Can You?

Joshua 24:19" and Joshua said unto the people,Ye cannot serve God; he is a jealous God;he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins".

In answer to Joshua's challenge, the people had said," We will serve the Lord,for he is our God."But Joshua knew them too well to trust them,and reminded them that what they were undertaking, they could not perform.They did not believe him, but cried,"Nay,but we will serve the Lord";but their actions later proved the truth of Joshua's warning.God's word knows us better than we know ourselves.God's omniscience sees each part of our being as an anatomist sees the various portions of the body,and therefore knows our moral and spiritual nature thoroughly.He who has made man, has the best knowledge of his condition and capacity.

The carnal man cannot serve God.It is not a physical but a moral inability.The inability of our fallen nature;not of God but of sin..See the nature of God renders perfect service which is impossible for the unrenewed man.The best he could do would lack heart and intent,and thus be unacceptable,for "they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth", which the carnal man cannot do. What are prayers, and worship coming from a Christless soul,but empty noise.The law of God is perfect,spiritual, and comprehensive. But the carnal mind is inclined to self will,self seeking,lust pride,and all other evils,not subject to the law of God,and neither can it be.The unrenewed man, before he can serve God must become another,Jesus said "You must be born again".He must have a new nature which only the spirit of God can create.He must be reconciled back to God through His mediator.He must be accepted, and only a perfect righteousness can make one accepted to a Holy and perfect God;and none but Jesus can give us complete justification.This change of nature will be brought on by the Holy Spirit which will dwell within you.

Joshua said "ye cannot serve the Lord".their inability was wholly of the moral kind.they could not do it because it just wasn't in their fallen nature.We to are of a fallen nature,and unless we become another we to cannot serve God.