compassion and wisdom to deal
with it accordingly. If you are here this morning
with a true desire to seek after the things of God,
to look into the things of God, if you're here with that true
desire, And you should be concerned with, or you are concerned with,
these three questions. Now, the message is very simple
this morning. It's in the form of three questions.
Things I'm going to show you from God's Word this morning.
Here are the three questions. What is it to be called by God? What is it to be called by God? How is a man or a woman or a
young person called by God? How does God call people? And thirdly, how do we know when
we are called? Those should interest us. Those are three questions that
we should be vitally interested in. Now, I don't know about you.
I don't know the heart and desire of each individual in here. Some it seems apparent, some
not so, others not at all. But I don't know about you, but
I have, by God's grace, my affections set on things above. Not all the time. Not my affections,
plural. Not every day, not every hour
am I thinking about and pursuing after the things of God. But
by God's grace, my heart, my desire, the one thing I long
for is to win Christ and be found in Him. To know God, to know
the true and living God. Knowing, not about Him. Not to
have a mere notional knowledge, not to have a mere head knowledge
of some facts. I want to know God. in whom I
live and move and have my being. And I want to be spoken to by
that God and I want to speak to that God. I want to know him
personally. Like Abraham, I want to be the
friend of God and him be a friend to me. I want to commune with my God.
This is eternal life that they might know thee, the only true
God. I want eternal life. And seeking me, you will find
me, he says, if you search for me with all your heart, that
is your affection, your very being, your whole person. I don't know about you, but I want to be one of the elect
of God. The scripture talks about the
elect of God. I want to be elect of God. I
want to know that I'm God's elect. And by God's grace, I intend
to do as he said, give diligence to make my calling and election
sure. I don't want to be called. I want to know that I'm called.
I want God to call me Henry Sword, and I want to hear him call me
when he does. While on others thou art calling, I don't want
to be passed by. I want to hear his call. He said,
My sheep hear my voice. If I'm a sheep, I want to hear
that voice with power. Life-changing power. I want to
hear it. In no uncertain terms, too. I
want to know whose voice it is. There's other voices out there.
None without signification. I want the one who is most significant. I want to hear the voice of the
Good Shepherd. I want to hear him say unto me, I am thy salvation. And I'm not going to rest. I'm
not going to be happy in this life until I know that. John
said we could. John said we could. By this we
shall know. He said that over and over again.
Now look at 2 Timothy with me. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Let's begin
here. What is it to be called? What
is this called? 2 Timothy chapter 1. Well, I
believe that this call comes to every single person that God
saves. I believe every single person
that God saves, he calls. The call is not salvation. It's
proof of it. Now, I'm not talking about a
general call this morning. God in creation, in providence,
God calls men to worship him. And I'm talking about that this
morning, I'm going to talk about this saving call, what we call
the effectual particular call of God upon an individual. To
salvation. Salvation, the salvation of a
man or a woman, and this is where you start, look at Second Timothy,
verse Chapter 1, verse 9, God hath saved us and called us with
a holy calling, a holy calling, called to God who is holy, called
unto holiness, called to God or to godliness. He says that
in our text over in 2 Peter here in a moment. The first thing I want you to
notice about this calling is it comes after salvation. If God calls, God has saved. If God calls somebody and that
person hears that call, it means that God has determined and God
has saved them. You see, salvation is of the
Lord. It says, God hath saved us. Salvation is of the Lord. It's completely His prerogative,
His decision, His will, His choice. Not a man, not by the will of
the flesh or the will of man, but it's of God. Salvation is
of God. God alone decides whom He will
save. And the way He does this, the
way God saves His people, is this. First of all he decides
who to save. He must. All men are under the
condemnation and wrath of God by nature. God must decide to
save some of them. God doesn't have to predestinate
men to hell. They're all going there anyway.
God has to predestinate some to Christ. God doesn't elect
men to hell. They're going there anyway. But
he must elect men under salvation. And God decides who. God decides
who. You see, man is a rebel against
God. He's condemned. He's under the
judgment of God. And God must decide who. None
of them deserve it. But God in mercy and grace decides
to save some. Spurgeon said we shouldn't kick
against the prick of election. Men shouldn't Say that that's
unfair no he said if God only decided to elect one person salvation
that be a whole lot more than deserved it. So it's God who
decides whom he's going to say that's where salvation start
when is a man going to be saved when God decides. In God good God's good time and
secondly. were saved by God deciding to
save us and secondly by God in the Council Halls of Eternity.
Salvation didn't take place when I accepted Jesus. No, salvation took place in the
eternal mind and counsel of the eternal God way long before this
world was ever created. Somebody I've always heard somebody
say that it was before there was a sinner there was a Savior
Christ is called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the
world and Salvation took place in the mind of God Almighty and
known under God are all his works from the beginning It's as if
it already had taken place It must take place in time, but
in God's mind. It's done He said as I have spoken
it. It'll be done and a long time
ago And here's the beauty, and here's the glory of this thing.
Long time ago, God Almighty said, no man is going to be a rebel,
a vile, a wretch, a worm, a rebellious creature to me, and he's not
going to deserve anything in my hands, but I'm going to love
some of these. Love them freely. Set my affection
on them. I'm going to save some of them
from that certain doom. Now, how am I going to do this?
Well, I've got I've got a purpose. I've got a plan. I've got a way. One way. I'm going to go down
there myself. I'm going to become a man. And
they're going to behold my glory as of the only begotten, the
only God-man who ever lived. Full of grace and truth. I'm
going to come down there. Yea, it's going to be in the
form of my son. And he's going to come down there and take the
place of these people. And what that was, what took
place back then, was called a covenant. God made an agreement with himself.
And he says he can swear by no greater. He swore by himself. Didn't need a stack of Bibles.
He was the Bible. He said, I'll do this. I'm going
to do it. Done. I've got a people in mind. And you all think about this.
He had you in mind. Way back when, long before your
parents ever had you in mind, your Heavenly Father had you
in mind. And He told His Son, if you'll agree to go down there
and take their place, take that punishment that they deserve,
that their sin or rebellion deserve at the hands of my justice, if
you'll agree to do that, if you'll agree to live as a man perfectly,
righteously, holily, so that I can have men into my presence,
then I'll save some of them. I love them. And the son said,
I'll do it. I'll gladly do it. So that's
the covenant. And then God chose whom he was
going to apply this to. He said there he had a book and
he wrote in that book. It's called the Lamb's Book of
Life. You're going to do that? Yes,
Father, I'll do it. All right. Here's the ones I
want you to go for. You're not going to die for any
more now. Just these. And he put it in his bosom, like
that breastplate of the high priest, you know, attached to
their names. And Christ came down here for
those people. He said, I'm on the trail of
my sheep. I've come to die for my sheep. I'm the Lamb. John
said, Behold the Lamb. And Christ actually came in time
and made a sacrifice. It wasn't an offer. John, this
was a result of that covenant. This was an agreement. Christ
said, I'm going to pay the exacting price for the exact sins of all
of God's people. And said, I've come down to die
for my people. And after ascertaining who they
were and laying down that sacrifice, he went back to the right hand
of the father on high, the majesty on high, and sat down expecting
not only his enemies to be his footstool, but all of his people
to come home. Every last one of them. And in
God and wisdom and kindness sent his Holy Spirit to round them
up. There's one over there. Oh, not
him. Yeah, him. Call him out of the
herd, Joe. Call him out with a lasso of
his gospel. Call him out. Call him out of
the herd. Sanctify him. Separate him. unto himself. There's one. Oh,
he sure don't. He will when I get through with
him. He'll look just like me. Got it. Put a brand on him. Bring him up there. Wash him
off. Clean him up. Get him ready. And take him home. Here he is. Good job. Got that blood on it. Yeah, right
there. Look at it. See. Branded. On his head. That's how God saves people.
God does it. It's all his work. Faith, faith
comes in time. That's when the Holy Spirit calls
them out, calls them out, separates them, wounds them, draws them
by his great brother Gary Shepherd said this down there. He said,
you know, people, they say that God doesn't, doesn't save men
against their will that he makes them willing. I know the scripture
says that, but he says... Now there's a sense in which
God does have to grab us by the hair of the head and drag us.
Drawing. He's talking about drawing. He's
talking about cords. Didn't he say, I'll draw them
with cords? Got to put a rope around our
neck and draw us in there. A hook. A rod, a staff, right? Come back here now. You're going
to die. You're going to be damned. Come
on now, little sheep. I don't want to. Yeah, you do.
And jerks us back. And when we get there, then we're
willing. Right? But not until. Right? God saves everybody against their
will, with their full consent. Against their will, with their
full consent. And how he does this, now this is what we're
going to dwell on. Now that's how God saves. God does it. We don't play any part in it.
Zero. Nada. De nada. No part in salvation. Our faith
is not what we attribute. No, that's a gift of God. That
comes after the fact. Doesn't it, Terry? Faith comes
after the fact. It's the end, not the means.
God's already decided. Christ has already died. We weren't
around when Christ died. That's when the payment was made,
right? We weren't around when Christ made that propitiatory
offering on the mercy seat. But in time, the Holy Spirit
shows us, tells us, gives us faith to say, hey, look what
I've done. And all faith says is, yeah, you did, didn't you?
Thank you. That's all faith does, receive
it. Thank you. faith doesn't take any credit.
Now, look at our text here in 1 Peter chapter 2. Well, look
at 1 Peter, yeah, 1 Peter chapter 2. God calls them. What is it to be called? Well,
like I say, it's to be called by God. God does the calling. It's not the preacher. It's not
the soul winner. It's God who does the calling.
And as I said, this presupposes eternal election and salvation.
And in time, God calls them. It says, verse 9 of 1 Peter chapter
2, verse 9, it says, you're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar or purchased people that you should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness. into his marvelous light. So, first of all, what is it
to be called by God? It's to be called out of darkness. It's as if we were awakened from
the dead. That's exactly what it is. The
Scripture says, you hath be quickened who were dead. The natural man is dead to God. You know what a dead man is?
When a man is dead, when his body is dead, he's insensible.
His senses are rendered inoperable, right? His senses. He can't see. He can't see any
beauty about him. He can't hear any voices. He
can't walk. He can't think. He can't know
anything. He has no desires. He's dead. And the scripture says that about
the natural man. He's dead in trespasses and sin. He's dead. He cannot see God,
though the firmament, though the heavens declare his glory,
the firmament showeth his handiwork, though the things of God are
clearly seen, even his eternal power and Godhead, Paul said
in Romans 1, clearly seen, even though these things, a natural
man with the faculties that God gives him, a mind, a reason,
that can reason, a rationale, even though he could look at
a flower and look at that and say, surely God made this. Yeah, but he's blind, right? He's a fool. He's a blind fool. He can't see that. He says, I
just must have just banged, whoop, it happened. Boy, if that isn't
blindness. A big bang. He can't hear God. God calls. God calls all men
by nature. When a thunder thunders, what
is that? Let's say it's a natural reaction
of the clouds bumping into one another, an electrical force,
and that's God. His eternal power and Godhead. Boom! I'm God. Boom! Hear my voice. The next
one may be you, right? People get struck by lightning,
don't even hear, don't even listen. They don't hear God. They don't
know God. Scripture said, Romans 1, same
place, says they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.
Don't have any desire for God. It's dead to God, you see? Dead
to God. It's as if they are saying God's
dead. There is no God. Isn't that what
the fool is saying? It's no God. of God. But man is very much alive to
the things of this world, isn't he? He's like a maggot. You ever seen maggots in a trash
can or whatever? Maggots, the only way that maggots
can sustain their life, and it's not much of a life, is it? Wiggling
and crawling, that's us. You know that's what the word
worm in the scripture means, maggot. Not a pretty nice red earthworm,
a maggot crawling and wiggling. Nobody likes maggots. Nobody. Nobody will fish with maggots.
Quiet crawling from a larva of flies, isn't that where they
come from? Crawling around, you know how they sustain their life?
Dead things. That's the reason they're in
garbage cans. That's the reason they're on carcasses of an animal. You
turn an animal over, it's been laying in the woods for a while,
you'll find maggots. You know that's what we are? We feed on dead things. Not what
you're talking about. This world is dead. It's dying. It's dead things we feed them
on we live upon a dead world a dying world very much alive
to the things of the world but we're as if we are as if we were
walking dead men. Living in a cave. We're like
bats walking in the night lovers of darkness more than light right. Until. God in time, in His good
time, in the fullness of His time, in the salvation of His
time, comes by our cave like Lazarus's tomb and calls us like
Lazarus. Same call when He said to Lazarus. It had to be a particular call,
didn't it? Come forth, come out of darkness and walk in newness
of life. And he says to all those people
he has decided to save, sinner, come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, that are dead in trespasses and sin, that
have this burden of sin upon them, come! And they hear him. Thank God
some of them hear him. And they're awakened by his voice. So what is it to be called? Well,
it's God does the calling. And secondly, it's to be awakened
from the dead. You. If we get over this, Henry,
you have to be quick. Everybody else you run into them,
don't you? Dead to the things of God, not caring. You have
to be quick, you were dead just like them in trespasses and sin. But yet he called you by his
grace, didn't have to, but he did. Most gracious thing ever
happened to you. Call. Awaken from the dead. Secondly, how is a man called? Now look at our text here in
2 Peter chapter 1. We'll dwell here a little bit.
2 Peter chapter 1. How is a man called? How does
God call a man? It's not by an audible voice.
Well, you will hear a voice. You'll hear a man. Speaking. But you'll hear more than a voice.
Listen to this second Peter chapter one verse three according as
he had as his divine power you see that salvation is within
the divine power of God. His power. according as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life,"
real life, spiritual life, that's the only kind there is, really,
and godliness, godlikeness, through the knowledge of him, through
his knowledge, his decision, his power, through the knowledge
of him that hath done the calling, that hath called us to glory
and virtue." Called us to glory and virtue. Do you have a marginal
reference right beside that word, to, all of you? Do you have a
number there? Does it say in your margin, by? It says called to or by. Now let's deal with that just
a moment. God has called us by glory and
virtue. This is important. This is a
reason we need to study to show ourselves approved. Understand,
rightly discerning, rightly dividing the word of truth. God has called
us by, this is the heart of the gospel, by glory and virtue. What is the gospel called? It's
called the gospel of God's what? glory, the glorious gospel, the
gospel of God's glory. God calls us, for those of you
who are taking note, by His gospel. We're called by the gospel of
God's glory and that gospel is concerning His Son, concerning
God's Son. It's called the gospel of God's
glory as it is seen in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. called by the gospel. The first
thing that a man or woman hears in this gospel of God's glory
is just that—the glory of God. God doesn't call a man, first
of all, by talking about the love of God. That is a glorious
characteristic and glorious act of God. It is the love of God. But that's not the first thing
a man or woman sees when God calls them by the gospel. God
doesn't call by showing us the love of Jesus, not even by showing
us Calvary. That's not where it starts. It's
called the gospel of God's glory. What did the angels say when
they got here? What was the first thing they said? Glory to God
in the highest, didn't they? First words out of their mouth
was not, Jesus has come, he wants to be your personal Savior. No!
Give glory to God in the highest. You're not going to need Jesus
unless you see God, right? It's the gospel of God's glory,
and this is good news to an old worthless, wretched sinner, a
helpless undone. Isaiah said, he said, when I
saw the Lord, I saw Him high and lifted up. His train filled
the temple, and the whole earth was what? Full of His glory. And the cherubims with three
sets of wings, they cried day and night. They covered their
eyes, covered their middle, covered their feet, and they cried out, The whole earth is full of his
glory, the Lord of hosts, God. The man's got to first see who
God is, not who Jesus is. That's the man. See the Lord
high and lifted up, and then Jesus, and then the Christ. The earth is the Lord's in the
fullness thereof. In Him we live and move and have
our being. He hath created all things, even
us, for His glory. The Lord hath created all things
for Himself. Proverbs 16, 4, is it? Even the
wicked for the day of evil. All things. Glory. A man's got
to first see that God is God and God is glorious. Not a sugar
daddy. Not a helpless, hopeless, One
that's done all he can do but a God. And God the Holy Spirit first
calls a man through the preaching of the Word, and more specifically,
the preaching of the glory, the holiness, the sovereign power
of God Almighty. And look at this, and virtue.
Called us by glory and virtue. Called us by virtue. Now God. Here's what they say today. Here's
what they call the gospel call. God loves you. And Christ died
for you. And God wants you. God needs
you. God needs you. Won't you let
God in other words, there's some virtue in you that God There's
something good in you. God wants you to feel good about
yourself. Because God loves you. God's
within you. You know what the Bible says?
Kingdom of God is within you. Well, they butcher that scripture,
don't they? Virtue doesn't mean ours, does
it? God doesn't call us by our virtue
because we don't have any. We don't have any. You see, this
is the reason we first got to hear who God is, right? We first
got to hear who God is. And upon seeing who God is, holy,
righteous, sovereign, willed by no just, willed by no means
clear of the guilty, we say, hey, I can't come to this God. He's too virtuous. He's too holy,
he's too righteous. You know what it is to talk about
the glory of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of
God, the justice of God? What that's doing, what we're
doing when we do that is declaring, proclaiming the name of the Lord. You could wrap all that up into
this one thing. Name of the Lord. To whom is
the name of the Lord revealed? The name of the Lord. We've got
to hear who God is. God! I wish the world could hear
this this morning. G, capital O, capital D. God. And then upon hearing that, a
man, a woman, a young person next hears God call them names. You know, God calls us names.
He calls it like he sees it. You know, the next thing God
hears us, we hear from God, is Him hearing Him call us names.
Guilty. Right? A man or woman, a young
person, has to hear from God's Word His name called. This is
the calling of God. Listen, let me hear, listen to
me so you can hear your name called. Whatsoever the law saith,
it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty. guilty from the sole of their
foot to the top of their head. There's no soundness in them,
unsound, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart is faint. They're an open, running sore. Their vow. God looked down from
heaven to see if there were any that did speak after God. He
said there are none that do it good. There are none righteous.
They all together become unprofitable. Unprofitable. Another name. Is that you? That ain't me. I've got some things to offer
God. I've got some gifts and some
talents. I ain't talking to you. You're not being called. They're
filthy. They all together become filthy.
They're helpless. They're hopeless. They're worms. Worms. Maggots. Undone. Unclean. They're people
of unclean lips. Ungodly. That means everything
that's despicable wretched, and vile, and sinful, and evil, and
wicked. I can't paint the picture black
enough. When Paul was trying to come
up with an adjective for sin that we're full of, you know,
we're called sinners. Paul said, oh, the sin is sinful. That's the only adjective he could describe
it. And we're called, you know what our name is? This is what
we hear from God. Ungodly. Have you heard your
name yet? Huh? I'm not trying to be melodramatic
here. Have you heard your name yet? I'll tell you what. Scripture
says Christ died for the ungodly. Is that your name? Everything
opposite of God or there's some good in you. We're called by virtue. Look
at verse 1. It says, To them that have obtained
like precious faith a gift with us through the virtue or the
righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. You see,
only when a man or a woman or a young person hears their name
called like that, like I'm a man of unclean lips," Isaiah said. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. I'm a maggot, and I live with
maggots. Only then will a person see their
sinner undone, unclean, a wretched vows, unclean. You know, there
was a point when Christ came through. And the scripture says
that here's the great physician, I mean the healer of sick, the
one who gives eyes to the blind, who makes deaf ears hear, loosens
dumb tongues. Who can cleanse a leper? Who
can raise the dead?" And he'd say, walking through one day,
and you know what the Scripture says in one place? It says that
he healed all that had need of healing. Every one of them. It doesn't say that he healed
everybody that was sick. It said he healed all that had
need of healing. Nobody, nobody was crying to
Christ that day. for sight, but Bartimaeus, wasn't
he? Why? He was blind. He knew it, and he saw with spiritual
eyes. He heard with spiritual ears.
There's the only healer of blind men, and they couldn't shut him
up. Jesus! Nobody else was crying out that
day. The rest of them were getting a quill in their throats. He
was crying out. Why? He was blind! What do you want? When he came up to him, what
do you want, barter mate? I want to see! Nobody else was hollering
and crying and begging and screaming for that. Why? They thought they
could see. And Christ said to them, because
you think you see, therefore your blindness remains. Your
sin remains. Do you see? Nobody is going to
be called except blind men, sinners. wretched people, undone. And
that's us right now, whether we know it or not. We just don't
see. If we really saw our predicament, we'd be crying out right now,
like they did when Jonathan Edwards preached the virtually same message.
They'd be dripping the pictures. For fear. God save me, I'm a
sinner. This morning I've got wretched,
vile, and filthy, ungodly thoughts. If you gave me what I deserve,
you'd pit me in the hell right now. God be merciful to me, the
sinner. The sinner. Wouldn't we? Not sitting here. Have you heard your name? Have I heard my name? And He
calls us by and to see His glorious virtue. There's a fountain flowing
for unclean, wretched, vile lepers. A fountain. And the first one
in is safe, clean, like that impotent man. Oh, my soul. Christ's virtue,
his righteousness we see, not my works of righteousness which
we have done. This church, the church is not
a place for good folk. Like I said before, I'd like
to write on top of our building, no good people allowed in here. Church is not for good folks,
it's for sinners. We come, and the reason the gospel
doesn't mean much to us, the reason we can't worship most
of the time is because we come in here feeling pretty good about
ourselves. And there's times, according to God's blessed mercy
and grace, John, that he lets us get a little whiff of our
sin, and then we come dragging our heels and dragging our heads
and dragging our tail between our legs, and the gospel is pretty
sweet during those times, isn't it? Hey, tell me that one more
time. I forgot it this week. I got down and dirty. I need
to hear where this cleansing is found again. Would you tell
me? All righty. One more time for those who want
it, those who hear it. He calls sinners. Sinner! Lost. He's on the trail of his
lost sheep. Bernard used to say, I'm not
trying to get people saved. I'm trying to get them lost.
Everybody's saved, aren't they? If you went out and cried out,
who's lost? Now, I'm the preacher up here.
I'm supposed to be saved, if anybody was. And sure, for heaven's
sake, if I'm already there, how am I going to lead you there?
But I'm telling you, half the time I feel lost. Me! And I'm crying daily. Save me
if you've never saved me before. Save me now. I don't want to
take this thing for granted. If I had, like John Newton, one
of the greatest preachers that ever lived, he said, if I have
not loved you before, let me begin today. Don't let me be,
don't send me strong delusions to believe a lie. Don't make
me think because I'm dressed and fixed up and I'm preaching
and it's not that I'm the seer for heaven. Don't let me take
that for granted. I'm a sinner. I've sinned this
morning, sinned awfully. Last night, the night before.
Sinner! Altogether sinful! I need saving
every day. The Scripture says He delivered
us, and doth now deliver us, and will yet deliver us. Paul
said, Paul said, I've not obtained it yet, didn't I? I haven't arrived
yet, Paul said. But he said, this one thing I'm
doing, you can do what you want to, he said, but I'm pushing
toward the mark for the prize of the what? I call it. I want to hear my name called. And he doesn't say Paul, he doesn't
say Henry, he doesn't say Joe, does he? There's a lot of Joes
out there. Joe's the most common name on earth. It's reason you're
so common. But he calls sinners, doesn't
he? And this is the wisdom of God. Do you see the goodness
of God in allowing you to feel your sinfulness? Oh, it burdens
you down, it makes you feel awful and wretched, but that's who
God calls! Don't ever let—your sins will
never keep you from coming to God. Your past life will never
keep you from coming to God. It's your goodness, your morality. That's what keeps men from coming
to God. The well don't need a physician. A boy that's sick doesn't. And
in sight they find there's only one. There's only one that can
do them any good. The gospel of God's glory is
seen in the face of Christ Jesus. He's made unto them all those
things. Now, lastly, my last question,
how do you know you're called? I've already answered it, really.
I've already answered it. You see your need. That's the
first thing. How does anybody know they're
called by God? They see their need. Do you see your need of
this gospel? That's the first thing. This
glorious calling, this so great a salvation, this great Savior,
His virtue. Do you see your need of His righteousness?
I've had words mentioned more than 500 times. Mighty important. Without it, we're not going to
get to heaven. Do we see our need of it? Do we seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness? Do we see need of His virtue,
His righteousness, His blood, without which no man will be
saved? Without the shedding of which there's no remission for
sin? Do you see your need of that shed blood? Oh, that's old-fashioned. We've got better things to talk
about. Oh, no, not the child of God. He's just like young
Isaac. He says, Father, we've got to
have lamb. We've got some fire, we've got some wood around here,
we've got to have land if we're going to approach God. We've
got the building, you know, we've got a little enthusiasm, we've
got the choir singing, but we sure need God to come around,
don't we? We need to hear some blood, bloody religion, don't
we? And no coming to God without the blood. How does one know? They hear, they see their need,
and bless God, they come. They don't wait around. They don't sit there while others
are calling, when the gospel is being called, a man doesn't
sit there. He comes to Christ. He believes. He or she believes. Look at 1 Thessalonians quickly.
And I'll quit. We don't have services tonight,
so I'll quit here in a minute. First
Thessalonians, look at chapter 1, verse 4. Do you want to know?
Do you want to know your election? Do you? Well, look at this. First Thessalonians 1, verse
4. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your
election of God. Hey, I'm flat interested in this. How about you? I'm flat interested
in this. I want to know. That's the way
I started this thing out. I want to know. I'm not up here.
I don't much like preaching. I'll just be honest with you.
I'd rather hear preaching. I know what these men say. I
hear them talk about it, and it's enjoyable. At times, the
Lord blesses you while you're preaching, but most of the time,
it's for everybody else. A man doesn't enjoy himself.
I'd a whole lot rather sit and hear it. I would. And I'm not up here just to preach,
to show my colors, because it's black. I'm interested in the things
of God, and the Lord is laid upon me, and here I am standing
before you, and I'm interested in these things, and God is my
witness. I eat, drink, and sleep, you
people. Sometimes don't sleep, you people. This is what I desire. God is my witness. My heart's
desire and prayer to God for Deborah Hough is that she might
be saved, not a good Christian, Save, know God and Rebecca and
Virgie and everybody else. Do you want to know? I want to
know. That's why I'm here. I hope that's why you're here.
I hope I'm not being harsh, but plain. Knowing, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. Now, here's how you know. He
says, our gospel came. We've got the gospel. I'm not
saying we're the only ones that have it. I've never said that. I'm not saying that we're the
only church in Franklin County that has it. I have sneaking
suspicion. I'm not saying that we're the
only ones. I'm not saying that at all. But
I know this. We've got it. I know that, and I can say with
the utmost confidence with Paul, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that which you've received from this pulpit, let
him go to hell. It's another gospel. It's not
a gospel, it's a perversion. It came. The gospel's here. The greatest gift of mankind,
the gospel. Good news. Those shepherds, boy,
they sure thought it was, didn't they? There's some other shepherds
over on another hill. They didn't hear it, Vicki. But
those did. Don't you know why they were
going there? Why us? Don't you know why they were
going to Bethlehem? Why me? Of all the hills in Bethlehem
he could have appeared to, he appeared to this old shepherd.
Why me? Glory to God for giving me this.
And he went in there like, I see, I see. Don't you see? I don't see anything. Lord, thank
you for eyes to see, ears to hear. Thank you for the gospel. That's the reason I say those
that don't have any use for this, I don't see how they can really
love Christ. Those that don't rejoice in this
more than anything else, I just don't see how they can. I just
don't see. Our gospel came, and not in word
only, he said, not in word only. Folks, I'm not standing up here
reading a paper, am I? I'm not giving you a dissertation
on superlapsarianism, am I? On infralapsarianism. Now, talking
in an unknown time, seeing in that we have such hope, we use
great plainness of speech. The Word came, and every now
and then, the Holy Ghost with power, with liberty. I told somebody this. I know
it's so in preaching. I know it's so that the Holy
Spirit blesses the preaching. Because sometimes, sometimes
when I'm talking to you or anybody else for that matter, I can't
even get two thoughts together. Do you ever have that problem?
Sometimes you think, I feel like a babbling idiot. I can't say
a thing and I'm thinking. Do you ever feel that way? Talking
to somebody, you say, well, I... There's times I'm like that. But then there's times I get
up here and I can't get it out fast enough. That's of God. That's not this old. I don't
have any education. I'm a railroader. That's my occupation. I didn't go to a seminary. But
every now and then it comes with power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance. Every now and then God says,
bears witness with my spirit that He's mine. And I believe. Praise this mystery
of God. I believe. I believe. And it
says here, go on now, and you became followers, verse 6. Followers. Listen. Followers. I just said it a moment ago. Followers. You don't, oh my,
Lord help us. Disciples. I'm talking about
folks that are in line. pressing toward the kingdom.
Not folks out there dilly-dallying around and sitting at home while
the gospel is being preached. Followers. Disciples. Consumed with it. Followers. Doesn't mean they follow one
day and the next. That's the present tense, isn't it? Followers. To whom coming now. When Christ, I tell you what,
if Christ has said he's going to meet with two or three or
gather, I ain't going to forsake the assembly of myself together
with you. If there's two people over here meeting in the name
of Christ and he says he's going to be here, you bet your bottom
dollar I'm going to be here unless I've got a foot in the grave
and one on a banana peel. Yes, sir, I'm going to be here
by God's grace. It's not me. desire he puts it
within. And he says, he turned, the gospel
came, he became followers, came with power, became followers,
received the word, much affliction, trials come from God, and he
sounded out the word of God, became witnesses, verse And verse
nine is so important they they themselves show of us what manner
of entering in we had under you you turn to God from idols you
you renounced your past religion you know how you can tell a man
the gospel comes to him first he renounces his past religion
he stands up like Paul and said that was just a bunch of dung
that that profession I made back then I didn't know God. I didn't
know Christ. I'd never heard the gospel before.
I hear it now, fully on all that stuff. I'm believing Him now."
He renounces his religion, turns to God from idols. He had an
idol. To serve the living and true
God and to wait. There it is again. Wait for His
Son. Waiting. That's what we're doing
this morning. That's why you're here, Sherry. We're waiting together. We've assembled ourselves together
to wait on the Lord. to worship Him and wait until
He comes from heaven. And the Scripture talks about
this calling being according to God's purpose. What is God's
purpose? It's to be conformed to the image
of Christ. It's a call, back in the text
there, it says we're called to glory and virtue. And I want
you to read this for yourselves later this afternoon. We're not
having services tonight, and you can go home and read the
rest of this scripture. Verse 10 says, the rather brethren
give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if you
do these things you shall never fall. What things? Read the chapter. He says in verse 8, "...if these
things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ." He's called us to glory and virtue. He's called
us to be His sons, called us out of darkness into His glorious
light, called us to be like Christ, called us to godliness, called
us unto liberty. What is liberty? It's freedom
from sin. chiefly, primarily, foremostly, principally, spiritually,
savingly, saved from our sins. Not only the guilt of it, the
penalty of it, but the power of it, and someday the presence
of it. That's what salvation's all about. Not to get us in heaven by the
skin of our teeth. Not so we'll be happy in the
sweet by and by, pie in the sky. Meet mama in heaven, that ain't
what it—it's to make us like Christ. And if any man hath not
this hope, this desire in him, he's none of his. Freedom from
sin. Satan. Called unto holiness. There's another verse of Scripture.
Called unto holiness. Christlikeness. Made meet fit
to inherit heaven. That's what this is all about.
It's preparation for heaven. Called to glory. and virtue. Let me read this in closing,
and this, I promise you, will be the last verse. He said in
1 Peter 1, he says in verse 4, he says, He has called us to
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time, revealed like Christ in that last day. And now you greatly
rejoice. You rejoice, though now for a
season, through heaviness and temptation. And the trial of
your faith, O, is more precious than gold, or it be trialed with
fire, found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Whom have ye not seen, though
ye love? In whom, though now ye see him
not, ye believe? Yet rejoice with joy unspeakable,
full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even a salvation
of your soul. And this is a salvation prophets
inquired in search of diligently, and prophesied of the grace that
should come to you. And they searched what, or what
manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, and testified beforehand. The glory that should follow
unto whom it was revealed, it wasn't unto them, but unto us
they did minister. The things which are now reported,
things have been preached this morning. The gospel that was
sent unto you with the Holy Ghost sent from down from heaven, which
things angels desire to look into." So he says, gird up the
loins of your mind, be sober and so forth. Call us to and
by glory and virtue." Have you been called? Maybe God
called you this morning, I don't know. I hope so. I feel like He called me. Brother
Joe, come up and let's sing that song I had chosen.