Predestination and Calling
A Sermon
(No. 241)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, March 6th, 1859, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called."–Romans 8:30
THE GREAT BOOK OF GOD'S DECREES is fast closed against the curiosity of
man. Vain man would be wise; he would break the seven seals thereof,
and read the mysteries of eternity. But this cannot be; the time has
not yet come when the book shall be opened, and even then the seals
shall not be broken by mortal hand, but it shall be said, "The lion of
the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and break the seven
seals thereof."
Eternal Father, who shall look
Into thy secret will?
None but the Lamb shall take the book,
And open every seal.
None but he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the
assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated by
God unto eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal
interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be
left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I
belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall
nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall in white robes
walk the golden streets of paradise? Until this question be answered my
heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. My eternal
destiny infinitely more concerns me than all the affairs of time. Tell
me, oh, tell me, if ye know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in
that book of life? Am I one of those who are ordained unto eternal
life, or am I to be left to follow my own lusts and passions, and to
destroy my own soul? Oh! man, there is an answer to thy inquiry; the
book cannot be opened, but God himself hath published many a page
thereof. He hath not published the page whereon the actual names of the
redeemed are written; but that page of the sacred decree whereon their
character is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed
to thee this day. The sacred record of God's hand is this day published
everywhere under heaven, and he that hath an ear let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto him. O my hearer, by thy name I know thee not, and by
thy name God's Word doth not declare thee, but by thy character thou
mayest read thy name; and if thou hast been a partaker of the calling
which is mentioned in the text, then mayest thou conclude beyond a
doubt that thou art among the predestinated–"For whom he did
predestinate, them he also called." And if thou be called, it follows
as a natural inference thou art predestinated.
Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are
two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. The first is the
general call, which is in the gospel sincerely given to everyone that
heareth the word. The duty of the minister is to call souls to Christ,
he is to make no distinction whatever–"Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature." The trumpet of the gospel sounds
aloud to every man in our congregations–"Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and
eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
"Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man" (Prov.
8:4). This call is sincere on God's part; but man by nature is so
opposed to God, that this call is never effectual, for man disregards
it, turns his back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none of these
things. But mark, although this call be rejected, man is without excuse
in the rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the
man who will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of
judgment. When thou art commanded to believe and repent, when thou art
exhorted to flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on thy own head
if thou dost despise the exhortation, and reject the commandment. And
this solemn text drops an awful warning: "How shall ye escape, if ye
neglect so great salvation." But I repeat it, this universal call is
rejected by man; it is a call, but it is not a attended with divine
force and energy of the Holy Spirit in such a degree as to make it an
unconquerable call, consequently men perish, even though they have the
universal call of the gospel ringing in their ears. The bell of God's
house rings every day, sinners hear it, but they put their fingers in
their ears, and go their way, one to his farm, and another to his
merchandise, and though they are bidden and are called to the wedding
(Luke 14:16,17,18), yet they will not come, and by not coming they
incur God's wrath, and he declareth of such,–"None of those men which
were bidden shall taste of my supper" (Luke 14:24). The call of our
text is of a different kind; it is not a universal call, it is a
special, particular, personal, discriminating, efficacious,
unconquerable, call. This call is sent to the predestinated, and to
them only; they by grace hear the call, obey it, and receive it. These
are they who can now say, "Draw us, and we will run after thee."
In preaching of this call this morning, I shall divide my sermon into
three brief parts.–First, I shall give illustrations of the call;
second, we shall come to examine whether we have been called; and then
third, what delightful consequences flow therefrom. Illustration,
examination, consolation.
I. First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. In illustrating the effectual call of
grace, which is given to the predestinated ones, I must first use the
picture of Lazarus. See you that stone rolled at the mouth of the
sepulchre? Much need is there for the stone that it should be well
secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. The sister
of that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says,
"Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days." This
is the voice of reason and of nature. Martha is correct; but by
Martha's side there stands a man who, despite all his lowliness, is
very God of very God. "Roll ye away the stone," saith he, and it is
done; and now, listen to him; he cries, "Lazarus, come forth!" that cry
is directed to a mass of putridity, to a body that has been dead four
days, and in which the worms have already held carnival; but, strange
to say, from that tomb there comes a living man; that mass of
corruption has been quickened into life, and out he comes, wrapped
about with graveclothes, and having a napkin about his head. "Loose him
and let him go," saith the Redeemer; and then he walks in all the
liberty of life. The effectual call of grace is precisely similar; the
sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in sin but dead in sin, without
any power whatever to give to himself the life of grace. Nay, he is not
only dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like the worms, have crept
into him, a foul stench riseth up into the nostrils of justice, God
abhorreth him, and justice crieth, "Bury the dead out of my sight, cast
it into the fire, let it be consumed." Sovereign Mercy comes, and there
lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign Grace cries,
either by the minister, or else directly without any agency, by the
Spirit of God, "come forth!" and that man lives. Does he contribute
anything to his new life? Not he; his life is given solely by God. He
was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given when
the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes forth
from the grave of his lust, begins to live a new life, even the life
eternal, which Christ gives to his sheep.
"Well," cries one, "but what are the words which Christ uses when he
calls a sinner from death?" Why the Lord may use any words. It was not
long ago there came unto this hall, a man who was without God and
without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn–
"Jesus lover of my soul,"
was the means of his quickening. He said within himself, "Does Jesus
love me? then I must love him," and he was quickened in that selfsame
hour. The words which Jesus uses are various in different cases. I
trust that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with
me, and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost
without design, shall be sent of God as a message of life unto some
dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin
hitherto, shall now live to righteousness, and live to Christ. That is
the first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual
calling. It finds the sinner dead, it gives him life, and he obeys the
call of life and lives.
But let us consider a second phase of it. You will remember while the
sinner is dead in sin, he is alive enough so far as any opposition to
God may be concerned. He is powerless to obey, but he is mighty enough
to resist the call of divine grace. I may illustrate it in the case of
Saul of Tarsus: this proud Pharisee abhors the Lord Jesus Christ; he
has seized upon every follower of Jesus who comes within his grasp; he
has haled men and women to prison; with the avidity of a miser who
hunts after gold, he has hunted after the precious life of Christ's
disciple, and having exhausted his prey in Jerusalem, he seeks letters
and goes off to Damascus upon the same bloody errand. Speak to him on
the road, send out the apostle Peter to him, let Peter say, "Saul, why
dost thou oppose Christ? The time shall come when thou shalt yet be his
disciple." Paul would turn round and laugh him to scorn–"Get thee gone
thou fisherman, get thee gone–I a disciple of that imposter Jesus of
Nazareth! Look here, this is my confession of faith; here will I hale
thy brothers and thy sisters to prison, and beat them in the synagogue
and compel them to blaspheme and even hunt them to death, for my breath
is threatening, and my heart is as fire against Christ." Such a scene
did not occur, but had there been any remonstrance given by men you may
easily conceive that such would have been Saul's answer. But Christ
determined that he would call the man. Oh, what an enterprise! Stop
HIM? Why he is going fast onward in his mad career. But lo, a light
shines round about him and he falls to the ground, and he hears a voice
crying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me; it is hard for thee to
kick against the pricks." Saul's eyes are filled with tears, and then
again with scales of darkness, and he cries, "Who art thou?" and a
voice calls, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It is not many
minutes before he begins to feel his sin in having persecuted Jesus,
nor many hours ere he receives the assurance of his pardon, and not
many days ere he who persecuted Christ stands up to preach with
vehemence and eloquence unparalleled, the very cause which he once trod
beneath his feet. See what effectual calling can do. If God should
choose this morning to call the hardest-hearted wretch within hearing
of the gospel, he must obey. Let God call–a man may resist, but he
cannot resist effectually. Down thou shalt come, sinner, if God cries
down; there is no standing when he would have thee fall. And mark,
every man that is saved, is always saved by an overcoming call which he
cannot withstand; he may resist it for a time, but he cannot resist so
as to overcome it, he must give way, he must yield when God speaks. If
he says, "Let there be light," the impenetrable darkness gives way to
light; if he says, "Let there be grace," unutterable sin gives way, and
the hardest-hearted sinner melts before the fire of effectual calling.
I have thus illustrated the call in two ways, by the state of the
sinner in his sin, and by the omnipotence which overwhelms the
resistance which he offers. And now another case. The effectual call
may be illustrated in its sovereignty by the case of Zaccheus. Christ
is entering into Jericho to preach. There is a publican living in it,
who is a hard, griping, grasping, miserly extortioner. Jesus Christ is
coming in to call some one, for it is written he must abide in some
man's house. Would you believe it, that the man whom Christ intends to
call is the worst man in Jericho–the extortioner? He is a little short
fellow, and he cannot see Christ, though he has a great curiosity to
look at him; so he runs before the crowd and climbs up a sycamore tree,
and thinking himself quite safe amid the thick foliage, he waits with
eager expectation to see this wonderful man who had turned the world
upside down. Little did he think that he was to turn him also. The
Saviour walks along preaching and talking with the people until he
comes under the sycamore tree, then lifting up his eyes, he
cries–"Zaccheus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide in
thy house." The shot took effect, the bird fell, down came Zaccheus,
invited the Saviour to his house, and proved that he was really called
not by the voice merely but by grace itself, for he said, "Behold,
Lord, the half of my goods I give unto the poor, and if I have taken
anything from any man by false accusation, I restore unto him
fourfold;" and Jesus said, "This day is salvation come unto thy house."
Now why call Zaccheus? There were many better men in the city than he.
Why call him? Simply because the call of God comes to unworthy sinners.
There is nothing in man that can deserve this call; nothing in the best
of men that can invite it; but God quickeneth whom he will, and when he
sends that call, though it come to the vilest of the vile, down they
come speedily and swiftly; they come down from the tree of their sin,
and fall prostrate in penitence at the feet of Jesus Christ.
But now to illustrate this call in its effects, we remind you that
Abraham is another remarkable instance of effectual calling. "Now the
Lord had said unto Abraham, get thee out of thy country, and from thy
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show
thee," and "by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went
out, not knowing whither he went." Ah! poor Abraham, as the world would
have had it, what a trial his call cost him! He was happy enough in the
bosom of his father's household, but idolatry crept into it, and when
God called Abraham, he called him alone and blessed him out of Ur of
the Chaldees, and said to him, "Go forth, Abraham!" and he went forth,
not knowing whither he went. Now, when effectual calling comes into a
house and singles out a man, that man will be compelled to go forth
without the camp, bearing Christ's reproach. He must come out from his
very dearest friends, from all his old acquaintances, from those
friends with whom he used to drink, and swear, and take pleasure; he
must go straight away from them all, to follow the Lamb whithersoever
he goeth. What a trial to Abraham's faith, when he had to leave all
that was so dear to him, and go he knew not whither! And yet God had a
goodly land for him, and intended greatly to bless him. Man! if thou
art called, if thou art called truly, there will be a going out, and a
going out alone. Perhaps some of God's professed people will leave you;
you will have to go without a solitary friend,–maybe you will even be
deserted by Sarah herself, and you may be a stranger in a strange land,
a solitary wanderer, as all your fathers were. Ah! but if it be an
effectual call, and if salvation shall be the result thereof, what
matters it though thou dost go to heaven alone? Better to be a solitary
pilgrim to bliss, than one of the thousands who throng the road to
hell.
I will have one more illustration. When effectual calling comes to a
man, at first he may not know that it is effectual calling. You
remember the case of Samuel; the Lord called Samuel, and he arose and
went to Eli, and he said, "Here am I, for thou calledst me." Eli said,
"I called not, lie down again. And he went and lay down." The second
time the Lord called him, and said, "Samuel, Samuel," and he arose
again, and went to Eli, and said, "Here am I, for thou didst call me,"
and then it was that Eli, not Samuel, first of all perceived that the
Lord had called the child. And when Samuel knew it was the Lord, he
said, "Speak; for thy servant heareth." When the work of grace begins
in the heart, the man is not always clear that it is God's work; he is
impressed under the minister, and perhaps he is rather more occupied
with the impression than with the agent of the impression; he says, "I
know not how it is, but I have been called; Eli, the minister, has
called me." And perhaps he goes to Eli to ask what he wants with him.
"Surely," said he, "the minister knew me, and spoke something
personally to me, because he knew my case." And he goes to Eli, and it
is not till afterwards, perhaps, that he finds that Eli had nothing to
do with the impression, but that the Lord had called him. I know
this–I believe God was at work with my heart for years before I knew
anything about him. I knew there was a work; I knew I prayed, and
cried, and groaned for mercy, but I did not know that was the Lord's
work; I half thought it was my own. I did not know till afterwards,
when I was led to know Christ as all my salvation, and all my desire,
that the Lord had called the child, for this could not have been the
result of nature, it must have been the effect of grace. I think I may
say to those who are the beginners in the divine life, so long as your
call is real, rest assured it is divine. If it is a call that will suit
the remarks which I am about to give you in the second part of the
discourse, even though you may have thought that God's hand is not in
it, rest assured that it is, for nature could never produce effectual
calling. If the call be effectual, and you are brought out and brought
in–brought out of sin and brought to Christ, brought out of death into
life, and out of slavery into liberty, then, though thou canst not see
God's hand in it, yet it is there.
II. I have thus illustrated effectual calling. And now as a matter of
EXAMINATION let each man judge himself by certain characteristics of
heavenly calling which I am about to mention. If in your Bible you turn
to 2 Timothy 1:9, you will read these words–"Who hath saved us, and
called us with an holy calling." Now here is the first touchstone by
which we may try our calling–many are called but few are chosen,
because there are many kinds of call, but the true call, and that only,
answers to the description of the text. It is "an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." This
calling forbids all trust in our own doings and conducts us to Christ
alone for salvation, but it afterwards purges us from dead works to
serve the living and true God. If you are living in sin, you are not
called; if you can still continue as you were before your pretended
conversion, then it is no conversion at all; that man who is called in
his drunkenness, will forsake his drunkenness; men may be called in the
midst of sin, but they will not continue in it any longer. Saul was
anointed to be king when he was seeking his father's asses; and many a
man has been called when he has been seeking his own lust, but he will
leave the asses, and leave the lust, when once he is called. Now, by
this shall ye know whether ye be called of God or not. If ye continue
in sin, if ye walk according to the course of this world, according to
the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, then are ye
still dead in your trespasses and your sins; but as he that hath called
you is holy, so must ye be holy. Can ye say, "Lord, thou knowest all
things, thou knowest that I desire to keep all thy commandments, and to
walk blamelessly in thy sight. I know that my obedience cannot save me,
but I long to obey. There is nothing that pains me so much as sin; I
desire to be quit and rid of it; Lord help me to be holy"? Is that the
panting of thy heart? Is that the tenor of thy life towards God, and
towards his law? Then, beloved, I have reason to hope that thou hast
been called of God, for it is a holy calling wherewith God doth call
his people.
Another text. In Philippians 3:13 and 14 you find these words.
"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
those which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high
calling, has it lifted up your heart, and set it upon heavenly things?
Has it lifted up your hopes, to hope no longer for things that are on
earth, but for things that are above? Has it lifted up your tastes, so
that they are no longer grovelling, but you choose the things that are
of God? Has it lifted up the constant tenor of your life, so that you
spend your life with God in prayer, in praise, and in thanksgiving, and
can no longer be satisfied with the low and mean pursuits which you
followed in the days of your ignorance? Recollect, if you are truly
called it is a high calling, a calling from on high, and a calling that
lifts up your heart, and raises it to the high things of God, eternity,
heaven, and holiness. In Hebrews 3:1, you find this sentence. "Holy
brethren partakers of the heavenly calling." Here is another test.
Heavenly calling means a call from heaven. Have you been called, not of
man but of God? Can you now detect in your calling, the hand of God,
and the voice of God? If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy
calling of God? and is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven? Can
you heartily say that you can never rest satisfied till you
–"behold his face
And never, never sin,
But from the rivers of his grace,
Drink endless pleasures in."
Man, unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven is thy home, thou hast
not been called with a heavenly calling, for those who have been so
called, declare that they look for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God, and they themselves are strangers and
pilgrims upon the earth.
There is another test. Let me remind you, that there is a passage in
scripture which may tend very much to your edification, and help you in
your examination. Those who are called, are men who before the calling,
groaned in sin. What says Christ?–"I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance." Now, if I cannot say the first things
because of diffidence, though they be true, yet can I say this, that I
feel myself to be a sinner, that I loathe my sinnership, that I detest
my iniquity, that I feel I deserve the wrath of God on account of my
transgressions? If so, then I have a hope that I may be among the
called host whom God has predestinated. He has called not the righteous
but sinners to repentance. Self-righteous man, I can tell thee in the
tick of a clock, whether thou hast any evidence of election. I tell
thee–No; Christ never called the righteous; and if he has not called
thee, and if he never does call thee, thou art not elect, and thou and
thy self-righteousness must be subject to the wrath of God, and cast
away eternally. Only the sinner, the awakened sinner, can be at all
assured that he has been called; and even he, as he gets older in
grace, must look for those higher marks of the high heavenly and holy
calling in Christ Jesus.
As a further test,–keeping close to scripture this morning, for when
we are dealing with our own state before God there is nothing like
giving the very words of scripture,–we are told in the first epistle
of Peter, the second chapter, and the ninth verse, that God hath called
us out of darkness into marvelous light. Is that your call? Were you
once darkness in regard to Christ; and has marvelous light manifested
to you a marvelous Redeemer, marvelously strong to save? Say soul,
canst thou honestly declare that thy past life was darkness and that
thy present state is light in the Lord? "For ye were sometime darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of the light." That
man is not called who cannot look back upon darkness, ignorance, and
sin, and who cannot now say, that he knows more than he did know, and
enjoys at times the light of knowledge, and the comfortable light of
God's countenance.
Yet again. Another test of calling is to be found in Galatians, the
fifth chapter, and the fifteenth verse. "Brethren, ye have been called
into liberty." Let me ask myself again this question, Have the fetters
of my sin been broken off, and am I God's free man? Have the manacles
of justice been snapped, and am I delivered–set free by him who is the
great ransomer of spirits? The slave is not called. It is the free man
that has been brought out of Egypt, who proves that he has been called
of God and is precious to the heart of the Most High.
And yet once more, another precious means of test in the first of
Corinthians, the first chapter, and the ninth verse. "He is faithful by
whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord." Do I have fellowship with Christ? do I converse with him,
commune with him? Do I suffer with him, suffer for him? Do I sympathize
with him in his objects and aims? Do I love what he loves; do I hate
what he hates? Can I bear his reproach; can I carry his cross; do I
tread in his steps; do I serve his cause, and is it my grandest hope
that I shall see his kingdom come, that I shall sit upon his throne,
and reign with him? If so, then am I called with the effectual calling,
which is the work of God's grace, and is the sure sign of my
predestination.
Let me say now, before I turn from this point, that it is possible for
a man to know whether God has called him or not, and he may know it too
beyond a doubt. He may know it as surely as if he read it with his own
eyes; nay, he may know it more surely than that, for if I read a thing
with my eyes, even my eyes may deceive me, the testimony of sense may
be false, but the testimony of the Spirit must be true. We have the
witness of the Spirit within, bearing witness with our spirits that we
are born of God. There is such a thing on earth as an infallible
assurance of our election. Let a man once get that, and it will anoint
his head with fresh oil, it will clothe him with the white garment of
praise, and put the song of the angel into his mouth. Happy, happy man!
who is fully assured of his interest in the covenant of grace, in the
blood of atonement, and in the glories of heaven! Such men there are
here this very day. Let them "rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I
say rejoice."
What would some of you give if you could arrive at this assurance?
Mark, if you anxiously desire to know, you may know. If your heart
pants to read its title clear it shall do so ere long. No man ever
desired Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire, who did
not find him sooner or later. If thou hast a desire, God has given it
thee. If thou pantest, and criest, and groanest after Christ, even this
is his gift; bless him for it. Thank him for little grace, and ask him
for great grace. He has given thee hope, ask for faith; and when he
gives thee faith, ask for assurance; and when thou gettest assurance,
ask for full assurance; and when thou hast obtained full assurance, ask
for enjoyment; and when thou hast enjoyment, ask for glory itself; and
he shall surely give it thee in his own appointed season.
III. I now come to finish up with CONSOLATION. Is there anything here
that can console me? Oh, yes, rivers of consolation flow from my
calling. For, first, if I am called then I am predestinated, there is
no doubt about it. The great scheme of salvation is like those chains
which we sometimes see at horse-ferries. There is a chain on this side
of the river fixed into a staple, and the same chain is fixed into a
staple at the other side, but the greater part of the chain is for the
most part under water, and you cannot see it: you only see it as the
boat moves on, and as the chain is drawn out of the water by the force
that propels the boat. If today I am enabled to say I am called, then
my boat is like the ferry-boat in the middle of the stream. I can see
that part of the chain, which is named "calling," but blessed be God,
that is joined to the side that is called "election," and I may be also
quite clear that it is joined on to the other side, the glorious end of
"glorification." If I be called I must have been elected, and I need
not doubt that. God never tantalized a man by calling him by grace
effectually, unless he had written that man's name in the Lamb's book
of life. Oh, what a glorious doctrine is that of election, when a man
can see himself to be elect. One of the reasons why many men kick
against it is this, they are afraid it hurts them. I never knew a man
yet, who had a reason to believe that he himself was chosen of God, who
hated the doctrine of election. Men hate election just as thieves hate
Chubb's patent locks; because they cannot get at the treasure
themselves, they therefore hate the guard which protects it. Now
election shuts up the precious treasury of God's covenant blessings for
his children–for penitents, for seeking sinners. These men will not
repent, will not believe; they will not go God's way, and then they
grumble and growl, and fret, and fume, because God has locked the
treasure up against them. Let a man once believe that all the treasure
within is his, and then the stouter the bolt, and the surer the lock,
the better for him. Oh, how sweet it is to believe our names were on
Jehovah's heart, and graven on Jesus' hands before the universe had a
being! May not this electrify a man of joy, and make him dance for very
mirth?
Chosen of God ere time began.
Come on, slanderers! rail on as pleases you. Come on thou world in
arms! Cataracts of trouble descend if you will, and you, ye floods of
affliction, roll if so it be ordained, for God has written my name in
the book of life. Firm as this rock I stand, though nature reels and
all things pass away. What consolation then to be called: for if I am
called, then I am predestinated. Come let us at the sovereignty which
has called us, and let us remember the words of the apostle, "For ye
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that
are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he
that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
A second consolation is drawn from the grand truth, that if a man be
called he will certainly be saved at last. To prove that, however, I
will refer you to the express words of scripture: Romans 11:29–"The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance." He never repents of
what he gives, nor of what he calls. And indeed this is proved by the
very chapter out of which we have taken our text. "Whom he did
predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also
justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified," everyone of
them. Now, believer, thou mayest be very poor, and very sick, and very
much unknown and despised, but sit thee down and review thy calling
this morning, and the consequences that flow from it. As sure as thou
art God's called child today, thy poverty shall soon be at an end, and
thou shalt be rich to all the intents of bliss. Wait awhile; that weary
head shall soon be girt with a crown. Stay awhile; that horny hand of
labor shall soon grasp the palm branch. Wipe away that tear; God shall
soon wipe away thy tears for ever. Take away that sigh–why sigh when
the everlasting song is almost on thy lip? The portals of heaven stand
wide open for thee. A few winged hours must fly; a few more billows
must roll o'er thee, and thou wilt be safely landed on the golden
shore. Do not say, "I shall be lost; I shall be cast away." Impossible.
Whom once he loves he never leaves,
But loves them to the end.
If he hath called thee, nothing can divide thee from his love. The wolf
of famine cannot gnaw the bond; the fire of persecution cannot burn the
link, the hammer of hell cannot break the chain; old time cannot devour
it with rust, nor eternity dissolve it, with all its ages. Oh! believe
that thou art secure; that voice which called thee, shall call thee yet
again from earth to heaven, from death's dark gloom to immortality's
unuttered splendours; Rest assured, the heart that called thee, beats
with infinite love towards thee, a love undying, that many waters
cannot quench, and that floods cannot drown. Sit thee down; rest in
peace; lift up thine eye of hope, and sing thy song with fond
anticipation. Thou shall soon be with the glorified, where thy portion
is; thou art only waiting here to be made meet, for the inheritance,
and that done, the wings of angels shall waft thee far away, to the
mount of peace, and joy, and blessedness, where
Far from a world of grief and sin,
With God eternally shut in,
thou shall rest for ever and ever. Examine yourselves then whether you
have been called.–And may the love of Jesus be with you. Amen.