Choose Life for You and Your Children
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
10/26/2014 AM
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Text:
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Deuteronomy 30:19
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Psalters: |
264, 152, 297, 65 |
Sacrament of Baptism |
- Choose what? Life.
- Moses concluded his review of God’s law with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience (chapter 28).
- Choose life, which is spiritual, which in the Old Dispensation was pictured in the physical.
- Spiritual life.
- First, God is life (20a).
- Spiritual life for man is truly and accurately knowing God – a part of being in His image.
- Choose how?
- At creation God made man a living soul (Gen. 2:7), with a delightful relationship to God.
- Adam chose death (Eccl. 7:29), resulting in all men being born spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1), unable to choose life.
- But God gave His Son to some spiritually dead humans so they can live in communion with God.
- While all are faced with God’s command to choose life, only some can obey.
- This choosing by man is real.
- Unregenerate man still exercises his will, but he is in darkness and can only chose evil and death.
- Regenerated man is able to choose either, but is commanded to choose righteousness and life (cf. Rom. 6:12-22).
- Our choosing is unto profit.
- 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.
- Although God graciously gives eternal life (Rom. 6:23b) He makes our choice of life to be profitable.
- The choice of life by parents, affects our children.
- Therefore, choose life!