All right, brethren, we'll be
in Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one, and our text
will be from verses 16 through 20, where our Lord calls the
first four of his disciples, Andrew, Peter, James, and John. Let's read the first three verses,
though, in the text. Mark one, verse 16. Now, as he
walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, his
brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come
ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. Our title this morning is, Called
According to Purpose, and we see Christ's purpose and Christ's
power demonstrated in the call of these four men. The believer
is greatly comforted as he's taught this very truth in the
Lord because we see that it's not by chance that we're saved
and that it's not by our faculties and our wisdom and our smarts
and our intelligence that's saving us, but rather it's the power
and the purpose of God that calls us to himself. It's according
to purpose. And we'll see who seeks who this
morning, and then we'll look at the call from Christ, our
Lord and Savior. So the Lord's people, when they
hear how God has saved them, what he has done to bring them
to himself, they are comforted by these truths, that our God
has a people that he has loved from all eternity. Jeremiah 31.3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. We hear that and we rejoice in
it, but when the unregenerate man hears that, They often express
their hatred for these very truths. They say things like, that's
not fair. What about my chance? Everybody
has a chance to be saved. And what they're really saying
is, you're taking the power out of my hand. You're saying that
I can't just determine to be saved. Not that they care anything
for it, but they just don't like the fact that they don't have
a choice to choose for themselves to be saved. So while he's on
regenerate, you'll notice that he's always taking sides with
the unbelievers. He always just automatically
assumes and puts himself in the camp with all those for whom
God has passed by and left to themselves. But regardless of
what man thinks and what he says or how he gets upset, nonetheless
it's a truth that the scriptures plainly teach that God has a
people that he has chosen in himself according as it pleases
him, and given them to the Son for his inheritance. First he
says in Psalm 33 verse 12, Blessed is the nation whose God is the
Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. And then he turns to the Son,
and he says in Psalm 2 8, Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. So we see the Lord giving to
his son many people from the Gentile nations that he's calling,
that Israel itself wasn't enough because of the glory and honor
that he deserves. The Lord, thankfully, determined
to call out his people from the Gentile nations, which I believe
all of us here are from those nations. Now turn over to Acts
13. Acts 13, and we'll drop down
to verse 44. This is Paul and Barnabas and
they're out declaring that salvation is by the Lord to the Jews. outside of Jerusalem, and we
read, And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together
to hear the word of God. Paul and Barnabas, they would
have been preaching that salvation is entirely by the Lord Jesus
Christ, that it's not according to our works and our law-keeping
and the things that we do that make the difference, but rather
Christ alone makes the difference for the sinner. in verse 45,
but when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. So that if they were blaspheming
what was being said, that means they were rejecting, they were
disallowing the stone that God had chosen to make the headstone,
the cornerstone, the capstone, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
to them a stumbling stone which they stumbled over and a rock
of offense. Then Paul in Barnabas, verse
46, waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it
from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
as all men without the grace of God-given faith do, lo, we
turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. That
is, preach and declare what Christ has accomplished, what he has
done for his people, for Christ is the light of men. We need
to see him, we must see him, so declare him, declare him all
to the people, declare him in truth. And when the Gentiles
heard this, They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord,
and as many as were ordained to eternal life. They believed. What a plain declaration to the
purpose and the power of God in saving sinners. Our Lord said,
Many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 22, 14. Now man
made religion, They don't teach this, though the Word of God
teaches it plainly in His Word. They don't teach this, but rather
that salvation begins with the sinner, by their choice, their
decision that they make for Jesus to let Him save them is what
they would say. But the Word of God declares
to us plainly that our salvation, Ephesians 1, 4, is according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Salvation,
the scriptures teach, was established in eternity, before the foundation
of the world, before we ourselves were ever even brought forth.
Hebrews 4.3 declares that the works were finished from the
foundation of the world. These things were finished, for
which cause our Lord and our Savior is called the Lamb of
God, slain from the foundation of the world. He was already
determined that He Himself would come in the likeness of sinful
flesh for His people to bear their sins and to put them away
by the sacrifice of Himself, that He would make them righteous,
because we, by our works, cannot make ourselves righteous and
acceptable with God. Turn over to Romans 9, Romans
9, and we'll pick it up in verse 11. We see these truths being declared
by Paul again, Romans 9, 11, for 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, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. And the question that we really
should have, because naturally we think, well, how could God
hate Esau? The question that we should have is, how could
God love Jacob? Because Jacob was a supplanter
and a deceiver. He was a tricky, conniving little
scoundrel that he was. And that's what we are by nature
when we're made honest before God that there's nothing good
or acceptable in us. He doesn't look to the sinner
for anything. He looks to Christ the Savior for all things, and
that is a great joy to the believer who knows what they are by nature. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? That's exactly what the natural
man does when they hear this. They think, well, that's not
righteous. That's not right that God should choose one over another
without them having done anything good or evil yet. But we fail
to see naturally that we're all evil. Everything that we do is
evil and an offense against God. And Paul says, God forbid. That's
a heavy thing for Paul to say. He says, God forbid. Let it not
be so that any of us should think in our hearts that God is unrighteous. Because God is not righteous.
We're the unrighteous ones. We're the ones who judge Him
according to our own fallen, weak nature, according to our
wisdom, which is no wisdom at all in comparison to the wisdom
of Almighty God who knows all things. For He sayeth, Romans
9, 15, He sayeth to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God, that showeth mercy, so that the only one who hears
this and hates it, it's because they are yet depending on and
looking back to their decision and their works and they want
to feel good about what they've done and they want to have some
part of salvation, whether it's all of salvation or even just
some little sliver in which they can glory and boast in and say,
Lord, I did this for you. I was able to do this. I saw
the worth of you and I believe. But God doesn't give us any room
to boast in on glory in and of ourselves. So the believer hears
these things and we're drawn with much comfort and joy as
we come to understand and know these things that God has purposed
and worked out all things concerning our salvation in himself. So
we rejoice in that. As Peter said in 2 Peter 1 3,
that it's according as his divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness. All things. Everything
that's necessary for life and godliness. He's given it to us. It's right there in the scriptures
It's through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and
virtue. So The peace that we have and
the joy that we have it's in knowing that it's I can't I didn't
do anything to save myself And I can't do anything to unsave
myself It's all in the purposes of the Lord and we look to him
and we trust him and those who stay right there looking to the
Lord they do prove and verify that it's God that's working
in them, both the do and the will of His good pleasure, that
it's not a work of the flesh, because we know the flesh can
work up religion, we know the flesh can manufacture and do
those counterfeit things that look really good, but those that
continue on looking to Christ, giving Him all the glory, all
the praise, and taking none to themselves and saying, It's your
name. You deserve all the glory, the
praise, and the honor, Lord. Keep me. Have mercy upon me,
Lord, because I know what I am in myself, and I desperately
need you. So it comes from this. You know,
Jonah, when he rebelled against the Lord, and the Lord dealt
with him in actually a very gracious way. It seems harsh and I know
the flesh hates when we're being dealt with by the Lord, but he
was brought to see that he's nothing in himself. And he was
brought down to the depths as he sunk down there in the sea
and the seaweed wrapped around his head and the Lord sent a
fish to swallow him. And there he was thinking on
these things and he's praying now for the first time, he's
praying to the Lord and What a truth. How few times are we
ever brought to pray in that spirit, that fervently, that
purely and truly when the Lord comes upon us. Not just some
manufactured thing. We should be praying, but I know,
and if we're honest, we know what cold dead hearts we often
have and we need the spirit to give us life and fill us with
his power. And Jonah here, is brought to
the end of himself, and he's begging God, and he's praying
to the Lord like never before, and he says, I will sacrifice
unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that that I have vowed. How could Jonah be so certain
of this? He's in the belly of a fish. He has no power to do
it, but he's given faith that is impossible to receive in the
flesh, but he believes and trusts God and hopes, and he knows it
because God taught him right then and there, and he said that
great truth that we all rejoice in, that salvation is of the
Lord. Salvation is of the Lord, he
said. And what a great hope that we
stand on, even to this day. Salvation, not by my works, salvation
is of the Lord. So we read in our text from Mark
1, 16. Now as Jesus walked by the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a
net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto
them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of
men. So having said what I said, understand,
brethren, that our Lord was there in Galilee. according to purpose. It wasn't by chance that he was
walking by the sea and just happened to see Simon, who was Peter,
and his brother Andrew. He was there on purpose according
to the very scriptures. And Jesus said unto them, Come
ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
And straightway they forsook their nets, they left their nets,
and they followed Christ. Because Christ There, in his
word, drew them by a spirit irresistibly to himself, so that they couldn't
help but follow the Lord in his call. And they forsook all. 644 we read that no man can come
to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will
raise him up at the last day. So we don't even seek the Lord
in spirit and in truth until the Father truly calls us and
draws us to Christ to see our need of him and that Christ alone
meets that need perfectly. John 637 And therefore, since
it's God that draws us to the Son, He says, all that come to
me, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I won't cast you
out. I won't reject you. You can come
to me because you're coming to me by the power and the will
of my Father, and I'll receive everyone that God has given me
for my inheritance. Our Savior said that the Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost. So we're
going to know that we are lost. He's going to bring us to see
that we're nothing in ourselves, that we have nothing to recommend
ourselves to God and to make ourselves acceptable before Him
who is holy and perfect in all His ways. As Romans 3.11 says,
there's none that understand it, none that seeketh after God. But instead it's written this,
that when thou saidst, seek ye my face. Once God said to us,
seek ye my face, my heart said unto thee, thy face will I seek,
Lord. Then when God calls us and moves
us by his spirit to call upon him and to seek him as though
our lives depended on it, because they do, That's when we begin
to seek him. That's when we lay down our rebellion. That's when we lay down our pride
and all our works. And we say, Lord, not my will,
but thy will be done. Lord, have mercy. Show me that compassion, that
mercy that you said to Moses, you show as it pleases you to
whom to whomsoever you will. All right. So our Lord comes
and he seeks and he saves his sheep according to purpose, according
to purpose. Now let's look at the call from
Christ. who also were in the ship mending
their nets. All right, we already saw how
Christ is one that seeks them, and he sought these two out as
well. And straightway he called them. And they left their father
Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and they went
after him. All right, so let's consider
this call that we receive of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to
whom this call goes forth. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8, and we'll start in verse 28. Again, we're just looking at
these comforting words to know that all these things that are
happening in our lives, everything that he's worked out providentially,
it's all according to his purpose. You don't got to look over your
past, look at all the foolish things you've done and beat yourself
up and feel guilty and hang on to that because God has worked
it according to his purpose. Don't rejoice in the things that
we're now ashamed of. We don't rejoice in those things,
but we understand that God has worked all things according to
purpose, and here I am now, hearing His very word this day. It says
in Romans 8, 28, And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God. All things work together for
good to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, that
is, who He knew beforehand, who He chose and elected to know
Him, whom He set His love upon in all eternity before they did
anything good or evil. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, verse 30, whom He did
predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also
justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. And what shall we say to these
things, if God before us who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? So God displays
his power in calling us out of nature's bondage and nature's
darkness and the blindness that we're in. He calls us out of
that into the glorious light of his kingdom. 1 Peter 2 verse
9 and 10 tells us but ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. So that it is God who does the
work, and because we have no power of our own to do it and
we can do nothing because by nature we're born spiritually
dead, we don't have the spirit of Christ, we don't come forth
with the spirit of Christ naturally in us, we're all dead sinners,
we're all in need of his grace and his mercy so that when the
believer is showing forth the praises of him, it's bearing
witness to the work, it's testifying to that work which he has done
in us. regardless of what sinners we
are, regardless of what we are by nature, He cancels the power
of sin. He breaks, He severs that relationship
that we have with death and with the lies that we believe by nature
and He fills us with the Spirit and He makes us His own, adopting
us so that we cry out to Him, Abba, Father, have mercy upon
me, O wretched sinner." So that we know and we understand, brethren,
it's not something that we've produced in our flesh. It's nothing
that we can glory in of ourselves. Right? He says there, 2 Peter
2.10, which in time past were not a people, but are now the
people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have
obtained mercy. So it pleases the Father. to
call us from the darkness we are in by nature, call us into
light so that He reveals these things to us. It delights Him
to make known these truths. He doesn't leave us in darkness. He doesn't save us so that in
the day of the resurrection, when we go before God, only then
to find out that Christ has paid the price in full and that we
are His. He doesn't wait until that day. He begins that work
of salvation in us even now so that in this life, before we
die, we shall be the servants of the Most High God. He shall
call us out of that darkness and that deadness. I'll show
you that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. If you turn over there to
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. And while we're looking at it
let's give credit where credit is due. If man is the one that
saves himself, if it's man's decision that makes the difference
for him, then let's thank man. But if it's God who makes the,
whose power saves a person, if it's God who calls us out of
darkness and he delivers us and it's all of his work, then let's
give the thanks and the praise to him. Let's glory in the one
who deserves the praise. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. Who did they thank? Who did the
apostle thank? But we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. So it's God who performs those
two things in us. He sanctifies us by His Spirit,
and He brings us to believe the truth, to hear it according to
His providence, according to His power. He brings each and
every one of His children to hear it, and they shall believe
those things that have been declared to his people that Christ Jesus
has indeed accomplished for his people. Whereunto, verse 14,
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle, so that, brethren, salvation by God That
is the traditions that the apostles taught. They didn't teach that
man saves himself by his decision and that he's a partner with
God and that God has done his part and done all he can do and
now it's up to you sinner to finish it off. That's not the
tradition of the elders. That's not what they taught in
the scriptures. They taught plainly that God saves sinners all by
the work and the power that he himself has done and wrought
for them. So let us forsake those man-made
traditions and those man-made teachings that teach us Oh yeah,
the sinner saves themselves and they're just partners with God
in saving themselves. Not at all. So God displays His
power in salvation and yet to preach this and to declare it
to men indiscriminately as we are called to do, to just preach
it and declare what God has done, Paul says that the preaching
of the cross, that power which Christ, where Christ laid down
His life for His sheep, the preaching of the cross is to them that
perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God." It's the power, it's the dynamite,
it's the explosive power where God displays that He rules the
hearts of sinners. He comes upon a sinner and He
delivers them from their bondage and their love of Satan, their
love of sin, their love of this world. Their love of self, he
delivers us from that so that he makes us a new creature. He doesn't reform us, but makes
us a new creature. These old things, they've passed
away. This flesh is corrupt. It was corrupt then when he saved
us. It's still corrupt. We don't look to it or trust
it or depend upon it because it's deceitful and it's of no
value to us. By the flesh, what does it say
there in Romans So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. The flesh is not going to please
God. What we do doesn't please God. Christ, Jesus Christ alone pleases
the Father. He's the one that makes us acceptable.
So everything we do, anything that is a good work, that can
be called a good work, if it really is a good work, it was
done on us by the Spirit of Christ. We're just showing forth the
praises of Him, the virtues of Him, of what He's performed in
us and what He's worked in us, and we give Him all the glory,
all the praise, and rejoice in Him. So we're coming to Him by
His power, and we need the Spirit to make that clear to us, because
by nature we are Arminians. By nature we think about our
works and we look to our works and we get scared and we try
to get to doing and doing what we think is right to make up
for those things, even though we know it's foolish, even though
we know it's not true, but that's what we do by nature. And it
takes the Lord to consistently teach us, blessing us to hear
the Gospel, to be reminded over and over again, consistently,
He's done all the work. He's done all the work. That's
why we seek out the Gospel. That's why we must be under the
Gospel and have our families under the Gospel because it's
so critical. It's where the Lord feeds His sheep. As a shepherd
feeds his sheep, that's where the Lord feeds us. Feeding upon
Christ and what He's done for us, not our works. That's where
man is always turning men back to what they need to be doing
for Christ. Because they think, if I don't,
man's going to get frisky and start doing that which is in
his heart to do. And by nature, there is evil,
much evil in our heart. But he gives us a new heart.
And he gives us a spirit whereby we know that's not profitable. I don't want to do that. Lord,
save me from that. gently teaches us and leads us
away from those things more and more so that we stop looking
to the slight. We stop doing those religious
things like touch not, taste not, handle not. That's what
man teaches, touch not, taste not, handle not. That's what
Paul was saying in Colossians. Don't put your trust in your
ability to touch not, taste not, and handle not. You're going
to fail. I fail. I can't do it. We look to Christ
and he's the one that teaches us in his time through the gospel,
that we don't. He'll teach us to truly, in our
hearts, not even touch those things, but if and when we sin,
we confess our sin, knowing that He is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins, as He's a faithful high priest and a wonderful Savior. So now we see that in our own
selves, but the Lord also calls men to be fishers. It says in
verse 17, Jesus said unto Peter and Andrew, come ye after me
and I will make you to become fishers of men. Turn over to
Ezekiel 47, Ezekiel 47, and we'll see there a prophecy that was
given to Ezekiel concerning these fishers of men and how the Lord
calls out his people Ezekiel 47, and we'll go to verse
8. Then said he unto me, These waters
issue out toward the east country. So you have Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, after the Psalms. Then said he unto me, verse 8,
These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down
into the desert, and go into the sea, which being brought
forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. So this would
picture, in our Savior's day, where he was ministering, where
he was calling out his sheep and ministering to Israel and
those people living there, right? And that desert, which is a great
picture of us, it's dry, it's dead, it's lifeless, nothing
grows there. And that sea, which is salty,
you can't drink those waters. You'll die. You try and live
on salt water, you shall perish. and die. So they picture the
people, but that river there is the servants of Christ, whom
he calls to himself and gives them that gospel, those healing
waters. And where those waters go, and
where the Spirit attends that word, and enters into the hearts
of his people, giving them a hearing ear, an ear of faith, and he
brings that with power into their heart, causing them to hear it
and to believe the word. even siding with God against
themselves by saying, yes, Lord, you are just and right. I have
no good works wherewith I could stand before you confidently
and boast in these things. But Lord, you've provided salvation,
full and free, in the Savior, Jesus Christ. So he brings that
healing, and then we see it spreading out beyond Israel, beyond Jerusalem
and Judah and Galilee and going out to the farther parts of the
world, verse 9. And it shall come to pass that
everything that liveth, which moveth withersoever, the rivers
shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great
multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither, for
they shall be healed. And everything shall live whither
the river cometh. Right? Wheresoever that gospel
is preached in truth, being attended to by the Spirit, those people
that are given faith, they shall be healed. God heals his people
from their sins, from their deadness, from their darkness. The Lord
is doing that by his work and his power. And they did that.
They went out there and they spread the word, they declared
it, they preached it, they proclaimed it, they weren't out there begging
people, they were proclaiming what God had done, and as people
were hearing it and cleaving, they clung to what the apostles
said, they believed that word and they followed the apostles. And many churches were established
there under the truth. As Revelation 7, 9, and 10 says,
after this, that is after the sealing of the Lord's people,
144,000, representing all the elect chosen people of God. John said, I beheld and lo, a
great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands,
and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God,
which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. because salvation
is of the Lord. It's not of man. It's not of
his work. So brethren, this healing comes
forth by the power of God. He sent his son Jesus Christ
in the likeness of our sinful flesh, yet he himself has no
sin. He committed no sin. No guile
was found in his mouth. He did nothing wrong, nothing
to warrant death, but he perfected He fulfilled the law perfectly,
fulfilling all the requirements of the law so that the law looked
at him and said, perfect, perfection. That is the perfection of God
and he was declared just and holy and righteous, no sin. But in doing that, he made himself
a perfect sacrifice, perfect to bear the sins of his people
and to lay down his life in their place as their substitute, and
so perfectly put away their sin, the wrath of God being poured
out upon him, he obtained eternal life for his people, he redeemed
his people by the shedding of his own blood, for he put away
their sins once and for all, fully, completely, there's nothing
left for us to do, nothing outstanding, so that when he accomplished
that salvation, when he obtained righteousness, The works were
complete. It was done. There's nothing
left for us to do. So that you say, well, what about
faith? When he accomplished it, that meant all the gifts. When
he arose from the dead, in his train came all the gifts which
he has given to men so that all things necessary for our life
and godliness shall be, are given to us because Christ obtained
We don't have to work for them and make ourselves pleasing to
God to get them. No, no, no. Those things shall
be. We shall be brought to hear the Word. We shall be given faith.
We shall believe it. We shall follow the Lamb with
us wherever He goes because we hear His voice and we've been
given an ear to hear it and to believe it and to follow Him
wherever He takes us. We shall be His people. We shall
do all those things which please Him because Christ has accomplished
it for us. It's done. But, as Paul said,
we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. So we're not rejoicing
in what we've done. We see the weakness of our flesh.
We see our faults and our folly and our sin and the foolish things
that we do, but we see how God has given us a faithful, fit,
and complete Savior to put away our sins and to make us acceptable
and pleasing, to present us before God the Father, holy and righteous,
having no blot, stain, or blemish or sin upon us. We know that
this flesh is weak, and our wisdom is weak, and we struggle, and
we get perplexed, and we get persecuted, and we get hurt,
and offended, and knocked down, but always God keeps us looking
to Him, and He teaches us through all that, because He's sovereign,
and overrules all things to His glory, and His power, and His
praise, so that He's doing all these things for us. And then
we also see how these four men, they were uneducated. And there's
another picture that this world looks to and expects that the
pastors, that they be highly educated men. And I mean, whatever. Our worldly education isn't what's
going to make the difference. It's not what qualifies us to
be servants of the Most High God. If you are educated, use
it to the furtherance and to the glory. of God, but we don't
depend on those things. Many people expect that pastors
would go to seminaries, but so often those things really prove
to be a cemetery for them because they go in dead and they come
out twice dead. They come out now speaking the
words of man, speaking lies, just frogs are coming out of
their mouth because they're just false prophets, and they bite
the people, and they infuse the people with poison, looking to
their own works and trusting in their own works rather than
trusting in Christ. It may be a simple message which
we have, but it's of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He, by His
power, saves His people. You can trust in 1 Corinthians
1.19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. So he equips his servants to
be able to preach this gospel of what Christ has accomplished
for his people. And you who hear it and are his
hear it and rejoice in it and are glad for what Christ has
done. Our Lord gave the following parable in Matthew 13, 47, you
could turn there, Matthew 13, 47. He said, the kingdom of heaven, It's like unto a net that was
cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which when it
was full, when all the left that were called according to purpose
and the election of God were brought in, when they were caught,
they drew that net to shore and sat down and gathered the good
into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end
of the world. The angels shall come forth and
sever the wicked from among the just. and shall cast them into
the furnace of fire, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
It is the gospel that we preach and hold to. Is it foolishness
to you? How that God saves sinners? Is it foolishness to us? To be
made a fool for Christ, right? To be made willing to say, I
don't care what the world thinks of me. I just rejoice in what
God has done for me in his Son, Jesus Christ. that we should
be happy to be fools for Christ, to be cast off in the offscouring
of this world. Many shall be severed and put
apart from Christ and cast into that furnace. The sad thing is
that so many in the world, there's not many that hear it, but those
that do hear it, and those that hear what Christ has accomplished,
maybe they read the In spite of all those things, they would
rather, for 60, maybe 80 years, side with this world and pursue
the things of the world and have the seeming glory that this world
has to offer, these shining little trinkets that it has, and they
give up their life for all eternity that they might be successful
and have so much more in this world. But this world is short,
it's a vapor, it's passing away. It's better to side with Christ. What does it benefit you if you
gain the whole world and yet, in the end, lose your very soul? So, brethren, I pray that the
Lord would give us a heart to stay upon Christ our Savior,
to look to Him. And Paul says this, For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, 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 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, that no flesh should glory
in his presence. I pray the Lord would give each
and everyone here, here in my voice and here this very day,
a heart to side with Christ, to forsake this world and the
pursuits and love of this world, and that God would give you a
heart to love His Savior, the one that He has provided to save
His people from their sins and accomplish that very salvation. And may the Holy Spirit give
us an ear to hear and faith to believe what Christ has done
for His people. that we would rejoice in him.
As it's written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and
a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. We won't be ashamed in that day.
Many are ashamed to say his name now, but we won't be ashamed
in that day when he reveals himself with all of his holy angels and
gathers up his saints and brings them to himself and takes those
other worthless ones, those ones who wouldn't believe Him and
refused Him and would not come to Him and severs them and throws
them into the fiery furnace. We won't be ashamed that day.
We'll be rejoicing in what He's done. So I pray the Lord will
bless that to our hearts. Let's pray and then Carl will
close us in him and we'll be dismissed. Our gracious Lord,
Father, we thank you that you are a merciful God. Lord, you
know what we are by nature. You know what's in our heart.
You know the foolish thoughts that we think and the folly that
we think and say and do. Lord, have mercy. Forgive us
of our sin. Lord, pour out your compassion
and mercy upon us. Show us Christ. Make him lovely
and precious to us. Make us, let us see our all in
Him, Lord, and show us that He, Lord, convince us by Your Spirit
that He has put away our sin and accomplished our salvation.
Draw us to Yourself. Make us Your own, Lord. Let us
hear Your words and Your voice, the voice of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. And settle us, Lord, under Your gospel. Gather us
together with Your people. feed your sheep. We thank you
for this and what you've done for us in Christ Jesus, our Lord
and our Savior. In his name we pray. Amen. We'll be dismissed when the call
finishes. Our closing hymn will be number
222 out of the hardback There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's name, And sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced
to see That fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
at sea, Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away, Wash all
my sins away. And there may I, no vile as he,
Wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood Shall never lose its mouth. Tell all the ransomed Church
of God, be safe to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more. Tell all the ransomed Church
of God, be safe to sin no more. Where since by faith I saw the
stream, Thy flowing looms sublime. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. When this poor lip sings stammering
tongue, Thy silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save,
I'll sing thy power to save. And in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save.