The question is not, "Who will serve God?" but, "Who can serve God?" That is a very important question. A failure to understand who can serve God, is the reason why many people continue in useless attempts to serve Him.
Joshua had recounted to all Israel the goodness of God to them and to their fathers, and concluded with these words: "Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve the Lord. And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served, that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:14-15)
Then all 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 and 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 will we also serve the Lord; for He is our God." (Joshua 24:16-18) That was a good resolution. How shocked they must have been, therefore, when Joshua turned on them with the assertion: "You cannot serve the Lord; for He is a holy God." (Joshua 24:19)
Only such as are holy can serve a holy God. That is plain enough if we but stop to think for a moment. To serve Him is to do His will; His will is holy; therefore whoever does His will must be holy. An unholy person certainly does not serve the Lord, and cannot as long as he remains unholy; for his unholiness is most displeasing to God.
Are there then only a select few who can serve God? Yes; for all of God's people are "the elect," or the selected ones. Christ says to His disciples: "I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain;" (John 15:16) and the number of them is very small compared with the number of wicked. But this does not mean that only a few have the privilege of serving God if they will. "Whosoever will" (Revelation 22:17) may take of the water of life freely; and the assurance is, "to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are." (Romans 6:16)
Whoever fully yields himself, soul, body, and spirit, to God, is accepted by Him as His, and is made holy, so that he can serve Him. Christ has chosen us, that we should bear much fruit to the glory of God. But He says that the tree must be made good, before it can bring forth good fruit. "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." (Matthew 12:33) "A good tree brings not forth corrupt fruit; neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. ... A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil." (Luke 6:43,45)
So when we are cleansed by the Lord we become "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." (Isaiah 61:3)
The law of God is the transcript of His character. Wherefore, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good." (Romans 7:14)
To keep the law of God is to serve Him; but not everybody can keep the law. The latter part of the 7th chapter of Romans pictures the unsuccessful efforts of an unregenerate man to keep the law of God. Then comes the comforting assurance: "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4)
So it is not a difficult matter to serve the Lord, after all. Then what about the statement that a good many people try to serve God, and fail? The answer is found in the form of the question: they simply try to serve God, which is something that God has never asked anybody to do; He asks us actually to serve Him. We must do His will, not try to do it; and to the end that we may really serve Him, He puts His laws into our mind, and writes them in our heart. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:" (Hebrews 8:10)
This is done for all who accept Him as their God, and who fully yield to Him. "His commandment is life everlasting." (John 12:50)
Therefore when His law is in our heart, it follows that it is our life; it controls our actions, instead of our attempting to put it into action. When we yield to righteousness as completely as we have to sin, we shall find that there is a greater power in righteousness than there is in sin; for "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." (1 John 4:4)
But in order that we may experience the perfect working of this power we must not be partial in the law, choosing one portion and rejecting another. We must receive it all, and be willing for it all to have its effect in our lives. Thus, with God working in us "to will and to do of His good pleasure," (Philippians 2:13) we shall come to know the blessedness of the assurance, "his servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face." (Revelation 22:3-4)--Present Truth, October 30, 1902--Joshua 24:14-25
E.J. Waggoner