Walk Worthy of God's Calling

Okay, Ephesians 4. I just want to deal with v. 1 today, but let's read the first three. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So this morning, just v. 1. I've entitled my sermon Worthy of God's Calling. I have four headings and they flow right from four words that you find in v. 1. Urge. You may have a different translation than the ESV. If you do, the word is likely to be entreat or beseech. Number one, urge. Number two, walk. Number three, worthy. Number four, calling. So that's what I want to look at. Urge. Let's think about that word for starters. Urge. Like I say, your Bible, it may be entreat or beseech. Let me give you just a standard maybe Webster's Dictionary definition of these terms, which is not far off of the Greek definition here. But just entreat. To ask earnestly. To implore. You like that word implore? I implore you. That doesn't sound casual. Urge. You know what urge sounds like? It sounds very close to urgency. Beseech means to implore urgently. Urge. You look at urge. It carries the idea to push or force along. Impel with force or vigor. To drive with incitement, to speed or effort. To press, push, or hasten. Now, what I want you to see about this, and this is very telling in the original language here, the very first word in the Greek is this. Urge. In fact, if you look at something like Young's literal translation, which gives you more of an order of words according to the way the Greek has it, listen to how it would come across. "...Urge you therefore, do I, the prisoner of the Lord, to walk worthily of the calling with which you are called." Urge you, therefore. What you have to recognize is this, when you wrap up chapter 3 and you come into chapter 4, the very first word he hits you with as this transition takes place. Last week, we looked heavily at the word therefore. And just the significance of that. But you know what the first word is in the original? It is that urge. That takes the prominent position here. The verse opens literally, "...Urge you therefore, do I, the prisoner of the Lord, to walk worthily..." We start chapter 4 with this idea. Pressure. Think about urge. "...To push or force along, impel with force or vigor, to drive with incitement, to speed or effort, to press, push, or hasten." We start chapter 4 with a push. It's an apostolic push. An apostolic encouragement. Do you realize what this is saying to us? One thing it's saying is that the Christian life... This is essential. What it's saying to us is that the Christian life doesn't happen spontaneously. The Christian life does not just simply happen naturally. You urge somebody. You encourage somebody. You implore somebody. There is this urgent imploring. Why? Because in the apostolic mind, he recognizes this. If I encourage them and I push them, hopefully they will respond to the push and they will excel beyond where they would have been if I wouldn't have encouraged them, implored them, pushed them. That's the reality. You don't encourage, implore urgently, and impel with force and press and push if you believe that for the Christian to walk worthily, it just sort of happens. This is key. Because you know what? As we come into these practical teachings here, if you will be pushed, I mean, if you'll hear this, like wow, he's really encouraging me to do this. For one, that means he believes it's possible for me to excel beyond where I am if I will heed his urgent call. That's key. Listen, I'll tell you this, if you were to find out that James Jennings stood up here this morning and preached that message on the tongue, the use of the mouth, and you actually heard him say, well, you know, I had to preach Sunday morning. And I was looking for material and I came about that. Well, did that have any effect on your life? Well, I don't know that it really affected my life at all. I wasn't really studying that to affect my life. I had to preach. I get paid by the church to preach. That might be the same way that you approach this message. Somebody could be in here and say, well, you know, we hear these messages. They're going to come along. Hopefully, there will be something in each of the messages that maybe will be interesting or stir my mind or maybe convict me or something. But listen, listen, with such an urgent, impelling right at the beginning, I would say this, he believes that we can get beyond where we are. For one thing, you don't urge people like this unless you believe that they can get beyond where they are. And it's possible. Look, if you approach the Christian life, well, I'm just a failure. And I don't really have much expectation beyond that. I think you're missing the whole flavor of such urgency. You see, what you want to find out is that you know what? James studied the material that he studied from Proverbs not just to teach you, but because he really desires to be changed from it. And I would say that as we're going into this chapter 4, with such urgency, with such an imploring, you can just miss this. You cannot hear this. Or you could say, yeah, you know what? I mean to be changed. I am going to expose myself to the teaching of the Apostle Paul in these chapters ahead. And you know what? I mean to change. I mean to do what is necessary to come out of this thing more worthy. Walking more worthy of this calling to which I have been called. I know this doesn't naturally happen. There needs to be effort. There needs to be striving on my part. There needs to be a determination in your mind that you know what? I am going to be confronted by standards. James knew this. Going into that study he was dealing with today, he knows he's going to look at himself in this mirror of Scripture and be faced by a standard that he's going to have to say, I don't measure up. Anybody else out there squirming? You see, the thing is, you hear these things. It's not just enough to squirm. What you really need to do is you need to set your sights on, okay, let's squirm as we go through this. Let's be honest. Let's face where we fail. Let's face where we fall short. Because listen, right off, if you're not honest, you're not going anywhere. If you just basically approach everything, I don't need help. I don't need growth. I don't need to be convicted. I don't need to heed this urge. This urge tells me... it's coming from a man who's inspired, yes, but he's excited about this. He's putting pressure because he believes these people can be motivated by the therefore. Remember, he's deducing from all the glories of those first three chapters. He's talking. He really feels that this is motivational and this can propel us and compel us to reach further and higher and to be changed. Not just to come here and say, well, that's what I do on Sundays. I go to the church meeting and I hear the preaching. But actually, listen, it's painful. If you ask James while he was studying or even some of you, you can tell when you were listening to the message today. Well, it's going to be like that in the chapters ahead. We're going to confront ourselves. Do you know the first thing we're going to confront ourselves is pride, humility, all the different ways that that can manifest itself or gentleness or lack thereof, patience, love. But this is the way someone talks who believes that coasting doesn't get you there. Like, you know, if you're at a football game and you're cheering on the team, or I would go to Joshua's track meets and he's coming down, what do you say? Go! Run! Run! Run! Why? Because you're hoping he's going to hear that voice. He's going to hear Dad's voice. He's going to hear family up there. And that's going to give him that little extra push, that little extra incentive. Why? Because you believe that your yelling can really help stir and compel. That's what you're hoping for. That's what he's hoping for here. That where you are right now and the way you're walking in this life right now, that you can actually get beyond where you are and simply coasting isn't the thing. This is the way someone talks who believes that none of us have yet attained all there is to be attained. You talk this way when you believe there's more. When you can press in further, higher up. But this is also the way someone talks who believes that if we do exert ourselves, we can attain to a walk that really is worthy of the calling to which we've been called. He doesn't set this as some target that's just so unreachable that you should just sit down in despair and make no effort to excel at. There's nothing here to make us think that what Paul presses us towards is impossible of laying hold of. The very fervor of his urgency here ought to make us realize it's only going to be laid hold of by exerting ourselves. And I was thinking this time of year. It's a little bit late, but you think with me. The question of the hour is this. How committed are we to this? If a football coach, you know how it is. August comes around. Football players are in two-a-day practices. The football coach is urgently shouting at the guys, but he's not doing it with no purpose. He knows this, that if these guys will work and they will work and they will work and they will give themselves, and they won't go out and get drunk with the other guys that aren't on the football team on Friday night, and they'll work hard, and they'll think football night and day. You know what he can tell them? There will be success. There will be victory. There may be championships out there. There may be trophies. But you press that way. And you know what you get? You get some football players like many of them I went to high school with stay up late, drink on the weekends, eat candy bars, and you know what? You end up 500 at the end of the season. Look, there's reality to this. There's guys, they think football. They want to eat right. They're exercising. They're seeking to be on that edge. Well, that's worldly sports. We're running a race of life. We're the people of God. What commitment level are we going into this with? Or you take a teacher. That also happens this time of year. You get the new semester starts. A teacher applies pressures to his students in September during the first week of college classes. My son and daughter are experiencing that kind of thing. But you know, you get the college professor and he's urging the children. If you get a good one, some of those guys don't really care. But you get a good one, you come in, he says to the students, look, I'll tell you right up front, one of the ways that will really help you get great in this class is come to all the classes. If you skip classes, it's not going to go good. Evaluate yourself of my office hours, because I'll meet with you and I'll help you. And you know what the promise is there? The promise is there, good grades. You end up with a better grade point average. In the end, hopefully you end up with a better job. See, there's something to this. There's rewards. There's a promise here. And you know what you get? You know what you get in college? Some guys that just basically try to just survive. Just try to get by. Just try to get by with a passing grade. But if you ever watch people that just try to get by with passing grades, their heart's not in this thing. And you compare that to a person who is a straight-A student. And you watch the differences. You know what? There is a difference. As we go into chapter four, what do you want? You want 500? You want a, you know, that's the football motif. You want a C? We should be striving for A+. Why? Because of the incentive He's going to urge us with. I mean, the calling to which we've been called. It's like, do you know who you are? If you do, Paul gives us the promise. And if you think about coming out of those first three chapters, you just think about the things He said. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Have you just got to where you yawn when you hear that? Oh, we've heard that so much over the last couple of years. We're seated with Him in heavenly places. We're filled with all the fullness of God. Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. Or that we have access to the Father through Christ in one Spirit. We're the dwelling place of God. I mean, there's this promise. All these promises. And we're being called upon to walk worthy of the calling that God has called us to. This is the question. Are you decided to succeed? And it doesn't start right now. Are you decided to take the message you heard in the first hour and say, you know what, that convicts me, but I just don't want to go out of here convicted. I want to go out of here changed. My wife doesn't really know this happened. But a couple of weeks back, I'm driving down Commerce Street. And I'm coming up on a street light, and I've got a green light. And the guy comes up the other way, and he makes a right on red. But I don't think he even stopped. He just kind of went through it. And I was really close to him. And you know, I didn't over break. I just kind of flew up real close behind him. And my wife said something about just doing that because you're trying to punish the guy. And she was mildly rebuking me. And I thought, well, that's exactly what I'm doing. And I thought, I'm not going to do that anymore. Because there have been various times my wife has said, you know, this is what you're doing. And I've said, like when she's not looking, I turn to the Lord and I say, Lord, that was exactly what I was doing. And I don't want to do that anymore. But I hope you're like that. That's the way we've got to approach Scripture. Or it's like, something is pointed out to us and it's like, yes, I'm going to put forth an effort. This may not happen perfectly, but I'm going to draw a line in the sand. It's like I'm not going there anymore. And if I find myself there, I'm going to repent just like that. I'm going to back off of that. Are you decided to succeed? And like I say, it takes being honest. I mean, you've got to be dead honest. James could sit here and tell you, this convicted me. Yeah, and I was squirming over there too. And I can tell when my wife is nodding and I'm thinking, yeah, she's thinking about me. But if we don't admit where we fail, you're not going to do well. We've got to be honest. Honest with the Lord. Honest with each other. Because look, we're all in the same boat. We all are. We're people that need to be saved. We need the grace of God. We need the help of God. We need the power of God. Now the next word here is walk. You see it there. Ephesians 4.1, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk. Paul likes that word. You know how he uses it in other places? Very familiar verses. Walk in newness of life. We walk by faith and not by sight. With the guys on Thursday afternoon, we just looked at walking in the Spirit. He likes that word. Look with me here in Ephesians. He uses it repeatedly. Look at Ephesians 2.10. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Or you see this again in Ephesians 4.17. Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk, as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. Or look at 5.2. We're going to see this repeatedly in the days ahead. Walk. Walk in love as Christ loved and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Look at v. 8. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Just one more look at v. 15 of chapter 5. Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but wise. What's walk? It's used figuratively of how we live. It's our way of life. That's what walk is. But I like the imagery. Because let's think about the imagery of walking. The Christian life is given different imagery in Scripture. We may liken the Christian life to a battle. Can you think of any place where it's likened to a battle? Fight the good fight of faith. There's other places. Sometimes it's likened to running a race. Can you think of any place where it does that? How about Hebrews 12.1? Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. But you see, whether it's a battle, whether it's running a race, it conjures up certain imagery. The reason you use imagery like this is because there's something in the imagery that reflects some reality of what the Christian life is like. Different imagery tends to reflect different realities about the Christian life. Paul likens life to a boxing match. Why does he do that? Should we be boxing on each other? Actually, he's boxing himself. See, that's good. In fact, that's a good imagery as we take into Ephesians 4. Are you ready to beat on yourself? He says, I do not box as one beating the air. But what do you think of when you think of walking? What's that? What imagery does that produce? I can tell you this, it makes me think of movement. Just minimally, it makes me think of that. A walking man, he's going somewhere. He's not stationary. He's not idle. He's not laying on his behind. Now look, when I think of a walker, he's not running, he's not sprinting, but I think of consistency. You know, if you've got a guy walking, you may drive by this guy. Ah, look at the guy walking. We're in our car. You go around and you do something, but then you know, that guy can just keep walking at that speed. And you go do what you're doing and you drive. You can find that guy miles away. Later. It's like, hey, there's that guy. We passed before way over there. How'd he get over here? Well, he just walked. Because there's consistency. It's amazing how far... I don't know if you want to call it a fairy tale, but the rabbit and the hare wasn't... or the tortoise and the hare. I guess a rabbit is a hare. I mean, what's the moral of that story? If you're a turtle and you just keep walking, a lot of times you'll get places before the person who sprints, but he's hit and miss all the time, and he's always getting distracted. It's consistency. A walk is something that's maintained. We're going somewhere. Walking, walking, walking. Distinctly a progressive motion. I like that. Walking engages typically, if you're a normal walker, I mean, some people walk really stiff and their whole body may not be committed to it, but the average person, the whole body's committed to it. The walking engages, puts in action the whole man. You've got the legs moving, the arms back and forth. No part is left out. Lungs working. Torso swivels. Anyway, we're in this walk. Let's go to the next word. Worthy. Because this is a major word here. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Now, what I often do, is I've got my Bible works. I come across a word like this. I go to the Greek word. I look it up in my five or six lexicons. And I try to get a feel for these lexical meanings. Listen to a lexicon definition of this word worthy. Pertaining to having a relatively high degree of comparable merit or worth. Now, hear that more plainly. It's the idea of comparable value. That's the key. It's the idea that one thing has comparable weight or merit or value to something else. Imagine holding a scale. Scales deal with weights. Imagine the kind of scale that we had in chemistry. Where you basically have this thing and it's got pans on both sides. Not a bathroom scale. This is the kind where you put a weight on one side and then you put something on the other side and you make it balance. Typically, what you're doing is you're putting a known weight on this side and then that tells you what the weight of this thing is on the other side. But it's that idea. Imagine holding a scale in your hands. This is what Paul's saying. Imagine the scale. We get like Mrs. Liberty with her head. She's got the blindfold on and she's holding the scales. It's a picture of fairness and judgment in our court system. Imagine those scales. Do you know what Paul is doing here when he talks this way? He's saying take this calling. This has to do with the first three chapters. It has to do with the realities there. Take the glory of those first three chapters. Think, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. God has chosen us to stand before Him. God has adopted us. God has promised us an inheritance in those chapters. God has given us the Holy Spirit. God has given us redemption through the blood of His Son. God has allowed us to draw near by the blood of Christ. He's made us into this one new man. Together, we are this new man, this new creation. We are reconciled in one body to the Father. We have access to the Father by way of the Spirit. In one Spirit. We are this dwelling place for God. You think of these. You know what Paul's doing? He's putting all those realities on one side of the scale. And he's saying, now let your life be equal in weight. That's what this word means. You know what? Churches that don't preach Ephesians 1-3? Or they go over it in two sermons and they don't dive in and people don't see the glory? Well, that's no good. Paul wants us to see the glory. He wants us to feel it because he wants us to know the weight. But the reality is this, the more we are exposed to that glory, the more it's expected that our perception of that glory is going to result in us recognizing just what kind of weight there needs to be in the way we walk, in the way we live, in our practice. That's the idea. Look, however your head, we get people who come in the church. They love doctrine. Love doctrine. I want to learn all about this. I want to learn all about the election of God and being chosen before the foundation of the world. Oh, I love all this. But you know what? You know what's being said in a verse like this? The scales are always out there. And the more heavy, the more weighty, you see all of these realities on this side, the more it's expected that your conduct is going to be of such weight so that that scale stays even. That's what walking worthy. Walking in the same weight. Walking in a comparable manner. Comparable. That's what we need. That's what we must have. Brethren, can you imagine us? A bunch of people in the church? Imagine us carrying our scales around. And we're all walking around and we're getting all that heavy-duty doctrine. We get teaching, but all of our scales are like this. That's not what Paul is urging us towards. His urging is, bring those things into balance, folks. That's what the call is here. That's what it is. What sort of conduct is going to keep the scale balanced? And see, that's what I recognize. I recognize that flying up behind another car and getting right in his rear window because he practically ran the red light, that doesn't balance the scales. Oh yes, let's fly up behind the guy in the big Yukon highlights, put him right in that back window, and then I'm going to go home and I'm going to study Ephesians 3. Boy, look at the glory here. See, that's this. That's carrying the scales around and it's bad. It's bad. We're to walk comparable. Comparable. Remember the therefore. That means therefore. It's deductive. There's deductive reasoning here. I'm supposed to deduce that flying up behind people like that or misusing our mouth is not walking worthy of this weight of doctrine, this glory of this Gospel, this reality of who I am as a child of God. Simply, we're supposed to deduce what sort of life we ought to live in light of all these realities, brethren. And it's only when we really perceive how weighty these realities are, how great the weight is over here, this is no small salvation we're a part of. This thing is big. And it's the bigness of it, it's the weightiness of it that really causes us to see just how holy and righteous and blameless we ought to strive to be in order to put this balance equal. But, it's interesting. Going through the lexicons, we also see the word worthy carries the idea of suitable to. That's kind of like comparable. But actually, listen to this. The King James Version, many of us cut our teeth on that, but it speaks this way. A very similar verse. Don't turn there. Just listen to it. Philippians 1.27 in our ESD reads this. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. It's the same kind of impelling, urging. Listen to it again. Let your manner of life be worthy. That's our word. The King James Version says it this way. Only let your conversation or manner of life be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ. You see, our work, our walk, our actions, our life is to be becoming of who we are and who God is and what God has done for us. The idea conveyed here is matching. Lloyd-Jones likens it to a bunch of old ladies wearing clothing that only young people should wear. But it's the idea that your clothing isn't mismatched. It doesn't clash. It's suitable to. Just recently, I'm walking out of the house going somewhere and Ruby says, you're not going like that, are you? I'm like, what? Green plaid shorts and a blue almost polka dot polo shirt. I saw nothing wrong with that. But you see, we laugh. But just stand back and be in the myriad of angels as they watch. Here comes the guy who's preaching at that church over there all the time. Whoa, look how he just flew right up behind that car. That's not very becoming. Didn't Christ save that guy? Well, yeah, that happened that many years ago and he's still doing that. See, it doesn't become the Christian. That's the reality. It's a clash. And that's exactly what Paul is saying should not be true of our lives as Christians. Just listen to these verses. I urge you to walk in a manner worthy. Walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Or the one we just looked at in Philippians. Let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ. So it's the calling to which you've been called. Yes, walk worthy of that. Walk worthy of the Gospel of Christ. Let your life be of equal weight and not clash with the Gospel that you proclaim. Or there's this, Colossians 1.10, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Or 1 Thessalonians 2.12, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. You see, there are certain things that are not becoming. There are certain things that are a sharp contrast and clash. Do you know where we're going first? Humility. Gentleness. You all see it there. Patience. Love. Unity. Peace. See, humility and gentleness. That doesn't mean that there's not times like our Lord where you take the whip and you clear out the temple. But these are the things that are becoming. These are the things that are Christ-like. James took us to Christ and the way He spoke. And see, that's what we're going to be doing in the weeks ahead. We want to think. We really want to bring our minds back over and over and over again. How did Jesus... because you know before we get out of chapter 4, Paul's going to talk about the way you learned Jesus. See, we want to seek to imitate Him in all these things. He's the perfect model of humility. The perfect model of gentleness. The perfect model of patience and love. Striving for unity. So we're going to be looking at Him. We don't want to clash with Him. You see, you don't want Him over there looking green plaid. And you walk up next to Him and you're looking blue polka dot. That's what you don't want. That's what clashing really is when we don't look like Him. No clashing. Or you get it like this. I think Paul especially captures this. Don't turn again, but listen to Titus 2.10. Many of you know this. "...And everything adorn the doctrine of God our Savior." You see, the appeal is always to the doctrine. Here's unbelievable Gospel truths in Ephesians 1, 2, and 3. Take those and put them on. Cover yourself. The life must always issue from that. It must match that. It must be comparable to that. Listen, you're chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him. Wow! I've been selected out of all mankind for that. Yes, put that on and take that out into the world. You're the dwelling place of God. Put that on. Put that reality on. Filled with all the fullness of God. You're a people who are loved by Jesus Christ with dimensions of which it's unknowable the love of Christ for His people. You're the recipients of that. Robe yourself and go out. You're the recipients. We looked at the Song of Solomon. When He says, come away, it's to you, Christian, that He's talking. You're the favored ones. You're the people of Christ, the people for His own possession. Robe yourself with that reality and go. It must never be in conflict. Never contrary. Adorn yourself to match it. Adorn yourself to act that reality out. Lastly, calling. You see, this is really, in one sense, it's that which the first three chapters were all about. The calling to which you've been called. It's what's on the other side of the scales. It's what our activity needs to be comparable to. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Isn't that a unique way to say that? The calling to which you've been called. Christians, Christian, you're a person who has been called. Do you know another word we could use there? You've been summoned. Look, I know that this is a physical example, but it so captures the reality here. Lazarus, come forth! You see, Jesus called to a dead man and He came out. That is a wonderful picture of what we're talking about when we talk about the call. It's God speaking. That's what call means. His voice. Now look, I'm not talking about just the Gospels being preached. I'm talking there are people that when they get exposed to the Gospel, the voice of God comes through that Gospel and it rings on spiritual eardrums and they hear it. And it is a hearing that actually calls them forth from the dead. We're talking about an authoritative, powerful call of God. The call is something God does to you. And it's everywhere in the New Testament. Probably, we don't recognize just how often Scripture speaks this way. And I don't make any claim to try to deal with all the verses, but we're going to look at some of them just so that we might get a feel for what this call is. Go back to Ephesians 1.18. We came across this already. In Ephesians 1.18, this is Paul telling the Ephesians how he prayed for them the first time. He tells them again in Ephesians 3, remember the first time that he holds them up and prays. He's thanking God for them. He's praying that they would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of Him. In Ephesians 1.18, his prayer for them is that they would have eyes of their hearts enlightened. Notice the first thing in his list. "...That you may know what is the hope to which He has called you." Literally, this is what is the hope of His calling. See, this is the first step. "...That you might know it." That's what the first three chapters are all about, so that you might know just what you are called to. God has called you out of the tomb. And I'll tell you this, He didn't call you out of that tomb just to come away from the hellfire flames. He called you out of there to be a people of His personal possession and to live a certain way and to stand before Him holy and blameless. We need to remember that. So, one of my favorite places in all the Bible that deals with the call is found in 1 Corinthians. And I do want you to turn there. 1 Corinthians 1. When we know the hope of what it means to be called, we throw that on the scale. Our walk, our conduct, should be comparable, suitable, becoming of what's on the other side. So what can we say about this call? Because the more glorious you see it to be, the higher, more worthy, we are expected to walk. My first statement here is this call is never based on merit. God does not choose and pick the way we do. That is for sure. Look at this. 1 Corinthians 1.23 We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called. You know what? Another name for Christian is that. Those who are called. Out of all the masses of mankind, there's a people that have been called out. Both Jews and Greeks. So it doesn't go down ethnic lines. It tramples all over that. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, the weakness of God stronger than men. Now, here it is again. For consider your calling. Of course, this is if you have been called. If you have been called, consider the call. What he's saying is this. There's something true about it. I'm going to tell you. Consider it. Think about your call and you'll know this to be true. What? Not many of you were wise. I know it goes on to say according to worldly standards. This is good because we're coming into humility, right? Right at the beginning. We're the fools, basically. Not many powerful were the weak. Not many of noble birth were the nobodies. But God chose. Now, isn't that interesting? Because he said call before, but now he moves, he transitions to a different word. What that means is God calls. God chooses. He chooses who He calls. God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. Look, that's okay. I'll readily acknowledge it. In my lost days, I was a fool. I was weak. I was a nobody. I was not of noble birth. And you know what? If that's what is the reality behind most people who get saved, wouldn't you rather come from that stock and get saved? I know I would. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And I would just say this, if a king comes along and he chooses, he calls out of the crowd. You know, the king in all of his pomp and circumstance, and he's parading through and he looks over in the crowd. And there's a poor beggar kid over there. And he calls him out. And he says, I'm going to give you money and I'm going to give you nice clothes, but I'm going to adopt you. I'm going to make you my own son. How are you going to walk around then? Like some spoiled brat? You're going to walk around like you're still a slum beggar? I mean, if he adopts you, should you still be on the corner begging? We need to live like we are who we are according to the calling to which we've been called. We've been called by the King of Kings. Look, we are these beggars. We come from poor stock, most of us. It's something He does to us. And you remember what Jesus said. No one can come unto Me unless My Father who sent Me draws him. And there is a draw. He speaks. He summons. And we come. We come. Why? Because in that call is life. It's a call of life. It's a call of power. Then there's this. You don't need to turn. Very quickly, I'm going to move through these. Romans 1-6 Called to belong to Jesus Christ. Oh, if there's a doctrine to adorn yourself with, I have been called to belong to Him. I'm His possession. He owns everything. But you know what that means? That means I'm among the people that He has made His own. The people that He has made His bride. The people of His intimacy. The people of His salvation. The people who are going to be with Him forever. And I'm one of those. So, adorn yourself with that reality. God is faithful. This is 1 Corinthians 1-9. By whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son. So we're called to belong to Christ. We're called into the fellowship of Christ. In Hebrews 9-15, He says this. He says, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them. See, the called are the redeemed. And a death has taken place. We're called to belong to Christ, to fellowship with Christ. We're called to be saved by Christ. Here's another thing. The call happens in time. When we talk about foreknowing or predestinating, I mean, you can't pin those down. That's before the world began. That's eternity. But when it comes to the call, listen to this. This is 1 Corinthians 7. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. He says, each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. He who is called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise, he who is free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You see what Paul's saying? There's a time you're called. There's a condition you were in when you were called. It happens at a point of time. We may not be able to identify the exact moment, but being saved is something that happens in the course of time. Whether you can identify the moment or not, there's a moment when that voice came to you and you were called forth from the dead and you came raised up with Christ. That's the teaching of the Scripture. It happens prior to justification. Why is that important? You know the text that affirms that. Romans 8.30, those whom He predestined, He also called. Those whom He called, there's our call, He also justified. See, that comes after. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. What's important about that? The call happens then justification. We're justified by faith, which means God calls and then we believe and are justified. Faith is something that is the natural outflow of God calling us and giving us life. It happens through the Gospel. That's key. Listen to this verse. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this, He called you through the Gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. But hear that. Called through the Gospel. Look, God does His calling through the instrumentation of His Word. Never forget that. If we want to see people converted, we need to be preaching the Word. We need to send them to the Word. We need to have their eyeballs in the Word. They need to be finding the Christ of the Word. They need to be going to Scriptures. That's where the calling... God has given His Word, preserved His Word to speak through that Word so that His voice might awaken the dead and call them. And then just listen to the glory and excellence called... 2 Thessalonians 2.14 Called that you may obtain the glory... I know we're just about done, but don't miss this. I can't capture all that this is, but hear this. You're just living along your kind of mundane life. Remember who you are and where you're going. What you're called to. 2 Thessalonians 2.14 Called that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now somebody might say, well, I think that means this. And somebody else says, I think that means that. I'll tell you, whatever it means, that you want. You're called for that. Wherever you may live, whatever lowly occupation you may have, or maybe not, however you feel like you're walking this Christian life, you're suffering, you're not in the limelight, maybe you feel like you're kind of alone in certain circumstances. Before you have any kind of pity party, remember this. You are called to suffer. Scripture says that. But you remember what's after this. You are called that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2.12 God calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 1 Peter 2.9 He's called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 5.10 He's called you to His eternal glory in Christ. 2 Peter 1.3 Called us to His own glory and excellence. I just say this, brethren, adorn yourself with that and live comparable to who you are. Walking around in pride, walking around not gracious, not gentle, not patient, and it's not becoming and it's not a comparable weight. Adorn yourselves. Let our scales be in balance, brethren. Let our clothing not clash. As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Brethren, remember this. You are called. Walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called. Don't walk unworthy. Don't walk with the scales all ajar and tilted. Comparable. Walk worthy. Walk worthy. Paul is every bit expecting you can. Not that it's impossible. Not that you're incapable. Not that what he's about to say for three chapters is useless verbiage spent for no reason. He's expecting that by the grace of God, we have been called. That means God has given us every spiritual resource in the heavenly places to walk this way. So brethren, let us walk worthy of the Lord. Father, we ask You to change us, help us, grow us, press us further on, to hear this urging of the Apostle Paul and to take it to heart. Walk. Lord, I pray that there would be a consistency, a consistent progress in the brethren here. I pray this in Christ's name, Amen.