The Christian Call

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I would like to look at one aspect of what God has for us. I'd like to consider today the call. As I was thinking about this and as I was looking in scripture, it was interesting to notice what God had to say to Adam and Eve in the garden, the call to them. [00:00:38] And as I thought about that, before I turned back, as I was just rehearsing in my mind what God said to Adam and Eve, the call that I thought of was the call to dress and to keep the garden. But as I turned back, I was reminded that indeed there was another call. And I was thinking, well, it's interesting. God didn't say a whole lot about right or wrong, spiritual things. But yes, there was something that he said. He said, you may eat of every tree in the garden except one. [00:01:15] Right? That is what God said to Adam and Eve. Not a whole lot as far as do's and don'ts are concerned. And that was different from what God says to you and me and what God said to other people after Adam and Eve or to Adam and Eve after the fall. But I'd just like to consider with you the call on our lives. as I think just taking some of these characters in the Bible [00:01:47] I'd like to take them not in the order that I wrote them down so if I struggle just a little bit you'll understand why but taking them in chronological order I think of Noah's call Noah had a number of different calls but there was one thing that I noticed before Noah's call and maybe I should just turn to Genesis And I think it's the 6th chapter. You'd read, as we read here, we see that people were not walking with holy lives before God. [00:02:21] But there was a different, God had a different thing to say about Noah in verse 8 of chapter 6. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord? I think it's because he sensed that call on his life and because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord God had a number of different calls for Noah in chapter 6 it was build an ark in chapter 7 go into the ark [00:02:54] and after the flood when they came out he had another call when in I think it's verse 1 of Genesis chapter 7 God told them be fruitful and multiply replenish the earth I thought that call was also to people before Noah but I'm not sure at least we find it here Abram's call was a little different from that of Noah and yet in a sense it was similar [00:03:26] in fact there is something that all of these calls have in common and that is that we be found faithful in that which God calls us to. Abram's call, we have already, I have said a number of times, was to leave the country where he was and to go to a country that I will show you. I always think of that call as a real test of faith and I'm not sure when it was, But at some point as I was looking at this, I made a discovery that was kind of surprising to me. [00:04:04] If you look in chapter 12, we have that call to Abram. But if you look back just a few verses to verse 31 of Genesis chapter 11, Terah, Abraham's father, also had a call, I believe. And the Bible doesn't say it in so many words. But let me just read verse 31 and 32 of Genesis chapter 11. And Tira took Abraham his son and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law, and his son Abram's wife, [00:04:37] and they went forth with him from Ur of the Chaldees to go unto the land of Haran. No, it doesn't say that, does it? To the land of Canaan. But it says then, they came unto Haran and dwelt there, and the days of Tira were two hundred and five years, and Tira died in Haran. I don't know what picture you get. I get the picture of Tira as having been called to go to the land of Canaan. But I don't know what happened. Did Tira get sick? Did they get to Haran and they were tired of their journey and stopped here? [00:05:14] I'm not sure. But somehow, as I look at this, Abraham's being called out was just a continuation of the journey that his father had already started. And it's interesting. I don't know what that says to us today, but I do appreciate Abraham's faithfulness as he was called. There's one thing about the call of Abraham as we know him later. And that was, God had a pretty tall order for Abraham when he, [00:05:48] and I'm not talking about when he said go to a country that I will show you, but didn't God say to Abraham, and I don't have the reference written down here, walk before me, and what else? And be thou perfect. I think one other rendering says blameless there. And I don't think that's very different from perfect. The idea of perfect here that I get is complete. Let your life be completely given over to God and keep yourself blameless in His sight. [00:06:22] I appreciate the call as well. Moving on now to another character of God on Joshua. You will turn with me. I'd just like to look at a few things in the first and the last chapter of the book of Joshua. When God talked to him, he had a call for him as well. I am not taking these quite in chronological order. I just think of it now, but that's all right. That's the way I'm going. We'll continue with Joshua. We'll drop back to Moses then, who was the predecessor of Joshua. [00:06:57] God had words for Joshua. I'd like to read beginning at verse 6 where these are the words of God speaking to Joshua. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. [00:07:32] And now especially verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest. [00:08:03] Some wonderful promises, but also some pretty straightforward advice here. The call, especially as I see it in verse 8, is let this law be in you. Make this a part of your life and then especially where it says here, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Does that mean that Joshua wasn't supposed to sleep? I don't think so. [00:08:38] But I think what he is saying was that in all his waking hours, Joshua, you are to be thinking about my law and how my law relates to what you are to do. You are not to forget that which I say to you. Then in the last chapter of this book, in Joshua 24, we have another call. In several different places, well actually in several different verses, but the same call. [00:09:16] We could probably profit by reading other verses, but I'd like to just look at verse 14 and 15. This was now Joshua speaking to the Israelites. The first verses were God speaking to Joshua. These words here are Joshua. He was about ready to die. If you continue reading just a few verses farther, you find that God took him home. He died and God took him home. But here Joshua is speaking to the Israelites in verse 14 [00:09:47] Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in truth And put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood and in Egypt And serve ye the Lord And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord Choose you this day whom you will serve Whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood The call here was from God through Joshua to the Israelites, I think, to make a decision. [00:10:29] Are you going to serve God or aren't you? If you're going to serve God, if you're going to serve other gods, just let that be known. But you need to make a decision. It's a call to make the decision. As I think of Moses and God's call to him, and I don't know if you have heard me say this or not, but I suppose that all of us receive a call at some point in time that our flesh kind of reacts against, we rebel against. [00:11:03] Moses had that very same thing. Moses lived down in the land of Egypt. In fact, he was born there. And I think Moses sincerely tried to do what he could for the children of Israel. I don't think Moses realized that he was acting in the arm of the flesh when he killed that Egyptian and he was then for that act, I think, driven out of Egypt. He ran for his life. But God wasn't done with Moses. [00:11:34] After Moses spent another 40 years, he was approximately 40 years old when this happened. After Moses spent another 40 years taking care of sheep, one day, you know what happened. And I'm not going to turn to the scripture when Moses saw the burning bush. And he watched that for a while. And I suppose he was tending his sheep and he kept looking at this bush and this fire. And after a while, he said, something's different here. And he wanted to go and see why wasn't the bush burned up? It was burning, but it wasn't consumed. And you know the story. When God said, Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt to leave my people out. Moses thought of all kinds of reasons. [00:12:21] I suppose Moses would have liked to say, but God, I thought that's what I was to do and I tried to do that and I fell flat on my face. And you know the story, he said, my tongue doesn't function very well, I can't speak well, and he had all kinds of things. And I don't know how often the dialogue went back and forth, but in my mind, three or four times before, finally, what does the Bible say? [00:12:52] That I think God's anger burned against Moses. And he told him, well, Aaron, your brother is coming to be a mouthpiece for you. But he did not let him off the hook when he had him go. And I want to be careful how I speak about Moses because in my mind of all the people that answered the call to lead in God's word, Moses is one of the people that I think gives us an example that I want to follow. [00:13:26] I just like to think of a few of the things that stand out in Moses' life in my mind. Moses was the meekest man on the earth. The scriptures say this and I didn't even look up these references because to me they're very well known. There is one thing that I find Moses doing different times when he became very frustrated with the people because the people murmured, they talked of stoning him one time, [00:13:57] But on many different occasions, what was Moses' response when people complained? He fell flat on his face before God. And I don't know, was that in the presence of the people? I don't know. But the thing that I see is that Moses was an intercessor for his people. He pleaded for God's people. In fact, at one occasion, God said, Moses, just get away. I'm going to destroy this people [00:14:29] Moses didn't do what God told him but I think God honored Moses' request because he saw a heart the heart that Moses had for his people and maybe that was just God trying out Moses I'm not sure but Moses could also be decisive he didn't always just well, maybe he did fall on his face when Dathan and Abiram came to him and said You're taking too much on yourselves. Moses was very decisive in how he dealt with that. [00:15:04] I think Moses is a model that we can follow. As Moses answered this call, I'd like for you to turn with me to the first psalm. This is not a call to a particular person, but it is a call to, I think, each one of us. I'd like to read the first three verses of Psalm 1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. [00:15:37] But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. We have a blessing pronounced on a man. Three different things named in verse 1 here. [00:16:08] A man that doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, doesn't stand in the way of sinners, doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful. And then we have verse 2 that sounds very similar to God's message to Joshua. The man that meditates in God's law day and night. That a man that makes God's law his rule of life. That is what I see here. Verse 3, I just received some insight into this verse as I was studying for this message. [00:16:45] I've always read this and sure, this is a tree planted by the rivers of water. As I was preparing for this message, I just became aware that if you have lived in this area all your life, you really do not understand the word picture unless you've been other places where you understand why he talks about a tree planted by the rivers of water. When we went west several years ago, Amy, Jamin, and I, we would park at different camping grounds. [00:17:19] And if you know anything about the west, you know that the west is different from here in one respect, and that is the amount of rainfall that they get. At this one place in particular, I noticed that they had a connection for water there, and the faucet was dripping. And I wondered at first, why don't they fix their faucet here? But I'm not sure what drew my attention to this. And I think this was in the Badlands in the Dakotas. [00:17:50] But I noticed that the dripping faucet had a purpose. That was about the only green that you saw in that area there. There were some trees that grew there. There was some grass that grew there. And when I was looking at this, oh, yes. Trees in some places grow only where there is a greater than usual amount of water available. And in the place where I grew up in Kansas, I understand, this was before my time, [00:18:24] but I understand that the only place that you saw trees was along creeks or rivers, because there they had enough water to survive. This was a place where trees could flourish. They could be fruitful. They could bring forth their fruit in their season, even in a dry and thirsty land. And that's the picture that we're called to be as people of God. We are living in a spiritually dry place, but we have access to nourishment that our world in this spiritually dry place knows nothing about. [00:19:05] And it is a beautiful picture. I know that some of you have said that through Ray Vanderland you have appreciated the fact that in God's word we get word pictures of things. And this to me, I don't know what Ray Vanderland sees about this, but this is the picture that came to me. And I don't know, you may see something different. I'd like to look, I'd like to consider, I'm not going to turn to Isaiah chapter 6, but it's a familiar chapter. You know what happened there. Isaiah, I suppose he was in a vision there, saw God on his throne, high and lifted up. [00:19:45] And he said, I'm undone. Woe is me. And you remember what happened? The angel flew up to the altar and got a live coal and sanctified his lips. He said, now, your sins are taken care of, your lips are clean, and you recall the call of God to preach. And Isaiah said, here am I, send me. And that's a beautiful call, a beautiful picture of God giving a call and the response from Isaiah's part, the response from man's part. [00:20:25] Here am I, send me. Not that Isaiah had anything to say, but with God's help, he had something to say. Now, if you will turn with me to the New Testament, considering the call that we have. Matthew chapter 4 I'd like to look at one verse in Matthew chapter 4 Verse 19 You have, if you look at the backdrop here [00:20:56] Jesus was calling his disciples to follow him Verse 19 And he saith unto them This was Simon Peter and Andrew's brother He saith unto them Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Now, oftentimes it was God's word or God directly that came to people. But here, Jesus is saying, you follow the call to follow me and you in turn will solicit, [00:21:30] you will issue that call to other people to come and to follow me. The call is to follow Jesus and to call others to follow Jesus. I'd like to think just a little bit about the call in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, the following three chapters here. Matthew chapter 5 to 7, the beginning to end there. As I think of the call in Matthew chapter 5 through 7, I think of what Brother Chester has been telling us. [00:22:10] Some people say that we are to believe, we're to only believe. but it's hard to understand that they have read Matthew chapter 5 to 7 and understood that that's a call to us and to our lives today and say that all that's important is to believe. It is true that we must believe and that faith is the only way to God but it is also true that holy living must follow. [00:22:43] There dare not be a dichotomy between what we believe and what we say we believe and what we practice. May I be so bold as to say that what I practice is what I really believe. So there really isn't. I mean, well, there may be a dichotomy of what I say, a contradiction between what I say and what I do. But what I do really says what I believe. May God help us to practice that which he has called us to. [00:23:19] As we think of the call, I'd like for you to turn to 2 Corinthians. I'd like to consider just a few verses in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians. I'd like to just talk just a bit about the verses that precede what I am going to be reading here. 2 Corinthians chapter 6. In the middle of the chapter, he... This doesn't seem like the right place. [00:23:52] Yes, it is. Okay, it's not the middle of the chapter. In verse 14 it says, Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion has light with darkness? Daniel said we can't mix the two, light and darkness. And that's true. We cannot. And it's with that, in the immediately preceding verses, Now, verse 16. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [00:24:34] Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing to us who are Gentiles, if I may call us that, Anabaptists, whatever you want to call us we're not Jews by either nation or belief [00:25:05] we do have our roots in Jewish heritage, I understand that but touching the unclean thing evokes, as I was just looking at this again, I saw a word picture here To the Jews, this was very clear. Touching something unclean, what did it do to the person who touched the unclean thing? You see, it evokes a word picture here. We are not even to get close to the unclean thing, I think Paul was saying. God was saying to us through Paul here. [00:25:40] If somebody touched something that was unclean, For the Jews, it meant a waiting period and then a ceremonial cleansing, if I understand correctly. And for us, it doesn't have to be a waiting period, but we need to also be cleansed when we touch the unclean thing. And so, I see here that we are to keep our distance from unclean things. We are to be sure that we maintain purity. [00:26:12] purity. And this does not mean keeping our distance from people, but from things. I hope you understand what I am saying. In the book of James, we are reminded that God's work is not complete in our lives until, as I said before, until practice is same as what we say that we believe. Martin Luther had much to contribute to the Reformation Martin Luther called James an epistle of straw [00:26:42] and I don't know, I think he accepted it as an inspired word, I'm not sure but there were some things that I would differ with Martin Luther on I appreciate the book of James Faith that brings to fruition works Once faith has done its perfect work in our lives Now, we have basically looked at one way that God calls people to himself [00:27:12] I did mention the fishers of men That people are also to be, to call other people I think of, I'm going to have you turn back At least in your minds, if you don't turn back in your Bibles You don't have to turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 verses 13 through 16 But Jesus said, not that we should be, but that we are two things here. What are the two things that he says that we are? In Matthew chapter 5, verses 13 through 16. [00:27:44] Maybe we should turn to it. Maybe it would be wise to turn to it. Light and salt. Thank you, Marvin. We are to be light and salt. And then he also has some words of warning about the salt and about the light. What is the word of warning? Don't lose your saltiness. Be sure you have the full strength at work in your lives. [00:28:17] If I understand correctly, the salt that they used in Bible times was not quite like the salt that we have today. It was not as potent, it was not as, I'm not quite sure how he said, not as true. And if it would get damp, it could lose its savor, as the King James Version says here. What's the interdiction? What's the warning about the light? That it be uncovered. Don't put your light under a container, under a bushel, it says here. [00:28:50] Don't let your light be hidden from those around you. They have to see that light. So, it isn't only... Yes, Brother David? Let your light shine. But the meaning was correct. I appreciate that. Let your light shine. The way that God calls people to himself is, number one, is through his word. But number two, it is through the witness of other people. [00:29:25] I spent considerable time reading in the Martyrs Mirror and I was just impressed that for many of these people the thing that brought them to Christ was just what I read about, salt and light. Some of these people read God's word and they became aware well, this is what God is saying to us. many more saw the lives of these Christians and their testimony as they went to their death [00:29:55] and God's salt and God's light was at work and God drew many people to himself through the work of these people that were willing to let their light shine it's just interesting I was just impressed by Today, the many times when people would plead, the officials would plead, just offer a sacrifice to this God, or just do this, and we'll let you go free. [00:30:26] And we'll even give you a position of great honor. He said, don't tempt me with that. Away with that. I don't want any part of it. And, you know, sometimes we find rulers that responded differently to this. But this spoke to the observers. If it didn't speak to the rulers, it did speak to the observers. So, we find that God calls us to be light and salt. [00:30:59] God wants to use us as channels. I was blessed. I don't know how many of you read your AMA newsletters, but I didn't have the newsletter to turn back to, So I had to depend on my memory of a young man, I guess he was a young man, a church member there, it doesn't matter whether he was young or old, he was a Christian, he was a church member, and he rented, or he spoke to rent some ground. I'm not quite sure if he had paid for the ground already and some of you I see have read this. [00:31:35] And he spent, he invested a considerable amount of energy and as I understand, he even hired somebody to help him. Did they slash the bush down? I don't know what they did. They got the ground ready to plow. And as I remember, he paid somebody else and he went out there and put a lot of work into getting that ready. Then he got somebody to come and plow. Well, that was his responsibility. And after he was done plowing, what happened? The landowner said, oh, I want to plant that, as I understand what happened. [00:32:10] And the missionaries offered to go with this man, to try to reason with the man, as I recall. And if it's wrong, I want somebody to correct me, because I know some of you read this. And the man refused. Because he said this, he said, if I go, there will be an argument. I don't want that. He chose rather to suffer the loss than to even go back and make his claim. And it was a claim that he was perfectly within his rights to make, but he was willing to do that. [00:32:51] And as I said, if there is something that I said that was incorrect, I want you to come to me, or I want you to say it publicly, actually. There is a way that we get to people's hearts that Jesus, I think, alluded to. When Jesus was asked, who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Remember what he did? He took a little child. I suppose he set him on his lap. I don't know, set them in the midst there, I think. [00:33:23] And Jesus said, if you want to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, be like a little child. I don't think it's any secret that when you're carrying a child, you go about your shopping, you sisters or couples, there is something about a child that bridges the gap, the communication gap between you and other people. One lady, Christian lady, I don't know where I read this. [00:33:53] Here again, I'm depending on my memory. She was shopping, I think it was at the grocery store or maybe it was in the parking lot. And she had a little baby that was just at that expressive age when that child would respond to other people. And there was this man that started making overtures to this little child. The thing about this man, though, was this. [00:34:24] He was slovenly, he was not well-dressed, he was dirty, and he was obviously under the influence of alcohol. The mother had about one thing in her mind, and maybe two things, but one thing in her mind and that is put as much distance between her and this character that she could as quickly as possible. But this baby just outdid itself in cooing and relating to this man [00:34:59] and it ministered to him very obviously even though he was drunk. Later, as this lady thought about this, She thought of the fact that her child was ministering to a man and she missed the opportunity. And I know what goes through your mind. What can you do to a man when he's under the influence? But I'm just going to say this. Even in that situation, I am quite sure that that man did not forget the interaction that he had with that child. [00:35:38] And the reason I'm saying this is just simply so that we remember that God may bring us into unusual situations where he is calling us to be salt and light for him. and sometimes because of the exterior I back away and I miss an opportunity just like this lady did. I could say more. I think that suffices. [00:36:12] Maybe I should just say this one thing that happened. A gospel team, I suppose in an Asian country, was presenting the film, Jesus. I have not seen the film, I have heard about this film. It is a very powerful presentation of the gospel message, is what it is. It's a call to people to turn their lives over to Jesus and to his claim. and I don't, I'm not saying, I'm not endorsing that film nor am I condemning it [00:36:49] but I'm just relating this for whatever it is worth. This team had a very, very strong sense of the powers of darkness at work and they were not sure, should we go on with the showing of this film or should we not? Finally they decided to go ahead. After the showing of the film, there is an invitation given to turn your lives over to the Lord. To their utter surprise, the whole group responded to their invitation. [00:37:26] And it wasn't until later that they found out why the entire group responded in this way. And I take it that this is, I read it for a fact, I take it that it's a fact. There were witch doctors that were hidden just behind bushes and trees that were determined to get rid of these people. They were throwing red hot coals. These red hot coals changed from red hot coals to flowers and dropped harmlessly short of their target. [00:37:56] And you see, the people that were presenting the team didn't even see that. They didn't know it, but the observers that were watching the film did. Now, God is not going to work in this kind of way at all times. But I appreciate that God works according to your need and to my need. And as I look at the different ways that God places a call on us, He calls people to Himself in different ways. And there is one thing that I would have us remember as we consider that, and that is what Jesus said when he said, he talked about his invitation to other people, and I think he was in prayer to God the Father, to his Heavenly Father, and when he said these words, he said that none come except you draw them. [00:38:50] And how does God draw them? Through the work of the Holy Spirit. So it doesn't matter whether it's through God's Word, God's people, or if it's something else, maybe the work of nature. But the Holy Spirit has a way of using these things to draw people to Himself. And I am glad that God is at work. God's call is still for us to come to Him, to be faithful. May we be faithful in sharing that call to those people with whom we have to do. [00:39:25] Shall we kneel before him in prayer?