in his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Proverbs chapter 8 and we'll read verse 4. The book of the Proverbs chapter
8 and reading verse 4. Unto you, O men, I call. And my voice is to the sons of
man. It is a wonderful thing to realize
that almighty God, and let's just have some understanding
of how great God is, because God created all things,
created everything in the universe from nothing. And the Almighty
God was from everlasting and he will live to everlasting. It is a great truth that you
and I cannot really understand the greatness of God. And then
to think that that great God in this vast world that we live
knows every detail of your life and my life. We're told that
not a single hair from our head falls to the ground without God's
knowledge. Try and realise how many people
there are in this world. Try and think how many hairs
there are in this world. And to realise that not a single
hair falls to the ground without the knowledge of God. And if
we believe that, and it is true, whether we believe it or not,
it is true, then God also clearly understands everything about
us. The things that we say, the things
that we do, and even our very thoughts, every single thought. We have been here tonight for
a short time. And God knows exactly what you
and I have been thinking about. What a mercy, therefore, if before
God we've been thinking about good things and not bad things. But that is the great God that
you and I have to deal with. And there's no escaping, because
we live on this earth, and because we live on this earth, each one
of us has a never-dying soul. It's not something that you and
I can get rid of. It's not something that, as many
people think, by committing a suicide, they just dispense with their
very being. The reality is that our soul
lives forever. And therefore, how important
it is that you and I hear the call of Almighty God. This verse tells us, unto you,
that means every one of us here tonight, Unto you, O men, I call. The Lord calls us to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people today do not believe. Many people have no care about
their never dying soul. may have no care as to where
they will spend eternity. And yet, as we're told in the
Romans in the first chapter, that the things around us declare
the greatness and the glory of God. We only have to look at
creation to confirm that there is a God. Just think, you see
plants, you see trees that in the wintertime appear to be dead,
and yet we find in the spring, we spring forth. And now here in our country in
the summer, we can see the wonder of that springing forth and the
wonderful growth that God gives. And it's very clear that this
is the work of God. It's not something that just
happened. It's not something that just
occurs of itself. You only have to examine carefully
plants and trees and every living thing to realize the hand of
God is upon it. And if the Lord's hand is upon
it, it surely proves to us that there is a God in heaven who
does control everything. And there is that God, therefore,
before whom you and I will have to stand. We will not escape
that judgment. We will not be able to say what
it doesn't, is not important to me. It is important to every
one of us. And so what a wonderful favour
it is to read a truth like this. And it says, unto you, O men,
I call. The thinking of God calls us,
calls us to hear what he says in his word. It's a wonderful,
wonderful truth. You know, in the book of the
Revelation, the last book in the Bible, and in the second
and third chapter, we have a list of God speaking to the Apostle
John to address the seven churches which existed in that age. And as we come down to the end
of each address, it's quite short, and God speaks and tells what
the church is like, the good things and the bad things, the
many bad things, and he concludes with words like this. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And as you go down, in these
chapters you will find that statement is made to every church and that
statement is made to you and me today. It's a very clear statement,
is it not? He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that hath an
ear, and all of us here tonight, We have ears which hear and we
have a conscience in our mind which hears and tells us what
is right and what is wrong. And therefore God says, unto
you, amen, I call. And that call is to you and to
me to hear the great truth of God and to understand it and
to be blessed with wisdom. This chapter speaks a lot about
wisdom and a lot about understanding. And all of us need to be blessed
with that heavenly wisdom. We're told a number of times
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that doesn't mean
natural wisdom, so that we're a very clever person in the things
of time. That means about our soul and
spiritual wisdom. So what a mercy it is to be blessed
with the fear of the Lord, to fear God. And if we fear God,
if God has given us that fear, there will be that desire to
do that which God speaks to us about and to not ignore the Word
of God. It is a wonderful blessing that
you and I have the Bible to read and that you and I can hear the
Gospel preached. There are millions and billions
of people in the world who do not have this amazing blessing. And the Bible tells us our situation
in very simple words. And those words are these. We
are without excuse. That means when we come to die,
we will never be able to stand before God and say well I never
knew I was never told because we do know and we are told but
the problem is we listen to the devil the devil back in the Garden
of Eden when Adam and Eve were the only people living on the
earth He came to Eve and told her that those things which God
had told her, and Adam, she should not do, she need not worry about. She could ignore it. The devil
still tells us the same today. He still tells us, you and I
can ignore forget about the truth of God and we can carry on and
just please ourself and just satisfy our own desires instead
of believing and following the gracious words which Jesus gives
to us in his word. And this is so true Unto you,
O men, I call. It comes to you and to me today. God's Word. It's a great blessing
if you and I have heard God's Word. He's given us ears, naturally,
and as I've already said, He gives us spiritual ears. And
what a blessing it is when our spiritual ears hear the truth
of God. And as they hear the truth of
God, it has a gracious and a glorious and a wonderful effect upon us. And what does it do? It causes
us to seek the Lord. It causes us to pray unto the
Lord. It produces a desire in our heart
that God will have mercy upon us. That true desire that God
will forgive all our sins. And then the wonderful, wonderful
work of the Spirit of God is to show us the wonderful work
of Jesus Christ. And what was that work? Jesus
Christ came into this world as the Apostle Paul tells us, to
save sinners of whom I am chief. And every one of us here tonight
needs to be saved. That means we need to have all
our sins forgiven, all our sins taken away, all our sins washed
away, in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
has made that way of salvation through his death upon the cross
at Calvary. Tonight, the great question really
is, what do you and I think of Christ? What do we think about
him? Do we believe that he is the
saviour of sinners? And do we know that he is our
saviour, your saviour and my saviour? The one that suffered
those intense sufferings during his life and in the judgment
hall and at Calvary. when he was crucified and when
he died that sin atoning death to redeem his people. How important for us today to
know that we are those who have been saved, those who have been
redeemed. The devil's great ploy today
is to say, well, you needn't worry about that. You can think
about it when you're a bit older. Well, let's understand that we
don't know how long we have on this earth. And we do need to
know that we are saved. We do need to know that this
word is true, that Jesus has called us given us spiritual
life. If I was to say this evening,
well, put up your hand if the Lord has called you, if the Lord
has saved you, would you be able to do that in all honesty and
to bring glory to God? But everyone of us needs to be
in that position. That we do know who we have believed. The Word of God tells us, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. No one else can save our souls. No one else. can die for us,
a death that will be satisfactory to Almighty God. The blessed
Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, gave His life. He finished the work that His
Father gave Him to do. He spoke those wonderful words
on the cross at Calvary, when he said, it is finished. He completed that work on the
cross at Calvary to take away the sins of all his people. My friends, tonight, how necessary
it is that you and I have the wonderful
evidence that our sins were atoned for, the price was paid at Calvary
all those years ago. And therefore, we can come and
say to the praise of God, I am clean, just God, I'm clean. You're washed in the blood of
the Lamb, That's why the Apostle John records in the first chapter
of his Gospel, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. What a mercy if God has given
you and me faith to behold the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
dying on our behalf. With the evidence of that, we
are blessed. We are forever blessed. Eternal life is ours. Without it, we are forever lost. There's no hope in hell. What a mercy then, if you and
I have the evidence of this wonderful gift of God in our life. In the first chapter of this book of Proverbs, we
read in the 24th verse, He tells us because I have called and
you refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded. But you have set at nought all
my counsel and would none of my reproof. The vast number of
people today come under that condemnation. They've come and
the Lord has called and they've refused. They've turned their
back upon God. Oh, my friends, what a solemn
scene it is. What a solemn case it will be
for those who turn their back upon God. And what they say in
very simple words is this. I will not have that man the
Lord Jesus Christ to reign over me. I will not acknowledge him
to be my king. And yet Jesus is. the King of Kings and the Lord
of Lords. What a blessing it is that we
bow down as his subjects and really desire to worship him,
the Apostle Peter in his first epistle. He speaks to us about
the wonderful truth of the gospel in the first chapter. He tells
us He speaks about this, this is
what he says, from verse 6, wherein ye greatly rejoice. I wonder
whether we greatly rejoice. in what Christ has done. We greatly
rejoice because we've heard his call. This is what he says, wherein
ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye
are in heaviness through manifold temptation, that means many temptations,
that the trial of your faith, that means the test of our faith
and we need to have our faith tested, to know that it's God-given
faith, it's real faith, it's not just an imagination. The
trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that
perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. You and I need God-given faith
to believe the great and glorious truths of the Gospel. What a mercy tonight if you and
I can rejoice that we've heard God's call. It's had an effect
upon us. And we receive faith to believe
these great and glorious truths. And as the Apostle says, whom
having not seen, ye love. That's a mystery, isn't it? We've
never seen Jesus physically, but how wonderful it is if we
love him. And we love him, you know why?
We love him because he first loved us. We didn't love God
first. He loved us first. Whom have you not seen ye love? In whom though now ye see him
yet not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, that faith which
God gives us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, even the salvation
of your souls, or which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you. And that grace is the free unmerited
favour from Almighty God that has caused us to have ears that
have heard the great call of the Gospel and to be found looking
unto Jesus. Nowhere else. Looking unto Jesus. The Apostle says, looking unto
Jesus. the author and the finisher of your faith. What a mercy to
believe that God began. God called. Our ears were opened. We heard that call. We know that
left to ourselves, we were a lost and ruined sinner. We heard that
call. We rejoiced to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world to save us, to redeem our soul,
that by His grace we should one day be found with Him in glory. A good question is, are we looking
forward to being with Jesus in glory? Or are we saying, I don't really
want that. I don't really want that. When I was younger, a teenager, I remember very clearly
when God was speaking to me that I did not want to go to heaven. I did not want to go to hell. I definitely didn't want to go
to heaven and really to go to heaven wasn't very attractive
to be rejoicing and praising God. So what was the solution? What
was I to do? You may be there in that place
tonight. Well, I'll tell you what to do. and that's this, it's very simple
to pray to God that He will give you a desire after heavenly things that God will give you a desire
after heavenly things and what a blessing and how you will be
able to rejoice If God hears that prayer, and as we read in
the Word of God, He sets your heart and your affections upon
things above, heavenly things, not on things on the earth. There is a great battle that
you and I have with the devil. The devil always wants us to
occupy our time with the things of time. He doesn't want us to
look beyond this life to an eternity with Christ. What a mercy if
the Holy Spirit has put into your heart that call to seek
after spiritual blessings. To seek after spiritual blessings. And what this is, is the wonderful
gift of heavenly wisdom. It's not natural wisdom, it's
heavenly wisdom. The Proverbs speaks a lot about
wisdom and heavenly wisdom. And you and I need the great
blessing of heavenly wisdom. And so this chapter started with
those words, doth not wisdom cry? Does not God's wisdom speak
to us and show us the reality of heavenly things? And how by
comparison, the things of time have no real value. You know,
you and I may think we want this and we want this in this world,
but just stop for a moment. Just stop for a moment. Just
think. Just think. Your life and my
life is just a very short time. However many years it is, it's
a very short time. and you and I can be blessed
with things in this world which perhaps we want and look to but
there's no real comparison with the shortness of our life and
eternity which is before every one of us and just I often mention
this and I don't regret mentioning it again there is no time in
eternity. There is no end in eternity. There is no escape from eternity. And you and I possess, without
any doubt, a never-dying soul, which must exist eternally, either
in heaven or in hell. there's no other way, there's
no other place and how essential it is therefore
that you and I hear the call of Almighty God while we are
alive and that we desire to be blessed with a desire after heavenly
things, heavenly realities, which really means to be with Christ,
which the Apostle tells us is far better. Well, may all of
us be found truly seeking to have a living desire to go and
to be with Christ, which is far better. and therefore to come,
seeking that you and I might hear this great call from God
unto you. And my friends, I hope that you
includes you and me. Unto you, oh men, I call. The word of God calls us through
the word of God, shows us very clearly where we are and how
necessary it is that we are, in the words of scripture, born
again. And Lord Jesus spoke, as you
well know, I expect, to Nicodemus in that third chapter of John.
Nicodemus came to Jesus asking questions, and Jesus didn't answer
the questions. But he did answer Nicodemus,
and he told him very, very simply, He must be born again. What was that? That was the call
of God. The call from the Saviour to
Nicodemus. Nicodemus couldn't understand
it. But we're thankful to believe that Nicodemus did understand
it. because we know that Nicodemus
was one of those who helped in the burial of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Yes, Nicodemus did come, he did
receive, he did believe the call of God to his soul. Unto you,
O men, I call. And the next verse tells us,
O ye simple, understand wisdom. What I've been speaking about
is heavenly wisdom. And you and I need God to bless
us with spiritual understanding, to believe that these things
are true. They are true. You see, in a hundred years time,
you and me, We'll be out of time. We'll be in eternity. And where will that be? Where
will that be? It's a great question, isn't
it? It's perhaps the most important
question that you can have put before you. Where will you spend
eternity? And it comes back to this. What
does Jesus Christ mean to you and to me? Well, we have a very wonderful
explanation given to us in the Song of Solomon, in the fifth
chapter, where the bride of Christ She tells the daughters of Jerusalem
who represent the church of God what Jesus means to her. Jesus was described as her beloved. She was asked the question, what
is your beloved more than another beloved? She gives a wonderful
list of what her beloved means. And she comes and says this,
he is to me the chiefest among 10,000, and the altogether lovely. Jesus, the Saviour. Jesus, the glorious King. What a mercy tonight. If you
and I, in answer to that question, what is Jesus to you more than
everyone else? It's a big question to answer,
you know. It's a big question to answer. What is Jesus? What does He mean to you? What
a mercy, if tonight, through the call of God, you can say,
He is. the cheapest among 10,000, and
they're all together lovely. And you may go on towards right
to the end of that fifth chapter, and we read this, this is my
friend, to think that God, to think that Lord Jesus Christ
condescends to be our friend. The hymn is beautiful, isn't
it? What a friend we have in Jesus. Well, I hope tonight every
one of us knows Jesus as our friend. Know Jesus as our saviour. Hear his great and glorious call
of the gospel, calling us to look unto me, and be ye saved,
for the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."
Clear words. The devil will say, don't believe
the word of God, my friends. You believe the word of God and
believe that God's Word is indeed truth. I'm very thankful that
in the 17th chapter of John, on that glorious high priestly
prayer that Jesus prays to his Father, he says, Thy Word is
truth. And you and I tonight can rely
upon such a statement. and can believe such a statement
and can be thankful for it and indeed desire tonight to be able
to hear from God himself and how humbling it is to think that
the great God, I've tried to explain how great he is, looks
down upon unworthy sinners and calls them and that call enters
into our heart And there's a word which describes it. It's this,
an effectual call. It has an effect, God's call. What a blessing if it is so.
And if it is so, then you and I tonight can go on our way rejoicing
and thankful to God that he's not passed us by. that we deserved,
but is looked upon us and said, live. Let us conclude the services
of the Lord's House today by singing hymn 575 and the tune
is Holy Warfare 471. Called to see God's righteous law, holy
is without a flaw. Called to feel its vengeful power, and to tremble in that hour,
called the cleansing blood to feel, called to know it me can
heal, called to feel my guilt depart through the Saviour's
bleeding heart. In 575. O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? O say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave? ? And kisses that swallow this
world ? ? Hunter, hunter, thrash and snare ? ? Turn the light to heaven ? ?
And let Jesus, His name fly ? ? Sing His praise beyond the sea ? Now may the grace of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and
the fellowship and communion of the Eternal Spirit rest and
abide with us each, now and for evermore. Amen.