The Lord told Abraham, when He
took him off, He said, you look to the east, you look to the
west, you look to the north, you look to the south. I'm going
to give you all this. You know, in Christ, we have
all things. All things. You know? That's
what we have. We have all things. Don't just
look down here on the world. This isn't it. It's not it. Look up. Look up. We've got all
things. Oh, that's wonderful. Turn over
to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24. It's good
to be here. It really is. It was a joy to
have all you guys come over last week. That was a wonderful time
we had. For you guys to make that trip over there and the
message Bruce preached, my, that was wonderful. Wonderful. We won't forget these times.
We won't forget them. Well, if you've read much in
Joshua, you know, Joshua, he was a hard nose, wasn't he? He
was. I mean, you look at some of the
things he said and the stance he made and what he said to those
people. Boy, he wasn't double-minded
at all. He was either right or left.
He was right or wrong. He did it. That's the way we
were going to do it. And that was Joshua. He couldn't
stand double-mindedness. He couldn't stand it. Things
were either right or wrong. Joshua always did something,
though, before he spoke. He always did something. Turn
over to Numbers, chapter 14, real quick. Just keep your finger
in Joshua, chapter 24. But turn over to Numbers, chapter
14. I'm going to show you something
that Joshua... You know, there's a lot of people
in this world, you listen to them talk, and boy, they're hard-nosed,
too, you know? People all the time, they're
like that, you know, they got stuff to say and they stick to
their guns and stuff, but where they're coming up with this,
I don't know. You know, some of the some of the things they
stick to or you just don't understand why they're sticking to it because
where they get it from, you don't know. But Joshua, we're going
to find out where he got it, why he was so hard nosed and
what he said. Look over at Joshua or Numbers
chapter 14, verses six through nine. Now, remember, Joshua and
Caleb, they went into the promised land and they came back out.
And this is what they had to say. Joshua, the son of Nun and
Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched
the land, rent their clothes. And they spake unto all the company
of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through
to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight
in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us.
A land of which floweth with milk and honey." Verse 9, "...only
rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of
the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed
from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not." Verse 10
said, "...all the congregation bathed stone in the stones."
They couldn't stand it. They couldn't stand what they
were saying. Well, let me show you what he knew. Turn over back
just a little bit to chapter 13. Let's look right over here
in chapter 13. Joshua never said anything unless
he did something first, and that was what he always heard from
the Lord before he spoke. He did. Verse one of chapter
13 said, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Send thou men
that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto
the children of Israel. Which I give. You know what Joshua
and Caleb understood? You know what they understood?
Free grace. That's what they understood. You know, these people,
these other men that went in, they looked at the situation.
My, there's giants in the land. We can't do it. We can't do it.
They at least knew that much. They couldn't do it. But they
were looking at themselves. It was on their own. They couldn't
get it. We can't do this. Joshua understood something.
The Lord had told him something. I give it to you. I give it to
you. That's that's sovereign grace,
is it not? I give it to you. Oh, we're thinking
all the time, this church religion all over the place is saying
works, works. What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? How are we going to do this? That's not it. I give it. That's
what they understood. I give it to you. Joshua was
a picture of Christ. He was. What a wonderful picture
of Christ he was. Joshua's name as Jesus's name. It means salvation. It means
salvation. Jesus was always about his father's
business, wasn't he? He was. From that moment that
his parents, they thought they'd lost him. And they went back
to Jerusalem and they found him in the temple. Remember what
he said? Remember what he said? He said, why are you worrying
so much? Knowest thou not that I must
be about my father's business? I'm doing what I'm supposed to
be doing. And you're worrying about me. Don't you know who
I am? The son of God. I'm about my father's business.
And from the first time he speaks there until he hung on that cross
and said, it is finished. He was always about his father's
business. That's what he was about. And
that's what Joshua was about. He was. If you look through Joshua
and you read this in this book, you'll see that Joshua spoke. And when he spoke, he spoke what
the Lord had told him. That's what he spoke. And he
was very confident in what he said. Moses, you know, we think of
Moses and he was a type and a picture of the law. That's what he was.
And what Moses could not accomplish and what the law could not accomplish
by taking the children of Israel into the promised land, who did
it? Joshua did it. Law is not going
to get us to heaven. It's not the keeping of the law
here on earth. It's not going to get us to heaven. Believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in him, that's going to take
the end. You're going to cross the Jordan. You're going to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to be in Him. You're going
to be in Him. All right. Look at Joshua 5. Turn over to Joshua 5. A couple
more examples real quick here. Joshua chapter 5, verses 13 through
15. Now, we read in chapter 16, or
chapter 6 here of Joshua, about what he told these people when
he came up to Jericho. And he got all these men together
and he said, this is what we're going to do. Can you imagine
what these men thought when he said this? He said, this is what
we're going to do. We're going to march around this
city. We're going to march around one time every day for six days. And on the seventh day, we're
going to march around seven times. And then the ransomware is going
to blow. The trumpets are going to blast. We're going to let
out a great shout. And those walls are going to fall down.
Those walls are going to fall down. My, those people must have
just looked at him. OK. All right, all right. Why? Because he'd heard from
the Lord. Watch what, look at this chapter, chapter five, verse
13 of Joshua says, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho. And you can just, you can just
see this before Joshua had met here with a, with this commander
of the Lord. You can just think what he was
looking at those walls and say, how in the world are we going
to do this? How is this going to happen? How are we going to
defeat this land? Watch what it says. And it came
to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and
looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his
sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and
said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he
said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord. You know
who this was? This was Jesus Christ in a pre-incarnate
appearance. That's who this was. And he met
with Joshua right there by Jericho. He met with him. And he said,
Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come. And
Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said
unto him, What sayeth my Lord unto his servants? And the captain
of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off
thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua
did so. He did so. And then this angel
of the Lord told him what to do. And then he went and told
the people what they were going to do, didn't he? That's what
happened. The message today is this. This
is the message. The words that men speak, the
words that men preach, they mean absolutely nothing. Unless the
Lord speaks to them, unless the word of the Lord is heard, it
means absolutely nothing. If all you hear this morning
is my words. And what feeble words they are. But if you hear
only my words this morning, it's not going to mean anything to
you. It's not. You know, those these children
of Israel, they had been told that land was theirs. They did. And the Lord told Moses to tell
them that. They didn't hear it the first time, did they? They
didn't hear it. When Joshua told them the second time, they heard
it. They heard it and they went in and they possessed the land.
You got to hear from the Lord. That's the message of today.
You got to hear him speak. You have to hear him speak. You
have to. But if God's Word, God's Word,
in His infinite wisdom, in His matchless grace, in His sovereign
power, if He speaks through this sermon this morning to your hearts,
oh, it'll change your life. It'll change your life. It will. It will. He spoke through Joshua. He did. He spoke through Joshua.
Oh, and I pray this morning that He'll speak through Brother Bruce
down there this morning. Down there in Donnie Bell's church,
preaching for him. I pray this morning that he'll
speak through him. I pray this morning that he'll speak through
Pastor Wayne there, Providence Baptist Church, that he could
speak through him. Oh, that men might hear the gospel. That they
might hear the words of God. Oh, that he'd speak through me.
That he could speak through me this morning. And his men around
this land. That church in Montana, I think
of them. Oh my, His people. Oh, the people need to hear from
the Lord God. They need to hear from Him. They
need to hear from Him. Let's have a word of prayer this
morning before we begin. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father,
Lord, we thank You. We thank You for this opportunity
to come, to fellowship together, to read Your Word, Lord, and
to meditate upon it, And Lord, just see your greatness and your
wonder, Lord, and your majesty, your might. Lord, you are so
beautiful. Lord, we love you and we thank
you so much for your Word and for what you've done for sinners.
Lord, we just pray, dear Lord, that you would be with us this
morning, that you would guide and direct this meeting this
morning, Lord, and that your Spirit would come amongst us. We come with the promise, Lord,
knowing that where two or more are gathered in your name. There
you will be in the midst of them, Lord. Oh, that we might feel
your presence this morning. Lord, leave us not to ourselves.
Leave us not alone, dear God. But be with us and speak through
this servant of yours, Lord. I beg of you that you would,
that you would have a word for these people. Lord, we pray. Lord, be with Pastor Bruce, Lord. Speak through him this morning.
Bless him. Give him unction from on high,
Lord, that he might speak the words of life. And Lord, that
you would speak to those people that he preaches to this morning,
Lord. I pray for the church there in
Plainfield, Lord. And just pray that you'd be with
Brother Wayne there and that you would speak through him this
morning. Bless those people there, Lord. Bless the church in Montana
and all these churches around this land that proclaim your
holy name. Dear God, bless your people this morning. Meet with
them. Accomplish your purpose, Lord. Lord, that men and women,
boys and girls, would be saved by the great power of the gospel. Lord, just do this. If it be
thy will, Lord, we pray. In your dear and precious Son's
name, we ask these things. Amen. We'll turn to Joshua chapter
24, if you would. I'd like to read this morning
to begin the first 15 verses. of Joshua, chapter 24. Joshua, chapter 24, it says,
And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to set him and called
for the elders of Israel and for their heads and for their
judges, for their officers, and they presented themselves before
God. He had something to say, didn't he? Joshua had something
to say to these people, and it's because he'd heard from the Lord.
He'd heard from the Lord. Watch this. And Joshua said unto
all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel. Your fathers dwelt on the other
side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham
and the father of Nacor, and they served other gods. And I,
I, I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,
and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied
his seed, and gave him Isaac. And 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. I sent Moses also and
Aaron, and I plagued Egypt according to that which I did among them.
And afterwards I brought you out." I brought you out. And
I brought your fathers out of Egypt and ye came under the sea
and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and
horsemen under the Red Sea. Oh, they're right behind you.
They're right behind you. And when they cried unto the
Lord, those people stood there on the edge of that sea. They
cried unto the Lord. He put darkness between you and
the Egyptians. He put darkness between you and
the Egyptians. You know what that's saying? You know what
that's saying? When Jesus Christ died upon the
cross, OK, he took the sins of his people. And when he was buried
in that ground, he took the sins of his people with him into that
grave. All right. The bondage and the
sin of his people, he took it and buried it in that grave.
And when he rose out of that grave, we came with him. His
people came with him. out of that grave. Our sins were
left in that grave. Darkness was put between us and
our bondage. And that's what he's saying.
Look at this. That's what it's saying here. Egyptians, bondage
is right there on your tail. And when they cried unto the
Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. That water
covered them up, didn't it? Covered them up. And they came
out on the other side. They came up out of the other
side. Oh my, darkness. and brought the sea upon them
and covered them. And your eyes have seen what
I have done in Egypt." We come here and we sit on Sundays and
we listen and we see what God has done for us. God has brought
us out. And we look in this world of
bondage, this world of sin, and we see what's going on in this
world. Oh my, what the wickedness that goes on in this world. He
brought us out of that. Brought us out of that. Oh, praise
his holy name. Your eyes have seen what I've
done in Egypt. And ye dwelt in the wilderness
a long season. We're still here, aren't we?
We're still here. We're going to be here a while.
The Lord willing, we'll be here a while. We will. And I brought
you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt in the other side
of Jordan. And they fought with you. And I gave them into your
hand, that ye might possess their land. And I destroyed them from
before you. Then Balak, the son of Zipporah,
king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and
called Balaam, the son of Beorah, to curse you. And I would not
hearken unto Balaam. Therefore, he blessed you still.
So I delivered you out of his hand." You notice all these,
I did it. I did it. I did it. If we're
saved this morning, it's by his grace and his grace alone. He
did it. He did it. And you went over Jordan. It
came unto Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you,
the Amorites, and the Perizzites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Girgashites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Oh my, they, though the whole
world be against us, if God be for us, nobody can be against
us. Oh my, and I delivered them into your hand. I did that. And
I sent the hornet before you, which draved them out from before
you, even the two kings of the Amorites, but not with thy sword."
No, I did it. I delivered. It wasn't with my
sword, your sword. It was with mine. Not with thy
bow. You didn't do the shooting, I did. And I have given you a
land for which ye did not labor. That's a wonderful verse. Wonderful
verse. I have given you a land for which
ye did not labor. And cities which ye built not.
What Abraham do you say? I look for a city which hath
foundations. Whose builder and maker is God. Oh, I give it to
you. I give it to you. That's wonderful.
And ye dwell in them. Of the vineyards and olive yards
which ye planted not. You didn't plant them, but you're
eating from them. You're eating from them. And
if we possess a righteousness this morning, if we have it,
it's not our own. It's not our own. It's because
we got it in Christ. We received it in Christ. That's
where we got it. 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. Serve ye the Lord. And if it seemed evil unto you,
serve the Lord. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. That's my message this morning.
Very simple. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. Five things. Number one, we're
going to talk about this word choose. We're going to talk about
it. And I'm going to try to show you this morning that Joshua,
he was not an Armenian. He wasn't. He wasn't a freewheller.
No, he wasn't. We're going to talk about this
word choose. You. We're going to talk about this
word you. Who this word you is, what he's
talking about when he says you, when he says me. That's what
he's talking about. OK, choose you this day. We're going to talk about the
urgency of the gospel. We're going to talk about the
power of the gospel this day, this day. Whom? Well, that's
going to be all through this message. The whom? We're going
to talk about the whom this morning. and whom ye will serve. We're
going to talk about this, ye will serve, this call to arms. OK? That's what we're going to
talk about. Well, we'll start first with
choose. Very simple outline, choose. What's this word mean? What's this word mean? There's
a movie that I've watched with the kids. It's kind of a children's
movie. It's called Princess Bride. I don't know if any of you have
seen it. There's this little Italian guy
who's running around in this movie, and he's always saying,
inconceivable. Inconceivable. Anytime anything
happens that he can't understand, he says that. Inconceivable.
Inconceivable. Well, about halfway through the
movie, they're climbing up this rope or something. He looks down
over the edge. He sees this guy following him. And he looks over
at these guys that are with him. And he says, that's inconceivable. And this Spaniard that's with
him, this sword fighter that's with him, he looks at him and
he says, you know, he says, you keep saying that word. He says,
but I really don't think that word means what you think it
means. I don't think it does. And people
are out here in religion today. They're saying this word choose. They're spewing it off all the
time. You got to choose, choose, choose, choose. I just want to
look at them and say, listen, I really don't think that word
means what you think it means. I don't think it does. It doesn't. Listen, this word choose. I'm
going to try to show you here this morning. I believe that
this word choose is possibly the second oldest word in the
annals of time. The second oldest word. Ephesians
1 verse 4 says, according as he hath chosen us in him, that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen us in him before the foundation
of this world. Chosen. Chosen. Revelation 13 verse 8 says Jesus
Christ was the lamb slain before or from the foundation of the
world. All right, there was some choosing
going on before the world was ever formed. There was. Acts
2 verse 3 says Jesus Christ was offered up, not by the Jewish
people and not by the Roman government, But Jesus Christ was offered
up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's
how he was delivered up. You know what the word determinate
means? That has something to do with
choosing, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. It has everything to do
with choosing. Listen, before the foundation
of the world, before the stars were ever lit in heaven, You
know, I was thinking this week, before the space to put all the
universe was even there, I thought about that. Have you ever thought
about that? You know, we think about eternity. We think about
eternity or future, and we can kind of get a grasp of that.
We can kind of understand that a little bit. We think living forever
with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity. We can understand it.
But thinking back the other way, that's kind of hard to understand.
Eternity past. that God, the Father, the Son,
the Holy Spirit, they've been forever. There was never a time
when they didn't exist. That's kind of hard to fathom.
And when we look up in the stars, and we see the heavens, and these
great things that He has created, we can kind of, with our finite
minds, we can kind of get a grasp of that. That He spoke these
things into existence. Have you ever thought about,
He even created the space to put it in? I mean, I've thought
about that. He even created the space to
put it in. And before there was even any
space to put it in, there were some decisions going on. There
was. God the Father, God the Eternal
Father, God the Eternal Son, and God the Eternal Spirit, Holy
Spirit, they sat in the heavenlies in a council. In a council. Not just any council. You know,
we have councils in this world, but a determinate There was some choosing going
on. There were some choices being
made. It was a determinant council. And the two most important words
to us that were ever spoken, that I believe in the annals
of time for us, was when the holy, eternal God of this Bible
said, I choose. I choose. And what did He choose? What did he choose? Well, he
chose to create, didn't he? He chose to create. He said,
I choose to create all that we see. The heavens and the stars
and this fair round world that we live on. He chose to create. He chose to speak that into existence.
He chose that. He chose to scoop up dirt. And he chose to breathe life
into that dirt. Form it into man after his own
image. And to breathe life into that man. He chose to do that.
It was his decision. He chose to do it. He did. And he chose. Now listen. He chose to allow men to fall
in the garden. He did. That was his choice. He chose it. And he chose the
way of salvation. He did. And He chose a people
out of that fallen mass of humanity. He chose a people. He did. He chose a people. That's
the truth. Oh, and His Son. His Son, that
One who from all eternity has done and will do the will of
His Father. He chose to come into this world.
The Word chose to become flesh and dwell among us. He did. He came down into this world.
He chose to do it. And to take upon himself the
sins of his chosen people. Those people what the Father
had given to him. All that the Father giveth me
will come to me. All of them. All of them. He
chose to do that. To take the sins of his people
and to bear them on the cross of Calvary. He chose to suffer. He chose to die. He chose to
be resurrected. He chose to sit forever on the
right hand of the Father and make intercession for His people.
He chose to do that. That's His Word. That's His Word
we're talking about. Choose. This is where the choosing
comes from, right here. The Spirit. What does the Spirit
choose to do? He said, I choose to go down in that world and
I choose to convince men of sin. I choose to come and I choose
to make men willing In the day of my power, I choose to do that. Oh my, if it wasn't for that,
we'd be in trouble, wouldn't we? We'd be in trouble. Choosing
going on. There's some choosing going on. Ephesians 2 verse 1 says, and
you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. He did that because there were
some choices made. Some choosing going on. He chose to make us
His chosen people willing in the day of His power. He chose
to do that. I tell you this morning, if this
word choose, choose you this day whom you will serve. If this
word choose means anything at all to you this morning, if it
comes to power to your heart and if it means anything to you
this morning, then this is not because this word is an Armenian
word and it's not because this word is a Calvinistic word. It's
because this word right here, choose, is a sovereign word. It is a sovereign word spoken
by a sovereign God. Choose you, this day, whom you
will serve. Choose. It has to be spoken by
a sovereign God. If this word can be traced back,
it's going to have to be traced back to the foundation of this
world. It has to be traced back to the
lips of Almighty God. The choice that was made. He
said, I graven your name on the palm of my hand. All right. And he's chosen this very moment
right here. He's chosen to send his spirit
down through this word right here. He's chosen to sit in his
spirit, stand before you this morning with his sword drawn. And this word choose is brought
to your heart. Choose you this day, whom you
will serve. It has got to come from the Lord
God Almighty. It has to come from Him. That's
what this word choose means. Choose. I could stand up here
all day long and say choose to you. I could. But if the Spirit
stands in front of you and says choose, you will fall on your
knees and you will serve Him this day. Choose you this day,
whom you will serve. Alright, what's this word, you,
all about? This word, you. Well, I've got
three places I'm going to take you here in the Bible. Three
places I'm going to show you. Turn over the first thing to
Romans 3. Romans 3, and I know you're saying, oh, you're going
for the death blow. Romans 3. But I tell you, this one right
here is probably the best of the three. Showing what we are. Now, Romans 3, verses 10 through
18. It's probably the easiest to
take. Romans 3, verses 10 through 18,
this is the you we're talking about. If he chose you, if you
have been chosen, this is the you that has been chosen, OK?
It says at verse 10, it says, as it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. None. There is none that understand
it. There is none that seek it after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that do it good.
No, not one. They are together become unprofitable. When did we become unprofitable?
It's when we fell. And we did it together. We did
it together. We did it with our daddy Adam.
We fell in him. Oh, we can fight against it.
We can. See, I wasn't there. I wasn't there. Yeah, you were.
Yeah, you were. Well, you weren't there when
Christ hung on the cross. I was there. Praise be to God, I was
there. I was in Him. I was in Him. All
right. All together become unprofitables, and there is none that doeth
good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their
tongues they have used deceit, and the poison of asps is under
their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways, and the way of peace they know not. There is no fear
of God before their eyes. No fear of God before their eyes.
That's the unity. Choose you, this day, whom you
will serve. That's the you. Okay, now, another
place. Ezekiel chapter 16. You probably know this place,
too. Ezekiel chapter 16. I'm going to read verses 1-6.
Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 1-6. It says again, The word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord. Now
listen. Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and
say, thus saith the Lord God of Jerusalem, thy birth and thy
nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite and
thy mother a Hittite. And as for thy nativity, he's
talking about the ewe now. Talk about me. As for thy nativity,
in the day thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was
thou washed in water to supple thee, thou was not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all, none I pitied thee to do any of these
unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou was cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou was born. You're like a little baby that
was born, a deformed little baby. that didn't even get the navel
cut, didn't clean it up at all, none at all, and they just cast
it out in the open field. That's what this is saying. It's
the you. It's the you. It's talking about
none I pity thee. All right, verse 6. Watch this,
though. Watch this. Verse 6 says, And when I passed
by the... Oh, that God would pass by this
morning. That He would pass by this...
This is all we've got to have. This is what we have to have.
And saw thee polluted in thine own blood. There's the you. When
I passed by you and I saw you polluted in your own blood, I
said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, I said, live. There's another one in sovereign
words. If it's going to mean anything to you, it's because
it's a sovereign word spoken by a sovereign God to your heart
at His time. Live. Live, choose, live, believe,
trust, hope. It's gotta be sovereign words.
It's gotta be spoken by God to our heart. It has to be. And
when I pass by thee and saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Live. Oh, let those words be spoken
this morning. Dear heart, live, choose, not
by me, but by the eternal God spoken in eternity past. Choose
you this day, whom ye will serve. Alright, Hosea. Hosea. It goes Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea,
chapter 1. Just one verse here. Hosea 1, verse 2. It says, and
we're talking about the youth, talking about the youth. It says,
the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord
said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and a children
of whoredoms for the land have committed great whoredom departing
from the Lord. We're talking about the youth.
That's who we're talking about. There's people that say, you
got to get that out of the Bible. Take, just get that Hosea, get
it out of there. I tell you this morning, you
take this out of the Bible, that we're all going to hell. Every
single one of us. Every single one. If Jesus Christ
hadn't of came to this world and chosen a bride, if a bride
had not been chosen before the foundation of this world, a bride
chosen out of Florida. That's what it says about you.
That's what it says about me. That's where he found us. He
found us polluted in our own blood. He found us children of
whoredom. And he came into this world,
into this world of filth, this world of violence and wretchedness,
and he chose a people out of it. And he spoke to them. Isn't that amazing? He spoke
to those people. Sovereign word of life lived. Choose you this day, whom you
will serve. My, my, my. All right. This day. This day. Choose you this day. Turn over
to Luke. Luke chapter 19. We'll talk about this day real quick. Luke chapter 19. We're going to read verses one
through six. Now, we've got to remember, and I'm going to get
some screws and I'm going to get this nailed down here, because
if there's not, stay where you want to stay. All right. This word, choose you this day. We're going to talk about this
day for a minute. Now, we've got to remember where this choose
came from, where this word came from. It came from the eternal
throne of God. Choose you. This day, now let's
talk about this day for a second. In Jesus, verse one of chapter
19 of Luke, Jesus entered in and passed through Jericho. And
behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief
among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus,
who he was, and could not for the press because he was of little
stature. It's funny, he was the chief
among the publicans, but yet he was of little stature. The
Bible says that. All right. Oh, we can be great in this world.
But in the eyes of God, we're nothing until we know him, until
we know him. All right. Little stature. And
he ran before and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see
him. And he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the
place, he looked up and he saw him. All right. I pass by thee. I saw thee in thy blood. I remember
that. He said, I looked up, he looked
up and saw him and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste and
come down for today. Today. Listen, a sovereign word
is always going to be followed by today. Today, today, this
hour, this minute, this second, immediately, immediately. I listened to that CD of D, it
was over here. He was talking about that immediately.
That was good. Immediately. Immediately. That old blind Bartimaeus, he
received his sight. Wow. Immediately. Immediately. Why? Because the sovereign hand
of God, he touched him. He healed him. And it happened
immediately. Immediately. That man full of
leprosy. Immediately. Immediately he was
clean. Immediately. That man sick of
the palsy. Jesus looked at him and said,
take up your bed and walk. What happened? Now he waited
around a while and he, you know, fell, no, immediately. Immediately
he picked up his bed and he walked with it. Immediately. Why? Because the sovereign word of
God was spoken to his heart. Oh, that that might happen today.
Jairus' daughter says when the word of God came to her, when
Jesus spoke to her, she arose straightway. Immediately, immediately. Lazarus, roll stone away. Oh, he stinks. He's been in there.
He's been in there too long. He stinks. Roll it away. Lazarus, come forth. That's sovereign
word. That's the sovereign word we're
talking about. Come forth. And what happened? Just walked
right out of there, didn't he? Just walked right out of there.
That's sovereign. That's sovereign word that did
that. You, me, when the Lord came to our hearts, had he come?
Had he come? He must have come with a sovereign
word. He must have. And we believed. And we believed. Oh, my. This day, this day, old
Zacchaeus, he came down out of that tree, didn't he? He did.
What does it say in verse 6? Verse 6 of Luke, chapter 19,
it said, and he made haste. He came down out of that tree.
He made haste down out of that tree. He came down and He received
him joyfully. Joyfully. That's how we're going
to receive the Word of God. We are. Before the Lord makes
Himself known to us, we sit and we fight it. We're going to fight
it. Somebody tells us we're a sinner.
We're going to fight it. And a young man in our church,
I believe the Lord just saved him, said, well, he fought with
it. He fought with it. The fact that he was a sinner,
he fought with it. He couldn't stand the message. He couldn't stand us. When we
were saying it, he fought it. But one day, the Lord showed
him. We're going to deal with this in the next service. But
like old Isaiah said, He said, I saw thee high and lifted up,
and betrayed and filled the temple. You know, he saw that. And then
what'd he say? Woe is me. Woe is me, I'm a man
of unclean lips. Oh my, I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips. You'll see it. The Lord's sovereign
word comes to you. You'll see it. All right, whom?
Whom? We must move on. We're about
out of time. Whom? There's only two choices. Only
two choices here in this whom, and we've been talking about
the one the whole time. But this whom we're talking about, this
one we've talked about the sovereign ruler of all eternity, the great
I am. That's number one. Or there's
the other one, the great I. There's only two. There it is.
There's only two religions in this world. You can You can look
at it, and you can say, oh, there's Hinduism, Muslimism, and all
these different Buddhism, and all these other things going
on. But there's only two religions. There is true God worship, and
there is man worship. That's it. There's grace, and
there's works. There's only two. There's only
two. And people will tell you all
sorts of different things, but there is only two. Oh, men, I
tell you, men stick gods They sit God's upon the throne. We
talked about this last night. They sit God's on the throne.
And, you know, they sit God's up there that they can manipulate.
They do. They sit God's up in there that
they can please. They sit God's on the throne
that they can do things for that will be pleasing to them. And
if they don't like them, they'll pull them down and they'll figure
out another God to worship. They will. And I tell you what,
the true sovereign God of this Bible, our God reigns. Our God reigns. He does. And He placed Himself on that
throne. He did it. I did it. I did it. Our kids, when they
were little, they used to always say, I do it. I do it. You tell them, I'll help you
with that. I do it. I tell you, Jesus Christ did
it. And when He said, I did it, I
do it. I'm the one that did it. He is. I tell you what, no one
has ever challenged Him. No one has ever challenged Him
for it. They haven't. They've tried,
but it was never a challenge. He's the eternal God of all creation. That's the God we're talking
about. Choose you this day whom ye will serve. All right, let's
talk about this ye will serve for a minute in light of what
we've been talking about. But there's all sorts of different
things you come up with this, you will serve thing. All right. If you think if you think you've
got yourself in this and you think that it was your doing
that made you what you are, then you're going to think something
totally different about this. You will serve things. You're going
to think you have to come up with something and you've got
to get your gumption ready and you're going to have to go out
and serve. It's up to you. No, that's not the way it works.
That's not it. You will serve. Let me show you
Ephesians one. Ephesians 1 verse 11 and 12.
Ephesians 1 verse 11 and 12 says, In whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Now, he said, you keep going
back to him. Why don't you talk about me for
a minute? No, I'm not going to do that.
I'm always going to take you to him because that's where the
power comes from. I'm not going to lead you back to you. I told
you what you was back here on page three of my notes. I did. I'm not going to lead you there.
I'm going to take you right where the power is. I'm going to take
you to him. Verse 12 says that we That's us. If you understand this you thing,
this is an amazing verse right here, that we should be to the
praise of His glory. That we, those ones that were
found out in that field, polluted in our blood, we could possibly
be to the praise of His glory. Who first trusted in Christ.
It has to be in Christ. It has to be in Him. Look over
here to Ephesians 2, just right across the page. Ephesians 2,
verses 8 through 10. And we all know verse 8 really
well. For by grace do you save through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now look at this, verse 10. For
we are His workmanship. Now if we just sit here and we
think to ourselves, now we've got to serve. We're going to
serve. We're going to do it. We're going to roll up our sleeves
and we're going to do it. We've got to find out. We are His workmanship. Power came from Him. It came
from Him. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. You see that? Which God hath...
Listen to this. Now we're getting back here to
eternity. Now we're seeing where it came from. Which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. That's where the
power comes from. That's where it comes from. It
comes from Him. Look over at Romans 6. Romans 6. I'm going to read verses 1 through
14, because this is important. We understand where this power
comes from. This we will serve, this call to arms. Do we honestly
think that God chose a people? He chose not only a people, but
He chose the means of our salvation. He chose the place of our salvation.
He chose the time of our salvation. His Spirit came and spoke life
to our hearts. Do we honestly believe that after
He did all of that, He's just going to leave us to ourselves?
Uh-uh. No, He's not. He's going to accomplish
His purpose. God is a God of purpose. I heard
Bruce preach a message on that one time. Purpose. He's a God
of purpose. We've got to remember that He's
a God of purpose. And what is His purpose? His
purpose is to make us like Christ, right? To conform us to the image
of His Son. That's His purpose. All right,
look at chapter 6, verse 1 of Romans. Paul is dealing with
these people who are confronting sovereign grace. We're going
to have these people all the time. We're going to have these
people saying, well, if you believe that, then you believe you can
just live any way you want, still go to heaven. Because God, you
believe God saved you by His grace and it's done. It's a done
deal. You can live any way you want
and still go to heaven. And we get confronted with that all
the time. But that's not the truth. Watch what he says. What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin any longer live therein? Know ye not that so many of us
were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death.
Now we're going back to that picture there of the Israelites
going into the Red Sea. All right. And then coming out
on the other side and bondage going down in after him and then
being covered up. being covered up. Okay. And that's
what Jesus Christ did. He took our sins to the to the
grave. And when he came up out of that grave, he came up out
of it. And we come with him. Watch this. We're baptized. Therefore,
we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. We came out of that
grave with him. We came up out of that grave with him. All right. All right, verse four or verse
five. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. All right. If we were buried
with him, OK, and by his power and by his grace, we were buried
in that grave with him. We were crucified with him. Paul
said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not
I, but it is Christ that live within me. In the life that I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. If we were buried in
that ground with him, and we came up out of that ground into
newness of life with him, then will we not walk in that life? Won't we walk with him? Will
we not serve him? I believe we will. I believe
we will. Because we know where the power comes from. It's not
us. We didn't come up out of that grave ourselves. We came
up in Christ. We came up out of that grave.
And we know where it comes from. Now watch for six. Knowing this,
that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin for he
that is dead is freed from sin. Now we know we're in the flesh. We still sin. That's not what
that means. It means we're justified. We
stand before a thrice holy God as if we had never sinned, because
we stand before Him in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
stand in front of Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are
justified. We stand just like we have never
sinned. And we stand with a righteousness that is not our own, that we
did not possess. We stand in Christ, His righteousness. It's like He said, I give you
a land that you did not possess. You know, you're eating fruit.
You're eating fruit that you had nothing to do with planting.
And if you stand before God this morning, you're going to have
to stay. If you're going to be justified
in His sight, you've got to stand in Christ. You have got to stand
in Christ. Look at verse 9. Knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead, death hath no more dominion over him. For in
that he died, he died unto sin once. But then in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof.
Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive
from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. Verse 14, listen to this. For
sin shall not have dominion over you, For ye are not under the
law, but under grace, under grace. That's where the power comes
from, isn't it? Grace. We are saved by grace and we're
going to live by grace. We're going to live by it. Turn
back over here real quick, right to Joshua chapter 24 again, where
we were, Joshua chapter 24. I should have held my place here. Joshua
chapter 24. Watch what he says here in verse
15. He said, 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 you dwell. Listen
to what he says. But as for me, as for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord. We will serve the Lord. Joshua
was not saying here, And looking at himself, when he said that,
he was not saying this out of some thing that he was deriving
from how good a person he was. Now, this is a sovereign grace
statement right here, is what he said. As for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. Why? Because he delivered me. He saved me. He brought me out
of the grave. He's the one. That's how I'm
going to live. That's why I'm going to live
under him. That's the reason. You see that?
Isn't that wonderful? That is, oh my. That's wonderful. Well, did you have a strong chance,
or is that what you do? If the ladies want to go on back,
if any of you need to go back to get the dinner ready, you
can go on back and we'll sing a song.