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VITAL DECISIONS

K. Clark

John 19: 12–16; Matthew 26: 14–16; Luke 10: 38–42;

These five different scriptures that we have read, beloved, bring before us persons who were very different personalities and lived in different periods of time, but there was one feature common to them all—they were all faced with a situation where they had to make a choice.

In each instance that choice related to the Person of Christ. You may say, That is the gospel.

Well, I am sure the gospel would be included in it. Every lover of the Lord could say that the day that he or she embraced the gospel, the day that we accepted the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, we made a choice. And that is a day we never want to forget. There is an old hymn we sometimes sing—

‘Oh happy day that fixed my choice

On Thee, my Saviour and my God!’

I am thinking particularly of our dear younger brethren, because we are living in a world that is very wicked, increasingly so. The decline is very rapid. Every standard is being lowered, but I am sure that is no basis for any one of us ever to lower the standard, because God’s standard has never altered and never will. It stands on the immutable basis of the death of Christ. It was a fine day in our histories when we came to know the Lord Jesus and when we made that choice. Perhaps your heart burned more brightly then than it has since. I trust everyone in this room has made that choice, because it is of all-importance that you accept the Lord Jesus. God is presenting Him in the glad tidings as a Saviour for guilty and needy sinners and it is incumbent on every one of us to accept the Lord Jesus, to make that choice.

But I do not think it is ever intended that that day should be the brightest day in our lives, because the Christian’s pathway is to go on and brighten until the day be fully come (Proverbs 4: 18). Every day in our sojourn here should be increasingly bright, increasingly happy. And what we shall find in our experiences is that we are faced with situations where we have to make a choice. Which way am I going to go? What am I going to do? I could be speaking to someone today who is at the cross-roads; you do not know what to do; you do not know where to go. I would say, Go to the Lord. Go into the presence of God; frequent your closet; know what it is to be alone with God. That is a wonderful experience to have, to get alone with God. You will get your direction there in the presence of God.

Then your parents will help you. Thank God for godly parents! We need to seek their counsel and advice. The older ones amongst us also have years of wealth and accumulated experience. Let us draw on that. There is counsel, advice, wisdom, and guidance available to help us in the choices that we have to make.

We read of Pilate first. Think of him standing there, that Roman governor, with the One before him upon whose shoulder presently the whole government is going to rest. Pilate was faced with having to make a choice as to which man he was going to release. He was almost persuaded for in John 19: 12 it says, “From this time Pilate sought to release him”. It reminds you of Agrippa, “in a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian”, Acts 26: 28. How could Pilate find a fault in Jesus? How could he find a blemish in that Man? There was never a spot, never a blemish in Jesus. He was absolutely pure, and there He was at the bar of Pilate, and Pilate is faced with a choice. Then the word comes, If you release Him you will not be a friend of Caesar’s. Well. Pilate is susceptible to influence, and possibly if we are honest we shall find we are more susceptible to wrong influences than to right influences, by reason of what we are according to the first man. From that moment it appears that Pilate lost ground. He made a dreadful choice, and maybe we can learn something by looking at Pilate as one who chose wrongly.

James says, “friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore is minded to be the friend of the world is constituted enemy of God”, James 4: 4. Such words, so solemn, should pull us up and make us think. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. The weight of Caesar’s friendship was bearing in upon Pilate and it became of more value to him than the spotless purity of Jesus. That was the choice which faced him—Jesus, or the friendship of the world. We know only too well what the result of this was; he delivered Jesus up to them that He might be crucified. Pilate made a dreadful choice. Let us learn from that fatal mistake. Whatever the influence brought to bear upon us may be, let us weigh things up honestly and soberly in the divine presence, and get our guidance, get our bearings, there; then our choice will always be in favour of Christ.

We read of Judas in Matthew’s gospel; one of the most solemn cases in Scripture was the choice that Judas made. He delivered up the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. That same spirit can be found in the heart of each one of us. Every one of us here is capable of such treacherous activities. Think of the words that Judas would so often have heard the Lord Jesus speak; he knew what it was to be in His company, then this crisis arises and for thirty pieces of silver Judas is prepared to betray the Lord Jesus. Christ was not worth as much to him as thirty pieces of silver. Paul says in writing to Timothy that the love of money is the root of every evil (1 Timothy 6: 10). He says, “which some having aspired after, have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves with many sorrows”. How sad a thing to wander from the faith! I trust none of us are minded to wander away. Think of the children of Israel in those forty years in the wilderness, a journey that should only have taken a short period, forty years spent just wandering. What sorrows they brought on themselves, and what sorrows we are capable of bringing on ourselves if

we just wander away, and it can be because of the love of money. I am sure this is a word for those of us who are a little older. The world of commerce can so easily appeal to us and entice us away. As we go out into our business professions or occupations we can easily be ensnared in that insidious trap of the enemy. Let us keep in fidelity to Christ.

Judas weighed this situation over and the money was of more value to him than Christ. Some of us were saying the other day you could never measure any ordinary human life in terms of money. But here was Jesus, the Creator of the universe, and for thirty pieces of silver Judas was prepared to betray Him. How sobering that is, beloved brethren, and such capabilities are in the reach of any one of us. The awful results are well known. Judas proceeded with his mission and betrayed the Lord Jesus. How the Lord felt it! How He feels any step of departure and decline. He said prophetically, Had it been an enemy then could I have borne it, “But it was thou ... my familiar friend”, Psalm 55: 12, 13.

We may think now of positive cases of persons who chose aright. We read in Luke 10 that the Lord Jesus entered into this house and Martha and Mary were there. Martha was very busily occupied, careful and troubled about many things. Someone once said she was so busy she did not have time to make a choice. She did receive the Lord into her house, and that is something very commendable, to use our houses thus. But I am sure that the Lord Jesus, whilst He wants our houses, more than that wants our ear, our undivided attention, and He is worthy of it. Mary was aware of that. Mary, He says, had chosen the good part. What was the good part? Just to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His word. She was not occupied with all the

legitimate things, the needful things. There is many a thing that is legitimate and right in its place, and whilst in one sense there was nothing wrong with what Martha was doing, the Lord was there, and His word was there, and the place for Martha was to be along with Mary at the feet of Jesus.

I would say this to every one of us here—the place for you and me to be is at the feet of Jesus listening to His word. Oh let us choose that way today! You will rejoice for ever that you have made that choice. You do not know what disclosure, what impression, you might receive, but I can assure you of this, that, whatever it is, you will not be disappointed. You will get more than you ever reckoned on as you sit at Jesus’ feet, unaffected by what may be around, the troubles and cares maybe, just restful at Jesus’ feet and listening to His word. Oh, choose that way today! It is worth the while for each one of us just to be complacently and restfully at Jesus’ feet. Mary would be a very valuable sister in Bethany. Oh for more Marys amongst us, persons of her qualities. What a sister she would be in Bethany, or in any of our localities. Such persons are just prepared to listen to the Lord’s word. They would be at every meeting. They would love to be there. Why? Because the Lord’s word would be there. How worthwhile it is to have opened ears to hear the words of Jesus. We get joy and compensation that nothing in this world can ever compare with.

We have read of Moses in Hebrews 11. Whilst he lived many years before Christ, it says that he esteemed the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. He chose rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin. Oh, the pleasures of sin are so temporary! There is no

permanency in anything in this world, but there is permanency in the work of God in your soul and mine. That is what is going to go through. Despite all the intrusions that the enemy may make, despite all his attacks to turn you to the right hand or to the left, the work of God will go through. May we be marked by the features seen in Moses. They will go through. It says, “By faith Moses, when he had become great, refused to be called son of Pharoah’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”. We are not promised an easy way. The Christian’s way, whilst it is an infinitely blessed and happy way, is a suffering way. That is what it says here—“to suffer affliction along with the people of God”. Well, let us be like that, and make such a choice. The people of God are just a poor and afflicted people but, beloved brethren, what wonderful results, what wonderful joy, can be wrought in your soul as you choose, as Moses did, that way, that out-of-the-world way, we might say, the way of the reproach of the Christ.

He esteemed the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Egypt is full of treasures. Man with all his intellect and learning, man with all his scientific advancements, every feature of the world—that is Egypt. And the scripture speaks of them as

“the treasures of Egypt”. But there is something superior to them, and that is the reproach of the Christ. Moses esteemed it, he chose it, in preference to all that Egypt at its best could offer. It was not the joys of Christ, it was not the love of Christ; it was the reproach of Christ.

Moses made that choice, and how blessed and wonderful were the results! People might have thought he was mad in making such a choice when he had everything of Egypt’s treasures at his disposal. But who would

doubt the wisdom of Moses’ choice when he appeared along with Christ on the holy mount.

O, beloved, finally there will be a reward. That is what it says here—“he had respect to the recompense”. There will be a wonderful recompense for that pathway of suffering, the pathway of the reproach of Christ, and you will get a joy in your soul that nothing will take from you.

We read finally of Paul in Philippians. He could have advanced a long way in this world’s things. He says, “as to circumcision, I received it the eighth day; of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee”. But then he weighs all that up, and it is good to weigh things up. Let each one of us be like that, weighing things over in view of making a choice that will be to God’s glory. Paul weighed these things over, and what does he do? counts them all to be filth, counts them all loss. What a fine choice that is!

What a magnificent choice!—a choice with eternally blessed results. And he says, “But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth, that I may gain Christ”. That is the end to be reached, beloved, that we may gain Christ. It is worth while to choose that way, to choose that Man, to be prepared to discard whatever may seem advantageous to us, in view of gaining Christ. I am sure Paul never had any regrets about the choice he made. While God’s sovereignty comes into it, and we cannot overlook that, there is what is left to our own responsibility and Saul, who later became Paul, made this choice.

Well, I would just like to make an appeal to each one of us. I cannot make your choice for you. I cannot decide for you. Whatever the problem may

be, whatever the situation, we are all going to have to make choices and decisions all along the pathway; but let us go into the presence of God; let us count upon divine help; let us call upon divine resource in view of deciding aright. Your parents have prayed for you; the Lord has appealed to you again and again I am sure. Whatever your exercises, and we all have them, there is divine help available to give us guidance, to give us, wisdom in relation to the choice we should make. The Lord Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gain .the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?”, Mark 8: 36. Do not let us be on the line of gaining the whole world, but in the presence of God, in the presence of the Lord Jesus, in the presence of the blessed Holy Spirit, let us call on the help that is available to us to make right choices so that we may be here for the praise of the glory of His grace, for His name’s sake. Amen.

Address in Melbourne
15 February 1986

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