Choose Life for You and Your Children

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Deuteronomy 30:19
Psalters: 264, 152, 297, 65
Sacrament of Baptism
  1. Choose what? Life.
    1. Moses concluded his review of God’s law with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (chapter 28).
    2. Choose life, which is spiritual, which in the Old Dispensation was pictured in the physical.
    3. Spiritual life.
      1. First, God is life (20a).
      2. Spiritual life for man is truly and accurately knowing God – a part of being in His image.
  2. Choose how?
    1. At creation God made man a living soul (Gen. 2:7), with a delightful relationship to God.
      1. Adam chose death (Eccl. 7:29), resulting in all men being born spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), unable to choose life.
      2. But God gave His Son to some spiritually dead humans so they can live in communion with God.
      3. While all are faced with God’s command to choose life, only some can obey.
    2. This choosing by man is real.
      1. Unregenerate man still exercises his will, but he is in darkness and can only chose evil and death.
      2. Regenerated man is able to choose either, but is commanded to choose righteousness and life (cf. Rom. 6:12-22).
  3. Our choosing is unto profit.
    1. Not that the choice of life merits the life, but it is God’s pleasure to give life in the way of our choosing it.
    2. Although God graciously gives eternal life (Rom. 6:23b) He makes our choice of life to be profitable.
    3. The choice of life by parents, affects our children.
    4. Therefore, choose life!