Thank you, Scott. Every time
I hear or read that passage, I'm reminded of a brother out
in California. He some years ago had a disease
and they had to remove his tongue. And he's difficult to understand,
I've gotten where I can understand him. And he's told me a couple
of times that it was the best thing that ever happened to him.
He said he stopped talking, he started listening. And he's just
so thankful for the gospel and he's just so gracious. What a
blessing. to be forced to listen. Let's look back here at Joshua
24.15. Joshua 24.15. And if it seem able unto you to serve the Lord, Choose you this day whom you
will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. Last week somebody asked me a
good question and they said, what do you say when will-worshippers
use Joshua 24.15 to support man's so-called free will or the free
will in the way that they use it. You know, will-worshippers
are called that in Scripture because they worship their will. It's a boasting in man's will. to say that a sinner has the
final say as to whether God can or cannot save him. That's boasting
in man's will. That's worshipping man's will. It's boasting in a man's will
to say a sinner either makes Christ and his work effectual
for them or he makes it non-effectual for them based on whether or
not he chooses or rejects Christ according to his will. It's boasting
to say a man can decide whenever he will that he will serve the
Lord. And this is the verse that's
often used to support that. Will worshipers preach so as
to put the sinner on the seat of judgment and to put God on
trial. But the gospel declares God is
the judge. The gospel declares Christ is
the advocate. The gospel declares we are the
guilty criminal. God's not on trial. If a man's
on trial for capital murder, looking at the death penalty,
and a judge hands down the verdict, have you ever heard a judge ask,
do you accept the verdict or do you reject it? And if the
man's guilty, and it's obvious he's guilty, and yet the verdict
was handed down innocent, have you ever heard of anybody say,
well, I decided I'd accept that verdict? I decided I'd reject
that verdict. The gospel comes into the heart
of the sinner from the just judge handing down the verdict. That's
how the gospel comes. It comes first declaring us guilty,
guilty, worthy of the death penalty, guilty. And then it comes as
the good news. that the Lord Jesus Christ, by
His substitutionary death in place of His people, settled
the justice of God, honored it fully for His people, and redeemed
us from all our sins, redeemed us from the curse and condemnation
of the law. And when you have that verdict
delivered into your heart, it's irresistible. You're not going
to say, well, I'll mull it over whether or not I'll accept that
or reject it. No, you'll rejoice, you'll leap, you'll be overjoyed
that God has declared that in your heart. And the sinner who
sees himself as the sinner and beholds Christ his righteousness, he just believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ and can't not believe Him. You just cannot believe
Him. You may be surprised at first
because you see how guilty you are, and yet you see what Christ
has done, and it does seem unbelievable to you at first. But it is a new will given by
our Lord, and it is just irresistible. It's just irresistible. That's
when you believe on Christ and you put away the false gods of
will worship. You really believe Him. You really
believe Him. I realize that many put this
verse up in their home and many have made the statement concerning
their house. And it is a very good resolve.
It is a very good resolve. It's the resolve that God puts
in the heart of every faithful father and mother. There is no
doubt about that. But not one of us can bring it
to pass. And like a lot of statements
we make, when we're worshiping folks, begin to make their boast
of how, as for me and my house, we have served the Lord. Do you
know how heart-wrenching that is to the mother and father,
the faithful mother and father, whose heart it is to want to
see their children believe the gospel, and yet they don't? And
it's not always the father and the mother. Sometimes it's the
children who believe the gospel, and they just, their hearts break
that their mother or their father don't believe Christ. Truth is, as long as a sinner
has choices, as long as a sinner has choices, and it's all up
to him making the choice, His choices are only between false
gods, which false god He'll serve. Read this again. Look at verse
14. Now therefore, fear the Lord,
and serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods
which your father served on the other side of the flood and in
Egypt, and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve.
whether the false gods which your father served that were
on the other side of the flood, or the false gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. See, there's the choices. But
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. The choices are
between false gods. And a sinner, as long as he has
choices, it's only between false gods. Which false god he'll choose.
When we read a passage of Scripture, you always want to find out who
is speaking. Who is speaking? Let's go up
to where the quotation begins and let's see who is speaking.
Who is speaking? Verse 1, Joshua gathered all
the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and he called for the elders
of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for
their officers, and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua
said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Joshua is the preacher, but Joshua
is not speaking his word. He is not preaching His Word.
Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. This is the pre-incarnate Savior
to whom God committed the care of His whole house unto from
the foundation of the world. And He is speaking, serving the
Father, and He's speaking through Joshua as He does this day through
the preaching of the Gospel. And this is the Lord God speaking,
and He's the only one. who can dogmatically, without
any reservation, make this statement. This quotation stays open all
the way down and I'll show you where it closes. But he's the
only one who can dogmatically make this statement and bring
it to pass without fail and say, as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. The Lord Jesus can make that
statement. He's the head of the house. He's the head of the whole
house. God the Father entrusted the
whole house to Him. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father by
me. Christ is the head of His house. He is the head of His house.
He makes His people willing in the day of His power, and He
does it through the preaching of the gospel delivered by a
man just like Joshua, but Christ alone is the one who works it
in the heart of His people. Now, the Lord gives us some examples. He gives us some examples. This
is the Lord God speaking. Listen to what He says, verse
2. And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel, God speaking, the God of his Israel, the God of
the elect, the spiritual Israel, and he says, your fathers dwelt
on the other side of the flood in old times, the other side
of the rivers that the Lord had brought them across, even Terah,
the father of Abraham and the father of Nechor, and they served
other gods. Abraham was an unregenerate idolater
just like his earthly father. But God the Father had chosen
him before the world was made. Chose him in Christ, entrusted
him to Christ to save him. And therefore God the Father
sent Christ, the pre-incarnate Lord of Glory, to Abraham and
He called him out of idolatry. And He called him out effectually.
And he called him out. He said, I took, verse 3, and
I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood.
Joshua can't be speaking. He wasn't even alive. He wasn't
even alive. The Lord took Abraham and he
passed by his father. Grace is not only effectual,
it's not only irresistible, when Christ speaks into the heart,
it is particular, it is distinguishing. He called out Abraham, and He
led him, and He protected him. He said, verse 3, I led him throughout
all the land of Canaan, and He produced all the fruit in Abraham.
He said, and I multiplied his seed, and I gave him Isaac. Abraham
was a member of Christ's house. He was a member of Christ's house.
So Christ, as the head of his house, made Abraham willing to
serve the Lord alone. And you say, well, how could
the Lord say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord?
God the Father and God the Son are one. They are equal just
like the Holy Spirit is one with them. But as the mediator, God
trusted the whole work to save the house into His hand. And
everything our Lord has been doing since He created this world
has been serving the Lord, serving the Lord God. And He brings His
people to serve the Lord God through faith in Him, just like
He did Abraham. Then He gives an example of Isaac
and Jacob. He said, I produced Isaac. He
was the promised seed. He's the one that the Lord promised
Abraham he would produce, who the Lord produced in Sarah's
womb after she was past the point of childbearing. When Sarah heard
that, she laughed. The Lord said, is anything too
hard for the Lord? If you know yourself to be a
dead sinner and you see what Christ has done in creating life
in you, you know nothing's too hard for the Lord. Isn't that
so? And look here, verse 4, ìAnd I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau,
and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir to possess it, but Jacob and
his children went down into Egypt.î The Lord made Isaac willing,
He produced Isaac for Abraham and Sarah and He made him willing
to serve the Lord. And then He gave Isaac and Rebekah,
Jacob and Esau. And while theyíre in their motherís
womb, You know Romans 9 verse 11, the children being not yet
born, having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of
God, the purpose of God according to election might stand. Not
of works, but of God that calls. It was said to her that elders
shall serve the younger. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Does that make God unrighteous?
Shall we call God unfair because He chose Jacob, not based on
any good or evil in Him? Have you ever seen Jacob? Have
you ever looked at Jacob? His name means supplanter. He
came out of his mother's womb, latching on to the heel of his
brother. I can understand how God could love Esau. How could
God love Jacob? How could God love me? So then it's not of him that
willeth. It's not of him to run of. It's of God that shows mercy.
He said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll pass
by whom I will. And that's what our Lord is declaring
here. As for me and my house, I've chosen them from eternity.
I've loved them from everlasting. I sent my Son to save them. They
shall serve the Lord by His grace. Other members of Christ's house
were Moses and Aaron. He said in verse 5, I sent Moses
also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which
I did among them, and afterward I brought you out. That can't
be Joshua talking. Joshua didn't plague Egypt. The
Lord did. He appeared to Moses on the back
side of the desert in the burning bush. The scripture says, the
angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of the bush. He said, I am that I am. That's who sent you, Moses. This
is the Lord. I won't go through all of this,
but you get the point here. It's the Lord who delivers His
people. It's the Lord who calls out His
people. It's the Lord who makes His people willing to serve Him.
Over and over through the rest of this chapter, we see the different
things here the Lord worked. He said there, I put darkness, verse 7, He put
darkness between you and the Egyptians. This is our Lord Jesus,
pre-incarnate Lord of salvation, speaking of what God did, and
then look what He said. He put darkness between you and
the Egyptians. He brought the sea upon them and covered them.
And your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt. And you
dwelt in the wilderness a long season." This is the Lord talking
of what He and the Father did in saving Israel from Pharaoh
and his army. He said, there I brought you
into the land of the Amorites. They fought with you. I gave
them into your hand. I destroyed them before you."
And then when Balaam came up against him, he said, I didn't
hearken to Balaam. He tried to use Balaam to curse
God's people. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save his children who were under the curse. And
he said, he went before the Father, this spotless, holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, our Lord of glory, went before
the Father and said, curse me and let my people go free. And that's what he accomplished.
He's never, ever, ever going to allow anybody to curse his
people. And so he didn't hearken to Balaam,
he saved him out of his hand. And you go on down here to verse
12, and you see this is the Lord, I sent the hornet before you,
and drove out from before you even the two kings of the Amorites,
not with your sword and your bow. I have given you a land
for which you did not labor, cities which you built not, you
dwell in them, or the vineyards and olive yards which you planted
not do I eat. And when you get down to Joshua
24.15, It's not Joshua speaking. Oh,
he's speaking. He's preaching. This is the Word
of the Lord. He's declaring what the Lord
alone is able to accomplish. By Christ's work, He's driven
out all the enemies of His people. It's not been by our sword and
our bow. It's not. You think the Lord
would declare all of this and then do what Pontius Pilate preachers
do? Turn Christ over to the will
of the people? If it comes down to your will,
you know who you're going to glory in? You. That no flesh
should glory in His presence. This is why God says through
the preaching of the Gospel, that no flesh should glory in
His presence, but of God. Are you in Christ Jesus? Who
of God is made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, so that He that glories, let Him glory in the
Lord. It's not by our sword and it's
not by our bow. He said, not by might nor by
power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord of hosts. He's given
us a land for which we didn't labor. Christ came into this
earth and worked all the works to honor and magnify the law
of God. and He honored it fully, and
we delight in it in our new man. You know why? Because that law
tells me I am the sinner. I'm guilty, but that law, when
I look at it and I see what's required and I see something
of how holy and just and good God is when I behold His law,
I see how holy, just, and good my Savior is, and how righteous
He is, and how thoroughly He saved His people from our sin. He's given us heavenly Canaan.
He's given us heavenly Mount Zion. He's given us a city which
hath foundations, who's builder and maker is God. And we didn't
labor for it. We were without Christ and without
hope in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometimes afar off are made near by the blood of Christ. And He came and He preached peace
to you which were afar off, and to them that were near. For through
Him, through Him, through Him, we both, Jew and Gentile, elect
Jew and elect Gentile, we both have access. by one Spirit unto
the Father, and now you are no more strangers and foreigners,
but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and you are of what?
The household of God." He said, as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord. And all His people shall. The
Lord Jesus is the head of His house. He alone served God the
Father in perfection for His people. And He alone can give
a new heart and make His people believe and rest in Him. Christ
our head is he who's saying, as for me and my house, we shall
serve the Lord. Christ is the one head over His
house who can make this statement, who never fails to bring it to
pass. Isaiah spoke the word of the
Lord and the Lord said, He shall not fail nor be discouraged until
He has set judgment in the earth. He settled judgment at the cross
and He settles judgment in the heart of His people. He gives
you spiritual discernment to behold Him and rest in Him by
faith. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. This is what God said to His
Son. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion.
Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast to do of thy youth. He comes
and creates a new man in His people, a holy man in His people. It's Christ in you, a hope of
glory, and He brings you to believe Him, and trust Him, and walk
after Him, and follow Him, and He keeps you doing so all your
days. We can't bring ourselves to serve
the Lord, much less anybody else. We can't. We came. Now look down at verse 16. The people answered and they
said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other
gods. They acknowledged the Lord brought
them out of bondage and delivered them there. They were there when
the Lord brought Israel out. Verse 18, at the end they said,
Therefore will we also serve the Lord, for He is our God. And Joshua said to the people,
Ye cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous
God. He will not forgive your transgressions,
nor your sins. Now what is He talking about?
He says, if you forsake the Lord, and serve strange gods, and He
will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that He hath
done you good." Not that He is going to ever cast away His people,
but they had seen all this good the Lord had done. And if a man
can turn from Christ and go his own way and forsake Christ, he
never really was called in the first place by the Lord. But
Joshua declared to them here their inability and their insufficiency
of themselves to serve the Lord. That's what he declared. A sinner
can't merely choose God when he will, much less perform service
acceptable to the holy God of himself. It's called total depravity. It's called having a sin nature
that's still mixed with everything a believer does. Joshua declared
that we need the grace of our Lord Jesus. We need to believe
on Christ and trust His righteousness. Trust He is the perfect servant
of God. The only righteousness by which
God will accept us is Christ. We can't trust in our will. We
can't trust in our strength. Those are the false gods that
Joshua said, if you turn from this one Lord, that's the false
gods you're going after. Our own will. We don't have to
make a statue to worship an idol. If we start thinking that our
will is of us and this new will we
have for Christ wasn't given to us, what do you have that
you didn't receive of the Lord? Be careful, be careful. Will
worship is worshiping and glorying in and boasting in one's will.
Yes, He makes you willing. You're not going to come to God
unwilling, but where did the will come from? He gives you
a new will when He creates a new man in you. Our God is perfectly
holy, brethren, and we're the sinner. We're the sinner. We need God to accept us. That's what we need. We need
God to accept us. It's only in and by Christ, the
Holy and Righteous One. It's only through God-given faith
in Him. And He has to give that to us
that we're brought to believe Him. And those that forsake Christ
alone may not ever even know they've done it. You know, most
of them that are speaking here ended up forsaking the Lord.
Most of Israel forsook Him. Most of them did. But when you
hear them speak right here, they're saying they knew the Lord, they
knew the Lord did all this. How subtle, how subtle unbelief
and will worship and trust in ourselves is. And we could be
turned to it before we know it. Like we saw this morning when
Philip and the other apostles were full of unbelief, the Lord
is so merciful and gracious to save us and keep us trusting
Him and strengthening our faith even though we have so much unbelief
in us. That's the good thing about grace.
Grace chose you freely. Grace will not let His child
go. He will not. Our Lord will keep His people.
So Joshua wrote it down as a covenant. He set up a stone. And notice
what he said here now. Verse 27. No, let me go to verse
21 first. People said to Joshua, No, we
will serve the Lord. And Joshua said, your witness
is against yourself that you have chosen you, the Lord, to
serve Him. If that's what we're saying,
I myself chose the Lord, that's dangerous ground. Joshua said, you can't serve
Him. And what I think Joshua said here is, if God hadn't worked
this in your heart, It made you willing to believe Him. If it's
just merely you choosing this day. You know, people get, preachers
get up and they start pleading with sinners and pleading with
sinners. Listen, I'm trying to persuade you, like Paul said,
but I want God to persuade you. I'm not trying to use enticing
words of man's wisdom to try to attract you. I want the Lord,
I want your faith to stand in the power and wisdom of God. But preachers get up and beg,
and beg, and beg, and beg, and beg, and they finally talk sinners
into choosing Christ and accepting Christ. They pour a little pitiful,
feel sorry for their little Jesus, so they accept Him. And somebody
comes along a little more enticing, and they talk them out of it.
But if the Lord works in your heart, and the Lord is the one
that called you, and the Lord is the one that... You're going
to choose Him. You sure are. But it's going to be because
He's going to take all the vain choices away and make you see
Him as all together lovely so that you can't do anything else
but cast your care on Him. And if He's worked it in your
heart, He'll keep that in your heart. He'll keep that in your
heart. No doubt about it. So Joshua,
he wrote this down as a covenant. He set up a stone and he said,
look at verse 27, Joshua said to all the people, Behold, this
stone shall be a witness unto us. He includes himself here,
doesn't he? The one preaching. He said, For
it hath heard all the words of the Lord which he spake unto
us. You know, when God is preaching, The Word he's preaching is the
Word of the Lord, if he's faithful, if God's given him the method.
The Word he's preaching is the Word of the Lord. And just as
Christ is ministering to those before whom he's preaching, Christ
is ministering to the preacher too. Joshua said, we've heard
the words of the Lord that he spoke to us today. He was the
speaker, not Joshua, but he's just the earthen vessel. Just
the one who used to speak. It's the Lord speaking. And that's
what he makes his child know. And he says, and this stone is
going to be a witness to you lest you deny your God. Now this
is the question I want to ask you. Has God taken away all your
vain choices? Has the righteous judge sent
the verdict into your heart? If so, you know this. You don't have a choice. And
here's the thing about that. That's not a bad thing. God's
people don't want any other choice. I don't want no... You remember
when they were in the storm and they went and Paul said, you
got to all stay in this ship. And they went and cut the lifeboats
off. Let her fall. There's no secondary lifeboats. We in fellowship with Christ. And He's all our hope. He's all
our hope. He's finished the work of redeeming
us from the curse of the law. He alone served God in perfection,
and He made His people perfect in Him. Christ gave us life and
faith, and He's produced fruit in us. And you know why you're
sitting here right now? It's Him who's kept you to this
day, gathered you here, gave me something to preach for you.
and he's the one ministering in the midst of his people. and
keeping us, and sustaining us, and growing us. I'm telling you
this thing is real. We've got a living Redeemer working
actively in His church, ministering to His people, and it is the
wisest thing there is that He chose the foolishness of preaching
with a bunch of needy, believing sinners to work this. It's the
ultimate wisdom that He would do it this way. Because He makes
you learn more and more. You hear His Word over and over
again. We experience His grace working between us and Him working
grace with your brethren toward you and you toward them. And
all of it together makes you know just how truly Christ is
our Redeemer and working in the midst of His people. just how
truly He is. Our Lord said, except a man born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
And He spoke of that work of the Spirit as being like the
wind. You don't know where it's coming from. You don't know where
it's going. It's irresistible. You can't stop it. And this is
how the Lord works when He comes into the heart of His people.
And He said Himself, no man can come to Me except the Father
which has sent Me to draw him. And at the same time, He said,
and if I be lifted up, I'll draw all unto Me. Are both true? Absolutely. They're one. God
the Father and God the Son are one. What the Father's doing,
the Son's doing. What the Son's done, the Father's
done. And the Spirit. And though our hearts may break,
that some in our house don't believe, it's what you can say, as David
did. Though it be not so with my house, God has made with me
an everlasting covenant ordered in all things insure. And this
is all my salvation, that we make it not to grow. And you continue to pray. And this is what the Lord teaches
us, brethren. Continue to pray for your loved
ones and those you desire for Him to call. But this is what
the Lord teaches us. Lord, help us get this. The Lord teaches us that His house
are those He has called to faith in Him. That's who His house
is. And those are the members of
the house of whom we ourselves are members
who believe. You're in the house of the Lord. I'm not talking about these four
walls. I'm talking about in His house. And your brethren are
your brothers and sisters in the house. They're your fathers
and mothers in the house. That's so. That's really so.
And as for His house, We are all going to serve Him. We are
all going to serve Him. One day, our Lord was preaching
and they came to Him and they interrupted Him. They were just
preaching. Somebody came in and interrupted Him. And they said
to Him, they said, Your mother and your brethren are outside.
They want to speak to you. In Matthew 12, verse 49, He stretched
forth His hand toward His disciples and He said, Behold my mother
and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and sister
and mother." And our Lord told us this, when He's called you
and made you willing to believe Him and serve Him, you may have
to leave earthly loved ones. But He said, I'm giving you a
hundredfold more right now. Listen, Mark 10.29, Jesus said,
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house,
or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for My sake and the Gospels. But he shall receive
a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren, sisters
and mothers and children. and lands with persecutions and
in the world to come eternal life. This is what I'm saying
to you. I know it hurts. I know it's
painful when those we love don't believe the gospel. But here's
the consolation. You do, by God's grace, and all
those He's called They're your real house. They're your real
family. They're your brothers and sisters, your mothers and
fathers in your house. Let me tell you something about
what the Lord does with His brethren. If y'all have seen this video,
it's really cute. These two brothers, little bitty
fellas, they got on their cowboy boots and they got on their Wranglers
and their little buckles, you know, and they're standing by
a big old horse. And this horse was a good horse.
This horse just stood there, didn't move, didn't walk, didn't
do anything. This video is out, you can find
it, but anyway. And this little fella, he goes
up to the side of that horse and he bends over and he let
his brother climb up on his back. And that little fellow is up
on his back and he still can't reach up to the top of the saddle.
And he's pulling and he's struggling and he's trying his best to throw
one leg over and the little brother raised up. He starts pushing
him in now. He's pushing him on up into the
saddle, finally gets him up there in the saddle. I watched that and it made me,
it brought tears to my eyes because that's what That's what God's people do for
one another. He said, carry one another's burden. What's the
song? He ain't heavy, he's my brother. And when you fall, you just bend
over and say, here, get on my back and let me try to help you
get back in the saddle. And you push him and try to help
him get back in the saddle. That's what Christ did for you
and me. And that's what serving the Lord
is. Believing in Him and loving one another. That's what Christ
successfully makes His house do. Without a doubt. Remember when that multitude walked away
from our Lord? They heard Christ speak, preach
to them personally. And when He didn't give them
earthly bread, that's all they were seeking, they turned around
and walked away. And the Lord turned to His disciples and He
said, will you go away also? And they said, Lord, You've taken
away all our choices. And we don't want another choice.
To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life, and we're sure you are the Christ, the Son of the living
God. We're sure. That's what God works in His
people. Come what may, He's going to keep His people trusting Him.
He's going to keep them together in His house, loving one another. Oh, with the grace of God. What
a wonderful thing. All right.