If you would, turn with me to
John 15. 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 thoughts
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 Walter
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, end quote. 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 Him? 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 worshipped 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? Second 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 seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, 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 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 and
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 worshiped,
they take sides with God against themselves. They are witnesses
against themselves. They witness 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. God will cause us to make a choice.
Some will deny him. Some will not and cannot be separated
from their idols because they depend on their will. But then
there are others who he loves. He will drag them to himself
and they will take sides with God against themselves, knowing
he is the one to be served and him alone. They depend on his
will to save and his work to save them. I have one more passage
I want you to turn to, and this passage shows us what His people
do because of the grace of God shed abroad on them and in them.
Turn with me to Daniel 3. Daniel 3. Daniel 3 and verses
16 through 18. Daniel 3 verses 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not
careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not,
Be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods,
nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. What do we see first, said here
by these three men? We're not careful to answer you,
O King. They are saying we don't even
have to think about this, because there is one and only one who
is worthy of praise, honor, and worship. What else do they say? If it be so, no presumption here. They know God does not owe them
anything. Our God, if it be so, our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace
and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. He will deliver
us. Whether he delivers us from the
fire or not, he will deliver us from idols. But I like this
next one. But if not, even if he does not
deliver us, we will serve him and not you, because him and
him alone deserves to be served. Be it known unto thee, O king,
that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image
which thou hast set up. Then I would have to say that
Nebuchadnezzar got a little mad. He had them heat the furnace
up seven times more than it normally was heated up to. He wanted to
roast these boys. It was so hot that the guards
who bound them, these three men, and took them up to throw them
in, it killed the men that threw them in there because it was
so hot. But the fire did not even as much cause their clothes
to smell like smoke. I can sit by a campfire for about
five minutes and all of myself smells like smoke. These men whom God shed his grace
on were in a fire that was so hot that it killed the men that
threw them in the furnace. And they don't even smell like
smoke. It takes the grace of God, Him, if He is willing to
do such a thing like that. If we are to be able to serve
a God like that, then it will have to be by His grace. My will
will not cut it. If it were these men's wills,
they would have been toast. But it was not their will. They
trusted in the God they served that he would deliver them. But
even if he did not, they were not going to serve the idols.
What does Paul say in 2 Timothy 1.12? For the witch calls, I
also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
For I know whom I have believed. and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Oh,
I pray, God, have mercy on me. Show me favor because of your
Son. God, make the right choice for
me. Turn me, God, and I shall be
turned. Cause me to choose you. Knowing
this, that if I do, it is only because you have chosen me. I don't want my will. My will
will damn me to hell forever, because by nature I love my idols
rather than God. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. May it be that it is your will
to cleanse me and cause me to serve the Lord. I say to everyone
here today and everyone who may hear me in some way, choose you
this day whom you will serve, the Lord or your idols. If you will not serve the Lord
of glory, Jesus Christ the Lord, there is nothing but idols. Drag
me to yourself, my Lord and Savior. Amen. Thank you, dear Lord, for
these moments that I could stand here and praise your name, dear
Lord, even with these fallen clay pot slips, dear Lord. May
you apply them to our hearts, dear Lord, because only you can
by your spirit, dear Lord. All these things we ask in Christ's
name, amen.