Did you notice that hymn said,
in this glad hour? That's why we sang that. And
then it said, he calls us. That's the subject, the title
of this message, the called and the calling. First Corinthians
chapter one, go to first Corinthians one with them. First Corinthians
chapter one. Read these verses down through
here. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Now, whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall
they call on him whom they not heard or believe? How shall they
believe in him whom they not heard? How shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent, called? Your pastor was called to come
here. You're blessed to have a God-sent called preacher. An apostle of Jesus Christ, a
preacher. Christ is the one that sends
them, and Christ is their message. Apostle, a preacher of Jesus
Christ through the will of God. This is God's will. Everything
in. And he mentions this man named Sosthenes. This man, Sosthenes,
was a Jewish ruler of the synagogue in Corinth. The Lord saved him. Not many wise men of the flesh,
not many mighty, not many nobler called. But he called this man
by the gospel. And Sothisnes was beaten to a
pulp. Paul went there to preach, and
they beat this man up for receiving Paul. You think about that. And so he became his past long-time
brother, brother in the Lord, brother in affliction. And so
are we. Under the Church of God, this
is to God's people, Church of God, Church of God at Corinth,
Church of God at Bethel, Church of God at Spring Lake, Church
of God at Rocky Mountain, Church of God at Fairmont, Church of
God, this is to God's people. Word of God to His people. To
them that are sanctified in Christ, that means set apart, that means
chosen of God, chosen of God, put in Christ, given to Christ,
called, verse 2, to be saints, called saints. You know, that's
what God calls His people more than any name in the Scripture.
Christian is used three times, only, just three times, Christian. Brother is used quite a bit,
but saints, all through the scripture, saint, what does that mean? A
sanctified one, one that's set apart, one that's consecrated,
given to God, devoted to God. How are we sanctified? Christ, He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, Sanctification and redemption. Sanctified by
the Spirit. Called the saints. I'm looking
at saints. Saint Donna. You say there ain't
no Saint Donna in the scriptures. Oh yes there is. Right there
she sits. Saint. Saint Ginger. Saint Rebecca. Saint. Saint. Saint. Saint. Saint
Doug. There ain't no Doug in the Bible.
Oh yes there is. Oh yes there is. Saint Paul.
Just as much a saint It's this Paul, right? People like to call
him Saint Paul. Right there sits one. He's just
as much a saint as this Paul the Apostle, isn't he? Is Paul
a special fellow? No. No more so than that, Paul. Saint, saint. All that in every
place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Everyone God
calls, they call. They call on him. whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord. The name of Jesus Christ, our
Lord. You know, we don't refer to the
Lord, commonly refer to our Lord as Jesus, do we? We don't do
it, do we? That's what the world did. It's
not the fear of Jesus that's the beginning of wisdom, is it? Nobody fears Jesus. It's the
fear of the Lord. When Simon Peter found out who
Jesus was, he called him Lord. Remember? He thought he's just
a rabbi, just a teacher named Jesus of Nazareth, okay? And
when he got, Doug, when the Lord got in his boat and said, cast
out, said, cast your net on the right side, rabbi, we've been
doing this all our life. And he found out that he's Lord
of every fish in the sea. He knew every fish by name. He
called every one of them in the net. And by the time Peter realized,
he knows every thought in my head. He knows everything about
me. He's Lord of the sea, Lord of
the universe. He's my Lord. And he hit his
knees and what did he call him? Lord. That's what we call him
because that's what he is. I never referred to my dad as
Henry. You know what had happened to me? What had happened to you,
Johnny or Tommy? Hey, Ed, come here. Eddie, I'm
calling you. Woo, dogs. Everybody in North Carolina was
doggies. No, no, no, no, no, the fear
of the Lord. My father, I called him dad,
an affectionate term, but I didn't call him Henry. And we refer
to our Lord Jesus Christ as he is, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what distinguishes him
from that other Jesus. Jesus wants this, Jesus wants
that, he's outside your heart. My Jesus Christ, my Lord Jesus
is not standing outside my heart's door. He's seated on the throne.
How about yours, Bill? So he says in verse three, And
He's your Lord, isn't He? Their Lord and ours. Verse 3,
Grace unto you. What a gift. What a gift of God's
grace is faith to know Him. This is life eternal. Eternal
life's a gift. Salvation's a gift. This is life
eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God. God
who is God. You know Him, don't you? Most
of you, many of you know Him. and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent." That's the grace of God, isn't
it? Oh, thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift, which is
Christ the Lord, and peace from God our Father. Some of you were in religion,
false religion, and you probably made your peace with God, didn't
you? Anybody do that? Anybody here
make your peace with God? Did you, Craig? But God brought
you to hear the gospel, sent a preacher to you, and made you
realize you didn't make peace with God. You can't. You know
who made peace for you, don't you? Jesus Christ. How? By the blood of his cross. There
is no peace otherwise. God is angry with the wicked
every day. He's only at peace with anybody through the blood
of Christ. Those that come to God by Christ,
God has peace with them. propitiated. You know what that
means. Sins are covered, forgiven for
Christ's sake. Grace unto you. Oh, peace from
God, our father. God's not the father of all mankind.
You know that, don't you? He's not every man's father.
He's the father of his people whom he adopted, chose, who are
born of God, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will
of man, but of God, they're born of God. What a gift to hear this, to
know this. From God our Father, from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now verse four, I thank my God
always on your behalf. I thank God for this church.
Paul always thanked God for every church. He said, I'm bound to
give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, for love,
because, why? Because God had from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and
belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll hear preachers everywhere
thanking people for coming to church. Your pastor doesn't do
that, does he? Thank people for coming to thank
God? It's our reasonable service. It's a privilege. It's an honor.
We're not worthy to do it, but God brings us to realize that
by His grace, by Christ's sacrifice, we are what we are, that we're
here. And so we're bound to give thanks to God always, not man,
God. Oh, thank you for accepting Jesus.
That's utter blasphemy. So he says, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God given you by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. In verse five, he says, in everything
you're enriched by him. You know, we're, if you have
a home and food in your refrigerator and food in your cupboard and
a car, you're rich, you're rich. Two things I thank the Lord for
quite often is hot water. If you have hot water, you're
rich. You're rich. What was the other
one? I forget. The gospel, more than anything.
But we're all rich, increased with goods, aren't we? But really,
we're poor and needy. What do you need more than anything
else? Who do you need? There's one thing needful. Most people don't know it. But
we do, don't we? We need Christ. We've got all
this. And Christ too. Man, we're in
rich, we're rich. If you believe Christ, you're
rich in the faith. If people don't have any faith,
God's given you great faith. And you've been here a long time,
you too. Long time, 100 years, ain't you? Yeah, he's old as Moses. But,
you know, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, and
it grows by hearing. You've been sitting here a long
time, and your faith has grown. You're rich in the faith. How
blessed a man is to be rich in the faith. Somebody said, my
wife quoted this. You know, we had a neighbor,
multi-millionaire. She hated the gospel. She hated
me. She hated us, didn't she? Hated
the gospel. Didn't want to hear it. Brought
her here, she hated it, she's Catholic. And Mindy said, she's
so poor, all she has is money. That's all she has, money. Oh, we're rich in the faith,
don't we? You believe God, you're rich. Beyond our understanding,
rich. He goes on to say, you're enriched
by Him in all utterance. Somebody asked you what the gospel
is, you could tell them, couldn't you? Not many in here would call
themselves a preacher, but you know who the Lord your righteousness
is, don't you? Couldn't you tell somebody? Couldn't
you tell somebody why you're saved? You know about God's election,
choosing people. You know how few people know
that? You know how few people believe that? In all utterance,
Male and female. We've got some ladies that know
the gospel so well. If ladies could be preachers,
they'd be the best preachers, gum and going. There's just one. Can tell the gospel, can tell
people the gospel. You know how few people know
the gospel? Or love the gospel? Or are hearing the gospel? You're so blessed, enriched by
Him in all utterance. You can tell people who you believe,
what you believe, and why you believe. Can't you, sister? I'm blessed. I'm blessed. A fellow one time asked another
fellow, he said, where do you go to church? He said, we go
down here to First Baptist Church, Heretics. He said, what do you
believe? He said, I believe what my preacher
believes. He said, what's your preacher
believe? He said, he believes what the church believes. He said, what's the
church believe? We all believe the same thing. I asked, there's a fella in our
neighborhood was going around door to door, we're gonna start
a church. That's the last thing we need in one of those places.
We're gonna start a church. I said, what do you preach? He
said, the Bible. I said, what do you mean you
preach the Bible? Everybody says that. What are
you preaching the Bible? Well, God's Word. I said, what do you preach? If I asked you what your pastor
preached, what'd you say? Somebody give me a word. That's
not just a saying. That's what we do, isn't it?
That's what your preacher preaches. Why? Because Christ is all. That's all we do. That's all
we preach. Oh, you're so rich. Because in
Him are the unsearchable riches. All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. Do you know how few people know that? or care. People, yeah, let's go on to
other things. Tommy Parker, you're so rich. Richest man on earth. My dad
preached the message. You want to hear a good message?
If you don't think this is, turn this on. He said, the title of
it was, I'm the richest man on earth. The richest man on earth. Enriched by him. and all utterance
and all knowledge. If you know Him, you've got all
knowledge. You have the mind of Christ.
The testimony, verse 6, of Christ, the record of God, the whole
Word of God is a testimony of Christ, testifies of Christ.
The Old Testament says somebody's coming. The Gospel says He's
here. The New Testament, the Epistles
say He's coming again. The Revelation, He's coming again.
It's all about Jesus Christ. Testimony. It was confirmed in
you, not to you, in you. Paul said, I was saved when it
pleased God. It pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son, how? In me. Christ in you is the hope of
God. That is a love for Christ, a
true heart faith, not head faith, heart faith in Christ. You know,
you know, you could say the gospel in two words, and it's all through
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, all through. The gospel should
be found in Christ. In Christ. You know what that
means? If I'd ask you for an illustration, I believe you'd
say this. The Ark of Noah. Ark of Noah. Very simply. Who was saved? Who saved? Those in the ark, who's lost? Those who are not in the ark,
right? How'd they get in the ark, huh? How'd they get in? Did Noah go
out there and say, oh lions, please come, I want you to come.
The lions don't. Wild creature, they gotta tame
them. He had to go out and get them,
didn't he? Bring them in the ark. And they
were shut in. Oh, that might be found in Christ. You know what that means. Sister,
you know what that means. You know how rich you are. So
I don't have much faith. Oh, hold on now. Hold on now. If you believe Christ is all,
you've got all faith. That's the essence of faith.
Strong faith. You're just as saved as Moses. You know that Christ is confirmed in you. You keep hearing
this gospel. What God's doing is confirming
it in you. Confirm it. I know you're nodding
your head. You know what I'm going to say
before I say it. You've heard it so many times.
I'd keep confirming it to you. Used to, well, still preaching
Crossville, Tennessee. But there's a man, it was a man
down there named Floyd Bourne. Oh, what a dear man, wasn't he
a dear man? His wife, Eleanor, and the Lord saved all three
of his daughters and his son now, all of his children, his
whole house. But Floyd was a former three-wheel preacher. Okay. And he knew the scripture. He knew the letter. He quote,
well, the Lord saved him through brother Donny's preaching. And
oh, he loved the gospel so much. He wanted to preach. Johnny just
didn't call on until years later, but I remember preaching there
and, and I'd be preaching and I was going to quote a scripture
and Floyd finished it for me out loud. Well, this happened
several times. Finally, one time I got down
there, and I started to chorus, and I said, Lloyd, I want to
tell this. Stop. See, the Word of God was in him.
It came, whatever, out of the abundance of the heart. What?
The mouth speaketh. We can't help but speak the things
we've seen and heard, right? It's confirmed in you. See that? You tell what you know, you tell
what you love, you tell who you love, and that's Christ. It says in verse seven, you come
behind in no gift. What gift? This gift, the gift
of faith and love and understanding. What are we doing? Why are we
here? We're here to worship. We're
here to hear the word of God. Verse seven, we're waiting. We're
worshiping and we're waiting. Sister Judy, we're waiting for
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what we
say? Come quickly. If it wasn't for
some lost loved ones that we have a burden for, we'd say,
come today, Lord. Come right now. Come get us.
Take us home. The coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Some people don't want him to come. People in the world,
they like this world just fine, want to stay here. Their secret
thought is they're gonna live forever. Never think about dying. I sure don't want the Lord to
come and end all this. We're waiting on the coming of
the Lord. He's our husband. If he's your husband, you're
waiting on him. Who shall also, verse eight,
confirm you unto the end. If you belong to him, you're
gonna keep hearing the gospel to the end. That you may be what? Blameless. How are we going to
be blameless before holy God? How can God be just and justify
our sin? How many times have you heard
that? How many times? 5,433 times.
And you keep hearing it. Why? He's confirming his sin.
blameless, and only one is able to present us faultless before
the holy presence of God. He's able. And he's going to
present all his people, holy, blameless in his sight. How? One word. Come on. One word. Tell me. How? Christ. Christ in him. In him. Blame him. In the day of our
Lord Jesus Christ, when he's revealed. In verse 9, he says
God is faithful. God is so faithful. Oh, he's
faithful to his people whom he loves. And he keeps, by his power,
he keeps calling and keeps bringing and saves them eternally. By
whom you were called, by God, under the fellowship of his son,
Jesus Christ our Lord. Fellowship. Johnny last night,
sitting in his chair, he was thanking God for the fellowship
that we have. And it's precious, isn't it? Truly, our fellowship. is with
the father and with his son around the gospel. There was a time
that I was not in that fellowship. The prodigal son, I didn't. There
was nothing I wanted. I didn't want to be in God's
house. With God's people, I had other
friends, companions of the world. But God brought me into the fellowship. Bunch of fellows in the ship. Fellas in the ship. Christ Jesus, that's where I
want to be. This big place is sinking. You know, there were
two great, two ships that most, everybody in the world knows
about. Arkham Noah, everybody believes that's just a fantasy,
fairytale, an allegory. The Titanic. Isn't that something
that people still have an obsession with, the Titanic? Then they
make movies about it and they romanticize it. People died. Most everybody on
that ship died. There's two ships, one man-made. They said the world can't sink
it. Nothing can sink it. First trip, down she goes. And everybody, as anybody, was
on that ship. It sunk. And God had a ship made, the
Ark. and brought his people in that
ark, on that ark. And you know good and well. You
know everybody on the top side of earth that came to see that,
like they're going to see that thing in Kentucky. Don't do it.
It's an image. Don't do it. But people came
to see that ark that Noah was building from all over the world.
Everybody's curious. And they came to see it, didn't
they? And I guarantee that everybody, to a man, to a woman, said, that
boat won't float. It's the only one that did in
the history of man. And when it was all over, what
you saw when God sent that deluge of His wrath and covered every
man and everything that man had ever done, it was one thing that
rose above it all. The only thing you could see
when it was all over was that ark. And that ark is Jesus Christ
and only those in Him. are saved from this deluge of
God's wrath. That's no fairy tale. It's the
truth. The fellowship, I love that word. I don't use that carelessly.
I go to eat somebody and we just eat and never bring up our Lord,
I don't call that fellowship. Fellowship's around the gospel.
Fellowship's around the gospel. And we were called, now, Let
me just give you three points. Did you notice, that was my introduction. Don't worry. Notice, did you notice one word
that kept sticking out here? Paul called to be an apostle,
verse 2, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be
saints, to all and every place, upon the name of the Lord, verse
nine, by whom you're called. Do you notice that? Down in verse
26, you see, you're calling brethren. Let me just talk to you a few
minutes about this. Okay. God calls his people to
be saved. He calls them the call of God. Thanks be unto God who called
us by his gospel. My sheep, hear my voice. It's
the gospel call. Everybody knows what it means
to call, don't you? Or be called. First thing it
means is to cry out, call, call, okay? Hey! I got your attention to him.
Hey, he told Isaiah 55, hoo, everyone at 30. God calls people
by his word. He doesn't call out loud. He
calls by the word. He calls by the gospel. That's
how he calls. He cries out. He told his preacher,
lift up your voice. Lift it up with strength. Say
unto the cities, behold, your God. All flesh is grass. Call, call, means to cry out. Look at Proverbs 8 real quickly,
Proverbs 8. Look over here, Proverbs 8. You
know, everybody's heard the gospel call. There's a general call
and there's a factual call. Everybody's heard the gospel,
everybody has a Bible that's heard. Everybody's heard. Paul
said that. Have they not heard? Yea, verily
the sound's gone throughout the earth. So look at Proverbs 8,
look at it. It says in verse 1, doth not
wisdom cry, this is Christ, understanding put forth her voice, her? Yes,
he does it through the church, through preaching. She standeth
in the top of the high places, by the way, in the places of
the path. Preachers have preached everywhere. She crieth at the
gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in of the door,
unto you, O man, I call. My voice is to the sons of man.
Oh, you simple. Understand wisdom, you fools. Oh, you're not supposed to call
people a fool. That's what God calls us. The fool has said no
God. You're not going to know God
until he calls you by his word, by his voice. Verse six, here
I will speak of excellent things. Opening of my lips shall be right
things. Righteousness, truth, peace,
joy, salvation, but people have ears to hear and they won't hear.
There's a general call, a general call, and everybody's heard it. And then there's effectual call.
There's an effectual call. We talk about, we phone people. You call them on the phone. That's
what we call it. I'm going to make a phone call.
Well, do you make a general call? Do you? There used to be a party
line. My grandmother and grandfather
had lived in a little house in the country in Tecumseh, Georgia.
Had a little general store and a nail keg. Men played checkers
at you. And they had one of these party line on the wall, you know,
and Sarah, get me, really. And everybody, anybody could
listen to that. That's not the call yet. When
you call somebody that you intend to talk to, you call them, don't
you, personally. You dial them up, and you call
them and say, and if they answer, you say, Doug, I want to call
you, I've got something to tell you, right? This call of God
to his people is personal. It's personal, it's particular,
and it's affection. God calls through the preaching
of the gospel. We preachers preach, your preacher
preaches, I'm trying to preach now poorly, but it's not up to
the preacher, it's up to God to call. We hope we call on men
to come to Christ. We call on women to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. We call on men, repent, believe
the gospel. We call, but only God can call
effectually, personally, and powerfully. Only God. We talk to people that were blue
in the face. We talk to our children, and they just won't listen. But if God called, And you know
why we call on God? We call on Him to ask Him to
call them. Don't we? We call on Him to ask
them, Lord, would you save my wife? She doesn't know that you
saved me. You called on me. Lord, would
you please call her? Lord, would you please save my
son? He doesn't know you. And I was just like him. But
you called me by your grace. You called me by your gospel.
And I heard you because you called me. Lord, would you call him?
I can't make him come. Is that not what we do? Isn't
it? Call on the, whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord. When he calls us by the gospel,
we call on him. The word call means to pay a
visit. That's the Southern term. I'm gonna call on, you know,
we went calling on the Parkers yesterday. If you told somebody
from New York that, where were you talking about? paid a call
to visit, paid a visit to the Parker family. Oh, may the Lord
visit, pay a call, come to some that don't know it yet. He'll
do it. He does it. There was a woman
All the way up in Tyre and Sidon, the farthest most, the uttermost
parts of Israel, on the very fringes, borders of Israel, up
in the Gentile land, our Lord walked all the way up to the
Tyre and Sidon, to the uttermost parts. And there's one woman
who had a daughter that's vexed by an evil spirit.
And he went up there to pay a call, to make a visit. And when he
left that place, that woman knew him. That girl knew him. There's
a man named Jarius who had a daughter. She was dying, and she did die. She was dead. Before that, Jairus
said, Lord, if you'd just visit my house, if you'd just come
to my house, pay a visit to my house, visit my daughter with
your mercy and your grace and call on her, raise her. She died. And lo and behold, our Lord paid
a visit, went to her house and called Tabitha. She read, and you hath thee quickened
through a day. He visited you in mercy and grace. Isn't that what we want for our
children more than anything else, anything else? Lord, visit us
with your mercy. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
The gospel is the power of God. The gospel is the power of God.
What is the gospel? Been trying to say it ever since
I've been here. Let me illustrate. It's a gospel according to the
scripture, how Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.
It's the Old Testament, declared to be the Son of God from the
Old Testament. You know this story over in Genesis.
A man named Joseph, remember that? His father Jacob loved
him dearly, called him his beloved son. He was better. Joseph was
better than his sorry brother. Okay. Right. He had a coach. He had a cover. He had a robe
that distinguished him from all his brothers that the father
made just for him. Now, who's that talking about?
Jesus Christ, the beloved son of the most high God, righteous
in all his way. The Lord's well pleased. Well,
Jacob loved these sorry brothers. Because he loved them, he sent
this beloved son of his, named Joseph, down to see of their
welfare, to visit them. And he did, he sent, he went,
okay, sent by the Father. That's what Jesus, God so loved
the world out of every tribe, nation, kindred, nation, tongue.
He sent his beloved son. Well, he sent this brother down
there, and they hated him. They hated Joseph, because he
was not like them, he was better than them, because the father
loved him. And they hated him, and they tried to kill him. They
would have killed him if God hadn't stopped him, right? And
they did shed blood there that day, like it was Joseph's blood.
You know the story. They cast him in a pit, and he
was taken captive. They hated their brother, and
men hate God, and they hate Jesus Christ, and hate the truth. Now,
here's the good news. But God, for His great love,
wherewith He loved some of these sorry no good sons of Adam, that
hate His Son. That was mean. They hated this
brother, and they would have killed Him if they could. Well,
man did kill God's Son. with wicked hands, took and crucified
the Lord of glory, but they did what? What God determined before
to be done, in His mercy and His love and His grace. As a
perpetuation, as a bloody sacrifice, as a substitute for their sin,
as a lamb, He's God's lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. Killed
Him, they tried to kill Joseph. Well, later on, these sorry brethren
by the grace of God, by the sovereign providence of God, were brought
to Egypt, and lo and behold, somebody was sitting on the throne. Somebody had risen from the pit,
somebody God took out of the prison, out of the dungeon, and
sat him on the throne. The beloved son, whom the brethren
hated, sitting on the right hand of Pharaoh. doing as he will
with whom he will. And these sorry sons of Jacob,
all of them came, God brought them all, and they were trembling
in his presence. And not one of them deserved
to be saved. Not one of them deserved to be
loved. Not one of them deserved to be spared but Joseph. rich in love, rich in mercy and
grace, revealed himself to those brethren. He said to them, I'm
Joseph. I'm your brother. And they were trembling. Everyone
was trembling. He's going to kill us. He ain't
come to kill you. He didn't reveal himself to you
to kill you. Don't know what his wife said. If God was going
to kill us, he wouldn't have told us this. You wouldn't have
heard the gospel. You wouldn't love it. You wouldn't
be smiling right now. And what happened? Joseph raised
them up, had them sitting in the land of Goshen, the land
of Goshen. With him, he said, you made it for evil. Here's
the gospel. You made it for evil. You hated me, but God did it
for good. And now you're mine. I love you.
Father sent me for you, and you'll be with me. I'm gonna nurture
you. I'm gonna keep you, my brethren, forever. Oh, what mercy. Oh, what love. Oh, what grace.
Oh, what a gospel picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. That's it. The gospel is a powerful call.
The gospel is a power of God and a salvation. It says there
in verse 18, he says, preaching of the cross to them that perish,
but unto us which are saved is the power of God. This is what
you first heard, wasn't it? It's what you heard. It's what
I heard. It's a powerful call. You see your calling, brethren? How do you know you're a son
of God? You heard the gospel. You believe the gospel. That's
how you know. Make your calling, election sheriff. Powerful call. Call from death to life, like
Tabitha, like Lazarus. Call out of darkness to light.
Out of sin, pit. Out of religion, which is double
darkness. Nicodemus, salt, salt. Your blind may see. Why is it
you see the truth in God's word, and people look at it and say,
I don't see it that way? I'll give you an answer. By this powerful
gospel called death here, the lame walk. There was a time when
they never thought they'd see me walk through the house, into
the house of God willingly. Here he comes. Here he comes,
all the way up the pulpit. No way, no way. Yeah, way, one
way. power of God. That s it. The Gospel s power of God. It
s a powerful call. It s a personal call. It s a
personal call. You hear the Gospel when our
Lord came calling His disciple. He came calling His disciple.
He said, Simon, my sheep hear my voice. I called them by name.
Andrew, follow me. He didn t ask them, didn t plead
with them. He called them. What did they do? What'd they
do? They followed him, because it's power for God. If he calls
you, if he calls you, you'll come. James, John, leave your
father. Abraham left his father in his
idolatry, and they followed God. James, John, leave your boats,
leave your net, leave your father, leave everybody, and you follow
me. That's the only way. It's powerful. It's personal. It's personal. I can't tell you
how many people have said this to me. I felt like you were just
speaking to me. You ever said that? You ever
thought that when a man preaches the gospel and the Lord speaks
to you, you've ever thought, he's talking to me? That's the
way it is. Are you talking to me, preacher?
Yes. One time, Doug, a man came back
to the back to greet my dad after his message. He said, you sure
stepped on my toes today. He said, I missed. I wasn't aiming
at your toes. I was aiming at your heart. I
missed. These things, the heart work,
and God's the only one that can pierce the heart in it. The only
one that can get through, and that's what we pray. Lord, take
an arrow from your, the arrows of the Lord are sharp in the
hearts of the king's enemies, and that's every one of us by
name. Oh Lord, take an arrow and pierce that heart of that
young man and that woman, pierce it. And he does. He did me. It's personal, personal. And
lastly, it's perpetual. Fancy a name for it? It goes
on. It keeps going. Powerful, personal,
it's perpetual. It continues all your life to
call you. You're here today. Why? I've
been asking that question. Why are you here? Why are we
here? Hear the gospel? Well, hadn't you heard it before?
Well, yes, but I got to hear it again. See, who you love,
you call. And if you really love Him, you
keep calling on Him. You keep calling Him on the phone.
You keep calling Him in person. You keep visiting with Him, don't
you? You keep calling Him. You never quit calling Him. And
neither does our Lord. This is how you know He loves
you. This is how you know you've been chosen, elect. He keeps
calling you. I had a, maybe you've heard this, It's still a good illustration.
I had a dog. And that dog, I chose that dog.
I went to a breeder, and there's about 10 puppies. Mindy's with
me, and I think about 10 puppies in that litter. And I didn't
stand there and say, any puppy want me? Any puppy want to go
home with me? Anybody? No, they want to stay
with their mother. I've set my affection on one
of them, he's black. He's black. I said, I want that
one right there. And so I chose it, okay? And I bought it, I paid money. Now really, you dog lovers, I
know. I know, Rhonda, you think your
dog's worth a million dollars. But you know, really, Bella ain't
worth a plug nickel. There's three zillion dogs out
there. Shouldn't that pay a dime for a dog? They're being euthanized
in a town all the time. And I paid pretty big money for
that dog, okay? I bought it, I chose it, I bought
it, and I brought it. I brought it home with me. Brought
it home with me. Not any other dog, that dog.
I said, you're my dog. My dog. I love you. I chose you. I named him Abner. Abner. Okay. The first thing I did,
began to do was teach it. I taught that dog. Sit. Sit. The Lord's my shepherd.
He maketh me to lie down. Sit in heavenly places. Lie down, Abner. I taught him
to lie down. I taught him to come to me. Come to me. When I call, every
time I call, if he doesn't, he's gonna kill himself. He's gonna
run off. He's in danger. If I call him,
he comes to me, he's not in danger. I called him and he kept coming.
And I never quit calling him. His whole life. He'd run off
with another dog. I taught him. And my voice had
power. And he'd come. I never quit calling
him. One time. Mindy came in the house. She
had a little dog like Bella. Looked just like Bella. She came
in the house and said, there's a pack of dogs outside, and I'm
afraid they're going to get Charlie. It'll get you. I walked out there,
and sure enough, a big pack of dogs. Some of them didn't have collars
on. I was, wow, dog, right? Doesn't have a yoke. It's wow. All right? You know what I was
going to do? Go up, they come on my property.
They're not gonna get my dog. So I started in the house and
I looked. Abner was right in the middle
of it. My dog, running with those wild dogs. My dog, right in the
middle. I'm getting ready to shoot all
of them. I don't love those dogs. They
ain't nothing but trouble. And here was my dog that I bought,
I taught, I brought. cause to come unto me right in
the middle of Him. You know why? He's a dog. Why do dogs act like dogs? Because
they're dogs. Why do we act like flesh? Why
do we run off? Huh? Why do we get out there
and act like we don't know the Lord? Because we're sinful flesh. You know what I did? One word. Cut! One dog came at Hope. His head down, tail tucked between
his legs. Matt sat at my feet. He laid down at my feet. I'm
not going to hurt him. And I love him. I wouldn't have
called him. That's gonna hurt him. One doubt. I called him ever since. And
if he keeps calling you about his gospel, he's not out to hurt
you. Brother David, David Edmondson
always says this, God's out to do you good. He's out to do you
good. How do you know, Precious? He
called you by the gospel, and keeps calling you. Here you come.
He's out there. Johnny! Well, you do. To whom shall we go? Where are
we going to go? God must love you. OK. Lord bless you. We're going to
sing a hymn. Where's Ben? OK.