First Corinthians 1, verse 26. If you do not have a Bible, I would like for you to look on with somebody.
Paul says:
For consider your calling, brethren,
that there were not many wise according to the flesh,
not many mighty,
not many noble;
but God chose the foolish things of the world,
that He might put to shame them that are wise;
and God chose the weak things of the world,
that He might put to shame the things that are strong;
and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised,
did God choose, yea, and the things that are not,
that He might bring to nought the things that are:
that no flesh should glory before God.
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who was made unto us wisdom from God,
and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
that, as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:26-31
Paul was a man—if there was ever one who could boast, Paul could boast. Paul was a great man in many senses, and yet he came to the place in Scripture where he said he could only boast in the Lord.
But the verse I would like you to notice is verse 26, because it introduces what I would like to share with you for the next several nights: “Consider your calling, brethren.”
I would like to share over the next several nights about the call of God. The call of God—what does it mean?
I would like for us to begin with a little homework exercise here. In these next couple of days, I would like you to consider God’s call for you.
Now, what does it mean? We use this phrase so much: the call of God, the calling of God, His calling. It is used many times in the Bible, and what happens when we use a phrase like that? It starts to lose its meaning.
The problem is that the word is so familiar that everybody thinks they know what “calling” means, and sometimes people do not really know. I would like you, if you could, to take that word out of its present meaning and context right now. Then, at the end of the week, I would like you to put it back in and understand what it means: the calling of God.
It really means something—a lot more than we usually think of when we think of the calling of God.
How many of you thought of that movie, Oh, God!? You guys see that movie? Some people have the idea that the call of God means that God really speaks, just like John Denver. You know, he was minding his own business, and one day God said something.
The object of the game in the Christian life is really this: God speaks. And if God does not speak to you, then there are some problems.
We talk about the Christian life, and these men—Stephen Kaung and Manfred Haller—are sharing, assuming something very basic about the Christian life: that you can hear the voice of God.
If we do not hear God’s voice, we are cooked. The Christian faith is based upon hearing God—not going by rules, not just going by what other people say, but by hearing God.
The call of God means that God has a voice. Secondly, the call of God means that God speaks. That is our basis of guidance.
How are you going to know whom to marry, what school to go to, or what job to take? The basis of guidance is that you have to hear God first. All of that is wrapped up with the call of God. God calls people.
Now, I know when we say that, some of you can think of Old Testament men, or New Testament men, who were walking down the road and God called them. But I want you to understand what that means: God literally spoke to these men.
And I also mean that if you are going to walk as a Christian today, God needs to speak to you. God wants to speak to you. That is what we are talking about when we speak of the call of God.
The call of God is very mysterious. How does God speak to men? It is more mysterious than simply having somebody talk to you, like somebody calling you up on the phone.
Turn with me, I think, to Psalm 42.
In verse 7, we find this interesting phrase that speaks about the mysterious call of God:
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls:
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.—Psalm 42:7
One of the things this means is that deep calls to deep.
Jesus, when He came into Galilee, called men. There was something deep about the way He called. If you look at the New Testament, the Bible says that Jesus saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. He went over to Matthew and said, “Follow Me.”
There was something so deep about the way Jesus said it that Matthew actually got up, left his job—probably got fired and got in trouble—just because Jesus said, “Follow Me.”
Jesus went over to some men who were fishing, and He said, “Follow Me.” But there was something deep in that calling.
I do not know exactly how to put it, but Jesus spoke words just like we do. He had a voice that probably sounded something like ours. But when He spoke, there was something deep underneath it.
God’s calling is deep. It is mysterious in that way. It is kind of deep.
Turn to Hebrews 3. We find another phrase that is kind of mysterious when we talk about calling.
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even Jesus.—Hebrews 3:1
That is the word calling, and it is called a heavenly calling.
What is an earthly calling? Somebody may say that a profession is an earthly calling. You feel interested in microbiology, or whatever, and it becomes a field—a vocation for you, some kind of job. You feel like you have an earthly calling toward that.
How about a heavenly calling? What is the heavenly call? Is God calling you off to heaven? Maybe one day He will.
Or is He calling you to do His work? Is it earthly work or heavenly work?
The call of God is very strange. Paul says in one place that he had such a desire to depart and be with Christ. He had been a Christian for such a long time, and he was so in love with Jesus that he wanted to be in heaven and see Jesus face to face. Something in him called him even out of his body toward heaven. That is probably a heavenly call.
Anyway, the Bible says that when we become Christians, we should not keep on worrying about things on earth. We should look up to heaven and seek the things that are above, where Christ is.
A heavenly calling is a mystery.
Turn to Ephesians 1—verse 18.
Having the eyes of your heart enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of His calling,
what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.—Ephesians 1:18
That verse, along with verse 17, says that the calling of God is so mysterious that we need a special revelation. We need something miraculous to open our ears so that we can hear the call of God.
Some of you right here tonight probably think, because you love the Lord, “If God would only tell me what to do, I would do it.”
But you know what the problem is? We need a revelation of His call. We need a miracle so that we understand what God thinks. God is talking to us, but our problem is that we are not tuned in. We try to tune in, but it is static.
The calling of God that we are going to talk about is not only mysterious. It is heavenly. It is beyond words. It is kind of deep. But it is also very comprehensive.
Look in 1 Corinthians 1 again. I want to show you how comprehensive this calling can be.
Beginning in verse 21, we find that the calling of God is, for one thing, a calling to salvation.
For seeing that in the wisdom of God
the world through its wisdom knew not God,
it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching
to save them that believe.
Seeing that Jews ask for signs,
and Greeks seek after wisdom:
but we preach Christ crucified,
unto Jews a stumblingblock,
and unto Gentiles foolishness;
but unto them that are called,
both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.—1 Corinthians 1:21-24
This verse says that for the people who are called, for the people God calls, His Word becomes salvation. Jews and Gentiles all come to know Jesus through the cross.
The calling has to do with salvation.
But there is another place in chapter 1. Verse 1 says:
Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the will of God.—1 Corinthians 1:1
The calling of God does not only have to do with salvation. It also has to do with the ministry God wants you to do. Paul was called to salvation, but he was also called to be an apostle.
But the real calling is a whole lot bigger than God giving a man a job. It is bigger than merely determining what job you are supposed to have. It is bigger than merely being saved.
Look at verse 2:
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth,
even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints.—1 Corinthians 1:2
The word saints means holy ones. When God calls, He not only calls you to be saved. He does not merely call you to a job. He calls you to be holy.
When you hear God’s voice, He is saying, “I want you holy.”
Look also at verse 9:
God is faithful,
through whom ye were called
into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.—1 Corinthians 1:9
The word calling is used again, but in a different and even broader way. When God calls down from heaven into your life, He does not merely call you to be saved. He does not merely call you to give you a job. He does not merely call you to make you holy. He also calls you into fellowship with Jesus.
Part of the reason God called you is simply that He wanted you to talk to His Son.
That may sound strange. You might say, “He has enough friends.” But that is part of the reason we were called: into fellowship with His Son.
Now, this is how I picture it. God’s call comes across the whole radio band, but we are so small in our understanding that we cannot understand the whole call at one time.
Here is some movie and television trivia. Does anybody know the name of the movie that came out in the fifties and has been on television a dozen times? It was about the day a preacher was in a church and God spoke right in the service. Then, later, God spoke on the radio to the whole United States.
It was a dumb movie, really. But the fellow was in his office one day, and God spoke to him. Everybody thought he was ready for the loony farm. But the next Sunday, they came together, and God spoke through the whole congregation.
He began speaking and said, “I want you people to hear My voice.” It really freaked them out. There may have been fifty people in the service the Sunday before; now there were hundreds. Then he said, “I am going to speak to everybody on the radio.”
The next Sunday at six o’clock, they cut off the music—everything—on every AM radio station, and God spoke. Yeah, it was on AM. Back in those days, there was not much FM when the movie was made.
The point I want to make is this: when God calls, He calls on 570, and He calls on 790, and He calls on 1010, and He calls on 1240. Usually, you are only tuned in to one of those things. Maybe, if you really think you have two radios, you are tuned in to two.
What am I saying? I am saying that when God calls, He calls a whole lot of things to you. He says, “I want you,” and He talks to you.
He talks about salvation. He talks about holiness. He talks about fellowship with Him. He talks about your job. He talks about your ministry. But you are only tuned in to part of it.
Have you ever known somebody who gets saved, comes to Jesus, and immediately feels two things? “I have been saved,” and, “God wants me to serve Him in ministry.” How did they hear that? Because when they heard the call, they were tuned in to a couple of channels.
Or you hear somebody say, “Wow, man, I got my socks frightened off me last night.” You ask, “How?” He says, “I was just praying, and it was like I heard God speak. He said, ‘You better lay down that pot smoking. You do it all the time.’”
It really scared him because he felt that God was speaking to him. What happened? God was calling him, and he happened to be tuned in to that particular channel.
God calls you, and God calls me. For the rest of your life, you have a responsibility to try to tune in and hear exactly what He said.
Turn one more time to Galatians 1.
What we are going to do for the next few nights is look at the life of Paul and see how Paul was Paul. How did a guy who was a short Jewish man suddenly become such an apostle?
God called him, and it did something in his life. The purpose of my heart is that you could hear God’s call for your life. God called Paul; He calls you.
In Galatians 1, beginning in verse 11, we find this short story about how God called Paul:
For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me,
that it is not after man.
For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it,
but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.—Galatians 1:11-12
Paul is saying, “I am preaching because God revealed something to me. I did not speak merely what other people told me. I teach you what God showed me.”
For ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews’ religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it:
and I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen,
being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
But when it was the good pleasure of God,
who separated me, even from my mother’s womb,
and called me through His grace,
to reveal His Son in me,
that I might preach Him among the Gentiles;
straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood.—Galatians 1:13-16
Paul did not go to other Christians and say, “What is God saying? What should I do?” Nor did he immediately go to Jerusalem, to the apostles and leaders, and say, “Pastor, tell me, what should I do now?”
Instead, he went away into the desert, and he listened to God.
When Paul came back, after God had dealt with him, he became the man who wrote so many of those books: 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy—a whole lot of them.
Paul was the guy he became because he was called by God.
For the next several nights, we are going to look and see how God called Paul. I hope that some of you will sense a new call. Some of you have been called by God already. Some of you have been called to serve God in the ministry of the Word in some real way. Some of you have been called by God into holiness and into different things.
It is a marvelous day. We are going to talk about that for the next few nights, and I trust the Lord will help us.
Now, before I end, I just want to say one thing. I know that this time tonight your attention span is not too great, but this is all we can do—sit together for this time. I am going to try to be as helpful as I can with the Bible about this matter of the call of God.
Can I ask you something? Will you help me out?
Tonight, some of you talked the whole time. I know you have friends here and everything. I am not trying to knock you, but you have the whole week to talk to them outside and in other places.
I would just like to ask you: while I am talking, would you be helpful to me and listen? You do not have to look at me. Look down if you want to look in the Bible. But when you talk to somebody else, two people are kind of creating a problem.
If you do not want to listen, I do not want to tell any of you that you have to listen to me. I just want you to be called by God—that is all. But if you do not feel that I am helping you out too much, help the rest of us out. Give the other people a chance to listen.
Will you help me out? If we do that, it will not take so long. It will not be quite so painful. Maybe we can all get something from God.
God, that is my prayer. I just pray that the radio can get turned on and that we can hear Your voice.
I know there is a lot of secondhand religion. We have heard a lot of lectures and teachings. Maybe we have even read some books—maybe by Watchman Nee, by T. Austin-Sparks, or by Lance Lambert, or all kinds of great people.
But, oh God, I pray that these people right here in this room could hear Your voice. God, that is what I am praying—that for this present age, for the 1980s, these people who are growing up in the eighties, You will give them the ability to hear Your voice. You can call them to do whatever You want them to do.
Oh God, just take the wax out of their ears so they can hear. God, make their Christianity real, so that, like Paul when he was out in the desert, they can really get it straight what You want for their lives.
God, help us to have a real Christianity, not just a fake, secondhand religion. Lord, You know there is too much of that around here.
Would You speak to us like You did to John Denver in the movie? God, would You speak to Your people so they can hear Your voice and know what You are calling them to do?
I know that takes a miracle. You said in the Bible it takes a revelation to understand the hope of Your calling. But God, I pray, help us. Lord God, help me. I want to hear You so I can share what You are telling me with these brothers and sisters.
Help us, Lord. We know that there is nowhere else we can go. Even when we kid around, You know that our hearts really do want to know Your will.
So, God, help us this week as we work to know Your will. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Okay, now listen. Just go on down. Thank you for your attention.