You'll find my subject in Hebrews
chapter three, Hebrews chapter three in verse one. I'm always thankful for the opportunity
to speak from God's word. He does very wonderful things. He always takes tools that are
absolutely worthless except when he grabs them. And somehow or
other, he does things with us that we can't do. And I'm just
thankful for the opportunity. I hope that you can follow along
with me this evening. Let's read just the very first
line of Hebrews 3.1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling. Let's pray. Father, we look at one another
and we see flesh. And Lord, sometimes we see and
we expose more flesh than we want to. Lord, our sinful nature
is always evident, always about us. And it's for that reason,
Lord, that we need, we require a salvation that is from heaven.
We require a calling that's irresistible. We require someone to sustain
us to the end. And therefore, Lord, we pray
this evening that you would manifest yourself among us, that you would
speak to your people, that together as we rehearse the glory of the
heavenly calling, that we may see your glory, the glory of
your son, and the glory of your spirit may shine in our hearts
and cause us to rest in his salvation and cause us, Lord, to proclaim
it daily. For it's in his name we pray. Now, here we see that the writer
of this letter to the Hebrews addresses them here first of
all as holy brothers, holy brethren. Now, that would have been a salutation
that would be a very familiar greeting for them. That's one
that they would have used frequently as unsaved Jews. They would have
heard that before. The word holy carries two senses.
One is the obvious one, holy, free from sin, that absence of
defilement, But here it carries a different connotation. Here
it means separated. It comes back into that other
half of the word. Separated unto God. To greet one as a holy brother
is to acknowledge them as one of God's elect. A separated brother,
one that God has claimed from the world. Exodus chapter 19,
let me read that one while you turn to 2 Peter 2, and I'll meet
you there in just a minute. In Exodus 19, verses 3 through
6, that word Holy is clearly used in this sense. Let me read
that to you while you're turning. And Moses went up unto God and
the Lord called unto him out of the mountains saying, thus
shalt thou say to the house of Israel, you've seen what I did
unto the Egyptians and how I bore you on equals wings and brought
you unto myself. Now, therefore, if you'll obey
my voice indeed, if you really, if you really hear me and keep
my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar, that is a unique,
One of a kind treasure unto me above all people, for all the
earth is mine. And you shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, a holy nation." There it is. A nation separated from
among all the others as God's unique people. You see the sense
of holy there. Holy as separated out from. Now look in the passage
that we looked there in second Peter chapter two, verse nine.
Here, Peter's inspired to interpret this Old Testament passage as
a reference to God's elect. You are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, one separated from the others. Literally,
that next line says a people for possession. God just picked
you because he wanted you. That you should show forth the
praises of him having called you, there it is, having called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who before were
not a people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy. In order then to be included
among holy brothers and holy sisters as one of God's chosen
people who alone are the people of this earth that God regards
in mercy, then this is a critical and a crucial element. One must
be called. There must be a calling. I would
say that the fact that that's mentioned so clearly there, that's
the hinge pin of this last verse we read, that it would be well
worth our time, I think, for a few minutes to consider this
idea of God's calling, partakers of heavenly calling. There's
always been, as far as I can read back a great debate among
religionists as to whether God's calling is universal or whether
it's particular. Whether our participation in
God's call is at our discretion or his discretion. All human
religions are founded on the false principle that God is calling
everyone. God just wants to embrace everyone
if you'll just let him have his way. And that the effectiveness
of his call, this universal supposed call, is determined by our decision
whether or not to accept it or respond to it. There is such
a thing as a general call. The scriptures speak of it very
clearly. The heavens declare the glory of God. The earth shows
its handiwork to all men who've ever lived upon this planet.
Everyone who's ever opened eyes upon this world has heard that
call. None have been excluded, because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them. For God manifested it to them,
he says. For his invisible attributes
are clearly seen from the creation of the world all the way to today, being understood by the things
that are made, both his eternal power and Godhead. That is the
fact that he has always been And the fact that he is God almighty,
all you have to do is open your eyes and look around. That message
has gone out to everyone. It doesn't matter if you speak
that language or not. It's a language that bypasses all linguistic
barriers and speaks of the truth of God's, of his being and the
truth of his power and the truth that he is the great, great creator.
So that they are without excuse. And not only that. God has even
gone far beyond that, all down through human history. God has
graciously sent his truth, the sound of his gospel, the gospel
of Christ throughout the world, all through generations. You
can read that history way back younger, even sometimes before
books were written. You can read some of the things
that got passed on down by word of mouth for centuries and then
were finally written. The truth that generation after
generation, God has passed down his gospel, he has revealed himself,
even at this very moment. We have the internet, we've got,
you know, writing is manifested in so many different means. We've
got voice all over the television and the radio and everywhere. The gospel is available. it is
readily available to all who would hear it in our generation.
Is that not a wonder? And that's not been true of every
generation. There's always been a little
light, but in our generation, there's ample light for people
to hear. But the mere sound of the gospel
is not enough. It's insufficient apart from
God's particular call. That general call is a good call. But it must be particular. His call of chosen sinners, for
the Bible says, for many are called. Many are called in that
general manner. Many have come through these
doors and they've sat in here among us and they've heard the
gospel. You know, we've preached here every time we come. Is that
not a wonder? I don't know where you came from,
but where I came from, I'd never heard it growing up any at all. People who come in here, they
hear the gospel preached every time they come. And that's a
good call. Many are called in that way.
Every time we hear Todd and others who come here and preach, they
preach the gospel of God's saving grace to all sinners who would
come. That's a general call. Many are called, but few, few
are chosen. Few are chosen. Look with me just briefly. I
want to share that. Look in Galatians chapter one,
there's a verse there. That is very, very outstanding
in this regard. Galatians chapter one, verse
four. Paul in his introduction, I'll
just break in the middle where he's in the middle of that and
here's what he says. He speaks of Christ who gave
himself for our sins in order that he might deliver us. That word deliver is interesting
if you study it out. It literally means to pick out.
to pick out, who gave himself for our sins that he might pick
us out from among this present evil world according to the will
of God and our Father. There's the particular call.
That's the particular call. That message goes to many ears,
but it only goes to particular hearts. It's God's grace. This
is salvation by grace alone. So this heavenly calling is not
just something you've got to try to figure out and do something
with. It's this particular aspect of the irresistibility of this
call that makes the overwhelming difference between the heavenly
calling of God and earthly callings of human preachers. The heavenly
calling is always successful. Name me one time. I dare anyone
to name me one time that God has ever called and whom he called
and never came. Not one time. The call of God
is always successful. But the earthly callings of mere
religion, they're never effective. No one has ever succeeded in
calling through the false gospel of Let me help you. Let me teach
you how to understand the Bible. Let me teach you how to pray
Let me teach you how to live. Let's see if we can get your
better side showing and hide your worse side No one's ever
come to Christ through that gospel. No Never effective in bringing
dead sinners to repentance. This was Paul's testimony while
you're there in Galatians chapter 1 It's his testimony in chapter
1 verse 15 and 16. Look look at what he says here But when God, the One having
separated me from my mother's womb, that is, He separated me
unto Himself before I ever left my mother's womb, and having
called me through His grace when He was pleased to reveal His
Son in me, in order that I preach Him among the nations, the non-Jewish
nations, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. What
are the elements that are presented in that brief verse that make
the heavenly calling successful? It's actually packed. You can
minimize it down to this simple formula. It's one glorious subject
and four effectual verbs. Look at this. The subject performing
all four of these saving actions mentioned in those verses is
God himself and God alone. Note that the success of the
heavenly calling in no way depends on the response of the one being
called. None of the verbs Paul uses here to describe God's work
of saving grace depended on our cooperation for its fulfillment. Look at the first one, separated,
separated. That's a passive verb. It's something
that God does to us. He separated us. Paul says, having
separated me from my mother's womb, And we live in the generation
where religion is very loud and very adamant that God gives a
call and you must respond and you have to do your part in order
for his part to be effective. Paul says that that would have
never worked for him and it doesn't describe his salvation because
he said that God called him before he had the opportunity to respond.
Separated unto God from the womb of my mother. Tell me where free
will is in that. That man had never even breathed
the free air, and God had separated him unto himself. Separated from
the womb of my mother. In Romans 1.1, I'll remind you
that Paul speaks of that separation unto God's gospel as having preceded
Paul's call to apostleship. There he writes of himself, and
he says, Paul, a called apostle, having been separated unto the
gospel of God, By the time that God saved him and called him
to be an apostle, he had already long time been separated unto
God's grace, called of him and set apart. Now, second one, that's
separated. The second word in that passage
that we read in Galatians 1 is called, called. And having called
me through his grace, Now here, Paul expands on this part of
his testimony. And again, we find that in what
he writes in, uh, in second Timothy one, nine, let me read this one
to you. I think you'll recognize it. It shows what he writes here
shows that this separation that God did with him occurred long
before Paul ever became a living soul in the womb. His mother
listened to these words, God, the one having saved us and having
called us with a Holy calling. Not according to our works. None
of this had anything to do with what we were doing or not doing.
What we had aspired to or not even thought about. Not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, and
listen to this, given to us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now when does God call? When
does He set us apart? When are we separated unto Him?
If we are His, we've always been His. I remember times when I
was not aware of that and I didn't consider myself one of His. And when the Lord shocked me
with the reality of the necessity of Him doing all the work and
all the work I had done meaning nothing, I knew that God had
never had anything to do with me and yet He called me and I
found that He'd always had something to do with me. And He had never
been angry with me. He had never once turned his
back on me, but had always prepared everything in my life to lead
me to him. No, it's an invincible calling.
Having called me through his grace. And third, he uses that
word reveal, but oh, look at the marvelous way that Paul speaks
about revelation in that passage there in Galatians 1, 15 and
16. To reveal his son in me, not to me, to me would pretty well fit how
most folks think religiously, that God revealed the truth or
these ideas, these doctrines about his son to me so that I
could think about them and work them out and figure them out
and see how it all worked together and build the doctrine in my
head and get it all straightened out, but that's not what it says.
It says that the work of God was to reveal his son in me,
in me. Well, revelation generally does
deal with thoughts, reveal ideas, reveal thoughts, and what's the
best thought that's ever been thought? If it's not the Lord
Jesus Christ, the word of God, if he's gonna reveal the best
word to you, he'll reveal Christ to you, not to reveal his son
in me. And that is actually an act of
spiritual union by which we know Christ. We learn words through
the auditory canal. We hear things and we formulate
images and concepts in our mind and we figure things out. That's
not totally unlike. It's in a very small way a picture
of what God does for us. He reveals Christ in our hearts,
in our minds, in the very depths of our being and we know him
through that revelation. Now I know that there's no way
that you can put your finger on that and we can't figure all
that out and you can't look inside and find Christ. Every time I
look inside I find stuff I don't want to find. But I do know this,
I do know that I know things that I did not know before I
was made one with Christ, before He revealed His Son in me. I
understand things I never understood. I know things I never knew. And
it's purely by the revelation of Christ within. The Lord Jesus
Christ mentioned that again in Matthew. Let me read you this
passage. At that time, Jesus answering said, I give thanks
to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you hid these
things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants,
just mere babes as I, for so it was good in your sight. It
pleased you. All things were delivered to me by my father.
And no one knows the son. No one fully knows the son except
the father. Neither does anyone fully know
the father except the son. And I'll give you a literal translation
of the last piece. No one truly knows the Father
except the Son, and he unto whom if the Son wills to reveal."
This is not a natural thing. It's not by choice. It's not
by ability. It's not by having a better mind
than some or a more sensitive heart than others. It's not by
being able to study ancient texts and figure out doctrinal conundrums. It's not about that. This is
about a work of God. This is about revelation and
not just ideas and thoughts. It's the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ within union with Christ. And finally, this is
the, all of this together is the impact of the last verb that
Paul used in Galatians 1 15, when he used that simple word,
pleased, pleased. Herein lies the gracious certainty
of the heavenly call. Whoever. wherever, whenever God
is pleased to call a sinner, they always come. They always
come. Now, who had to be pleased in
order for Paul to come? Well, if Paul had to be pleased,
you know his history. It's very clearly presented in
Acts. If Paul had to be pleased, Paul would have never come. But
God was pleased and he brought him. That's the, that's the calling
of God. Now, this word translated calling
in our text is used only 10 other times in the Bible. Relax. I'm
not going to do all 10. It's only, I'm only going to
pick out about four. And I want us to look at these
four with a few accompanying verses. And I want to bring out
four thoughts about this call. First of all, the call of God
is irrevocable. Look with me in Romans chapter
11. Romans 11, let's begin with verse
25. For I don't want you to be ignorant
of this mystery, brothers, lest you be wise in yourselves, that
hardness, that's the word for callous, That callousness, really
hard, in part has happened to Israel. That in part means not
every individual Jew has been hardened, but the vast majority
of Jews nonetheless. That hardness in part has happened
to Israel until the fullness. And that word fullness can be
used in a number of ways in the Bible. And here it's used in
the sense of the remainder. The remainder, the fullness is
that which remains to be filled up. He says, hardness, this partial
hardness, or this hardness to part of Israel has come upon
them until the remainder, the remainder that is of God's people,
the remainder of God's Israel comes in from the nations. That is God is going to make
up the rest of his Israel from the Gentiles. And thus verse
26, in that way. With God saving whatever Jews
he was pleased to save, and God saving whatever Gentiles he's
pleased to save, and thus all Israel will be saved. According
as has been written, the deliverer will come out of Zion, the deliverer
will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is the covenant,
my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. Did you notice
that he didn't have any? There's no qualifiers there.
There's no if clause at all. This is my covenant with them
and the covenant is so one-sided because the only one acting in
this covenant is the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my covenant when
I just come to take away their sins. I like that kind of covenant. I've never been 100% a keeper
of my end of any bargain. I've always failed in some way.
But this covenant depends on Christ and Christ alone. When
I come to take away their sins. Then in verse 28, on the one
hand then because of the gospel. They, these Jews whose hearts
have been hardened, that God's not calling them, He's not trying
to save them, He's going to let the gospel be preached in their
ears, and they're going to hate Him for it. On the one hand,
because of the gospel, they're enemies. Because of you, they
look at that message. Here are Jews who have that long
history, all the way back to the beginning of the book of
Genesis, and they say, God's not going to call Gentiles. He's
calling our people. He's going to call Jews only.
He's not calling those filthy Gentiles. They were so offended
in that they wanted nothing to do with the gospel like that,
that God would save people like you, people like me. No, no way. He's saving our people. They
were so offended at that. No, because of the gospel, they're
enemies because of you. They say, if God's saving people
like that, I want nothing to do with that. On the other hand,
because of election, because of Being chosen, they are beloved
because of the fathers. God made a promise to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and he kept it. He kept it literally, and
he kept it spiritually. And he's in the process of saving
every last son of Abraham and daughter of Abraham. He's finding
them all over the place. And they're not all Jews, but
they're all God's people. And he's keeping his promise.
He's saving every last one of them. No. Because of election,
God's grace in election, they're beloved because of the fathers
for the gifts. Look at this first 29. The gifts and the calling of
God are without repentance. That's not talking about repentance
from a man. The gifts and calling of God
are without, we can have it without repenting. It's not talking about
that. The repentance is on God's part. And the interesting thing
about this word is it's not the word that's normally translated
repentance. Usually that word talks about a change of mind.
And it's true, God never changes his mind. He thinks perfect thoughts,
fully developed thoughts that need no alteration or modification
or editing, his thoughts are perfect. But it's not talking
about him changing his mind. It's talking about him changing
his, his heart. There's a good, a good verse
back in Matthew to help you understand what he's saying there. Matthew
21, Matthew 21 down around verse
28. Here's where this versus this
word is used again. And it, it so speaks to my heart
in connection with what we're looking at, but what, thank you. A certain man had two sons and
he came to the first and said, son, go work today in my vineyard. And he answered and said, absolutely
not. I will not. But afterward, watch,
look at this word, same word. He repented. He repented. He didn't only just change his
mind. The word speaks of a young man who had a change of heart.
He got to thinking about that. We as sons generally don't think
too much about it, but at some point he probably thought, but
dad's been good to me. Roof over my head. I eat well.
He's clothed me. He watches out for me. He's bailed
me out a lot of times. And he had a change of heart.
Something inside of him made him feel bad about not going
out and working in his father's field. He changed his mind and
he went ahead and did it. Now, here's the negative sense
of that in our text. Negative sense is that God, the
gifts and callings of God are without any change of heart. If God loves you, God has always
loved you and God cannot do anything but love you. And he will never
have a change of heart about that. Never a day. I can think a lot of days when
he ought, when he could have and by human standards should
have. said I'll have nothing to do
with that one. He's so fickle. He's so foolish. He's so self-seeking.
He's so blind. He's so ignorant. He's always
doing the things that are against the gospel. And yet he's never
a single time looked upon me or any other of his children
and had a single shift of heart that said, maybe I did a wrong
thing in that one. Maybe I shouldn't have saved
that one. Not once. No change. of heart in the Lord. The call of God is irrevocable.
It cannot be revoked, for the one who issued it will never
change the way he feels about his choosing and his calling. Christ said, I came down from
heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent
me. And this is the will of the one having sent me, Christ said,
that of all which he has given me, I will lose nothing. It's His call. I'm not going
to lose one of them. I'll raise them up in the last
day. Secondly, let me hurry on. The call of God is not only irrevocable,
the call of God is irresistible. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter one,
let's begin with verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to those who perish, foolishness makes no sense. But unto us who
are saved, it's the power of God. For it's written, I'll destroy
the wisdom of the wise. I'll bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Has God, has not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in
the wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, by its worldly wisdom,
knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, the foolishness of the gospel, to save those
who believe. Foolishness to them, for the
Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ, crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block.
They can't figure that out. And unto the Greeks, its foolishness
has nothing to do with life, but unto them who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Did you see what made the difference?
Unto them who are called. When God calls, it doesn't matter
what background you come from. Jews, the highly religious. the
law keepers, those who are trying to work their way into God's
grace, or the Greeks who had no concern whatsoever for the
gospel, had no knowledge of it and no concern for it, whichever
end you come from in that spectrum, there's only one thing that will
make a difference, the called, the call. Because the foolishness
of God, in verse 25, is wiser than men, the weakness of God
is stronger than men, for you see your calling then, brethren,
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, those who
think they understand the Bible, those who think they've figured
out what God's doing in this world, not many wise after the
flesh, not many mighty, not those who have the ability, they think,
to control their life, to stop doing bad things and do good
things, no, not many mighty, not many noble, That is, not
of high birth, not many highfalutin people are called, but God hath
chosen the foolish things of this world, those who don't know
the gospel. Those who could, if God saves
them, admit the first thing, I'd have never figured that out.
Chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak. The
powerless things of the world, those who can't straighten up
their lives, those who can't figure out the gospel and get
everything going the right direction, no, those who have no ability.
God's chosen the weak things of the world to confound the
things of the mighty, those who think they can. And the base
things of the world, the things which are despised, hath God
chosen. And let me remind you that everyone
God chooses, he calls. Hath God chosen, yea, in the
things which are not, to bring to naught, to nothing, things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. The call
of God is irresistible. God calls whom he chooses and
those he chooses, all of them, are those who are helpless, cannot
understand, cannot get that thing straightened out in their lives,
can't come to God. God comes to them and he calls
them. Look very quickly over in John
chapter six. This is what Christ is speaking
of. This same truth is in John six. Let's look at verse 36. But I said unto you that you've
also seen me, and believe not. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me. And him that comes to me I'll
in no wise cast out. The call of God is irresistible.
If God gives you to Christ, you'll come. Look on down in verse 44. No man can come to me. No one
has the ability to come to me on his own or on her own, except
the Father, which hath sent me draw him. And if God draws you,
I will raise him up at the last day, as it's written in the prophets,
and they shall all be taught of God. Every man, not some,
not most, but every person, therefore, that hath heard the call of God
and hath learned from the Father comes to Christ. Every last one. The call of God is irresistible.
Thirdly, the call of God is irreversible. If God calls you, he won't take
it back. It cannot be undone. Ephesians
chapter one, let me read to you a few verses beginning with verse
15. Paul writes and says, therefore
I too, that's verse 15, hearing the faith in the Lord Jesus among
you and the love to all the saints do not cease to give thanks on
your behalf. making mention of you in my prayers,
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father,
give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation and a full knowledge
of him. The eyes of your heart having
been enlightened that you know what is the hope, and here's
an interesting phrase, the hope of his calling. Hope is not just
vain hope. Oh, I hope I'm saved. I hope
when it comes my time to die that I'll be okay. It's not just
an iffy hope. No, hope in the scriptures is a confident expectation. I can give you this word of confidence. If God has called you, if God
has called you, you cannot not be saved. You cannot fall away. You cannot fail of the grace
of God if God has called you. He's going to save you. He's
going to keep you all the way to the end. And he says, that's
why if we have hope, If we have this hope, we have a confident
expectation that is surely As surely as Christ died for me,
as surely as Christ rose victoriously for me, as surely as Christ met
me in Africa and preached the gospel to me, and as surely as
He caused me, who had no interest whatsoever in the message, and
caused me to understand it and to hear it and to see it as everything
that I did not have and did not understand, as surely as He called
me, I am absolutely confident that He will see me through to
the end. I have a confident expectation And that's the nature of my hope
in him. That we may know what is the
hope of his calling. If God has called you, he is
not going to call you to drop you. What is his power toward
us? He's got the power to keep you.
Those of us believing at the operation of his mighty strength,
his mighty power, our ability, our ability as dead sinners brought
to life. To look at Christ in these scriptures,
to hear Christ's word preached, and to say, all of my hope is
in Him, and to rest. That doesn't come from me and
you. That doesn't come from us getting our mind all psyched
up in the right spot. Oh no, that comes from the confident
expectation that every one God calls, He saves. It's His calling
that gives us expectation. No. That we know what is the hope,
the confident expectation of his calling. What is the glorious
riches of his inheritance in the saints? What is the excelling
greatness of his power toward us? The ones believing at the
operation of his mighty strength, which he has worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead. That's how much it takes for
him to save us. The same power of God that raised Christ's dead
body is the same power of God that makes us know and believe
the gospel. And he seated him at his right
hand in the heavenlies. Everyone in Christ as they sang
earlier everyone in Christ is seated at the right hand of God
in the heavenlies Far above all rule and authority and power
and lordship and every name being named not only in this age, but
in the coming one as well and Subjected all things under his
feet and gave him head over all things to the church. Let me
share with you verse 23 The church which is his body The fullness
that is The fullness of the one, and we'll give you a literal
translation of what he's saying in that passage, those Christ
saves is his body. It's the fullness of the one
filling the whole with all the parts. The picture is Christ
is bringing all the members of his body together, and he's bringing
them all, and he will be a complete Christ in glory. He won't be
missing a single member. Everyone that God calls He will
bring into the body. The call of God is irreversible.
Let me finish up with this one. Finally, the call of God is eternal.
That verse we read earlier on, I want to repeat it again. Paul
wrote in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. Therefore,
Timothy, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me as prisoner, but suffer evil, suffer hardship. Suffer
rejection, suffer the foolishness of people who malign you for
the gospel's sake. Those who speak of our Christ
and malign him as being the effectual savior. No, just suffer with
that according to the power of God. God, the one having saved
us. And he translates that into a
second phrase, the one having saved us, indeed, the one having
called us. Salvation is the calling of God.
It is God simply speaking the word from glory. I want that
one. Come to me. And no one has ever,
no one has ever successfully rejected God's calling. He saves
everyone He calls and they all come. No, indeed having called
us with a holy calling, not according to our work. Salvation has nothing
to do with our response. We don't even have a response.
We don't even have a response. Oh yes, Lord. I will let you
save me if, if what? If what? There's no response. The response is the response
of Lazarus. Lazarus come forth and he stood up. There's no response. The Lord has made him, brought
him back to life and brought him out of that tomb. It's the
same for all of us. There's no response. Not according
to our works. but according to his own purpose
and grace given to us in Christ Jesus before time's eternal.
My hope is this. My hope is that God called me somewhere before time began and
somehow or other in Christ, he chose me and he called me and
he established me for himself in his son, placed me together
with him. I don't know how to explain that except I know that
we live on a timeline in this world. I can remember past things.
I remember being a little boy. I remember being a young man.
I remember now I'm having, I'm making memories now of being
an old man. I know I've lived that timeline and yet in glory
there has never been a moment, not a single moment in which
God had not called me. God had not chosen me. God had
not seen me and put me in the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternity and
time have nothing really to do with each other. This is but
just a very inadequate mirror. Just a few little glimpses of
glory in this life. The reality is on the other side.
And if God has called you, that's why you came. Take no glory.
Take no glory for your salvation. God called you. What else could
you do? He brought you. Where else could
you go? No, all is of God. Let us bow his feet and praise
his name and rejoice in his son who made all that possible. Let's
pray.