This world knows nothing about
that one that makes me come and beg at his feet. Right, Aaron? Where's Aaron at? Thank you for
that, Aaron. Mark kind of took my introduction
because I was going to get a jab in at Bill for what he said. I'm glad you all were able to
see my dad a couple of times. We always have jokes about that
because folks have thought he was my dad. I send greetings
from Sovereign Grace Chapel and Paula specifically said to give
you greetings because she wished she could have been here. We
have dogs that we usually have someone watch but they were out
of town. I have one quote, a very short
quote that I want to read you, and this was sent to me and Walter
from Joe. This is very good. Holiness is
not the way to Christ. Christ is the way to holiness. Charles Spurgeon. Sitting in the hotel, you know,
you've got a long time that you can take a lot of notes and make
more notes. It gets pretty long. But no, I won't keep you too
long. It'll be less than two hours.
If you would, turn with me to John 15 to start with. John 15. This is not my main text. My
main text is what Mark read for me. It was a pretty lengthy reading,
but that's my main text. I want to start here. Verses 15 and 16 of 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 you 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." We hear today a lot of people
talking about free will, which does not exist. This world thinks
and they 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
with their thoughts of themselves toward God. They think and say
things like this, I gave my heart to Jesus, I decided to follow
Jesus. Just as a 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 churches
that you see today, that you pass by today, that have the
name right out front of their building. It says, 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 in 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. They
feel they have something to offer God to help him out or help him
get along. Spurgeon had a quote in his message,
Free Will a Slave. What would you think if you were
to go into the Old Bailey," and that's the courthouse or the
jail, 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 to be executed, yet how merry is he? Ah, and how foolish is the worldly
man who, while sentence is recorded against him, lives in merriment
and myrrh." We by nature are all dead men
walking, and that includes women, but we are all dead men walking.
We like the man who went down to Jerusalem in the story of
the Good Samaritan. He was beaten and left for half
dead. It says he was left 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. And why do I say this? Because
you will hear them. They will use his name in vain. They have songs about it. They
have one song where it says, 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 539 reads this way, and
this is Christ speaking. Search the scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. 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 Christ. Just as Spurgeon said in his
message, Free Will a Slave, the facts that it says here in John
5, the thing that they will not do is come to him that they 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 we are all dead in trespasses and in sin. But men and women
still walk around this earth muttering their contempt for
God under their breath. They hate the God of Scripture,
not the 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,
and God's grace being unmerited, meaning no one who is 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 it. If they did, then they would not need grace. Because
saving grace only comes from God and we did not earn it and
we do not deserve it. But we need it. If we are to
be in union with God, we need it. If we are to have peace with
God, we must be shown grace from God. Folks, I don't have to talk
about them out there. As one who believes God and as
one who has been shown grace and mercy from an absolutely
holy God, I have been shown by God 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 anything I do to deserve His mercy, that
there's anything that I can do that deserve His mercy and grace.
And that's even today, what I'm doing today. But I want to talk about those
who by God's grace have come to Jesus Christ that they might
have life, because there have been some that have. We do have
a choice. We all do make a choice. And
that's my title today is Choose You This Day. Some make a choice
by their self-will, not free will. And then others make a
choice by God's will. I'm interested in those who make
a choice by God's will because my will enslaves me. So let's
look at briefly man's will, then more appropriately and importantly
God's will, and then because of that, because of his will,
what is the response from those who believe him because of his
will? So let's look at man's will.
And I could stop right there because there's not 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 God. Man's will is not free. Scripture
says the heart makes us willing, and we know the heart we are
born with into this world. It is evil and deceitful above
all things, and we cannot even know it. Man's will is a will of bondage
to sin. Let's look at the response of
man when Christ tells man who he is and that is who Christ
is. So turn with me to John 6. John
6. John 6 and verse 43 and 44. John 6 verse
43. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to
me except the Father which hath 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 this response
when Jesus Christ tells us who He is. He tells them in this
passage that He is God. What do they do? Murmur, murmur,
murmur. They curse God under their breath.
And we all do this, even God's people, before he visits us.
Jesus Christ tells them and he tells us because it's recorded
in scripture. He says, you cannot come to him. So even 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. John 540 has already confirmed,
though, that not only can we not come to Him, we do not even
will to come to Him. Not unless something outside
of us does something to change us. Except the Father which sent
me, draw Him. That word means to drag, and
that's what you have to do to a dead man is 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 were the children
of wrath, even as others. So we hate God by nature until
God drags us to himself. Now this dragging or pulling
to himself is done in love, and he woos us unto himself. That one who is being dragged
is one who has been given life, else they would not come. When
he does this to them, they are willing to come. We are willing
in the day of his power. Our text tells us, ye have not
chosen me, but 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. It's all about
God's will. So what about God's will? What
are we told about God's will in scripture? Isaiah 46, 9 and
10, we read, 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, and whether I believe he does or
not, he does everything he wants to do. It says he will do all his pleasure. It is saying God does what he
wills to do, so he does what he does, he does willingly. Those who say they have a free
will do not know God. They have no understanding. They
think their will supersedes or overrules God's will. They think
God has to honor their will and what they want. The scripture
tells us that if you think this way, you have no understanding. And I contest about of this because
I have done it. I thought what I decided would
bring me into communion with God, and that by my choosing. But to think I have a will which
can overrule God's will tells me I have no understanding. Nebuchadnezzar
tells us this. Daniel 4.34 we read, and at the
end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me. You know the story,
he had a vision, Nebuchadnezzar had a vision, a dream of what
would befall him and Daniel interpreted it. And he couldn't do anything
about what was told to him, even though he was told exactly what
was going to happen to him. But he still bragged that he
built his kingdom and he thought he was majestic. God intended
to teach him different. God put him out in the field
for seven years and he ended up with hair all over his body,
his nails were like claws. He was a beast of a field eating
grass. So this is what it says, and
my understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High. This is what you do when your
understanding comes to you. 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 whatever 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 hands,
his depraved feet, his depraved mind, his depraved heart, his
depraved will, thinks he can will to do something, even if
God may have not willed it. They say, God has no hands but
your hands, and he has no feet but your feet. Our Lord Jesus
Christ has his own hands and his own feet, and he bears the
marks in them for what he did with them. What he did proves
to his own that he has all power. I am thankful for his hands and
his feet, because what he did with them was to save my utterly
depraved heart, soul, will, and mind from condemnation from God. 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. You all know what Ephesians 1,
3-5. 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 himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. He chose us in Christ. Christ
coming down to perform works that were and are meet for God. That is, Christ's works are deserving
of the favor of God. Jesus Christ and what he did
earned the favor of God and man. Listen how it says it, though
here in Ephesians. 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 this
tell us? That apart from what Christ did,
we are to be blamed for who we are and what we are and what
we do. Christ is the way to holiness. 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 all the people
in it, save eight souls. Who's going to stay his hand
and say unto him, what are you doing? 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. For those he chosen Christ,
what the scripture also say. Second Thessalonians 2.13, for
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. They were by God chosen, and
this was from the beginning. But we were chosen in His Son
because of what the Son would do. He, because of that, chose
us to salvation. It is all based on Christ's work,
but how do we come to know Him? This is how it would come about,
through sanctification of the spirit. That is, God comes to
those he has chosen and drags them to himself, giving them
life, so that they might then be able to believe him. And they
do this by his will. They believe him to the saving
of their soul. Sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. One necessitates the other. They
go together. Two separate and distinct things
put together by God. The word and ties them together,
but it's two separate things. 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. What
do they see? Their will is against God. They
also have a contrite spirit. They are not in rest because
they know that what they have done will sever them from God
to hell forever, unless he wills to make them clean. What does
this do? It causes submission to him and
his will. The leper says, 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 wanted to
get to this morning. Turn back to Joshua 24. Joshua
24. And I'm gonna read that Joshua 24 again. It's a long passage. I'm just
gonna read 14 through 22 and kinda go through it and look
at it. Joshua 24 Joshua 24 and verse 14 and just think about these words 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 father 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. 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 the people
drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites,
which dwelt in the land. Therefore will we also serve
the Lord, for he is our God. And Joshua said unto the people,
Ye cannot serve God. The Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will
not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. If you 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 yourself
that ye have chosen you, the Lord, to serve him. And they
said, We are witnesses. 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. That's the first thing he tells
them. Then he says to them, 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. 1 Thessalonians 1.9, for they
themselves show of us what manner of entering we had unto you and
how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
God. The order is clear. It is we turn to God first, else
we will never get to God if we are to turn from idols first.
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. He's the one that causes us to
turn to him as well. We cannot turn to him without
him. Then he says, if it seem 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 God who is a figment of their imagination, that is
a Jesus they have condrived that loves everybody. He wants to
have his way, if you would just let him. They will wholeheartedly
serve a Jesus like that, because he is made like unto them. So we can make a choice, but
if God is not in it, then the choice we will make will always
be the wrong one. We will think it evil to serve
the God of Scripture and we will be in league with this world's
idols, whatever they might be. But if God is in it, then we
will know who has done all the work, verses 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, and
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 for whom we passed. And the Lord drove
out from before us all the people, even the Amorites, which dwelt
in the land. Therefore will we also serve the Lord, for he is
our God." Those who have been made, forced,
or dragged into a relationship with the sovereign of the universe,
who has done all that has pleased him, 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. And that is worship
and serve him too. What do they tell Joshua in verse
21? And the people said unto Joshua,
nay, but we will serve the Lord. They tell Joshua that God deserves
to be served, and this 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 towards them, to drag them
to himself, what do they do? They take sides with God against
themselves. And we see it right here in this
passage, 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 of earth deserves to be worshipped,
they take sides with God 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. Now I'll say it in the whole context, this passage isn't a
bad thing. And you can see right here in
the end of Joshua what is one of the last things that it says
here. There is no rebuke to them for what they have said. But
what does it say in verse 28? 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 whom
he loves. He will drag 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 them 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 should have brought on them in
in them turn with me to Daniel 3 Daniel 3 Daniel 3 verses 16 through 18. Daniel 3 verse 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 thy 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 here said
by these three men? We are 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. They don't know what his will
is concerning the matter, but they know he doesn't owe them
anything. 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 one way or the other. But I like this next one in verse
18. 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. 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. They are saying just
as Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's
what God's people were brought to confess. But then Nebuchadnezzar
in his pride was furious. He had them heat the furnace
up seven times more than it would normally be heated up to. He
wanted to roast these boys. It was so hot that those guards
who bound these three men, that took them up to throw them in,
it killed those men that took them up. But the fire did not
even cause as much as those three men, those clothes of those three
men, it did not even cause their clothes to smell like smoke.
I can sit by a campfire for five minutes and everything smells
like smoke about me. 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 be toast. But it was not their will. They
trusted in the God that they served, that He would deliver
them. But even if he did not, they were not going to serve
the idols. They could only say this by his grace. And there's
one more thing about this account. There was another man with them
in all of this, the son of God. That heathen king which tried
to kill these men said the fourth man looked like the son of God.
He was right. He is the son of God. He will
be with his people always, because he went through the fire for
us, so that we would escape without even the hint of the smell of
smoke. 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. It's
all up to His will, and by His grace and mercy toward us, He
will make us willing to then come to Him. Psalm 65, four,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and calls us to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. 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 idols rather than God. What did
that leopard say? Leopard say, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. God will cause a man or a woman
of his choosing to know their need and to know his ability. Just as the leopard did, he came
to Christ. He would not have come otherwise. Had he not known of his need
of cleansing, he would not have come to Christ. He also knew
that Christ had the ability to do what he was asking him to
do. The only thing he did not know is, is he willing? I say to everyone here today
and everyone who may hear my voice, choose you this day whom
you will serve, the Lord or idols. If you will not serve the Lord
of glory, Jesus Christ the Lord, there's nothing but idols. May it be that he wills to drag
me to himself based on his choice, him being my Lord and my Savior. Amen. Thank you.