Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you would, turn with me to John 15. John 15. I'm just going to read verses 15 and 16. John 15. Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. I know this world likes to spew forth from their lips lies about free will. They think and believe they can make a choice to serve God. I was like this by nature. No one was going to tell me what to do. Not even God. Men and women today are arrogant when it comes to them thinking and saying things like this. I gave my heart to Jesus. Most people think things like bless your heart. But that's arrogance. I decided to follow Jesus. Just as the preacher once said, how precious that they decided to follow Jesus. Man by nature neither knows God nor chooses God. He cannot and he will not. I don't know how many church buildings today have the name right up on the front on the outside of their building, such and such free will church. They are arrogant in who they are. They are ungodly in their faults and their doctrine, which has no part in Scripture. You can see them on TV from time to time. They are happy and saying they are serving God, and they say it as if they are actually helping God out. There is no contrite spirit or any broken heart within. They feel they have something to offer God to help him get along. I had never read the article or book Free Will a Slave by Spurgeon until I heard Walker mention it in his messages down at North Carolina, East Hendersonville Baptist Church in North Carolina. But after I did this message, Paula and I, read it together. But before that, I read just a little bit and I saw this quote which fits with what I'm trying to say here. And here's what it says, quote, what would you think if you were going to go into the Old Bailey, and that is the courthouse or the jailhouse, and see the condemned culprit sitting in his cell, laughing and merry? You would say, the man is a fool, for he is condemned and is to be executed. Yet how merry he is! Ah, and how foolish is the worldly man who, while sentence is recorded against him, lives in merriment and mirth." We, by nature, are all dead men walking. That includes women as well. But we are all dead men walking. We like the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and was beaten and left for dead. It says he was half dead. If you do not believe God, and I did not say if you do not believe in God, I would venture to say that almost everyone believes in God, even if they say they don't. Why do I say this? Because you will hear them use his name in vain. They have songs about it. Joe mentioned this one time. They pray to a God they don't believe in. But we, as we are born in Adam, are spiritually dead. And there will not be spiritual life for a man or a woman unless one who has life and one who has the ability to give life and one who is willing to give life intervenes. John 5, 39 and 40, we read, search the scriptures. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me, and this is Jesus Christ speaking, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Now the words of Scripture specifically say right here that by my will I will not come to him that we might have life. So it goes without saying that those who will not come to get life are those who are dead. The scripture very clearly tells us that we are all dead in trespasses and in sin. But men and women still walk around this earth muttering their contempt of God under their breath. They hate the God of scripture. And it's their imagination of who he is. They love their imagination of him, but they hate the God of scripture. But back to what I was saying, if you do not believe God, and that means if you do not believe what God says in his word about who he is and about who you are, then you are condemned already. But yet thousands today are raising their hands in praise to man's supposed free will. I decided to do this, I decided to do that. I, I, I. But those who by God's grace, that is, that unmerited, meaning not one who has shown this grace has done anything to merit it, and they do not deserve it. They have not done anything for God, or anyone else for that matter, that would make them deserving of this grace. If they did, then they would not need grace because grace only comes from God and we did not earn it and we do not deserve it. Folks, I don't have to talk about them out there. As one who believes God and one who has been shown grace and mercy from an absolutely holy God, I have been shown by God in grace what I am. I may not know the depth of it fully, but I know enough by His grace that I cannot say and I dare not say that I do anything to deserve His mercy and grace, even today, right here while I'm doing what I'm doing. But I want to talk about those who by God's grace have come to Jesus Christ that they might have life. We do have a choice. We all do make a choice. And that's my title, Choose You This Day. Some make a choice by their self-will, and then others make a choice by God's will. I'm interested in those who make a choice by God's will. So let's look at briefly man's will, then more importantly, God's will. Then because of that, because of his will, what is the response from those who believe he? So let's first talk about man's will. And I could stop right there because there isn't much to say about man's will. Man does have a will, but his will is one of lifting up the creature rather than giving praise and honor to the God of all grace. Turn with me to John 6. John 6. John 6 and verses 43 and 44. Verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day. We see right here the response of man, and this is all of us by nature, but we see the response when Jesus Christ tells us who he is. He tells them that he is God. What do they do? Murmur, murmur, murmur. They curse God under their breath. Jesus Christ tells them, and he tells us because it is recorded in scripture, he says you cannot come to him. So if you do have a free will, I know it cannot cause you to come to him because he says you cannot come to me. But our text has already confirmed that not only can we not come to him, we do not even will to come to him. But not unless something outside of us does something to change us. Except the father which sent me, draw him. The word means to drag. That's what you have to do to a dead man, you have to drag him. A dead man can do nothing to help get himself to God. In fact, man is actively engaged in trying to get away from God. because we all hate God by nature. We know the passage, even God's people have had it said about them, they are the children of wrath even as others, or they were the children of wrath even as others. So we hate God by nature until God drags us to himself. Our text tells us, ye have not chosen me. Then Christ says, but I have chosen you. God did not choose everybody. Had God not chosen anyone, then there would still be none that seeketh after him. So what about God's will? What are we told about God's will in scripture? You all know this, Isaiah 46, nine and 10. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. God does as He pleases, whether I like what He does or not, whether I believe He does or not. He does everything He wants to do. It says He will do all His pleasure. That word means what He wills to do and that which He does, He does willingly. That's what the word means. Those who say they have a free will do not know God. They have no understanding. They think their will supersedes or it overrules God's will. They think God has to honor their will and what they want. This tells us that they have no understanding, the scripture does. Nebuchadnezzar tells us in Daniel 4.34, And at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me. And what did he do when that understanding returned? And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? None can stop God's hand when he goes to do something to thwart what he's going to do. None will question God or reason with God to ask him, what are you doing? But man with his depraved heart, his depraved hands, his depraved feet, his depraved mind, his depraved will thinks he can do something even if God may have not willed it. Scripture is clear. God does as he pleases and there is no one to stop him. But I thank God that it is His will to save some, to show grace and mercy to some, even though some of them by nature hate Him for who He is and what He has done. Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 5, very familiar as well. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. He chose us in Christ, Christ coming down and performing the works that were and are meet for God. That is, they are deserving of favor of God. Jesus Christ and what he did earned the favor of God and man. Listen how it says it. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So what does that tell us? That apart from what Christ did, we are to be blamed for who we are and what we are. But it was God's good pleasure Everything God does is good, even if he did not choose you. God is good, and he can do nothing but good, even if it means flooding the whole earth and the people in it, save eight souls. Who is going to stay his hand or saying to him, what doest thou? God deserves to be worshiped, whether he saves us or not. He deserves to be worshiped whether or not we can or will come to Him. But it is His will to choose some in His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. For those He chose in Christ, what does the scripture also say? 2 Thessalonians 2.13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. It is God's will to choose a people in His Son. Those whom He chooses, those whom by His will and His will alone chose them in His Son, Those were also by God, and this was from the beginning as well, when He chose us in His Son, because of what the Son would do, He in that chose us to salvation. This is how it would come about, through sanctification of the Spirit. That is, God comes to those He has chosen, drags them to Himself, giving them life so that they might be able to believe Him. And they do this by His will. They believe Him to the saving of their soul. When God acts on a soul, it causes some things to happen. First of all, they are broken. That is, their heart is broken because now they can see their will is against God. They also have a contrite spirit. They are not in rest because they know what they have done will sever them from God forever unless he wills to make them clean. What does this do? He causes submission to him and his will. If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. What do they begin to do? They begin to take sides with God against themselves. They begin to believe the truth. And this is where I wanna get to this morning. Be turning with me to Joshua 24, Joshua 24. Joshua 24. Joshua 24 and let's read verses 14 through 22. 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 you the Lord. And if it seemed evil 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 ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land. Therefore we will also serve the Lord, for he is our God. And Joshua said unto the people, ye cannot serve the Lord, for he is an holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt and consume you after that he hath done you good. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord. And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you, the Lord, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. I may have did a message on this passage before. If not, I've at least referenced it before. And God has opened my eyes to this passage a little further, I believe, and I pray he has something for us. I know I've used this before, and I was speaking of those who make a choice. I spoke of it in a negative light, and what I was speaking about was negative. But I do not see this passage in its whole context as a bad thing. First of all, what does Joshua tell them first to do? fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth. Then he says to put away your gods. We say this all the time because it comes from God's word. We cannot first turn from our idols to serve God. We must first turn to God and then from our idols. We all have them. They just keep popping up from time to time. and we must always turn to God first. He will get rid of our idols for us. Then he says, if it seemed evil to serve the Lord. There are a great many people that think it is evil to serve such a God of scripture. They don't mind worshiping a figment of their imagination. That is a Jesus they have contrived that loves everybody and wants to have his way if you would just let him. They will, and I'm gonna say this, this word came up when I was trying to do a spell check, and I like how this says this, but they will wholeheartedly serve a Jesus like that, because he is made like unto them. So we can make a choice, but if God's not in it, then the choice we will make will always be the wrong one. If God is in it, then we will know who has done all the work. Verses 16 through 18, let's read it again, 16 through 18. And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods. For the Lord our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage and which did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way wherein we went. and among all the people through whom we passed. And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites, which dwelt in the land. Therefore, we will also serve the Lord, for he is our God. Those who have been made, they have been forced, dragged into a relationship with the sovereign of the universe, who has done all that has pleased him, They will give God all the credit. Then Joshua tells them, and this is the God of scripture, this is what God's word tells us. You cannot serve God, for he is a holy God. We cannot serve God on our own. If we are to serve Him, it will be because He has enabled us who are dead in trespasses and in sin, He has enabled us to believe Him, worship Him, and serve Him. What do they tell Joshua in verse 21? Read it again. And the people said unto Joshua, Nay, but we will serve the Lord. They tell Joshua that God deserves to be served. whether he does anything for me or not. I know I can do nothing for him, but regardless if he does anything for me or not, he will be the one I serve because he deserves it. Now you remember that I said God's people in the time of God's power toward them, to drag them to himself, what do they do? They take sides with God against themselves. We see it right here in this passage, I believe, verse 22. And Joshua said unto the people, ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you, the Lord, to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. All of God's people, when they come to see that the God of heaven and earth deserves to be worshipped, they take sides with God against themselves. They are witnesses against themselves. They witnessed that they cannot serve God on their own, but no matter what, the Lord is who we will serve. God's people know he does not owe us anything, but yet we also know that he has told us, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, come unto me and I will give you rest. He, as these Israelites have said, he has preserved us in all the way. Every step we take is ordained of God, and he will see to it that we are kept safe in the way. We may fall. We do fall. But he picks us back up again and sets us on his path. We know we cannot do it on our own. But you can see right here in the end of Joshua, which is one of the last things that it says here, there's no rebuke to them for what they have said. What are we told in the last verse, or in verse 28, I should say? So Joshua let the people depart, every man unto his inheritance.