It's good to see you again. Very
pleased to be back with you. On behalf of Mindy and myself,
we're good and glad to be here. So glad. I'm pleased and privileged
to be able to fill in for your pastor. Um, glad he's able to
get away and Hannah with him. They called today and said that
they had good services today and enjoying themselves immensely. And I'm glad I'm glad to be here. I want to, Brother Luke mentioned
the work day, and I just want to take a minute to commend everyone
for all the hard work you've done on the building out there. It looks beautiful, just beautiful.
I know you're anxious to be in it. It's not going to be long
now, is it? It's exciting, but it's been a lot of hard work,
hasn't it? But you look back and think,
that wasn't that bad. It's very, very soon now. I'm so thankful for you. 1 Corinthians
1, go there, that Brother Luke read. 1 Corinthians 1. God tells his prophet Isaiah
to comfort, comfort God's people. Speak ye comfortably unto my
people. Speak to the heart. And that's
what I want to do tonight. I want to comfort God's people.
And I hope it'll be a comfort to you who are called. I hope that you, after this,
will believe that the Lord has called you. And I hope maybe the Lord would
be pleased to call someone else. He hasn't yet called. That's
what this is about. He mentions more than six or
seven times a call here in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. And look at verses one and two. He says, Paul called to be an
apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. and Sassanids,
our brother, unto the church of God at Korah, or Kingsport,
every church, to them which are sanctified, that are sanctified
in Christ, called to be saints with all that in every place
call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. And down in verse nine, it says,
God is faithful by whom you were called. under this fellowship. And down in verse 24, it says,
under them which are called. Christ is the power of God and
the wisdom of God. And verse 26, you see your calling,
brethren? Do you see that? Talking about
the call, I want to know that I'm one of God's call. It says all things work together
for good to them that love God who are the call according to
his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, he called. I want to know, don't you? If
you want to know, it's good evidence that you are called already.
There was a time before he called me, I wasn't interested. I wasn't
interested. I am now. Peter said this. He
said, give diligence to make your calling at election year. My pastor used to say, you know
your election by the call. You can't see your name written
in the Lamb's book of life. It's there. It's written there
before the world began. But everyone whose names are
written in that book of life, everyone who was chosen by God,
he calls. And you can know that call, you
can know it. Every one of us know what it
is to call someone, don't we? To call someone on the phone.
Or you holler, as they'd say down south, you holler at them,
you call. To pay a visit is to pay a call
to someone, don't you? Pay a visit, a salvation. It's
for God Almighty to call you. Salvation is to be called for
whom he did foreknow, that is, love, set his love upon, enter
into a covenant concerning him, he called. You call those you,
most of the time, you call those whom you love, whom you choose
to call, don't you? Don't you? You did and what I'm
going to talk about tonight is this effectual call. There's
a general call There's a call of the gospel that every single
person hears, the call of God's word to repent and believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Many are called in that sense.
Paul said, have they not all heard? Yes, barely. The sound
has gone throughout the world. You can't find a place on planet
earth now with modern technology where somebody that hadn't heard
the gospel, the truth. Is that right? It's just so.
That's how we know that our Lord's coming is very near. He said,
when the gospel is preached in every place, then the end come.
But have they not all heard? Yes. Then why don't men come? Why don't they come to Christ?
Why don't they believe? Why don't they repent? They haven't
received this effectual call, this particular call. And I want
to talk about how the powerful calls, powerful is personal as
perpetual. Fancy word that means it continues. Okay. Have you been called? I
want to know, don't you? Peter said, give diligence to
make your calling and election sure. Salvation is to be called
for God to call you, for Christ to call you by the gospel. And
all whom he calls, they call. That's how you know you've been
called. You call on the Lord. Look at verse two again. It says
to all that were called to be saints, to all that in every
place, call. on the name of our Lord." Jesus
cried. Well, there's an hour. It begins
this way. Paul called to be an apostle. Paul was called to be an apostle,
wasn't he? All the apostles were called
to be apostles. They didn't apply for the job.
No prophet or apostle or pastor or true pastor applies for the
job. They're called by God to do this
work and they're sent. How shall they preach except
they'd be sent? Your pastor was clearly called,
was he not? Like all the apostles, he was
a working man, had a job and so forth. But God called him
to the ministry. And he quickly, like the disciples,
left their nets and their boats and went out to preach. He dropped
everything and came here to Kingsport. That's the call. That's of God.
You know that. I was thankful for Luke. He prayed
and thanked God for your pastor. You clearly see he was called
to this work. What a blessing. When Christ
ascended on high, He gave gifts to men, and one of the greatest
gifts God can give to us, apart from His Son. Well, you wouldn't
know His Son apart from the preacher of the gospel. But He sends a
preacher like you have, a good one at that, a good one. Call
of God. Call. Scripture talks about being
called from death to life. Like when our Lord went to Lazarus'
tomb, he called, Lazarus was dead, wasn't he? He didn't invite
him. This call is not an invite. The
word invite is not in the scriptures. I detest it. Your pastor doesn't
say that because it's not there, is it? Not an invite. It's a
powerful summons. It's a call from death unto life.
When our Lord went to Lazarus' tomb, he called him from death
to life. It's called being called from
darkness to light. Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus,
was in religious darkness, wasn't he? He was in tradition, Jewish
tradition. He was under the law. He was
in darkness. He thought he had light, but
the light that was in him was darkness. Well, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the light called him suddenly a light shown round
about Paul and called him out of darkness into the light, which
is Christ himself. And he wrote Paul, right? God
who caused the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So it's a call out of darkness
into life. So Paul said, I'm called to be
an apostle through the will of God. Verse one, the will of God,
not of the will of the flesh, not another will of man, but
it's of God in this car under the church. Verse two of God
at current to them that are sanctified in crime, sanctified in crime. And it says called to be saints. Saint is a. is a term for the
sanctified one. That's what that means. Sanctified
one. Rome doesn't make us saints.
God makes us saints. Sanctified. Christ said, For
their sake, I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified.
We're sanctified once by the body of Christ, aren't we? He
said, Father, sanctify them through the truth. Sanctification is
the work of God. Work of God, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 with
it. 2 Thessalonians 2. This call of God and this sanctification
and justification is all speaking of the work of salvation that's
of the Lord, completely of the Lord that He does to all His
people. And He calls them by this gospel. 2 Thessalonians
2, 2 Thessalonians 2 says in verse 13, We're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Salvation started with God choosing
the people before the world began and giving them to Christ. And
verse 13 says, through sanctification of the spirit. The spirit of
God setting them apart from the rest of the world to believe
the truth. There you go. To believe the
truth. Where unto verse 14. He called you by our gospel called
you to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So back in our tech, go back
there. So God's people are called to be sanctified one. And that very simply means it.
Let me read it to you from Ephesians one. Ephesians 1 says that God
chose a people in Christ before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He chose a people to make them
holy by Jesus Christ. By the work of the Holy spirit
to make them like cry. Holy, unblameable, unapprovable
in God's sight. That's the work of God. That's
the work of God, the spirit. That's the work of God. The son
that's God's work. God's going to destroy centers.
Someday the whole center, but he saved some centers by grace. to make them saints, to make
them the sanctified ones, set apart by the blood of Christ
and by this gospel call. This is how you know that you
belong to him, this gospel call. Go back to verse two, it says,
sanctified in Christ, called to be saint, all that in every
place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And in verse
eight, who shall confirm you unto the end that you may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, because God is
faithful by whom you were called. God who called you. It's faithful,
he's gonna do this work. And don't you love verse 30,
it says that, of God are you in Christ who has made unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He that glory,
glory is in his name. So this call of God, I want you
to notice two things with me, or three things. This call of
God is a powerful call. It's a powerful call. Number
two, it's a personal call. It's a personal call. And number
three, it's a perpetual call, or it's a continual call, okay? It's a powerful call. Paul said
in Romans 1, 16, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. How does God
call people? by the gospel. You're not going
to hear his voice sitting up on the mountain with your legs
crossed. You're not going to hear his voice except through
the preaching of the gospel. He pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That's what it says
in this very chapter. He said, you see your calling,
don't you? How were you called? How did you first hear the gospel?
Are you not like the eunuch Here's proof, Brother Obie, that you
must hear a preacher. There was a eunuch out in the
desert, miles and miles away, reading the Bible, okay? Heading
home, wasn't he? God had to send a preacher all
the way to that one man in the desert to preach the gospel to
him, didn't he? Or he wouldn't have been saved.
This is to please God. The world calls it foolishness,
but unto them that are called, the gospel is the power of God
and salvation. You heard this gospel called.
You heard it. Look at Romans 1. What is the
gospel? Here's the gospel. There's so many scriptures you
could turn to a description, a declaration of the gospel.
Here it is, Romans 1. All of God's people hear the
gospel. They're called by the gospel.
Paul begins the same way as he did in 1 Corinthians. Paul, a
servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. separated under
the gospel of God. Now here it is. It's the gospel
he promised the four by his prophets in the whole description. It's
the gospel promised all through the whole Old Testament scriptures,
which said, All the Old Testament says, someone is coming. The
Christ is coming, the sent one of God, the Holy one of God.
God will be manifest in the flesh. God will come down to earth to
visit his people, the righteousness of God, the holiness of God.
The law keeper for God, the covenant head, the second Adam from above
is coming down to save his people from their sin. All the old Testament
says that the gospel is not some new thing that started in Matthew
one. It started in Genesis one, right? The prophets, it should be in
witnessed by the law and the prophet. The gospel is as old
as God. The Old Testament gospel, New
Testament. I sometimes wish there were not
those two designations, old and new. It's one Bible, isn't it?
It's one truth. Look at verse three. This gospel
is concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The salvation
of God's people is concerning God's son doing something for
them. They can't do anything for themselves.
They can't save themselves. Salvation's of the Lord. And
God sent his son, his only begotten son, into this world to save
his people. Not try to save, but save. It's
concerning Jesus Christ, who he is, and what he did, and who
he did it for. Did he do it? The last thing
he said is, it's finished. It's concerning his Jesus, Jesus
Christ, our Lord. If you're saved, it's going to
be by Jesus Christ doing it for you. He was made to the seat
of David, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. According to the flesh verse
four declared to be the son of God with power, power to do what
power to save. able to make you, to present
you faultless before the presence of God. And he's declared to
be the son of God by the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection
of the dead. And he said, we've received this,
this calling. to preach this gospel and to
every nation. Look at down at verse six, among
whom all are ye also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be
in Rome, beloved of God called to be saints. So this gospel is a powerful
call. It's called the hope of his calling. I don't know who you first heard
the gospel from. Many of you heard it from your
pastor, and I'm glad. And that way he will certainly
be your pastor from now on. The man that you heard the gospel
from first, it's the man you will esteem from now on. But
I heard it from my pastor. And you know who my pastor was,
don't you? As my dad. As my dad. Now for years he was my dad. That's all I thought of him as
was my dad, Brandon. I'd look up there as a boy, and
that's my dad. That's my dad, okay? Every Sunday, every Wednesday,
I was forced to be there. That's my dad preaching. One
day, I wasn't looking and listening like it was my dad. It was someone
else speaking to me. This gospel is powerful. When
Christ said, my sheep hear my voice. Have you ever read Psalm
29, what the voice of the Lord will do? Break the cedars, break
the hardest heart, cause the hinds to calve, that is give
birth. That's what happened to me. I
heard the Lord through the preaching of the gospel, through my preacher,
my pastor, I heard his voice, not an audible voice, but I heard
the gospel, the word of truth, the gospel of my salvation through
a man. And I was thankful for him from
then on, still am. I still listen to him more than
any other preacher. The gospel is a powerful call. It opens
blind eyes to see who God really is. It opens blind eyes to see
what we really are, doesn't it? It opens deaf ears to hear the
truth. Ears that never heard it before.
Opens deaf ears. Raises the dead. And you who
are dead have to be quickened. How? By the gospel. It's a powerful
call. Powerful call. It's a personal
call. It's a personal call. Look, John
10. You know these scriptures by
heart. John 10. Look over there. And Christ said,
my sheep hear my voice. This is the gospel of John 10,
the good shepherd and his sheep. It's a personal call. John 10,
verse two. Speaking of Christ, enters by
the door. That's the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the porter,
open it. The Holy Spirit, the sheep hear
his voice. He calleth his own sheep. They belong to him. He calleth
them. He calleth them by name. Where did he get these sheep?
The father gave them to him, didn't he? He said, all that
the father giveth me shall come unto me. How do they come to
you? He calls them. He calls them. Look at verse
11. He said, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Christ didn't die for everybody.
It's a very personal redemption. It's a very particular redemption,
isn't it? For his people. Christ died for his people. He
put away the sins of his people. And he calls those people whom
he died for. Look at verse 16. Other sheep
I have, which are not of this foe, them also I must bring.
They shall hear my voice. They are going to hear the gospel.
And that's why God sends the gospel all over the world, to
call out his sheep. He said in verse 27, my sheep
hear my voice, I know them and they follow me and I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. It's a powerful call, it's a
personal call. He calls his own. Let me quote
it again. I don't get tired of quoting
it. For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate. Who he loved,
foreknew, set his love upon, he did predestinate. Everything
about them, down to the hairs on their head, their numbers,
everything about them, their whole life, predestined, predestination. by God, whom he did predestinate,
he called. He calls his people by the God,
and whom he called, he justified. He gives them faith and believe
on the Lord and justifies him. Look at our text. It says in
verse 26, we saw this, it says, do you see your calling, brethren?
Have you heard this call? Do you see your calling? I was
talking to a man on the phone one time, trying to talk to him
about the gospel, and it's clear he hadn't heard the call, but
I asked him, what do you think about yourself? He said, I think
I'm a pretty neat fella. I'm okay, I think I'm all right.
He hadn't heard the gospel then. Look at this, you see you're
calling? Not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. Who does God call? He's chosen
the foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world,
the base things of the world, things that are not. To bring to naught no flesh or
glory. God's people are nothings and
nobodies. From nowhere, sinners, that's
all they are. Ask them who they are, like old
Jacob. Jacob have I loved. Jacob, what's
your name? Jacob. Nothing, sinner, saved
by grace. You see you're calling, is that
you? That's who God called. That's who he called. It's a
perpetual call, lastly. A perpetual call. He said, my
sheep hear my voice. And I called him. And that means
contingently. Now, many of you have a pet,
I'm sure, a dog or a cat, and you chose that pet, didn't you? It didn't choose you, you chose
it, right? You called it, then you gave
it a name. You gave it a name. And cats,
you don't, might as well not give them a name. They're not
gonna come when you call them. But a dog, anyway. You chose that
dog, you gave it a name, and you taught it to come when you
called it, didn't you? And if the dog loves you and
you love the dog, it's gonna come, isn't it? It's gonna come
when you call it. What if it runs off? What if
he runs off? What are you gonna do? Gonna
call it back? If you love that dog, whoever you love, you're
gonna keep calling and keep calling. What if he runs off five times?
We're like sheep prone to wander. Every one of us. Every one of
us. And we run off like that, and we think, maybe I'm not one
of God's people. Maybe I'm not. And then you hear
that gospel again. He calls you bad. Why are you here tonight? Why
are you here tonight? The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposal is up to the Lord. You may think you
chose to come here. No, you don't. But some people
might. Because you're not here by accident,
and you're not here by your own personal choice. You're here
by the sovereign mercy and grace of God to hear the gospel. Do
you like being here? Do you like what you're hearing?
You keep coming? Would you say it? Am I saying
the same things your pastor keeps saying? Am I? I better be. Well,
you keep coming back to hear the same thing. Why? This is
the call. He keeps calling. He keeps gathering
his people into the fold. He gathers His people and He
never quits calling them, never. And lastly, it says that, it
talks about those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
both theirs and ours. All whom God chose, he called
by the gospel. They called him. They called
to be saints, they're sanctified, they're saved by the Lord Jesus
Christ, they're called by the gospel. Holy Spirit, through
the preaching of the gospel, gives them new birth, through
the preaching of the truth, preaching of the gospel, all right? They're
called by the gospel. Called from darkness to light,
from death unto light, okay? How do you know that they're
called? Not only he keeps calling them, He keeps calling them,
they keep coming, they keep hearing the gospel, they keep needing
the gospel, they keep wanting the gospel, but they call. They call, everyone whom God
calls, calls. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Nobody's gonna be saved who doesn't
call on the Lord, right? That's what the scripture said.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Where
does that come from? Where does that verse come from?
Joel 2.32 says, as many as the Lord our God shall call. Whoever he calls, they start
calling. They start calling. That's how
you know. You see you're calling. Have
you heard this gospel? Have you heard his voice? You
keep coming back. You keep needing to hear this
gospel over and over again. Do you call on the name of the
Lord? What do you call for? I venture to say to everyone
in here who prays in private about the only thing you know
to say is have mercy. Most of the time, I can't say
much more than this. Lord, help me. Save me. Have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. Save me by your grace. And my
brother. Save my brother. That's calling on the Lord. Not
many people call. All God's people do. That's how
you know you're called. Well, I hope and pray the Lord
has called you, and I believe he has, many in here, if not
most, and I hope he'll keep calling. I believe he will. As long as
this gospel's being preached, he's calling people in, calling
people out of the world into his fold by this gospel. And
that's my prayer. May the Lord bless you. Thank
you, Brother Luke.