Those Whom God Chooses
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
There are none of us who would not desire to be used of God in a large way. This is not an unholy ambition. We should not seek great things for ourselves. We should seek them for God.
"I want in this short life of mine,
As much as can be pressed,
Of service true to God and man,
Help me to be my best;
I want in radiant garments, fine,
In Heaven to be confessed,
Among His chosen ones to stand,
His holiest and best."
Adapted.
Daniel Webster once said, "Strike for the top, my friend; there's plenty of room at the top." We use this quotation as an inspiration to us to strike for God's best gifts.
Paul wrote of many running in the race, and of one receiving the prize; then he said, "So run, that ye may obtain."
Men run in the games and stretch every nerve in order that they may obtain a corruptible crown; we run with the same energy and indomitable courage, but we run to obtain an incorruptible crown.
"The prize is set before us,
To win, His Word implores us;
The eye of God is o'er us
From on high."
Paul also wrote of how he stretched the neck for God's best. He wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death, if by any means he might attain the resurrection (out-resurrection) from the dead. He did not claim to have apprehended the goal, but he pressed, "for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
That it is right to strive for God's best things, all, we believe, will grant. The question for us today, however, is, "That one that God chooses." We will present seven different individuals who were chosen of God to accomplish a great work for Him. Surely all of these were people who had sought God's best, and were chosen of God because of their fitness for the task.
Christians need to be prepared in spirit and life, so that when the exigency arises they may be prepared to answer to the call of God.
To obtain God's best in the realm of rewards when Christ comes back, we must of necessity be our best down here in every way. It was the servant who had traded faithfully with his talent, and had gained ten talents, who was made ruler over ten cities. The slothful servant who hid his talent lost even the talent he had, and in addition received the chastisement of his lord.
If we are chosen of God to serve in any signal way among men, we will certainly be rewarded just as signally, if we prove worthy of our trust.
Let us magnify our privileges of serving the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no small matter to be called into partnership with the Eternal One. It is worth the while to spend and be spent for such an One.
Men of this world are delighted when chosen by the government to hold high office. A friend a few days ago was telling us how he was thrilled when he received from the king of Belgium, some medal or other for signal service rendered during the war. Another, a lady, who for faithful service during one of the English wars, received from the Queen the "Victoria Cross," was made unspeakably glad.
Let us then seek to serve Him, and to be chosen of Him to any signal task, and we will rejoice in the day of Christ, when we receive His "Well done thou good and faithful servant."
I. ENOCH CHOSEN TO WALK WITH GOD (Genesis 5:24)
Enoch lived half way from Adam to Noah. He lived in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. The world was fast ripening in wickedness and was hastening on toward its judgment. The hearts of men were continually set in them to do evil; God was not in all of their thoughts. Every imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil.
In the midst of conditions ripening fast in all iniquity, Enoch walked with God.
God rejected the sons of men; but He chose Enoch to walk with Him. Others may have loved God, but Enoch loved Him supremely. Others may have testified of God and preached His righteousness among the men of Enoch's day, but only Enoch was chosen to so signal an honor.
The New Testament bears record, that Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God. How did he please Him? Perhaps it was because he prophesied that the Lord was coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment against all of the ungodly, and to convince them of their ungodly deeds, which they ungodly committed, and of their hard speeches which they in ungodliness had spoken.
How then can we be among those whom God will choose and bless with His comradeship? We must be clean, and separated from the evil ways of men; but we must also give true testimony against their ungodliness.
Remember that Enoch was brought forth in that little Book of Jude, the Book that says, we should contend earnestly for the faith. Days similar to those which faced Enoch, are before us. He lived before the flood; we live before the tribulation let us go forth with Christ outside the camp, bearing His reproach; let us testify to the ungodliness of men, and let us proclaim that Christ is soon coming; then we shall have the joy of walking with God, as Enoch walked; and we may be caught up into the skies by our Lord before the end of our days, and be not, because God has taken us.
II. MOSES CHOSEN TO DELIVER ISRAEL (Exodus 3:10)
The moment the mind goes to Moses, it involuntarily lingers a moment around the ark of bulrushes down by the river's brink. It was there that God had in preparation the future deliverer of His people.
The command of Pharaoh was that all the male children of the Israelites were to be slain; therefore God not only outwitted Pharaoh, but forced Pharaoh to bring up a Jewish lad, instructing him in all the custom and wisdom of the Egyptians.
Moses had an eventful life as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter. That he was a real man we know, because even in the lap of Egyptian luxuries he was not unmindful of his own race, which, under the king's cruelty was daily being subjected to utmost cruelty.
Moses therefore, when he had come to years, made his choice. First, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; secondly, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the Children of Israel than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; thirdly, he esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all of the treasures of Egypt, and, finally, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
Back of all of this, in Moses' mind and heart, were two things: first he saw Him, who is invisible; and, secondly, he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Do you wonder that when the time struck for God to deliver Israel, He chose Moses? Moses was worthy of choice. Moses was, by this time, tried, and proved. Few men were ever more fitted for leadership, and none more fitted for the leadership of so great a host under so trying conditions.
God knew the need and God knew the man. May we be made ready, not for Moses' task, but for ours.
III. DAVID CHOSEN AS KING (1 Samuel 16:11-13)
Saul had been the people's choice as king over Israel. They had chosen him for his splendid physique, and human appeal.
When the time came for God to intervene and choose a king, He sent His Prophet Samuel to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse. As the sons of Jesse came forth, Samuel thought within himself, as he saw Eliab, Jesse's oldest son, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him." Then the Lord said to Samuel, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth."
One by one the other sons came up, but none of them were chosen. Finally, David was brought in from the sheep-fold "Arise, and anoint him: for this is he."
Is it possible for us to discern why God chose David? We suggest some things that his early manhood displayed:
1. David was a youth of marvelous courage. He had met a bear that had sought to destroy his sheep, and had slain him. He was ready to meet the giant Goliath, panoplied only with a sling and five smooth stones.
2. David was a man of undaunted faith. He trusted in God. He said as he met the giant, "This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand."
3. David was a man of becoming humility. He took no praise to himself as Goliath fell, but said, "That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."
4. David was possessed with a heart of praise. His chief delight was playing his harp as he gave glory unto the Lord. In after years he wrote many hymns of praise; and appointed sweet singers in Israel.
5. David was willing, uncomplainingly, to endure hardships and privations for the Lord. He was driven from the face of Saul, and was made an outcast from home and nation.
Let us prove true to God at any cost, and God will soon be laying His hands on us for special service.
IV. AMOS CHOSEN TO BE A PROPHET IN A TIME OF NEED (Amos 1:1)
Elisha left his oxen to follow Elijah. Amos was one of the herdsmen of Tekoa. Should we expect God to enter the realms of the lowly to discover the stalwart and the strong to bear His banner to the front of the conflict?
It still is true that God hath chosen the weak things to confound the mighty, and the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are.
God looks deep into the heart and life. He sees through the outer roughness of dress and poverty of environment, and reads character, and character under stress and trials. He chooses those who will pass through fire and flood unflinchingly. He chooses men who will not turn back when once their hands have touched the plow.
Amos was first a seer in the real sense of the word he saw things concerning Israel. He was a man who took orders and obeyed commands. What he was told to speak, he spoke. He did not prophesy smooth things. He was in no sense a dumb dog, lying down and loving to slumber, Amos courted no favor and feared no frown. He said, "Thus saith the Lord," with a conviction of truth that accepted no gainsaying. He was a man sent from God, delivering the Word of God, and never caring or daring to add one word of his own by way of addition or subtraction. He did not adopt soft and meaningless phrases to express the judgments of God on a disobedient nation. He continually thundered out, "Hear ye the word of the Lord."
Amos was not all gloom; but he was gloom when God said gloom. Amos also saw the light of another and a better day for Israel. He told of the time when the ruins of David's tabernacle would be rebuilded, and when the nation would be for ever established in their land.
Now we can grasp, perhaps, in part, why God chose Amos. Let us be of a like caliber willing to preach the preaching that He bids us, fearing no man's face.
V. ESTHER CHOSEN AS THE FRIEND OF HER RACE (Esther 2:8-9)
It was to an orphan, brought up in the home of her uncle, that God turned to befriend His people, and to save them from the tyranny of their enemies.
One need not be surprised as they see all of the other maidens of Media-Persia rejected, while Esther, the beautiful Jewish maiden, was chosen as queen to Ahasuerus.
We often fail to see the stately steppings of God in the affairs of men, but after all, He moves to place the men of His choice in the places where they can best serve His Word and work.
Women have had no unimportant part in God's choice of servants. We remember Rebekah, and Sarah, and Hannah, and Deborah, and Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, and Phebe, and Priscilla, and Julia, and Lydia, and many others. Indeed we cry, "The women who publish the glad tidings are a great host."
It was women who "received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection."
God give us women whom God may choose to turn the tide of the enemies' power and sway! Esther was such an one as this. How beautiful she appears to us as she stood at the door seeking audience with her sire! How wonderful as she appeals to him to spare her people! She knew that he might depose her; for she was running counter to Haman one of the king's favorite sons. Yet she laid her life and her all on the throne of sacrifice, and God heard and answered prayer.
VI. JOHN CHOSEN TO LEAN ON JESUS' BREAST (Matthew 4:21-22)
As the Lord walked along the way, He first called Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. Perhaps, had we stood hard by, we would have marveled that One so great and mighty, should select men of such humble affairs. As a rule, all men were seeking their own, but Christ knew that these men would seek His own, His will and His way, and ultimately pass on to tragic deaths for Him.
John was known as Boanerges, the son of thunder. But how gentle and loving was John as a son of God.
Christ chose John, it seems to us, because of two great features that dominated John's character.
1. Dark days were ahead of the Lord, and He knew it. He had come forth from the Father, and had come into the world steadily pressing His way toward the slaughter. He was the destined "Man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs." He was to be, "Despised and rejected of men." What the Lord wanted was some one to love Him, and to lean on His breast. Nothing in the life of Christ is more soul-stirring than the Last Supper scene. Jesus was exceedingly troubled in spirit, and He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me!" The disciples turned, looking at one another. Hear now the words: "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." Oh, how wonderful it all seems!
Among many things this was one reason that Jesus chose John.
2. The resurrection and the ascension had passed. Days of testings had come, when Satan sought to deceive the flock. Then John ministered to them. Hear now the man whom God chose! Read his words. They are to be found first of all in the Gospel that bears his name; then in the three Epistles that likewise bear his name, and then in Revelation, His Epistles reveal John's inner soul. He writes again and again, "Little children." He writes of Love and Life and Light. Love, love, love. Christ chose John to love Him, and to love the brethren.
May we be chosen to a similar task!
AN ILLUSTRATION
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
When the Emperor Licinius was persecuting the Christians in Armenia, the Thundering Legion was stationed at Sebaste. Forty men in that Legion declared themselves Christians, and were sentenced to be exposed naked all night on a frozen pool for it was winter, and bitterly cold. In a house on the edge of the pool a large fire was kindled, and food and wine and a warm bath were prepared under the charge of Sempronius, a centurion, and a guard of soldiers; and it was announced to the forty, that if any of them left the pool and entered the house, they would be considered to have denied Christ. So night came on, and the keen wind from Mount Caucasus made the citizens close their windows and doors more tightly, and heap up the fuel on their hearths. And on the frozen pool were the forty warriors, some standing lost in prayer, some walking quickly to and fro, some already sleeping that sleep which only ends in death. And ever and again, as the hours went slowly by they prayed: "O Lord, forty wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee; grant that forty wrestlers may receive the crown of victory." And now. as the cold grew more intense, one of the forty could endure no longer, and he left the pool and came to the house where Sempronius and his men were keeping guard. But still the martyrs' prayer went up to heaven: "O God, forty wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee; grant that forty wrestlers may receive the crown of victory." And the prayer was answered. Sempronius, the centurion, was touched by his comrades' bravery. He declared himself a Christian, and took his place upon the frozen pool. And when the cold had done its work, and forty corpses lay upon the ice, forty glorious spirits, with Sempronius among them, entered into the presence of their King.