Well, we have had quite a week this week. We had the electricity out last night—a great storm. We have been through the car wash, down the Amazon River, and in this Williamson’s house. Quite a week.
I am sharing on the eternal purpose for the individual Christian. Lance has been sharing about the eternal purpose as seen in Christ, and of course, that is the object. That is what we see.
But as I have been dealing in the book of Romans, we have been looking at the process—not just at the Christ we see, but at the process of seeing that develops in our Christian life as we yield to the Lord, obey His call, and are faithful to Him. So our vision increases, and we begin to understand our purpose.
The center of this whole matter of the eternal purpose in the Epistle to the Romans is found in Romans 8. Let us look again at verses 28 through 30.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son,
so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;and these whom He predestined, He also called;
and these whom He called, He also justified;
and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
There is the purpose. There is a purpose, and it is His purpose.
Let us also turn to Romans 12.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service of worship.And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you
not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think;
but to think so as to have sound judgment,
as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
For just as we have many members in one body
and all the members do not have the same function,
so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
and individually members one of another.Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
each of us is to exercise them accordingly:
if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
if service, in his serving;
or he who teaches, in his teaching;
or he who exhorts, in his exhortation;
he who gives, with liberality;
he who leads, with diligence;
he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Let love be without hypocrisy.
Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love;
give preference to one another in honor;
not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer;
contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
Well, we will just end there. Let us pray.
Father, we thank You for this grace that You have given us during this week, continually expanding us and continuing to give us light. Now, even by faith, we want to stand tonight, believing that the Holy Spirit can yet teach us more, show us more, and lead us further.
We thank You for the portion that we have tonight, to speak and to hear; that You give us voice and give us an ear of the heart to hear what You are speaking to us in this day. Now we just say, “Lord, speak. Lord, lead. Lord, teach.” In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Of course, the Christian life grows and develops. The first time I shared, I said that when we are called by the gospel of salvation, we sense the love of God. It is the first touch of heaven that we really receive.
We hear of God’s love, that Jesus died on the cross for us. Even though that sounded like a tale far removed, there is a day when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and we realize, indeed, Jesus died for us. By faith we receive Jesus as our Savior, and we are called to salvation.
Paul was called, he says, by the grace of God. But at the time Paul was called to salvation, he had only begun to realize, by the heavenly vision he saw on the road to Damascus, how far this calling would take him.
Once he experienced this calling of salvation, it was immediately a call to service, a call to fellowship, a call to holiness, a heavenly calling, and an upward calling. It was so much more than merely the calling to salvation.
By responding to the Lord, Who began to respond to him, and in fellowship with the Lord—listening for His voice and obeying—Paul went ever deeper, deeper, deeper into his calling.
We talked about the first stage: salvation, the realization of God’s love, and living by responding to Him in first love. But as the Lord continues to call us and lead us higher, we go through a process: a process where we decrease and He increases; a process where we learn to live by His Spirit and not by our own flesh.
It is a process involving the working of the cross, daily correction, abiding in Him, and pruning. All during this process, the consolation is that we come to see our Lord more clearly all the time. We come to know Him. We come to see Him.
At a certain time—perhaps early on, perhaps later on; it is unique for everybody—we realize that we were not only called to salvation, but chosen before the foundation of the world.
For me, it was April Fool’s Day, 1964. I was called to salvation. I saw God’s love, and I responded. But at that time I did not realize that I had been chosen before the foundation of the world. It was just too much to take in. I had no idea.
Paul says he was set apart from his mother’s womb and then called by God’s grace on the road to Damascus. Ananias, the Christian man who went and prayed for Paul’s blindness and for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, was told by God that Paul was already a chosen vessel.
Paul just thought he was a sinner saved by grace, but God had big plans for Paul. “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to go and be a witness for Me.”
When you and I were saved, we probably little realized just what it was God was after. But you find out that you are a chosen vessel.
Second Peter 1:10 says:
Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent
to make certain about His calling and choosing you;
for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
will be abundantly supplied to you.
You are both called and chosen. You are called—that is the calling from God to which you respond. You were chosen—that is something He decided to do before you even knew it.
We discover that we are chosen as the Lord takes us through a specially designed car wash for every individual. You find the Lord pulling you by the Holy Spirit through tribulations, processes of failures and victories, all kinds of lessons learned, body life, serving Him, and wearing the yoke.
You go through a process of sanctifying, a process where indeed you decrease and see more of the Lord in your life. Paul talks about this in Romans 6, 7, and 8. This process goes on the rest of our lives, but we come through abiding in the Holy Spirit, led as sons of God by the Holy Spirit, with the Spirit of adoption within us.
We come to a certain point where we realize that we have been chosen, that He chose us before the foundation of the world. We find ourselves loving this God Who chose us. We are captured by this God Who says, “I love you. I will not let you go.” We say, “Lord, do not let me go.”
When we come to this place, there is still a long way to go, but certain things become established in us, thank God. For example, losing our salvation is no longer an issue.
I remember in the early days when I was first saved, there were moments when I wondered, “Gee, am I saved? I am not sure.” But it comes to a place where that is not an issue anymore.
Another thing is no longer an issue: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” The enemy can no longer condemn you. As a young Christian, the enemy can make you feel condemned, as if you have forsaken the Lord completely and there is no forgiveness for you now. But you find that there is no condemnation because you can never be separated from the love of God which is in Christ.
These things become an unknowing in you. They are established. You do not have to run around the bush every time the enemy tries to send condemnation your way. These things are settled in your life, and you come into a certain maturity. You begin to understand a little of God’s will and the Lord in His ways.
Now, this term adoption as sons, which we find in Romans 8—the placing of sons—has to do with the fact that we develop spiritually to the place where the Lord can use us. We are usable. We are fit vessels. The Lord can use us to do His work.
The Lord is always looking for sons mature enough that He can trust us with His work. This is the goal of our development. We are chosen as sons. He wants us to mature, not always to be hand to mouth on spiritual welfare, but to come to the place where, abiding in Him and knowing His life, we know what to do. The Lord is leading us. The Lord is telling us.
This spiritual maturity many people never seem to come to. They never quite know what their calling is and never quite know what God is saying. But this should not be. If His life is abiding in you, if you are abiding with Him, walking daily with Him, and He is taking you through this process, you should come into this kind of sonship where you become useful as a fit vessel for the Lord to use.
When we come to this stage, we also come to a dangerous place. With this knowing, there is a certain freedom, and this matter of being a chosen vessel can be misunderstood.
The first danger is that a chosen vessel is somebody who thinks, “I have now arrived. I am a chosen one, God’s special vessel. He really loves me, and I am far beyond most Christians that I know.” This is a very dangerous pride.
Along with that can come the danger of independence from the body of Christ. “I am so spiritually fit now, and I know so much about the Lord. I do not really need the body of Christ that much anymore.”
The Lord never said, “You are too mature for the body of Christ.” Yet sometimes there is that attitude, a sort of condescension toward the brothers and sisters: “Well, one day you will understand where I am at.”
There is also the danger of spiritual passivity. We can feel the Lord pulling us through this car wash and feel all things working together. Yet, at this point of coming into sonship, we can settle back into a very dangerous spiritual passivity.
We are no longer pursuing the Lord. We are merely reacting to circumstances, saying, “Oh, it is all the Lord.” But there is no seeking, asking, knocking, finding, or pursuing. These things are so much a part of the spiritual life.
But how about if we understand our chosenness aright? Do you know that you are a chosen vessel? What does that mean to you?
Peter tells Christians to be all the more diligent to make certain about God’s calling and choosing. Here is somebody really abiding in Christ, really knowing the working of the Holy Spirit, really seeing something of the Lord. Do you know what they are doing? They are diligently pursuing.
They are making sure that their calling is fulfilled and that their choosing reaches its purpose. “Why did You choose me, God? I am going to pursue that purpose with diligence.”
That is somebody who understands their chosen place.
In Philippians 3, we find Paul’s testimony. When someone realizes they have been captured by the Lord and chosen by the Lord, there comes a maturity in the Christian life where the person who has been captured sets himself to capture the One Who captured him.
I press on toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was arrested on the road to Damascus. The Lord said, in effect, “You are under arrest. No longer your life—what I want.” Paul said, “Okay, Lord.” One day Paul said, “Whatever I have seen of Jesus, I want to see more of Him.”
Even in jail, as he wrote Philippians, Paul was on a pilgrimage, chasing after the Lord. The person who knows they are chosen is running after Jesus.
Whatever circumstances I am in, whatever ministry I am given, whatever obstacles or tribulations I face, I am going to find the Lord in this. The end of everything we do should be a greater understanding of the Lord and His ways, and glory to Him.
The third thing is found in Romans 12:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your reasonable service.
Here is the moment in a Christian’s life when they finally have something of value in them.
There were several times when I rededicated my life as a young Christian, and I brought to Jesus all my junk. “Lord, I lay down my sins at Your feet. I lay down my failures at Your feet.” I gave myself to Him just as I was: a messed-up kid.
But here is what the Lord prizes: somebody allowing the Spirit to control their life, somebody learning the Lord, His ways, and His purpose; somebody whose life expresses a righteousness brought about by the change wrought in them by the Holy Spirit. Now this person has a valuable sacrifice.
Such a person comes to the Lord and says, “I present myself a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto Thee.” Now this is a good sacrifice. This is reasonable service.
A son gives reasonable service to the Lord. What is reasonable? Only everything. To Him Who gave us everything, what is our reasonable service? “Here I am, Lord—my body, my life, my heart, and my mind. You have been cleaning and renewing my mind. I give You my mind. I want to be a fit vessel useful for You.”
Some people are being fitted, but they are not laying their lives down for the Lord to use. Yet this is our reasonable service. How much the Lord wants reasonable Christians!
Brand-new Christians love the Lord with all their heart, but they can be crazy. If you tell them, “Do this for the Lord,” they may do it out of their own understanding because they have not yet been trained by the Lord. But as we are trained by Him, we learn to trust the Lord and pray before jumping into something.
The Lord takes the whole burnt offering and uses it. He takes that mind and renews it, and you begin to prove the perfect will of God. What is the will of God? Walk it out in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
The immediate application of this living sacrifice in Romans 12 is that, in the body of Christ, you serve according to your measure. You understand who you are. You do not think too highly of yourself, but neither do you think too lowly of yourself.
Paul says we are to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Would it not be wonderful to have Christians with sound judgment as to who they are?
Some think too highly of themselves. There may be one or two of us with that problem. Others think too lowly of themselves. They do not think they have any gift or ability. They say, “I am nothing. I am no good. Do not call on me. I cannot do anything.” That is no good. That is not reasonable.
But we are to understand our gifts, our calling, and our measure. Whatever the measure—whether you have five gifts or one gift, whatever the proportion of faith—the key is this: exercise what you have.
Do not think that a chosen vessel is someone with five gifts. A person with one gift, who exercises it according to their measure and faith, receives the same reward as someone with five gifts. They are just as valuable a vessel.
The object is that all the Lord has placed in you—His life, the power of His Spirit, certain gifts, and a measure of faith—is to be exercised in the body of Christ.
If everybody in an assembly who was born again simply exercised what they had, we would experience tremendous fullness. We would have to say, “I am sorry. It is three o’clock in the afternoon. We have to cut this morning meeting off.”
If it is prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, or compassion, do it diligently to the Lord. Do you want to be valuable to the Lord? Then do not wait until you fancy you have five gifts or some great measure of faith. Take what you have and be faithful in the body of Christ now.
Romans 14 and 15 repeatedly return to one thought:
Now accept the one who is weak in faith,
but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
Who are you to judge the servant of another?
To his own master he stands or falls;
and he will stand,
for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Therefore let us not judge one another anymore,
but rather determine this—
not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block
in a brother’s way.
For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So then we pursue the things
which make for peace
and the building up of one another.
Now we who are strong
ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength,
and not just to please ourselves.
If you have gone on with the Lord a little and there are younger ones behind you—perhaps weaker in faith—here is the opportunity. We who understand this high calling have the privilege of helping other brothers and sisters grow up in Christ.
We encourage them; we do not whack them down. We do not judge them, hold them in contempt, or stumble them for the sake of our freedom.
The Lord is coming back for the bride. If the bride were made up of just two people—me and my wife—and my wife were spiritually advanced while I was a relatively new believer, the Lord would say, “I am coming back for you when both of you are mature.”
If my wife spent all her time knocking me down, she would just be delaying the wedding. But if she encouraged me, forgave me, prayed for me, and helped me get ready, then we would both be ready.
That is true for you and me as well. You may have a measure of knowledge or faith that younger believers do not yet have. You have been through some things and had experience with the Holy Spirit. The Lord is not coming until they are ready. Therefore, do not stumble them or make them go backwards. Help them grow. Bring them along.
There are many exhortations concerning body life in Romans 12 through 16. But as I was studying Romans, something lit up to me.
Not only do we have these exhortations about service, reasonable service, and responsible sonship, but in Romans 9 through 11 we get a peek into Paul’s heart—the heart of a chosen vessel.
We are vessels. Paul was a chosen vessel, but he said of himself, “I am an earthen vessel.” We are earthen vessels so that the glory of God may be seen in us, not ourselves.
When you see the heart of a chosen vessel, you begin to see the heart that understands sonship.
In Romans 8:33, Paul speaks of the wonder of sonship:
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
We cannot be separated from the love of God. We are under no condemnation because He has justified us.
But then Paul comes to Romans 9 with a tremendous burden for Israel.
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying,
my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.For I could wish that I myself were accursed,
separated from Christ
for the sake of my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Paul had a burden for Israel because they were his kinsmen. His heart’s desire and prayer to God for them was for their salvation.
A chosen vessel—a son—is not free simply because they love. Because they love, they carry burdens.
Paul asks whether God has rejected His people:
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?
May it never be.
Israel stumbled over the Messiah, the stumbling stone. They rejected Him as a nation. Yet Paul asks whether God has forsaken His chosen ones, cut them off, or replaced them with the church.
The answer is no. God has not rejected His people. There is a remnant, and God’s purpose concerning Israel has not failed.
The first point regarding election is that God’s election is sovereign:
For though the twins were not yet born
and had not done anything good or bad,
so that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand,
not because of works but because of Him Who calls,
it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”Just as it is written,
“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
God says, “I call whom I call.” It has nothing to do with what Esau did or what Jacob did. Before they had ever done anything, God called.
But election is also an act of mercy:
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.So then it does not depend on the man who wills
or the man who runs,
but on God Who has mercy.
No man deserves God’s mercy. Every man deserves wrath and judgment. For God to choose anybody is mercy.
God chose Israel not because they were strong, numerous, righteous, or better than anyone else. He chose them because He set His love upon them. He chose by mercy.
Israel forgot this along the way. They began to think, “We have been chosen because we are special people. We are better than everybody else.” They suffered discipline for that pride.
The Gentiles did not deserve mercy either. We were vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction. But God chose to show mercy, making known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy prepared beforehand for glory.
The second point is that the heart is humbled by the kindness and severity of this mercy.
Behold then the kindness and severity of God;
to those who fell, severity,
but to you, God’s kindness,
if you continue in His kindness;
otherwise you also will be cut off.
God’s lovingkindness and mercies endure forever. That is both good news and serious news. Once God gets hold of you, He does not let you go.
Psalm 107 repeatedly says:
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
God’s lovingkindness is not weak stuff. It turns things upside down. It makes wet places dry and dry places wet. It brings down those who are proud and lifts up those who are needy. This love is strong, enduring, and conquering.
God’s mercy has both kindness and severity. There is hardness, and there is mercy. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to show mercy to Israel. There is a partial hardening of Israel while mercy is being shown to the Gentiles.
For God has shut up all in disobedience
so that He may show mercy to all.
God’s mercy is always there, but it can also come through severity. His love will not simply leave us where we are.
There is also the mystery of the remnant. God has chosen Israel to be His sons, but they were disobedient. He has chosen to have sons, and He will have obedient sons. Therefore, He calls a remnant to stand in the position of obedience.
The remnant are not super people. They are people whom God has taken and set by His choosing to stand faithful in a time of disobedience.
God always had, from the time of Abraham onward, some vessel of faithfulness on the earth, no matter how unfaithful Israel was as a whole. He will never let go of Israel until He has brought them back into their chosenness, their calling, and their destiny.
And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief,
will be grafted in;
for God is able to graft them in again.And so all Israel will be saved.
God will restore and graft in Israel, getting His glory out of them because He has chosen them. He will deal severely, severely, severely until they turn. Now, that is love.
But why does Paul share all this? Why does he stop with this deep burden? The answer is found in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments
and unfathomable His ways!For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
The first thing election should do to all of us is humble us. We are way beyond our depth.
God is doing something with Israel. Whether we understand it or not, we need to respect it. But beyond praying for Israel, there is a big lesson for the church itself.
The same love with which the Lord is dealing with Israel, He will deal with us.
Every Christian has been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him in love. Every Christian is a chosen vessel called to be holy and blameless before Him in love.
How many are pursuing that calling? How many understand that they are chosen vessels? How many are growing into sonship?
There are many people saved, but how many hearts are hard? How many do not understand God’s calling on their lives, their destiny, and what it means to be God’s people? How many are growing up into sonship?
The unfaithfulness of the church as a whole seems to say, “God cannot do it.” But God says, “No, no, I have some who will be faithful.”
Who will be faithful? Who has an ear? Who has a heart? Who, in the midst of this day, is willing to be dealt with by God’s mercy?
I have a burden for the whole church. I cannot simply cut off and have a burden only for our little group of thirty-five people where I live.
Do we have a burden for the whole chosen vessel? Paul had such a burden for his people. Do we have such a burden for our people? Every born-again believer is our brother and sister.
Do we have such a burden that we are willing to lay down our lives if they could just come into seeing what it is to be a son? If they could understand, see God’s purpose, and move toward it?
Part of the maturity of sonship is realizing that there is a tremendous thing God has to do.
What God calls, He chooses; what God chooses, He glorifies. He foreknew, He called, He justified, and He will glorify.
What should we do? Simply say, “Praise God, the church is in terrible shape, but somehow God will do the whole thing, so we will leave it up to Him”? Or should we, like Daniel, realizing what God is going to do, give ourselves to prayer and really take part?
We may not have the ministry of going out to all the various groups, but at least we can begin to pray for them.
God has a remnant everywhere. There are believers in difficult and dark situations who have hearing hearts, love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and live according to the measure of light they have. Praise God for that.
We should pray for them. If we have a Christian friend at work, we ought to pray for them and help them understand their calling and sonship—whatever group they are part of.
There is something big that God will do. When God is through with what He is doing through the stages of severity and kindness, He will accomplish His purpose.
If we as individuals are stuck and unwilling to grow, He will turn us upside down, shake the change out of our pockets, give us a tough time, and do whatever He needs to do, because His love will not let us go. He has chosen us, and He is going to bring us through to glory.
That is a fearful love—not a love that fears losing salvation, but a love that fears disappointing the One we love.
This is the highest love: not merely the first love that says, “Praise Jesus, I am saved,” nor merely the captured love that says, “Jesus, You love me even in the midst of my weakness.” It is motivating love: a lovingkindness and mercy in which we hear God say, “I love you, and I will not let you go. You are Mine. I have called you by My name, and I will bring you to Myself.”
Now we understand Romans 12:1:
I beseech you by the mercies of God
to present your bodies a living sacrifice.
What are those mercies of God? The kindness, the severity, and the love that will not let us go.
What is our response? To be a whole burnt offering to the Lord. We come before Him wanting to please Him in everything and wanting to find His perfect will for our lives.
By the mercies of God, we present our bodies as a living sacrifice. He is looking for sons who come as a freewill offering, realizing His mercies.
Have you experienced His mercies? Have you experienced the kindness of His mercy? Have you experienced the severity of His mercy? This is a mercy that will never leave us.
So what do we do about it? We give ourselves afresh to the Lord: a living sacrifice, holy, a son whom the Lord can use in these days.
When He is done, and His Son comes back, we will be like Him. How is that possible? By the working of His mercies.
In the end, we are called, chosen, and glorified—and the Son is glorified. God has this purpose in His heart: “My Son is going to be glorified. I am going to bring many sons to glory. I am going to have a wife for My Son.”
These are His purposes, and His love has been set and endures forever. Ours is to respond in the fear and love of God and to serve in these last days.
Lord, I am very aware that something like this could be a fearful thing, and yet I am also aware that You really mean business.
O Lord, we thank You for those many people who love You, who have laid down their lives, who offer You reasonable service, and who realize that Your mercies endure forever. You will not let us go.
We thank You for our brother Paul, for this chosen vessel with a broken heart who not only laid down his own life, but also had a burden to pray for all of his kinsmen.
O Lord, give us such a burden to pray for all our brethren. Some are saved but do not even know the way into sonship. Some do not even know that there is an eternal purpose for them.
O Lord, we pray for the whole church. We know You are waiting for something much larger than what we see or understand. We know You are able to do it. We stand in the fact that what You begin, You are able to finish.
Lord, we want to pray like Daniel faithfully concerning this matter. We believe this is a big issue. We also pray for Israel. We do not want to stand around with little provincial hearts, thinking that our little group is all You are dealing with in this day.
Lord, we believe You are a merciful God, and Your mercies endure forever. Have mercy on us. We want to go on with You. We want to be real sons who can be counted on—trustworthy, responsible, abiding in You, hearing Your voice, obeying You, and allowing the cross to deal with us.
O Lord, You have such a plan, such a glorious plan, such a tremendous future. We want to live in the kindness of Your mercy that results in obedience.
Lord, we come and lay ourselves before You. Take us as a living sacrifice. We want to be fit vessels chosen for You.
We thank You for the young people and for their hearts for You. O Lord, lead them on from glory to glory through Your discipline and plan, into true sons who can bear responsibility, have sound judgment, and serve in the body of Christ with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Lord, we are all in Your hands by the mercy of God. There is no letting go of us. You have called us by name, and You will have us glorified. So do Your will in us, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.