Beloved Covenant Youth;
Our text from which you have taken your theme implies that we must make decisions. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,” implies that we make a decision in fact to seek the Lord. The Scripture is full of language that teaches us that in life there are many decisions that one must make. The reason for this is that in the Scripture we face the reality of life. There are moral decisions that we face-whether we shall serve darkness or light in our moral walk. There are decisions that have to do with our daily vocation – in our job – in school – etc. Decisions concerning our bodies in the matters of sex or drugs-should we follow the way of the world or no! And so we could go on.
A decision is the formation of a judgment on a matter under consideration. Further, however, not only does it concern the judgment in a case, but also implies that one takes a firm position upon that judged to be right. Here is my judgment of right and here I stand! Thus, we must stand upon a firm basis. So are we called as God’s children. “He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed….a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6, 8. Understand then Scripture knows of no room for compromise. When concerned with life one cannot ride the fence. One must decide-must be on a side! For spiritually the unstable man is ripe for judgment! And our youth is no excuse!
Really when we speak of decisions in life-they all come down to one. “Whom shall ye serve?” God or darkness? Thus saith the Word! This is set forth for the church already clearly in the Old Dispensation. Read Joshua 24:14-15. A decision was to be made between serving the idols of their fathers or the heathen and in both cases this would be foolishness; or would they as Joshua answer, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The fathers on the other side of the flood (the river Euphrates) depart from God’s Word to serve idols and the people in their generations were cut off, while God called out Abraham and continued His covenant faithfully with his seed. Understand also today to depart from the Word is to be destroyed. Either you serve false gods unto destruction or you serve God, the God of salvation!
Again in the Old Testament we see God’s people called to make a decision: “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said. How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.” I Kings 18:21. There is no third way, beloved youth! If you serve not Jehovah of the Scriptures, then you serve an idol. And with idol service comes destruction. But, you say, Rev. Moore, is there not some gray area where we can seek some of the same goals as this world in whose midst we live? But the Word is plain— “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matt. 6:24.
It is impossible in life not to make a decision-a firm position either to serve God or an idol, darkness and Satan. Jesus taught this also by the parable of the two builders. The wise man built his house upon the rock, and the fool built his house upon the sand. And there is no third way. He who does the will of God-who lives from the Word of Christ is wise founded upon a rock. He who does not is a fool!
The calling is clear. God tells us to serve Him in obedience as His people. This is the love of God, “that we walk after His commandments.” II Jn. 6. To serve the Lord in the decisions of life is therefore to choose God and His way as the only blessed way in life. To count then all other ways as foolishness.
And this is an urgent calling! Our text says seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call upon Him while He is near! And while this does not mean that God is hiding and we must look to find Him, it does emphasize the urgency of our calling. We are called to serve the Lord every moment of our lives. You cannot ride the fence! There is not a time in our youth when we can take the attitude that this is the time to sow our wild-oats, and later we can settle down to spiritual things. The man who built greater barns for his great crop found out how quickly God can require one very soul! The signs, furthermore, beloved youth, speak of Christ’s speedy return! Labor in the day ere the night cometh in which no man can work! Our battle of faith is now!
Oh! But Rev. Moore, how can we fight this battle and make these decisions! The decision that God’s Word requires is the yes of obedience, but before the law and before the Word we stand condemned. We are to choose Christ and His ways, but we stand in enmity to God and His Son as we are by nature. We are to make the right decisions, but our whole life testifies against us. This is the testimony of the Word and the law! We are all gone astray. We are to live as strangers and pilgrims, but we have chosen the way of amalgamation. Even this past week we did not stand as strangers in this world, we failed when we entered the taverns of this world, when we picked up that trashy flesh magazine, when we entered the ungodly theater, when we watched the deceit based drama on the television…Oh! so often we stray. Beloved youth, you are right, in that naturally the right decisions in life are an impossibility. Modern theology and modem philosophy will try to lead you to believe differently—that you are the commanders of your own destiny. They will try to build up in you a confidence in self in this life. But such philosophy robs you of all comfort-for you know better!! We are sinners, our will and our way is evil naturally. I will not make the right decision if I must stand in my own strength.
Thus covenant youth, it is only in the way of grace that you shall make the right decisions of life. That way of grace demands that we fall down before God in ashes and dust. All pride we put aside!! And we humbly cry out, Oh God, my God, have mercy upon me a sinner. To make the right decisions in life, God’s child relies alone upon God as his faithful savior. And as God gives us grace to be humble, He also shall surely reveal the sure mercies of David. David confessed before God to have sinned against God, and that his trust must needs be alone rooted in the faithful covenant God’s mercy, cf. Ps. 51:1-5. We also so trust, and our God’s mercy shall indeed save such as He has ordained from eternity to life in Christ. And for them God sends His only begotten Son in the flesh. Christ comes as the first-born of many brethren. And that Christ brings the blessed and perfect obedient yes over against the no of our sin. He in faithfulness bears the eternal wrath due unto us. When we answered God’s Word commanding obedience with the terrible no- ”I will go to the world’s entertainments”. ”I will enter the gutters of the world’s morality and take birth control pills, and indulge in fornication,” I will stray with every wind of doctrine,” Jesus obediently answered yes by going the way of the accursed tree in our behalf.
That Christ has ascended to heaven and has poured forth His Spirit and His Word now also to empower you by His grace to answer the decisions aright. Thus His beloved children are led powerfully by Him to decide in the way pleasing to Him all things in life.
He gives to His own grace and He gives to them His sure word. How shall we make the right decisions in the way of His grace? We hear His Word when the Psalmist asks: “Wherewithall shall a young man cleanse his way?” and the answer, “by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” Ps. 119:9. Christ gives you His Word and that Word is powerful to turn and to save. And by grace and in the covenant faithfulness of God, His children turn to the Scriptures as an infallible guide for all life and walk. Hence, in the way of that grace they turn to God alone in their decisions. You see, it is Christ in us that enables us to make the right decisions in life. He says in John 15:16-19 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” It is Christ alone who strengthens and empowers us to serve God in all of our decisions.
As then by grace we trust in Christ and His Word in all our life, we know too that all things shall work together for good. And we know too that as by grace we stand as pilgrims, the house shall stand. And that because of God’s faithfulness and the sure mercies of David, we shall be everlastingly kept unto the inheritance that is undefiled and that fadeth not away! May we glory in God alone, and may He grant us the grace to so serve Him in all of our decisions in life.