Spurgeon: October PM
* 10/11/PM
"Whom He did predestinate, them He also called."
--Romans 8:30
In the second epistle to Timothy, first chapter, and ninth
verse, are these words--"Who hath saved us, and called us with
an holy calling." Now, here is a touchstone by which we may
try our calling. It is "an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace." 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. As He that hath called you is
holy, so must you be holy. If you are living in sin, you are not
called, but if you are truly Christ's, you can say, "Nothing
pains me so much as sin; I desire to be rid of it; Lord, help me
to be holy." Is this the panting of thy heart? Is this the tenor
of thy life towards God, and His divine will? Again, in
Philippians , 3:13, Philippians , 3:14, we are told of "The high calling of God
in Christ Jesus." Is then your calling a high calling? Has it
ennobled your heart, and set it upon heavenly things? Has it
elevated your hopes, your tastes, your desires? Has it upraised
the constant tenor of your life, so that you spend it with God
and for God? Another test we find in Hebrews 3:1--"Partakers of
the heavenly calling." Heavenly calling means a call from
heaven. If man alone call thee, thou art uncalled. Is thy
calling of God? Is it a call to heaven as well as from heaven?
Unless thou art a stranger here, and heaven 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. Is thy calling thus
holy, high, heavenly? Then, beloved, thou hast been called of
God, for such is the calling wherewith God doth call His people.