Now shall we turn in our Bibles to
Psalm 16 for our scripture reading this morning.
I'll read the first, the outnumbered verses.
We invite you to join together as you
read the even-numbered verses and shall we
stand as we read the Word of God.
This Psalm is a prayer of David.
David prays, Preserve me, O God, for in
thee do I put my trust.
But to the saints that are in the
earth and to the excellent in whom is
all my delight.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance
and of my cup.
Thou maintainest my lot.
I will bless the Lord who hath given
me counsel.
My reigns also instruct me in the night
seasons.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory
rejoiceth.
My flesh also shall rest in hope.
Thou wilt show to me the path of
life and in thy presence is fullness of
joy.
And at thy right hand there are pleasures
forevermore.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you have indeed
shown to us the path of life.
May we choose to walk in that path.
That path, Lord, that leads us into your
kingdom, into your presence where there is fullness
of joy.
There at your right hand where there are
pleasures forevermore.
Help us, Lord, as we stand at the
crossroads and as we look at the paths
that are before us and as the choice
is given to us as to which path
we will walk.
Help us, Lord, to make the wise choice,
the path that will lead into that eternal
kingdom of God in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
In chapter 21, verse 8, the Lord is
instructing Jeremiah to say to King Zedekiah, thus
saith the Lord, behold, I set before you
the way of life and the way of
death.
Several years ago, while we were living in
Huntington Beach, a lady was driving Kay home
late one evening and Kay came in and
said, Chuck, we just came past the mortuary.
A man is lying there on the steps.
We think he might be dead.
Come with us and take a look.
So I got in the car with them
and they drove around the corner to the
mortuary and I got out to examine the
body and as I looked for any sign
of life, perhaps the chest moving as he
was breathing or perhaps a pulse.
There was none and they called out and
they said, is he alive?
Now that question, is he alive?
It is what we usually consider to be
alive.
That is, are the organs of his body
still functioning?
Is his heart still beating?
Are his lungs still taking in air?
But of course, as I reached to check
his pulse, I saw the gun, I saw
the hole in his head and I had
to answer back, no, he's dead.
We went around the corner to inform the
police and I also went over to let
the owner of the mortuary know that there
was a man that was lying on the
steps of the mortuary who was dead.
But it's interesting how that we so often
think of life only in the terms of
physical existence.
He is alive, he's breathing, he's talking, he's
moving around, he's alive.
But it's also interesting that the scripture has
also an entirely different definition of being alive.
As far as the scripture is concerned, real
life is not physical life, but real life
is spiritual life.
And you can have real physical life, but
be spiritually dead.
Paul the Apostle said that if a person
is living only for pleasure, then they are
dead while they are still alive.
I heard about two gravediggers who were ordered
to dig an especially large hole in the
ground that covered several of the normal grave
sites.
They were wondering why they were ordered to
dig such a large hole and they discovered
that a very wealthy lady had died.
She had a pink Cadillac that she just
thoroughly enjoyed and thus her request was that
instead of a casket, she be buried sitting
at the driver's seat of her pink Cadillac.
And so they had propped her up and
she was there at the driver's seat and
as they watched the crane slowly let the
Cadillac down into the big hole that they
had dug, one of the gravediggers turned to
the other and he said, now that's real
living.
Well, no, it's not.
But our concept of life, real living, is
often very wrong.
Because unless you have spiritual life, you're not
really living.
The Bible says, he that has the Son
of God has life.
He that has not the Son of God
doesn't have life, but the wrath of God
abides on him.
Back in Florida right now, there is an
interesting legal case that is being carried through
the courts and through the appeals.
There is a lady who is in a
comatose state and she is being kept alive
by artificial means.
It's been now several months into the years.
Her husband wants to remove the life support
system, but her family is insisting that they
keep the life support system connected and they've
gone to court in order to force them
to leave the life support system on for
their daughter.
And it has become quite a court battle
as the husband is fighting to have the
life support system shut off and they are
insisting that they keep it on.
Now, the question is, is she really alive?
Being in a comatose condition, depending completely upon
the machines to keep the heart pumping and
the processes going on, is she really alive?
And that is the issues that the courts
are fighting with right now.
Now, according to some, no, she's not alive.
She's not able to function on her own.
She can't breathe on her own.
She can't eat on her own.
She's being fed with tubes and so forth.
No, she's not really alive.
She's in a comatose condition and she's not
really alive.
But yet, the body functions are still going.
So many people are like this woman.
They are not really alive as far as
the Bible is concerned.
Because as far as God is concerned, they're
in a comatose situation.
They are totally unconscious of God.
God has no place in their minds, in
their lives.
They're living as though God did not exist.
And from a biblical sense, they are dead.
It's possible for a person to go through
their entire life without ever really living.
Jesus said that if you live and believe
in me, you will never die.
Now, he is speaking about spiritual death.
He's speaking about the separation of your consciousness
from God.
If you live and believe in me, you
will never die.
Now, Zedekiah had called Jeremiah because he had
rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar had placed Zedekiah as king over Judah
when he displaced Jehoiachin.
And the people, the leaders, the advisors advised
Zedekiah to rebel against Babylon.
Though Babylon had conquered Jerusalem, taken captives, they
said, they'll never come back with their army.
They'll never traverse over that desert again.
Go ahead and rebel against Nebuchadnezzar and against
Babylon.
And so, Zedekiah did rebel against Babylon.
But word has come that the Babylonian army
is again on its way to Jerusalem.
And Zedekiah is troubled by the fact that
the Babylonian army is on its way.
So, he called Jeremiah to find out from
the Lord what they should do to get
God's counsel and advice.
And so, Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, you should
surrender to Babylon.
Don't resist them.
If you surrender, you will live and Jerusalem
will be spared.
If you fight against them, they will take
and destroy Jerusalem.
They will destroy your family and you will
be taken as a captive to Babylon.
So, he has now God's counsel.
And as the Lord said, behold, I have
set before you the way of life and
the way of death.
It's now up to Zedekiah to choose which
path he will take.
The path of surrender that will give him
life or the path of rebellion that will
bring him death.
Throughout the Bible, we see that this is
true, that God sets before man the choice
of life or of death.
Back in the Garden of Eden, when God
placed Adam and Eve there, there was a
tree in the garden.
And God said, you have the freedom to
eat of all of the trees that are
in the garden except the one there in
the middle of the garden.
And in the day that you eat of
that tree, you will surely die.
So, that tree in the middle of the
garden could very well be called the tree
of death.
And Adam and Eve had the choice of
eating of that tree if they so desired.
There was also another tree there in the
garden.
It was called the tree of life.
And after they ate of the tree of
death, God put an angel there at the
gate of the garden to keep them from
re-entering for they were banished from the
garden, lest they would eat of the tree
of life and live forever in that sinful
state.
But the choice was theirs of eating of
either of those trees.
It's remarkable to me that they ate of
the tree of death.
When God called Israel to become a nation,
through Moses, God gave to them the law,
the rules by which they were to live.
And to follow these rules, they would become
a strong nation.
They would be a nation that would be
blessed by God.
They would be blessed in every possible way
that you could imagine.
If you will keep these rules, you will
flourish, you will prosper, you'll have need of
nothing.
But if you break these rules, then you
will be driven from this land that the
Lord has given to you.
You will be conquered by your enemies.
You will have all kinds of problems.
There will be pestilences that will fill the
land.
There will be droughts that will curse the
land.
All of these things will happen if you
fail to obey the rules.
And as God said there in Deuteronomy, I
have set before you life and death, good
and evil.
And I call heaven and earth to record
against you that I have set before you
life and death, blessings and cursings.
Therefore, God said, choose life that both you
and your children may live.
The choice I've set before you.
There are two paths.
The path of life and blessings, or the
path of death and curses.
Your choice.
In Proverbs, he does speak about life and
death.
He said, the path of righteousness is life.
And in that pathway, there is no death.
Again, he said, righteousness tends to life.
But he that pursues evil is pursuing the
snares of death.
Again, the fear of the Lord is a
fountain of life.
And he who departs from it is in
the snare of death.
In John chapter five, Jesus said, he that
hears my word and believes on him who
sent me has everlasting life and shall not
come into condemnation, but he has passed from
death to life.
Interesting, when Adam and Eve ate of that
tree that brought death, they were banished from
the garden and not allowed to return and
eat of the tree of life.
In other words, it was a one way
road out to death.
But now God is making another road for
those who are on the path of death
to turn and to come into the path
of life.
Jesus said, that he who believes or hears
my word and believes on him who has
sent me has everlasting life, will not come
into condemnation, but is passed from death to
life.
So the possibility of coming back into the
kingdom of God and into fellowship with God
made possible through Jesus Christ.
Now, the kingdom of Satan could very well
be called the kingdom of death and darkness,
for that's exactly what it is.
The kingdom of Jesus Christ could be called
the kingdom of light and life because that
is exactly what it is.
And we have the choice as to which
kingdom we will live in.
I can choose to live in the kingdom
of Jesus Christ by surrendering my life to
him.
Or I can choose to live in the
kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of death and
darkness, by listening to his lies and following
his guidance and advice.
Each of us are living in one or
other of these two kingdoms.
You're either living in the kingdom of light
and life, or you are living in the
kingdom of death and darkness.
When Jesus commissioned Paul to take the gospel
to the Gentiles, he said, I want you
to open their eyes, to turn them from
the darkness to the light, from the power
of Satan unto God, that they might receive
the forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith in
me.
As Paul tells us in Romans 6.23,
the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Also in chapter 8 he said, the mind
of the flesh is death, but the mind
of the spirit is life and joy and
peace.
Now it is important that we note that
God in each case gave the choice to
the people, to Adam and Eve, the choice
of which tree they would eat.
The tree that would bring death was accessible
to them, and it was their choice to
eat of that tree.
In Deuteronomy, God gave the choice to the
people to obey and to follow his law,
or they had that freedom to rebel against
the law of God, which indeed they did,
and they suffered those consequences that God declared
would happen if they so chose to rebel
against his word.
In all of the cases, choosing obedience to
the commandments of God would lead them into
life.
Choosing to rebel against the commandment of God
would be the way of death.
Now to me, the great mystery and enigma
is how many people in having that choice
made the choice of death.
Adam and Eve, they're in the garden, many
trees, but two of note, one the tree
of death, the other the tree of life,
their choice.
How strange it is to me that they
would choose to eat of the tree of
death rather than to eat of the tree
of life.
Perhaps it was because the tree of death
was very attractive.
Perhaps the fruit looked very luscious, had a
pleasant aroma, and we do know that it
was very tasty.
It probably looked tasty.
It was pleasant to the eyes.
It was pleasant to the taste, sensual, and
they ate of it.
It was desirable, fleshly, desirable.
Perhaps the tree of life looked like health
food, not very attractive, not very tasty, but
healthy, would make you, you know, live forever.
But for some strange reason, they made the
wrong choice.
And as a result, by one man, the
Bible said, sin entered the world and death
by sin, so that death passed unto all
men for all sin.
Today, we are all of us suffering as
a result of the choice that Adam made.
Our bodies are growing older, and we are,
all of us, in the process of dying,
sooner or later, physical death, because of the
choice that Adam made so long ago.
Wrong choices not only affect us, but they
can affect and do affect others.
With the children of Israel, they chose to
follow other gods.
They chose to disobey the commandments of God.
And as a result, they were ultimately driven
from the land.
And to the present day, they are still
suffering because of the choice that their fathers
made to disregard the law of God.
And they have become, as God said, a
curse and a byword throughout the world.
And the anti-Semitism that is in the
world today is the result of the choices
that their fathers made, the choice of death
rather than life.
Not obeying the commandments of God, rather than
following God and loving God with all their
heart, soul and mind.
With King Zedekiah, as God said, I've given
you the choice of life or death.
He chose death.
His counselor said, they'll never be able to
take our city.
We have fortified the walls, and they'll never
be able to conquer us.
Don't submit to Babylon.
Let's fight against them.
And despite what Jeremiah the prophet had told
him, he decided that they would fight against
the invasion by the Babylonians.
But even as Jeremiah did tell him, it
was the path of death for the city
of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians.
And thousands and thousands of people died because
of Zedekiah's choice of death.
Horrible deaths, starving to death under the siege.
When the breach was finally made within the
city and the Babylonian troops came in, they
took the little children and dashed their brains
out on the pavement.
There is a psalm that sort of seeks
God's vengeance against Babylon, in which he says,
let their children be dashed, even as they
dashed our children on the pavements.
The choice, bad choice, the choice of death,
but it affected so many others.
Finally, when the Babylonians entered the city, Zedekiah
took a secret passage to escape out of
the city.
He took his wives and his children.
Some of the generals and officers of the
army went with him and they fled from
Jerusalem and they were heading down to Jericho,
trying to escape the Babylonians.
But someone had told the Babylonians that they
were escaping towards Jericho.
And so they pursued after them.
And Josephus, the historian, writes this, when the
Babylonians had encircled him and his friends and
the captains of Zedekiah's host, who had fled
out of the city with him, when they
saw the enemy near them, they left Zedekiah
and dispersed themselves, some going one way and
others another, as all of them were resolved
to save his own life.
So the enemy took Zedekiah alive with his
children and his wives, and they brought him
to King Nebuchadnezzar, who began to call him
a wicked wretch, a covenant breaker, one that
had forgotten his promise to keep the country
for Nebuchadnezzar.
He also reproached him for his ingratitude, for
when he had received the kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar,
he had made use of the power that
was given to him by Nebuchadnezzar against the
one who had given it to him.
Nebuchadnezzar said, but God is great, who hated
his conduct and have brought you under us.
And when he had thus spoken these words
to Zedekiah, he commanded that Zedekiah's sons and
his friends to be slain, as Zedekiah was
forced to watch it.
After which he put out his eyes and
bound him and carried him to Babylon.
And these things happened to Zedekiah, just like
Jeremiah and Ezekiel have prophesied, that he would
be caught, brought before the king of Babylon,
would speak to him face to face and
would see him eye to eye.
But as Jeremiah said, but as Ezekiel said,
he was also to be made blind and
brought to Babylon, though he would never see
Babylon.
He could have spared himself and spared Jerusalem
from all of the bloodshed and death, but
he made the wrong choice.
God said, I've set before you life and
death.
Whenever you choose to disobey God, you can
be sure that you are making the wrong
choice that will bring ultimate disaster to your
life.
The Bible tells us that the way of
the transgressor is hard.
So many people though, like Adam and Eve,
like Zedekiah, make the wrong choices.
Because you see, Satan appeals to our flesh,
our desire for pleasure, comfort, ease, which he
promises to give to them who will follow
him.
He also promises immediate fulfillment, immediate gratification, immediate
satisfaction.
Jesus tells us that we, if we're going
to come after him, have to deny ourselves
the self-light.
We've got to take up our cross and
follow him.
And when Satan is saying, look, here's the
path of pleasure.
Here's the path of excitement.
You can have immediate fulfillment now.
And Jesus said, you've got to deny self.
You've got to take up your cross and
follow me.
People in looking at that say, well, my,
I would rather have the immediate gratification and
pleasures now.
Why should I deny myself?
Why should I take up the cross?
Why should I follow him?
Well, Jesus said that if we would deny
ourselves, take up our cross and follow him,
that it would lead to eternal life.
It would lead into the presence of God,
where there is fullness of joy.
It would bring us to his right hand,
where there are pleasures forevermore.
Satan offers pleasure for a time.
We read concerning Moses that he chose rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures of Egypt for
a short time.
He chose to take up the cross.
He chose to follow the path of God,
though it would lead through hardship, through the
wilderness and all it would lead to eternal
glory.
And looking at the end of the path,
he chose the right path to take the
path of life.
You need to look at the path.
Are you settling for temporary pleasures, thrills and
all that the world offers?
The path that Satan is offering is very
glitzy.
As represented by Hollywood and Vegas and all,
it's a glitzy path.
But the end of it is tragedy.
It's heartbreak.
It's sorrow.
It's interesting.
Jesus came to redeem this world for God.
And when he came to redeem the world,
he knew the price would be his death
upon the cross.
By his death on the cross, he paid
the price to redeem the world, that it
would be God's once again.
When Satan took Jesus to the high mountain
and showed to him the kingdoms of the
world, he said to him, all of these
I will give to you and the glory
of them.
For they are mine.
I can give them to whomever I please.
I will give them to you if you
will bow down and worship me.
He is saying to Jesus, you don't have
to go the path of the cross.
You can have it now.
Immediate fulfillment.
The cross isn't necessary.
I'll give it to you now.
Just take my path.
And so Satan says to people today, the
cross isn't necessary.
You can find fulfillment now.
Bow down, worship me.
Rebel against God.
And God says, no, I've given to you
the path of life, the path of death.
Choose life that you and your children may
live.
It's what's at the end of the path
that really matters.
And the path of rebellion against God, the
end of it is death.
The path of obedience to Jesus Christ, the
end of it is life, eternal life.
Life in the glories and the wonders of
God's eternal kingdom.
That's what is promised to those who will
follow him.
Too many people believe that a bird in
the hand is worth two in the bush.
And thus they buy into Satan's offer.
But oh, what sad and tragic consequences.
They discover it's the path of death.
Each of us today are walking along the
path.
Some are walking the path that leads to
death.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is a way
that seems right on demand, but the end
of that path is death.
Important that you today take a look at
your life.
Is your life being lived for the Lord
in submission to him, in obedience to him?
Are you seeking to live to please God?
Or are you seeking to live to please
yourself?
The self life, the flesh life, that life
is dead while you're still alive.
You may be laughing and smiling and, and,
you know, going through all of the motions,
but God looks at you and says, they're
dead.
Dead in trespasses and sins.
But you can be alive by submitting to
Jesus.
Father, we thank you that you have given
to us this capacity of choice.
And help us Lord to make a wise
choice.
May we not fall for the deceitfulness that
Satan is seeking to deceive the minds of
man into thinking that his path is the
best.
Lord, may we choose this day to believe
in your promises and by faith to follow
you, leading us Lord to that path of
life in your kingdom forever and ever.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.