All of us have been given the ability by God to choose, and whether we end up with eternal life or death is decided by the choices we make right here in this life. We don’t always make the right choices but that’s why we have God’s Word, to guide us down a path that will lead to life. The Bible will help us make the right decisions and choices because it gives us the right answers.
We sometimes say or think: “What would Jesus do?” and we ask that question because we know He was the one and only person who ever lived that never made a wrong choice. So if we can understand what He would do in a particular situation, and then do that, we’ll never go wrong.
The problem is we don’t always understand what He would do. We convince ourselves Jesus would be for something, though He might not. We tell ourselves Jesus would say the same thing if He were here, but He might not.
We don’t always understand Him correctly, but at the very least we should be looking to Him as our example for how to choose.
Some choices are more significant than others. It’s important to choose the right school for your children, but its even more important to choose the right spouse to have the child with in the first place.
It’s important to choose where you’re going to live, but its even more important to choose where you’re going to worship.
It’s important as Americans to vote and choose which person or party we want to lead us, according to our values as citizens and Christians but the biggest choice of all, is the choice each of us has to make: Will I choose to serve God or will I choose to serve Satan. Will I choose to obey the gospel as recorded in the New Testament, and be led by Jesus, or will I choose to do nothing; not change my life and “take my chances” being led by my own craftiness.
That is the biggest choice because it has eternal consequences. So we need to make sure we choose wisely. It’s a big decision.
How do you make a big decision? Personally, I’m very bad about getting caught up in the hype and buying something that I may not need, or maybe can’t afford, and I do that because I didn’t weigh the decision carefully enough. This is why God gave me a wife.
But how do you make decisions?
Are you one to examine all possibilities? Do you sit quietly and reflect, and carefully consider before coming down on one side or the other?
Or are you one to just spit in the wind; live for the moment, and not worry about the future?
The former person, the one who carefully considers, that’s the kind of person people want when a big decision has to be made. Those are the people that end up being called “the wise old man in the room.” Not because they’re always right, but because the choose carefully and thus, choose wisely.
God has told us, through Moses:
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Deuteronomy 30:19
God has said the choice is yours: Life or death, Blessing or cursing. But aren’t you glad we know what kind of a God is giving us that choice? God says right after that “now here’s what I want you to choose…choose life! Choose to live!”
What will we choose?
Many people have chosen death.
Notice the most horrible, ungodly, and heartbreaking choice ever made:
Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would.
And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas.
Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
For he knew that for envy they had delivered him.
When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.
Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.Matthew 27:15-22
Three times he offered them a choice. Three times they gave the wrong answer.
If, any of those times, they had made the right choice, then the most unjust death in human history could have been avoided. They had a choice…three times they had a choice! They chose poorly…three straight times.
What about us? Everyday, every moment we are faced with the choice: Will we choose right or choose wrong? Will we choose wisely or choose poorly?
Make the right choice…
CHOOSE CHRIST AS THE GIVER OF YOUR SALVATION
How did He give it? By giving Himself. He made a decision to submit to God’s will and die for us.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus made a decision: He was in heaven and He decided to leave Heaven for me and you. That word “robbery” (KJV) in v6 means “a thing to be held onto selfishly.” In other words, Jesus could have said “No way, I’m not leaving the comforts of heaven!” But He didn’t; He chose to let it go for a time to become a nobody-servant (v7).
When a solider jumps on a live grenade to save his comrades we call him a hero. When a man jumps in front of a bullet to save an innocent person, we call him a hero. When a fire fighter dies saving a family from a burning building we call him a hero. And rightly so, such men are heroes. What all of those examples have in common is they all involve people who were willing to die…but didn’t go into it KNOWING they would die. If they had, they MIGHT have second guessed their decision to get of bed that morning.
Jesus, however, KNEW He was going to die. That’s why He came. Yet He still went through with it, He made a decision. he chose to die. And because He did He made Himself be the giver of our salvation. We can be cleansed by His blood which He shed in His chosen-death.
Now, how do you choose Him? By dying in Him (Romans 6).
CHOOSE THE BIBLE AS YOUR GUIDE TO SALVATION
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Ephesians 6:17
Whether you like it or not you are standing in the middle of a war zone. Now if you woke up one morning in the middle of Afghanistan, wouldn’t the first thing to do (after “hide”) be “pick up a weapon?” Obviously, because you have to defend yourself. Well you’re in a war with Satan. So you better pick up your weapon.
But you notice the way Paul describes your weapon: He doesn’t call it the sword of the Christian; He calls it the sword of the Spirit. This is the instrument God the Spirit uses, His Word, the Bible. No Christian became a Christian and no one can become a Christian, without the word of God. We become Christians because we READ, STUDY, and then OBEY the Bible – the guide to our salvation.
Some people say we can’t do ANYTHING to be saved; they say that the Holy Spirit of God just sort of beams salvation down to us. Does the Holy Spirit play a role? Absolutely, but what is the role He plays? When I read the Bible, I’m reading the words that men who were inspired by the Spirit wrote. So when I obey the Bible, and thus become a Christian, it is because my heart (my conscience) was pierced with the Spirit’s sword.
Remember Acts 2? After Peter’s preaching, the audience was said to be “pricked in the heart” (Acts 2:37). Why? Because they heard the word of God. The sword of the Spirit pricked their heart; it was the instrument that worked on them and led them to ask “What shall we do?” Those men become Christians because they CHOSE to follow the Guide.
But remember also a few chapters later: Steven preached to a crowd (Acts 7), and his audience was described as cut to the heart (Acts 7:54). Those men took up stones and killed Steven. Why? They chose not to follow the guide. In both cases, however, the Word was preached. The difference came down to choice.
What will you choose? Will you choose to be led by the Divine Guide? Will you turn to the Bible for your spiritual instruction? It is a book written not from man’s thoughts or man’s concoctions. It is not a fantasy; it is not a collection of made up bedtime stories or fairy tales. It is the inspired Word of God.
Jesus says that the Word of God is Truth (John 17:17). It is Absolute, all-that-you-need, fully understandable, fully applicable, Truth. Nothing else is. There are a lot of people and things out there that claim to have what man needs and claim to offer the answers. None can but the Word of God.
So choose Jesus as your giver of salvation and choose the Bible as your guide to salvation.
Finally,
CHOOSE OBEDIENCE AS YOUR GOAL OF SALVATION
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
John 6:44-45
Anyone can have a thought. Anyone can make a decision in their minds to do something. How many people have started and finished a diet entirely in their minds! You can choose up there (your head) that you want Christ, and you can choose up there that you are going to read the Bible and do what it says, but if you don’t actually do it…if you don’t submit to Christ and obey the Bible, it’s all for naught.
God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the whole of the Godhead can not make you become a Christian. You have to want it. You have to desire it. There won’t be anyone in Heaven that doesn’t WANT to be there! You have to do what He says in order to receive His free gift of salvation!
As Jesus says, if you want to be saved you have to GO to the Father, being drawn to Him out of a desire to serve Him as instructed by His Word.
Come unto Him, He says
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.Revelation 22:13-14
That pretty much explains itself, doesn’t it? You obey…and you have right to the tree of life in heaven forever.
So what’s it going to be? What are you going to choose? And there’s no way NOT to choose. You can’t close this window on your computer and say “I’ll choose later.” Because if you need to obey God and you’ve not yet done it, you’ve made the choice.
If you don’t choose Christ as your giver of salvation then you’re choosing Satan as your giver of destruction…and he will give it.
If you don’t choose the Bible as your guide to salvation then you’re choosing to trust in your own self to get to heaven…and you’ll never make it on your own.
If you don’t choose to obey God then you’ll continue living a life of easy pleasure…and when the Lord returns, it’ll be too late.
Don’t delay. Choose to respond.
Think about it
Have a great day!
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