
DECISIONS FROM THE SUPREME BEING
LUKE 9:57-62 PRINCETON CHRISTIAN CHURCH 29 NOVEMBER 2020
In June 2015 The Supreme Court of the United States made their decision on the definition of marriage. It was their decision, with at 5-4 vote that our Constitution provides all people the right to marry. Well, we don’t need a Supreme Court decision to tell us that. So, why was this decision so important? This decision stated that the Constitution provides the right of people of the same sex to marry one another.
This is one of many issues which force Christians to make very important vital choices.
READ: Luke 9:57-62
PRAYER
Now, before we go further, please understand this is not a message with political implications. What I have said up to now, though, demonstrates how important are the decisions we make as we live our lives as Christians.
Let’s make a couple of comparisons –
One – the Supreme Court of the Land.
Two – the Bible
1. 9 people on the Supreme Court make vital, and sometimes, life changing decisions.
2. About 40 People wrote the Bible
3. 9 people, under the pressures of a few in our society make vital, and sometimes, life changing decisions.
4. About 40 people, guiding by the inspiration of God, wrote this book
Which of these has the greater credibility? Which makes the most difference in the long run? The long run, of course, in my mind, is eternity.
The marriage decision, in reality is a snubbing of our Creator regarding morality and marriage. The decision, and many others made every day, has the potential to radically change the culture in which we live in this country. Actually, we have surpassed potential into reality. They have changed our culture and we have virtually nothing to say about it
Again, let me make clear – this is a message concerning DECISIONs, not culture change.
One thing we know because, as Christians, it is very clear to us – Decision involves Choice.
When you were a child you may have read the story about Alice in Wonderland.
That story In Alice in Wonderland, teaches us something about decisions. When Alice comes to a junction in the road that leads in different directions, she asks the Cheshire Cat, "Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to go to," said the Cat. Alice: "I don't much care where," replied Alice. Cheshire Cat: "Then it doesn't matter which way you go."
Joshua 24.15-16 (NASB) 15 - Joshua addresses the people of Israel and offers them a choice:
“If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 – The people make a choice “The people answered and said, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.’”
We can choose the temporary approval and praises of a few people, or we can gain the approval and respect from God.
Let’s look at another decision making opportunity we find in the New Testament in the Gospel of John 12:42-43.*
42 - Nevertheless many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43 - for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. John 12.42-43
We are called, of course, to obey the Law of the Land. But we know there is a Higher Court whose decisions, laws and commandments we must consider Supreme. And that Supreme Court will have the final word on all matters.
Why is this decision making of issues such a great matter to us as Christians?
Well, regarding the June 2015 decision:
1) The King of the Universe defined marriage even before the giving of Torah of Moses in Genesis 2.24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” By definition, man, is male, and wife is female.
2) Any rewriting or changing of God's decrees is Sin -- dishonoring God, it makes Him and His decisions meaningless.
3) We are given a warning in Scripture about the decisions we make about any question of life: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5.20
No matter which person says so, good is not evil, and evil is not good. Darkness is not light and light is not darkness. Bitter is not sweet, and sweet is not bitter. What simple humans might try to convince you to believe any of that means nothing.
God will have the final word -- but in the interim, until He sends Jesus back to take us home we have an obligation -- Acts 5.29 – “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather that men.’”
Let’s look back again at the passage from Luke 9:57-62 to consider how we serve our God.
Will We Follow Jesus Wherever He Leads? And, how do we do that?
These men showed respect to the Lord. They recognized they should follow Him. They even said they would Him wherever He wanted them to go. But --- Do you hear the “but” coming next? Excuses – Need to bury my father; Let me go home and say good-by to my family.
To what extend are we willing to say, “I will follow You, Lord, wherever it leads me. If I have no place to lay my head? Or do we give Him our list of conditions by which we will follow.
We are reminded that there is nothing permanent here -- Hebrews 11.13-16
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Will We Follow Jesus Whatever He Says? Luke 9.59-60
Will we make decisions in line with His Word and Will or those in line with the current culture of the world?
We must assess our priorities. We must say, “I will follow you Lord.” No “buts” about it.
Do we re-order God’s agenda to suit our own? Or do we re-order our own agenda to suit God’s plan for our lives, both here and in eternity?
See, again, what Jesus says in verse 62, Luke 9: “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
There is no looking back. When we look back, the row we are hoeing begins to go off course. Farmers plow straight lines by fixing eyes on landmarks. Our landmark is Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 12:1-2 teaches so clearly: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
We don't need the Supreme Court to define marriage -- God did that for us in the Beginning.
People want to remove the 10 Commandments from public places. Even if they accomplish this, we don't need a monument to tell us what the 10 Commandments are – They are recorded in His Word and have been for centuries. We need to keep them and live them daily. We are to be LIVING STONES with the word of God displayed in our lives.
We simply need to faithfully and lovingly do our duty to God.
I want to close with a quote from John Jay, who was the first Chief Justice of the Unites States Supreme Court. He said this: “All that the best men can do is to persevere in doing their duty . . . and leave the consequences to Him who made it their duty, being neither elated by success (however great) nor discouraged by disappointment (however frequent and mortifying). John Jay, Original Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court and Author of The Federalist Papers
Our duty is to God, the Creator of all life, and the sustainer of all life. He is the Supreme Decision Maker. Is He yours?
Gary K Fair
11 November 29, 2020
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