Your Calling Is Holy

Now let’s turn to the theme of these meetings for tonight and the remaining nights. I’ve had a very definite impression concerning what God wants me to speak about, and I would like to announce my theme tonight, and then tonight and each successive night I will be dealing with aspects of this theme. It will be one consecutive series of meeting all aimed at a certain result.

To introduce my theme I would like to turn for a moment to the second epistle of Peter chapter 1 and verse 10, 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10.

“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure…”

That’s my theme. I’d like to just shorten it a little—‘Make Your Calling Sure.’ This is something that has gripped me with a sense of its importance. I find that really amongst Christians who know the Lord in some way, there are very few who could be said to making their calling sure. I think there are multitudes of Christians who don’t even realize what their calling is. So it will be my endeavor in these evenings to bring these basic truths of the calling of God home to you in such a way that you’ll be able to act on them. I am not interested in delivering religious lectures. God delivered me from that more than twenty years ago. When I teach on anything it is my sincere endeavor to do it in such a way that you’ll be able to act on what I teach. That’s my desire here this evening.

I would like, therefore, to deal with the theme of being called by God. The word call is the word that’s been used traditionally in the translations in the Bible, and I notice that it’s still used in the modern ones. If you wanted two alternative verbs that express what’s contained in it, the

one would be to invite and the other would be to summon. So God’s calling is an invitation—it’s also a summons. And I would like to say to you that the point at which God confronts you with His call is the most significant moment in your life, and your whole destiny for time and eternity will be determined by the way you respond to the call of God.

I remember in my own experience having grown up in England, in the Church of England, and having been through its various rituals and ceremonies and requirements, I had reached the age of twenty-four without ever knowing God personally. In fact, I didn’t know that it was possible to know God personally, and I never had met anybody who told me it was possible to know God personally. I’m in no sense criticizing the Church of England, but I’m simply stating that’s what my experience was.

And then when I was serving with the British Army in World War II, and had been uprooted from my academic background at Cambridge University, I was in totally strange company and surroundings. I was suddenly confronted by the call of God through a meeting which I attended. I had no doctrinal knowledge of salvation or the new birth or evangelical truth. I was a total stranger to it, but something made it very real to me—that God had challenged me, that God had made something available to me and that I might never have that opportunity again. I can’t tell you how vivid it was to me that I knew I had to make a decision, and if I didn’t make a decision I might never have the opportunity to make that decision again.

It always grieves me when I see people trespassing on the grace of God—unable to make up their minds, unable to make a commitment, so I want to say to each one of you here tonight, if you have never been confronted by the call of God and if you’re confronted here tonight, do not assume that you’ll have a second opportunity. You may, you may have many, but you cannot count on it. And it’s very discourteous if God offers you an invitation not to respond.

I’d like to say a little bit about the relationship of calling to the whole purpose and plan of God. All right I want to turn now to Romans chapter 8 and read three verses, Romans 8 verses 28, 29 and 30:

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, [alternative translation say that God works all things together for good] to those who love him, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Notice the word called. God doesn’t work everything together for good for everybody. But He does for those who’ve responded to His call. When you respond, you find yourself in a special class around whom all the purposes of God center. Then Paul goes on to say:

“For whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Paul says there that prior to God calling us He did two other things: He foreknew and He predestined. If you turn for a moment to the first epistle of Peter, chapter 1 verse 2, or follow as I turn there, you’ll find that Paul, writing to a certain group of Christians, says of them:

“[they are] elect according to the foreknowledge of God…”

Elect is simply another word for chosen. So they were chosen according to God’s foreknowledge. If you put together Romans chapter 8 and 1 Peter chapter 1, you’ll find that before the call of God comes in our lives, God has done three things about which He didn’t consult us, about which we knew nothing. Three things that didn’t even happen in time, they happened in eternity. So that the call of God is the point at which God’s eternal purposes emerge out of eternity and impact us in time. That’s why the call is such a crucial moment in our lives.

Now the three things that God did in eternity were these: He foreknew us, He chose us, and He predestined us. Let me tell you that if you can grasp this message you will never again be an accident looking for somewhere to happen. You’ll never again feel that you’re just a speck of dust floating in the universe. You’ll realize that you’re an integral part of an eternal plan of God. There are no accidents in God’s plan.

The beginning is He foreknew us. He knew us in advance. He knew us before we were born. He knew us before we were named. He knew us from eternity. And on the basis of His knowledge, He chose us. It’s very important to understand that God chooses on the basis of His knowledge. So when God chooses you to do something for Him, He knows you can do it. Understand? He never chooses you to do something that you’re not capable of doing by His grace. So don’t run away from your calling on the basis of the thought that ‘I can’t do it.’ It’s very important to understand that. It all begins with God’s eternal knowledge of each one of us.

The knowledge of God is something stupendous. The Bible says He knows all the stars, every star, and calls every star by name. That’s how the stars operate and we understand there are billions and billions of stars. But God knows every one of them by name. God knows every sparrow. Jesus said, ‘Two sparrows are sold for a farthing, five sparrows are sold for two farthings.’ You understand, if you buy in quantity you get one sparrow free. But He said even the sparrow that’s not charged for doesn’t fall to the ground without your Father. Somebody said, ‘God takes time to attend the sparrow’s funeral. There’s not one sparrow anywhere in the universe that God doesn’t know about.

And then Jesus said, ‘Remember, the hairs on your head are all numbered.’ God knows exactly how many hairs you have. So the knowledge of God spans the whole universe from the stars to the sparrows to the hairs on your head. It spans not just time but eternity. If you can begin to sense the totality of God’s knowledge, it will give you a different attitude about life and yourself.

And on the basis of His knowledge He chose us, and then having chosen us He predestined us. Now that’s a word that, by some extremists, has been perverted. He didn’t predestine us to be saved. He predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. If a person tells me he’s predestined to salvation and I see no fruit in his life, I’m going to question his statement. But if I see somebody conformed to the image of Jesus Christ I have to believe it was because he was predestined. It couldn’t happen any other way. To be predestined means that God has planned the course of your life in advance. He knows where you’ll be each day of the week, each hour of the day. He knows the problems and the crises that are going to confront you, and He has an answer for every one. God has no emergencies. He’s never taken by surprise. Nothing ever happens in the universe that God hadn’t made provision for. So that’s the three things that God does for us in eternity. He foreknows us, He chooses us and He predestines us. He works out the course that our life is to take.

Today we marvel at what computers can do, but I tell you the heavenly computer outdoes all the rest! It’s just amazing. There’s not a speck of dust in the universe, there’s not an insect that God doesn’t know about. And we are part of the central thrust of His plan.

Now when He has foreknown us, chosen us, predestined us, then He intervenes in our lives at a chosen moment and calls us. Do you understand? The moment of your call is the moment where eternity impacts your life. God impacts your life. You may have been like me—living a very careless, self-pleasing, materialistic, self-indulgent life, unaware of anything that God had planned for me. And then suddenly, in a situation which I certainly would never have planned, I was suddenly confronted by the fact that God had called me, and that my whole destiny was going to be determined by the way I responded to His call. And eternity will be too short to praise God for the fact that by His grace I said yes. I had no idea, believe me, what I was committing myself to. God usually doesn’t give us too clear a picture. However, He did give me within a few weeks of my calling, a kind of blueprint for my life. I didn’t know the kind of language God used, but He spoke to me through the Holy Spirit and He said, ‘It shall be like a little stream, the stream shall become a river, the river shall become a great river, the great river shall become a sea, and the sea shall become a mighty ocean.’ And I thought to myself, Whatever is God talking about? But I gradually realized that He was speaking about something that was to be the main thrust of my life.

And as you hear something of the outreach of our ministry today, which probably really reaches half the population of the earth, I have to say God’s plan has consistently been worked out for more than forty years and still is being worked out. I used to think, ‘Well, I’ve got to do something about it to make it happen.’ But the more mature I become, the more I realize it will happen because God said it will happen, and all I have to do is stay in harmony with God. I can’t make it happen. Most of the promises that God gives us are far too great to achieve them by our own efforts. We just have to embrace them by faith and say, ‘God, You said it; You’ll do it.’

Now I want to speak about the relationship between being called and being saved. Perhaps I should say that in the total plan of God I’ve depicted in various parts of the New Testament, there are seven successive phases. Most of them are stated in Romans chapter 8, but not all. We’ve seen four of them—God foreknows, He chooses, He predestines, He calls. Now when you respond to the call, He saves. And when He saved you there are two more—He justifies and He glorifies. And in Romans 8 all of those are put in the past tense. ‘Whom He called then He also justified, whom He justified then He also glorified.’ In God’s eternal purposes those are not in the future. They’re eternally established. But I want to just briefly dwell on the relationship between being called and being saved.

Now I went through life for twenty-four years without knowing you could be saved. Maybe some of you here are still in that condition tonight. I want to tell you, you can be saved and can know you’re saved. Let’s turn first of all to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 13 and 14, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. Paul, of course, is writing to people who had become believers in Jesus Christ and disciples of Christ and he says:

“We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you [notice the theme again God chose you] for salvation…”

He chose you to be saved, Let me tell you, brothers and sisters, if God hadn’t chosen you to be saved, you never would be saved. The choice is never initially ours; it’s God’s. All we can do is respond but we can never take the initiative out of the hands of God. Jesus told His apostles, ‘You didn’t choose me. I chose you.’ But I want to tell you: in the work of the Lord the only choices that have any significance are God’s choices. We can vote for people, we can appoint people, we can declare them to be this or that in the church, but if God hasn’t chosen them, there will be no fruit. Jesus said, ‘I have chosen you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.’ Enduring fruit proceeds only out of God’s choice. When we get out of line with God’s choice we can have all sorts of religious effort, but no enduring fruit. All right, going on with this Scripture.

“…because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,”

That’s the part the Holy Spirit plays. The Holy Spirit is, what shall I say, the guide, the one that steers you into the place where you’re going to meet God. In my case the Holy Spirit was powerfully at work in me before I came to know the Lord, but I didn’t know who He was. I had some extraordinary experiences. I couldn’t understand what was going on, but it was the Holy Spirit preparing me, steering me to the place where I was going to meet the Lord. The Holy Spirit doesn’t stop work after you’re saved. He’s the one that gets you to the place where you will be saved. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t do it, you’ll never make it. Then he says, salvation—the next verse:

“to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Notice, He ends up with glory. Never stop in your Christian progress with just being justified, because God’s destination is being glorified. But notice there Paul says, ‘God chose them to salvation and called them to that by the proclamation of the gospel.’ So when you are called of God, you are called to salvation. But the calling of God only begins when you get saved, and here is where I want to make it very clear to many of you—you’ve been saved but in many cases you’ve never really discovered your calling, you’ve never discovered the purpose for which God saved you. And that’s a tragedy. You can go through life without finding God’s calling and end up in heaven, but you’ll have missed the most important things on earth. I cannot emphasize too strongly the sacredness of the calling of God. It is not something that you treat lightly or indifferently. It’s something of tremendous consequence in the life of every one of us.

Now I’d like to go a little further in the New Testament to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9, and this verse makes it plain that once you’ve responded to the initial call of God and experienced salvation, then God’s purpose is to work out that calling in the rest of your Christian life. Your calling begins before salvation, is activated by salvation but has a great deal more that comes after salvation. Second Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 Paul says, beginning with the last word of the previous verse:

“God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

Notice how again and again Paul goes back to eternity to explain what’s happening in our lives. You really don’t understand what’s happening in your life until you view your life in the perspective of eternity, because God’s plan began in eternity.

“God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

If you can grasp what I’m saying, you will have a totally different attitude to life when you walk out of here this evening. Much of your insecurity and your uncertainty will be dissipated. You’re part of an eternal plan. God planned it all before time began. Furthermore, as the elect of God in Jesus Christ, you’re the center of the plan. You’re not on the periphery, you’re not a star somewhere out in some remote galaxy. You’re right at the very heart of God’s purpose.

I want to point out three things about the calling of God. First of all it’s a holy calling. I believe there are many of you here tonight that need to see that your calling is holy. It’s not something to trifle with. It requires priority in your life. In 1944 God, while I was still in the British Army, made my calling more specific and He spoke to me in these words. I can give you the exact words He spoke although it’s forty-one years ago. ‘I have called thee to be a teacher of the Scriptures in truth and faith and love which are in Christ Jesus for many.’ I look back now forty-one years later and I say, ‘Faithful is He who calls you, who also will bring it to pass.’ I’d never have believed in 1944 that my teaching ministry would be reaching half the globe. It’s not because I’m gifted, talented, but because God is faithful. But He’s only faithful if you walk in your calling.

“God works all things together for those who are the called according to His purpose.”

You understand? You have to be in your calling and in God’s purpose before everything’s going to work for good. You’ve got to get right in line with the purpose of God. So bear in mind your calling is holy. It should take precedence over every other activity in your life. There should be nothing that you will sacrifice your calling to. Your personal life, your family life, nothing—it takes priority over all those. It’s holy.

Paul quite often used examples from athletics to illustrate the nature of the Christian call. And he said, ‘Every athlete is temperate or self-controlled in everything.’ You consider the people who appear in the Olympic Games today. There’s not a single athlete in those games who hasn’t made his athletics number one priority in his life. His whole life or her whole life is dedicated to jumping just a little higher, or running just a little faster, or diving a little more perfectly than any other person in the world. The books they read, the way they spend their time, the food they eat, the exercise they take, the friends they cultivate are all related to that athletic achievement. And Paul says they do it just to get a fading laurel wreath. That was the gold medal of his day. Today they get, they do it for a gold medal, which doesn’t have much gold in it, incidentally, which is just a temporary little thing. But Paul says we do it for an incorruptible crown.

If they’re so dedicated, how much more dedicated ought Christians to be? But the problem is multitudes of Christians either haven’t discovered that God has called them, or they haven’t discovered their calling, or they haven’t seen that their calling is holy. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life and I could look back on many things that I could wish had been otherwise, but I do think I can say that I have always esteemed my calling to be holy. As far as lies in me I have done everything I could over many years to cultivate the gift that God placed in me. And everything I do in life is done with a view to my calling. The books I read, and I don’t read many, the way I use my time, even the way I exercise, I find that to minister effectively you need a certain level of physical health and strength. And I do what I can in a very kind of disordered life in the sense that we never are in the same place for any length of time, we’re not eating the same diet, we’re not in the same climate. We are exposed to unusual strains; physical, emotional mental. But in those circumstances I do the best I can to keep my body in trim. Not because a healthy body in itself is supremely important, but because a healthy body is important for the fulfillment of my calling in God.

All right. The second thing I want to say about your calling is that it’s by grace and not by works. God basically does not call you to do what you’re able to do. You wouldn’t need calling and you wouldn’t need grace if you were able to do it. Grace begins where human ability ends. So if you are truly called of God you are probably called to do something you couldn’t do if God hadn’t called you. Okay? Your first response usually is when God calls you is, ‘God, I can’t do that. I’m not gifted. I’m not able.’ God says, ‘I know. That’s why it’s My calling.’ It’s not according to your own purpose or works. It’s according to His grace, and when God calls you, His grace is always sufficient for what He calls you to do. You can rely on His grace.

The third thing that Paul says there is that it all began in eternity. It’s not an afterthought. God doesn’t save you and then say, ‘Now what am I going to get him to do?’ You know. ‘What job can I give him in the church?’ God saves you because He has a purpose for you. The purpose is there before He saves you. You have to find the purpose. In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10, Paul says:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He has before prepared for us to walk in.”

God doesn’t have to find something for us to do when we get saved. He’s saved us in order to do something which He prepared for us to do from eternity. And there will be endless problems and frustrations in your life as a Christian until you find your calling. I meet many Christians who know the Lord—they’re saved, but they’re frustrated, they’re ineffective, they’re more or less unproductive—not because they’re lacking talent, but because they haven’t found their calling.

Now, there’s one statement that Jesus makes which is tremendously significant in Matthew 22 verse 14, He says something very brief but very pointed. He says:

“Many are called, but few are chosen.”

So you have to determine—am I going to be one of the chosen? And tonight in the second part of this message I want to outline to you what is required to be one of the chosen. Lots of people ignore God’s call. Some people respond and then don’t meet the conditions. But to be chosen you have to meet God’s conditions, and I don’t want to make this a long message but I want to point out briefly what is required. And in this, as in every other matter, the Bible is very plainspoken. It doesn’t leave any ambiguity or any uncertainty.

I would say if I were to pick on one single word or phrase, that indicates what’s essential, the word would be single-mindedness. To find and fulfill your calling you have to be a single minded person. You don’t, you can’t afford to have a lot of different objectives all competing in your life. You have to know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, and you have to follow the way persistently without deviating, without being diverted. One of the things that grieves me in the Body of Christ over the years is to have so many who were called who got diverted. And some of my talks later this week, I’m going to deal with the diversions and how to avoid them.

I don’t have any statistics but I am afraid that many people who are genuinely called subsequently get diverted. And the reason is a lack of single-mindedness. Let’s turn to Luke 14 and read a few verses there, Luke 14 verse 26 and following. You can never complain about Jesus that He didn’t tell it like it is. He certainly just told it the way it is. He didn’t leave any gray areas. It says in Luke 14 beginning with verse 25:

“And great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them,
‘If anyone comes to Me and doesn’t hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.’”

Notice the word cannot. Jesus doesn’t say it’s difficult, but some people succeed. He says he cannot. And then He says:

“And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Somebody has said about the cross two things—first of all the cross is where God’s will and your will cross. It’s where you have to say, ‘Not my will, but thine be done.’ Secondly the cross is the place where you die, and you have to pick up the cross knowing that at some point you’ll be confronted with that decision, ‘Not my will but God’s will be done.’ And that will be the place where you and your old ego and your ambitions and all your cleverness and your talent die. And out of that death Jesus will bring forth something completely new. Jesus said, ‘He that keepeth his life shall lose it, but he that loseth His life for My sake, shall find it.’ There is a life to lose and there is a life to find, but if you don’t lose your life you won’t find the other life. That’s the meaning of taking up the cross. It’s the place where that old life ends—that life of self-will, self-pleasing, setting your own standards, doing your own thing. That’s got to come to an end. Then Jesus went on to say, He took two examples:

“‘For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—
‘lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him,
‘saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’’”

One of the features of the Middle East is there’s a lot of houses and buildings like that. You don’t have to travel far in or around Jerusalem to find a house that somebody started to build and was never able to finish it. It’s still as relevant today as it was at the time of Jesus. So He says, ‘Don’t start to build your house if you don’t have the resources to finish it.’ The resources He’s talking about here are not financial resources—they’re commitment. If you’re not prepared to go through with what it means, don’t even start—that’s what He’s saying. And then He says:

“Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?”

And you see, if you’re going to serve the Lord you’ll be in the minority. God uses minorities to get His tasks accomplished. It won’t be the twenty thousand—it’ll be the ten thousand you’ll find yourself with.

“‘Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks condition of peace.
‘So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.’”

There’s three cannots there. If you do not hate your closest kin and your own life you cannot be His disciple. If you do not take up the cross you cannot be His disciple. If you do not forsake all that you have you cannot be His disciple. It’s not that it’s difficult for some people to succeed. It cannot be done. That cannot is just as valid as when Jesus said, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ He cannot enter the kingdom of God. We’re talking about impossibilities.

Oh you say, ‘Brother Prince, does that mean that I’ve got to go out if I want to be a disciple of Jesus and sell everything I have?’ Not necessarily. Some people were asked to do that, but if you’ll commit yourself, sincerely and without reservation to be a disciple, God will arrange circumstances. But you’ll find when you look back some years later that God has tested you in every major relationship. Do you put your family before Jesus? Do you put your job before Jesus? Do you put your income before Jesus? Or has He got unreserved total priority in your life? That’s the issue. God doesn’t want you to be mean or unkind to your family. God doesn’t want you to be lazy and unemployed, but He wants you to determine your priorities. Anything that takes precedence over the claim of Jesus must be hated in that sense. Not that God asks you to hate anybody in the normal sense, but if there’s a clash between something and Jesus, your attitude toward that something must be, ‘I hate it. It has no claims on me, has no appeal to me, I will not yield to it.’

Looking back on my own experience I really wasn’t confronted specifically with the Scripture, ‘Unless you forsake all that you have your cannot be My disciple.’ But I responded to the Lord’s call; and every time He called again I responded. I think He was gracious enough not to confront me with all the consequences at one go. But as I look back I realize I was tested in every major relationship. I had to leave my family, I had to leave my country, I had to leave my profession, I gave away all the money that I had—not saying I’m forsaking all that I have, but just being confronted at each stage by a choice.

Now some of you are looking a little gloomy. But I want to tell you the news is good, because there’s another side. If you lose your life you’ll find it, and you can’t bargain with God. You can’t say, ‘I’ll give up this job if You’ll give me a better one.’ God says, ‘If I tell you to give up that job, you give up that job no matter what happens next.’ Or, ‘If I tell you to sell that house and move out, you do it.’ Nobody bargains with God. But the people who make the most complete surrenders are the ones who get the best terms from God; I’ll tell you that now.

Now if you’ll turn to Mark chapter 10 for a moment, you’ll see the life that you’ll find if you’ve been willing to lose the other. Mark 10 verse 29 and 30:

“So Jesus answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you [now Jesus only said assuredly if something was very important and could be doubted, so He attaches great emphasis to this statement.] Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s,
‘who shall not receive a hundred fold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions [that’s the attached clause]—and in the age to come, eternal life.’”

Now on the basis of walking with the Lord for forty-four years, I think I can speak out of experience and not out of theory. I want to say those verses are absolutely true. They’re not figurative, they’re not exaggerated, there is nothing in those categories that God will not restore if you’ve lost the old life. But you can’t come to God saying, ‘I’ll hold onto the old life until I get the new.’ That’s not faith. Faith says, ‘I’ll burn my bridges; now let’s see what happens next!’ Those are the conditions for finding and walking in your calling. And as I said they’re summed up in one word, single-mindedness or right priorities. Jesus said in Luke 10 verses 3 and 4, He made a rather remarkable statement—Luke 10:3 and 4—to His first, or one of the first, groups He sent out:

“‘Go your way; behold I send you out as lambs among wolves.
‘Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals: and greet no one along the road.’”

You notice that little part, ‘Greet no one along the road.’ Don’t let anything divert you from your task.’ Sometimes it’s very trivial things that divert us, like we get involved in social activities which are not sinful. They’re perfectly legitimate, but they’re diverting us from our task. You see?

If you know the Middle East, and I imagine the same is true in India, when you meet somebody there’s a whole series of formalities you have to go through in the Arabic language. ________________ How are you? _______________ How’s your wife? ________________ How’s your children? You know it has to go on for about five minutes, and it’s really not sincere. It’s just a cultural ritual that people go through. Jesus says don’t get involved in all of that. You don’t have the time. You’ve got to get somewhere with a message.

You may remember the story of the Shunammite woman who was rewarded by a son because she’d entertained the prophet Elisha, and later the son died and she knew that the only person she could get help from was Elisha. And so she just got her husband to saddle the donkey and set off to go to Elisha. And when Elisha found out what had happened he said to his servant Gehazi, ‘Take my staff, run and lay it on the face of the dead child.’ And he said, ‘Don’t greet anybody by the way.’ That’s just a little vivid picture. ‘You’ve got a staff in your hand. If you can get to the dead child in time, the child can be brought back to life. But if you stop and fraternize with people on the way, the child will be dead and no way to bring him back to life.’ That’s really what the gospel is. It’s a staff, it’s the staff of divine authority, it’s the prophetic message. And if you can get to the person who’s dead in time, that person can be brought back to life. But if you loiter on the way and get involved in secondary activities, you’ll be too late.

In Hebrews chapter 12, the writer uses the picture of a runner. I’ve already spoken of the example of athletics which is used in the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1:

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…

That great cloud of witnesses that the writer’s talking about are the people who made it in the Old Testament. They’re the people listed in Hebrews chapter 11. To me that’s so vivid because I think Paul pictures a kind of race track with seating all around it, and the witnesses are the saints that made it and they are sitting in the grandstand cheering us on. So he says in the light of all the people that are there cheering us on, let’s run the race. Let’s not get diverted.

I’ve a friend who had a praying mother who prayed for his salvation many, many years, but she died before he came to the Lord. And then after her death the Lord answered her prayers and her son was saved. And he was traveling once in Africa with William Burton, who is the great pioneer missionary to the Belgian Congo, and he said to William Burton, he said, ‘Oh, if only my mother could see me now.’ He was there in the service of the Lord. William Burton said, ‘What makes you think she can’t?’ See, to me that’s an inspiration. The people that have made it are cheering us on from the grandstand.

I think of my own first wife who was a dedicated, valiant servant of the Lord for fifty years. And I sometimes get the impression that she’s pretty interested in my finishing my course. She bequeathed me nine adopted daughters that I was left responsible for. And one of my concerns is that when I finish my course, I’ll be able to give her a good account of the daughters. You see, there’s a whole area of what I’d say, accountability, when we live our lives in the light of eternity. If you just simply focus on the things of time, you’re really missing the heart-essence of Christianity. The gospel starts in eternity with God’s foreknowledge and choice and predestination, and it’s going to end in eternity. And time is just a little narrow alley between the two. I tell you, the Christians who are always dissatisfied are the Christians who focus only on time, because our satisfaction is not to be found solely in time. We can have a wonderful time in this life, and I look back on years in tremendous fulfillment in the service of the Lord. But the ultimate test is eternity. So the writer of Hebrews says, chapter 12 verse 1:

“Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

The writer says there are two things we have to be on our guard against—one is sin because it entangles us and trips us up and we can’t run. But the other is every weight. Now there are lots of things that are not sinful but they’re weights. And you’ve never seen a person running in a marathon who carries in his pocket one single item that would add to the weight he has to carry.

He strips himself down to the barest necessity of clothing because even the smallest weight could affect his ability to run that race. And that’s what the writer is saying. Not merely don’t become entangled with sin, but he’s saying, ‘Don’t carry any unnecessary weights.’

Just sit there for a moment and ask the Lord to show you if you’re in earnest with Him. ‘Lord, am I carrying some weights that will hamper me in running this race?’ If you lift your heart to the Holy Spirit, He’ll be faithful—maybe now, maybe a little later—He’ll show you.

Let’s listen to the words of Paul for a moment as he speaks about the race that he was running, in Philippians chapter 3 beginning at verse 12:

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; [If Paul hadn’t attained, I suppose we would be honest to admit that none of us had attained.] but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid of me.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,”

Notice, it’s the call that keeps him moving forward, that keeps him from deviating, that causes him to put forth his best efforts. At the end of his life, you remember what he said? ‘I finished my race, I’ve fought the good fight, I’ve kept the faith. That’s something you can only say when you’ve come to the end. And you’ll not come to the end unless you press toward the goal.

Personally, I don’t believe it’s possible to keep the faith if we don’t run the race and fight the fight. I think keep the faith means much more than just continue to give intellectual assent to the gospel. I think keeping the faith involves a conflict. It involves a race, and we’re not going to keep the faith unless we run the race and fight the fight.

In closing, let me just give you two verses from the Book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 17 verse 14, talking about the great end-time conflict between antichrist and Christ, it says about Jesus and His followers this:

“‘These [that’s the kings of the earth and the antichrist] These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.’”

Jesus had said already many are called, but few are chosen. But here there’s an extra dimension—those who are truly victorious are called, chosen and faithful. That’s running the race, that’s finishing the course. And I believe in Revelation 14 we have a picture of what’s involved and this is the Scripture I’d like to close with. It speaks about the hundred and forty four thousand, who can be interpreted in various ways, and it’s not my purpose to explain them, but in verse 4 of Revelation 14 it says:

“These are the ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”

I believe that’s the key to being called chosen and faithful. It’s those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. It’s not following a system, it’s not being part of a denomination—all those may have their place but they offer no guarantee of finishing the course. The people who finish the course are those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Their eyes are on the Lord. Increasingly this becomes more and more important to me. Success depends on our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that means been committed to follow Him wherever He goes. Whoever else follows or does not follow, you are committed to go where He leads you.

In the light of all that I’ve said tonight, and I feel I’ve spoken with unusual solemnity, which is something I cannot achieve by my own efforts. In fact sometimes I’m almost frightened by the solemnity of what I say, and it’s usually when I’m trying to back off from being urgent that I am the most urgent. And I’ve come to understand that in those situations it’s the Holy Spirit who’s being urgent. I think the Holy Spirit sees the critical days in which we live and the pressures that lie ahead and the shortness of the time much more clearly than any of us. That’s why He’s urgent.