Let's open our Bibles again to
the book of Jude. You'll notice we read this epistle
a moment ago that Jude identifies himself as the servant of Jesus
Christ and the brother of James. Now, Jude is the brother of James,
but you'll notice this. He makes no mention of the fact
that he's the half brother of the Lord Jesus. Now, why does
he leave out what Seems to you and me to be a very important
fact. He's the half brother of the Lord Jesus. Well, it's because
salvation cannot come to us by who we're related to. I tell
our children this all the time. I want to keep reminding you
of this. That you can't be saved because your parents are believers.
You can't be saved. God will not have mercy on you
because you have friends who are believers. Your eye would
be saved. We must believe on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. No one can do that for you. You
must believe on his name. You must come to Christ in faith.
No one can do that for you. And this is a very good illustration
of what I'm saying. That was true even for Jude,
who according to the flesh was related to the Lord Jesus. And
Jude tells us it's a greater honor to be called the servant
of Christ than the half brother of the Lord Jesus. What a great
honor he has been given. He's an apostle. He was given
this honor to be the servant of Jesus Christ. And he wrote
this general epistle to all believers about 30 years after the Lord
ascended back to glory, just 30 years after he died on the
cross, was raised from the dead and ascended back to glory. And
already at that time, false prophets were rampant in the world. Already
they were preaching another Jesus. And Jude spends a large portion
of his letter warning us about false prophets, telling us how
to identify them. And he tells us in verse three
that we should earnestly contend for the faith, which was once
delivered unto the saints. Earnestly contend for the faith,
earnestly contend for the gospel. And in verse one, he gives us
a three-word outline that outlines the gospel of Christ, that outlines
the faith that we preach, that we are to earnestly contend for
the gospel that declares sanctified, preserved, and called. That's
the title of the message this morning, sanctified, preserved,
and called. And here's the first word. The
first word that describes the gospel that we are to earnestly
contend for is sanctified. A sanctified has basically three
meanings that are in scripture, and each of the different meanings,
they all have to do with holiness. The first meaning of the word
sanctify is to declare something to be holy. Look at Isaiah chapter
eight. Let me show you an example of
that. Sanctified is to declare something to be holy. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 13. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself
and let him be your fear and let him be your dread. Sanctify
the Lord of hosts himself. How on earth can sinners like
you and me sanctify God? We can't make God holy, can we?
His nature is holy, so we can't make him holy. We sanctify God
by declaring God is God. We sanctify the Lord our God
by declaring God is God. We sanctify Him as God by believing
Him as God, by praising Him as God. We sanctify the Lord God
by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to be all of our salvation. We
show you that in Numbers chapter 20. We're going to look at quite
a number of scriptures this morning, so I want you to see this is
the message of the Bible, sanctified, preserved, and called. Numbers
chapter 20, verse 7. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou
and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye under the rock. He had already
struck the rock, and water flowed out. Now God says, Speak ye under
the rock before their eyes. Everybody sees this time you're
speaking to the rock. And it shall give forth his water,
and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock. So
thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink. And Moses
took the rod from before the Lord as he commanded him. And
Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before
the rock. And he said unto them, Here now, you rebels, must we
fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand,
and with his rod he smoked the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. God said to Moses, Don't you
strike that rock twice. You speak to it. They smoked
the rock twice and look what happened, verse 12. And the Lord
spake unto Moses and Aaron, because you believed me not. See, sanctifying the Lord has
something to do with believing him. Because you believed me
not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore
you should not bring this congregation into the land which I have given
them. Moses did not sanctify the Lord. When he smote that rock twice,
he didn't declare, he didn't preach, God is God. He made a
show of himself instead of showing the Lord to everyone. That's
how he did not sanctify the Lord. When Moses struck the rock twice,
he didn't sanctify God because he didn't preach Christ as the
only sacrifice for sin. He didn't preach Christ as all
we need. He used the rod of the law. not
the grace of God. Christ was crucified one time,
not twice, not three times, one time. Because all it took to
put away the sin of his people was the one sacrifice of himself.
And Moses did not sanctify the Lord when he violated that picture
of Christ. He violated the successful sacrifice
of Christ by smiting that rock twice, saying that Christ had
to be crucified many times. He did not sanctify the Lord.
He didn't declare Him to be holy. He didn't declare God as God.
Alright, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. That's the definition. One of the definitions of sanctified.
To declare something to be holy. Now, how does the gospel say
that relates to a believer being sanctified? Well, God declares
His people to be holy. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 2. Paul writes under the church
of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Called saints, with all that
in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both theirs and ours. You're called to be saints. God has declared his people to
be holy in Christ. God has declared them holy. So
they are, because God's declared them to be holy. Now here's the
second meaning of the word sanctify. It's to actually make something
holy. Now whenever God declares something to be holy, it has
to be holy. God can't call something it's
not. He can't call something unholy, holy. But His people,
those people that He chose, they're born sinners. They're born unholy.
They're fallen Adam. So God declares them to be holy
and He makes them holy. The high priest, this is an illustration
of this, is to be made holy. On the Day of Atonement, you
remember how the high priest went through all his activities
on the Day of Atonement. And one thing he constantly did,
several times throughout the day, he'd stop and wash with
them. He'd wash in that brazen labor. Before the day started,
he'd wash his body, he'd wash all of his clothes, and he'd
be constantly washing in clean water in that brazen labor. And
when he did that, he was ceremonially made clean. He was made holy
so he could go about the service of God. Well, how does the gospel,
what does the gospel say then about a believer being made holy? Look at Hebrews chapter 10. A believer is made actually holy. Now, not just like the high priest
ceremonially in a picture, but actually made holy. when we are
washed in the blood of Christ. Hebrews 10 verse 9, Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sins. But this After he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand
of God. From henceforth expecting to
his enemies be made his footstool, he sat down because the work's
finished. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." God's elect are sanctified, made actually,
literally holy by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
made holy when we're born again. Look at John chapter 3. Believers sanctified, made actually
holy when we're born again. John 3 verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Because that
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. So marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born again. Now, no man or woman boy or girl
can enter into the Kingdom of God in our flesh. Our flesh is
defiled with sin. That which is born of the flesh
is always going to be unholy flesh. So that flesh cannot enter
the Kingdom of God. So a man or woman, boy or girl,
must be born again of the Spirit. we're going to enter the kingdom
of God. We've got to be given a new holy nature and the new
birth because God cannot accept anything that's unholy. And I'll
give you the chief example of that. God cannot accept, he can't
even look upon with favor anything that's unholy. Christ the Savior
was made sin. As a sacrifice for his people,
the Father turned back on the Son. wouldn't even look at him,
would not look at him in favor, removed his presence from his
son because God cannot accept anything that's unholy, that's
sinful. Christ was made sin. And the
exact same thing is true of you and me. Oh, we love each other. We think everybody, oh, just
everybody looks so wonderful. I just, I just love y'all. I'd
have give any of you a key to my house. Just you come in. God's
not liking me. God cannot look on us with favor
in our sin. So if we're going to come into
God's presence, God's got to do something for us. He's got
to make us what we're not. He's got to make us holy. And that's what Christ does for
His people with His sacrifice. That's what He does when a believer
is born again. They're actually made holy. Here's the third meaning of the
word sanctify. It's to set apart for holy use. And that's the
meaning of the word in our text, sanctified by the Father, set
apart for holy use. Look at Exodus 29. Here's an
example of how this meaning is used in scripture, set apart
for holy use. Verse 43. Here's where the Lord has given
Moses instructions for the tabernacle. And he says in there, in that
tabernacle, I will meet with the children of Israel and the
tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. And I will sanctify
the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify
also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's
office. Now here, the Lord says he's
going to sanctify the tabernacle. Now you know about the tabernacle.
We've studied it before. The tabernacle was just all made
of earthly elements, wasn't it? It was made of wood and gold
and silver and bronze and linen and just common, ordinary elements. Aaron and his sons were common,
ordinary men. But God sanctified them. He set
them apart for holy use. Those things were set apart for
the worship of the Lord. That tabernacle was set apart
by God to be a picture of his son. the Lord Jesus Christ, a
picture of how God saves sinners. All right, what does the gospel
say about how that relates to a believer being sanctified?
Look at Jeremiah chapter one. All of God's people are set apart
for God's holy use in God's election. When God elected a people unto
salvation in eternity past, he set those people apart for holy
use. He set them apart for himself.
Jeremiah 1 verse 4 gives us an example of this. The word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Now God sanctified Jeremiah. He chose to save Jeremiah. He chose to set his mercy, grace,
and love upon Jeremiah. He chose to use, he set Jeremiah
apart for his use. He chose to use him as a prophet.
And he did that, scripture here says, before Jeremiah was ever
born. I'm telling you it was long before he was ever conceived. In eternity, God did that. He
set him apart for his use. And the same thing's true of
every God has set his people apart for holy use, and he did
that before the world was ever created. That is such a humbling, blessed
truth. The magnitude of that overwhelms
me every time I think about it. God set apart a people for his
use, to belong to him. This is something that's very
blessed to the believer. Jude knew what he was talking
about. Jude is like a nickname, a shortened
name. Jude's given name was Judas. That was his given name. And
Jude, Judas, he knew Judas Iscariot very well. Jude and Judas Iscariot
both spent three and a half years with the Savior himself. Hearing the Savior teach the
world. Hearing the Savior Himself teach
them the things about Himself. They both saw His miracles. They
both saw all those things. What made the difference between
those two Judases? God's electing grace. It's the
only thing that made the difference. When the other apostles referred
to Jude, you know how they always said it. Judas, not Ascariot. to specifically signify him as
the one God chose. Not Judas Iscariot, not the son
of perdition, but the one God chose. The one God set his mercy
upon and set him apart for holy use as an apostle. And that's
where the story of salvation, this faith for which we must
continue. It has to begin with this, God
electing a people to save. It has to begin with God. All
those people fell in Adam. They fell from holiness to death,
from life to death, from holiness to unrighteousness, from holiness
to complete defilement of sin when they fell in Adam. But God
did not destroy them. He didn't destroy the whole human
race because God had elected a people to save. He chose them
to save before the world was ever created. And the only reason
that they're saved is God chose to save He chose to set His mercy
upon them and redeem them by His Son. God chose a specific
people. Christ did not die for all men.
You know why? Because God didn't choose to
save all men. And He gives us a picture of
that in the nation Israel. Everybody who is of the nation
Israel is not of Israel. Everyone who is of Israel is
not of spiritual Israel. Everyone God delivered from Egypt
didn't enter the Promised Land. He tells us that here in verse
5 of Jude. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you
once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed
not. God did not choose all those
people. Just like he did not choose all
men, he chose a people and Christ died for those people. He saved
those people. He gave those people faith and
he will bring them into the promised land in the glory. We have another
picture of that and how the Lord saved Lot from Sodom, verse 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Now we know
how Sodom and Gomorrah was utterly destroyed, wiped off the face
of the planet, but God did not destroy that city. He did not
destroy that plane until that angel in mercy laid hold on Lot
and pulled him off. God's elected love, that brain
plucked from the fire. Everyone else received justice.
You see, God sovereignly chose who he would. God sovereignly
chose a people to save. And he knew that because he's
God. That's sanctifying the Lord God. He's God. He can do as he will,
and everything he does is right because he's God. And he gives
us a picture of that, in passing by the fallen angels, but choosing
some men to save. Verse six, and the angels which
kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,
he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under
the judgment of the great day. God did not choose the best people
to save. When he chose a people, He didn't
choose the best people to save. No, God chose the worst. He chose
to save sinners. If God chose to save the best,
He'd have spared the angels, wouldn't He? He'd have saved,
He'd have spared those glorious, created beings. But He didn't. He didn't choose one of them.
He didn't send a savior for any of them. He passed them by, all
those fallen angels. infinitely more glorious than
we are in his flesh. God passed him by and he chose
to save sinful men and women because God chose to save sinners.
He chose to save the worst. And the word here has to do with
love. God chose a people in electing
love. God chose to save a people because
he loved them. See, salvation, the salvation
of a sinner, the faith for which we must contend, glorifies God
in all of His attributes, His love and His justice. Salvation
is of the Lord from beginning to end, and it begins with election. Election is a wonderful, loving
truth that thrills the heart of every believer, set apart
for His use. Do you know the Father even sanctified? He even chose the Savior for
the people that He loved. He set Him apart for a work.
I'll show you that in John chapter 10. Everything about salvation, the
salvation of His people, is ordained of God, set apart for His use,
for His glory. And the one the Father sanctified,
The one he chose to be the savior of his people, the one he set
apart for this work of redemption, for the people that he loves,
is his own son. John chapter 10, verse 36. Say
ye of him whom the father had sanctified and sent into the
world, thou blasphemous, because I said I am the son of God. Now
here, the father didn't make Christ holy, did he? No, he is
holy, that's his nature. What this is talking about, this
is Him whom the Father has set apart for this work of redemption. The Father chose a people to
save. He set them apart for His use, and He set apart a Savior
for His people. He set Him apart, appointed Him
the work of redemption. And that brings me to the second
word. Preserved. Preserved. God's elect are preserved in
Christ Jesus. who was chosen by the Father
to be the Savior of His elect. This word preserved, it means
to keep from loss. It means to prevent from escaping.
It means to take ownership of. And that's exactly what Christ
has done for His people. That's how He preserves His people.
Christ kept His people. He preserved His people. He kept
them from being lost in sin by saving us from our sin, taking
our sin away. And Christ keeps his people from
escaping. One of the greatest fears of
every believer that's got any sense whatsoever is, I'm scared
to death. If God take his hand off me,
I'll walk away right now. As I'm standing here in the pulpit,
if God take his hand off of me, I'll walk away. Just wander away
like a dumb sheep. Christ is preserved, keeps him
from wandering away. And He keeps the enemy from being
able to pluck us out of His hands. He preserves His people. He's
kept them safe in Him. And Christ preserves His people
by taking ownership of them. When the Father chose a people
and gave them to His Son in the covenant of grace, Christ took
ownership of those people. He took responsibility of them
when He stood as the surety of His people, the surety of their
salvation. Now, I think about being preserved
This tells you a lot about me. When I think of preserve, I think
of fruit preserve. I think of when we were growing
up, Mom would preserve those strawberries we'd go out and
pick. Well, you'd eat them in the field. The rest of them,
pick them, put them in a bucket. She would take them home and she'd
preserve them. And it was hot work. She never looked all that
happy. What she was doing was hot. It
was difficult work. Her children probably weren't
giving her much help, you know. I hated going to pick those things. I
hated cleaning them. I hated everything. But all I want to
tell you, I loved the finished product. Oh, I mean, I just love
those preserved strawberries. And I have no idea how that was
done. I mean, I just have no idea in
this world how you can preserve fruits and vegetables and stuff
like that in a glass jar. But I know a little something
about how God preserves his people. were preserved in the blood of
Christ. If something's going to be preserved
so that it does not spoil, whatever it is that spoils, it's got to
be taken away, right? Christ preserves His people in
His blood by taking away the sin that spoils us, that would
damage us. He did that even before the world
was ever created. God's elect were preserved in
the blood of Christ before anything was ever created. Christ stood
as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We were eternally
justified in his blood, eternally preserved in the blood of Christ.
And if you can phrase it this way, every step of the way since
then, God's elect have been preserved in the blood of Christ. When
Adam fell, what an awful, horrible day. when Adam fell, when he
rebelled against God, in open rebellion against God, knowing
what he was doing, took that fruit and ate it. What an awful,
awful death. Scared Adam to death, didn't
he? Off hiding in the bushes. You know why God did not destroy
the whole human race at that moment? He had a people who were
already preserved in Christ. He couldn't destroy them. that
they were preserved in the blood of Christ. Then God looked down
on creation. He saw the wickedness of man's
great in the earth. Every imagination of his heart
was only evil continually. He just repented that he made
man on the earth. He said, I'm going to wipe this thing out.
I'm going to destroy the world with a flood. And God sent the
rain. He wiped out the planet with
the flood. But you know why Noah was saved
in that ark? God had a people who were preserved
in Christ. Every one of them were gonna
come from Noah's loins and not one of them could perish. They
couldn't because his elect were preserved in the blood of Christ.
They were preserved in that picture of Christ that the ark was. They couldn't perish. Any more
than Noah could perish, we can't perish. Not if we're preserved
in the blood of Christ. And those people who God chose,
were given to Christ, he owned them. He stood as their surety.
They were preserved in his blood for the foundation of the world.
They were saved in time when God sent his son into this world
to work out a righteousness for them and to suffer and die as
their substitute in Calvary. What God purposed in eternity
had to be accomplished in time. Christ came and he went to the
cross. He wouldn't be deterred from
going. set his face like a flint to go there because his people
are preserved, washed free from all of their sin in his blood.
And Christ died. They put a dead body in that
tomb and rolled a stone in front of the door. The gods elect were
preserved in Christ when Christ rose again for their justification
as the evidence. His sacrifice took their sin
away. Now, there's no question our bodies are still going to
die, but death can never touch a believer. can't touch a believer
because Christ has preserved us from eternal death by dying
for us, being raised again, and taking the sting of death away.
Death cannot touch a believer. And even at this very moment,
God's elect are being preserved by a man sitting in glory, sitting
at the Father's right hand who ever lives, making intercession
for us. That's why we're preserved. And
that's the confession of every believer Every believer says
this. Christ has preserved me from
eternity to eternity. And all through my experience
here on earth, every step of the way, He has preserved me. He preserved me from all evil
during my time of sin and unbelief. When I did not know Him, He kept
me. He preserved my life until the
time He gave me faith. He preserved me. He will preserve
my body And I know I'm going to die someday, but not until
God's appointed time. He will preserve my body, and
yours too. God's given all of us the work
to do. He's going to preserve our body till that work's finished,
till we've accomplished His purpose. He preserves me. He'll keep me
from falling after those false prophets that you warned us about.
He's the one that's going to preserve us and keep us from
them. And one day, the Lord's going to bring all of His people
home. He's going to present them before the Father, preserved,
perfectly preserved. Father, here they are. Spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
because we've been preserved in Christ. Look at Psalm 40. Here's something else I remember
about when my mother would can those preserves. When we put
them all, you know, store them up downstairs and hope they last,
you know, all year. You go down when you run out
of one in the fridge or you go down in the basement, you get
another one, right? But you know what we had to do? Hit that lid. See if that lid popped up. One of those jars was ruined.
It wasn't preserved. You couldn't eat it. It was bad.
That won't happen for one person that's been preserved for Christ.
They'll all be presented false before the Father. Isaiah 40,
verse 11. David says, withhold not thou
thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me. This salvation for which this
faith for which we earnestly contend is salvation in love
and You've got to have both to be preserved. Salvation can't
just be by loving kindness because God said, well, I love you and
I'll just forget about, you know, that you've done that. No, salvation
has got to be in truth. That sin which would defile us
and spoil us has got to be taken away in truth. And that's why
Christ shed his blood to take away the sin of his people. And
when he shed his blood, can you think of a greater act of love? suffered and died for his people
to put their sin away by the shedding of his blood, that salvation
in love and truth. That's how we're preserved. Preserved
by the blood of Christ. Now, the third word is called. A Jew doesn't say it, but it's
called by the Holy Spirit. Now, this is not the general
call of the gospel. You come here week after week
after week You've heard the call of the Gospel. You've heard the
Gospel. Over the years, over how many
times you've come here, you've heard the call of the Gospel.
You've heard the truth of the Gospel. But this call the Jews
are talking about is not just hearing the voice of a preacher.
Not just hearing the voice of a man. This is the call of God
the Holy Spirit. When He calls His elect in the
heart. When He gives them a new heart.
He gives them life and faith in Christ and he calls them to
Christ, and it's irresistible. They must come to him. That's
how the Holy Spirit calls God's elect. And this word called that
Jude uses, it means an invitation because you're appointed. It
means to be called by name specifically. That's God's elect. Now the gospel,
I know it sounds like an invitation, If you're weary, come to Christ
for rest. Are you thirsty? Come to Him and drink. I know
that sounds like an invitation. But you want me to tell you who's
going to come drink and who's going to come have rest? Those who
are appointed of God. Those who He calls specifically
by name. They'll come. And we learn a
lot about this word elect. Look first at John chapter 10.
We learn a lot about this word calling by looking at some places
where the exact same Greek word the Jew translated called is
used in scripture. First, we know this about this
calling. God's elect are all called to Christ by Christ. And when he calls, they follow
Christ. John chapter 10, verse one. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a
thief and a robber, but he that entereth in by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth them out. And when he put forth his own
sheep, he goeth before them. They do not take a step he didn't
take first. He goes before them, and the
sheep follow him, for they know his voice. He's given them a
heart that knows his voice that calls them, and when he calls,
they follow. Look back at Mark 1, we'll see
a fulfillment of this parable. When the Lord calls his people,
they follow. Mark 1, verse 16. Now, as he walked by the Sea
of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting
nets into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto
them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And
straightway they forsook their nets and followed him, because
he called. And when he had gone a little
further thence, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets,
and straightway he called them. And they left their father Zebedee
in the ship with the hired servants, and they went after Christ. They
followed Christ. And that's exactly what God does
for all of His people. He calls them through the preaching
of the gospel. And He says, come follow Me.
And you don't ask where we're going. You don't ask what the
journey is going to be like. He says, come follow Me. And
you follow Him. He calls. Second, when God calls
His people to Christ, He calls them what they are. He calls
them what they are. He calls them what He made them.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We read this just a few minutes
ago. I want to show you something
here. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. Under the church of
God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints. Now you notice that those words
to be are in italics. They've been added by the translators
and I think it reads much better this way. Under the church of
God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called saints. They're called what God made
them, saints. Holy, righteous, Saint Andrew. Shouldn't sound weird to you,
but that's what you are. That's what God made you, a saint.
Oh, that's a good name for you, because that's what God made
his people. You see that? God calls his people what they
are. And thirdly, God calls his people according to His eternal
purpose and His eternal grace, which cannot fail. Romans chapter
8. I don't know who God will call.
I know He's going to call His elect. I don't know who they
are. But if God calls you, it'll be because He chose you in eternity. It'll be because Christ stood
for you as your surety, because He's always preserved you in
the blood of His sacrifice. That's why He'll call you. And
it is because of his eternal purpose. His purpose for you
was salvation. Romans 8 verse 28. We know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. Now what's God's
purpose for those he calls? Verse 29. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. or over
whom He did predestinate, then He also called. And whom He called,
then He also justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. Now, can God's purpose fail?
Why, of course not. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Is there any sin left that'll
spoil you? Or are you perfectly preserved
in the blood of Christ? Fair question. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. The answer is none. It's obvious.
Who is he that condemneth? Is it possible you could be condemned?
Paul says, no, it's Christ that died. Yea, rather there's risen
again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession
for us." That is the sure purpose of God. He calls his people to
Christ because that's his eternal purpose for them, that they be
given faith in Christ, that they be given life, and that one day
they be made just like him. That's a three-word outline of
the gospel for which we are to earnestly contend, sanctified,
and called. And that's the message of the
whole Bible. We looked at a lot of scripture, haven't we? That's
the message of the whole Bible. And that's the experience of
every person, God says. Jude calls it the common salvation,
because this is common to everyone that believe. You're sanctified,
you're preserved, and you're called. Let's look at one more
scripture, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. This is the work of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. and the salvation of his people.
1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23. And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly, completely, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
who will also do. He'll do it. That's his purpose
for his people. you'll accomplish. Let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you that
in your mercy and grace to your people, you seem fit to put in
this place the gospel of your dear son, the gospel of salvation
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful that you
seem fit to your eternal purpose and grace to call out a people. people that you chose in eternity,
that you sent your son to redeem by his sacrifice, and you called
them out by the preaching of your gospel. You've given faith
in Christ and love for Christ, a heart that desires Him and
follows Him. Father, we're thankful. And how
we pray for your grace, we pray that you give us the wisdom and
the power of your Spirit to contend for this gospel, to contend for
this faith by boldly and clearly preaching it. Boldly, simply
preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in love for you,
in love for your people, and in compassion for the lost. Father,
we pray you continue to bless your words. You've called out
your people in the past. Father, we pray you continue
to call out your people. Call them out by your mercy and
grace, by your eternal purpose. Call your people out. Give them
life in the new birth. Give them faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Cause us to continue to be a
blessing one to another. Father, we thank you for your
word. Thank you for this gospel and pray that you not let us
leave here this morning. Forget about the things of this
life that the cares of this world will easily pluck them away.
Don't let us be a stony ground here, but Father, bless your
word to our hearts. for the good of your people and
especially for your glory, we pray.