A DECISION TO MAKE
‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve.’
Throughout life we are continually making our choice. But there are times when voice of God in text seems specially to appeal to us.
I. The necessity of choosing.—We all have hearts, and the heart is born to love. We all have wills, and are thus under the necessity of choosing.
II. The responsibility of choosing.—It is God who commands us to choose. He will bring us into judgment if we do not choose aright (Ecclesiastes 11:9). Judgment implies responsibility. As long as there is a God, a law, and a conscience, man’s responsibility must continue.
III. There are but two alternatives.—We must make our choice between God and sin. To reject the Lord is a deadly sin. Men attempt a compromise, but ‘ye cannot serve God and mammon.’
IV. The choice must be (a) free; (b) decided; (c) lasting. Some have made this choice—may the Lord ‘strengthen you with might by His Spirit.’ Some want to make it; beware of delay. ‘Choose you this day whom ye will serve.’
The Rev. Sir Emilius Laurie.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Pizarro, in his earlier attempts to conquer Peru, came to a time when all his followers were about to desert him. They were gathered on the shore to embark for home. Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it from east to west; then, turning towards the south, “Friends and comrades,” he said, “on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There is Peru with all its riches; here Panama and its poverty. Choose each man as becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south.” So saying he stepped across the line. One after another his followers followed him. This was the crisis of Pizarro’s fate. There are moments in the lives of men which, as they are seized or neglected, decide their future destiny.’
(2) ‘We cannot be too emphatic in our reiteration of Christ’s call to all the weary and heavy laden to come unto Him, nor too confident in our assurance that whosoever comes will not be cast out; but we may be, and I fear often are, defective in our repetition of Christ’s demand for entire surrender, and of His warning to intending disciples of what they are taking upon them. We shall repel no true seeker by duly emphasising the difficulties of the Christian course. Perhaps if there were more plain speaking about them at the beginning, there would be fewer backsliders and dead professors with a name to live.’