Amen. Can we begin with a word of prayer?
Father, we want to acknowledge how great is Your love. It is only appropriate, after a time such as we have had, to come back and thank You, Father. For it is out of Your great love that Your Son was sent forth. Lord, Father, it was out of Your love—That Father’s heart that sought us out—even giving up Your own Son on Calvary’s cross.
We do thank You, Father. As we look into the Word that You have personally given to us this day, we ask, Lord, that You would enlighten our eyes, that we would receive direct insight through the Holy Spirit into Your Word, Lord; that it might be living in our hearts, written in our hearts as You have promised under the new covenant.
Lord, that we would have a living Word in our hearts today—not just more knowledge, but indeed a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. We just look to You today that You will bless this time, Lord. We stand with You for all that You want to accomplish out of our time of worship together and out of this time of sharing in Your Word.
Lord, may Your will be done. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You know, this is a beautiful time of year. I particularly look out and see the crimson in the trees, and I am reminded of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, as that crimson blood flowed from Him.
Brothers and sisters, this whole world is a testimony—not the fallen nature of the world, but its creation. The creation itself is a testimony of the glory of God. I am so thankful that even at this season, the Lord reveals something of Himself through the nature that is around us.
So, as you go out this afternoon and look and see the trees, be reminded that our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life on your behalf. The glory of that can be seen in the beautiful colors that we see in the fall.
Well, this morning the subject that is on my heart is the purpose of life—the purpose of life.
You know, I think we all recognize the need to have purpose in our life. Often, I think particularly as we are off to college, we begin to think about these things. What is the purpose of life? What was I born for? Is there a reason? Do I have a purpose in life?
Well, the Lord Jesus Christ has followed God’s purpose. In so doing, God has given us His Word that we indeed might know what His purpose is—what His purpose was for the creation of this world. Why was this world made?
He wants us to know what our part is in His purpose. He had a purpose for man, and that purpose is made very clear in the Word of God. Yet we can find ourselves living most of our life outside of that purpose and not in accordance with that purpose. So, it becomes important that we be reminded of the purpose of life.
I think many scholars and theologians search for the purpose of life, but it is a mental apprehension in which they never really quite come to the truth with their mind. Ultimately, it takes that touch from the Lord Himself that enlightens our hearts as well as our minds to see God’s purpose.
Well, may the Lord show us this morning: What is purpose? According to Webster, it is something set up as an object or an end to be obtained—an object or an end to be obtained. Another definition was the reason for which something exists, or for which something is done. Purpose.
Last week, I was in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, I was in San Antonio, Texas, and that is, of course, where the mission of the Alamo is located. I think most of us are somewhat familiar with the story of the Alamo and how Texas became a state.
For those who may not know, I was staying right across the street. If I could have jumped out the window, I would have landed in the courtyard of the Alamo. I went over, and I have been there a couple of times. I always like to listen to the historians. They have historians come and give a little talk about the history.
I was impressed this time, as I always have been, by the fact that there were 189 men on record, and a few others whose names they do not know—probably around 200 people altogether, mostly men, with a few women and children there at that mission.
If we remember the story of the Alamo, these men withstood the troops of Santa Anna. Santa Anna was the president of Mexico, a dictator. He was a very cruel man, and the people were concerned, of course, and did not want to live under the tyranny of that government.
Santa Anna saw their resistance to his government, and he came with 5,000 troops. He marched them—I forget how many miles—in thirty days. It was amazing. I think it was about 400 miles. He marched them even through a snowstorm somewhere over the mountains, getting to the Alamo. Jim can correct some of my mistakes here if I make them. He is a historian guy too.
Actually, around that mission itself were about 2,500 troops. When Santa Anna got there, he put a flag up in the tower, and that flag said, basically, “You surrender. And if you do not surrender, I will give no quarter.”
Now, does anybody know what giving no quarter means? No mercy. In other words, if you do not surrender, when we take over the mission, we are going to kill everyone in it. There will be no survivors. That is what no quarter means.
Those men made the decision to stay and to fight. They gave their lives for a purpose. They had a purpose. They felt that purpose was valuable enough and important enough that they were willing to give their lives for that purpose.
Then, brothers and sisters, after hearing such a glorious history—men of purpose, men who were willing to lay down their lives for what they felt was right—I looked around outside as I came out of the Alamo. There were five or six, I guess, destitute men sitting around on the benches. Probably some were on drugs, some just destitute, sitting there with no purpose.
What a contrast: to be sitting in front of that shrine that said, “Here were men of purpose, men who were willing to die for a purpose,” and then these people just sitting there with no purpose whatsoever in life—aimless, wasting away.
Then I looked around. All the cars were passing by on the street, and people, of course, were going in and out of the mission. I began to think, “Well, Lord, what is their purpose?” They seemed to have a more purposeful life. At least they were active; they had some direction in their life. There was some purpose to their life.
I thought about it. I said, “For some, it is probably, ‘Hey, I just need to make it through the week to the weekend.’” I do not know. But for others, who knows? Maybe it was wealth that they were after. They were trying to get more money. Maybe they wanted a bigger house for their wife. I do not know what their purpose was, but I realized that most people do have a purpose.
But is that the purpose that God is after, brothers and sisters?
You know, purpose is so important to life. I tried to think of some analogies. Actually, purpose is like an internal compass. If you have purpose, you have an internal compass that is always pointing you in a specific direction.
If you begin to veer off course, you can look at the compass and say, “No, I am going in the wrong direction here. I need to get straightened back out.” There is that internal compass. Purpose is like an internal compass. It gives you direction.
Also, purpose is the energizing motive of life. It is the energizing, loaded motive of life. You see these commercials—the Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going and going and going. Marvelous commercial. I do not know how many years it has been playing, but it is still effective.
The point is that it keeps the bunny going. He does not stop. That is what purpose is. Not only does it give you direction, but there is an energizing power that comes out of purpose and motive—the motive of life.
Actually, the world and scholars realize how important purpose is. We have books such as The Purpose Driven Life and The Purpose Driven Church. We have Richard Leider, a renowned speaker and motivator, one of the top five in the nation, they say. He has a saying: “The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.”
“The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose.” His whole course is designed around seeing that you need to find out the purpose in your life and live for that purpose, because that is what will give you the energy for life and direction.
The problem is, brothers and sisters, we all probably do have some purpose in life—or sometimes many purposes. It may be to get a better job. It may be to get married, to have a family. Purposes can be very good. I am not saying all purposes are bad.
It might be wealth. It might be position. It might be acknowledgment. I do not know what it is that is the motivator of your life, but our life can have different purposes.
But the problem is, if we do not have the right purpose, there is a problem. Not having the right purpose in life is like a train that has been switched onto the wrong track.
A train has energizing power, and it will head out in the direction that it is set on the track for. But the problem is, when it gets to the end of that line, you find yourself in the wrong place. You find that you have actually gone in the wrong direction. Yes, you had purpose, but it was not the right purpose.
Actually, purpose is extremely important in God’s heart too. We remember that Scripture which says, “Without vision, the people perish.” Another translation says the people cast off restraint or fall apart.
Well, brothers and sisters, that vision the Lord wants us to have is to be our purpose. Purpose is critical in God’s economy as well. Actually, God’s purpose should become the vocation of our life.
Yes, you can have jobs. Yes, you can have families. Yes, you can aspire to go on a vacation. You might even aspire to retire someday. I did for two years, and I went back to work.
The point, I guess, is that we should have purpose, but purpose becomes a critical thing. What is our purpose? And what is God’s purpose?
In all, to be very simple, God’s purpose is Jesus Christ. That is God’s purpose. Is that your purpose? That is God’s purpose.
I wish I could somehow be more emphatic about this, but this is absolutely critical to the Christian life: that we see that God’s purpose is Jesus Christ. Everything centers in and around Jesus Christ.
Because of the way the gospel has been shared down through the years, and probably with us personally, we tend to think that God’s purpose is man—that it is all centered around man: man’s needs, man’s desires, man’s wants, man’s need of salvation.
Well, actually, when you see what God’s purpose is, brothers and sisters, you see that it centers in Jesus Christ Himself, and man becomes a part of that purpose. Praise the Lord. But His purpose is Christ.
That is why God created the universe: it was for His Son. That is why the earth was created: it was for His Son and for His Son’s pleasure.
Brothers and sisters, do you want to know what the purpose of your life is? You were created for Jesus Christ. That is God’s purpose for you.
Now, that sounds very general and very broad, but brothers and sisters, if you really see that God’s purpose for your life is Jesus Christ, it affects everything you do. It affects everything in your life.
It will affect the job you take, the wife you take, the husband you take, the friends you make, the things you watch, the pleasures you enjoy. It will affect everything in your life. But you have to understand that God’s heart is His Son, Jesus Christ.
You know, when our Lord was baptized, and again when He was on the mountain with the disciples, God broke through the heavens and spoke verbally. He said, “This is My Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Christ is the apple of God’s eye.
God created man. He created you and me for His Son, Jesus Christ.
Let me say it a little differently. Why did He create man for Jesus Christ? Let us be a little more specific.
He wanted His Son to have a helpmate—a helpmate of similar nature and character to His Son. That is what He was after: a helpmate for His Son.
You say, “Well, how do we know that?” If you actually look at the story in Genesis, God gives us a hint. He created Adam, and Adam was made in God’s image.
After Adam had looked at all the animals and named all the animals, God said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” It is not good for man to be alone. This should have given us a hint of what God was after.
He did not think it good for His Son to be alone. He wanted Him to have a helpmate. We do not know all that will happen in eternity. God is a God of newness, creation, and freshness, and there is no telling. But God is determined that He wanted His Son to have a helpmate.
This is really confirmed at the end of this Book, in Revelation, because it ends with the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven as what? A bride adorned for her husband—the Lord Jesus Christ.
He sees this New Jerusalem. It is a city, but it is His bride. Now, that sounds a bit strange, but frankly, it is His helpmate.
If you look in Ephesians 5, it says that the Lord loved the church and gave His life for her, and that He is cleansing her with the washing of the Word from every spot or wrinkle.
This helpmate is the church. But the church on earth as it is today has spots and wrinkles. The flesh is still with us—the nature of the flesh. The Lord has to take care of all of that in order to get His helpmate ready.
Well, the Lord tested Adam concerning His purpose. He wanted Adam to be one who would desire to follow His will—one who, out of his own free will, would be willing to serve His purpose. But He gave Adam a choice.
He basically said to Adam, “You can take of the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I do not want you to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Why did He say that, brothers and sisters? Because, really, taking of the tree of life meant complete dependence on the Lord, on God. You would have to live a life of total dependence on Him.
But to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you could survive on your own without God. You could live without God. You could live for your own purpose and your own desires. We know that in that test, Adam failed the test.
He became selfish. If you do not believe man is selfish, you know how much I love my grandson, but boy, right out of the womb almost, those babies start crying. They want food. They want to be comforted. All of this is very legitimate, of course, but the bottom line is, we are born with this selfish nature.
Adam failed, and that nature of his that was neutral at the time was corrupted with a fallen nature. The sense of that nature is that it is basically selfish. It wants to live for itself. It does not want a Lord over its life. It wants to be self-dependent, independent—a life of independence.
Actually, that should sound familiar to us. It is the same nature that Lucifer took on. When he became Satan, that transition from Lucifer to Satan was very simple. He began to think about himself.
He said, “Look how beautiful I am. Look at all the talents I have. I should have the place that Jesus Christ has. I should be in His place. I am not satisfied with where I am.”
That same nature infected Adam and all of his descendants, of which, of course, we are one. So, we tend to live for ourselves. We tend to live for our purpose and not God’s purpose.
But thank the Lord, brothers and sisters, the Lord did not give up. The Son went to the Father and said, “Father, I know it is Your purpose for Me to have a helpmate, and something has happened.” They knew it was going to happen beforehand. In Their counsels, They knew that man would fail the test.
The Son said, “Father, I will be willing to go and take man’s place of punishment for his sins. Sin has separated man. Sin has corrupted man. I will take their place of punishment. Your wrath fall upon Me, and not them.”
“Not only will I take their place of punishment, that their sins might be atoned for, but I will give them a new nature—a new life.”
Yes, the old nature, brothers and sisters, is with us, but we have a new nature within us. It is because of Jesus Christ.
The Word of God in Philippians says that He became a man and took on the form of a bondservant. Now, brothers and sisters, that should give us a big hint as to what God was after for man.
Our Lord Jesus, when He took on the form of man, became a bondservant. That should tell us that this was God’s original intention for all mankind: that we were to be bondservants.
You know that a bondservant in Israel was a man who, in order to support his family or for some other reason, would sell himself into slavery to another Israelite. He would serve for six years, and in the seventh year the master had to set him free.
The master had to give him some of his flock and some of his goods to help support him and his family. But some of those who had sold themselves into slavery, at the end of their six years, decided that the master had been so good to them, that the master loved them so much, and that they loved the master so much, that they wanted to remain with the master.
They would take them before the judges and then to the doorpost, as you have heard the story. They would take an awl and pierce their ear. The pierced ear was a sign that they were a bondservant.
In other words, they had given up all their rights. They gave up their right to be set free and to live their own life, to live for their own purpose. Now their life was to live for their master and for the master’s purpose. They gave it all up out of love.
That is what a bondservant is. The Lord came as a bondservant. It should have been a hint to mankind that this was what all men were to be: bondservants.
He died in your place on Calvary’s cross for your sins. But, brothers and sisters, while He was on the cross, we remember that the soldier pierced His side, and blood and water came out.
This was after He had died, after the atoning death. Blood and water came out. The blood and water were the foundation on which the church would be built: the blood for atoning sins.
The blood, brothers and sisters, is before us every day. We have to go to the Lord and approach the throne with the blood of Jesus.
We walk in the light as He is in the light. We have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. As we have fellowship, we are sometimes convicted by the Holy Spirit through something a brother or sister says or does. We have to go back and say, “Lord, I need Your blood. I have been wrong. I am convicted.”
We need the blood. The church needs His blood. The water was life. His life was poured out that we might have life—the foundation block of the church.
In Ephesians 5, as I have already said, it says that He loved the church and gave Himself for her. I hope I can help you understand this, brothers and sisters.
We do have a sense of appreciation for the Lord giving His life for us—for you and for me. This morning, as we shared around that table, I would hope that most everyone in this room entered into the spirit of the table and was able to say, “Lord, thank You for dying for me.” That is very personal—very personal.
But we need to know that the Lord has something on His heart. He died for you for a purpose. He did not die for you just that you might be saved. Brothers and sisters, He wants you to become a part of His eternal purpose.
In Ephesians 5, it says that a man should cling to his wife and love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.
He gave Himself for something that we refer to as being corporate in nature. He gave Himself for you as an individual. He loves you dearly. After all, He is God, and yet He took your place of suffering and the wrath of God upon Himself. How can I say anything but that God loves you dearly?
But, brothers and sisters, there is something in the Son’s heart. There is something in the Father’s heart—something very deep, something very precious that They are looking for. That is the church: the matured church, the body of Jesus Christ, the house of God, the city of God.
These are all various stages of this bride that the Lord is bringing about. I remember when Adam first saw Eve. What was his reaction?
Bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh.
That is going to be the Lord’s reaction when He sees His bride: “Bone of My bones, flesh of My flesh, My life.” Brothers and sisters, He saves us individually, but He is looking for something corporate.
But it took yet another act of God to make individual Christians into this corporate thing that God was after. It was Pentecost—Pentecost, often referred to as the birth of the church.
What happened at Pentecost is explained in 1 Corinthians 12:13. For those who are taking notes, this is the explanation of Pentecost:
For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body.
Brothers and sisters, when we partake of Christ, it is not as though we take a piece of Christ as something unto ourselves. When we partake of Christ, we come into something. We come into Christ. We come into that body. We become a part of that body.
Therefore, we are one. We are joined to one another. The Lord brought this about at Pentecost, when 120 individual Christians were gathered together.
Actually, 500 had seen Him go, and He said, “Gather together. Wait until I send the promised Spirit.” On Pentecost, the 120 individual Christians who had responded to the Lord and obeyed the Lord were there, praying for ten days, and the Holy Spirit fell on them.
When He did, brothers and sisters, they were quickened into one body in Christ. Now, when you accept Jesus Christ, you are baptized into that body. That is where the gifts of the Spirit that we talk about come from.
God now wants us to live not as individuals, but as a part of His body. Yes, we have our individual life with the Lord. I do not want us to forget that. But the object of having a strong individual life is that we can live a healthy corporate life together.
Christ said, “I want to bring many sons to glory.” But when we come to glory, we will not be seen as a bunch of individuals. We will be seen as the bride of Christ. I am sure He will still know us individually, brothers and sisters. Do not let me give you the wrong impression there.
Very simply put, this is God’s purpose. Now, I do not know what you are living your life for. I really do not.
You know, we struggle with that sometimes. I think a lot of times people wait until retirement, and they say, “Well, I have been working all my life trying to take care of my family, and now I do not have anything to do.”
Well, brothers and sisters, God’s purpose—to be the bride of Christ—is a lifetime vocation. You can have different jobs. You can have different professions. You can be a homemaker, housewife, father, engineer, or the guy who picks up the garbage on the street.
But in the Lord’s heart, if you are a Christian, you are a part of His body. He is using your entire life to conform you to the image of Christ, that you might be a part of that body.
In 2 Timothy 1:9, it says that we are called with a holy calling according to His purpose and grace—according to His purpose and grace.
In Ephesians 3:11, it says that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and authorities in the heavens, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, this is God’s eternal purpose. It is not a temporal purpose; it is an eternal purpose. There is quite a difference. We have temporal purposes, but regardless of what our temporal purposes are, unless they are in line with God’s eternal purpose, they will lead us in the wrong direction.
We will be switched onto the wrong track, and in the end we will find that we are at the wrong destination.
Along with God’s purpose, there is calling: “I have called you with a holy calling according to My purpose and grace.” He calls us according to purpose. The whole calling is holy. It is from God Himself.
What is this calling? Actually, I see the calling in four parts. Really, brothers and sisters, there is only one calling, the way I see it, but it has four parts—maybe more, but I at least see four within this calling of God.
You need to understand that God never intended that man should just start with His calling to come to Him and then fall away, but that he should complete His eternal purpose.
Matthew 11:28 says, “Come unto Me.” I think Jim shared on this a few weeks ago. “Come unto Me.” That is His initial call.
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We are dead in trespasses and sins, but Christ will pay that price. Yes, you were dead in trespasses and sins, but you can be made alive in Jesus Christ.
In the book Pilgrim’s Progress—I read Little Pilgrim’s Progress so that I can understand it; the original, honestly, I cannot fathom—the little pilgrim finally comes to the place of the cross, and the burden that he has had on his back rolls off.
Brothers and sisters, the burden of sin, the burden of being outside of God’s purpose, the burden of living a life of vanity, a purposeless life, a life full of other purposes besides God—it becomes heavy.
Thank God, He is able at times to touch our conscience that we are sinners and that we need this burden rolled off our backs. The only way is Jesus Christ.
Or you may be in a different place. You may be in that place where you ask, “Does life really have purpose? Does life really have meaning? I have lived my life so far. I have been through trials and troubles. I have been through good times and bad times, but it all seems empty.”
If it is that way, if there is anybody in the room who senses that, brothers and sisters, you need Jesus Christ. He is calling. He has been calling you since you were born. The call has been going out.
Through all the circumstances of your life, He has brought you to this point. He wants you to respond to His calling by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior—by saying, “I do not want to live life for myself anymore, but for God. I want to live for God’s purpose and not my own purpose.”
“My own selfish ways have led to a life of emptiness.” If you are in that place, you can accept Jesus right now, right where you are. The call goes out.
Brothers and sisters, if you are not a Christian, do not compromise on this position. If He is calling, do not turn your ear away once again, but accept His call.
Very seldom does the Lord scream and yell at us. It is always a still voice. If that voice is speaking and you do not know Jesus Christ, you really need to accept Him now. Do not wait. Do not compromise yourself any longer, but turn to Him.
The first call is a call to come. He does not ask you to improve yourself first. He does not ask you to get better. He knows you are dead in sins and trespasses already. He is willing to give you a new life within. He is willing to start you over, so to speak, in His own life and put away the old life.
Come unto Him. It is simply a call to come to Him. What a precious call that is.
The second part of that calling, in Matthew 11:29, follows immediately upon the call to come. He says:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.
You see, it is not good enough just to come. Many Christians are in that place. They have just come. They have accepted His gift of life. They have accepted His forgiveness for sin. They have come, but they are not following.
The Lord never intended it to be that way, brothers and sisters. You can see these two calls right on top of each other in the Word of God. He says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me”—to learn Me. Not only come to Me, but learn Me. Be My disciple, He says.
I have always appreciated the fact that the Lord never pulled any punches. He says, “If you really want to follow Me and be My disciple,” He says what? “Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
Brothers and sisters, I appreciate His complete honesty. He said:
Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction;
And many there be which go in thereat:
Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way, which leadeth unto life.
The gate, of course, is that initial call. But the path is this path of discipleship. He is saying, brothers and sisters, that this path of discipleship is not broad and easy.
I have heard ministries say, “If you come to the Lord, you will have that Cadillac you have always wanted, or that Lincoln, or that RV you have always wanted, or that 4,000-square-foot house that you desire to have. You can be everything. You can be perfectly at ease and peace because it will be a life of ease and peace.”
I honestly have not seen where the Lord has said anything such as that. It is all man’s imagination, brothers and sisters. The Lord said it will be a hard road. It will mean you will have to deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Me.
I heard it last night for the first time: the Marine Corps has a new slogan. I do not know how new it is; it might have been around for a while. It says, “We do not take applications, only commitments.”
“We do not take applications, only commitments.” You do not really apply to be a disciple and then say, “Well, maybe that is not what I really wanted to do anyway.” No, the Lord is not looking for applications to be His disciple. He is looking for commitment—to follow Him and His will and purpose.
Basically, brothers and sisters, the yoke is the will of God for you. If you are going to put that yoke on and follow Him, you are going to have to give up every right that you have.
You will have to give up your right to what you want to do. You will have to give up rights to what you have. You will have to give up rights to what friends you make. Brothers and sisters, you will have to give everything up for the Lord.
I will tell you what: He will not let anything remain as something that is yours apart from Him. I do not know how else to say this, but the bottom line is, you have to give up all.
That is a lifetime of work. We do need to make a decision: “Lord, I do want to follow You. I do want to be Your disciple. Lord, I give it up. I give up my all to You.”
You can do that in all honesty and sincerity, and the Lord will take you that way. He will prepare you, because He will touch many things in your lives. Many precious things will be touched that you may have to give up to the Lord and say, “Lord, it is breaking my heart, but it is Yours. I give it up.”
“I cannot have anything that takes Your place. I cannot have anything in my life that I love more than You.” That is the commitment that the Lord is looking for, brothers and sisters.
We have to come to that place in our lives where we make that uncompromising decision: “I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am committed. No application. I am committed, Lord. I am committed to You.”
Lance shared on this subject one time, and he used the words “cold-blooded decision.” It is just a decision that you have to make.
Now, brothers and sisters, you are not alone in the yoke. The Lord Jesus is in the yoke with you. You may not think you can make such a commitment, but if you are willing to give up yourself to follow Him and all of your own purposes in life, He is in the yoke with you.
He will see that you make it through, because He is the One who really pulls that yoke. We just have to keep in step with Him, but He is carrying the load.
Take up your cross and follow Him. When our Lord Jesus went to the cross, they did not simply carry Him there and put Him upon the cross. Remember, He had to carry that crossbeam on His shoulders.
That was His commitment to the place of death. Once He put that crossbeam on His shoulders, He was committed to Calvary, committed to the cross. It was an outward sign that He had made that decision.
Of course, He made it even before He came—before the world was created. But it was confirmed. He took up that crossbeam. He submitted to the way of the cross.
That is basically what the Lord said: “If you want to follow Me, you are going to have to submit to the way of the cross.” The gate is narrow. The pathway is difficult. But I have been there before you, and I will see you through.
Let me say it this final way: You can come to the Lord as you are, but you cannot follow the Lord unless you make Him absolute Lord of your life.
If He is only partial Lord, brothers and sisters, you are going to find yourself off that pathway many, many times, until He becomes absolute Lord of your life. At some point, you have to settle that.
I would suggest you do it today. Do it now. Do not put it off. Make an uncompromising decision—a cold-blooded decision—to follow the Lord.
The third part of that calling, brothers and sisters, is to be the church—to take up God’s full purpose.
Actually, the first part of this calling—to come unto Him and to be His disciple—mostly benefits us, because by being His disciple, He is leading many sons to glory. You are being transformed daily into His image by denying yourself, taking up the cross, and following Him. That is your benefit.
But now He says, “You need to serve My purpose. I have prepared you. I am working on you, and you need to be the church.”
Notice: I did not say you need to join a church. You need to be the church. The church is the organic body, the spiritual body, of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a living organism.
If that organism is functioning, the character and nature of Christ will come out, and we have become a part of that. Yes, we are many sons called to glory, but in that calling is a call to be the church, to be the house of God, to be the helpmate.
This has to be very practical. We see the universal church, and sometimes we leave it there, but the Lord Jesus is always very practical.
In Matthew 16, Peter confessed the Lord Jesus Christ: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” That is the universal church.
But two chapters later, He says, “If your brother sins, go to him.” That is very personal, very real, very practical. That is the practical outworking of the church on this earth.
It has to be practical. It has to be in time and place on this earth. He is working now. It is not going to happen one day just miraculously, at the end, when He returns—boom, everything is perfected and the church is suddenly glorious. It does not work quite that way.
We have to be involved now. We have to be a part of that practical expression on this earth.
Brothers and sisters, it is all on the basis of what Christ has done. He gave His life on Calvary’s cross for the church. That blood and water came out as the basis on which the church would be built.
Pentecost was a work of the Father. He anointed His Son, and the oil came down upon the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was quickened. Now what we have is the Head joined to the body—one body, one person, in heaven.
We are not called to be individuals. The Lord refers to the church as His house—living stones built together. We have heard this many times among us: living stones built together.
I do not know if you are tired of that or not, but that is God’s eternal purpose. If it is eternal, it is going to be there forever. You are going to be a part of it, so do not get tired of it, okay? It is eternal.
Living stones have to be built together. Now, if you were to come to me and say, “Jerry, I have been to Ireland, or somewhere, and I have seen all these stone houses, and I want a house built of stone,” and I said, “Okay, man, I know how to fix you up,” and I got a load of stones and scattered them all over your yard, the property on which you are going to build a stone house, and said, “There it is, John. There is your house,” you would say, “No.”
“That is just a bunch of individual stones scattered about.” Is that not much of Christianity today, brothers and sisters? Living stones, but they are all scattered here and there.
I might come with a dump truck load of stones and dump them in a pile on your yard. Would you tell me that is the house? You know what that is? That is a congregation of stones. They are all congregated in one place. They are all actually touching each other, but they certainly are not a house, are they?
To be a house, they have to be built together with form. Those stones have to be cleaned. They have to be chiseled, and every stone has an exact location and place—an exact size that the Lord has intended.
That is the Lord’s heart. Actually, when I shared this in Houston, I shared that the stones had to be mortared together, and that the mortar was made of sand, cement, and water. That is true. That is what mortar is.
If you have ever made mortar, it is a combination of—what is it?—two shovels of sand and one of cement? Come on, guys, I cannot remember the exact combination. But anyway, there is a combination that gives you a good mix for mortar.
I said, “Well, the sand represents the cross, because it is kind of rough on your skin. The sand is the work of the cross. The cement is love, because love is what cements. It takes the Holy Spirit, because if you put cement and sand together, nothing happens. It takes water. So, it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to do that.”
Well, brothers and sisters, that might be a good application, but that is not really correct. It really does take the cross, but when the Lord had the temple built, if you remember, they did not put it together with mortar—nothing of man.
They took those stones, they had to clean them, and they chiseled them. That is the work of the cross—the chiseling work of the cross.
Brothers and sisters, it is done in great love by the Lord. He chisels on you out of love. We may be stones, but we have a lot of sharp corners and edges that have to be chiseled off. We have to be conformed.
It is interesting that no stone is really just alike. They may all look similar, but they are not. They are all different. The Lord has a specific place. He says, “I am going to build you in right here. This is where I want you. You are going to have these brothers and sisters immediately around you, all built in.”
It takes the Holy Spirit to do that. So the application I used was okay, but really it is a house without mortar, because through the work of the cross, His love for you, and the work of the Holy Spirit, we are chiseled into place.
Brothers and sisters, I do not know how to tell you how important this is to the Lord. This is His eternal purpose.
We hear about it year after year sometimes, but praise God for the day when our eyes and hearts are illumined to the reality that we are part of something much bigger than we are. But praise the Lord, we are a part.
Let me say it another way: This thing of the church is not optional. We might say, “I can be a Christian. I can love the Lord. I can have my life with the Lord, but I can live without my brothers and sisters.”
Often we want to live without them. That is true. We are flesh and blood. But, brothers and sisters, the Lord says no. He says, “You give yourself to My way, the way of the cross, and you will be built together.”
Some of those rough edges will have to come off, but you do need each other. It is the house of God, and it is not easy to build a house, is it? It is a lot of work.
The last call is the call to overcome. We see it in the book of Revelation. I will try to wrap it up quickly. It is the call to overcome in the book of Revelation.
It is related, as you notice, to the seven churches, and it is related to His kingdom. He always says, “He that hath an ear,” and “He that overcometh.” He always gives a statement such as, “You will sit on the throne,” or, “My name will be written on you.” It always relates to something to do with the kingdom.
This call to overcome is in the context of the lampstands, the church, and His kingdom—the kingdom that is coming. It has to be real on earth. We have to overcome, brothers and sisters. We have to be the house of God. We have to overcome in this life.
How can I say it? When it comes to the house of God, you cannot be an observer. You have to be a participant.
In this matter of the body of Christ, of the Lord achieving His eternal purpose, everybody has to be a participant. There is no second string on the Lord’s football team, to say it that way. Everybody is first string. Everybody has to be in the game. Everybody has to be a part.
It is easy, brothers and sisters, just to attend meetings. This thing of attending meetings grabs my heart every once in a while. The Lord jerks my chain a little bit and says, “Jerry, what kind of mentality are you getting into here?”
Let me say it this way: There is a tremendous difference in the life of fellowship with one another between just attending meetings and gathering together unto the Lord.
Now, this morning, let me bring us home. When we had the Lord’s table, were you attending the Lord’s table meeting, or were you gathering around the Lord?
When we gather on Wednesday night, are you attending a prayer meeting? Or are you gathering with the Lord and praying with the Lord and with your brothers and sisters for the Lord’s heart and for the Lord’s will?
When we gather for Bible study or for fellowship time—as we call it; we always call it fellowship time, not a meeting—are we just going to a Bible study meeting or to a fellowship meeting? Or are we going to meet around the Lord and see what the Lord has to say to us through our brothers and sisters?
You see the difference? It is a whole different realm. If we are living on the basis of fulfilling our duty, we have not risen to the level that the Lord wants us to be at. We are just doing duty.
Some of us are very good at duty. Some are not. But some are very diligent. I am saying there is a higher plane on which we operate as Christians.
That higher plane is the Lord’s eternal purpose: that we be the house of God. That requires us assembling together.
In fact, the Lord warned us about that in the epistles: do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. But when you come, I hope you are coming to meet the Lord.
I do not care where it is—at our prayer time, at the Lord’s table time, whatever—we are gathering unto Him. A meeting, you can just meet. But usually, if you gather, you think of gathering for a reason. You are gathering to something. That is why I prefer to call it a gathering.
Back to my story of the Alamo. Those 189 men, at least the ones who are on record, and some women and children, had an opportunity to leave.
First of all, they could have just surrendered. They could have said, “It is hopeless. There are only 189 of us, or less than 200, and there are 2,500 troops out there.”
It does not take a lot of mental reasoning to figure out that if they all attacked at once, there was no way they were going to hold them all off. In other words, “We are going to die. If we choose to stay, we will die.”
They could have surrendered and said, “No, the cause, the purpose, is not worth it. I have family to take care of. I have my own life to live. It is a great cause, but I am not willing to give myself up for it.”
Texas probably would not have come into being. It might still have been Mexico.
Brothers and sisters, we are not talking about your purpose and my purpose today. We are talking about God’s eternal purpose. At some point, you are going to have to make the decision that those 189 men made.
They decided not to surrender. Actually, if you watch the movies, which are fairly accurate interpretations, a number of people came and went during that time. They were able to find their way through the enemy lines.
If they wanted to, the historians I heard felt that probably all of them could have escaped if they wanted to. Remember, one man did choose to leave, and he was able to get out. History records that he made it through.
They could have chosen to leave. They did not. They said, “No, we are going to stay.” It was not God’s purpose; it was a purpose they felt was worth giving their lives for.
That was a noble purpose, a noble cause. I am amazed that they were willing to do that, frankly, because only eleven of those 189 known men were actually from the Texas area. But they had a purpose, and they died for that purpose.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has said, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” In the midst of all the turmoil, all the shaking, all the Christianity that we have today that is so far from the purpose of God, may we stand fast with an uncompromising decision.
In Revelation 19:7-8, brothers and sisters, it says the marriage supper of the Lamb has come. His wife has made herself ready. Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper—the thousand-year reign of our Lord Jesus Christ on the earth.
Brothers and sisters, if we will respond to His call, we will be summoned to the marriage supper of the Lamb, to reign and rule with Christ for a thousand years on this earth.
After that thousand years, all will finally be completed and perfected, and we will see the heavenly city. Nothing will be lost. All will be included. But there is a special privilege for those who follow the call of the Lord today, who are willing to follow Him in His purpose.
I need to say this. In Timothy, that verse I read says we are called according to purpose and grace.
If you have listened to me this morning, probably in your heart you will say, “I cannot do it.” If you are really honest with yourself, you say, “Lord, I want to respond to Your call. I want to be Your disciple. I want to build the house of God. I want to overcome. But Lord, it appears so impossible.”
Oh, the encouraging words: He has not only called us according to purpose, but according to grace. In other words, His grace is sufficient.
We should have that sense that it is impossible with us. But all things are possible with God.
We should also have that sense, brothers and sisters, and I hope you leave with that sense today: regardless of who you are, what your current condition is, or what your past history is, it is possible.
If you will just come unto Him, if you will just follow Him, if you will just be, He can cause you to overcome.
Lord, we just come to You today. My prayer is, Lord, that You would be able to speak to each of our hearts in the way that You want today.
Lord, whether it is a call to come unto You, a call to follow You, to be the house of God, or the call to overcome, Lord Jesus, we want to respond to that call by Your grace.
May Your grace work in all of our hearts now, that we will make those uncompromising decisions to follow the Lamb. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.