Each day we face many choices. All choices can be reduced into three classes. These are:

1. The supreme or ultimate choice. This is our main purpose or aim in life. This choice has only two alternatives. These are:

A. To be ruled by God. Christ is your king. You are totally submitted to God. You have Jesus Christ living inside of you. You have a simple true childlike trust, confidence, and a pure love for God as a result of Christ within you.

B. To be ruled by self. You are king of your domain. You are totally submitted to yourself. You are dead to God but alive to self and sin. You have confidence in yourself and your own abilities. You only love yourself. You are the center of your own universe. Everything and every one else revolve around you.

If you do not have Christ Himself living inside you then you are not born again. Any person without Christ is totally ruled by selfishness. This person has no true love at all for God. It is IMPOSSIBLE to truly love God without being born again.

John 3:36 "He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he who does not believe on the Son will not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him."

1 John 5:12 "He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life."

2. Subordinate choices. These are the methods and ways we choose to gain our supreme choice.

3. Simple choices. These are the actual carrying out of our subordinate choices. These outward acts establish our supreme choice.

It is impossible for the mind to have more than one ultimate aim and direction at once. It is impossible for a person to love himself supremely and God also.

The supreme choice is determined by what each person considers to be most valuable. An example would be, if you had to choose between a rock and a diamond what would you choose? You would choose the diamond because it is valuable within itself. It would be stupid to choose the rock.

The supreme choice is similar. We have to choose between to be ruled by God or our self. If you examine God, you will understand His true value and worth. The devil tries to make supreme selfishness appear to have much value. A person who chooses to live totally for himself instead to live totally for God has made a very stupid choice.

In this example we have two people whose outward actions and choices are the same. When we look at person #2, he appears to be a dedicated Christian with a true desire to serve God. The truth is; He was never born again and he is living only to please himself. His own self-satisfaction and pleasure control his choices and actions.

The Bible makes it clear that the supreme choice is the most important choice that we make. This choice determines if we have the life of Christ or not. If we do not choose to have Christ's life then we have chosen to be ruled by self. A person who lives supremely for himself will only sin. He may accomplish many religious acts and good deeds, but without being totally submitted to God, everything he does would be sin.

The Bible uses the word heart often. It is not referring to the bodily organ that pumps blood. It refers to the supreme choice of the mind and the will. We have control over it and are responsible for it. It is a fountain or spring from which either life or death flows.

Heart in the Bible has five meanings. These are:

1. The ability to choose, sometimes called will power.
2. The ability to know what to choose.
3. The center or seat of affections and desires.
4. The control center.
5. The supreme choice or manner and purpose of life.

Matt. 23:27-28 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

Mark 8:21-23 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

Matthew 12:33-35 "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things."

Luke 6:43-45 "For a good tree brings not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

Prov. 4:23 "Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life."

The wicked heart is the result of the refusal to be ruled by Christ. A person who supremely loves himself will have a wicked heart. He freely submits to his own desires that oppose God's authority to rule over him. The sinner creates his own wicked and selfish heart when he freely chooses and prefers to be controlled by self pleasure.

The selfish heart is the source of all outward sin. If God's love controls the heart then it is holy. If selfishness controls the heart then it is evil and all outward acts, no matter how good they may appear, will be evil. No holy act, word or deed will ever come forth from of a selfish heart. The selfish heart will never love God or keep His commandments. The sinner's chosen selfish state is the complete opposite of what God requires.

All moral character whether good or evil is created and formed by each person's own free choice of what controls his heart. If a person turns to God and allows Him to take control of his heart, then he will have a holy heart. This person loves God supremely and freely submits to His total control that fulfills the law. Holiness is the state of the heart or will which freely submits to God and all known truth.

Many consider their outward actions either good or evil. Actions are not the source of moral virtue. Sin or holiness is decided by the supreme choice alone. A person can 'appear' to do all the right things, (as in the example above, or as with the Pharisees), but if they are done from a desire for the admiration of men, or from some other form of self-gratification, then that person is TOTALLY wicked. A person is totally and desperately wicked if he does all the right 'things', but for the wrong reasons. It is the aim of the heart that determines true holiness or wickedness. The sinner's aim and supreme interest is for himself, and let God get in the way of self, he would kill God if he could.

Usually when you think of sin you think of murder, stealing, cheating, lying and other outward acts. These are only the expressions and manifestations of sin. How many of you know that praying, witnessing, singing, going to church, preaching and worshiping can also be sin?

The state of the heart or what a person supremely lives for is what decides sin and holiness. God looks at the motive of the heart, not the act. All things that are not done out of a true love for God are evil and sinful. God considers it sin when a person does anything out of a purely selfish heart. Supreme selfishness is the core and the foundation from which every form of outward sin flows. It is the source and cause for all transgressions. Every disobedient thought, action, or deed must have supreme selfishness as its root. Where supreme selfishness exists, you will always find some form of sin.

Supreme selfishness is willing self-gratification contrary to the law of God. It is the voluntary choice to be governed by desires, feelings and emotions. The desire itself is not selfishness, but submitting the will to be controlled by it is. Supreme selfishness is the whole of sin. It is a preferred state of mind and heart. This is true indwelling sin because all forms of outward evil spring forth naturally from this state of being.

The most important fact about this indwelling sin is that its existence is the direct result of free choice. No person is born in a state of supreme selfishness. It is a 'willful' act to put one's own personal pleasure and happiness above God and others. Each person chooses to violate his own intelligence and conscience when they sin. Every person has some degree of light and knows that selfishness is wrong.

Remember, the true believer has a simple true childlike trust, confidence, and a pure love for God as a result of Christ Himself living within him. The true Christian truly loves God and lives to bring Him pleasure. The sinner truly loves himself and lives to bring himself pleasure. These are opposing states of the will or heart. It is the aim and the direction of the will that decides all sin and holiness. All outward sin is the result of a selfish heart. All obedience and holiness flow from a holy heart. The heart alone is the source of all moral actions whether good or evil.

The real differences between the sinner and the Christian.

1. The Christian actually has the life of Christ Himself within in him.

1 John 5:12 "He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life."

2. The Christian has been "given a new heart" as a result of being born again.

Ezek 36:26-27 "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."

Ezek 11:19-20 "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."

Heb. 8:10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people."

3. A true child like love, devotion, and confidence towards God.

Deut. 30:6 "And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."

Rom. 5:5b "because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

Study questions.

1. What are the three classes that all choices can be reduced into?

2. Define the term ultimate or supreme choice.

3. How many alternatives does the supreme choice have? Name them.

4. What decides the supreme choice?

5. What determines a person's moral character?

6. What is indwelling sin?

7. What does God look at when examining your character? Why?

8. Define the word heart as used in the Bible.

9. What is a wicked heart? How does a person get one?

10. What is a holy heart? How does a person get one?