CHOICE

CHOICE

2 Peter 2: 1 - 6; Psalm 78: 65 - 72; Joshua 24: 14 - 15

I would like dear friends, to urge upon every one of you the great necessity at the present time of being definite in your acceptance of the Lord. Indefiniteness is one of Satan’s great weapons, perhaps his greatest, to prevent you getting the great gain of the present moment, the joys of heaven in your heart; for indefiniteness leads to indifference. Those who are not definite, generally become indifferent and indifference is a state that is obnoxious to God. The Lord says, “I would thou wert cold or hot”, Revelation 3: 15. He would rather have people icy cold than to be lukewarm, to be indifferent. Now, I urge that you should today be definite and make your choice, for it is a matter of choosing, dear friends. Do not be like the king that Paul spoke to who said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”, Acts 26: 28. He said, “Almost.” But the Apostle said, “I would ... that ... both almost and altogether” (verse 29), everyone that hears me, not only Agrippa but everyone, were just like myself “except these bonds;” “such as I am,” he said. The Apostle was no half-hearted man, he was wholly and absolutely committed to the Lord. He could speak of “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, Philippians 3: 8. Plenty of people are quite willing to speak about our Lord, but Paul said “my.” Never mind who else is affected, he says, “He is mine:” There is nothing indefinite about the attitude of God or of heaven towards Christ, it is absolute.

The first scripture we read speaks of the Lord as “chosen of God.” You would agree that choice is a definite act, it is not something haphazard, it is a deliberate act, and God has chosen Jesus. I would like you to see clearly, that He had committed Himself entirely to that blessed Man and heaven endorses all that He has done. Heaven supports it. You find that at the coming of Jesus into this world. Nobody knows, I suppose, how many little babes were born that day. No doubt many were born on that very day, the day that the angel speaks of as “this day,” but heaven makes a selection out of all those babes, there is one Babe selected by heaven and by God. Nobody would have known where to find Him. Heaven must give direction, heaven must give a sign, for how are they to find Him otherwise? They might have gone to Jerusalem or Rome or Athens, but the word from the angel says, “And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the Babe,” there is only one that is in view at that moment, “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger,” Luke 2: 12. That is the One whom heaven selects, that God selects. Matthew in his gospel records that a star came and stood over the place where the little Child was. Wonderful thing to see that star! standing over the place where the little Child was. It filled the wise men’s heart with great joy when they saw it. There was nothing indefinite about them.

Now, if God is definite in choosing Christ, why are not you? You cannot be wrong if you are in line with heaven, can you? It must be right to be in line with heaven because heaven is very much greater than the earth. Heaven is God’s throne and the earth is His footstool. Heaven is God’s throne and heaven rules the earth. Perhaps you do not agree with that? Well, you try and lengthen the day, this very day; see if you can get anybody that can control the earth and order the day and the night. That is controlled from heaven. It says, “He made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night”, Genesis 1: 16.

In the light of this, dear friends, can you understand the pride of men? Heaven has explicitly and definitely chosen Christ. He is the One that God selects. That is confirmed all through the life of Jesus. At the river Jordan you find it. All Jerusalem and Judea came out to the Jordan to be baptised of John. As Jesus was baptised the heavens were opened and heaven again confirmed its selection. God says of Him, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased,” Luke 3: 22. That is the message that came out from that opened heaven and it was expressed in the selection of Christ, as the Man of God’s pleasure and the delight of His heart.

But there is another word from heaven on the mount of transfiguration. Things were more confined and concentrated there. Jesus, Peter, James, John, Moses and Elias, that is all; and Peter, not knowing what he said, would put Jesus and Moses and Elias together. He says, “Let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias,” Luke 9: 33. That is what Christendom would do; they would not mind Jesus having a little place. Then heaven makes the selection again and a voice comes out of the cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son: hear him”, Luke 9: 35. That is not indefinite,

is it? He is the One to listen to. You say, ‘Oh, I am too busy, I am listening to Socrates and the wise men of the day;’ but heaven says, “Hear him,” and heaven has never been known to make a mistake.

It says, “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord,” Psalm 145: 10. There is not one thing that God has done that is a mistake. Take a blade of grass, take a worm of the dust, take the sun, take yourself, take your own eye. There is not a mistake about that. Who made it? Was it an accident? Well, we do not get accidents like that. When men have accidents they do not get such results as God we do not do this sort of thing ourselves. What awful conditions man gets into when he has accidents! It is the folly of the human heart to talk like that — and so we find that God confirms His thoughts again on the mount. He says, “Hear him.”

Now, you think of the Lord in another place, that is, in the grave, where there are far more persons buried than those alive on the earth. The human mind could not conceive how many persons are buried; and Jesus died. It says, “Christ died ... and ... was buried,” 1 Corinthians 15: 3, 4. His holy, precious body was laid in a new tomb, hewn out of a rock wherein no one was ever laid, but nevertheless He was buried and heaven makes a selection, dear friends, and God brings into activity some of His reserves; He has got wonderful reserves. Men have no conception of what God has in the way of power. Elijah thought at one time that God’s power had spent itself, so God came down to the mount where Elijah was and let him see what He could do. He made a tempest come up and who could stop it? Then He made an earthquake. How completely everything could be altered by an earthquake; and then a fire. It says the elements will melt with fervent heat. These are all part of His reserves. Now God brings the greatest of His reserves into operation, what scripture calls “the surpassing greatness of His power,” Ephesians 1: 19 N.T. There is one blessed Man who has gone into death, whose precious body has been buried and that mighty power operates in raising Him from the dead and setting Him at God’s own right hand, far above every principality and power and every name that is named. The power that took Jesus, that blessed One, from the grave and set Him on the throne of glory, was selective, it was deliberate. One might add a word or two as to His actually being taken to heaven.

He was with the disciples for forty days coming in and out among them, but the day arrived for His departure and He led them out as far as to Bethany where Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived and they saw Him and it says, “he was taken up, they beholding him.”, Acts 1: 9. N.T. Heaven put its arms down, God’s everlasting arms that could reach from heaven to earth; “strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand”, Psalm 89: 13, and it is not shortened. The great arm of God came down from heaven and took Jesus up and left the others. He selected One to be taken to heaven at that moment.

Now, dear friends, why are you not definite? You say, ‘Well, I do not care about these things; I am neutral.’ You are not neutral, dear friend: in this matter of choice there is no neutrality. You have either chosen to serve the Devil or you have chosen to serve the Lord. Scripture makes it perfectly clear that there are two Gods; there is the god of this world that men worship behind ten thousand things and there is the living and true God, and there is no position in the middle anywhere. It is a lie of the Devil to think there is and you are either under the leadership of the One who is exalted at the right hand of God, a Prince and a Saviour, or you are under the leadership of the prince of this world. That is the being that leads this world and you are either under his leadership or you are under the leadership of the One whom God sets forth a Prince and a Saviour. There is nothing in between. It is a deception of the enemy to think there is a path in between. How could there be?

Now, just a word or two further as to God’s choice, because I would like to encourage everyone to make a choice, to be definite about it. The psalm we read makes it clear that not only has God chosen Jesus whom the world rejected and set aside as worthless, but He has chosen the place on which He would meet you. It says that He chose “the mount Zion, which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever.” Mount Zion represents the sovereign mercy of God. God has chosen it deliberately, because He loves to speak to men on the principle of mercy. He is prepared to meet you now. You must admit that He has the right to choose how He will meet you. You must meet God, and if you postpone it while you are on earth it will not alter the fact that you must meet Him. If death comes in, then you meet Him at once, for it says, “then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it”, Ecclesiastes 12: 7. How well, then, for you to meet God now before you have to leave this earth where He would like to meet you because it says, “he chose ... the mount Zion which he loved.” He loves to meet men on the platform of mercy. He has set aside the principle of human responsibility as the meeting place and He has established the most magnificent place in the universe. “The joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion,” Psalm 48: 2, an impregnable position where He is prepared to meet every one in mercy.

You see that principle working out when the blessed Lord Jesus was here. Men only had to cry out for mercy and how it opened His heart. Ten lepers could say, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,” Luke 17: 13. It opened the flood-gates of His heart because it is the ground on which He loves to meet men. He healed the lepers, every one of them. He said, “Go, show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed,” Luke 17: 14. There was only one of them who came back to glorify God with a loud voice, but I want you to see that God is prepared to meet you there and He loves to meet you there. A blind beggar by the wayside in darkness, having lost everything, never expecting to ever get a ray of light, he heard that Jesus passed by, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” Mark 10: 47. It says, “Jesus stood still,” Mark 10: 49. He would not move from that point. He would wait and meet the blind beggar on mount Zion. The Lord says, “Two men went up into the temple to pray.” One of them said, “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are,” Luke 18: 10 - 11. He was prepared to meet God on the basis of works which God had refused, and unless he judged that, he will meet God on the principle of his responsibility yet; but the other man, it says, “would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me the sinner;” verse 13, and the Lord says he went down “justified rather than the other”. Do you know what that word, ‘justified,’ means? It means that you are in the approval of God, not merely that you are forgiven or discharged. When a judge discharges a man it does not mean that he is justified, it only means that he is not convicted, but if the man was sent out justified with the approval of the judge, that would be a wonderful thing. This man went down justified because God loves to meet man there. It is the mount Zion that He loves. And so there is a man who is just about to meet God. He knew it, too. All the teachings of the Sadducees did not weigh much when he came to face death, but there looms up before his heart this wonderful mountain. “The joy of the whole earth is mount Zion.” What a magnificent sight for a poor sinner to get a glimpse of! It appeared to the dying thief in the Person of Jesus: and he says, ‘I have lost everything; it is right that I should be judged, poor sinner that I am;’ but he turns to the Lord and asks Him for mercy. He puts himself entirely into the hands of Christ and the Lord loved him for it. He met him there at mount Zion.

He loves to meet you there. Why not come? I know very well, of course, it will mean the end of your pride. What we get on the principle of mercy does not exalt us, it humbles us, but it exalts God. It expands to you the magnificence of divine mercy so that “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 1: 31; 2 Corinthians 10: 17. That thief would not talk about himself and his own righteousness, he would be in accord with the psalm, which says, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion.” There the administration of the mercy and goodness of heaven takes place. Are you prepared to meet God there? Dear friend, come to mount Zion. Scripture speaks of those who asked the way to mount Zion. Turn your steps now in the direction of mount Zion. The way to it is Jesus, the blessed Saviour, the One who can impart forgiveness of sins to you, it is preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

God delights in mercy. The only other spot where you could meet Him if you did not meet Him at Zion is at the great white throne. There you must stand before God on the ground of your responsibility to God and you will discover then, alas, that everything is “naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do,” Hebrews 4: 13. “The books were opened;” Revelation 20: 12, every act is known and it says, “The dead were judged out of the things written in the books.” Are you prepared, dear friend, to stand there and face your responsibility as a responsible being to God on the ground of your own action? I would again tell you there is no other meeting place than mount Zion which God has chosen but the great white throne. Will you not have to do with God in the place that He has chosen and selected? and He has a right to choose and to show mercy and that spot can never be challenged, for it says, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion,” Psalm 2: 6, and while it is a mountain of mercy, it is a mountain of holiness as well. No creature could make that mountain. It is completely of God. You just face it honestly. Could you or anyone else establish mercy to the guilty and maintain holiness? Could you show mercy and holiness together? Could anyone do it? Impossible! But God has established divine mercy on the principle of holiness and He says, ‘I will meet you there;’ and you say, ‘I won’t come.’ Have you, dear friend? Then you will stand before the great white throne and have to do with God in connection with your responsible history, every act of which is seen and known perfectly by God. The One who has seen everything in secret is the judge on the throne then, and are you prepared to stand before Him on that ground and reject mount Zion? Reject in your heart Jesus, the blessed Administrator of the mercy of God? I appeal to you, dear friend, to face it and recognise that there is no neutral position, there is not another meeting place. There is that mount Zion which He loves or there is the great white throne at the end and there is no other meeting place where you can have to do with God.

The world has made its choice. It is not indefinite. It has examined carefully the One whom God has chosen and it has given its judgment. It has declared that He is worthless. “Cast away indeed,” Peter says, “as worthless by men,” 1 Peter 2: 4. N.T. Do you stand there, as rejecting the One that God has Himself chosen and selected, to be the foundation of His eternal glory? It says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation,” Isaiah 28: 16. One that God has chosen to be the corner stone to adorn the structure that He is building, to give character to it, of whom this world has definitely said that He is worthless. Have you reversed it? Have you, dear friend? You say, ‘I am neutral.’ That is Satan’s device to have you. The world was not neutral. They had on one side a thief and on the other side they had the greatest Giver, and they decided that they would have the thief. On one side they had a man that was marked by sedition and robbery and on the other side they had One who was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and they chose Barabbas. It says, “He was a notable prisoner,” Matthew 27: 16. He was renowned in this world, and there was another blessed Man renowned in heaven, having a name above every other name, the name to which all the angels bow. They said, ‘We will have Barabbas.’ They selected one of these two, a murderer, who stained his hands with the blood of his fellow men. The other the Life-giver, the blessed One who could impart life to the souls and the bodies of men and who had done so; they said of Him, “Not this man, but Barabbas,” John 18: 40. You say, ‘I am neutral.’ God will refuse and judge you for your neutrality. Either your life is following the direction of the world, that is, of Barabbas, or you are committed definitely to the One whom God has chosen. Which is it? I beg you not to rest tonight before you answer that question before God. Am I in line with the world, and Barabbas, or have I accepted Jesus as my blessed Saviour and Lord, and had to do with God on the principle of absolute mercy, recognising that I have no rights of my own whatever; you will then be in keeping with heaven’s choice and God will then bless you and give you His Spirit to bind you to Christ for ever.

That is the position typically reached in Joshua. God said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself,” Exodus 19: 4. Joshua puts this question to them which I would like to put to every soul of man. Are you going to have idols or are you going to have God? Will you have the idols that you had across the river, the gods of the Amorites, or will you have God? Joshua says, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” ‘Will you have idols to serve or will you have God?’ You say, ‘I am not an idolater.’ Well, I am not so sure about that. There is more idolatry in Britain now than there was in the year 55 B.C. I know, of course, that men are not literally kneeling down before a piece of stone, but I would like to ask you, dear friend, what object governs your heart and life? What are you living for? What is it that holds your heart and life? Look into it. If it is not God it is an idol. With many it is money. Money is an idol today that millions are worshipping. With others it is pleasure. There never was such a day; everything must be sacrificed on the altar of pleasure. It is an idol: and so, dear friend, I would say to you, ‘Which will you have tonight? Will you continue to worship idols, or will you have the true God to fill your heart?’ He wants all of it. He is not satisfied with half of it. He says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength,” Mark 12: 30. That is what God wants. He wants every idol to be banished out of your heart, to get it all for Himself and He is worthy of it: no one else has a right to it. He says, “My son, give me thine heart,” I want it.

Joshua said, ‘Choose this day,’ he never spoke about tomorrow. What can you say about tomorrow, dear friend? You may never see tomorrow. None of us know anything about tomorrow. We have today, God has given us this day, but tomorrow may never come. This is the day to decide. Joshua said, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord:” but to the others he says, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” Do not listen to the enemy’s suggestion of a more convenient season. There is no more convenient season. This is this day that the Lord gives you to decide. There are many living on earth who will never see tomorrow and the Lord is coming. In addition to that there is the great delusion coming. John says he saw a beast rising out of the sea, a great being that men will choose instead of God, a strong delusion, and you will be carried away by it if you reject Christ: but I would entreat every one to take the word of Joshua to heart and to make this day a day of choice to serve the Lord, that the Lord might be your Lord. As Mary Magdalene said, “They have taken away my Lord.” She says, so to speak, ‘He is mine:’ and you say the same, dear friend. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”

Christ Jesus is the choice of heaven, the choice of God: meet God at mount Zion which He has chosen and loves, and definitely commit yourself to the Lord as your Lord. You will come under the conscious approval and acceptance of heaven, be filled with joy in your own heart and know the salvation which is in His blessed Name.