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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/allan-christopherson/chosen-and-choices/
The book of the Psalms, please, number 65, perhaps will fit in with what we've been hearing. Psalm number 65, reading at verse 4, a blessed is the man whom thou choosest. There is something very, very special about being chosen.
It is something that you normally, normally would not forget, and especially if it is of some major, major decision that has to be made or choice that is made in view of whether it's business or whether it is secular work of whatever.
But there is something special about being chosen. And it's a marvelous thing as I have been swimming around in these waters just recently in my own personal appreciation of the fact that I have been chosen, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
I think that we can think of at least on three occasions in which the fact is I am chosen, because I've already mentioned in Ephesians chapter 1 and about verse 4 that I have been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.
And I don't know about you, dear Christian, but that's overwhelming to me. That is a marvelous thing that I cannot, I cannot appreciate to its fullness. To think long before our sinful hearts were stirred that we entered, and we entered while there was room, while thousands make the wretched choice of rather starve than come.
Why was it, dear Christian, that my family, that your family was raised in an area, and I hope, I'm assuming a lot on this, but why was it that your family, my family was raised in an area where the truth of God was known, where the gospel was preached, and you and I come into the good of so great salvation?
Why us? And I'm overwhelmed when I think of Ephesians chapter 1. Why is it that in Ephesians 1 and verse 4 that he talks about being chosen? Verse 5, he talks about being adopted, adopted into that family.
In verse 6, he's talking about being accepted. And in verse 7, he's talking about being forgiven, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And to me, dear Christian, it's overwhelming that we were the ones chosen, elected, brought into God's family, mirrored to God's heart.
I think, is it number six or is it number five in our believer's hymn book? A little hymn, a little chorus, a little verse that goes like this, nearer to God's heart I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as near, dear sisters helping me, I am as near as He.
Can you fathom that? Can I get my hands around that? Failing men and women as we are, poor and, you know, we're supposed to be gospel workers. I'm ashamed to tell you, I'm ashamed to tell you how many opportunities I miss every single day.
To think that we're letting the world go by, letting the world go by and all the time, I'm the one that is chosen to take this message to the whosoever. I have a dear daughter, we have a dear granddaughter in Denver.
She is and was in first grade at the time this last year. She's giving a little puzzle, and for good behavior, the puzzle is complete. If the puzzle has several pieces missing from it, it's because she has been mischievous.
So, mom went to the teacher conference and little Ella had most of her puzzle, most of her pieces in the puzzle were missing. Ella, where are the pieces? Were you misbehaving? And down went her little head.
Were you naughty, Ella? And down went her little head. Were you talking, Ella? There's the problem. And down went her little head and she felt so defeated and so punished and finally she couldn't stand it any longer and she says, mommy, I just got a lot to say.
We got a lot to say too, brethren, and has convicted me just recently. We've got a lot to say, but dear Christian, do we say it? Do we discharge our responsibility? I'm chosen as a saint. And down a little further in 1 Peter chapter 2, I am chosen.
I am chosen not for a saint but for separation. I'm a chosen generation. We're a part of that chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Why? Why is it that we're a part of that chosen generation?
It has to be for a reason, dear Christian, and it is for a reason because we notice that in verse, we notice that at the end of that lovely section, it is to show forth His praise. So, I'm being convicted lately.
In view of showing forth His praise, noticing that the holy nation, 89 times in the book of Leviticus, the word holy is mentioned. So, He wants me to be a separate, separated, separated people, a peculiar people, God's own personal possession.
So, there's something that is very, very precious as far as God is concerned. And then, of course, He wants to be a soldier. So, the three things that I simply see as far as being chosen is concerned, I am chosen a saint.
I am chosen for separation in 1 Peter chapter 2. And, of course, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, I am chosen to be a soldier, not to become entangled in the affairs of this life. Paul tells Timothy, Timothy, you are special, a very special man, a very special in your gift, in your personality, in your work that you do for God.
Don't get entangled, Timothy. And I can think of just a couple of instances right now, lovely homes, lovely Christians, and they've become entangled, and they've become entangled with this and with that and the other, and their testimony is affected, and their usefulness is hurt.
So, to my dear young people, be careful that you don't get too entangled with the affairs of this life, because I could get entangled. I could get entangled with the fire department, with the co-op. I could even get tangled with this and with that and with the other things.
And I could be gone on this Wednesday night, and I could be gone on this Thursday night, on this Friday night, with all the extras that I at times question. So, dear Christian, be careful that you do not become entangled in that which is not according to your help and blessing.
Now, happy is the man. Happy is the man, we've read in verse 4, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. Now, dear Christian, there's something very practical about this, and that is this, that if I have been chosen, and I have been chosen, if I have been chosen, let me just read, let me just re-say it, since I have been chosen, then there are going to be times when I have to make a choice.
And that's really what's before me this morning in a very practical way, and for about 10 minutes, if I can just take your time and suggest a couple of things that have been a help, has been a help to me.
We have, and we're going to be brought into many times where we have to make a choice. Why is it, dear Christian, that sometimes we have to listen as we did just recently? And my wife and I listened to a dear woman, and she wept bitter tears.
She said, I should have said no. I should have said no. She wants to go to gospel meetings, and it's not too far from where we are working. She wants to come to gospel meetings, but he says, no way. And there she sits, tied to a, tied to a family situation where she'll never be released from it.
So, dear young Christian, could you get plugged in just now? And would you be able to take some of this, what we have been exercised about and burdened about? Because, dear Christian, you have been chosen.
You're very precious to God. You're so precious to God that it cost Him His Son, and because it cost Him His Son, He wants you to make now proper choices, and those proper choices are very, very important.
It's going to affect you the rest of your days, and perhaps I might be speaking to some, and you know exactly what I am speaking about. The first thing I, first man I thought of in our Bibles about making a choice was dear Job.
Job made a choice one day. Job said this, that he esteemed, that he esteemed God's words even far above his necessary food. So, there's sometimes I have to, I have to make a choice when I come, when it comes to reading this book.
So, my little title for Job is simply this, that Job chose to feed, and when he fed, he fed on this blessed book. He was enjoying his great God, and of course, when I am going to enjoy His Word, if there is going to be maturity in my part, if there's going to be spiritual growth in my part and in your part, there must be, there must be the time to sitting and feeding.
Do I want a knowledge like a Jim Smith? Sorry, Jim. Do I want the knowledge where I have the things at my fingertips? Yes. Well, how is it, dear Christian, that I am going to, I am going to get it. I'm going to get it to what it is to feed.
I told my wife just recently, I don't read enough. You have to get up on behind this pulpit, and there's many times you have to speak, and you feel dry sometimes, and it all boils down to the fact, as I could feel it, I don't read enough.
I don't meditate enough. Dear younger men sitting here, my, what a row. I wish I had a camera. Can I call you beautiful, or is it handsome better? Think of the potential sitting right here in row number three.
Think of the, think of the ability that these dear brethren have, and that only give their time to it, and only give their say no to the activity of this, and of that, and of the other thing. A .M .S. Gooding, that particular name will ring bells with many here.
He was ministering one time, and he said, I had to say no. The rest of the boys were playing the soccer, and they were spending time, hour after hour, night after night, and I loved the soccer, but I loved this book, and in order for me to become growing in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, as we've been hearing, I had to say no to the soccer, and upstairs he went, and upstairs he stayed, and he stayed there to feed.
Dear younger men, I wish I had taken heed, and here's a case where do as I say, and not as I do, I suppose, but I wish I had taken heed when I was your age to give more time, more time to this blessed book.
Someday you're going to be brought into responsibility. You're going to be brought into assembly responsibility, and then they're going to look to you. The torch of testimony is going to be handed down, and you have to take it, dear Christian.
An overseer said, in fact, he's here today, and the assembly I am linked with, who are the overseers that will take the place? Who are the men that could be brought in? Already they're looking for men, and dear younger man, if I could plead with you this morning, 16, 17, and 18 years of age, maybe you're full of fun and games.
I can understand that. I hope and pray that that time comes when maturity kicks in, and when there's a special burden that you have, give time to, give time to not only prayers we've been hearing, but time to feed.
Job chose. You're going to have to make a choice, dear Christian. Are you going to choose to feed? I think of Moses. Moses made a choice. One day he chose. This staggers me, too, that one day he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
How could you choose that? How could you choose to suffer affliction with the people of God? And choosing reproach. Reproach is simply reminding us of Strong's Concordance. It tells me that reproach is to be defamed.
It is to be railed on. It is to be reviled. And this is what he chose. He chose to suffer affliction with the people of God because, I believe, his heart was tied to the reproaches of Christ and the reward, great as a recompense of reward.
So there was something there. He looked at the great beyond, and he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. Before I was even saved as a youngster, not having a sensible thought in my head, I can remember one night after a game, and, well, the boys were wondering what they're going to do afterwards and who were, what party they were going to go to and so on.
And the boy says, well, we can always go to this place and sleep in, and then Sunday morning we could always go out to the Smithite place out in the country at Heightsville because they don't start until 10 o 'clock.
And there was a great big laughter. I wasn't saved at the time, and I felt the stab in the back. And I couldn't help but think, you know, there's nothing what those people at Heightsville are doing but praying for you big sinners.
Dear Christian, will you stand for God? Will you choose to suffer affliction with the people of God? I hear sometimes where our dear young people have to work on Sunday. Do you really have to work on Sunday?
Is that really necessary? In fact, if you have to work on Sunday, come and see me. I'll give you, I mean this, I'll give you the wages that you receive on a Sunday so you can be there at the Christian, be with the Christians.
I know there's a medical field. I'm not talking about the medical world. I'm not talking about the doctor world. But I know a dear lady right now, and she breaks my heart every time I think of it, saved in meetings that we were involved with, and she went to McDonald's to flip hamburgers.
She got a husband, all right. And today I can walk into that home, and she welcomes me into that home, and then the head drops. Remember that night? I think it was your series. Remember that night when we sang Happy Day, and there wasn't a dry eye in the Cedar Falls Gospel Hall?
And that dear girl had tremendous potential, but she needed an extra five or ten dollar bills five dollars or ten dollars a week. So she went and give up Sunday morning and give up Sunday night to flip hamburgers.
Dear young person, don't. Make a choice. Stand for God. Be at the assembly if at all possible on Lord's Day. Your employer is going to highly respect you if you say no on Sunday morning. And if you cannot get out of Sunday morning, well then maybe you don't need that little part-time job after all.
The reproach. Joseph. Character number three, Joseph. He chose. Why did he chose? Why did he? Why was he the man that he was? Why was it that he come out with a compassion to his brothers? Yes, Job might have chose to feed, and perhaps Moses chose, he chose to forsake.
He forsaked the pleasures, but I think a dear Joseph, he chose to forgive. I've only got one little silly story. Bill has got 101, but a man said to me one time when I went to meeting, I had a head cold and sniffles and coughing, and I thought I was being quite a hero by not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.
So I went to the meeting at Marion and I said to a brother, well I got a bad head cold. Yeah, I said, I don't have to, you don't have to tell me you got a bad head cold. You know, it usually settles in the weakest part of your body.
You know, knowing the dear brother, I think he was teasing. I think. But what if there was a speck in that that he wasn't teasing? What if there was just a percentage of that that was, it was a get, it was a get to me?
What did I have to do? I didn't have to do anything but forgive him, and we had a good laugh over it, and must not have, he must have been teasing because he asked me to take his funeral. Forgive. Dear Christian, you're not holding any grudges today.
You're not holding anything that you should have let go 25 years ago. You're not holding anything, are you? Can I forgive? The person who is in God's assembly is going to have to learn to forgive, because there will be days coming when you will need to forgive.
Joseph chose to forgive. Lot, can I, can I say something about Lot? Lot looked at the well-watered plains, and I noticed just recently in Genesis chapter 13 that he chose. Oh, did he choose. He looked at the well-watered plains, and as he looked at those well-watered plains, looking at all the cattle that he had, and the possessions that he had, and so on, as he looked at, and it led to Sodom, and he chose.
And the dear man lost his family. He lost his testimony. He lost it all because he made the wrong choice. I wonder if it's possible, dear younger Christian, I'm speaking to you this morning. Dear younger Christian, you be careful what you choose as far as the business world is concerned, because the business world wants to put their great big arms and hands around you.
They want to squeeze every single moment that you can, that they can, out of you. They want to be able to grasp every ounce of strength that you've got. Be careful, dear Christian, be very careful. You're so valuable.
You're so needed to God's assembly and to the furtherance of the gospel. Be very careful that you don't get too involved and too engrossed in that which is the business world. Dear Mary, she chose. What did she choose?
She chose to sit at his feet. Remembering again Luke chapter 10? There was Mary, and she chose to hear. She chose to hear. She sat at his feet. I got it now. She sat at his feet to hear. She made that choice.
Mary had made the choice to have fellowship. Lot made the choice as far as the future is concerned, but I am thinking of dear Paul. Paul made a choice. I have fought a good fight. I have kept the faith.
I have finished the course. Henceforth, there is laid up for me, and there was something that Paul did. He chose. He chose to run the race while others had forsaken him. You see, there were others that their world wasn't Paul's world, and because their world wasn't Paul's world, there were some that dropped out of the race.
Thank God, dear Christian. Thank God you're here today. Thank God you've made a choice, and I like what our brother who was saying it this morning has made a choice as far as the conferences are concerned.
At the beginning of every spring, at the beginning of every fall, go through the calendar and make sure that you're free here, you're free there to get to these special meetings, these holy convocations to make a choice.
And one more word again to the dear younger generation about a partner in life. He'd be very, very careful. I was dating a young woman. I almost made the choice. I almost made the wrong choice, and thank God, thank God there was a note on the screen door one day.
I was going to take her and pick her up to go to the gospel meeting at Stout, and there's a note. If I need you, I'll call you. You know, I don't have a college education, but it didn't take too much to think in what that meant.
If I need you, I'll call you. I was interested in the outside. Oh, it was attractive, but nothing on the inside. And it wasn't long I got one that was on the outside attractive and on the inside. Thank God.
Dear young men, I wish we could, can we pick out your partner for it? Make the right choice. Dear young woman, make the right choice. I admire, I admire, there's probably some here today, and there's young sisters among us, and now maybe middle-aged sisters, and you are single today, not because you didn't have an opportunity, because you did have the opportunity, perhaps from a man in the world, and you said, no, I take my hat off to you.
I thank God for sisters like that, because they made the right choice. We need to appreciate sisters like that. Let's not make fun of them. Let's thank God, the brother, for their stickability and for their steadfastness.
Dear Christian, make the right choice. Trust that the One who chose us, the One that chose you, long before your sinful hearts were stirred, that in days to come, until we hear the shout, that you, through life, will make the right choice.