Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Ephesians chapter one. The chapter that we read, we're
reading for our text, verse 18, or part of that verse. The words, the hope of his calling. The whole verse reads, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
18, the hope of his calling. The Apostle Paul gives thanks
for these Ephesians when he writes to them. In fact, he uses this
manner when he writes to many of the churches. Must have been
very encouraging for them to hear the Apostle give thanks
to God for them and what God had done in their hearts, how
the Lord had blessed them and the Lord had called them And
so he gives thanks and he tells them that he prays in this way
in verse 16, that he ceases not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers. I wonder how many of us, when
we are praying for people, that we actually tell them that we
are praying for them. It is a scriptural thing to do
so. We might say, well, if God hears
my prayers, they will receive the benefit and the blessing
from those prayers, whether they know I'm praying for them or
not. But it is very scriptural that
we actually do tell one another when we are praying for one another. Remember our Lord Jesus Christ
himself says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them whom thou hast given me. And that is a great comfort
for the Church of God to know that Christ prays for his people,
makes intercession for them. And it is also that comfort that
comes, like the Ephesians have here, that the apostle is praying
for them. Yes, we must pray for ourselves. And I hope each of you that are
with us this morning, do pray for your own souls. You don't
rest and lean on another's prayers. And yet how many times we think
of the children of Israel coming to Samuel and asking him to make
intercession and to pray for them. And so we can light the
apostle as he comes and when he writes many of his letters,
he begins and says that he's praying for them, but then afterwards
he asks them, he says, brethren, pray for us. and so we each need
one another. In one sense it is this, God
has used the path of prayer to bring his people together and
so that he hears from them and they hear from him with the blessings
that he gives and that the prayers that we make are not just for
ourselves but for others and others are to know that we are
making those prayers. And then when there is answer
to those prayers, it is likely that we will communicate with
those that have told us that they are praying for us, and
we will tell them that those prayers that they have prayed
have been answered, because that is the other thing that is here
the apostle tells them and tells us. what he has been praying. He doesn't just say that he makes
mention in his prayers. He actually says what he is praying. And he says 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. Now these three
things, as it were, they are preparation blessings. We need
those blessings from the Father. Those that are called by God
need those blessings of wisdom, revelation and a knowledge of
Him. They need their eyes of their
understanding enlightened so that The following blessings,
of which our text is one and bound up with the three things
that follow, may be known. We will not know the hope of
our calling, or the riches of the glory of His inheritance,
or the exceeding greatness of His power towards us, unless
the Lord is pleased to open our eyes, give us that wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him. We need those preparation
blessings, those things first. If we're going to show someone
something naturally, then we'll need to have their eyes be opened. If it is something that is far
off, something that is not able to be seen with the naked eye,
we give them first a telescope, we give them binoculars, we give
them a magnifying glass, and then when we've given them that,
then we say, now I'm going to show you this. And that is what
the apostle here, he's asking for the means, the blessings,
the life, the opening of the eyes, the wisdom first, and then
what is going to be seen and known once those blessings have
been known. Now what is very evident in this
passage here is the vital need to actually be called by God. Not just to have a form of religion,
not just to have a name, but to really be called, which is
in effect the same as to be born again of the Spirit, It is to
be a child of God, to be a believer. And he joins here, those that
believe, in verse 19. What is the exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe? Those that believe, those are
they that are called. But if the apostle here is writing
to the Ephesians, he's writing to them as already being called,
and he's telling them, What they don't know, but what he'd have
them to know, what is the hope of that calling? What is bound
up with that? We might have in a natural sense
a letter calling us to go maybe to a certain person, and we not
realise what that actually means, what is bound up with that. Once
we get to that person, what they've got in store for us, what they
have planned for us, what they intend to show us. And so the
apostle here, he would come to these Ephesian believers and
tell them what God has planned for them, what he has purposed
for them, and what he would do for them. And dear friends, we
need this here below. Those of you that believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ, in all of the tribulations of the way,
we know we shall. The Lord has said that in the
world you shall have tribulation. And this is a veil of tears.
And the apostle says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ,
we've all been most miserable. We need that, a clear scripture
foundation. of an expectation of what the
Lord has called us to, what that really means, and what is so
beautiful about this as well, it is going right back to our
calling, and many things may have happened since that time.
many falls, many slips, much unbelief, many doubts, many changes,
we are not in the same of that first love, and many things that
may take away our assurance, our comfort, our joy, the Apostle
goes right back and he says, in effect, dear child of God,
go past all of these broken years, all of these troubled times,
In effect, say like with dear Jacob, when he says, all these
things are against me, and all the changing scenes of Jacob's
life, the 10 times that Laban changed his wages. Jacob, you
go back, and you go back to Bethel, and you go back when I first
met with you, and blessed you, and was with you. You go then,
and these blessings are bound up with your calling. They're
not dependent upon your works. They're not dependent upon your
keeping and your power. If I have called you, then bound
up with that calling will be these other blessings." And he
especially then sets before us this hope of our calling in the
words to the Ephesians. I desire then that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling. So I desire then this morning
to look at this word, the hope of his calling, in two ways. Firstly, his calling, because
if we aren't clear on calling, then whatever is said of the
hope of his calling will not be a comfort to us. So we need to go and look at
the calling first, and then secondly, look at the hope of his calling. So I want to look then first
at his calling. The apostle in the following
chapter makes it very clear to them how they were called and
that they were called by grace. He says in verse 8 of chapter
2, For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. The Lord's sovereign, free, unmerited
favour had been bestowed upon them in calling them by grace. I think one of the most beautiful
illustrations of calling is that that the Lord gives in John chapter
10 in the type of himself as the good shepherd and his people
as the sheep. And he says simply, as the shepherd,
the shepherd He calls His sheep, He goes before them, and those
sheep, that they hear His voice, and that they follow Him. Says
in John 10, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. In a way, those two verses, they
sum up what our subject is this morning, the calling in verse
27, the sheep hearing his voice, and the hope of the calling in
eternal life and the eternal security of the people of God. But it is a beautiful illustration
as Christ, the shepherd, and calling his sheep. We need to
remember where we were found and where every one of God's
children are before they are called. That we are dead in trespasses
and sins. We do not know anything spiritually
and savingly. We are lost and ruined in the
fall. We are without spiritual life
and we do not have anything of the blessings of God in our soul
in a saving way. We may know many, many things
in our head. The Apostle Paul, before he was
called, he knew the Old Testament scriptures very, very well. He knew the promises of Christ,
but he could not see that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. And
the effect of calling was to shed new light, spiritual light,
upon what he knew and to open his eyes to see the Lord Jesus
Christ, to believe on him. It was the same with the eunuch
that Philip came to. Reading the scriptures, reading
the scriptures wasn't enough. Knowing what was in them wasn't
enough. He needed to see and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that needed his eyes to be
open, to be blessed with saving faith. And God did it through
sending Philip as a preacher and preaching to him Christ Jesus
from the very passage he was reading that he couldn't understand.
He was brought to see and believe in the Lord. And really the seal
of that was a desiring to obey Him and to walk in His ways.
The commission that God has given to the apostles and given to
each of us in the ministry to the end of the world, go ye into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, the
good news of salvation. He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. And he sent the promise of the
Father after us, and with the promise, Lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. And the apostle was able to say
with these Ephesian believers that they had been blessed through
the word of God, the Lord had come to them, the Lord had taught
them, and the Lord had blessed them with his grace. And so with
the calling of God, it is absolutely vital, it's distinguished from
any upbringing. We're not born of flesh or blood. We don't trace because our parents
were God's people, that we were God's people. Not that we've
been in God's house makes us God's people, but it is being
called by God. that God has known us from eternity
and there has come the time when he opens our ears and he calls
us. We have an illustration of the
Lord with Lazarus. Lazarus was dead, literally dead. He died and our Lord came to
the tomb where he was and he spoke and he said, Lazarus, come
forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with gray clothes. Though he was dead,
literally so, yet he heard the voice of the Lord, and he came
out of that grave. And in a spiritual way, that
is what happens. We hear God's voice through the
ministry. We hear God's voice, Christ's
voice, in our soul, and we then live, and we follow him, and
we believe in him. It is equivalent to the New birth,
a new beginning, a spiritual beginning, not just turning over
a new leaf, but a real spiritual life, a real new creature in
Christ Jesus. The Apostle, when he writes to
the Corinthians, he tells us of the description of those that
actually are called. And some might say, well, you
look at the people of this world, you see how many that are really
wise doctors and learned men. It is beneath them to believe
in the Lord and to follow the things of God and you see it's
only foolish ignorant people that believe. Well, that is not
so because there have been many that are really wise in this
world and those that have been very eminent positions, but not
many of them. And I believe it was Lady Huntington
who was of high calling and high standing that she said she so
thanked God that it did say in the word of God that it was not
many and not any that were called. We read in Paul's first epistle
to the Corinthians, he speaks of calling. He says in verse
23 of chapter one, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews
a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God." There's a description of true
calling. That Christ, the power of God,
and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
And he says this, for you see your calling, brethren. And he
describes this calling of God's people. You have a look at it,
he says. You look at it from the outside.
You look at what God is doing in his plan and in his purpose
in this world. How that not many wise men after
the flesh Not many mighty, not many noble are called. And this is where Lady Huntington,
so thank God that it did not say not any, it is not many. But God had chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God had chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to
bring to naught things that are. And we exalt the reason why God
does this, that no flesh should glory in his presence. And then
at the end of that chapter, that according as it is written, he
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord, not in man, not
in wisdom of men. And so the way the Lord has so
ordered it in this world, when he came into this world, he came,
he was born in a stable, he was born to lowly parents. When he
called his disciples, he passed by them that were fishing and
said, follow me, and they followed him. passed by them that were
sitting at receipt of custom, the publicans and the scribes,
the Pharisees, the learned men, religious men of Christ's day. The Lord, for the most part,
passed by. Nicodemus was called a Pharisee,
and yet he was then ridiculed and despised by his fellow Pharisees. But the Lord chose those that
were lowly men, that were despised by the religious elite, they
weren't high in society. But God blessed them, called
them. The Lord Jesus Christ numbered
them amongst his disciples. And they, like the man that was
born blind, and the Lord blessed him and called him, were able
to really confound the Pharisees. And one thing he said, one thing
I know, were as I was blind, now I see. And we are to notice
this with the calling of God, so sovereign he takes those that
are foolish, those that are simple, those that the world despises. and he blesses them with this
wisdom, what we said was so necessary first, what the apostle had prayed
for, for the Ephesians, that they might be given the spirit
of wisdom, revelation in the knowledge of him, and the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened. They are blessed with those blessings
and whatever natural wisdom we might have, whatever, natural
understanding and learning, without that, without these spiritual
blessings, without our eyes being spiritually open, we cannot know
the things of God. A natural man receiveth not the
things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. And we are dependent, every one,
upon these. Grace of God in opening our eyes
and blessing us with these spiritual blessings. Now, dear friends,
really, my real burden is, especially during this pandemic, this time,
that it is a call to our Maker, a call to return unto the Lord,
to look unto our Maker at this time. I greatly fear there are
those in our churches and they are thinking, well, This is a
warning to the world, the Sabbath breakers and to those that are
walking in open sin. But the Lord has his word to
the church, he has his word to his people, to those where they
gather together, to those that may for many years have just
dropped into such a formality, such a taking for granted that
they are one of the people of God because of the forms that
they walk in, because of the associations. And so I ask you
this morning, are you called? Am I called? Has the Lord begun
a good work in our hearts? Has there been a real change? Or are we just drifting on to
a never-ending eternity and never ever thinking of this. You know,
Peter, he says and he exhorts that even for those that know
the Lord, that they are to give diligence to make our calling
and our election sure. In his second epistle to the
churches, those that are scattered, the people of God, he says to
them, Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. Our election is known by calling. He says, if you do these things,
you shall never fall. And it is in the continuing in
the ways of the Lord that our calling is made sure. You think
of a child that is born naturally. How do we make sure that they
were really born? How do we make sure that they
really had life? By the continuing of life, by
their growth, by their actually being. And so it is in a spiritual
way. Those that are called, those
that are born, they will continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord. This is why the apostle is saying
before the Ephesians, is that he wants them to know this knowledge
of the Lord. Have we that aspect in our calling,
that we desire to know the Lord more, we desire to grow in grace,
we desire to be fruitful in the knowledge of Him, that we don't
want to just settle into a form, into a rut, into just a rehearsing
of things that we've known years ago and don't want our coast
enlarged at all. So we are exhorted then by Peter
to Give that diligence. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he says of them, the calling that they are called with is
a high calling. It's to realize what this calling
is. It's not just some mean and lowly
thing. He says in his epistle to the
Philippines, chapter three and verse 14, what he does, that he presses toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He says, it is a high calling. Let us, therefore, as many as
be perfect, complete in Christ, be thus minded, and if in anything
ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. And may our walk reflect the
reality of our calling. So before we then look and come
to the hope of our calling, may we stop, may I ask ourselves
here, are we called? Are we really born again? Are
we saved or are we lost and acting as if we're not lost? Are we
in a position where we truly are ready to die? Now we have
those around us that are called to die at short notice, some
with no warning at all. And this time is certainly a
time that not just through COVID, but for other causes as well,
that we should lay these things to heart. I find myself such
a hard heart, so often I'm not moved by these things, or moved
for a little while, and then it wears off. And how would it
be if we knew in ourselves that we only had but a short time
to live, and then we were to stand before God? We know of
a certainty if we are of 60 years of age, as I am, if we were to
add 50 years, we can't expect. Yes, there are some maybe that
have lived to 110, but very, very few. My father only had
another 17 years on what I have now. And yet, do we live as if
we really believe? My grandfathers, they both died,
you know, one at 49, one at 52, not attaining to the years that
I had. We think of many that have gone
before us, been so useful, so blessed in the churches, in the
history of the church, and yet they had nothing like the years
that I have. And yet we live as if we were
to continue here all the time, never with a real anxious thought,
a searching of the Lord, of our ways and our hearts, and being
so enveloped and taken up with things. We are so like Martha,
cumbered about with many, many things. And so I want to emphasise
this, the vital need of being called to try, if it be possible,
that the Lord may bless this word to break through that hardness
of just rounds of dead service and of having a hope that is
really not a hope, it's not a well-founded hope at all. So here it goes
to calling. Has there been a change? Has
there been a call? Has there been a new birth? Has there been a beginning? He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day. of Jesus Christ. We are not born religious, we
are not born saved, we are born lost and we need to be born again. Well then what is the second
point that is the hope of his calling? And my desire in this
is to revive us that are called to so encourage us in our walk,
in our conduct, in our time here below, that we might think upon
what the end is in view. If we get so comfort about with
these things of earth, what is the best remedy but to show us
what really is set before us and what the hope is that is
before us? So the hope of his calling That
is what I desire with the Lord's help to set before you now. In the fourth chapter of this
epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle says in verse four that
there is one hope of your calling. He says, there is one body and
one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling. And I want to look at it in this
way first, as this one hope, the grand end in view first,
and then there are those things that are bound up with that,
that are joined with that hope of the calling of God. But firstly, then, as to what
that one hope is, that end that is in view. The apostle, when
he writes to the Hebrews, if indeed it is the apostle Paul,
many don't feel it is, but Hebrews chapter nine and verse 15, we
read that, for this cause, he that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
is 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 might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. An eternal inheritance, a promise
of eternal inheritance. That is what is given in a call,
a promise of eternal inheritance. You know, we might have the promise
of an inheritance here below. We might have a father or a relative
that say to us that when we die, you will have my property. You'll have my house and have
my land. And as we are living here, and
they are living, We look at the house that they've got, and look
at the land that they've got, and one day that will be mine.
One day I'll be there. Now I don't have that, but I
have the promise of it, and that's what I'm looking forward to.
I might now be quite poor, live in a little hovel, have not much
wealth at all, but when this person dies, then I'm going to
enter into that inheritance. And what is said before us in
the gospel is Christ that is died, and he has given that inheritance
to those that he calls. And he has given that promise
of an eternal inheritance. And the scriptures tell us that
the Lord Jesus Christ is our inheritance, and we are his inheritance. And that through his death, we
are given to him and He is given to us. And not only that, but
where He is, that we shall be also, and we shall be like Him. John, in his epistle, his first
epistle, he says in chapter three that, Beloved, now are we the
sons of God. This is in verse two of chapter
three. And He doth not yet appear what we shall be, We know that
when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. And then he says, and every man
that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. When we think of the word of
our text, the hope of his calling, and the hope of his calling is
that we shall see him and be like him and that if we have
this hope it is going to affect how we live here below. We will
seek to live holy lives and pure lives. We will seek to live as
if we were those that were called with a holy calling, a heavenly
calling, and to be like the Lord here, as when we appear in heaven,
we shall be like him." The Apostle, when he writes to the Thessalonians,
the well-known passage so often read at funerals, and rightly
so, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 towards the end, where the
Apostle again would have them not ignorant, of those which
are asleep, and his reason is that they sorrow not, as those
that have no hope. And he says that if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. Absent from the body, present
with the Lord, we know that at death the soul that returns to
him that gave it, and God's called children return to the Lord,
they immediately in the presence of the Lord, our Lord said to
the dying thief, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. That was a blessing and really
for all that are called, this is the hope of their calling
that when they die, however distressing that death, whether it be like
the dying thief in agony on the cross for his own sin, yet it
shall be with Christ. David, in his life, the sword
shall not depart from thy house. He had the sorrows right through
his life, but he knew that God had called him and blessed him,
and Lord was his God. And when he was to depart from
this life, he prayed that he might recover strength before
he'd go hence and be no more. Not physical strength. Many of
the Lord's dear people, maybe some of you this morning, desire
that you be strengthened in faith and recover strength before you
go hence and be no more. Not many of the Lord's people
will say, I am as strong of faith as I want to be. I don't need
any more assurances and any more strength. No. If we really value
and really know what is the hope before us, We won't want to come
short of that. We want to make it so that it
is really sure. But can I bear the piercing thoughts,
says the hymn writer, that if my name should be left out, when
thou for them shalt call? And so the apostle to the Thessalonians,
he says, when the Lord comes at that last great day, he shall
bring his people that have died before with him And those that
remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the air. And at that same time there will
be the resurrection of the dead. We which are alive shall be changed,
but those that are dead, the dead in Christ shall arise, and
they shall be caught up with us. in the air. The hope of her
calling is, as Job says, that after my skin, worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for
myself and not another. The very real, most blessed prospect
that is set before the people of God. The Lord says that the
heaven and earth, it shall pass away, it shall be burned up,
with exceeding great heap, Peter says in his epistles, but the
Lord shall create a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. And this is the hope of our calling,
the end in view, when this world is no more, to be in a body that
is not a sinful body, it is an immortal body, a celestial body,
a body like our Lord, be like Him, and to see Him and to be
with Him forever and ever, and to be with those that have gone
before us. Many of us have those that we
have truly loved in the Lord. We've walked with them, we've
spoke with them, we've seen their faith, we've seen their trials,
we felt the spiritual union to them, we've loved them in the
Lord, and it is a blessed prospect that we shall see them again.
We shall know them again. We shall be with them, together
with them. I always remember, and I know
I mentioned it many times here, when our dear sister in faith
in Australia, Alice Robinson, that she died. I took her funeral,
but was not able to, not permitted to take the actual committal.
This was in 1986. Afterwards, I went driving along
the long lanes of the cemetery to find her actual grave. And
as I was driving, the Lord dropped into my mind as if audibly spoken,
why seek ye the living among the dead? And it was a most sacred
time, a realization I was seeking. Yes, the mortal remains, but
she was in heaven. Her soul had fled, she was with
the Lord. And the reality of that, it's
a most blessed thing, a blessed reality. The people of God, they
sleep in Jesus and God will bring them with him when he comes again. And it is this hope, this hope
of our calling, that the apostle wanted the Ephesians to know.
And I desire that I might know it and you might know it. so
that we make diligent that our calling is a real calling and
those that are called are really encouraged and helped and lifted
up above this poor dying world. All the things that would cause
us to be distressed and troubled and turned up in our minds, that
we look beyond it and we see the Lord, the dear martyrs in
the flames, how they're able to speak one to another and say
that ere this day we shall soon sup with the Lord above. Remember
what the Lord said at the Lord's Supper, that I will not drink
of this wine again until I drink it new with you in my Father's
kingdom. Not just metaphorically speaking,
it's not just vain and empty things. It shall truly be so. that the Lord desires, Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. Do we realise, really, that hope
of our calling? Do we realise what is bound up
with it? What a blessing the Lord has
given us when he's called us. And have we forgotten that? Have
we not realised it? Have we just gone on as if there
was not that blessing? Well that then is the main, the
hope of His calling. But then there is other things,
and I'll briefly set these things before you, that are bound up
with this hope of His calling. It may be a help to us here below. The calling is the beginning
of God's work in us. He which hath begun a good work
in you. It is the work of our Lord, the
author and finisher of faith. And the Lord will, when he begins
that work, he will continue it. That is a hope of our calling.
A right hope that the Lord will not forsake the work of his own
hands. That the grace that he gave at
the beginning, he'll give along the way. He giveth more grace. He giveth grace for grace. We mentioned about the apostle
asking that there be the spirit of wisdom, revelation, eyes open. Those are graces, those are blessings. And with those graces, then he
gives further grace and other blessings. And as the Apostle
realized it, with the thorn in the flesh, the grace to help
in time of need. Bound up with this hope of the
calling, is that we will be taught, the scriptures are clear, they
shall all be taught of God. Do you ask him, dear friend,
to teach me, teach me about thee? Thou hast given me life, spiritual
life, thou hast called me, but I feel so ignorant of the things
of God. Lord, teach me about thee. The
leading of his people, we spoke of the calling in John 10, when
the Lord puts forth his sheep, when he calls them, he goes before
them. I will go before thee, make the
crooked places straight, the rough places plain. The leading
of his people, I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way
which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. The Lord's people are a people
willing to be led, and we have beautiful type in thee. Children
of Israel, though they rebelled many times, yet they had the
fiery, cloudy pillar to lead them all their journey through.
When it moved, they moved. When it stayed, they stayed.
And they had that. And that is also bound up as
to the hope of our calling. And it may be that those of you
this morning, you think, I don't know what to do. I don't know
where to go. I don't know what decision to
make, what the Lord would have me to do. will be assured of
this. Where the Lord has called his
dear people, he will order their lives. Watch for it. He that
will watch providence will never lack a providence to watch. And remember so often, it is
the still, small voice. We get so much clamour sometimes. We are so busy, so noisy. We
don't listen to what really is the voice of the Lord for us. bound up with the hope of his
calling is also the comforts. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. It is the Lord's work to comfort
his people in their sorrows, their distresses, to send them
their fear nots and to assure them that underneath are the
everlasting arms. When they sink, when they struggle
with providences and struggle with the corruptions of their
own evil heart and the sin, that doth so easily beset them. He
assures them, and he shows them again and again, that precious
blood that was shed for them at Calvary, and that calling
that he called them with because that blood was shed for them.
Oh, how vital it is that we have that seal of again and again,
having those tokens for good, the Lord not letting us go, but
bringing us back again and again to him. Again, in John 10, he
speaks of the security of his people, that they are in his
hand. They're also in the Father's
hand. No man is able to pluck them out of my hand. The hope
of God's calling is to be kept by the power of God unto faith,
ready to be revealed at the last time. It is to be chastened on
the way, where we send the Lord correcting for sin and bringing
us again into the fold and blessing us again with those blessings
we formerly had. In Hebrews 12 we read that every
son that the Lord receives he chastens and that if we are not
a partaker of chastening then we don't have the mark of sonship. We have in Romans 8 the apostles
saying the blessings and the security of the people of God. This is the hope of the calling
of God. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, In all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. And you think
of the persuasion that he had at the close of that eighth chapter. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God. which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. That hope of our calling has
all of that in it, what the Apostle is set forth. We may have many
things that threaten to separate and to divide, but he says, I'm
persuaded nothing will, nothing will. It is a blessed hope. We know, he says in verse 28
of that Roman saying, that all things work together for good,
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. May we truly know then the blessing
of the hope of his calling. And may the Lord bless this word
to us this morning. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.