I've entitled the message for
this evening, What is the Call of God? That's an interesting subject,
isn't it? What is the Call of God? Now in our text, Timothy was
called to lay hold. upon eternal life. And it was
God who called him to lay hold upon eternal life. It wasn't
just the voice of man. It was God himself who called
Timothy to lay hold upon eternal life. Now there is what is called
an external call to all men, the light of nature. tells us
that God is and ought to be sought. Every man is born with an innate
knowledge that God is. There's no such thing as an atheist,
not deep down. Every man is born into this world
knowing that God is. Every man's conscience tells
him that, we read in Romans 118, for the invisible things of him,
of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Every man knows
that God is, and he's without excuse for not seeking him. God calls all men everywhere
to repent, and this call is never obeyed. never has been, never
will be, because of the sinfulness of man. But God is gracious. He is going to have a people
to praise him. And he calls them with an eternal,
effectual, efficacious call. Now he doesn't call all men like
this. Romans 8.28 says, For we know that all things work together
to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. Not everybody loves God and not
everybody is called according to his purpose. We read in Romans
chapter nine, verse 11, the children talking about Jacob and Esau
born in the same womb, had the same mommy and daddy for the
children being not yet born. neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. We read in Hebrews 9.15, that
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Not everyone is called. When Peter was preaching on the
day of Pentecost, he ends up his sermon with these words,
the promise is to you and to your children and to all that
are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Second Timothy, 1 9, he saved us and he called us
with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews, a stumbling block into the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called. Jews and Greeks. Christ, the
power of God, and the wisdom of God. Romans 1.6, among whom
also ye are the called of Jesus Christ. Paul said to the Corinthians,
you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Now, if I have been called, He
made me to differ. Now that's a humbling and an
awesome thought, isn't it? If I have been called, He made
me to differ. Who made you to differ? And what
do you have that you did not receive. Now we have a beautiful
illustration of this call in the book of Esther that we've
been looking at in Bible study. But would you turn to Esther
for a moment? Chapter four, verse 11. This is Esther speaking after
Mordecai has told her to come into the king's presence. We
read in verse 11, all the king's servants and the people of the
king's provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman,
shall come into the king, into the inner court, who is not called. There is one law of his to put
him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out
the golden scepter that he may live, but I've not been called. to come into the king these 30
days. She didn't come unless she was
called. Now, when she comes into his presence, verse one of chapter
five, now it came to pass on the third day that Esther, the
third day, I think of the resurrection of Christ on that third day,
Esther's a type of Christ, that Esther put on her royal apparel.
Her resurrection closed, and stood in the inner court of the
king's house, over against the king's house. And the king sat
upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the
gate of the house. And it was so when the king saw
Esther the queen standing in the court. She didn't have to
say a word. You know, the Lord just looks at Christ. He didn't
have to say a word. He just looks at Christ. And
what happens? She obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther
the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near
and touched the top of the scepter. Then the king said unto her,
What wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall
be given to thee to the half of my kingdom. Only those who
are called are accepted, except the Lord holds out the royal
scepter. Now, what is this divine call? Now, we see it's not to everybody.
I quoted so many scriptures that lets us know it's to a particular
people. Not everybody is called. What
is this divine call? If I'm not called, I'll not be
saved. and justly left to perish in
my sins. I must be called or I won't be
saved. You know what my response to
that is? Lord, call me. Lord, call me. Call me right
now by your invincible, irresistible grace. Don't pass me by. Don't
leave me to myself. Call me, whatever it takes to
call me. Call me. Now I want to see what the Bible
says about this call. so I can determine if he has
in fact called me. Now it's what the old riders
called the effectual call. The effectual call is always
obey. Lazarus, come forth. Could Lazarus have said no? No. He that was dead came forth. Zacchaeus, make haste, come down. The Lord doesn't make commands
and effectually people disobey him. Zacchaeus made haste and
he came down and he received him joyfully. Stretch forth thy
hand, he said to the man with the withered hand. He couldn't,
but he did when the Lord told him to. That's the effectual
call. He says to the lame man, rise
up and walk. And you know what he did? He
rose up and walked. You see, this call cannot be
disobeyed. When the Lord says, believe,
you know what you do? You believe. When he says, come
to me, you know what you do? You come to him. When he says,
seek ye my face, your heart says, thy face, oh Lord, will I seek. When he says, be clean, Immediately,
his leprosy was cleansed. When he said to that dead girl,
I say unto thee, arise, you know what she did? She arose. This call is always obeyed. And I say once again, Lord, call
me. Now thank God, this call is a
call of grace. And that I'll give everybody
in this room something to be excited about. This call is a
call of pure, free, unmerited grace. Paul said, when it pleased
God who called me by his grace. I think of when the Lord said,
I came not to call the righteous. But sinners to repentance. If
you have any personal righteousness, you exclude yourself from this
call. Because he said, I didn't come to call the righteous. I
came to call sinners to repentance. Galatians 1 says he called us
unto the grace of Christ. Galatians 1 15, when it please
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his son. And I love this to reveal his
son in me. And that's what I need. It's
not enough for him to reveal his son to me because I lose
that. I need him revealed in me. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Second Timothy 1.9 says, he saved
us and he called us. I love the order there. He saved
us and he called us. It doesn't say he called us and
he saved us. It says he saved us. That means that salvation
was accomplished outside of my personal subjective experience.
Isn't that good news? He saved us. called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, not in response to
something we do, but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That simply means it's a call
of sheer free grace. That's the first thing I want
to say about this call. It's a call of grace. And here's the
second thing. In 1 Peter 2, 9, it says that
he spoke of him who called you out of darkness. He called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light. Oh, the darkness of salvation
by works. You never know when you've done
enough. You never know if you've done enough. You never know exactly
it is what you're supposed to do. The darkness of salvation
by works. God is light. Scripture says,
1 John 1, 5, and in him is no darkness at all. Now if we say
we have fellowship with Him, we say we have communion with
Him, I pray to Him, He hears me and speaks to me. If we say
we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, the darkness
of salvation by works, we lie and we do not the truth. We've lost all credibility. The darkness of the ignorance
of God's character, the blindness men have concerning their own
sinfulness and their own utter inability to save themselves.
Darkness. He's called us out of darkness.
You know, there's a time when you didn't know who God was.
You didn't know what He was like. You didn't know who you were.
You had no idea how sinful you were. You had no idea how God
saves sinners. You were in the dark. And He
called you, bless His holy name, He called me out of darkness
into His marvelous light. The light, I have light as to
how God can look at me and see me as somebody without sin. Now what kind of light is that? He said, I'm the light of the
world. He said that right after he said to that woman who was
caught in adultery in the very act. There wasn't any doubt about
her guilt. He said, woman, where are those I accusers? Hath no
man condemned thee? She said, no man, Lord. He said,
neither do I condemn thee. Now the law says condemn her.
The only reason he can not condemn her is because she has nothing
to be condemned for. The light of justification. Isn't
that wonderful? Oh, He's called you out of darkness
into the marvelous light of how He can love you and save you
for Christ's sake and how you can be without guilt and without
sin and without shame, perfect in Christ Jesus. What a blessing
to be called out of darkness into His marvelous light. And then 1 Corinthians 7, verse
15 says that we're called to peace. Called to peace. You know, peace
is such a wonderful feeling, isn't it? Isn't it miserable to have turmoil
and lack of assurance? Lack of assurance of God's favor.
Wondering if you're really even saved. Wondering if you even
know the Lord and if His hand is on you. And you don't have
any peace, you feel wretched, you feel turmoil. You wonder
if his hand's against you. You look at Providence and you
think, perhaps his hand is against me. Look at all these things
that are happening to me. Oh, it's a horrible thing to not
have peace. But he's called us to peace. Romans 14, 17 says, the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. It's not meat and drink, it's
righteousness, it's Christ's righteousness. Now let me ask
you a question. If you have the righteousness
of Jesus Christ as your personal righteousness, does that give
you peace? That's the only thing that gives
me peace. That's the only thing. But what peace we have knowing
that his righteousness is our personal righteousness before
God. That's called the joy and the
peace of believing. I am at peace when I see that
God is at peace with me. Now, when I see that God is at
peace with me, that there's nothing for him to be mad at me about
because I don't have any guilt before him. That gives me peace. I'm at peace with God. Therefore,
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have the peace that comes
from loving one another. Now, what do I mean by that? We're members of the same body,
aren't we? Members of the body of Christ.
Members of the body of Christ are not in competition. They love one another. And if me and you are members
of the same body, if you're promoted, you know who else is promoted?
I'm promoted. And if you're hurt, you know
who else is hurt? I'm hurt. Because we're members
of the same body. and we're not in competition.
If you fall, I fall, because we're members of the same body.
There's something special about that, isn't there? Peace. The
peace that exists between believers. We have the same Lord. We have
the same Savior. And we're peacemakers. We preach
the gospel of peace, wanting for men to know the peace of
God. Don't you want your unbelieving
relatives to know the peace of God that passes all understanding?
You want them to know the peace of God. You want all men to know
the peace of God. You want to preach to people
the gospel of peace. And you know, we're not at war
with this world. What do I mean by that? Why do
people fight? Why is there war? One nation
fights another nation because that nation has something that
that other nation wants and they want to get it. We have Christ. Who cares what the world has?
We don't even want it. We have Christ. Oh, the peace
of Ephesians 2.14, He is our peace. I love that scripture. He is our peace. Oh, the joy and the peace of
believing. And then in Galatians 5.13, we
read, brethren, you've been called to liberty. You've been called to liberty.
You've been called. by God and it's a factual call.
It's called to liberty. It's called to freedom. For he
that's called on the Lord being a servant or a slave is the Lord's
free man. 1 Corinthians 7.22. Now, what is liberty? Well, the
only way we can really answer what is liberty is what is bondage.
Now, the fella is in a cell. and the door's closed, and he's
in that cell, but it's not locked, and he has the ability to open
up the door and walk out of the cell, is he in bondage? No. The only way he's in bondage
is if he is in that cell and he can't get out. He's stuck there and there's
not one thing he can do to deliver himself from being in that cell. Now that man is in bondage. He is in captivity. Now, you're
only set free if somebody else unlocks the door and lets you
out. You can't do anything about it,
but you're set free when someone else unlocks the door and lets
us out. Now, the natural man is under
the bondage of sin. You know what that means? That means all
we do is sin. And that means we cannot not
sin. Now that's what it is to be under
the bondage of sin. He that committed the sin, the
Lord said, is the slave of sin, is the servant of sin. Now bondage,
all you do is sin and you cannot not sin. Now, would that describe
you? Do you know anything about the
bondage of sin? Well, you've never been set free
unless you first know something about the bondage of sin. Galatians
5.1 says, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. Now, Christ frees us from the
dominion of sin, the bondage of sin. What's that mean? Well, I can remember clearly not being
able to believe. I couldn't believe. I tried to
believe, but I didn't know what it meant to believe. I tried. I can remember when I couldn't
repent of my sins anymore, then I could create a world. I tried,
but I didn't really know what it meant. What does it mean to
repent? What does it mean to believe? I couldn't love God. I didn't love God. I had no love
for God. As a matter of fact, I disliked
Him for the way He was. I thought He was too strict.
I thought He was too holy. I thought He was too demanding.
I disliked His attributes. Then one day, the Lord set me
free. And I was enabled by the grace
of God to believe the gospel. Now that is being set free. You know, when you're set free,
when you're free, it means you don't owe anything. If you owe
anything, there's no liberty there. But if you owe nothing,
You're free. You're free when you get to do
what you want to do, and a believer's doing what he wants to do. I
want to walk with the Lord. You know what I want to do? I
want to deny myself. This is what I want to do. I
want to deny myself. I want to take up my cross daily,
and I want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what I want
to do. I want to be found in Him. I want to have only His righteousness. I want it so when God looks at
me, all He sees is Jesus Christ. That's what I want. That's what
true freedom to me. Called unto liberty. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 9, we read, God is faithful by whom you were called unto
the fellowship of His Son. Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now,
if God's called me, that means He has called me to fellowship
with His Son. That's an awesome thing to think
about, isn't it? That I would actually have fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. That I would have fellowship
with God. Now, fellowship means sharing in common. We share something
in common with God the Father. We share a number of things in
common with God the Father. You know, God the Father looks
to Christ for everything He requires of us. And we do too, don't we? We have
the same faith God does in that sense. God looks to Christ for
everything He requires of us. And we do too. God sees his son
as altogether lovely. And we do too. We have something
in common with God, don't we? We have something in common with
the Spirit of God. Scripture says we're born of
the Spirit. We have, according to the scriptures,
we're partakers of the divine nature. Now I don't understand
that, but I know this. If I've been born again, if I've been
born of God, if I've been born of the Spirit, I have a divine
nature. I share in the nature of God.
Can I explain that? No! I couldn't begin to, but
I sure believe it. And I know that's what loves
God. That's what believes. You know, it's the new man, actually.
Listen to this. It's the new man. It's that holy
nature. It's that new nature that owns
the sins of the old man. The old man doesn't even see
them. It's the new man who truly repents of sin. Isn't that mysterious
and glorious? I have something in common. I
have fellowship with Christ. Remember that word? Fellowship
means a sharing in common. Listen to this scripture. 1 John
4, 17 says, as He is. So are we in this world. Is He holy? So are we. Is He altogether perfect before
the Father? So are we. Is He absolutely secure? So are we. Now whatever you want
to say about the Lord Jesus Christ, we have in common with Him because
we're united to Him, one with Him, and as He is, so are we
in this world. We have fellowship with God. No wonder this calling is called
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It's called a holy calling,
and it's called a heavenly calling. Beloved, I don't care what you're
going through. I do care. Don't think me wrong.
I mean, I very much care what you're going through. But what
I'm saying is no matter what it is you're going through, you have a high and heavenly
calling called of God. What a glorious thing. 1 Thessalonians 4, 7 says, God
has not called us to uncleanness, but unto holiness. He has called us with an holy
calling. Peter said, as he hath called
you his holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. And
listen to this, the only way you can be holy is if you are
holy. Holy brethren, the writer to
the Hebrew calls us, holy brethren. partakers of the heavenly calling
and holiness is seen in the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy,
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. And God has called us to repentance. The Lord said, I came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, repentance
means a change of mind. You ever thought something and
you change your mind and you don't think that anymore? You ever believe
something and you change your mind and you don't believe that
anymore? That's what's called repentance. And I'm looking at
my own experience. I used to dislike God's sovereignty,
particularly election. I used to dislike that. I've
repented. I've changed my mind. I love
it. I love that God is sovereign and I see my only hope in salvation
is that he freely elected a people. I used to think that God was
unreasonably holy and just, too strict. I've repented. I love the way he is. I used
to see no safety in me being in the hands of a sovereign God
where I had absolutely no control. I've repented. I see that that's
the only place of safety. I used to believe that I could
be saved whenever I chose to. I've repented. I don't believe
that foolishness anymore. I do not believe in free will
at all. I see it's ridiculous. I used to not believe the gospel.
Remember what the Lord said, repent and believe the gospel?
I do now. I used to believe I had some
ability to do something. I've repented. I don't believe
that anymore. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. I used to not want to obey the
Lord. I've repented. That's what I
want to do now. He's called us. This is a continual
call. He's called us to repentance. And He's called us, this is very
important, He's called us by the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2.14
says, He called you by our gospel. Now, if I've not heard and believed
the gospel that I'm preaching, the gospel of God's grace, the
truth of the gospel, the truth of God, the Father, electing
the people, Christ, the Son, redeeming the people, and God,
the Holy Spirit, regenerating those people. If I hadn't heard
the truth and believed the truth as to how God saves sinners,
God's never called me because he only calls by the gospel. Now, Peter said, Examine yourselves
and make your calling and election sure. Make your calling and election
sure. Now you can't make your election sure unless you make
your calling sure. So how can I be sure that I'm
called? There's only one way. The called
call. the called. Call upon the name
of the Lord. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. I want you to see this in the
scriptures. Paul, verse 1, called to be an
apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God. and saucities
our brethren to the church of God which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with
all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ
our Lord, both theirs and ours. Now what do those who are called
to be saints do? They call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what I'm doing right
now, Lord. Save me. I'm called on your name. Save
me by your holiness. Save me by your sovereignty.
Save me by your justice. Save me by your grace. Save me
by your mercy. Save me by your wisdom. Save
me by who you are. The called call. Call on his name. That's God's command to you.
Whosoever. Don't you love that word? Whosoever.
That's me. I'm one of them. Shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And remember this about
the call of God, the gifts and callings of God are without repentance,
irrevocable and irreversible. If he calls you, he continues
to call. One last scripture, turn to Ephesians
chapter four. Paul says in verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord. Isn't it a blessing to be the
Lord's prisoner? I want to be his prisoner, for
I can't escape. He won't let me. I want to be
locked up in his jail. Not the jail of the world, but
I want to be locked up in his jail. I want to be the prisoner
of the Lord, don't you? What a high calling to be the
prisoner of the Lord. I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the calling. That's the word vocation. It's
the same word of the calling. Wherewith you were called with
all lowliness, humility, and meekness, with long-suffering,
for bearing one another, and that means putting up with one
another, in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. May God enable us to walk worthy
of the calling wherewith we have been called. And isn't it an
amazing thing to be called? of God. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you.