Would you turn back to Ephesians
chapter four? I've entitled this message, Have
I Been Called? And when I ask that question, I'm
asking, have I been called by God? Has he called my name? Now the reason I ask that question
is there are many who live and die and have never been called
by God. Now I realize that there's the
call of creation. All men are without excuse because
creation says that God is, but the call I'm talking about is
the call of grace, the effectual. irresistible, invincible call
that everybody he calls, he saves. Now, have I been called? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.26,
you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Now, in that demographic, the
wise men, the mighty and the noble, the great majority are
not called by God. Now, there was a woman by the
name of Lady Huntington back in the 1700s, and she was a noble
person, a rich woman, but she was called of God. And she said,
I am so thankful for the word M. Because if there were no letter
M, it would say not any are called. And I'd be in trouble. I'm thankful
for the letter M, not many are called. Peter says in 2 Peter
1 10 to give diligence to make your calling and election sure. And the only way you'll make
your election sure is if you make your calling sure. Has God called me? It's not something I want to
presume upon. Has God called me? Now, while I was thinking about
this, my mind was brought to the story of Esther. The book of Esther is set during
the Babylonian captivity Israel spent 70 years in Babylon, pulled
out of Israel. The Lord said, this is going
to happen to you. And he placed them in the land of Babylon.
And during that 70 year period, they were under the reign of
five different Kings, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Cyrus, Darius, and
Hasuerus. And these kings are all mentioned
in scriptures. Now, Esther took place under
the reign of Uhasuerus. And if you haven't read the book
of Esther recently, you would benefit from reading it. I can
remember when I was in college, somebody said, well, I got proof
that the Bible is not the word of God because of Esther. And you know, God's name is not
mentioned in the book of Esther. And that's true. He said, all
Esther is, is a glorification of Judaism. Well, the guy had
no understanding of the gospel because the gospel is brought
out so clearly in the book of Esther. Now, under Uhasuerus,
he was having a party. You can read about it in chapter
one. I'm going to just take you to chapter four, but I'm going
to tell you what happened before then. He was having a party showing
off his greatness. And he called his queen, Vashti,
and he wanted to parade her around everybody and let everybody see
how beautiful she was. And I guess, well, that's what
he wanted to do. He showed himself off by how
beautiful his queen was. And you know what Vashti said?
No. I guess she was the first woman slipper. And I admire her
for that. I admire her for that. She said,
I'm not going to take part in this foolishness. She said no. It embarrassed the king, and
his council came up to him and said, you need to do something
about this. If you don't do something about this, our wives are going
to despise us, and they're going to treat us with contempt and
disrespect. And here's what you need to do.
You need to banish her from being queen, and we'll find you another
queen, because we're going to be in trouble if you let this
go. And Hassell Harris agrees. OK, we'll
do this. So in chapter two, he starts
missing Vashti. He starts regretting what he
did, started becoming lonely. And so the council comes up with
an idea. We're going to have a beauty pageant. And the woman
who's the prettiest woman in all of Babylon, she's going to
be your queen. And he said, sounds good. And
they had a beauty pageant. And you know who won? Esther,
she was a Jew. Now she wasn't running in a beauty
pageant, they were just looking for the most beautiful women
and they found that the most beautiful woman was Esther. And
they picked her up to be the king's wife. And she did not
tell them that she was a Jew. Now, Esther had an uncle whose
name was Mordecai. Perhaps you remember him in this
story, Mordecai the Jew. And there was a man by the name
of Haman that Uhasuerus had promoted. And he was a big shot in the
land of Babylon. And he made it to where everybody
that saw Haman, he said, this was the king's decree. Everybody
that sees him, they got to bow down at his feet. And boy, Haman
liked that. He comes up to Mordecai, Mordecai
wouldn't bow. He was a Jew. He wasn't gonna
bow to any man. He would not bow, and that angered
Haman. As a matter of fact, if you go
on reading, he said, if I got everything, I can't have any
joy or peace as long as that man, Mordecai, won't bow to me. Doesn't matter what I have, I've
gotta have that. But he was upset, so he comes to King Ahasuerus
and says, the Jewish people, They're nothing but trouble.
They're nothing but trouble. And your kingdom would be better
served if they were all exterminated. Put them all to death. And King
Lachasuerus agreed to do this, not knowing that his wife was
one of these Jews. And he would have to kill his
wife because the law of the Medes and the Persians couldn't be
changed. So he agreed to do this. Now, Mordecai lets Esther know
about this decree. Let's begin reading in chapter
four of Esther, if you'll turn there. Esther chapter four. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, right
before Job. Verse 10, now Mordecai has sent a messenger
to Esther and told her about the king's decree and how all
the Jews will be put to death. Verse 10, again, Esther spake
unto Hathak and gave him commandment and Mordecai, that was her uncle.
And here's her reply, all the king's servants And the people
of the king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or
woman, shall come unto the king, into the inner court, who is
not called, there's one law of his to put him to death. Except such to whom the king
shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live, But I've not
been called to come into the king these 30 days. She wouldn't
dare come to the king unless he first called her. The king had to initiate the
call. He might kill me if I do this. This was the law of the Medes
and Persians. You couldn't come to the king
on your own. You couldn't just waltz into
his presence. You had to be called. And my dear friend, it's the
same with me and you. You can't come into God's presence
unless you are called. That is the law of the king. You see, he's holy and you're
not. And the only way you can come
is if he initiates the call. Now, if he calls you, you'll
come. You'll come. but the king must
initiate the call. Somebody says, I don't like that.
Well, you got a problem then because that's the way it is.
That's the way this works. God is God and nobody's going
to come into his presence unless he calls them. Verse 12, then they told to Mordecai
Esther's words, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think
not with thyself that thou should escape in the king's house more
than all the Jews. If he goes through this, you're
gonna have to be killed too. You're gonna have to be killed
too. Verse 14, for thou altogether
holds thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement
deliverance arise to the Jews from another place. But thou
and my father's house shall be destroyed. And who knoweth whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? This
is why God put you in this position. Then Esther bade them return
to Mordecai this answer, go gather together all the Jews that are
present, and shew shame and fast ye for me. And neither eat nor
drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast
likewise. And so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law. And if I perish,
I perish. You know, that's the way someone
comes to Christ. I'm going to go, if I perish, I perish, but
I'm not. That's the only hope I have.
This is the only hope the Jews have. So Mordecai went his way
and did according to that Esther had commanded him. Now it came
to pass on the third day. You ever notice in the scriptures,
how many things happen after the third day? It's just throughout
the Scriptures, the third day, the significance being Christ
being raised from the dead from the third day. Now, it came to
pass on the third day that Esther put on her royal apparel and
stood in the inner court of the king's house over against the
king's house. She didn't know what was going
to take place. And the king sat upon his royal throne in the
royal house over against the gate of the house. Now, here's
the story. If the king accepts Esther, all
the Jews will be accepted. If the king rejects Esther, all
the Jews will be destroyed. Ain't that the gospel? Verse
two, and it was so when the king saw Esther the queen standing
in court. that she obtained favor in his
sight. And the king held out to Esther
the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near
and touched the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her,
what wilt thou, Queen Esther? What is thy request? It shall
be even given thee to the half of the king. The king accepted
Esther. And if you go on reading, you
find out how this was overturned, this decree that all the Jews
be killed, but it was because of the representation of Esther. Esther found favor with the king. Christ finds favor with his father. And all of his people are accepted
for his sake. Now, this story teaches us many
things. Esther is a type of Christ, but
it shows the necessity of being called. For you to be saved, The Lord
God, by His Spirit, must initiate this call. Let me read you a
passage from Hebrews chapter 9, verse 15. And for this cause,
He's the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called, not everybody, not everybody, they which are
called, might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. It's only those who are called
that receive this promise of eternal inheritance. Now the
issue, here's the issue, of God initiating the call, the issue
is that of grace. Now this is what this is about,
grace. Romans chapter 9 verse 11 says,
the children being not yet born neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works. Anybody know the rest of the
verse? But of him that calleth. You see, the issue here of God
initiating this call is the issue of grace. If your response to
the call is what counts, He calls you and you can accept it or
reject it, it's up to your response. That makes salvation by works. So the issue here of God initiating
the call is that of grace. Romans 8, verse 28, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the call. according to His purpose. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, He saved
us and He called us. What came first? The Savior. He saved us And then He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works. It wasn't in response
to something we did, but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The saving took place before
the calling. I love thinking about that. You
know what that means? That means I saved before I was called.
Now, if you're saved, you will be called. No doubt about that.
But the salvation doesn't have anything to do with your response
to the call. The salvation has everything to do what Christ
has done for you. He saved us in eternity past. He saved us. Everything we have
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He saved
us and he called us. with this holy calling. What a privilege of grace to
be called. Now, if he has called you, here's
what you think. Why me? Why me? Now, if you get mad at
this and say, well, it's not fair for him to not call everybody,
this doesn't seem to be right. Why didn't he call this person?
Why didn't he call that person? What you're saying by making
that statement is everybody deserves to be called. And when it comes
right down to it, you're saying, I deserve to be called. That's
where those objections come from. But if he has called you, here
is your response. Why me? Why would he call? me." Now, all that he does call,
he saves. Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 1
for a moment. I've already quoted part of this
passage of scripture, but look in verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many Not many
noble are called, but God hath chosen The foolish things of
the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised
hath God chosen. Yea, and the things which are
not, which are nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. Everybody, he's called. Christ
is made to them wisdom, righteousness, holiness, full redemption, that
according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now that's what he is made unto
us. And I love this scripture. Romans
chapter 11 verse 29 says the gifts and calling of God is without
repentance. If God has called you, you're
called, you're saved, and there's no way that call will ever be
reversed because God does not change. The gifts and callings
of God are without repentance. OK. Not everybody is called. And all he calls, he saves. That's true from the scriptures,
isn't it? Not everybody is called and all he calls are saved. Now, who does he call? Who does
he call? Remember, I'm wanting to know
if he's called me. Have I been called? Romans, I
mean Revelation chapter 17, verse 14, gives this simple, glorious
statement. It says concerning Christ, He
is the Lord of lords and the King of kings. And they that
are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. Now who does He
call? Those He chose to call. The elect of God. And what does
He do with the elect? He calls them. He calls them by irresistible,
invincible grace. He calleth His own sheep by name. He calls them. And here's the
evidence that He has called them. He chose them. He called them. And what else are they called?
Faithful. You know what that means? That
means they believe the gospel. Do you believe the gospel? Do
you believe that Christ Jesus is the son of God? Do you believe
that he is all in salvation? Then he called you. That is the
evidence. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. For whom he did foreknow, Then
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, then he also called. Galatians 1.15,
Paul said, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. Romans chapter one, verse seven.
Paul is speaking to the church at Rome and he says, to all that
be beloved of God called to be saints. Called, called by God
to be saints. Now, how can I know if I'm one
of these people? I want to know. Well, listen
to this scripture. The Lord said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now you can know if God called
you or is calling you if you fit this description of being
a sinner. That is the only person he calls. I came not to call the righteous.
He passes them by. They don't need him anyway. I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And let me remind you what a
sinner is. I need to be reminded what a sinner is. A sinner is
the one who commits the sins. He's the one who commits the
sins. A sinner is someone who was born a sinner. He was born
bad. He was born with an evil nature.
He's a sinner by nature. He's a sinner by choice. He's
a sinner by practice. That's what a sinner is. A sinner
is somebody who all he does is sin. That's it. Every action
that comes from Him is a sin because He did it. And the Scripture
teaches that. 1 John 1.10 If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we
say we've not sinned, we make Him a liar. One is a noun, my
nature. The other refers to my actions.
A sinner is someone who all they do is sin and they cannot not
sin. That's what a sinner is. Can
you not sin? And a sinner knows his sin is
all his fault. He's not a victim. He's not blaming
God's sovereignty or God's providence. He's not blaming. His sin is
all his fault. He's no victim. And a sinner
can't look down on anybody. Nobody. I can't look down. I wouldn't have done that. No,
I'm worse. And a sinner has No claim whatsoever on God. They have nothing about them
that could recommend them to God, that would obligate God
to save them. They're not going to sit in judgment on God and
say, well, God should do this and God should do that. They
know they're completely unqualified to make a judgment like that.
They are sinners. Are you a sinner? Well, he came not to call the
righteous, but sinners. To a complete change of mind
about God. About themselves. About salvation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. If you're a sinner, Jesus Christ
came into the world to save you. I love that verse of Scripture,
when we were yet without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Now, if that describes you, without
strength and ungodly, Christ died for you, for sure. For sure. He shed His precious blood for
you, and He calls you by His grace. Now, how does He call?
I see who He calls. He calls sinners. Now, if I say
he calls the elect, you agree with that, but it might not comfort
you any. If I say he calls believers, you agree with that, but it might
not comfort you any. But if you can't get comfort
out of this, he calls sinners. Are you a sinner? He calls you. Now, how does he call? Well,
First Thessalonians 5, 24 says, faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. He calls faithfully. You know
what that means? He determined before time began
to call you, and call you he will. Faithful is he that calleth
you. That's the same faithful as if
we confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful, not just because
we confess the sins. You feel good about your confession
anyway? I mean, you think about your confession of sin. There's
not really that much to it, is there? I mean, there's an element
of insincerity. There's an element of hardness.
and just go on and on. I don't trust my confession of
sin, I trust his confession of sin, and his sorrow for sin,
and he's everything in my salvation. I don't only look to him for
righteousness, I look to him to his faith, to his confession
when he was made sin. I look to, he doesn't, Forgive my sins simply
because I've confessed them, but because he was faithful to
do what he said he's going to do before the world began. I'm
going to save that sinner and I'm going to call him by my grace.
And everybody he determines to call, he calls. And this call is a gracious call. Paul said, he called me by his
grace when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. You see, when he calls, it's
not like he's waiting for you to respond. If you don't respond,
it's going to mess everything up. It's a gracious call. And the
response you have is the gift of his grace. I mean, even responding
to His call. Grace for grace. You know, it
takes grace to receive grace. It takes grace to respond to
His grace and to His call. It's a most gracious call. And
listen to this. Romans chapter 4, verse 17 says,
He calls those things that be not as though they were. He calls
into existence those things that did not exist. He says, believe. And he puts that faith in your
heart. It wasn't there before, and he puts it in, and you believe.
He said to that man with the withered hand, stretch forth
thy hand. The man couldn't do it, it was
withered. But he could when Christ commanded him to. He was enabled
to do what he could not do before. Now that's the power of his command. You see, all he requires, he
gives. He requires you to believe his
gospel. He gives you the grace to believe
his gospel. Everything he requires, he gives. Somebody might think, but I can't
come to Christ. And the Bible says that no man
can come to me, except the Father, which has sent me, draw it. But
the Lord also said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. And him that cometh to me, now here's the point I want
you to hear, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise, for
no reason cast out. So don't anybody in here think,
well, he's not calling me. You come to him, he'll receive
you. He will receive you. There's no reason whatsoever
why he won't. He's promised. Him that cometh
to me. Well, how do I come to him? Believe
on his name. Call on his name. That's coming
to Christ. Lord, save me. That's coming
to Christ. Save me by who you are. Save
me by your grace. Save me as an act of your sovereign
will. Save me by your blood. You call upon all of his attributes
to save you. Anyone who comes, anyone who
calls, he receives. First Peter 2.9 says he called
us out of darkness into his marvelous light. The darkness of salvation
by works where you really can't put your finger on it. What do
you need to do? What do you need to do? You know,
it never really answers the question. There's always something else,
always something else. But oh, the marvelous light of
the gospel. Christ is all. Now the only way Christ is all
to you is if you are nothing. And if you're nothing, He is
all in all. We read in 2 Thessalonians 2.14
that He called you by our gospel. Now here's how He calls. He calls
by the gospel. Now listen to this. Somebody
that has not heard the gospel God never called them. He calls
by the gospel, the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation
is his call. There is no calling apart from
the gospel. He doesn't use air to call people.
He only uses the truth, the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And what
are we called to? Let me give you. Four things
the Bible says, First Corinthians one nine, you're called into
fellowship with his son. You are called to a relationship
with Jesus Christ, where you say, I am my Beloved's, and my
Beloved is mine. You're called to a relationship
with Him. What on this earth can compare with that? Where
He knows you, and you know Him, and you have fellowship with
Him. And you're fit for fellowship with Him because He gives you
the fitness. You're called to fellowship with His dear Son. And 1 Corinthians 7, 15 says,
For God hath called us to peace. To peace. The peace of knowing that I'm
complete in Christ and I don't need to come up with anything.
Does that give you peace? That He is everything in your
salvation? You don't need anything else?
The only thing that takes away your peace is that you still
think you have sin on you. But if you see He has completely
dealt with the sin and put it away without reference to anything
you've done about it, peace. Peace. He's called you to peace. Peace with His providence. You
might not understand everything He's doing, but He does, and
you're fine with that. You realize that he's God, you're
not. And whatever he does is right.
And you have peace. You have peace right now with
whatever happened. Well, the economy's tanking. Peace. Peace. God's on the throne. He's called
us to peace. In Galatians 5.13, it says you've
been called to liberty. You've been called to freedom,
liberty. What is freedom? What is liberty?
Oh, it's such a wonderful thing. I don't know anything. and I
get to do what I want to do. That's liberty. I want to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want more than
anything else. I want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. What liberty
there is there. And 1 Thessalonians 4, 17 says,
God has not called us to uncleanness, but holiness. Holiness. This is a holy calling. And it's
a call to holiness. Be ye therefore holy, for I am
holy. The only way you can be holy
is if you are holy. There's nothing you can do to
make yourself holy. But if you are holy, and every
believer is, you can be holy. And may God enable us to walk
in holiness. Now here's my closing scripture.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Here is the for sure evidence
of having been called of God. Verse 22, for the Jews, the religious
fellows, they require a sign. And give us an evidence. What can I, give me a sign that
I can see that I'm saved. Give me something to do. Show
me some kind of miracle so I can believe. Give me some kind of
sign that I can look for and find that I'm saved. I need a
sign. I need a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. Not true wisdom, but the wisdom
of this world. Philosophy, vain deceit. But
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block. They stumble over. That's too
easy. That's too easy. That'll lead people to sin. You
mean if Christ died for you, you're saved? Isn't there something
that needs to be added to that? Why? I can't go, that's scandalous. That'll lead people to all kinds
of ungodliness and wickedness because they'll think there's
nothing they need to do to stumble and block. To the Greeks, foolishness. This doesn't even make sense.
But, verse 24, but unto them which are, what? called. Now here's what everybody that
God has called has in common. They see Christ himself as the
wisdom and power of God. Christ is God's wisdom. He's
made a way that he can save somebody like me in a way that honors
his justice, a way for him to be just and justified. That can only happen through
Christ. No man could ever do this. Not only is he the wisdom
of God, he's the power of God. He's the one who has the power
to execute this. Only Christ could do this. Only
Christ could put away my sin. Only Christ could be my righteousness
before God. He's the wisdom of God to find
a way to save somebody like me. And he's the power of God to
execute it. And every body that he is called,
they see Christ as the wisdom of God and Christ as the power
of God. Do you see Christ as the wisdom
of God? Do you see Christ as the very
power of God to execute this glorious salvation? My dear friend,
you have been called by the invincible, irresistible, effectual grace
of God. Lazarus, come forth! He that was dead came forth. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the call
of your grace, and I ask in Christ's name, for Christ's sake, that
you would call each person here by your gospel. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.