The Call

Isaiah 55:1-3 ¹ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. ² Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. ³ Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (KJV)

Romans 11:29 (The Message) God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.

The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial or wild instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th century Klondike Gold Rushes.

Buck is a 4-year-old, 140 lb Saint Bernard/Scotch Shepherd (Scotch Collie) mix, which gives him the appearance of an exceptionally large wolf. He leads a comfortable life as the pet of Judge Miller in the Santa Clara Valley of Northern California. Judge Miller’s gardener’s assistant, Manuel, abducts the dog and sells him to a trainer of sled dogs, which were in great demand due to the discovery of “a yellow metal” in the frozen lands of the Yukon. Slowly introduced to the brutality of his new life, Buck is forced to survive and adapt to conditions in Alaska and the Yukon. He works pulling sleds with other dogs, learns to steal food, and engages in power struggle with other dogs for the lead position in the sled team. His owners soon learn that even though his enemy is “a devil,” Buck is “two devils.” He becomes the leader of the sled team. He changes hands many times before he is eventually acquired by a kind and loving owner, John Thornton. When Thornton is killed by “Yeehat” native Americans, Buck goes into a beastly rage and kills several members of the native tribe. Buck returns to the wild and becomes the alpha male of a wolf pack he met a few days after the death of Thornton.

In every creature, there lies buried something instinctive, something inexorable, something impossible to deny. It’s like a tree root that exerts such power that it can move a building off its foundation; it’s like an avalanche that begins its murderous descent destroying anything and everything in its path; it’s like the lava bursting from a volcano that breaches the earth’s crust and cannot be stopped until it spews itself hundreds of feet into the air.

It all began with Adam. Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. This detail of creation was unique to man alone. God breathed the breath of life into no other creature. I don’t know how you want to picture it; how it actually happened. This scripture makes it all so personal. Did God show up as a theophany, as “the Angel of the LORD?” Did he bend down to the lifeless creature he had just formed from the dust of the earth and blow into his nostrils?

I’m not sure how he did it, but whatever happened on that sixth day of creation, something of the divine essence was imparted from God into this creature we call man. We do know that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Genesis 1:27. That means that if I am separated from God, I am incomplete. If I have no communication with God, I am miserable. If I lose my connection with God, I am lost.

That lost connection is precisely what has happened to man.

Ephesians 2:11-12 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; ¹² That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ² But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

There is, therefore, a call sounding forth from the portals of heaven that spans the entire globe, pole to pole, north to south, east to west. This call never diminishes in its intensity; never loses its power in dead zones; never fails to find its target.

Whover you are, the call of God extends to you. Young or old, male or female, bond or free, Jew or Gentile, the call reaches every person. From the most barren and remote latitude and longitude to the densest populations centers; from the wide open prairies to the most secret bunkers or caves, God’s call cannot be shut out. It reached Moses on the backside of the desert; it reached Gideon hiding in the threshingfloor; it reached Jonah on board ship; it reached Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.

You can’t hide from it; you can’t outrun it; you can’t stop it; you can’t evade it. You ignore it at your own peril; you reject it at own destruction; you deny it to your own eternal damnation. It’s the call of God.

God is calling you out of this world.

1 Peter 2:9 says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:”

First, God calls men out of moral darkness, this present cosmos that lies under the Prince and power of the Air. You were not designed to be a sinner. Sir, you were not designed to be an alcoholic, a drug addict, a liar, a thief, a criminal. Ma’am, you were not created to be chain smoker, a faithless wife, an irresponsible mother. God is calling you out of the insanity of sin. Sin is public enemy number one.

A. A Corrupter of God’s Creation

1. Adam lived in perfection

2. Sin appeared as a deadly cancer

a. Plant and animal kingdoms infected

b. The entire human family

3. All pain and ugliness is due to sin

B. Upsetter of the Union between God and man

1. God became an intruder in his own house

2. Man’s nature became evil

3. Sin kidnapped man’s soul

C. Murderer of the Mediator, Jesus

1.2 Cor. 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

2.Rom. 5:6-8 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

D.Sin is…

• 1. A law-breaker 1 John 3:4
• 2. A poisoner of man’s being Romans 3:10-18
• 3. A hostage holder Proverbs 5:22
• 4. A tyrant king Nehimiah 9:37
• 5. A peace disturber Psalm 38:8
• 6. A mass murderer “sin is a reproach”
• 7. A traitor Proverbs 13:6
• 8. An accusing witness Isaiah 59:12

Second, God is calling men out of spiritual darkness.

Acts 17:22-31 (KJV) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. ²³ For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. ²⁴ God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; ²⁵ Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; ²⁶ And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; ²⁷ That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: ²⁸ For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. ²⁹ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. ³⁰ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: ³¹ Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

God is calling you to salvation.

Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

1 Timothy 2:4 Who [God] will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Repentance.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Baptism. Acts 2:38; 10:

Acts 10:44-48 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. ⁴⁵ And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, ⁴⁷ Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? ⁴⁸ And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

Holy Ghost infilling.

John 7:37-39 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. ³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹ (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

God is calling you to the ultimate sacrifice: Giving yourself to him.

¹ Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. ² And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. ³ And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. ⁴ And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. Exodus 3:1-4 (KJV)

Isaiah 6:6-8 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: ⁷ And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. ⁸ Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

The call is God’s. The response is ours.

How will you respond? Now comes the parade of excuses. “Too busy, too inadequate, too tired, too stressed, too poor, overcommitted, overworked, over extended, under-equipped, under-funded”

Called to do what? Pray, fast, worship, give, be a saint, a soul-winner, a witness, teach, preach, write, read, study, share, drive a van, encourage, mentor, build, clean, help, lift up, testify, lead, follow.

You can’t get away from it. It is the call of God. It will never be cancelled or rescinded. It is for life. It is for eternity.