MAKE CERTAIN OF HIS CALLING AND CHOOSING OF YOU!

ARE We Certain that We Are

CHOSEN OF GOD

1. 
   

The question we ask is as old as the FAITH – “How can I be sure I am truly chosen of God?”

In Matt 22 – and the Parable of the Wedding Feast, - the King sent out His servants to invite first the Jews and then the Gentiles to come. In the end, although all had been called, only some came.

Yeshua summed up this “kingdom mystery with 7 plain words: “many are called, only the few are chosen.”

Later, the writer to the Hebrews says it this way: - “For indeed we had good news preached to us, just as they also, but the word they heard did not profit them because it was united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He said “As I swore in My wrath - (Psa 95:11) - “they shall not enter my rest.” although His works were finished before the foundation of the world. Heb 4:2-3

We ALL believe we have been CALLED! So how can we be certain we've been CHOSEN?

2 Pet 1:1-11 --- (Would you all take one moment to READ this passage for yourselves?)

Peter's faith was more than intellectual belief; Peter's faith was the abiding conviction of His heart concerning the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. He was driven by an unshakable assurance of the life transforming power of the Word which dwelt richly in his heart – and to this word and this vision, Peter remained faithful all the days of his earthly life. His faith was evidenced by his obedience to the commandments of Yeshua; for this was the Law that was written on his heart'; “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all Thy Mind and Strength, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Peter, by this law, was under the compelling hand of God to serve the least of the brethren of his own generation – and to walk in the purity of holiness before God thus demonstrating to the watching world a life wholly devoted to the single purpose for which Yeshua had laid his hand upon him.

What once Peter had mistakenly called “little faith” was shown to be “no faith” at all.

If we would have a faith like Peter's the same Holy Spirit who indwelt Him and empowered him for his ministry of service must dwell in us and empower us also, and in like manner.

And when we do possess a faith of the same kind as Peter, an experimental reality to which he himself exhorts us, then our assurance of having been chosen of God will be every bit as sure and unshakable as his own. Sure and immovable – but something he would never take for granted – and nor should we. It's only as we continue in our obedience to the word of Christ that we demonstrate the perseverance of faith – and if we endure until the very end, we shall as surely inherit the promise of God along with peter, and together with him, we shall spend eternity in the presence of God through the person of our Lord and Messiah, Yeshua. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen!

Not everyone who is truly called of God has yet attained to what might be called the maturity of the faith. But we can not, and indeed we should not, take any comfort or licence from this, Who can say that you or I might prove to be merely temporary as did so many of those in that wonderful parable of the Seeds? Not not everyone of those who is truly chosen of God has yet attained to the maturity of the faith. Peter tells us that Kingdom Babies feed on the pure milk of the word, whilst mature men, feed on the pure meat of the mysteries of the Kingdom.

For some people however, things never seem to work out quite as they would like it. They are restless souls – always hungry always thirsty, never eating never drinking, always looking always longing, never entering in. The word they so eagerly received and told everyone about seems to have been snatched away – or become tangled in thorns or weeds – or lost by the wayside. Why? Because it was never truly united in the heart with faith. The faith of their repentance was “little faith” - incomplete and insufficient to get the job done. Such people were never fully persuaded by the message they heard – never truly united to the Lord and Saviour they claimed to have trusted in. Friends, it may be unpleasant, it be distressing, but we are going to have to face this truth before we stand before Him. We have to see this, we have to appreciate it and we need to understand it if we are ever going to be assured that we are truly chosen of God – or ever going to prove effective in our works of service to the House of God.

2.5 million men who God led out of Egypt under Moses. Only two from that entire generation made it across Jordan into the land of Promise. Joshua and Caleb – men of whom God testified saying “These are men of a different spirit.” The rest of their generation perished after 40 years of aimless wandering in a barren desert – a waterless wilderness. For God has sworn in His wrath “They shall not enter their rest.” on account of their faithlessness, and unbelief.

The writer to the Hebrews tells us that - “these things happened to them as an example to us.” - Friends, we need to take note of this scripture lest we presume too much and realise too little: You know, John Calvin – the one who designed the classical doctrines of elective grace and Predestination believed that there would be more people in heaven than in hell. I hope he's right; but the Testimony of Yeshua is against his optimism; Many are called but few are chosen. Only a few in every generation make it inside of that narrow gate, because hard is the way that leads to life, and few there be who find it.