If Jesus Returned Today Part 1
Notes
Transcript
Choices Choices Choices
Choices Choices Choices
Exodus 20, 34; Deuteronomy 5, 24, 28
Have you ever been to a restaurant where the menu has so many choices you just cannot decide? So, you look and read the entree descriptions hoping something in the description will trigger that point of absolute decision? And then, just when you have made up your mind, someone asks, “What are you going with?” And then they proceed to tell you what they have decided, and suddenly, you are back to a point of indecision because of someone else’s appetite.
This life is filled with choices. And every day this world pushes it’s choices in your face and seeks to push them into your heart. Every day you encounter people who are making choices different than yours. Every day, you encounter people, corporations, products, groups with agendas, all seeking to influence your choices.
In Exodus 20 we see the ethical framework for the Law of God given to Israel. In Exodus 34 we see a repeat of that Law of God. In Deuteronomy chapters 5 and 24 we see a break down of applying those laws in life circumstances.
But in Deuteronomy 28 God laws out the consequences of our choices.
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
In verses 1-2, is God simply promising to make Israel a nation superior to all others? Or is God expressing that there is a higher way of life through listening or obeying the voice and instructions of God? How often our nature is to focus on the don’ts and forsake the do’s. As such, we see the positives as negatives (just too hard to do), but the negatives and positives (flesh finds sin easy). Who told you righteousness was hard and sin was easy? In reality, sin is the hard way of living.
Rabbi Or HaChaim states, “The verse then continues by assuring us that as a further result of listening to the voice of G'd we will not transgress the negative commandments and will carry out the positive commandments, i.e. לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשׂוֹת (lesh-mor la-asot; Preserve to Do; Be Careful to Do). In diligently doing the commandments of God you are preserved. Joshua said it this way:
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.
In my life I have had to learn some things through costly means. Once, I thought I had enough knowledge to roof my own house. What I discovered $5,000 later is that I am not a roofer. I discovered that my level of knowledge did not include small details that one who does it daily would have already discovered and applied to the profession.
The same principle applies to the Word of God. This is why it is important to seek to study the Word of God not just listen to oration of another’s time in the Scripture being intimate with the Lord.
“Torah study must correspond to the realization that it emanates in a sacred domain. The word תשמע (shema - Listen) implies that our listening must take into account who it is we are listening to, i.e. ה׳ אלוקיך (He Elo Che-ka - The Lord Your God). When one listens to what G'd says one does not listen in the same off-handed manner as when one listens to one's peers, but one tries to absorb every nuance of the words G'd says to us in the Torah” (Rabbi Or HaChaim; Deuteronomy 28:1 with Or HaChaim, sefaria.org).
Isn't it amazing how many songs you know all the words to? Even songs that are decades old. Songs that were not even from your generation. How many lines in movies can you quote? And how many Scriptures are written on your heart? When in a crisis of life, what 80’s song, what rap song, what movie will you quote to sustain your soul or give you peace of mind? When a friend is suffering or in great need of counsel, what television sitcom will you recite from to comfort and give them wisdom for life?
It is interesting how we think we are sovereign in our choices all the while being influenced by one or many voices. The word “voice” is defined as more than reverberating sound, expiration of air or the faculty of utterance. It is further defined as a wish, a thought of the mind, an opinion, or a choice expressed to influence.
By that definition, how many voices would you say are around you seeking to influence your choices? How about those commercials, music, politicians, news media, social media, billboards, restaurants, retail stores, just to name a few? How about salesmen, or the person cursing at Home Depot, or the car next to you with the smell of marijuana so strong you can smell it from fifty feet away? Or the person coming out of the QT as you enter and they exhale a big puff of their vape in your face?
You see, choices are voices and they affect more than just you. Like that driver who thought they could continue to drive high or buzzed and they kill someone else’s child or parent? Or that young girl revealing her nakedness on Tiktok because she has lost all sense of self-worth and virtue from her broken childhood, but that young man sits watching on his phone getting some selfish pleasure watching another man’s daughter defile herself? Or the number of children affected by divorce, neglect, abortion, and a multitude of selfish excuses?
Do any of these consequences sound like those of one listening to the Voice of the Lord? Could there be a correlation between the choices I make and the voices I listen to?
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
In the Hebrew the word for “voice” is qol קוֹל meaning, at it’s root, a calling; to call; or that which is heard. The point is one speaks and another responds. Every choice in your life is a response to a voice. Folks, God has already spoken. Christ has come and offered the invitation. How have you responded? When He returns again, He will call, and those who know His voice will be able to reply with how they have lived and be at peace. But those who do not know His voice will be ashamed. What if Jesus returned today?
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
The “voice of an archangel” is an idiom meaning He will speak as the Chief of all angelic hosts. It means His command call will be like fierce thunder as the day He spoke to Israel and they were sore afraid because of their sinfulness. Do not be deceived by the voices of culture that pervade our society. For they are the voices of untruth. They are voices of lies and deception that appeal to that which is contrary to the will of God. They are voices of death and not life. They are voices of choices other than the way that leads to life everlasting.
Because of my covenant relationship with my wife, we do life together and in that process it involves daily communication. As a result, she knows my voice and I know hers. If Jesus returned today would you recognize His voice like I do that of my wife, my children, or others who are actively involved in my life and I in theirs?
I can tell if you know His voice by the choices you make and by the way you live your life. If Jesus returned today would He find you walking towards Him or walking away? Would Jesus find you selfless or self-centered? Would He find you loving others or loving yourself more? Would He find you faithful or faithless? Would He find you as a giver or a taker? Would He find you gathering the souls of others for His name sake or ignoring them? Would He find you in humility or arrogance? If Jesus Christ returned this very moment of your life would He find your life worshiping Him or bowing down to idols of this world? Would He find you filled with His light or stumbling through life in the darkness of your sin?
The real question you need to be asking is not if or when will Christ return but what will you be doing, what choices are you making before He gets here? If you cannot or have not heard His voice now; if His voice has not influenced your life choice now, then you will not hear His voice when He returns. Choices have consequences. You have a voice and a choice today. Your choices speak volumes as to who you are and for whom you live for. Voices have choices and choices have voices. Just how much time do you have to make a choice? I urge you, choose you this day.