Choose Life !
Deut 30:19
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
I am sure this gets the attention of those who promote the error of man's freewill. These dreamers deny that all men by nature are dead in sin and slaves to sin, the flesh and the devil, but believe however they by their own freewill can choose to serve God, from such Scriptures they twist as
Josh 24:15
15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
Men in our pride and self righteousness believe because a choice is given, we have the ability to do so, that is to make a good and holy choice
Jer 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also
do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
You give a meat eating lion the choice to choose between a fat juicy zebra steak to eat and a bowl of salad, which one will he choose every time ? The zebra steak f course, and thats because he is being governed by his nature, with this in mind, we can understand Jere 13:23 above !
The natural man cannot make choices that Glorify God, because he is dead to God !
The scripture in Jer speaks again about the heart of the natural man
Jer 17:9
The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:
who can know it? We by Nature cannot know how wicked our hearts really are and how deceitful until a New Birth takes Place !
Most people read this verse about the wickedness of the human heart and immediately think of people who are murderers and fornicators and thieves and drunks, which deeds are wicked, but the verse also describes the very sincerely religious, the moralist, the kind hearted toward our fellow man and etc, and thats how the heart is deceitful, because by nature we see these things not as wicked. Men see these things as good and things that recommend us to God, however when it comes to having a Right relationship with God, and these things be our Hearts Trust, they are wicked works and dead works before God. They are the dead works that the Blood of Christ purges His Elect from
Heb 9:14
14How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The Blood is applied to all the Elect, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit
1 Pet 1:1-2
2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Sprinkling means application of the blood. The word sprinkle means:
a sprinkling (purification)
a) blood of sprinkling
1) i.e. appointed for sprinkling (serving to purify)
There is nothing an unregenerate heart can do to please God, so Paul wrote
Rom 8:8
8So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
They cannot, so they will not ! Our repentance in the flesh cannot please God, Our Faith or believing in the flesh cannot please God, nothing can, and yet many deceived souls believe that while unregenerate, they exercised faith that pleases God
Heb 11:6, and that gave them a right to everlasting life, in direct opposition to God's Word. So again
Jer 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
We cannot choose Life ! It must be Given by Grace !