Will you please turn to the book of Revelation? We will read one verse: Revelation 17:14.
These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with Him, called and chosen and faithful.
Some time ago, as I was waiting before the Lord, these words came to me: called, chosen, faithful.
Now we know that here is the last battle ever fought in this age. Actually, it is the battle of Armageddon. It is a most unusual battle, because it is a battle between the Lamb and those who follow the beast. The detailed description is found in Revelation 19, but here we find this last battle being fought.
Now, of course, this is not the first battle. This is the last of a war that extends through many ages. It is the war between God and Satan. It is a war that has been going on through thousands and thousands of years.
And two thousand years ago, a decisive battle was fought at Calvary. There we find that the Lamb of God defeated His enemy completely. He routed His enemies and made a public show of them.
It is on the basis of that victory, which our Lord Jesus won on Calvary’s cross, that He rose from the dead, ascended on high, and now is seated at the right hand of God the Father, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool.
Now, that decisive battle was already won, but the war goes on. The enemy was defeated, but he is still trying very hard to hold on to his possessions.
And now we are all involved in small skirmishes. You know, to us, we feel that we are in a big battle. But, as a matter of fact, we are in very small skirmishes. The battle was already won.
We are here just to mop up the enemy, to finalize what the Lord has already accomplished. Now, why is it that the war is still going on? The battle was won; it should be over. But it is still going on. Now why?
I personally believe, and I believe Scripture says, that we may remember the children of Israel. God delivered them out of Egypt with a mighty arm. Of course, the news traveled fast. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years before they really arrived on the eastern shore of Jordan.
But the news was already in the land of Canaan. The people in Canaan heard what God had done, and, as a matter of fact, you find their hearts had fainted.
Especially after the children of Israel crossed the River Jordan, you find the Lord Himself became their Commander-in-Chief. The battle was already won. The children of Israel were there just applying the victory upon each city, upon every king, and upon every foot of the land, to possess their possession.
But it is very strange: the Bible says God did not destroy the enemies all at once. Why? Because He wanted His people to learn war. He wanted His people to know by experience the victory of God, the strong arm of God.
God also wanted to use such opportunity to test their faithfulness. If they were faithful to God, they would go from victory to victory, because the war was already won. But they had to learn how to fight, and they had to be tested in their faithfulness to God.
And I think in the same way it is with us today. The decisive battle was already fought and won. The war should be over, but we are still in the war, in the spiritual conflict. Why?
It is because it is the will of God that we should learn how to fight the good fight. We should learn to know the victory of Christ. We should apply that victory upon every issue, upon every situation. And, at the same time, it is a test of our faithfulness to God.
One day, the last battle will be fought. That will be the battle of Armageddon. You will find the Lamb will come down from heaven with His army.
Now, who are in the ranks of His army? The called, and chosen, and faithful. In other words, these people who are called and chosen and faithful were called and chosen and faithful while they were on earth, before the Lord’s return.
Throughout the centuries, God has had His people upon this earth. For two thousand years, we find God’s people upon this earth. God’s people have been, and still are, involved in this battle—the war of the ages.
Many have gone before us. Many are now here with us, and probably some will still come after us. But you find that we are all being called, chosen, and proven to be faithful.
If that is the case, then when the Lord returns for that last battle, we will be His army. We will be following Him. We are qualified to be His army in that last battle.
If you read Revelation 19, you will find that it is a most unusual battle. Actually, you follow the Lamb, but you do not need to fight at all, because out of His mouth comes a two-edged sword. His word, His breath, just destroys the enemy.
But thank God, those who are called and chosen and faithful will be in that victory. I think that is the greatest honor ever given to God’s people. But remember, all this has to be done today.
If we are not the called, if we are not the chosen, if we are not the faithful, then when that last battle comes, we will have no part in that glory. But if we are the called, the chosen, and the faithful, then, thank God, we will be there.
These are the overcomers of the church. These are the people who have known the victory of Christ in their lives on earth. These are people who are faithful to God even unto death. These are the people who will not only come with the Lord to that final battle, but also reign with Him for a thousand years.
So, brothers and sisters, I feel before the Lord that, if He wills, we will spend this time together simply to see the called, the chosen, and the faithful. Now tonight we will be on the first one: the called.
Do you know that God never asks for volunteers? If He should ask for volunteers, no one would be qualified to volunteer. You find God always calls.
Because He is the Sovereign. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega. He is the Originator of all things. He is God.
Anything that does not start with God will not be accepted by God. Everything has to come from Him. Because of this, you find He never asks for volunteers, because volunteers begin with themselves. But He always calls.
In the garden of Eden, man sinned. There you find God came into the garden and called, “Adam, where are you?”
You find Abraham. There he was in Ur of the Chaldees, and the God of glory appeared to him and called him. In Hebrews 11, you find that Abraham, when God called him, obeyed. He went out to the place that God would give him for an inheritance, not knowing where, but only knowing that God was calling him.
Abraham did not volunteer. He could not. It was God who called him out. All he did was obey and follow.
The same thing happened with the children of Israel. When they were in Egypt, God called them out of Egypt. You remember Hosea 11:1:
When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
And called My son out of Egypt.
God called them out of Egypt. Think of Paul. He never volunteered; God called him. When he was on the road to Damascus, trying to wipe out the followers of Christ, the Lord appeared to him and called, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.”
Paul himself said that when he was in his mother’s womb, God had set him apart, and then called him by His grace. So, brothers and sisters, let us remember one thing: we are all the called of God. No one is a volunteer. God starts the whole thing.
And because He started it, He will finish it. That is our assurance.
Think of our salvation. How are we saved? Do we seek after God? In Romans 3, we are told:
There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God;
They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable.
This is where we are. But thank God, even though we are in that kind of situation, we find that one day God calls us by His grace.
When you think of all the religions in the world, how do these religions come about? When you look into the different religions, you find that they all originate with man. Here is a man, there is another man, and somehow that man is seeking for eternity, seeking for something.
As they seek it, what they get is another religion. It is not the truth; it is a deception, a counterfeit. Why? Because it begins with man. It does not start with God.
So when we come to our own salvation, we find that it is God who has originated salvation, and He has called us to Himself.
Now, on this matter of being called, actually this matter is composed basically of two things: we are called out, and we are called into. There is a negative side—we are called out—and there is the positive side—we are called into.
Think of Abraham. God called him out—out of his native land, out of his kindred—and called him to go to where God would show him.
Now, why was it that he had to come out? Because if he did not come out of Ur of the Chaldees, he would never be able to enter into God’s purpose.
Sometimes we think of our salvation, of our calling, as a very small thing. We think of salvation as something that will deliver us out of hell and maybe put us into heaven. Now, that is what we think salvation is, or what we think we are called out of and into.
But if you read Scripture—for instance, 2 Peter 1:3—you find that God has called us by glory and virtue.
God has called us by glory and virtue. Now, what is glory? Glory is something very difficult to define, but all we know is that glory is what God is. That is glory. That is what God Himself is.
And what is virtue? Virtue there is not your virtue or my virtue. It is God’s virtue—that is to say, what God has done.
God has called us by glory. In other words, our calling is not a small thing. Our calling is something that must satisfy God Himself.
We think that salvation means we are called to be saved, and our salvation is to satisfy us. We have a need, and through salvation our needs are satisfied. We think that is good enough for us, but it is not good enough for God.
We are not just called so that our needs are satisfied. We are called by glory. Unless God’s glory is satisfied, the calling is not complete. So our calling is a tremendous thing. We are called according to what God is.
We are called, and God says, “I am satisfied now.” That is glory. We are called by virtue—His virtue. We do not have any virtue of our own, but God has all virtue, and He has done everything for us, everything that will bring us into glory.
We are called by glory and virtue. Then, of course, Paul said, “He called me by His grace.”
Now, what is grace? Grace is the undeserved gift of God. In other words, we do not deserve it. Grace does not depend upon who you are and what you are. Grace depends upon the Giver—what He is and what He is willing to give.
Grace is free. Grace is universal. That shows us that we are unworthy; we do not deserve anything. It is all of God.
God gives grace to us who are undeserving. Because it is grace, it is universal. It is not partial. In other words, grace is given to all.
Whether you receive it or not is up to you. But whether it is given to you or not is up to God, and God does give grace to all.
So when you think of the calling—God has called us—it is a tremendous thing. It is a big thing. We are the called. Thank God for that: we are the called.
Being the called, we are involved in a tremendous calling. Oftentimes we do not realize what we are called out of and what we are called into. I think it is because of our lack of understanding that our participation in that to which God has called us is very restricted.
We need to know what God has called us out of and into. We need to know what the calling is. We have already described it: it is by His glory, by His virtue, and by His grace. It is not measured by us; it is measured by Him.
Brothers and sisters, what a privilege it is to be the called. It is nothing in us, not because we are better than anybody else. It is just the sovereign mercy of God.
You remember God told the children of Israel, “Do not think that it is because you are more than all the nations.” As a matter of fact, they were the smallest. It was because God loved them and because of His covenant with Abraham.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the same thing with us today. We do not understand why we are the called, but thank God we are the called. It is not because we are better than anybody else.
In Romans 8, we are told:
Whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Whom He foreordained, them He also called;
Whom He called, them He also justified;
Whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Now, why is it, brothers and sisters, that we are the called? Whom He foreknew, He predestinated. It is not because of us; it is because of Him. He has foreknown us.
Not in the sense that He foreknew that we were better than anybody else, but most likely He foreknew that when His grace came to us, we would accept it. So there is nothing to boast of. Everything is from Him.
Brothers and sisters, how thankful we ought to be to know that we are the called.
But do we know what we are called out from? Sometimes we do not know how deeply we are in that from which God has really brought us out. We do not realize it.
Now look at Abraham. God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. Why? Because if Abraham had remained in Ur of the Chaldees, he would never have been able to fulfill his calling.
We are called according to purpose. In Romans 8:28, it says that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. We are all called according to purpose.
When Abraham was called, he had to come out of Ur of the Chaldees, because if he did not come out, he would never be able to fulfill his calling. That purpose would never be fulfilled.
Ur of the Chaldees, we know, was a city full of idols. It has been excavated, and they found Ur of the Chaldees to be a city full of idols. Even according to Jewish tradition, Abraham’s father, Terah, was an idol-maker. Abraham came from an idol-worshipping family.
He had to be called out of that situation in order to be pure for God. He had to come out of Ur of the Chaldees and out of his kindred, because all his kindred were idol worshippers. If he stayed with them, he would never be able to fulfill God’s purpose for his life.
And is it not true with us too? Ur of the Chaldees represents what the world is. This world is a perverse, rebellious, idolatrous world. God has to call us out of it in order to fulfill His purpose.
Now Abraham obeyed God, but if you read Genesis, you find that he only half-obeyed God in the beginning. He came out of Ur of the Chaldees, but he stopped in Haran.
If you really look at the map, you will find Haran is just in the middle between Canaan and Ur of the Chaldees. He went halfway.
Not only that, but the Lord said, “Leave your kindred,” and you find his father came out with him, and his nephew Lot came out with him. So his obedience was not absolute. It was a kind of compromise. It was a halfway step. It was an either-or.
In other words, if you stay in Haran, you can easily go back to Ur, or you can go forward to Canaan. You are on the fence. That is the reason why God did not speak to him all those years he stayed in Haran, until God, by His grace, took his father away.
Then God spoke to him again and gave him the same command:
Get thee out of thy country,
And from thy kindred,
And from thy father’s house.
When the calling comes, you cannot be halfway. You cannot be either-or. If you do that, you get stuck. If, by the mercy of God, He appears to you again, you will find He says the very same thing. There is nothing new, because you have not obeyed in the first place.
So here you find he was called out of Haran again. This coming out is a continuous thing. Do not think that we are called out once and for all. Continuously, throughout the life of Abraham, God was calling him out—out, out, and out.
After he arrived in Canaan, God had to call him out of Lot. Lot followed Abraham and was blessed by God, but he did not have a vision. He did not have God’s calling. He did not know God’s word. It was all secondhand; it was tradition. He was just following.
Because of this, Lot represents a carnal man, a carnal Christian. Lot was a righteous man, but his righteousness could not even save his family. Why? Because he did not have a vision. His was secondhand. He represented a carnal Christian.
For Abraham to go all the way and fulfill God’s calling, he had to be separated from that which is carnal in order to be that which is spiritual. So again, you find God called him out of Lot.
Later on, you find God called him out of Ishmael. Not only carnality in relationship, but also his own flesh. We need to be delivered from carnal relationships, but we also need to be delivered from our own flesh.
God had to call Abraham out of Ishmael. It was a painful thing. It was very difficult for Abraham, but he had to lose his soul-life in order to gain it for eternity.
But that is not all. You find that God had to call him out of Isaac. Isaac was given to him by God, and all God’s promises were in that seed, in Isaac. But God said, “Give Isaac to Me,” because he loved Isaac so much.
It was God’s gift, of course; there was no doubt about that. But you find he was so attached to Isaac that it became a challenge to his love for God. So God said, “Give Me Isaac. You have to be delivered out, called out, of Isaac in order to be wholly, completely for God.”
When Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Moriah, God said, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.”
Brothers and sisters, that is what God is calling us out from.
Have we been called? Thank God, we have. God has called us out of sins. Once we were dead in sins and transgressions, and God called us out of our sins.
Christ came into this world to seek and to save the lost. We were the lost, and He came and died for us on Calvary’s cross. By His blood He washes our sins away. He has called us out of all sins. He is Jesus, who saves His people from their sins.
Thank God for that. We know that our sins were forgiven. But, you know, He calls us not only out of our sins; He calls us out of this world—this world system.
This world is a system. Satan has organized this world into a system, and he is the prince of this world. In other words, he is trying to use the world for his own purpose.
When we are saved, we are actually being called out of this world. It is not just a matter of having our sins forgiven; it is more than that.
You remember on the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up and gave that message, the people who heard the message were pricked in their hearts, and they asked, “What shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized.”
Later on, you find Peter used many words to exhort them: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” In other words, the calling of the gospel is more than calling us out of our sins. The gospel calls us out of this whole world system.
Be saved from this evil generation, this evil world.
This is what baptism is. One meaning of baptism is that it is an act of faith on our part, declaring that we are out of this world and now in Christ.
Just like the children of Israel: God saved them in Egypt by the Passover lamb, by the blood on the door. They were saved from death, but God delivered them out of Egypt by crossing the Red Sea.
After they crossed the Red Sea, the world was behind them. They were delivered out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and the Red Sea is a type of our believers’ baptism.
That is the reason why we need to be baptized. When we step into the water and come out on the other side, the world is behind us. We are out of this world system. We are in the world, but we are not of the world.
This is what our Lord Jesus prayed in John 17:
Father, Thou hast given them to Me out of the world.
They are in the world, but they are not of the world,
Even as I am not of the world.
Brothers and sisters, do we understand that we are called out of this world? We do not belong. We belong to another world.
Thank God for that. We are not only called out of the world, but we are called out of the power of sin. That is Romans 6.
In Romans 6, we are told that our old man was crucified with Christ, that this body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be in bondage to sin.
To have our sins forgiven is one thing; it is by the blood of the cross of Christ. But to be delivered from the power of sin is another matter. Sin is a power that dwells in us and reigns in the old man.
But thank God, when Christ died on the cross, He died not only as our Substitute; He died also as our Representative. He not only died for us; He died as us.
So when He died, we died in Him. The old man was crucified with Him. Because of this, we are delivered from the power of death and from the power of sin.
Do we know that God has called us out of the power of sin? Are we still struggling with sin as a power, or have we come to see our co-death with Christ and co-resurrection with Christ, knowing that our old man was crucified?
Therefore, we owe nothing to sin. We are called out not only from sin, as in Romans 6; we are called out of our flesh.
“In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.” Do we realize that we are called out of our flesh, brothers and sisters? Unfortunately, if we do not know our flesh, then we are still there.
He has called us out, but are we out? Do we know, like Paul came to know, that in him—that is, in his flesh—there is no good thing? Have you given up hope in yourself and cast yourself completely upon Him? Thank God through Jesus Christ. Have you come to that point yet?
That is part of our calling out. We are not only called out of our sin and flesh; we are also called out of ourselves. There is a difference between self and flesh.
Flesh speaks more of the works of the flesh, as in Galatians 5. The works of the flesh are manifest in jealousy, anger, party spirit, strife, and all these things. That is the flesh manifested in works; it is the action.
But self is the life, the root—the root of self. It is this human life, this self-life. God wants to deliver us out of this self.
So it is, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” This self-life within us controls our daily living.
It is the self-life that does the thinking. It is the self-life that expresses its feelings. It is the self-life that makes all the decisions. It is the self-life within us.
But thank God, we need to be delivered from this self-life. Christ’s life will come and fill our soul, and He will use our faculties to manifest Himself. We are called out of ourselves.
Of course, we are called out of death into life. This movement from death into life is not only from eternal death into eternal life, but daily we are coming out of death into the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus, to know the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus.
We are called out of the power of darkness. He has translated us out of the power of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
Brothers and sisters, this calling out involves so much. As a matter of fact, we are still in the process of being called out. Do not think that our calling is over. It is not over.
You find that He is always calling us out—out and out—out of everything that is not God, out of everything that is not Christ. He is calling us to come out.
But thank God, He is not just calling us out; He is calling us into. Now think of Abraham. Abraham was called out, but he was called out in order to be called into.
God called him out of Ur of the Chaldees in order to bring him into the promised land.
Very strangely, God gave him that promise, but, as a matter of fact, throughout his life he never inherited it. In that promised land, God said, “Walk north and south and east and west; wherever your eye sees is yours.” God gave that promised land to Abraham, but throughout his life Abraham never owned a lot but one, which he bought for burial. That was all he got.
Now, how do you explain that? If you read the New Testament, you come to understand it. In Hebrews 11, it says Abraham by faith obeyed God, and by faith sojourned in the land that was promised to him.
But if he had been thinking of his old country, he could have gone back. Abraham was looking for a better country, a city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God.
In other words, what was God calling Abraham into? Not just into Canaan land; this was only a symbol. God was calling Abraham into New Jerusalem.
Abraham saw that city. He had that vision. He saw the city, the New Jerusalem. He saw the city with foundations. Because of that, brothers and sisters, by faith he sojourned in the promised land. He knew that was what he was called into.
One day you will find Abraham in that New Jerusalem.
God promised Abraham a seed. Now, was that seed Isaac? No. Abraham saw the Seed in Isaac.
In John, our Lord Jesus said, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.” Think of that. They said, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?” Actually, our Lord Jesus was not fifty; He was in His thirties.
But Abraham did see Christ. It is faith. Here you find that even though God promised him the seed, he could see Christ. He could see the days of Christ.
He could see that the seed was as the sand on the seashore and as the stars in heaven. In other words, you find not only an earthly seed, but also a heavenly seed. Abraham saw that.
What faith that is, and what a calling that is. No wonder when he saw the day of Christ, he rejoiced. He already saw the end.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is what we are called into. It is not a small thing.
When we think of what we are called into, we are called into righteousness. Yes, whom He has called, He has justified. We had no righteousness of our own, but thank God, we are not only called out of our sins; we are called into righteousness.
Why? Because we are clothed with Christ, our righteousness. Today, every one of us is clothed with Christ—Christ as our righteousness. It is with that clothing that we are able to stand before God. This is where our standing is.
It does not depend upon us—whether today you live well or today you live a little poorly. It does not depend upon how you feel today. Our standing before God is Christ. He is our righteousness.
Every time we stand before God, we are clothed with Christ. God sees Christ and does not see us. Therefore, we are justified, as if we had never sinned, and we are always accepted in the Beloved.
We are called into righteousness. What a privilege that is. If we really understand this, you know, sometimes when you have had a bad day, you find it very difficult to get close to God because you have had a bad day.
But it really does not matter, because when you come to God, you are clothed with Christ. It is not on your own; it is in Christ, and He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That gives us access and boldness to come to God.
We are called into light. In 1 Peter, it says that we are a chosen race, and God has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, that we may declare the excellencies of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Brothers and sisters, think of that. Once we were in darkness. Not only in darkness, but we were sons of night, sons of darkness. There was no light in us. We were groping in the dark.
But thank God, He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Today we are sons of day; we are sons of light. We have the light of life in us.
That light of life shines upon our steps, so that we can walk daily in the light, as God is in the light. We can have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin. That is just a marvelous way to live.
Oftentimes we find God’s people are puzzled. They do not know what God’s will is. “Should I do this? Should I not do that? What should I do?” It is as if God’s will is so difficult to know.
But if you understand that He has already called you into the light, the light is within you. The life in you is the light of life. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.”
You have the light within you. If only you can see the light, you know where to go and how to walk. God has made provision for you to walk in His way.
Of course, we are called out of death into life. The life that is within us is the life of God’s beloved Son. This life is eternal life. This life is God’s life.
More than that, this life has been proven on earth in the thirty-three years of the life of our Lord Jesus. It is a victorious life, a glorious life, and this life is in us. We are called into this life.
We ought to know more and more what this life is. Brothers and sisters, one of the greatest difficulties is that God’s people do not know much about life. We know about death, but we know very little about life—what life really is.
We know very little about the life out of death: resurrection life. This is something that God calls us into—into life. Knowing what life is, and knowing life is knowing God.
Knowing God is not a matter of mental knowledge. Knowing God is a matter of life experience. In life, you know Who He is and what He is.
We are called of God to be the children of God. In 1 John, it says:
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
That we should be called children of God;
And such we are.
As His children, we have all the rights of His children—the right to be before Him. What a privilege that is.
More than that, brothers and sisters, we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son. That is 1 Corinthians 1:9. We are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sometimes this puzzles us. When Paul wrote that letter to the Corinthians, he addressed it “to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints.”
Many translators have translated this “called to be saints,” but the original is “called saints.” Now, do you know the difference? Called saints means that they are saints by calling. Called to be saints means they are called, and if they work hard, one day they may be canonized.
But strangely, you find Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, “You are called saints.” Certainly they were not very saintly, but it did not change the calling. It did not change the fact.
Brothers and sisters, do we realize that we are called saints? We are saints by calling. This is what we are. Because we are what we are, we should be what we are. See, not the other way around.
That is the mystery of salvation. You are, therefore you become—not you become and then you are. So we are saints by calling.
Unfortunately, the Corinthian believers did not understand their calling. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:9, says, “Do you not know that you are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ?” That is your calling.
They were called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means that they are to share with Christ all that He is.
Now that is our calling. But, of course, the Corinthian believers fell far short of their calling. Paul tried to remind them that they were called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Brothers and sisters, do we know that Christ has called us into His fellowship? We have joined the club. You do not need to pay a fee, but even though you do not need to pay a fee, not everybody can get in. Only those whom He has called.
We are called into that most exclusive club in the whole universe: the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
The apostles were in that fellowship. The apostle John, in 1 John, said:
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also,
That ye also may have fellowship with us:
Yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Now that is the club, and we are in that club. The Father is here, the Son is here with us, and the Son shares everything that He has with us. We become part of Him. This is our calling.
Now, if you know your calling, will you not despise the world? Will you not try to keep yourself pure for God and not be defiled by all these dirty things? You are called into such a glorious fellowship.
Then, of course, if you read Ephesians, we are called to be the body of Christ. Our calling is more than just a personal, individual thing. Our calling is corporate. We are called to be the body of Christ, and we are members one of another.
To be the body of Christ simply means that we are to contain His riches and express, manifest, His glory. Now that is the body.
We are called according to God’s purpose, the eternal purpose of God. Now, what is the eternal purpose of God? The eternal purpose of God is that His Son may have the preeminence over all things.
The eternal purpose of God is that His Son may have a bride to share with Him in His life and glory. We are called according to that purpose.
So, brothers and sisters, let us remember: we are called to something tremendous. It is not a small thing. Unfortunately, God’s people do not know their calling.
Thank God, we are the called. Whether you know your calling or not, it does not change what God has done. He has called us. We know this: we are the called. But we need to know our calling.
May the Lord just open our eyes to see the tremendous calling that we are called into.
Finally, if you read the New Testament, you find in the Gospels our Lord Jesus called. He said:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
And I will give you rest.
First, you find we are called to Him: “Come to Me.” Then you find you are called, “Come and follow Me.” We are not only to come and receive the rest that He has given us; He has called us to be His disciples.
To be disciples is to be learners—to learn of Him, not merely about Him, but to learn of Him; to be yoked with Him. He said, “Come and yoke with Me. Look at Me, and learn of Me, that My character may become your character.”
This is what we are called into in the Gospels. Then, when you come to the book of Acts, you find we are called to be the body of Christ.
There, the disciples, the believers, are His body. What He began to do and to teach, as recorded in Luke, He now continues to do and to speak in a new corporate body in the book of Acts.
So here you find we are called to be that body. Brothers and sisters, think of that. Have you got what the church is? The church is to be His body.
Our Lord is in heaven, but He can still speak. He can still do work through His church, through His body. That is what we are called to be today: His body.
If you read the whole New Testament, every book of the New Testament, you find that you are called into something.
Brothers and sisters, throughout the whole New Testament, you find we are called into something of God. That is our calling.
Now, since we are the called, do you think we should walk worthily of our calling? Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, open our eyes to see what mercy, what love, Thou hast bestowed upon us. We who are the chief of sinners, and yet Thou hast called us by glory and virtue, by grace and purpose.
Oh, how we praise and thank Thee. We have not volunteered, but Thou hast called us. We are Thy called.
And, Father, we just pray that Thou wilt open our eyes to see what a glorious, high calling Thou hast called us into. Lord, that we may, by Thy grace, be worthy of Thy calling. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.