Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Deuteronomy chapter 7, the
passage that we read, and reading from our text, verse 6, and there
is just a few words really in verse six i want to speak on
but we'll read the whole verse the whole verse reads for thou
art and holy people unto the lord thy god the lord thy god
has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all
people that are upon the face of the earth Deuteronomy 7 and
verse 6 and the clause that I desire to bring before you and me is
the words the Lord thy God hath chosen the Lord thy God hath
chosen and of course it goes on hath chosen thee But my desire
this evening is to give a basis to be submissive to the Lord's
choice in many, if not all, of the aspects in our lives. One of the graces of God's people
is to be submissive to the sovereignty of God and what he chooses is
best and we see many times throughout the word that we have things
joined to a word such as this the Lord thy God hath chosen
and then set before us what he has chosen but i want to begin
thinking of the passage that is here before us where God is
setting before his ancient people that he has chosen them they
are a peculiar people a special people unto himself in our text
and he brings a real contrast between his people and all other
nations he says in in our text chosen to be a special people
unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the
earth And we see ancient Israel, the nation that God had chosen
to bring the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's
head, chosen to be the custodians of the Scriptures, to write the
inspired Word of God. It is that nation that has gathered
together under God all of the Old Testament Scriptures that
we have. They are the ones that God had
chosen in that way. and then of course in the gospel
to go through into all the world and we have the type as well
not just in the Old Testament of course it is a chosen people
Israel but then in the New we have a spiritual people and what
is said about God's national people is said about his spiritual
people come ye out from among them touch not the unclean thing
I will receive you ye shall be my sons and my daughters saith
the Lord Almighty the same distinction the same separation and in this
chapter we cannot read it without marking how great a distinction
and how carefully they were sanctified, separated to the Lord, they couldn't
make mixed marriages, they had to completely destroy their graven
images, and all those things contrary to the Word of the Lord,
they had to utterly detest them, to hate them, to abhor them.
You know, sometimes we get so deadened, so desensitized, so
hardened, that we see, we hear many things of what the ungodly
and those who have no fear of God before their eyes are doing,
are saying, but do we view them as abominations? Do we view them
as cursed things? Do we utterly detest them? Do
we utterly abhor them? Do we realize that they are cursed
things? now sometimes we can be more
like the world than like God's people and of course when the
children of Israel came back from Babylon they did make mixed
marriages when our Lord was on earth he in the temple he cast
out the buyers and the sellers but we can be like that so if
anything this chapter It highlights the great difference between
God's people and those that are not. Here it is ancient Israel
and the rest of the world, but in Gospel times it is God's chosen
and called people and those of the world that know not God,
the world that lieth in wickedness. a marked difference. And what
made that difference? Who made that difference? Who
decided that there would be a difference? God decided that there would
be a difference. And God made that difference. And He chose a people. And so
we read in our text, Thou art an holy people unto the Lord
thy God. God chose and God made it that
it should be a holy people and unto the Lord thy God. for his
praise his honor his glory this people have i formed for myself
they shall show forth my praise and so in our text the lord thy
god hath chosen thee and then in verse 7 we read the lord did
not set his love upon you nor choose you so we have the choosing
and setting his love upon a people they are one and the same thing
loved with an everlasting love chosen in him before the foundation
of the world we love him because he first loved us and he says
there is nothing in you you are not more in number you are fewer
of all people And we know of ancient Israel, they still murmured,
they complained, they were no different, they were still fallen.
But the Lord chose them, gathered them, brought them, taught them,
sanctified them, and chastened them, and corrected them. And
so, this is the setting here in this chapter. And the way
I want to have it rest on my spirit and yours, as a basis
then for going into the things that happen in our lives and
those of our loved ones, is that the Lord so sovereignly has chosen
us. This may be said of all gathered
tonight of whom have made an open profession, all of those
who are able to say that We are His people, the Lord is our God,
the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit. We have not only
been chosen, we've been called, called by grace, separated unto
Himself. The Lord passing by us when we
are in our blood and bidding us live. The Lord, ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and redeemed you, ordained
you. to bring forth fruit and praise
the Lord testified that in John 15 to his disciples and that
applies to those that follow after he said I pray for them
I pray not only for these but for them who shall believe on
me through their name and so It is an emphasizing here for
a child of God before they start to wrestle with or come to terms
with things in their lives. Let us go right back to the beginning. Let us think, how did we become
one of God's children? How did we come in the way? How did we come to know the Lord? How did we come to have a profession? How did we come to have any dealings
with the Lord at all? Because the Lord began with us.
He chose us. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee. It's speaking of in the past. Not will choose thee. He hath
chosen thee. And that choosing has been made
known by calling and the experience of each of a child of God as
the Lord has called them and quickened them it bears testimony
and witness of this that we are his people don't want to really
think on that maybe each meditate and think on that are we his
people do we have that witness Do we have that token for good?
Do we begin as we start looking at our lives and the things that
we pass through, through various scenes our lives are drawn? Do
we begin first? And think of this, I did not
put myself in the way, I did not choose the way, the Lord
did. He set me amongst His children. He made that choice for me. The
Lord thy God hath chosen thee. May that word then rest upon
our spirit as the starting point for all things that may be burdening,
exercising, troubling your soul tonight. Those things that you're
going through, your loved ones are going through. Let us start. with a choice of the Lord in
choosing us. Why me, says the hymn writer,
why was I made to hear his voice and enter while his room, while
millions make a wretched choice and rather starve than come?
The Lord made that choice. Ye have not chosen me, I have
chosen you and ordained you. We think of the time when David
numbered, at the end of his life, he numbered Israel and the Lord
said to him that, choose thee three things in chastisement. And it was either three years
famine, or three months destroyed before thy foes, or three days,
pestilence, the sword of the Lord destroying. And David said,
let me now fall into the hand of the Lord. He was in a great
strait, because the Lord said to him, you choose. And you know
there are times in our lives If the Lord said to us, well,
you choose. The Word tells us that we must,
through much tribulation, enter the kingdom. But if the Lord
turned to us and said, you must have great trouble, you must
have great tribulation, there's no other way, you choose. You
choose what tribulation. Shall it be sickness in your
body? Shall it be sickness in your loved ones? Shall it be
deformity? Shall it be that all men are
against you and hating you and separate you from their company?
Shall it be that you will be homeless or lose your job? Shall it be some trial from within
your family or outside the family or maybe that the great trial
is going to be in the Church of God and amongst the brethren?
What would you choose? Wouldn't we be in a strait? Wouldn't
we know what to do? How to manage it? You know David
is in one of those places when Absalom was pursuing him And
they went out to battle against him. What was poor David to ask
for? What was he to expect? How could
the outcome be? Job later on, he said, I think
that if they would have been happy, if we'd have all been
killed, and Absalom being spared, but of course it was his son.
Of course he cried for his son. But what an impossible choice.
that the Lord undertook and overruled for it how it should be. David
knew those times when there was things set before him that was
too much for him to choose. He did not know which way to
go at all. We read in Psalm 47, it's a beautiful
word, he shall choose our inheritance for us. not just in this life,
but that which is to come. Inheritance incorruptible, undefiled,
reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation. And the Lord shall choose that. And the place where the temple
was, It was said of Solomon that the Lord hath chosen this place
and he did. That was where the Lord answered
David in the threshing floor of Aaronah the Jebusite. That's where the temple was built. The Lord used that overruled
for good David's sin to show him where the temple should be
built. Same place as Abraham offered
up his son Isaac and the Lord appeared for him and blessed
him there, but the Lord chose the place. David was told he
should not build the temple, but Solomon his son, he prepared
for the temple, but where was it to be built? The Lord chose
the place where it was to be built. And so these things are
set before us. Sometimes we have where the Lord
says, this is not my choice. This is not the way. In Isaiah
58, verses 4, Behold, ye fast, ye fast, and say, Thou seest
not. Wherefore have we afflicted our
soul? Thou takest no knowledge. And
the Lord said, Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure
and exact all your labours. And then he asked this question,
Is it such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict
his soul? Is it to bow down his head as
a bulrush, to spread sackcloth and ashes unto him? Wilt thou
call this a fast, an acceptable day to the Lord? And then he
says, Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands
of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed
go free, that ye break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread
to the hungry, that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? The gospel, the beautiful gospel,
who is a neighbour, the beautiful parable of the Good Samaritan,
and the way the gospel speaks to the poor and the needy. doesn't
come with an iron rod like the law but it comes with oil and
wine to heal and cherish the poor wounded and bruised soul
and the Lord says of this of his his people on one hand this
is not what I have chosen and another he said this is what
I have chosen. In gospel days he would say I
have not chosen to bring the law, I have not chosen to make
the gospel a duty, I have not chosen to offer the gospel to
people, I have chosen to preach the gospel and I have chosen
to make faith to be a gift and that the salvation of the Lord
comes from the Lord and that it begins with the Lord and not
with man. Man all the time tries to reverse
the order and change the way that God has chosen to bless
and to favour his people. God makes it very clear that
there is a way he has chosen and there is a way that he has
not chosen. And so I want to look with the Lord's help just
to consider several ways in which the Lord has clearly made that
choice and chosen for his people. The first one I've set before
you is that he has chosen the way of salvation, the way of
salvation. Right at the very beginning,
when man sinned, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, the Lord said that the seed of the woman should bruise the
serpent's head. He chose out the way. He clothed
naked first parents with the coats of skins from the animals
He'd slain. And very close upon that we read
the offerings of Cain and of Abel, And the Lord was pleased
he had respect unto Abel's sacrifice, a blood offering, but not unto
Cain's, which was of the fruit of the ground, the ground that
was cursed. And right at the beginning the
Lord makes it very clear that I have chosen that my people
should be redeemed, and without the shedding of blood there is
no remission. And that choice is the Lord's
choice. Man did not decide how it would
be. The Lord decided. And like with
Abraham going up that mountain, Isaac saying, my father, the
fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
He knew there must be a lamb. He knew there must be a burnt
offering. He knew there must be blood shed.
But where is it? And Abraham, he says, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And the Lord did provide in a
literal way. But our Lord said, Abraham, he
saw my day and he rejoiced at it. Have you ever thought, well,
There could be many ways the Lord could perhaps have redeemed
his people. You might think, well, why couldn't
he just use his great power and just say, well, I'll just pass
by the transgression of my people. But where would his justice be?
Where would his holiness be? The plan that the Lord has chosen
It does not do any violence to the holiness of the law of God. It's made the law honorable. It doesn't do violence to His
faithfulness or to His holiness. And the Lord has chosen out this
way, defies this way. Dear Job, he says, How can a
clean thing come out of an unclean? He knew that it was the seed
of the woman, but how could one born of a woman be clean? Well,
we know from the gospel how that was brought about. But Job, he puzzled how it would
be. And yet the Lord had chosen the
ways that it should be. We think of the way of salvation
in all that brought the Lord to this world, His perfect life
and obedience, giving a righteousness to give to His people, the blood
that was shed, to loose His people from their debt, to bear the
wrath of God in their place. The Lord chose that way, appointed
that way, how He should save. And then when it comes to the
Gospel, when it comes to bringing about that last will and testimony
of His Beloved Son, He has chosen, He decreed the very place where
He would show triumphant grace. He has appointed that it should
please God through the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Having all our churches, the
local churches, not man's devising, God chose that way. God chose
to have pastors and deacons. He chose to have the churches
and order in the churches. That's God's choice, not man's. And yet man thinks he has that
choice, thinks he can lay aside many of the things in the Word
of God. and decide what shall happen
in the Church of God, or how the men could be saved or brought
to salvation. No, that is God's choice and
God's appointment. He has revealed those things
in His Sacred Word. He has chosen the way of salvation
through Jesus alone, and He has chosen how every one of His dear
children should come to faith. in many, many different ways,
many different ages that they are brought to faith, many different
countries, some long under the law, some very quickly brought
to faith, and liberty, gospel liberty, some are dealt with
very deeply, others more shallowly, some gently, like Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened, or some very severely, like the Philippian
jailer. And the Lord chooses out how
each one should be called in that way. It was said of Saul
of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, go thy way, he is a chosen vessel
unto me to bear my name and to be purely Gentiles. Now, when
we look back, those of us who know the Lord, Himmler says,
Dost thou mind the spot and place where Jesus did thee meet? And
we are to remember as the children of Israel were, all the way the
Lord thy God had led us these forty years in the wilderness,
times of trial, times of testing. But he which hath begun a good
work in us will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. I hope
there are those amongst us that can look back upon the path the
Lord has led us tonight and we see many times where the Lord
has chosen, chosen a trial, chosen how he delivered us, chosen how
he brought us to faith, chosen how he brought us into the Church
of God, chosen our loved ones for us, our husbands, our wives,
chosen our places of abode, chosen where our loved ones have been
taken, when they were taken, how they were taken, circumstances
around their passing, that we saw His hand, His timing, and
able to say he hath ordered all things well. The Lord has chosen
the way of salvation and where it comes down to the personal
experience of his dear children. Now I want to think of this in
the light of those who may not yet know the Lord, who are seeking
him, waiting upon Him, desiring His blessing. There was a line,
and I think it's the last lines in Hymn 306, when and where and
by what means to His wisdom leaving. And when I was seeking that was
a great help to me. And I proved it many times, even
the exercise of the ministry, seven years in bondage, in soul
and in the exercise before it came to pass. And yet the Lord
did bring it to pass in His time, His way. Often in our minds we
try to second guess the Lord, we try to think how He will appear,
how He will deliver us out of a trial, how He will bless our
souls, how He will bring us to faith, how he will set us free,
and yet it is in the Lord's hand, to wait upon him, not in a fatalistic
way, not saying, well, what will be, will be, but being really
burdened, exercised, prayerful over it, but fully persuaded
that the Lord has a chosen place, a chosen time, a chosen manner,
for him to actually work and do these things. Some of the
most sweetest things I've had is to notice the Lord's timing. You've only got to look at the
book of Esther to see the perfect timing of those things that happened
then. Just a slip up in one point would
have unraveled it all, but his timing is perfect. And to watch
then, watch especially where we're waiting upon the Lord for
His salvation, for His blessing and His favour in our souls. So we're to consider that, when
and where and by what means to His wisdom leaving, whether it
be ourselves, whether it be our children, whether it be our loved
ones, whether it be those in the church that we're burdened
for, maybe they're like our children and we lay before them Yet we
must leave it with the Lord, as to how it shall be done and
appointed. But a third thing to consider
is that the Lord hath chosen the words of blessing. In the first place, He has chosen
the words in Scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. He hath chosen what is in the
Bible and what is not. Sometimes we might have passages
and we think, oh, I wish we knew a bit more about that account,
about the flood, about how Noah got all the animals into the
ark, and many other things. The scripture is silent, but
silent in the Lord's choice. because he says that shall not
profit my people. They do not need to know that.
Many times when I was studying, especially in further education,
We would want to know more. We'd ask our instructors, can
we know a bit more? And they said, no, it's not in
the syllabus. It's a waste of time. It won't
help you get through your exams. You just do what I've set before
you. And the Lord, where scripture
is silent, says that to his people, don't trouble yourself with that.
How many are caught up with all sorts of theories and going after
wild notions speculative things that are not in the Word of God,
which if only they took notice of what God has chosen to include
and chosen to exclude, then they would be delivered from many,
many trials. Dear soul, if you are troubled
over things that are not in the Word of God, then may you realize
the Lord has chosen to be silent in that, You think of one example
in John 14, where we read, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Because he's silent, it is that
it is so. There is mansions there. and
it is often a comfort in that where the Lord is silent it is
not a bad thing it's a good thing and so those words of blessing
the inspired word of God but some of us we have verses words
in the scripture that the Lord has chosen to apply to us to
use them to bring us out of a trial to direct us in providence chosen
to be as oil and wine to our soul and those words we haven't
gone through the word of God and thinking I just want a word
for this and I want a word to help me in this time and just
take comfort from taking a word to ourselves we might try there's
no comfort in that but when the Lord brings the word when the
Lord brings thee comfort thy words were found and I did eat
them dear Ruth she went gleaning was it just a chance she gleaned
more than others that there were handfuls of purpose there not
at all there was the command by Boaz and the command was that they
drop those handfuls of purpose, and those were what she found. And the Lord has that command
for His servants, He has that command for His people, that
they are led into the right chapter and right path, so they have
the right word that is brought before them. And sometimes we've
been blessed in going maybe to a special service and the minister
has been unwell, he has not been there, a replacement has been
there, and the Lord has blessed that word to us and it's been
a double blessing because not only been a blessing in the word
but he thought if there wasn't a change of minister the original
minister hadn't been sick then we would not have had that word
that was such a help to us at that time and there's occasions
like that I have and no doubt you have in your life as well
the Lord hath chosen so when we read the lord thy god hath
chosen as the words of our text we can add on to that chosen
the words of blessing that he has blessed us with but then in the fourth way there's
the path of providence the lord has chosen that The Lord said
to Abraham that his seed should be a stranger in a strange land,
they should afflict them four hundred years, and in the fourth
generation they shall come thither again. But he didn't tell Abraham
how that would be brought to pass. Jacob did not know that
it should be his son that was taken from him and he thought
to be dead that was brought into Egypt and that he should become
the ruler and that it should be in that way in the well-known
account of Joseph that God brought his people into Egypt. God chose out that way how that
would come to pass and so in many paths of providence. We have where the Lord was foretold
that out of Egypt have I called my son and the weeping and wailing
of those that lost their children is foretold in Jeremiah and that
there shall be a hope in thine end. The Lord telling hundreds
of years before it came to pass the way what he had chosen should
happen and how it should come to pass. And so with you and
I, our paths in Providence may be like, as the hymn says, the
cup is a bitter cup. The bud is bitter, but sweet
will be the flower. It is hard walking through it. We don't see the way, we don't
know the way. You know, when Jacob ventured,
when he saw the wagons, the Lord appeared to him that first night.
Fear not to go down into Egypt. Joseph shall put his hand under
thy thigh. He shall see Joseph. Jacob, he
said, I thought not to see thy face, and the Lord has shown
me thy seed. But the Lord had been silent
all those 20 years. He hadn't said to Jacob, now
you can pray for your son. He's not dead. He is alive. Don't grieve. that the LORD laid
a veil of silence all over it. When the Shunammite woman came
to Elisha so distressed, Gehazi tried to thrust her away. Elisha
said, No, she is sore troubled, the LORD hath hid it from me.
He didn't know, come as a surprise. And yet this dear woman so afflicted
because of her son had been given by promise that was dead. We have a similar with Elijah
too, the widow of whom she sojourned, fell sick and died. How thou
bring my sin to remembrance, slaying my son? The Lord wrought
the miracle to raise him to life again. But that path of providence
unfolds the book and makes his counsel shine. And each part
of that is chosen by God. Now some of those ways our heart
will shrink at. Some of those ways we'll tremble
at the prospect. We won't know what to pray for. We won't know what outcome to
expect or to even ask the Lord for. But when we're enabled to
consider it was the Lord that chose us first and called us,
and has chosen out our lives where we were blessed, the words
of blessing, many times in Providence also He's chosen. There might
be a help to leave the choice again with Him. Choose thou the
way. that still laid on. Choose it
for me. Choose it for my son. Choose
it for my father. Choose it for my daughter. Choose
it for my wife. Choose it for my loved ones. Mary and Martha, when Lazarus
was sick, they said to the Lord, He whom thou lovest is sick,
and they left the issue with him. love would do what was good
what was needful but then it didn't turn out what they thought
and Lazarus died and the Lord raised him again but what a trial
it was and it will be a trial to us at times when we are thinking
well we'll leave it with the Lord but Lord you must work in
this way it must have this outcome and when it's not then it troubles
us but may we be held to leave the choice with the Lord. Yes, the Lord does that which
is right. Too wise to be mistaken, He. Too good to be unkind. Tribulation
we shall have. In me, He says, you shall have
peace. And if the Lord has chosen us
and chosen our inheritance in heaven, is he not worthy to choose
out for us in all that concerns us here below? The fifth thought
is this, the outcome of all events, afflictions, trials, sicknesses,
church troubles, troubles in the family, the outcome has been
chosen by the Lord. Again, we go back to Joseph,
the throwing into the pit, the false accusation, the imprisonment. You haven't got to the outcome
yet. When it comes to the outcome, then Joseph said, it was not
you that sent me hither, but God to preserve your lives by
great deliverance. judge nothing before the time
your time is all we're ready but my time is not yet i feel
i know myself i'm so prone to judging of the lord before he
has finished the matter we're likely to want to take over We
want to anticipate what He's going to do. Say, Lord, we don't
need to pray anymore. I can see which way this is going.
I can manage it now. But oftentimes the way is so
dark, we can't manage it. And we're like Josaphat, neither
know we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee. And that's where
we must be. Dear soul, if you have a trial,
in the middle of a trial, in the middle of a thing, walking
through it at this time, may be able to rest in the Lord's
choice as to what the outcome shall be. You may think of many
different outcomes. Lord help you to rest in the
outcome He sees fit, and right, and good, for you, for your loved
ones, and for His honour, and for His glory. So may this word
rest with us. The Lord thy God hath chosen. And may we begin with the Lord
thy God hath chosen thee. But then enlarge that to all
those things we pass through in our life. The Lord thy God
hath chosen. Already it is settled. Already
it is done. Already it is chosen. In His
time and way, He brings it about. Our dear Lord said, Nevertheless,
not My will, but Thy will be done. If it be possible, let
this cut pass from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but
Thy will be done. May the Lord give us that spirit
and help us, help us to rest in the Lord and to leave Him
to choose and to order all our ways and the ways of our loved
ones. The Lord add his blessing. Amen.