What will you do with the choices God gives you?

The man or woman who would want to read something very interesting, should begin at the 12th chapter of Genesis and read on through. You will find it is the story of Abraham and his relations, and the wonderful account of God’s faithfulness unto him. Sprinkled in with this story is the unfaithfulness and unbelief of men, in which, we are shown very plainly the failure of men and the wonderful faithfulness of God. It will pay us to read it, not once but many times. It is a story that never seems to grow old, and we can read it through with God’s blessing.

It is wonderful to realize that those characters portrayed are still alive tonight. It is quite true, and one of the marvels of the universe is that everyone has a different countenance. No matter where we go, you will not find a man or woman who has the same countenance that you have. In the billions that inhabit the earth, if two look alike it is a marvel. How wonderful that people have been born for thousands of years, but when we come to types, emotions, sin, selfishness, meanness, many are alike. Also in righteousness, there are quite a few alike in the redemption of the Son of God. Quite a few are resting their entire hope for time and eternity on what has been done at Calvary, and there are many who are lost without Christ and without hope. As we see them operate, the working of their dispositions, going about in certain ways to get what they want, we notice there are not many different kinds of people after all, and all of us who have been in the world, have been able to tell pretty well what men will do to us. We have had to safeguard against dishonest men. We have had to take precautions against people robbing us. We have been suspicious that most men are out for what they can get, and in this way there is very little difference in men. At the bottom they are all the same, and it is only by the grace of God that some are a little different than others.

As we read of men being hanged for some crime they have committed, we can truthfully say, “But for the grace of God that would be me.” As women see pictures of other women who have been caught in their sin, they can say, “But for the grace of God, that would be me.” It is all very well to think that could never have happened to you, but the thing at the base of their downfall, was in us, forming in us, it needed but to be molded to bring to pass these same terrible sins. We, too, were in the process of being lost and doomed without Christ and without hope throughout eternity.

So, when we see these characters in the word of God, they are not only something to be ready about, but they are people that are still to be met. We often see ourselves walking across these pages. Though the events depicted in these verses have passed years ago; the actors have passed from the scene, yet we can see in them much that is in us. For this reason, this book is so profitable and yet there are thousands of people, I fear, who hear it read; many preach about it, and look upon it only as something to be talked about. Just words to be heard; a tale to be told; a show to be seen; something to impress the mind for awhile, and then to be left as soon as they leave the church door, where quickly the rush of life, the glitter of the world, and the powers of darkness dispel what has gone on inside, and many return home the same as they were before they left home. How often has this been true not only through shallow preaching, but through deep preaching too? Sometimes I have been very much impressed, but I have not yielded, and have left the meeting, and have gone out into what seemed a different world. The curses were there, the billboards were glaring at me, the sin was all around, and if I am not yielded to God they all sweep in upon me. They drive out the good thoughts. There is only one way a man and woman can walk with God, and that is by putting on the whole armour of God. We find this in Ephesians 6:11-17:

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Then and only then can we hold the enemy at bay; then and only then can we hold back the terrific rush of the powers of darkness which are on hand today. Praise God, we can do it.

We are reading here about something that happened thousands of years ago. You remember how Abraham stepped out and left his home. God said, “Move out,” and Abraham said, “I will do it.” God counted it unto him for righteousness. Lot went with him, and they got along real well for awhile. Lot surely knew about the conversation Abraham had with God. Lot not only knew about it, but he probably knew Abraham’s God. Lot was a righteous man, the Bible tells us.

There came a day when there was a disagreement between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham. The time came when separation must come. Abraham said, “The whole land is here. You may take what is on the right hand or what is on the left. There is plenty of room.” Lot looked around as he was given first choice, and he saw the plain of Jordan. It was well watered, and was well pleasing, so he said, “If you do not care, I will take the plain of Jordan.” That day, Lot separated from Abraham, and went on to the place of his choice. After a while we see Lot getting into trouble. They raided the place, and carried him off as a prisoner, and Abraham got him back. He went right back into the place of his choice. Now we see two angels coming to warn him. Twenty years had rolled by. Lot had become a great man. I hope you see tonight that God gives us our choice. A man can go to Hell just as though there had been no calvary; just as though no blood had been shed. Indeed thousands are going to just the same as if there had been no Christ, simply because they want the thing that goes to Hell.

The angels came to Lot. Lot had become wise, maybe he was a high official in the town. He had been rescued from the place once, and had gone right back into it again. He thought it probably would not happen again. He probably knew all about Sodom. He knew the streets, the movings of the town, the gossip, the latest news, what things sold for, etc. He was a wise man in the things of Sodom. He was a great man in the things which he had chosen. Ah, but he did not know what he should have known. He was entirely ignorant of what was about to happen. He did not know that the twenty years of his life had gone into was due for destruction. It was a matter of hours before all would be smoke and ashes. It was but a short time before all the people who were busy about their work would be blotted out forever and their souls cast into Hell. Lot might have known many things, but he did not know what he should have known.

But, Abraham knew. Abraham out in the fields with his flocks had seen the angels. He had interceded. He had been about his Father’s business, and had interceded because of the condition of the city. He asked God to spare it if He could find fifty righteous men. But God could not find fifty. Abraham asked God to spare it if he could find forty-five, but forty-five were not to be found. He pleaded until the number was reduced to ten, but still they could not be found, and the angels told Abraham they were going to tell Lot that they were going to destroy Sodom. They were going to tell him to take out whatever he had, and to leave the city immediately. He could take his family, his sons-in-law and daughters, but they were to leave at once. Ah, but Lot had lost his testimony. He had not been living in the place where God answered prayer. He had not been living in the place of communion with God, and when the time of testimony was needed to save life; when the lives of men and women needed him to talk to them convincingly, his words were as one who mocked. They were hollow; they were words that had not power of penetration. He spake, but it was as one who was joking. Though he would have tried to save them, his words lacked the power to do it. It might be well for people to think all they have to do is know a certain thing; to tell people some truth that they have learned in the Bible School, or something they have studied, or something they have gotten here, but you can be as well versed in the things that are coming to pass as you please; the millennium, or the rapture, or the different vials, etc., but just that will not do. There is much talk; there is much preaching, and it is very well as far as it goes, but unless those persons are truly yielded to God, the stuff they talk, even if it is twenty-four hours before the appearance of the thing, fleshly words are simply yells or cries. We warn, but no sound comes out. So it was with this frantic witness.

Oh the horror to see a man on the railroad track, knowing he will shortly be cut down, but realizing it is too late he will not pay attention to our warning him. That is the tragedy of it. It will be on the one side, people who do not know, but on the other side, many who probably know but their worldly lives after they come out of Bible School so offsets the truths they will not have the unction to drive those truths home to men’s hearts.

It all depends upon the reputation of the person who speaks. A certain man can tell me something, and if I do not know him, I will say, “That is all right.” Another person comes along who I know slightly, and tells me the same thing, I will say, “There might be something to this.” But if someone comes along who I have known for years, and I know does not talk at random, I will believe him. So it will be with the preaching of the gospel. As we are living on the verge of something terrible, the saints of God should not have some idea of what is going to pass in their heads, but far more important is that the trumpet might be so clear it will give no uncertain sounds. That it will give forth a real warning that men might heed it. But Lot had no testimony. He had thrown it away. He had exchanged it for something of Sodom. I do not have to tell you that Lot had backslidden when he went to Sodom. If Lot had been sent there by God, there would have been ten righteous men there. Sodom would never have been destroyed, at least not at that time. Lot had business there, and he was attracted by it. He lost his testimony, and it is a tragedy today to see thousands who are losing their testimony. God help us to keep our testimony! God help us if we have lost it to regain it! God help us that we might, in these days when there is impending judgment on the land, that we might not pitch our tents towards Sodom. First that we might not choose selfishly. The first choice was the selfish choice, based entirely upon, “What will be best for ME?” It was like the little boy who told his sister they had a cake, and he cut it, but not exactly in half. He cut it somewhere between a quarter and three-quarters, and he said to his sister, “You take the nice little piece, and I will take the nasty big piece.” That sounds very much like children, but there is something like that in every person. It seems we have to justify ourselves in everything we do. People can bring up the strangest things to justify themselves in doing what they want to do. But the strong evidence cannot convince them that they should not do the thing they want to do.

So, Lot went into the wrong land by not choosing for the glory of God. He chose selfishly, and selfishness got him into trouble. The angel said, “Leave here immediately. Take everything with you,” but Lot lingered until the angel had to take him by the hand, and the other angel took his wife, and led them out of the City. The Lord was merciful to him and brought him forth out of the City. That is all he had. That is all he carried. That is all he saved, himself. Had it not been for the mercy of God, Lot would have perished in the flames. I do not believe that if he had not been forced, he would have ever left the place. His flesh loved it so well.

That is, more or less, true of all of us in the beginning. We loved our sins so much, that we had to be taken hold of by the Spirit of God that we might leave them. We were probably grasped by both hands and drawn by the powerful Spirit away from “Sodom”. But there are thousands tonight, I fear, who are being given their choice—out in the open fields where there is plenty of room; out in the whitened harvest fields where we can labor through life’s short day for Jesus the crucified. God is saying, and others say sometimes, “Do what you please. Take your choice.” We are given our choice for life. What will we do with the little strip we have? This little strip of time that is like the tape that runs through the ticker in the stock market. AS this tape runs through, so our lives run out. Day and night, day and night, year after year, they go. “What will you do?” Jesus asks. “What will you do?” the Spirit asks. “If you choose this, then I will give someone else the other.” The choosing time is when we must be careful. It is not particularly true that you choose a particular country in which to work. That might be true in some cases. It is not vitally true that you go to a certain person rather than another; or that you attend a certain Assembly instead of another, but it is vitally important that you be willing to do either one. That you be willing to go anywhere. That you be willing to do anything; give anything, hallelujah! We must be willing so that the cause of Jesus Christ might be spread throughout the earth, and you will find yourself saying to others, “You take the easy place, and I will take the hard place.” There are places that seem easy, and there are places that seem hard. It may be that the place which seems hard now will be easy in the future. But the thing to do when choosing times come, is to sign on the bottom line. Choose the hard place, then when the times come we will not get into trouble.

Now, if Lot had said, “Abraham, I am going this way,” then Abraham would have had the plain of Jordan. One thing we know if Abraham would have had the plain of Jordan, those who were there would have heard of the glorious God of Abraham, and though we do not know if it was God’s plan to be so, we do know it is God’s plan to bless, and very likely those men and women would have received a witness with such a man in their vicinity. We would have heard that there were some for whom God had done marvelous things. Who knows but Sodom might have been saved! Many who went down under the fire and brimstone would have been saved had this man not chosen selfishly. We probably do not know how valuable choosing is. Let a man backslide and he will find out. People are watching our lives. They do not tell you while you are living how much they see in our lives, but we touch more than we think. If God doesn’t draw the veil aside and let us see what is going through, that should not hander us. If you are going through, take the humble, mean place, and give the other fellow the best. I tell you, you will impress people. You will stand out like a light in the dark night, but when we see saints, the church of God, people who profess to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, so quick to grasp the best, so prone to go towards Sodom, and choose the plain of Jordan because it is pleasant to the eye, we may well know that one is riding towards a fall, and the time will soon come they will be wise in the wisdom of this world, but they will not know what they should know.

Isn’t it so today? We are living in a day that I believe is ripe for judgment. Yet none of the talk in the newspapers, or in the religious paper, and I read quite a number of them, is along this line. The trend is to get the churches to unite or else they will fail. That is the trend on that side. But I read nothing whatever, either in the newspapers or religious papers, that leads me to believe that God is speaking to such men. God is not speaking to those men, that is, those I have in mind. They may know quite a lot, but they reveal by everything they do that they are simply Lots in the gate. They know much about Sodom, but know nothing about the movings from the throne of God, and that is more important today than ever before. The man or woman who will see his or her way to the throne through intercession, by yieldedness, by right and true living, will be worth ten thousand of those who know only what the things of life are bringing forth to the natural way.

Abraham knew—so we may know. I do not know if it is a matter of hours, but I do know it is a matter of a comparatively short time when judgment will be poured out upon the earth. Who knows anything about it? People are expecting it, but not many people know it. How many are before the throne interceding? When Abraham interceded for Sodom, I believe he had Lot in mind, and we may intercede today, and have those in mind who have very foolishly, and selfishly chosen the things of this life and this world.

As they are leaving the city, Lot’s wife turned for one more look at the Sodom she loved so well. At the city where she had become “somebody”. At the city where she had worn fine clothes, and had probably moved among the best of society. Oh, life passed by so pleasantly there. She must have felt that way. The Bible tells us Lot’s soul was vexed, but I hardly believe his wife’s soul was vexed. She turned for one more look, and she was turned into a pillar of salt—a hard, fleshly, pillar of salt, no good for anybody. She was judged, though she had escaped Sodom. Judged even there by God Almighty because she had looked back; because she had cast a longing glance after all God had done for her. She was still longing for the thing that had nearly damned her soul. Though it was burnt she still wanted to see the last of it. Still fleeing for her life with an angel holding her hand, but her heart straying back towards Sodom. A heart that is not yielded to God will stray and will stray though that heart be carried to the throne of God. Unless we allow God to put that something within that we need, we will look back. There is no power to change man unless his heart is changed. You may change man in every way, but if his heart is not changed he will turn back, and the very men and women for whom God has done so much.

How much did God do for Lot? He went there particularly for him, and had an angel lead him from the city. God held up everything that that one man might be saved—delivered—and after all of that, this woman, thinking “All right, I will take one more look there is no harm in that,” but the look revealed where her heart was. Though people might not think it, we can carry God too far. If men go to Hell, it will not be without His love, His compassion, His tears. After God has done so much for us? After He has been so merciful to us; after He has taken us by the hand and led us out of something that even now we can almost smell the fire of judgment upon it, God help us to realize if we turn back we might be turned into a pillar of salt. Something worthless, hard, without the water of life. Jesus has told us to remember Lot’s wife, and I believe He said it in connection with the last days when some are taken away. “REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE.”

The men and women who are given over to the things of the world; the selfish dictates of the heart, may talk if they like, but they will make no impression. Why? Because of unyieldedness. God give us a group of yielded men and women. I do not say it will happen immediately, but the day will come when those people will make an impression on this world. The power of their words will be able to get down into the depths of men and women. I saw one man take a tract yesterday, and I do not ever remembering seeing one so astonished at receiving it. I do not know when I can recall ever seeing a person who received into his or her heart the words, and the words had their effect. They dazed him. It was as if I had struck him. This word had mastered him. This unction that God gave—they were not man’s words but a reading of THE word of God. That is what we need not once or twice, but that is what the world is dying for. That is why we are saved—because the precious truths of God got down into our hearts. That is what is lacking today. “Lot” has been living so long in “Sodom” people pay no attention to him. “Come out from among them,” is the word of God—“Be ye separate.” We can lay aside the worldliness in our pleasures and dress, but we can still be worldly at heart. There are people who would not wear anything but black, something drab and unsightly, yet they run their business the same as worldly people. They put their money in the bank, laying it up, and when they die, turn it over to their sinful children. Those are the things that tell. Trinkets mean nothing. If a man or woman is right with God they will lay them aside. The thing that tells is whether or not we are selfish. If we are choosing for God, we will not be selfish. The wrestle is between self and God. Lot chose for self. He might have had many things wrong with him, but that was the big thing. He might have been an honest man, he might have had something real from God, but as long as that great wrong was within him that swallowed up all his life until at last we see him with no testimony. This is seldom talked about as far as I know. People are preached to, and they are told it is quite all right for people to be selfish. Men and women who suggest that are taking possessions that belong to God. God wants to use us and our possessions for His glory. That is where the line is drawn, and that is where we fall, either on one side or on the other. Are we in this business for selfishness? Are we in this business just to go to Heaven, or to build up the kingdom of God? Do we see only our own souls in Heaven playing on harps, or do we see other men and women dying? Ah, the best way for a man or woman to save himself or herself, is to save others. The best way to have plenty in your pantry, is to see that others have plenty also. The best way to have plenty in this life is to cast your bread upon the waters and you will see it return.

There is that which scatters, God’s word tells us. As sure as we are here tonight, selfishness caused this man to fall, and it will cause every man and woman to fall who will indulge in it. As long as we take the best for ourselves, we are not choosing for God. Jesus Christ was unselfish. He who could give up a throne—come down here and die and live and suffer—was the height of unselfishness. Hallelujah! So must His children be. In the world men are selfishly trying to get along. All are wondering how they will make out. All are wondering if they will get through the depression. ALL FOR SELF! Ah—there is something in my heart tonight, and I believe it is in yours, that reaches out beyond our country. What is going to happen to us? He said if we lost our lives we would find them. Let us get out of our minds what we are going to get, and we will get plenty. If we wonder what WE will get then we will end indulging in an empty, selfish life.

Let us take warning from this man who saved only himself and that was by fire. When we catch a glimpse of what Jesus wants, there is something that wants to give Him more. Having caught a glimpse of what He wants there is an urge to give Him what He wants. He MUST increase. Give Him what He is asking for, and He will take the responsibility as to how you come out, and praise God, it will be victoriously. Praise God it will be victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil. Amen!