that song so much. It's such
a good song. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1. We just had a
Bible study from verse 9 titled, God is faithful. We just looked at the faithfulness
of our God in judgment. He will by no means clear the
guilty. His faithfulness in redemption.
Redemption in the blood of Jesus Christ. He is faithful to forgive
us in His blood. His faithfulness in supplying
faith to His people, saving faith. He's faithful in authoring and
finishing and performing His own faith in His people, causing
them to believe on Him. He is faithful in establishing
his people, establishing them in himself, in his gospel, in
his word. He is faithful in keeping his
people, preserving his people, perfecting his people. He is faithful in every single
promise that he has ever made. every promise he has ever made.
God is faithful. For our message now, I'd like
for us to look at the next phrase in this verse. It says, By whom you were called. By whom you were called. I want
us to get a hold of one thing for this message. I have very
much prayed for you this week, yesterday, this morning. I'm praying for you by way of
praying for myself. Lord, please don't let me get
in the way. Please don't let me ruin this. Please open the
hearts of your people. Please bless your people. I'm
pulling for you today. And I encourage you, ask the
Lord to open your heart. Ask the Lord to let you see this.
I want us to get a hold of one thing. One thing. This is going to be a regular
length message. But I've told you before, and
I still feel this way. There are times I wish I could
bring a five minute message. I had a brother just tell me,
he said Wednesday night felt like a five minute message. Sometimes
I wish I could literally bring a five minute message and just be done. And the reason is because I have
one thing that I want to say and get across. And I feel like
if I could just say it and be done, then we could enter into
it and focus on it and dwell on it. And it wouldn't get lost
in the volume of all this. But here's why I don't bring
five minute messages. It's because me saying it is
not good enough. It needs to be proven in the
word. It has to be proven in the word.
I don't want you just taking my word for something. If you'll just take my word for
it, then you'll take anybody's word for it. There's nothing but danger in
that. There is danger in that. Don't trust me. Don't take my
word for it. We need to be like those noble
Bereans who get into this book to see whether these things be
so. Whatever is said from this pulpit,
it needs to be proven in the word. For that reason, this is
gonna be longer than five minutes, but I still only have one point
to get across. I'm telling you that so that
we can focus all of our attention and all of our energy on hearing
and understanding and believing this one thing. By whom you were
called. by whom you were called. God
is faithful by whom you were called. Okay, may the Lord help us. May
it start right now. Okay, ready? On your mark, get
set, go. All right, Lord help us. Most people believe that
salvation is a decision to be made. They do. Most people believe
that salvation is a decision to be made. Most people believe
that we make the choice to be saved. People believe this is
how it works, okay? You got religion, God, salvation,
heaven. This is how it works. This is
what most people believe. that we make a choice to be saved
and then it's our responsibility to go out and influence others
to make the choice to be saved. That is not so. That is not how salvation works. We don't decide for it. We are called to it. It's not a decision or an effort
or a test that we have to pass. It does not originate on our
end at all. It does not originate on our
end at all. It is a calling of God. It is a calling by God, by whom
you were called. What that means is salvation
is in God's hands and not ours. Boy, I remember the first time
I started getting a hold of that. It scared me to death. I couldn't
understand it. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't. Salvation is in God's hands and
not ours. What that line right there does
is it puts salvation in God's hands and not ours. We do not know when God will
call. It's his decision and not ours. We do not know if God will call. It's His decision and not ours. We're about to find out that
He doesn't call everybody. Sometimes we talk about the general
call. It's a general call of condemnation
and warning. that does go out to everybody. But that's not the saving call
that we're talking about right here. The saving call is a selective
call. In regard to salvation, all of
us, all of us, everybody here is at the mercy of His calling. Everybody here, all of God's
people are called to salvation. All of God's people. Now let's
prove that. Alright, let's prove that. It's
one thing for me to say that. Let's prove it with the Word
for a minute. Look with me in Mark chapter 2. Mark 2 verse 17 says, when Jesus heard it, he saith
unto them, they that are whole have no need of the physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. He said, I came to call my people,
and it's not the good, religious, righteous people. It's sinners. It's sinners. That's who I came to call to
myself, to salvation, sinners. Look with me at Acts chapter
2. Verse 39 says, For the promise is unto you,
and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as
many as the Lord our God shall call. That's who the promise
is to. as many as he calls. Salvation comes by way of a sovereign
call. This call does not go out to
everybody. It is a selective, elective,
particular, specific call. Turn with me back to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26, For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many mighty, not
many noble are called. What does that mean? What does
that verse mean exactly? Here's what it means. It means
not many wise men after the flesh. Not many mighty. And not many
noble are called. Thank God he didn't say any,
but it's not many. Well, if that's the case then,
that makes me want to be foolish, weak, and common. Amen. The Apostle Paul said, that is
my desire, that I might win Christ and be found in Him. He said,
we're fools for Christ's sake. He said, all that wisdom I learned
under Gamaliel, that's dung. He said, I'm weak, and that's
when I'm strong, but I'm weak. This is a particular call. Salvation
is a particular call. Our Lord said, He prayed to the
Father. He said, Father, I thank Thee that You've hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed it unto babes. Particular
call. Look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 15, Wherefore
I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling and what is the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints. Paul said, I want you to know
and understand and be enlightened with the hope of His calling. That goes out to all of His saints.
Look at Ephesians 4, verse 4. There is one body and one spirit,
even as you are called in one hope of your calling. The one
body of all of God's people, which is called the church. He's
the head and we are the body. It's called the church. The word
church means, if you look up the definition of the word church,
it means the called ones. That's what it means. The called
out ones. That's what God's people are.
That's what salvation is. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1. Verse 9 says, Who hath saved us and called
us. That's the order it goes in.
Not the other way around. who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world even began. It was all set in stone before
the world began. That's how it works. He saved
us Not only before we ever even knew we needed to be saved, but
before we were ever even born. He saved us and He called us
without us even knowing He was going to call us. We weren't
expecting His call. We weren't expecting anything. The Apostle Paul said, when it
pleased God, he revealed himself to me. Do you think Paul was
expecting a call on the road to Damascus? I tried to think of an example
of, because I really want us to get a hold of this. I really
want us to, I want to make this clear. I tried to think of a
experience, a true experience of being called. I mean, really
called that I have had or that, you know, any person might have
so that we could really enter into this and understand what
this is saying. And let me start by telling you what
it's not. Some people go to school and learn a trade and get involved
in a career and love what they do. And they say, it's my calling. That's not a calling. That's
us wanting to do something and going out and making it happen.
That's not a calling. That's not a true calling. A true calling is when no component
of the situation originated with you. That's a true calling. I don't know if this is a good
story or not, but I'm going to tell you a story. I hope it doesn't
sound too braggy. I don't mean for it to be. There's
nothing in it for me to brag in. This was the highest example. This is the biggest, maybe most
clear illustration I could think of that involved me being actually
called to something or called for something. We are called
to be believers. We're called to be children of
God. I was called into the ministry, called to preach the gospel.
This is me trying to explain what that really is, what it
looks like. It's not a decision on our part
that we make or come to or cause to happen. It's something that comes to
us. is something that comes to us. A call is something that
comes to us. It's just a notification, okay? Years ago, many, many years ago
now, I was a guitar teacher. I taught people how to play the
guitar. And one day my phone rang. I literally got a call. My phone
rang at the music studio, and a man introduced himself and
said that he was my congressman or my representative or something. I don't know. He had some title. And he explained to me that at
that time, the current president and first lady of the United
States were holding a series of music appreciation seminars
in the White House. And it was for students of music,
specifically. It was to encourage and promote
and whatever. The kids had to be between the
ages of 13 and 16. They were doing one each month
for all of these different styles, genres of music. And they, for
each seminar and each style, within that style they were having
these big name artists, you know, musicians, stars, come and hold
the seminar. And he said, this particular
month is country music. And these were the two artists
that were putting it on. I'm not going to tell you who
it was, because you'll spend the rest of the message thinking
about them and singing their song. But they were big names. And he said, it's limited seating.
They were pulling kids from all over the nation for these seminars.
And there were less than 100 kids there. That might have been
75, 80 kids, maybe 100 kids for each one of these seminars. But
he said, I have four tickets. And he said, I called another
music store, which was one that I knew of. He said, I called
another music store, and I offered it to them. And I asked the guy
I was talking to, would you like to take these tickets, and will
you bring four students to the White House for this seminar?
And he said, no, but I know who will. He said, you call this
guy and he'll do it. So he said, I'm calling you.
And he said, before you answer, you need to know that the seminar
is in two days. And I need to know who the names
are of the kids. You've got to give me their socials.
We've got to do background checks before they can go into the White
House. And you'd have to be standing
in front of the White House at this time in two days. Will you
do it? I said, yes, I will do it. So I picked my four students. One of them, the family owned
a RV. We all piled in. That was our
tour bus. We headed up to DC. Those four kids got to go into
the White House. I didn't get to go because one
chaperone brought in the whole lot of kids, and that was not
me. But those four kids, they got to go into the White House.
They met the First Lady. They met those musicians. And it was an amazing experience. Like, that was just a whirlwind,
amazing experience. And the only reason we were included
in it Here's the only reason. It's because I was called. This
is the only reason. I was just literally notified of
something that was already put in place, reserved for us. It wasn't on my radar at all. And each one of those kids received
a call too from me. They didn't know anything about
it. It wasn't on their radar at all. I chose, I had a large
roster of students at that time. I chose specifically who I wanted
to include in it. I predetermined and called. And one of the little girls that
I selected, she was adopted by a local family there from an
orphanage in Russia. She was adopted when she was
eight years old. For eight years, she lived in
a Russian orphanage. And she was brought over to the
states by an adoption program who they brought quite a few
children and would place them with families and see if it was
a good fit, those who were looking for adoption. And they were there
for quite a while, a few months maybe. And they all interacted
together during that time and spent time together and all those
things. And she was a sweetheart. She was so kind and quiet and
soft-spoken. You were just a tender-hearted
little girl. I enjoyed her so much. But the family that she
was placed with, when the time was up, they didn't want to adopt
her. And they sent her back to that
Russian orphanage. And, you know, some kids were
adopted and she wasn't. She had to get back on that plane
and go back to that orphanage. And another family who was keeping
three infants and adopted those three infants, when they found
out that she was not adopted, they went to Russia and got her
and adopted four children. Now you talk about a call. You
talk about a call. That little girl had met that
family and interacted with that family. Can you imagine her face
when they walked into Russia? They came to her where she was. They said, come on, honey, you're
coming with us. By this point with me, she was
13 years old. That happened a year or two before
they started to come take lessons, and she'd been with me for a
few years now, but she was only five years away from living in
that orphanage. And when we got up there to DC,
I asked her, I said, sweetheart, what does it feel like to go
from an orphanage in Russia to the White House of the United
States of America. She said, I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. That's what all of God's people
say who are called. They don't go around saying,
I did this and I did that. They say, I can't believe it.
I just cannot believe it. Amazing grace, amazing kindness. Well, what did you do to earn
this? What did you do to make this happen? I didn't do anything. I just received a call. One day, I heard the voice of
my Savior say, you're coming with me. That's how it works. God is faithful. God is faithful. By whom you
were called, who gets the glory in that? Who gets the glory for
that? Who's the Savior? Well, I helped him. I told him
he could. No, who's the Savior? He is. Whom he did foreknow, Why did
they go to Russia and get that little girl? They foreknew her.
Was there anybody else in that orphanage? Yes, there was, but
they foreknew her. Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. Whom he called, them he justified. How much? Here's the price. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Now I have one more page of notes
and I'm not going to tell it to you. It's a good place to
stop. But here's the point of that
last page. The good news of this call is Romans 11 29 says the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. If he calls
us, he will never send us back. If he calls us, he'll never send
us back. If he calls in John 10, he said,
my sheep, hear my voice. Not with this ear, but with this
heart. If he calls us, we're his. We're his to stay with him
forever. forever and ever. Lord, call
us. That's what I pray. Lord, call us. Call us. Let us
hear your voice through your word. Call us by your grace. For Christ's sake. Amen.