Alright, if you will, take your
Bibles and turn with me to Genesis 12. I recommend that you read these
passages. We'll be here in Genesis 12 for
the next little bit and read these things and give them some
thought and prayer. Maybe read some of the old writers,
what they had to say and think about these things. But here
in Genesis 12, I want us to focus our attention on just a single
verse of Scripture. Now, I've already realized that
we've looked at these first five or six, seven verses several
times now, and I'm not trying to bore you with repetition.
But it's a long time from week to week, and we forget things,
and the next thing is based on the first thing. And if the first
thing is not in your mind, you're not going to get the second thing.
So I tend to go back and cover some ground that I've already
covered. But I want for us to look tonight at verse 5 of Genesis
chapter 12. Now, when God called Abraham
out of Ur, I looked that word Ur up. Sometimes these words
shed a lot of light on what's going on. Ur actually is pronounced
Ur, O-O-R. If you look it up, that's how
it will tell you to pronounce it. Ur. And actually what it
means is firelight or light of the fire. This place where he
was at. Abraham's house, we're told,
was a house of idolatry. It was a house of false religion. His daddy and his daddy's daddy
were idolaters. His brothers were idolaters and
Abraham also was an idolater. He grew up... If you've ever sat around a campfire,
and I know that most of you have, that firelight is hypnotic. You sit there at night and you
look at that thing and it just puts you to sleep. And you look
at it and it flickers. It just flickers all the time.
And it will blaze up and it will go down to hot coals. The wind
will come along blowing it and come back up again. That firelight
is a picture of that religious idolatry that Abraham grew up
in. This whole place in the providence
of God he calls the place of the firelight. And he was called, God called
him to go to Canaan. Canaan means place of the bended
knee. It means place of submission.
And it's a long way from the firelight to the bended knee. It's a long journey. It's a lifelong
journey. And he was called to go there.
Now listen to this. In Genesis 12, verse 5, it says,
And Abraham took Sarai, his wife, and lot his brother's son, and
all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that
they had gotten in Havren, and they went forth to go to the
land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they come." Now,
my subject tonight is this, a heart made ready to serve. That's what
this is all about. That's exactly what's going on
here with Abraham. Salvation is a heart work. It's
a heart work. The heart is the seed of the
emotions. It's the seed of the affections.
Actually, the heart is referred to as the place of true knowledge
and understanding. He said, we'll understand with
the heart. With the heart, he said, man
believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. And to effect any change in a
man requires the work of God in his heart. That's what has
to be moved. It's not a matter of things,
although things are involved. It's not a matter of standing,
although standing is involved. It's a matter of the heart. Of
the heart. Keep thine heart, Solomon said
to his children. Keep thine heart, for out of
it are the issues of life. And because it's a heart work,
It is a continual work. It's not an isolated act. I can remember just vaguely things
from my childhood being raised in religion and listening. We had stand-up testimonies in
the church back then and they'd stand up and never knew what
you were going to hear, but they would stand up and talk about
this and talk about that. But mostly what I heard them
talk about is, I can remember the time, I can remember the
hour, I can remember the day. Talking about faith. Paul said he forgot those things
which are behind. He didn't want to remember, did
he? He was worried about it right now. Faith is not an isolated act. It does have a beginning, and
we're going to talk about that a little bit tonight. But faith
is a call to life. It's more than just a doctrinal
position. It's a call to life. It's a living
principle that God creates in you. Abraham believed God. He
didn't believe God about or he didn't believe God about that.
He just flat believed God. If God told him the moon was
green cheese, he would have believed it. He believed God. He had confidence
in his God. He believed God. It didn't matter
what God told him. He believed it. You know, people, they talk about
faith, and the nearest thing I can find to relate to you about
that faith that men and women have, this false faith, it's
not like a title to your car or your house, a deed to your
house, that you sign it, it becomes legal, and you take it and put
it in a safe, and the only time you're ever going to get it out
is if somebody calls it into question. Then you go get it
and run out and say, so here's how I signed it. That's not faith.
Faith is a living principle. We don't run back to 1942 when
we made a profession of faith and said, now I know the hour.
I can take you right back here. I remember the guy's name. And
start talking about it and the meeting and the revival and all
that kind of mess. Faith is a present work, a continual
work. You see what I'm talking about? To effect any change in a man
requires the work of God in the heart. And because it's a heart
work, it's a continual work. It is receiving a new heart.
That's how he says it in the Scripture. He said, I'll take
away that stony heart and put in you a heart of flesh. When
God establishes His covenant with His children, that's what
happens. It's a receiving of a new heart. And faith is here
in Genesis in this man called Abram set before us as a journey. That's how I want you to look
at it. It's a journey of faith. He calls this man to faith. And that faith begins a journey. And it takes him over these next
12 chapters. You'll see where it takes him,
up and down, through trials, Through the blessings, through
separations, it takes him all through these things. It's a
picture of faith because Abraham is the father of the faithful.
God has set this man's whole life aside and preserved his
history in the Bible and set him before us as an example of
faith. And over and over and over throughout
the New Testament, we find him in relation to this faith. Over
in James, where he's talking about works and godliness, he
sets Abraham forth and tells us, you see here how Abraham
was justified by works? He wasn't justified before God,
but he justified this faith of God by his works. And therefore,
faith without works is dead. It's alone. He uses Abraham. I don't care what part of faith
you want to talk about. He uses Abraham over and over
and over. Faith is a living hope. It's
a journey. It's a lifelong experience of
grace. Faith is a call out of darkness.
In the Scripture, it's called a heavenly calling, a call to
glory and virtue, Peter said. It's an effectual calling. and
a call that perseveres to the end. These all died in faith. And it's a call to life everlasting
and to an inheritance given us of God, called to be sons, he
said. And this calling has a beginning.
There's a time when we were in darkness, ignorance, and idolatry,
and a time Paul reminds us of over here in Ephesians chapter
2 when our conversation was all together according to the lust
of our flesh, He said, we were children of wrath even as others.
And there's a beginning, there's a starting place to this journey.
God calls us to faith in Christ. And it's not a call to doctrinal
position. There is a truth in doctrine. And you must hear it and you
must receive it. But that's not faith. That's
not faith. Faith goes past that. It goes
deeper than that. It goes into the very heart of
the man. It's not just a call to doctrinal
position. Faith is a call to life. The
Lord put it this way. He said, He that heareth my word
and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life. That's what He said. And ye shall
not come into condemnation but is past." Now listen, from death
unto life. That's what took place. Death
unto life. Not Arminianism to Calvinism. I could give you a list this
long of preachers that I know today who thought they were saved
when they become Calvinists and discovered they were lost as
a goose. It's not just a doctrinal position. It's a journey of life. We passed, he said, from death
unto life. You know, when God called Abram,
He called him to an inheritance. He said, I'm going to bless you.
Not only you, but in you I'm going to bless all the families
of the earth, all nations of men I'm going to bless. He called
him to a blessing. He called him to an inheritance.
He said, I'm going to take you over here to Canaan, and I'm
going to give this to your seed. I'm going to give this whole
outfit. He called him to an inheritance. Well, how did Abraham respond
to that? How did he respond to that? What
did he do? How did he act? How is this effectual
calling manifest in God's elect? That's what I want to talk to
you about tonight. And here's the first thing. The first thing
I notice is that Abraham began this journey honorably. And I want you to look at this
for a long time. Because I've read a lot of books
about this beginning of Abraham, and a lot of them throw him in
a bad light because he took a lot with him. A lot of them had pages
and chapters devoted to the time he spent in Haran. God called
him to go to Canaan. He should have went on to Canaan,
but he didn't. He stopped. You read them. And I think they
missed it. I think they missed it all together.
Abraham, when Abraham left, it was an honorable departure. An
honorable departure. And I want to talk to you a little
bit about that tonight. He had a wife, and he had his
brother's son that providentially had been trusted into his care.
And you can talk all you want to about bad decisions and foolish
impulsive actions and how things shouldn't be or should be put
on you and how this was dropped on you because this one wouldn't
take the responsibility and all that kind of stuff. But the bottom
line is it was the providence of God. Ain't that so? It was
the providence of God. And that's how he wound up locked
by the providence of God. And Abraham's journey And you
just have to look at these things. This is the providence of God.
And life is what it is. Life is not what you think it
ought to be. That's why we get so disappointed.
We want to look out here. Now, this is the way it is. I'll
never forget. They come in several years back,
the place I was working, and talked to us about 401K. And
if you do this much, you earn this much, percentage rates stay
this much, and they went, man, they was speculating down 20,
30 years from now, here's what you'll have to retire on. Only
problem is, all that stuff they talked about in the middle never
happened. So life is what it is. Brother Mahan had a message several
years ago called, it's not like you thought it was. And what it is, at the end of this long list
of excuses, it's the providence of God. So Abraham's journey
was broader than just his own personal desires. We're talking
about Abraham here, but I just read to you there in verse 5
that he had gathered souls. He had employees, servants, whatever
you want to call them, that he gathered while he was in Haven.
He evidently compiled some substance together. It said he took all
this substance with him, whatever he had. It tells us a little
later on that he was great in substance. He wasn't a poor man. He had servants. He had employees. He had a wife and he had his
brother's son. This thing, you see how it's
getting broader? It didn't just affect him, but
it was affecting a lot around him. Abraham's journey was broader
than his personal desires. This calling of faith affected
everyone and everybody that he knew. And this calling would
encompass everything and everybody he would ever come in contact
with until he died. And we'll see that. We'll see
how it affected that old Pharaoh, that king down there in Egypt
when he went down and told his wife to lie for him. Lie about
who she was. Afraid that king was going to
kill her. and goes on and on and on. They took his nephew, Lot, they
took him as prisoner and he went out there and defeated those
men and brought him back. There was all kinds of things,
but I don't care who it was or where it was, this faith had
an effect on everybody and everything that he'd ever come in contact
with until he died. And that's the way it is with
God's Those days shall not be shortened but for the elect's
sake. Ain't that what it says? Everything
that happens out here is the result of that. It's for the
elect's sake. And I think we really go wrong
when we pretend that that faith to which you are called just
isolates you from everybody else and only has to do with you.
It reaches out to your employer, employees, your family, your
wives, your husbands, your creditors, your neighbors. This calling
of faith, it gathers all things, all things. It affects all things. God called us to life and service
and set us on a journey in a totally different direction from the
direction we was headed. He stopped us. He intervened.
He changed that direction. And He begins that turning. He
begins that turning. And a lifelong turning it is. It's a turning away from one
thing and a turning to another. We turn away from this world
and sin and we turn to Christ. And that's what it is. It's a
lifelong journey. And this journey In this totally
different direction, this divine journey, this journey that God
has called us to, it does not, now hear me, it does not in any
way alleviate you from your responsibilities. Now you make a grave mistake
when you think that. Now I'm going to go on and explain
to you what I mean. Abraham was a husband. He had a responsibility
to his wife. He couldn't just... If it was
just Abraham, God said, Abraham, come on, you're going to Canaan.
Abraham got up and went to Canaan. But Abraham was married. He had
a wife. And he had a responsibility to
that wife. He had thrust on him the care
of his dead brother's son. Abraham owned property. He owed
debts. He needed means of support. Abraham's
lingering in Haran was not out of disobedience to God, but according
to his honoring of God. He stayed there and left. When Abraham left, he left that
place honorably. Honorably. And that is so important. Pastors go somewhere to pastor
a church. It's vitally important that when
you leave that place, you leave it honorably. You pay your debts. You settle with your creditors.
When I agreed to come down here, we talked about it. We talked
about how much support the church would give me. If I could get
a house, I came down and located a house. I did all that before
my wife and we loaded up a truck and come down here. You want
to do this thing honorably, and when God calls you, It's all
important, that beginning. When you see that God's salvation
is an honorable thing, and we'll get into that. He sets Christ
forth as a propitiation for our sins. He says this over in Romans
3, verse 24. Read down through there and you'll
see what I'm talking about. He said that He justified us
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God has set forth. Now listen, God is going to set
him forth there for you. He is going to set forth for
you this justification through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness. To declare God to be righteous
in the salvation of your souls, He must do it through this substitute. That's how it must be set forth.
It's honorable. When you see that all of this
whole thing of Christ coming into this world to save sinners,
when you come to see that this whole thing is about justifying
God, that He's set forth in such a way that God might be just
and justifier. Not just justifier, but just
in his justification of sins. Just when he calls Abraham out
of idolatry, justifies him before God. Abraham believed God and
was counted to him for righteousness. Why? Because God justified him.
Justified him. Was he just in doing it? He said
he was. He said he was. And that's honorable. And when
you see that, everything in your life all of a sudden comes under
that same question. Is what I'm doing honorable?
Is my work that I do? Am I doing an honorable day's
work for my employer? This church has me down here
as their pastor. Do I honor that position in my
study? Do I honor that position in my
prayer and in my efforts to stand before you and preach? to do
whatever I can do. Do I honor that? Do you honor
your employees? Do you honor your husband? Do
you honor your wife? You see what I'm saying? It's
all about honor, this whole thing. Abraham saw that, this example
of faith, and he stays there, and he makes sure that this journey
is going to be honoring to God. He prepares for it. He makes
preparation for it. The calling of God does not dump
your responsibilities in somebody else's lap. I'm called to preach,
so here's my bills and here's my house and I'm gone. I guarantee you God hasn't called
you to preach if you do that. I guarantee it. Debts and duties that we've accumulated
in our life, they belong to us. And it was some time after God
called him to go to Canaan before he actually left Haman. Years
passed by because there was preparation to be made, debts to be settled,
possessions to be sold, plans to be made, and provision to
be gathered. When all this was done, Abraham left. He left. And when a person receives God's
call to faith, his life is changed forever. changed forever. His life has been interrupted.
God has intervened, changed His direction. His heart is not what
it was. His goals are not what they were.
His affection is set on things above, not on things beneath.
He now desires a heavenly city. Abraham journeyed as a pilgrim. It tells me this in Hebrews chapter
11. He journeyed as a pilgrim because he looked for a city
that had foundations whose builder and maker was God. He didn't
need a house down here, he just needed a tent. He was headed
to the city. That's where he wanted to be.
That's where he wanted to be. And in response to this inward
change and calling, he begins immediately, where I'm trying
to land here tonight. He begins in response to this. He begins with this inward change
of heart. This man begins to reorder his
life. That's what happens when God
saves a man. His life is a mess. It's not
geared for heavenly things. It's not geared for spiritual
things. It's not geared. His desires, his heart, everything
about him turns from this direction and is headed this direction.
And nothing he did before fits this. It's contrary to it. His debt load, most of us live
up to our eyeballs in debt. We see a boat, we want it, we
buy it. We see a car, we like it, we
buy it. We buy a house too big for what
we need and too big for what we can afford and we overbuy
and we overextend until we're up to here in debt. And then
we go down and we can't serve God. I'd like to, but I can't
because I'm up to here. Well, what do I do? Do I take
bankruptcy? Uh-uh. They're your debts. They're
your debts. Yeah, but I was an unbeliever.
I know it. Now you're a believer. Now pay those debts down so you
can serve God. This journey begins that way.
It takes time. I've talked to so many whom the
Lord saves and then in about six months are so frustrated
they can't give, they can't attend, they can't do this, they can't
do that. Why? Because their whole life was going this direction
and now it's going this direction. So what do I do, preacher? What
do I do? Begin to reorder your life. That's what you do. Begin to reorder it. Don't sit
there with your head crowned in your beard. Turn this direction. That's what God's doing with
you. He's turning you. He's arrested you. He gives you
the truth. He gives you direction. He's
called you to an inheritance. My soul, if we just do anything
at all, just a glimpse of the glory of that inheritance, I'm
telling you, we'd run down. We'd be down there about three
hours early. I guarantee you we would. and inheritance, heavenly
treasures, everlasting life and bliss and happiness, peace. Oh, we'd be here. I want to hear
that will. Somebody read that will. Let
me hear it. Let me hear it. We reorder our life because God's effected a change.
And we have to reorder this life to be able to serve the Lord
and walk with Him in what we know to be the truth and the
will of God. And there's some out there right
now, and I'm talking to those who may listen to this message
on the internet or on CD or whatever, there's some out there right
now going through this dilemma. You're looking around for a place
to worship, and there isn't anybody around. There are no churches
around. You've been there, stuck out here in the middle of nowhere.
Nobody around. What do I do? I've looked for
churches. I can't find one. And you know
you need to fellowship with God's people and a pastor to teach
you and watch for your souls and care for you. You know you
need those type of things. You know you need a church where
you can go and worship God, where God's people meet together and
the Scriptures read, prayers made, The Gospels preach. You need that. Every man called
of God needs that. You know that you need these
things and you know it will require you like Abram to leave where
you are and go where he tells you to go. That's what it requires. Go where he directs you. But
you can't just pull up roots and leave. You're in the same
boat Abraham was in. You're going to have to make
preparation. How long does that take? I don't know. It might
take five years. I don't know how long it takes. God's providence moves. Sometimes
it moves slow and sometimes it moves fast. But you're stuck
in it. You're stuck in it. And the thing
to do is not run around pulling your hair out and tore up because
you can't do this. The thing to do is settle yourself
down. Realize that you are in the providence
of God. And that this providence is working
together with these other things for His glory and your good.
And your life is going to be turned. Now see what you can
do to get it turned. See what you can do. See what you can do. Most of
us have spent our lives making these debts. And when we want
out, we want out tomorrow. Guess what? It ain't going to
happen. It ain't gonna happen. We got past marriages, child
support, alimony, sickness, broken legs, fell off my motorcycle,
go on and on and on. It's endless. It's endless. Indebtedness,
smothered in bills, smothered in responsibilities. Maybe I
don't have a good job. Maybe I'm just barely able to
live. Maybe life itself is smothering me. I know one fella calls me
and he He's got some kind of a work-related thing that happened
to him, happened to his back, and now he's stuck at home. His
wife hates the gospel, and he's stuck there at the house. And
he listens to our CDs and things from here, and listens to Brother
Don and some of the other ones. And here he is way out there
in California, and there's churches within a couple hundred miles
of him, but he can't get there. He can't get there. Well, reorder
your life. That's what you do. How do you
do? Here's where you are. There's where you want to be.
What do you need to do to get there? Whatever it is, that's
what you need to do. That's what you need to do. Men
and women know the will of God. Don't pretend like you don't
know. You know you're supposed to worship. Huh? Is there anybody in here that
don't think you're supposed to worship? Anybody in here don't
think you're supposed to read the Word of God? pray for one
another, prepare for worship. You see what I'm saying? We know
what the will of God is. We'd rather just sit there and
wring our hands and say, well, it's just too much. It is if
you want to do it today. God didn't set a day for Abraham.
He just said, here's where you're going. Abraham started making
preparations. And I believe he did those things
And those are just two scenarios. We could go on and on and on
all night with these things. But there's two things I believe
are dishonoring to God concerning this journey of faith. And one
is to throw my hands up and say, well, what can I do? What can
I do? What can I give? How can I serve? My life's a mess. I can't do
anything. Let me tell you something. God never commands a man to do
anything that He don't give him the ability to do it. He told
them, cross that sea. Cross that sea. Here comes Egypt up behind him,
so he puts a cloud out there between him as a buffer. Kind
of stops him. Lays it on his servant's heart.
Stretch out that staff. Split that sea. They walk across
on dry land. But they're going into Canaan,
and they have to do battle. Where in the world are they going
to get swords? They didn't get them down in Egypt. Huh? They
washed up on the shore. God drowned Pharaoh and all his
whole outfit out in that sea, washed the whole thing right
up on the seashore. Picked them up. God never commands a man to do
something that He don't give him the ability to do. I stand
up here every Sunday and command you to believe, tell you to believe,
exhort you to believe. I know you can't believe apart
from the work of God. I know that. When he told Ezekiel,
he said, What do you see out there, son of man? He said, I
see bones, just dry bones. That's all I see. He said, Can
they live? I don't know. Only you know that. He said, Preach to them. He said,
Well, I'm going to preach to them. They're dead, dry bones.
I know there's no life in them. They can't hear what I'm saying.
They can't see me. They're dead, dry bones. Here's
what you preach to them, tell them to live. They can't, but
they did. They couldn't, but they did.
I can preach a whole message on that. Lazarus, come out of that tomb.
He couldn't, but he did. And he tells us to do his will. And when it enters into a man's
heart, that's what I'm talking about tonight. A heart made ready
to serve God. When God lays His will upon a
man's heart, and that man willingly, lovingly wants to do that will,
I guarantee you his life will twist to where he can. I guarantee
it. And then secondly, there's this.
It's to throw all my responsibilities off on somebody else. and justify
what I've done using God's calling as an excuse. How did Abraham
leave? He left honorably. Paul told
the Corinthians, he said, and I know what he's talking about
here. He's talking about himself and his ministry. But it applies
in a broader sense. And here's what he said. He said,
we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking
in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but
by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God." That's honor, isn't
it? That's honor. How did he leave? He left honorably. And then secondly, I want you
to see this. How did he leave? He left completely. Did you read
that verse a while ago? I read that and read that and
read that. The other day I was sitting there looking at it,
asking God to open them things up to me, and I looked down there
at what all he said. It said, Abraham took Sarai,
his wife, Lot, his brother's son, all their substance that
they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Havre,
and went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the
land of Canaan they went. Everything he had. He didn't
keep a small parcel of ground in case things didn't work out.
He didn't appoint somebody to run his business for him while
he was gone so he'd have a little something to fall back on. I
lived in Danville. I sold my house. I don't have
a house in Danville. I have a house in Taylor. Abraham
sold out. He didn't have a place to come
back to. He didn't have a business to
come back to. No doubt, lobstock and barrel. The difference between the effectual
calling of God in Christ and an emotional profession of religion
is that God's call does not make provision for going back. Don't
make provision. When He calls, there is no going
back. There is no going back. He said,
the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. And then listen to this.
Paul hurried up right behind that and said this. This is over
in Hebrews 10, verse 39. But we are not of them. We are
not of them that draw back to perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul. That's what faith does. He wasn't
just headed for Canaan, it said He come to Canaan. Ain't that
what it said? He went. He went. We're not of them that go back.
John put it this way. He said they went out from us
because they were not of us, for had they been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. Faith don't go back.
It don't go back. Listen to this. Turn with me.
over to Hebrews chapter 10. Let me show you something down
here. Maybe you've read this, maybe you haven't. If you read through Hebrews chapter
10, he's talking about the culmination of everything that he's been
talking about all the way through this book. This high priest,
this sacrifice, this one sacrifice that has perfected us forever,
This one sacrifice that sanctified us once for all, that this man
appeared once in the end of time to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, that he came and the volume of the book is written
of him to do thy will, O God. All down through chapter 9, chapter
10, he is telling us about this sacrifice, telling us about what
it did, what it accomplished, and so on. Now watch this, verse 26. Verse
25, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully..." What
does that mean? That means if you want to go
back under that priesthood, if you want to ignore the sacrifice
and all that He accomplished, And you want to sin willfully
and you don't want to do what He set before you to do. You
don't want to do His will. His whole will was accomplished
in Christ Jesus. That's the way He said it. I
come to do Thy will, O God. Now if we sin willfully after
we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice. There's not going to be another sacrifice if you
ignore this one. If you ignore this way of salvation,
if you ignore this sacrifice, if you ignore His righteousness,
if you ignore this will that glorifies God, if you want to
ignore that, there is no more sacrifice for sins. There is no way back. There is
no going back. Now listen to this. Just a certain,
verse 27, fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment,
suppose you, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he
was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite under the
Spirit of grace? There ain't no going back. This call to faith is one way.
It's one way. It's one way. There is no going
back. Paul said, we are not our own,
we have been bought with a price. Our predestination of God is
to such an adoption that will yield us one day in the perfect
image of Christ, the heir of God, joint heir of Christ. Our
calling is the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, called to
be saints. Called to be presented in that
glorious day, completely renewed in the image of His Son. This
calling is a call to see the very will and purpose of God
in redemption. It's a call to glory and virtue.
It's a call to understand what's going on in this world. Eyes
to see its sin and curse and darkness and ignorance, to see
its final end. Eyes to see the way out of the
mire and filth of our depravity. Eyes to see the promised blood
of Christ that put away our sins and His thoughtless robe of righteousness
that covers our shame. Here's what I'm trying to tell
you. Faith is not some baseless emotional experience. It's an
awakening of the mind and heart to see things as they are. And
I know faith is supernatural. I preached that to you Sunday.
And I know it's the work of God's sovereign Spirit. And I know
that faith is the gift of God and the gift of His grace. And
I know that the natural man will not and cannot produce it. He
won't receive it. It's absolute foolishness to
him. Neither can he know it because they're spiritually discerned.
But let me tell you something, when he does, now you hear me,
when this gift is given, When that Spirit does work, when that
regeneration is executed, when that calling is received and
heard and made of God, when that believer is born again, when
his understanding is open, he sees things as they are, and
he weighs things into balance, and he reasons with God. Ain't
that what Isaiah talked about? Over in his first chapter there,
he told them what they was, wounds and bruises and putrefying sores
from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet. When
he got done talking to them about that and their holy hands and
their type of worship and the foolishness of what they believed,
he said, come now, you and I are going to reason. Well, faith
reasoned. You read the Scriptures. Paul's
reasoning. Well, you can't reason with a
dead man, but you can the one that God calls to life. I'm not preaching to dead people.
I'm preaching to the living. I believe God calls men out of
that death, passes them from death unto life. Everything that's associated
with this man is brought into light. Nothing is held back.
Everything is above board and out in the open. He counts the
cost. He counts it that he can see
that what he has is not sufficient. And he counts up the ability,
the willingness, and the abundant power and glory of his God and
of Christ whom he has set forth. He counts those things up. He
counts the price that was paid, the authority he bears, and the
promises he makes. And this man of God makes a decision. That word scares sovereign gracers
to death. I ain't be afraid of it. He makes
a decision. Well, you can't open the door
without making a decision. That's not contrary to the Word
of God. He exercises His will. He sure
does. He looks at this world, at His
family, at His job, at His wife, at His children, at His plans
for the future, at His life in general. He looks at God who
had called Him according to the purpose of His
grace, according to that eternal purpose in Christ. He looks at
the glory of His name, at His love, His kindness manifested
in His suffering and death. And He's moved one way or the
other. Now, that's the truth. That's the truth. And faith results in a selling
out. He says, I know what I'm going
to do. I'm going to sell out. Or he says, I know what I'm going
to do. I'm going to stay in earth. Yes, he does. I see it all the
time. Men and women come in here and
they're here and sometimes they stay and sometimes they go out
the door. Might see them next Easter or whatever day it is
they're celebrating when they do come. But I tell you this, if there's
anything more important to you than God, His promises, His instruction,
His worship, His way, His service, you better not even start the
journey. You don't need to start. You ain't going to make it. This
faith is going to be tried every day. It's going to be tried.
And if you're still setting restrictions on what you will and will not
do and where you will and will not go and what you will and
will not leave, you ain't ready to leave yet. See, you're still
over there scratching your head. You ain't made up your mind what
you're going to do. If you're still trying in some way to limit
yourself and limit your willingness and limit your life as to the
journey, you better just stay put. Just stay in there. Because this journey makes no
provision for return. And God says He has no pleasure
in fools. Where's that at? That's Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, isn't it? Where He talks about, keep thy
foot, we're now entering into the house of God. Be more ready
to hear. He said, this man who makes a
pledge before God, He said, you be careful what you pledge before
God. You be careful. Because God doesn't have any
pleasure in fools. And He'll hold you to it. He'll hold you
to it. Paul said, we're the circumcision
which worship God in the Spirit, eyes of spiritual revelation
with the truth of spiritual understanding and the power of a renewed heart.
And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Do we? Sometimes I wonder. Do we? I'll tell you this, when the
tornado is rolling down the road, or when the sun's out, it doesn't
affect that rejoicing one bit. Not one bit. When the house is
laying there in splinters, or you just put the finishing touches
on it, it's all the same, this rejoicing. Neither one of them
affect this. That doctor comes in, shakes
his head, gives you the long face, Look over and your wife
is all swelled up in tears. And he said, well, you ain't
got much longer, brother. You ain't got much longer. It doesn't
affect this rejoicing. That's what Paul was talking
about. I rejoice in Christ. He's seated victorious in the
heavens. And in that eternal purpose,
I'm seated with Him. Right now. Seated with Him. I'm just waiting for Him to raise
me up. Literally. and seat me with Him. What do we rejoice in? I try my best when I come in
here, if there's six of you, I'll preach with as much enthusiasm
as I'm preaching tonight as if this place was packed out and
they were sitting out on the sidewalk. I rejoice in Christ. Believers
worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and they've
got no confidence in the flesh. None. None. And it won't take
you long to be sorry about that if you do. No confidence. Paul goes on to give a long list
of things there in Philippians that he once had confidence in,
and then he says in Philippians 3, 7, but what things were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I
count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and to count them but dung that I might win Christ."
They paused on that same journey. God rested him on that road,
turned him, and now he said, I am pressing toward the mark
for the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. That's where I'm,
I've just got my eye, right there. That's where I want to be. Until I see the honor of God
in the salvation of chosen sinners, I will not order my life with
any honor. And when I see that God held
nothing back, says He spared not, next time you're feeling
sorry for yourself, I want you to think about this scripture.
It's in Romans chapter 8. He said, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
also with him freely give us all that? If he didn't spare
Christ, what's he going to spare? A bowl of egg salad? Huh? What's he going to spare?
He is not going to spare anything. I can go into that chamber and
ask what I will. It does not matter what I ask
as long as it is in the will of God and for His glory, He
will give it to me. How do I know that? Because He
spared not His Son. My soul, if a man is not going
to spare his Son, he is not going to spare anything. I am not going
to spare anything. Oh, God give us a heart like
Abraham. Set out on this journey to Canaan
and go to Canaan. Go chicken.