a cage full of rabbits
in the trunk of the car. And we finally hit, boom. And
we all thought, I did. This is it. We're going to start
rolling. We're going to roll until we're
all dead. And that old Ford just hit and slid for 200 foot up
through there in the mud and come to a stop. And none of us
had sense enough to even be scared. And we jumped out laughing. And
them rabbits, that cage had popped open. And rabbits was running
everywhere. And we were chasing them. We were having a big time,
you know. And I think, God does that all my life. He's done that
all my life for me. And you too. And your children.
And your little ones. And we don't even know it. We
don't even have sense enough to fall down and say, thank God.
Thank God. Spurgeon told a story about a
father and a son who was out riding on horseback. They were
galloping along. They'd been out all day. And
they come back in that night. And that boy said to his dad,
he said, Father, I remember three times in particular where God
spared me today. And he said, How's that, son?
He said, My horse was going across rocky ground. And he said, My
horse stumbled three times. Any one of those times, he said,
I could have been thrown from that horse. And he said, I could
have dashed my head against one of them rocks and been killed.
He said, God spared me three times that I'm aware of. And
the father looked at his son and he said, God spared me today
too, son. And the boy looked at his dad and he said, well,
what happened? What happened to you, dad? And he said, nothing.
Absolutely nothing. God just spared me. Just spared
me. Well, that's what Joshua is saying
here. He's taken them back over this whole 500 years. And he
said, look what God's done. Look at our great God and Savior.
Look what He's done. And all through that period of
time, He's given us pictures of the Christ that will come.
He's given us sacrifices. Every drop of that blood that
was shed on those altars points to the coming Messiah who will
take away our sin and give us a perfect standing before God
Almighty. When we was in that wilderness for forty years, Moses
took that rod and smoked that rock, and that water followed
us for forty years. We didn't have to plant anything.
We didn't have to buy any food. Our clothes never wore out. Our
shoes never wore out. And we went out every morning,
and there was that man on the ground. God provided for us. He said in verse 15, If it seem
evil to you to serve the Lord, then choose you this day. Choose
you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father
served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose lands you dwell. He gets that in. You
see that? They couldn't protect that land. It's their God's land. They were no match for God. In
whose lands you dwell. God brought you in and took it
over. But he says here, but as for me and my house. Isn't this
a great statement? And I'm telling you, I'm telling
you, God's blessed us. God's blessed us here in this
place. And we see these little ones here. Gosh, He's just continued
to bless us with little ones. But I'm telling you, God's made
us stewards over those little ones. And Joshua was saying here,
as long as I've got something to say about it, and as long
as they'll listen to me, which there'll come a time when they
won't, we know that, but as long as they will, me and my house,
these that I can tell them, and I can instruct them. And they
still have a regard for me and a respect for me, and they'll
do what I tell them. He said, I'm going to tell them
the truth. We're going to serve God. We're going to serve the
Lord. And it comes with that a great
obligation and a responsibility to stand for the Gospel and stand
for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an old story. This goes
way back there. This is a 3,000-year-old story.
How pertinent is it in our day? What do we get from this here
in our day? It's a whole new day, you know. New way, new day.
We're in the 2000s now. How is this pertinent to us in
our day? I think it was Richard Baxter. I'm not sure. But it
was one of those old writers. He said this. He said, I preach
as one who may never preach again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. It may be. This will be the last
time you'll ever see me. It may be that you've heard the
last message from your pastor. It may be that God will be pleased
to remove these men that we've grown to love over the years.
It may be. There's going to come a time. There'll be a time when
the last message is preached. There'll be a time when God's
going to send His ambassador and preach the last message.
And I thought this would be a very pertinent message. Choose you
this day. In our day, in our day, Thirty-five
hundred years subsequent to when Joshua penned this. In our day,
religion is a lie. The Gospel plainly says, salvations
of the Lord. Salvations of God planted. God
purchased it. God accomplished it. He brings
it to pass. And He makes it effectual on
those that He loved. And they will persevere in our
day. In our day, I'd say, you choose
you this day. This may be the last thing you hear from me.
And I'd warn you and encourage you, you choose this day whom
you'll serve. Is man a sinner? Is man a complete,
lost, helpless, hopeless, undone creature? Back in the garden
when God said, Adam, don't eat of the fruit that's on the tree
in the midst of the garden. For if you eat of it, you're
going to die. And Adam took that fruit. And he ate of that. Adam
didn't physically die. Adam lived 930 years. But he
spiritually died. Are we sinners? Are we sinners? Isaiah said from the sole of
the foot all the way to the top of the head. There's no sound of sinners.
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's what God sees.
That's what God sees. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that of yourself? Do you believe that like that
demoniac there? When our Lord Jesus Christ, He
was here on the earth and He was in His public ministry, He
went over there to the land of the Gadarenes. Did you ever try
to paint a word picture of what that fellow looked like? You
can't do it. You've never seen anything like
him. He's ugly and awful, unkempt, ragged, naked, cuts himself,
bleeding all over, and he's crazy out of his mind. That's what
God sees when He sees us. Do you own that to be us in our
natural condition? Do you believe that of yourself?
Do you believe you're a sinner? Do you believe that? We are all
as an unclean thing. All as an unclean thing. And
our righteousnesses, the best we do? Filthy rags. Go home and
look that up in the concordance. Not proper to mention what that
is in mixed company. Go home and look that up. That's
what God sees. odiousness of what we are. Now
you choose you this day. That's what God says about us.
You choose this day. You little ones and you young
ones. Choose you this day. Do you believe that of yourself?
Has God opened your heart to see what we are? What we are
by nature and what we are by practice? What we do? What we
love to do? Do you believe that? Choose you this day. Choose you
this day. what the world says about you.
Oh, you may be sick. You may be lame a little bit
on one leg, but you can help yourself. God says you're dead
and trespasses in sin. Dead and trespasses in sin. Do
we believe that? Well, you've got to choose this
day whether what God says is true about us or what the world
says about us. Choose you this day. God chose
a people in eternity past. God chose a people. Not because
we were better, smarter, more moral, had more wisdom, able
to learn. Just because He would. He set
His affection on us, individually, before the world ever began.
God chose a people. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that or do you believe God loves everybody? Like the world says.
And He wants to do something for you. Oh, if you'll just let
Him. Oh, if you'll just let Him. If you'll just take the first
step. If you'll just step out and do something for them. If
you'll just work. If you'll just tithe. If you'll just give up
the picture show and drinking and smoking and watch your language,
you know. No. No. No. We can't do anything for God.
Christ is who's done everything for God. Christ does. But He
chose the people in eternity past. God did. Do you believe
that? Or do you believe that He chose
everybody? Choose you this day. Choose you
this day. The Lord Jesus Christ, in time,
He came down here and died for a particular people. Do you believe
that or do you believe He died for everybody? The whole world
says He died for everybody. The whole world except those
that God loved in eternity past. Those that He gave to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Him being the surety of that
everlasting covenant. And in time, the Lord Jesus Christ
came down here and identified with us. identified with us,
and He walked this earth for thirty-three and a half years,
and then He took our sin upon Himself and went to the tree
and died in our room instead for a particular people, a called
people, a chosen people, an elect people. Don't be afraid of those
words. You believe that or do you believe
He came and died for everybody? The choice then is up to you.
Choose you this day because it's rampant in our day. Error is
rampant in our day. Just here and there in special
places. How thankful we ought to be for
this place. That God has carved out here
in this place a witness for His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
How thankful we ought to be. And I know you are. I know you
are. Man's a sinner. Can't do anything for himself.
God chose a people. Christ came and redeemed those
people. Now you choose you this day, whether you believe that
or you believe what the world is saying. The Spirit, the Spirit
of God, irresistibly, because you remember that story back
there in the Old Testament. Saul had been killed and David
had ascended the throne. And David had a bond, a close
friendship with a fellow named Jonathan, who was one of Saul's
sons. And David ascended the throne.
And back in those days, the vanquished king, everybody in the family
was destroyed. That's just what they did. They
killed everybody. They killed everybody. They deserved to be
killed. You didn't want them growing up and raising up children
that would be a problem in your realm. So you just destroyed
everybody. And David assumed the throne.
And he called that Ziba. And he said, is there any left
of the household of Saul that I can show kindness to Jonathan's
sake. Is there any? And he said, yeah,
there's one over there in Lodi Bar. He ain't much. His name's
Mephibosheth. He's lame on both legs. Lame
from the fall. He's awful. Ugly. Unkept. No hope for him. No help for
him. And David said, go fetch him. Go fetch him. And he went. That servant went. And he brought
Mephibosheth. And David said, you want to sit
at my table all the days of your life. You think there's any chance?
This is the king speaking. He said, you go fetch him. Any
chance that servant goes over there? And Mephibosheth said,
I don't think I'm interested. I don't think I'm going to answer
that call. I don't think I'm coming. Maybe I'll come at a
more convenient time, you know. This is the king. The authority
of the king has spoken. Go get that one right there.
That one there? Go get it. And the Spirit goes
and He irresistibly calls. And God's people are willing
in the day of His power. And they're made alive. They're
given a new life. They're given the Spirit of God
Almighty in them. They walk different. They talk
different. They act different. They've got a different Master.
One ruling over them. The Spirit irresistibly calls. You believe that? Choose you
this day. Whether that's what you believe
or the Spirit calls everybody, and the difference is made by
what you decide to do. Choose you this day. Choose you
this day. And finally, all the elect, all
those sinners that had no hope and help, all those that God
loved and eternity passed, and all those that He gave to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and all those that the Lord Jesus Christ died
for, And all those that the Spirit of God crosses their path, attended
by the preaching of the Gospel, all those that are called, they
will persevere. They will persevere. We're kept
by the power of God. We're kept by the power of God.
There's no chance of any of us falling. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Joshua said, I think it says,
It's worth repeating, as for me and my house, those that I've
got any control over, those that I've got any influence over,
those that will listen to me, and I can talk to them, and they're
interested, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to serve
the Lord. I think that's the most pertinent
message for our day. Choose you this day. Keep that
in mind. Think about it. Think about it
as you hear your pastor Tell of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
He who I believe? He's done everything according
to the will of God, according to the purpose of God. He's called
me irresistibly. If you do choose, if you have
chosen, you can be sure of this. It's because He chose you first
in eternity past.