I'd like for you to take your
Bibles this morning and turn with me to Romans chapter 1. In the Sunday school lesson this
morning, I was talking about the call of the shepherd to his
sheep. And this morning's message, I
titled it this way, Call to be Saints. That's the language of
the Scripture. Now, just hold your place there.
I'm going to tell you a little story. Back in the 1950s, I lived in
a little town. I was just a very young boy.
We lived in this little town called West Liberty, Ohio. And
we lived in a farmhouse. We were surrounded by these huge
farms passed down from family been family-owned for generations
and generations, passed down father to son. And if you can
imagine such a thing, it was actually smaller than Taylor.
And I remember this big old house we lived in. Times was hard back
then, and the war was just getting over. And we rented this great
big house, and Daddy walled up part of it, and we turned it
into a duplex. And we rented the other half
to somebody else, and we stayed in this half. And there was no
electric in the house. I remember one day this fella
came to the door, knocked on the door, and Mama answered the
door, and I was playing around there in the floor. And this
guy just started yammering. Just the minute that door come
open, he was going 90 miles a minute. He was a vacuum cleaner salesman.
And it wasn't too long Before he'd worked his way into the
house and we had a big area rug there in the living room and
he set out his sweeper and he took out all these parts and
he had parts laid everywhere. This thing had attachments that
would clean carpet and I don't know what all. He had stuff laying
everywhere. It just fascinated me. I was
a little kid. Man, I saw all kinds of stuff
there for me to get into. And I watched him, and he was
just going, and my mother was trying to tell him something,
and he wouldn't listen. He was busy selling. He had this
pitch going, and he would just talk. I never heard anybody.
Boy, he was just going. And had this thing all out, and
pretty soon he reached down in this bag, and she just showed
up. She just decided to let him go. He wouldn't listen. And so
he got down in this little duffel bag of a thing and he pulled
out all these jars and it had household dust and he'd tell
you what it was and he dumped it out there on the rug and then
he took out this little bottle of pet hair and he shook that
out on the rug and then he had some confetti and he put that
out there and some other thing. And then he took his foot and
went over there and just ground it in real good. And then he
grabbed that sweeper and he unwrapped that cord and he started looking
around. And there was no plug. And she
said, that's what I've been trying to tell you. We don't have no
electric. And so what was meant to be the close of the deal, it was going to demonstrate to
her beyond all doubt the benefits of this thing he was selling.
It turned out to be a demonstration of his own foolishness because
there was no power. That's what Paul's talking about
here in 2 Corinthians that I read to you a few moments ago. There's
no power. There's no power in the wisdom
of men's words. They won't turn your heart. There's
no power in men's words to regenerate. There's no power in those things.
There's no power to make you willing. Man has to be made willing. He is not born willing. He is
unwilling. Isn't that what our Lord is talking
about over there in John 3 when He said, This is condemnation.
Light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. They are not willing. They are not affectionate. They
have to be made willing. And that love of God has to be
shed abroad in their hearts. He said, My speech and My preaching
to you was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That's what takes place
in this calling of God. It's a demonstration in you of
the power of His grace, of the power of His Godhead, of the
power of His will. He demonstrates that in the calling
out of His elect. And you can't do it. He has to
do it. And Paul said, I'm not going
to come in here and act... This was a Greek people to whom
he was talking and they were raised in that mess of philosophy
and all that type of stuff and wisdom and showmanship and all
that kind of stuff. And he said, I purposed when
I come in here not to use any of this. I'm just going to declare
it to you. I'm just going to declare it.
I'm not going to explain it. I'm not going to argue with you
about it. I'm just going to declare it. And that way when you have
faith, when God gives you faith, it won't stand in the wisdom
of men's words, but it will stand in the power of God's Spirit.
Now look with me here in Romans chapter 1. In verse 1, Paul said he was
a servant of Jesus Christ. That term servant means bond
slave, willing bond slave of Jesus Christ. Called to be an
apostle. Separated unto the gospel of
God which he had promised to for by his prophets in the Holy
Scripture. Concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the
flesh. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the
resurrection from the dead, by whom we have received grace and
apostleship. Now, here is why he received
it. Listen to this. For obedience to the faith among
all nations for his name. In other words, he is saying,
God gave me this grace and separated me to this gospel and made me
an apostle so that his people scattered abroad throughout all
the earth might hear this gospel, obey this gospel, and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Now watch what he says next,
verse 6. Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ. The called. And to all that be
in Rome that are beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. They are identified in
Romans chapter 8 verse 28 as the called according to his purpose. The called. And right after he
makes that statement, talking about everything that is, working
together for your good, to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose, he says this. Here's what he
says about this called according to His purpose. He said, For
whom He did foreknow, that word is foreordained. Whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate. And do you know what he's saying?
to be conformed to the image of His Son. God stood back there
in eternity and ordained, chose a people, elected a people, and
predestinated unchangeably, irresistibly, immutably, predestinated, no
chance, no ifs, no ands, no buts, predestinated their end. They're
going to be conformed to the image of My Son. Now, whom He
did predestinate, what did He do? Call. Huh? Ain't that what He said? He called. Whom He called, He justified.
Whom He justified, He glorified. God stood back yonder in eternity
and predestinated this people and their end. And He fixed everything
from that point to that point. He fixed to bring about that
end. And everything in time and eternity
works together for your good. That's what He's saying. Because
you're the called according to His purpose. I'll never forget old Brother
Mahan. He was up there pastoring this big Southern Baptist church
up there in Ashland, and they were having this big meeting.
They all got together and were going to have this big meeting.
And the fellow that was supposed to come and hold the revival
couldn't come. And they got all upset, and these
churches had already been notified, and people made plans to travel
there and rented motel rooms. And they said, what are we going
to do? And this fellow said, well, I know a fellow that might
come. And he said, can you get him on this short notice? He
said, I'll call him and see. They called Brother Roth Barnard. Sent him up there to that meeting.
And old Roth stood up and Henry was sitting there on the front
bench, just a young fellow in his twenties. And he had him turn over there
to Romans chapter 8. And he said, Pastor, can you
quote Romans 8.28? And Henry said, yes, I think
I can. He said, all things work together for good to them that
love God. And he sat back down. And old Ralph, he was a real
skinny man, grew up down in Texas in the oil fields. He looked
down on them glasses and he said, can you quote all of it? And
Henry said, well, yes sir. He said, I think so. And he stood
back up. He said, all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. And he said, old brother Barnard,
scream, purpose! God does things on purpose. And that's what I want to talk
to you about this morning. This calling of God is on purpose. It's according to His purpose. Nobody's going to come into this
fold until God calls them. No sheep's coming out of that
pen until God calls them. You have to be called. Called. Saints become saints when God
calls them to be saints. That's what Paul's talking about.
There's no other way to identify yourself as an heir of God except
in your calling. Peter said, give diligence to
make your calling and election sure. If you do these things,
he said, you'll never fall. You never follow. I want you
to follow along with me this morning and let me give you seven
texts of Scripture. We're going to turn to seven
different texts of Scripture. And each one of these describes
this effectual, irresistible calling of God. Turn with me
first of all to 1 Peter 2. In the first of these seven texts,
He declares that this heavenly calling is a call out of darkness. Darkness. I don't think there's
anything in the Scripture more misunderstood than that term
darkness. Darkness. Here in 1 Peter 2,
look here at verse 9. He said, But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Darkness. Darkness is something that cannot
be known until we've been brought into the light. Man is born in
this darkness. He doesn't know anything else.
You go out here at night. And you look around and there's
no color and there's no details. You can see outlines of things
because God hath put some light in the firmament. He's got some
stars up there and He's got a moon up there and you can look around
and you can see outlines of things. You can look out at the horizon
and you can tell that you're looking out over woods or if
you're looking out over water or whatever it is. You can see
outlines and shapes, but you can't see the details. And you
don't see any of the glory. You don't see no color. You don't
see any of that, no dimension. You don't see any of that after
dawn. Men and women are born into a spiritual darkness. Now
they have a conscience and they've got the light of creation. They've
got this little bit of light. And they see outlines and they
see shapes and shadows and things. They see those things. They do
have some sight. They do see those things. But
they cannot see the glory of this thing, and they cannot see
the dimensions of this thing, and they cannot see the depth
of these things. They can't perceive any of those
things, and in the Scripture it's called darkness. Darkness. It's something that you cannot
know. If all you ever knew was darkness, and somebody said,
well, you're in darkness, you wouldn't have a clue what they're
talking about, would you? What do you mean in darkness? I see
as good as he does. Yeah, but he's in darkness too. Well, I see as good as that preacher.
Yeah, but he's in darkness too. Paul said, If our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded
their minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them. And he said, it was pictured
in creation. He said, can you see that? God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Called out of darkness. Darkness. Suppose while you're standing
out there one night and that's all you ever knew. And you're
standing there and you're looking, and this fella come along and
started speaking, and while he was talking to you, the sun come
up. Wow! Now, I see what you're talking
about, preacher, now. I say, how come you can see now
because the sun come up? You say, that's absurd. Well, that's what Peter said.
Go on and read. I think it's in his 2nd epistle
where he said, he said, We have not followed cunningly devised
fables when we made known unto you the coming and the glory
of Christ. He said, We didn't follow cunningly devised fables.
We were eyewitnesses of His glory. God give us some light. And he
said, Our prophecy is a more sure prophecy, and you do well
to take heed to it until the day star comes up. Ain't that
what he said? Tell the day star, who's the
day star? That's Christ. And the day dawn. Just keep listening
until the sun comes up and the light shines. Now you can say,
I see what you're talking about. God calls His people out of darkness,
spiritual darkness, natural darkness, and gives them light. Translates
them, whatever that means, into the kingdom of His dear Son. And it's a term, I'm telling
you, men and women are in darkness. He went down there, He went through
Capernaum, He went through those places to a people, He said,
who sat in darkness. Well, they didn't know that.
They didn't know that. They were out there at their
nets, fishing in their boats, doing their thing, going down
to the synagogue. Some of them believed, some of
them didn't. Some of them were ruffians and drunk. All of them was in
darkness. None of them knew it until he
showed up. And the only ones who knew it
was the ones he called. I think about old blind Bartimaeus
sitting out on that blanket. I can't help but think about
him when I get on this subject because he sat there on that
great road and it went from the mountains of Jerusalem and went
all the way down to the coast. And he'd sit there and he'd listen
to these people in these caravans going back and forth and they'd
talk about that aquamarine water down there and those pristine
white clouds and all this kind of stuff. And he'd just sit there
in his doctor wondering about what in the world they're talking
about. And then talk about these high mountains that go up almost
out of sight, and got big snow-capped peaks on them, and you can come
down and see the timber line, and then you can see all these
things, and the color of them, and the majesty of them, and
these great plains, and these streams, and all these things.
And he just sat there in amazement until God gave him eyes. And
then he stood up and said, I see what you've been talking about.
I can enter into it. In the shades of our fallen nature,
Satan can easily point to anything and call it salvation, and you'll
never know the difference. Everything looks the same. All looks the same. Darkness.
What is this darkness? Darkness is a superstition. It's
a baseless, reasonless religion. It's a religion of tradition,
ceremony, feelings, extraordinary gifts. Darkness is a nature that
cannot tell the difference. That's what darkness is. It has
no ability to discern. I read it to you in 1 Corinthians
2. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. He has no ability in him to discern
the difference. He just hears them. He may argue
about them. He may dispute about them. But
he doesn't know the difference. There is no dispute when you
know, is there? There's no argument then. I know. I wouldn't cross the street to
argue with you. I know what I know. A preacher friend of mine, this
Armenian preacher came up to him and he started debating back
and forth about free willism and all that. And he said, I
don't know where you get this election thing from. And he said,
Stated 23 times in the New Testament. That's where I get it from. Well,
that's talking about Israel. That's talking about this. That's
talking about a man that God looks down through the telescope
of time and sees who's going to choose him and who ain't.
He starts writing off election and this type of thing. And my
friend, they're not getting anywhere. Not getting anywhere. Finally,
he said, let me see if I can tell you, illustrate what it
is I'm talking about. He said, salvation, he said,
is like a large gray elephant. And he said, and God's people
are all blind. And he said, and you've got a
hold of the tail. And he said, you're running your hand down
that tail, and you're describing what you feel. And he said, I've
got a hold of his leg. And he said, I'm running my hand
down his leg, and I'm describing what I feel. And he went on and
on for about 20 minutes, and finally this friend of mine said,
well, he said, I've got two problems with what you're telling me. I said, well, okay, go ahead.
He said, number one, salvation hasn't got a thing on earth in
common with salvation, that large gray elephant. It has nothing
to do with salvation. And he said, and the second thing,
God's people aren't blind. They've been called out of darkness.
You can't pull the wool over their eyes. A stranger's voice,
Christ said, they will not follow. They will not hear it. Why? Because they know the truth.
Now that's what Peter is talking about. You've been called out
of this darkness of superstition and tradition and family religion
and you've been brought over here to the light. And now you
can see. And when you hear it, you know
it. When you hear it, you rejoice in it. You don't sit back and
scratch your head and say, I wonder if he's talking about me. Yeah,
he's talking about you. If you can hear. If you can hear. What do they see? What do they see? They see God
as He's revealed in His glory, in the glory of His perfections.
They see themselves as they appear before God and confess their
sins and repent of their sins and seek forgiveness of their
sins. And they mourn over the sins of their righteousness.
They mourn over that worse than anything. They see the effectual
blood atonement of Christ to be their only hope before God.
They had a God-given ability to distinguish between things
that differ, free grace and free will. They know the difference.
They know the difference. Free will. They know the difference
between works and grace, sovereignty and responsibility. I love what
Brother Don said down here the other day. He said, man's responsibility,
it's man's response to God's ability. That's the truth. That's the truth. And then secondly,
go with me to Galatians chapter 5. Look at this. Galatians chapter
5. This call of God is a call to
liberty. It's a call to liberty. It's
not a call into bondage. I grew up in a Nazarene church.
I don't even know if you all know what that is or if they
even have them down here, but we had them up there. It's kind
of a holiness church, a lot like the Church of Christ. And I grew
up in that church. And I can remember when they
had altar calls and trying to get folks to come down to the
front and make professions of faith and things. that there
was a bondage that I connected in his preaching. There was a
bondage there that I didn't see it as a bad thing at the time,
but there was a bondage. He was calling me into bondage.
If I come down there and made this profession of faith, I'm walking into a cell. I had
to do certain things. I wasn't free anymore. I'm going
to be in bondage. And that's what religion does.
When it calls folks, it calls them, unsuspectingly, it calls
them under this bondage of the law. And that law is a curse. Paul said, you that seek to be
under the law, do you hear the law? Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. I talk to people all the time.
A friend of mine the other day, the fellow he works for, came
to him and he said, now, they were talking to one another and
he was trying to get them to come to these meetings over there
in Wichita Falls. And this guy told him, he said,
now, he said, I can tell you this, he said, I tithe. I tithe. And my friend started looking
around like this. And he was going around looking.
The fellow said, what are you looking for? He said, I'm looking
for the goats. He said, what goats? Well, now, he said, if
you're going to tithe, he said, you've got to do all the rest
of the law. And under the law, there was
goats to be sacrificed, red heifers to be sacrificed, lambs to be
sacrificed. You had to have a priest to sacrifice
them. You had to have a tabernacle
with a veil on it. You had to have a table full
of showbread. You've got to have the whole law. You can't pick and choose just
certain things that you want out of the law. When you come under the law,
you come under the curse because it calls for a continuation of
all things. When you pay tithes, you got
to pay tithes of everything. You got to go out in the field.
You got ten cows? You got to give one of them.
You got to bring it down. Bring it up to the front. Give
it to the priest. You see what I'm saying? It's
a curse. Religion calls men to a curse. It calls them under
a curse. When God calls out His sheep,
He calls them into liberty. Into liberty. Look at this here
in Galatians 5, verse 13. He said, for brethren, you've
been called unto liberty. Unto liberty. What's that mean? That means freedom. Freedom. Only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another." There's a liberty
involved here. Well, how do we get in liberty
to a law that judges us? Because that law in your substitute
took you out and nailed you to a tree. And that law poured out
on you everything that's in it. It poured out all of its condemnation. It poured out all of its requirements.
It poured out everything on that substitute. And that substitute
satisfied that law. And in satisfying that law, it
satisfied the justice of God. And it satisfied it through His
obedience, the righteousness of that law. It took that law
that was just a law of words and a law written in stone, it
took that law and exalted it and honored it in Christ as high
as it can be honored. And the most honoring thing that
you can do to that law is look at it in Christ and rejoice in
it. Otherwise, it's a curse. It's
a curse. And if you won't honor the curse,
be ready to do the whole law. And not just when you feel like
it. Continually. Continually. When did Christ
manifest His righteousness? In His birth. When did He wind
it up? On the cross. On the cross. Alright, here's
the third thing. It says in here that we're called unto fellowship.
Look over here in 1 Corinthians 1.9. called unto fellowship. He says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse
9, God is faithful. He's the only one who is. God
is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. What in the world is he talking
about? Well, a friend of mine used to say, and I haven't found
anything better to say, he said, fellowship is fellers in the
same ship. That's what that means. That's exactly what that means.
In Romans chapter 5, the whole world is summed up in two representatives,
Adam and Christ. And by this one man, Adam, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. By his offense, it says, sin
reigned over all his offspring. By his offense, judgment came
upon all men to condemnation. By his disobedience, his children
become sinners. And because of our relationship
to him, we have a fellowship of his punishments and judgment
and curse. You see that? We're his sons. We're his sons by birth. And
as His sons in birth, we have a fellowship with those things. That's why I'm born with a cursed
nature. But Christ has a people chosen of God, and His people,
because of their relationship to Him, have a fellowship with
Him. They have a fellowship with His blessings. They have a fellowship
in His purpose. They have a fellowship in His
As an heir, they have a fellowship with Him in all things. As He
is accepted of God, we're accepted in Him. You see that? He said,
you've been called into fellowship. Into fellowship. And that calling
of God awakens dead sinners to the fellowship of Christ and
His glory. We justify our election by our
calling. God calls His sheep. and they
alone hear His voice. And as that fellowship is established,
the fellowship we have with this world is broken. It's broken. It's destroyed. In this calling
of God, this world, its treasures, its comforts, its relationships,
and its religion of empty promises are set in direct opposition
to our love and fellowship with Christ. He draws a line. This side and this side. And
there is direct opposition. John said, Love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. And listen to
this over in Matthew 10, verse 34. He said, Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. I am not come to send peace,
but a sword. A sword. He said, For I am come
to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foe shall be those of his own household. He that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he
that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy
of me. And he that findeth his life
shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for me shall find it. You see what he is talking about?
There is a fellowship. We are called out of darkness,
and we are called into fellowship. We have a fellowship with that
death. I look at that death, that's
my death. I look at that righteousness, that's my righteousness. Do you
see that? Natural man don't see that. Natural
man hopes in his own. He's running around just like
Israel was, trying to establish a righteousness. Would not submit
to that righteousness of God. Alright, here's the fourth thing.
Paul said we're called unto peace. Look over here in 1 Corinthians
chapter 7. called to peace. Chapter 7 of 1 Corinthians. It
has to do with divorce. It has to do with problems in
a marriage. And the problem that he's talking
about here is that one is a believer and one is not. One is not. And sometimes these things, he
said, can be resolved. Sometimes one will surrender
to the other for the sole purpose of having peace. And if the unbelieving
partner submits and is willing to live in peace, will they believe
or not? Paul said, leave them alone.
Let them stay. Let them stay. If they want to
stay, they don't want to go to church, they don't want to worship,
they don't want to do those things. But they're tired of fighting
about it. They're not ready to leave home.
They won't stay. Let them stay. He said, how do
you know? The Lord may sanctify that one
through you. So just leave them alone. Leave
them alone. Don't harass them. Don't argue.
You've been called to peace. We're not called to argue. We're
called to peace. But, he said, if they won't stay,
if they're so offended and so upset, If they're going to leave,
let them go. Let them go. Or, he said, we've
been called unto peace. We don't want them to go. We're
not trying to make them go. But if they're not going to have
it any other way, let them go. That's what he said. If the unbelieving,
here in verse 15, if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother
or a sister is not under bondage in any such case. But God has
called us to peace. And I see throughout the Scriptures
that we have a peace in Christ that passes all understanding.
David said, Thou propast a table before me in the presence of
my enemies. My enemies are out there on the
horseback and got the swords drawn and the spears reared back
and the front lines coming and the bowman got the bow pulled
back and he said, God set a table down before me and I sit down
and eat. I ain't worried about it. I ain't worried about it.
I've got peace. Peace in Christ. Peace. In trouble, I have peace. In
conflict, I still have peace. In pain and suffering, I have
peace. In death, I have peace. Peace. Because Christ is my peace. And He makes all things to work
together for my good and His glory. You'll find out that such
is this peace of God that Paul talked about over there in Romans
chapter 5 at the beginning of that chapter. So sure and comforting
is this peace that he actually prayed and looked forward to
these things, these troubles and things that were going to
come on him. Actually looked forward to them. That's what
kind of peace he had. Now turn with me to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 4 and I'll give you the fifth thing. He says this calling of God is
a call to holiness, and as such, this call supersedes
even the nature of a man. You can't produce holiness. You
can't do it. But you're called to it. You're
called to it. Isn't that what he's talking
about over there in Ephesians chapter 2? For he said, we are
his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. There
is a call unto holiness, but you can't produce it. I brought
a message one time titled, He Couldn't, But He Did. He told
Moses, take that staff, stick it out there and that seed was
going to part. He couldn't part that sea, but he did. He did. He said, smoke that rock
and water will come out. He couldn't, but he did. He told
blind boy Timaeus that he could see. He couldn't, but he did.
And he told Lazarus, come out of that tomb. He was dead, but
he did, didn't he? Because in that call, comes a
power to do what God commands. Can you produce true holiness?
You can in this call. Yes, you can. Yes, you can in
this call. Look here in 1 Thessalonians
4, it says, Well, God hath not called us to uncleanness, but
unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth despiseth
not man, but God, who has also given unto us His Holy Spirit." Every act of disobedience is
a despising of God and a despising of that Spirit that He gives
us. Every act of rebellion. Every act of defiance is a sin
against the love of God in Christ. Every act of rebellion is an
act of treason against the King of grace. And in order for a
man to overcome this nature, God must come in and set up his
reign and take those reigns out of his hands and take over the
reigns. John said, greater is he that
is in you than he that is in the world. Listen to this, 1 John chapter
5, the apostle of God says this, He said, Whatsoever is born of
God overcometh the world. What a statement. Overcometh
the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. That's that calling of
God. Alright, here's the sixth thing.
Turn back again with me to the book of Galatians. This time
we're going to look in chapter 1. This calling of God is a call
by grace to grace and to be gracious. You can't have one of those things
without having all three. The call of grace demonstrates
grace in you. And when grace is demonstrated
in you, you're going to be gracious. And not until. Listen to this,
Galatians 1, verse 15, Paul told him in his preceding verses here,
he said, now you know me, and you know where I come from, and
you know what I was. And I persecuted the church without
end. Every opportunity I had, I went
down there and got papers and brought them down there to be
killed. Held the coats of them that would stone them. He said,
you know what I was. But, he said, when it pleased
God, verse 15, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me." Oh, now there's
a change. Now there's a change. Now he's
gracious. I'll tell you one thing, a Pharisee is not as gracious. He's not. There isn't a gracious
bone in his body. The superabundance of God's grace
is manifest in His call to chosen sinners. Paul said this over
there in Romans 5. He was talking about these various
things in Adam, these various things in Christ, and he said,
where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. Just like that
sin abounded and took you to its depths and led you here and
led you there and caused you to do this and caused you to
say that, even so this grace does the same thing. And just
like that sin reigned unto death, this grace reigns in righteousness
unto eternal life. True grace is reigning grace. It's grace that moves. It's grace
that makes you gracious. Makes you gracious. And where
and how and who and all these things, they all give glory to
His grace. Over and over in Ephesians chapter
1, He tells us it is to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted in the blood, in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace, and wherein He abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence. By grace, Paul said, ye are saved. It was grace that put you in
a union with Christ and raised you from the tomb and seated
you with Him in the heavenlies. And it's by grace that this faith
comes and saves your soul. By grace. And here's the last
thing. This call of God is a call to
glory. And you can find this over in
1 Thessalonians 2. In verse 12. Paul said that you should walk
worthy of God who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory. And then if you will, just flip
over a few pages over to 2 Thessalonians 2. I quote this first verse all
the time, but I don't often quote the second part of it. He says
in verse 13 that God has from the beginning chosen us unto
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. Whereunto He called you by our gospel, now watch it,
to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does that mean I get the glory?
No, that isn't what that means. That means you enter into the
glory. That's what that means. That's what that means. How have
we obtained that glory? By believing the gospel and having
a heart to rejoice in it. Do you see any glory at all in
religion? Do you see any glory in it? Any
glory of God? Do you see any of the glory of
God in religion? Everything in religion glorifies
man. Everything in the gospel glorifies
God. And the glory of God can only
be seen in one place, Christ. And that's what he's talking
about. He calls you to the obtaining of this glory. Now you only see
glory in one place, Christ. We take down the little board
that's on the wall that says how many was here last Sunday
and how many we hope to have next week and how much offering
and all that stuff is gone. Gone. Why? Because he gets all
the glory. And we see it. We see it. We've obtained it where other
men have it. They don't see it. They don't
rejoice in it. They don't understand why would
you go clear over here in the middle of the woods and have
a church? When you pass 25 or 30 coming
over here, why don't you find a big one down there that has
some benefits and go down there? Because they haven't obtained
the glory. Once you see His glory, you go.
We've got a couple here this morning that drove all the way
up here from clear down in the middle of Texas. I drove last summer 20 some hours
up to New Jersey. Why would I want to go all the
way over there? Because they're glory. That's why. They've obtained
that glory. And that's what that gospel does.
It calls you to that glory in Christ. You see it. And by the
experience of it, by the revelation of God in Christ manifesting
that glory, and having Christ in you, the hope of glory. Listen
to this old hymn writer. He said, When all of my labors
and trials are over, And I am safe on that beautiful shore.
Just to be near the dear Lord I adore, that will be glory,
glory to me. When by the gift of His infinite
grace, I am accorded in heaven a place. Wouldn't that be something?
Just to be there and look on His face, will through the ages
be glory to me. Friends will be there I've loved
long ago, And joy like a river round me will flow, Yet just
a smile from my Savior I know, That will be glory, glory to
me." It's a call unto glory. God be pleased to give you that
call.