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NDbeside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-11)
Simply believing is not sufficient to make our election in Christ sure; for “devils also believe and tremble.” Churches are filled Sunday after Sunday with “believing” Christians who live the life of the lost. They hear the Word preached, they believe the Word preached; but they fail to LIVE the Word preached. Saving faith requires action based on the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.
The early hours of evening seem to be an opportune time for computer calls in America. I receive so many of them (even though I am on the proscribed list) that I simply do not answer if I do not recognize the number calling. Yet, the call was made whether it is answered it or not. Judas, the betrayer, was called but not finally chosen. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matt 22:14) There is a general calling, or outward calling that in God’s justice, goes out to all mankind. But there is an inward calling to which those who are the elect of God from before the foundation of the world will respond by both faith and life. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” (John 15:16)God knows who His chosen are and who will finally respond in full faith and action to His Call.
All whom the Father hath given to the Son will come to Him, and will rest in the security of his salvation. Our Lord will not lose a single soul placed into His hand by the Father. The elect of God have an assurance of their salvation that is not subject to exception: “And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17:11-1)
There is also a firm claim in Scripture that none are saved by good works. This is absolutely true. Our salvation is not subject to any merit on our part, but the effectual calling of the Holy Ghost. What is the ‘effectual calling of the Holy Spirit? “29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30)Here are the parts of the Call in Christ:
1. God knew us before the worlds were made – a fact that should be of joyous reception;
2. He predestined His elect to be conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ;
3. Those who were predestined to receive it were CALLED;
4. those elect whom He called, He also justified (accounted them righteous, not by their own merits, but that imputed righteousness of His Son);
5. those elect whom God justified He also has glorified.
These are accomplished facts! Even our failures will work together for our good. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”(Romans 8:28)
There are far too many evidences to support the above texts quoted to list here; however, we could observe examples thereof. Remember the Great Supper of the King prepared for His Son. Many invited (called) did no appear. So many were gathered from the highways and byways (Gentiles). These were gathered, not by their own volition, but that of the King. Even so, one man appeared without a marriage garment – he was not chosen but rejected. He is very much like the Sunday-only Christian who appears righteous, but is only involved in Church for political, social or mercantile reasons – invited, called, but not chosen at last.
It should be pointed out again that salvation is not by works “lest any man should boast” but all of grace. But the Holy Spirit which draws the elect of God (with a jaw hook if necessary) will respond in a faith that is virile and active. “17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? (James 2:17-22)
The subject is far too broad to cover in a short devotion other than a summary one; I will give a very strong example of calling and election in the Old Testament.
There was a man who lived in Ur of the Chaldees who had little understanding of the true God. His name was Abram (later Abraham). He lived in good fashion there since he owned many cattle and other possessions. One day God called Abram personally: “1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
(Gen 12:1-3)
The above circumstances might give the common man of any success cause for pause, but not Abram, for he immediately obeyed. “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.”(Gen 12:4)But even the chosen of God are not faultless, and neither was Abram. Notice that God had told Abram to leave his father’s house and kindred behind, but Abram took Lot. The result of that seemingly small disobedience resulted in great sorrow for Abram when the judgment of Sodom was enacted by fire and brimstone.
God had told Abram to abandon all of his former life:
1. Leave his native country.
2. Leave his relatives.
3. Go to a strange land.
Abram obeyed these strange commands of God. God had promised to make of him a great nation in which all the nations of the world would be blessed – and He did! Abram was a part of God’s plan of redemption long before Adam fell from grace in the Garden at Eden. God worked all things together to fulfill His foreordained plans for Abram, and later for the coming of His only Begotten Son to fulfill that promise.
God later renamed Abram (good father) to Abraham (father of many nations). Abraham believed the promise of God for a Redeemer long before that promise was fulfilled. The faith of Abraham was tried time and again, but he never forgot the promise or the God who led him. Today, we, from the facts of the fulfillment of that great event in history, believe more easily. Unfortunately, our lives would be far richer if we believed with that same strong faith of Abraham.
He was called and chosen – foreordained and predestined – and God worked His perfect will through the life of Abraham. Do you feel you are an exception?
God has prophesied the rise and fall of nations; the appearance of prophets in their epoch; and He has given us His Son in the fullness of time. Do you believe He is unable to know and Elect feeble little you when no swallow falls to the earth without His knowing?
