Call of God and the Coming Night 1985

Reading from Romans chapter one, verse one. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. Paul knew that he was living under a call from God.

And that the purpose of his life was to fulfill that call. He didn't waste one minute sitting around brooding over whether to answer it, or whether to wait until his house was paid off, or until he found a wife, or until he saw his kids grown up. He knew what he had to do, and he did it.

Every day he did it. But for every man or woman like Paul, who knows that they're under a call and that their life will only make sense if they're responding to it, there are perhaps 50 who have received the call from God and who know that they have, but are all torn up inside trying to figure out when, or where, or how to answer this call. All mixed up over trying to compare their call with somebody else's.

To be a follower of Jesus is to be living under a call for everybody. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. To all God's beloved in Rome who are called to be saints, flipping into 1 Corinthians 1-9, God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

At some point in our life, if we're connected with the Kingdom of God at all, at some point in our life, in some way, through somebody speaking with us, or a book that we read, or a scripture, or an experience that took place, some crisis in our life, we heard Jesus say to us, follow me. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And for most of us here, recently, this thing has become more clear.

The Spirit of the Lord is stirring over the body, all over the earth, and saying to us, corporately and also to individuals, arise, shine, for your light has come. And the clearer this call becomes, and the stronger this call becomes, the heavier becomes the weight of urgency and the warning of judgment. Reading from John chapter 9, verse 1, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

We must work the works of him who sent me while in his day, night comes when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, go, wash in the pool of Siloam, which means scent.

So he went and washed and came back seeing. Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? The disciples are trying to speculate about somebody else's call instead of taking care of their own. What's the deal? What's this man's purpose? Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? What's the purpose of his blindness? Not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

This man's call is to manifest God and so is yours. We must work the works of him who sent me while in his day, night comes when no one can work. If you don't fulfill the call before the night falls, you never will.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people, but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. But that light will arise upon you, that glory will be seen upon you only if you arise and shine, only if you answer your call. If the darkness sweeps over the earth before you answer, you will be indulged in the darkness.

In American evangelicalism or Christendom, whatever you want to call us, there is a strange lack of urgency. Oh, we talk urgency, but on lies. We're not even too upset about the theory, the idea that there is a call on our lives, but the minute somebody begins to press us time-wise, put us under some kind of time pressure, we become resentful.

Don't push me. What's the hurry? I don't see anybody else that fired up. Besides, I have to survive in this world.

Give me a little time. But when the Holy Spirit says to the body, arise and shine for your light has come, he means now. There is a time limit.

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night comes when no one can work. The Israelites refused to go into the promised land while it was day and they entered into a night of judgment that lasted 40 years.

Jerusalem refused to receive its Messiah while it was day and they entered into a night of judgment which has continued for 20 centuries. The 12th chapter of Luke is a call to all who have ears to hear to enter into the kingdom of God seriously. And this call in Luke 12 centers, pivots around verse 32 and following this passage I would like to read.

Jesus is speaking to us. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms.

Provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old. Provide yourselves with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Let your loins be girded and your laps burned and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that when he comes and knocks, they may open to him at once. Now if the 12th chapter of Luke is a call, the 13th chapter of Luke is a warning, the whole 13th chapter, that there is only so long to fulfill that call and then it'll be too late. And that warning is first given not to the world at large but to the body.

We must work the works of him who sent us while it is day, night comes when no one can work. Luke 13 first of all tells us that today is the day to answer that call. Reading from the first verse of Luke 13, there were present at that very time some who were who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood potted had mingled with their sacrifices.

And he answered them, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered thus? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Unless you repent of your willful deafness to the call that I bring to you, says Jesus, you will all likewise perish.

The issue is not how come Pilate massacred these people. Were they worse offenders than others? That's not the issue. How come the tower of Siloam fell upon those 18? The issue is what are you doing? When will you repent of the soft, comfortable, predictable, insulated, boring churchianity and answer the call which you have already heard to something far more clean and clear and radical and definite? And he's telling us that the time to answer that call is right now.

Luke 13 goes on to tell us that today is the day to start bearing fruit from verse 6. And he told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none.

Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, let it alone, sir, this year also till I dig about it and put on manure. And if it bears fruit next year, well and good, but if it bears fruit if not, cut it down.

No fruit. Lots of activity, lots and lots and lots of words, religious talk, but no genuine kingdom life, no true worship, no true prayer, changed hearts, committed disciples. You got a club for nice people, he says.

I'm looking for fruit. Okay, give me another year till I dig around it, put on some manure, lots of manure. If it bears fruit, well and good, if not, cut it down.

As he has done in the case of every fruitless fig tree for the last 20 centuries. Side of Jesus we don't like to look at too much, but it's all there. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.

Luke 13 also tells us that today is the day to pass through that narrow door from Babylon into the kingdom, New Jerusalem. Greetings from Luke 13, 22. He went on his way through the towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem.

He keeps going. Nobody gets him off his track. He's answering his call on and on and on toward Jerusalem and death.

And someone said to him, Lord, will those who are saved be few? And he said to them, strive to enter by the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us.

And he will answer. I do not know where you come from. And then you will begin to say, wait a minute.

We went to church all the time. We ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets.

But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There you will weep and gnash your teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and yourselves thrust out.

And men will come from east and west, Gentiles from north and south and sit at a table in the kingdom of God because they answered the call when it came to them. There is this narrow door. On this side of the door is Babylon.

On this side of the door is the kingdom. There has to be a point where we decidedly, definitely, clearly pass through the door. And of course, there is a narrow road, but you do not even walk the narrow road until you make that move through the door.

Granted, we are living in Babylon. This is Babylon. And if we started a monastery up on top of the mountain, we would still be Babylon.

You know, if we decided we would screen everybody, make sure everybody is truly committed to Jesus, it would still be Babylon. We have to live in it. But to survive Babylon, as Daniel survived Babylon, we have to live in the kingdom.

We have to do what Daniel did. Daniel made that switch through the narrow door. He passed through three times a day.

He goes to his room, opens the window facing Jerusalem and prays and worships the God of Israel. He is working in the front office of the king of Babylon, the devil. Yet this man belongs to the kingdom.

It has to be this way for us. There must be a clear-cut move, clear, so that from here on in, I am not on that side, I am on this side. Now I belong to the kingdom.

My life belongs to the kingdom, and nobody is going to tear me out of that. This is where I am. Now, you can't stand in the doorway.

You have to move. And there is a time limit here. When once the householder has risen up and closed the door, you're going to gather around outside the door, you're going to be pounding on it and hollering and saying, don't you remember me? I mean, we ate and drank at your table.

You taught in our streets. And I will say, I never knew you. Finally, Luke 13 tells us that today is the day to submit to Jesus, not as our chaplain, but as our Lord.

Luke 13, 31. At that very hour, some Pharisees came and said to him, get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you. Again, they're trying to distract him from fulfilling his call.

He doesn't budge. He said to them, go tell that fox. Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finished my course.

Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not. Behold, your house is forsaken.

I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jerusalem would have been tickled pink to have Jesus for its chaplain, just like all the ball teams have chaplains, to pray for it, to root for its success, to give it pep talks, to give it encouragement. What offended Jerusalem was that Jesus refused to be a chaplain and has the audacity to demand submission to Him.

Repentance, obedience, He's talking like a Messiah. He's acting like He's God. Who does He think He is, this Galilean? And so they kill Him.

Your house is desolate now. You're not going to see me again until the day you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, until you learn true worship. And the call which is coming to us afresh today is not coming from a chaplain.

It's coming from the Holy One of God, the firstborn of a new creation, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. And when He says, follow me, there's only one way to do it, and there's only one time to do it. I remember, excuse me, a woman who stood up in Bible study one Wednesday night last winter and thrilled us all as she praised God for the fact that for the first time in 15 years she had been off drugs for three weeks.

Every word that woman spoke that Wednesday night was straight from heaven, gorgeous, wisdom. Within a week, she was back on the street. Why didn't her vision last? Why didn't her decision hold? Oh, she wasn't urgent enough, you say.

And the Lord answers us, neither are you. When you are urgent enough, when you are working the works of Him who called you while it is day, that woman, and many like her, by your word and life, will be ranched out of the old past, violently brought into the kingdom, cleared from all the things that were sucking her down and still are. She doesn't belong on Verner Highway anymore than we belong in our little wilderness rut of mediocrity, lukewarmness, confusion, boredom, weakness, and self-hatred.

The call which came to many of us quite a while ago is coming stronger now. It is coming with increased urgency, and it is coming with the warning to get it together, to get moving before darkness covers this earth. We must work the works of Him who called us while it is day.

Night comes when no one can work.