#holy calling

Now you probably don’t have the same calling that I do. But you have a specific calling from God.

And you will never be really satisfied, you’ll never be a duck in water—until you are in your calling. There are many different callings.

Going back to 2 Timothy 1:9, we find it even more exciting.

It says, “He has saved us & called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose & by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time eternal. [2 Timothy 1:9] 

I want to emphasize that your calling is HOLY. Once I realized what God had called me to be, I made up my mind that I by His grace would be the best teacher of the Scriptures that I could be.

Not comparing myself with any other teacher. And for well over 40 years, my life has been shaped by my God-given desire to be able to teach the Scriptures the best that I can.                     _____________________________________________________

One of the things that I’ve done is (1) Discipline my mind, I am very careful what I let into my mind. Basically, I hardly ever read anything—unless I feel God wants me to read it.

Before I was saved, I read hundreds of books in various languages.

But I’m not that way now. I very seldom look at the newspaper. If I want to find out what’s going on in the world, we buy a weekly news magazine.

I don’t want to advertise any one particularly on television—but there are 2-3 magazines. You see you try to find the news by television, you waste a whole lot of time. You’ve got to sit through a lot of advertisements; & a lot of news that is absolutely unimportant one week later. You might just as well never heard it.

I don’t want to waste time.

For me time is extremely precious, so I try to store my mind only with the things that will enable me to teach the Bible—with clarity.

If I have one ambition, it’s to be clear. Sometimes I’ve worked at it, for years, there are truths in the Bible that were very confusing to me (years ago). But I have plowed away at it; worked at it—whittled it down, until in most cases, it’s what I teach.

I’m able teach with simplicity & with clarity.

My aim is not to confuse people.

Sometimes at the end of a sermon, somebody will come to me, “Brother Prince, that was a deep message;” & I say, “Lord, what did I do wrong now?”

My aim is to be simple,

People have sometimes said about me, that when I teach: they think, “Well why didn’t I ever know that? Because it’s obvious.” That’s my aim.

I would like everybody to go out of a meeting & say, “Well what he said was absolutely obvious.” I have no higher ambition than that.

So I’ve disciplined myself.

Let me give you an example from athletics...

Any athlete that wants to compete in the Olympics, has got to discipline themselves—such an athlete has to be very careful about what they eat, by the way they spend their time, the exercise they take, the things they read.

They’ve got to build up a positive attitude, in their minds.

They’ve got to go into that competition that they can succeed.

I was a very close friend in my early years, with one of the most famous ballerinas of our century. Anybody who knows about ballet, her name was Margot Fonteyn.

Dame Margot Fonteyn, DBE, stage name of Margaret Evelyn de Arias, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II.

I was a close friend of hers—when she was an unknown dancer. And I consider her to be the most successful ballerina of this century.

But I’m not surprised, because I knew how seriously she took her dancing.

There were other ballerinas in the same company, that perhaps had the same ability, but they didn’t have the same dedication.

Now I’m not encouraging you to go into ballet. What I’m trying to show you is: IF you want to succeed, you’ve got to discipline yourself.

You’ve got to order your priorities.

You’ve got to eliminate a lot of things out of your life—which are non-essential.

So it’s a Holy Calling, I wonder if you understand that? I mean it’s not to be played with, it’s not to be bartered for anything else.

It’s HOLY.

2.] Then Paul goes on, here in 2 Timothy 1:9, “

2 Timothy 1:9 | He has saved us & called us to a holy calling, not according to our works, but by His own purpose & grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

That’s an exciting statement, before anything was ever created, before God ever set time in motion—He knew what He was going to do.

He knew you would be born. He knew you would become a believer. And He had a plan for your life.

I tell people: “You are not an accident.” There’s a divine plan & purpose for every believer, which didn’t start in time. It started before creation. GOD fore-knew us.

The Scripture says, “He predestined us.”

That means He arranged the course that our life is to take.

And He had a specific plan & purpose for everyone of us.

Then it says it was not according to our works.

IT’S NOT ACCORDING TO WHAT WE CAN DO!

It’s not necessarily according to what we’ve been trained to do. I think I can illustrate this from my own case:

I was an only child, I never had brothers or sisters. Girls were a very strange race to me. I didn’t understand them. I mean I had g/fs but that’s different.

You can have a g/f without understanding girls.

And I was intellectually very successful. So you’d think that God would have me to be some professor in some college, or something like that. When I discovered my calling, I married a lady who had a children’s home—with 8 girls in it. And I became a father to 8 girls in 1 day.

You couldn’t think of anybody less qualified—for that position than me.

Basically, God tends to put us in a position for which we’re not qualified. That’s not always true. The reason being, He doesn’t want us to rely on our own abilities—it’s not according to our works, but it’s according to His grace.

You think of some of the most successful servants of God, throughout the centuries—they’ve been weak people, often ppl with few qualifications. Who’ve been put in places of danger & difficulty. You wouldn’t ever imagine that they would succeed.

But you see the thing about grace is this: Grace cannot be earned.

You’ll never achieve grace by working for it.

Works & grace are mutually exclusive. I explain it this way, grace begins where human ability ends.

>> If you can do it by yourself, why should God give you His grace?

But when you come to the place where God wants you to do something, & you can’t do it, then you have to depend on His grace.

And that’s what God wants us to do.

So let me read that verse again: If you can just begin to grasp that, it’ll give you a sense of being important—not that you become conceited. But that you realize that you are part of a tremendous plan that GOD conceived before He created anything.                    _____________________________________________________

One of the greatest problems with ppl in the world today is: Low Self-Esteem. They don’t think they’re worth much.

I would have to say a person with low self-esteem is unlikely to make the best of life. And I believe a Christian should never have that problem.

Let me explain two reasons, 1st the one I’m given:

If you’re a Christian, you’re part of an eternal plan. You have a special job, a special calling, one that nobody else has. You have a responsibility that no one else can carry out.

Then 2ndly, you know how to find out how much you’re worth? I’ll tell you, suppose right now my wife & I are in the middle of selling a house, & let’s say we were told when we bought it that it was worth $55K USD—when we tried to sell it we discovered nobody would pay $55K USD for it—so we were happy to get $50K. Now what’s the house worth? It’s worth what someone will pay for it. You can put any price tag you want on something you want to sell. But it’s worth what someone will pay. No more. Now you are worth what God was willing to pay for you. What did He pay for you? He redeemed you with what? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Something that is infinitely valuable. Something on which you can put no price-tag.

And if you can grasp that fact: GOD was willing to pay the blood of His Son, to redeem you—you’ll never feel, you’ll never have a problem with self-worth again.

>> Because you’re worth what GOD was willing to pay for you.

Do you see that? I’m sure you didn’t see that, because I see you’ve got a look of surprise on your faces. Well try to digest it, try to absorb it, meditate on it.

Read it over & over again, until it becomes real to you.

You see God’s Word is a mirror, & if you want to know what you’re really like inside you have to look in the mirror.

The first time you look in the mirror: It’s horrible. You discover you’re a sinner; you’re defiled. Your garments are horribly unclean.

But if you’re wise & you act on what God shows you, you repent & trust Jesus for salvation—you’re cleansed, you’re washed, you’re sanctified.

God takes away your filthy garments, & clothes you with the garments of salvation & a robe of righteousness. And next time you look in the mirror, you’re astonished because you don’t see the old (whatever it might be).

You don’t ever see that old person. You see somebody quite different. You’ve changed, transformed. Wearing a garment of salvation & spotless robe of righteousness.

But that’s only the beginning, because God intends to go on changing you. I didn’t intend to look at this Scripture, but take a look in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

2 Corinthians 3:18 | And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

What’s the mirror? Word of God

If you want the Spirit of the Lord to transform you, you’ve got to keep looking in the mirror. If you look away from the mirror, the Spirit of God no longer works on you.

He only works on you when you are looking in God’s Word. So if you go on looking in the mirror (Word of God), & yielding to the Spirit of God, you see glory that’s to you.

And you think that’s wonderful, the next time you look: You’ve been moved from glory to glory...It’s progressing. Understand?

The problem with most Christians, who have a low sense of self-worth, is they don’t spend enough time looking in the mirror (reading God’s Word).

They spend a lot of time looking in the physical mirror. And they’re not always satisfied with what they see. But they don’t spend time looking in the Spiritual Mirror (God’s Word)—which is very satisfying, if you yield to the Spirit of God.

And really there are no limits, we are continually being transformed from glory to glory to glory to glory—indefinitely.                   _____________________________________________________

Alright now let’s turn to Ephesians 2:8-10, which was the passage that both Ruth & I proclaimed.

>> Ephesians 2:1-10 | Made Alive in Christ By Grace Through Faith And you were dead in trespasses & sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body & the mind, & were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— & raised us up with Him & seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (v.1-7) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I understand that to mean: We didn’t get the faith, God gave us the faith. >> He gave us the faith to be saved.

I know when I was confronted with the gospel, I realized two things. (1) I couldn’t understand the gospel; & (2) I couldn’t believe it.

>> I wanted to understand, I wanted to believe.

But God brought me to a place, where when I did understand it, I realized God had given me the understanding. God had given me the faith.

I had nothing to boast of. It didn’t proceed out of myself, it was given me by God’s grace.

Then it says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

That’s a wonderful Scripture, it doesn’t fully come out in the English translations. But the word for workmanship, in Greek, & its the word from which we get poem. So we’re God’s poem, we’re not just something He manufactured—but we’re His creative masterpiece. Created in Christ Jesus.

Then it really blesses me when I meditate on this is: When God wanted to show the universe just what He could create, to display His creative ability to the whole universe & all of that had been created by Him.

Just to prove what He could do, He went to the scrap heap for His material. And that’s where He created you & me—on the scrap heap. Is that right?

At least I know where I was, & God said: “Do you want to see what I can do with scrap material? This is going to be the crown of all My creative genius.

>> It’s the church of Jesus Christ. The Bride of Jesus Christ.

That’s what we are. We’re His poem, we’re His creative masterpiece. And we’re created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

That brings out the same truth as 2 Timothy 1:9, we don’t have to decide what we’re going to do.

We don’t have to fashion a career for ourselves. We have to find out what are the good works—which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

You see I’ve seen Christians take two different courses, some of them they’re saved—but they’re personally ambitious, they want to make something of themselves in this world. So they go about the ordinary way of getting an education & so on, they work hard at it; & they become something.

>> But it probably isn’t what God intended them to be.

Then there are other Christians, who abandon themselves to God — they give up their personal ambitions, they say God make me what You want.

I don’t want to boast but in a certain sense, when I married my first wife & became father to those 8 girls — I renounced a very promising university career. The leader of my college told me that within a few years, I’d get such & such positions. And really I was set for success.

If you know the British educational system, before WWII: If you had become a fellow at King’s College Cambridge at the age of 24, you had it made.

And a lot of my friends thought I was just throwing my life away. To give all that up, to take responsibility for 8 girls.

Well if I had gone back to Cambridge, & got the position that I could have got, I would have had to retire at age 65. If not sooner with a very minimal pension.

Here I am nearly age 74, I’m not even thinking of retiring, I’m travelling the world. I’m doing the thing I enjoy most. I’m seeing lives continually changed.

WHY should I have not give that up for the sake of some little career at a university. See what I’m saying?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of David Livingstone, the missionary who really opened up Africa — who is a world famous name. He became a doctor, but then went to Africa. His brother also became a doctor, so when David went to Africa — his brother thought David was totally doing the wrong thing. The brother said, “I don’t want that kind of life; I want to make a name for myself.”

Today in the British Encyclopedia Britanica, David’s brother has one line stating that he’s the brother of David Livingston. David has 16 paragraphs. (lol) You see? In the long run, it always pays to trust GOD.

There will always be a step of faith. You will always have to give up something. Jesus said you have to give-up your own life. But if you lose your life, you’ll find the life that God has for you — which is exciting, its challenging.

I don’t for a moment suggest that you’ll have exactly the same kind of life that I have — but you will have a life that will be rich & exciting & challenging.

And when you come to the end of your life, you won’t look back on many many years that produced nothing of permanent value. You’ll have fruit that will endure for eternity.

So bear in mind, you are God’s workmanship — created for something special that He has for you to do — & you will never find full satisfaction until you discover that special something, so my aim is to help you.

Now I believe the best place to turn to in the Bible, for the steps to discover what God wants you to be is Romans 12:1-8.

Romans 12:1-8 | Therefore I urge you, fellow believers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy & pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test & approve what is the good, pleasing, & perfect will of God. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, & not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, & each member belongs to one another.

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let them use it in proportion to your faith; if it is serving, let them serve; if it is teaching, let them teach; if it is encouraging, let them encourage; if it is giving, let them give generously; if it is leading, let them lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let them do it cheerfully.

Now in the first line contains the word therefore, & I’m always telling people, some of you have heard me say it: when you find a ‘therefore’ in the Bible, you want to find out why it’s there for.

So I want to tell you why the ‘therefore’ is there for: The previous 11 chapters have been the most wonderful exposition, in my opinion the greatest masterpiece of logic in language.

By which Paul has unfolded the eternal plan of God: For salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He’s dealt with it in many different aspects. Also in CH 9-11, he has particularly unfolded God’s plan to deal with Israel.

And now he’s dealt with the theology, & I want to point out to you that the NT never presents mere theology. It always challenges us to apply the truths in our lives, in a practical way. And so that’s where the therefore comes in.

Paul says: In the light of all that God has done for us, of all His grace & mercy, what is our appropriate response?

And now he tells us.

I beseech you therefore brethren that..

Now I love this passage. Because I was a philosopher, I know how complicated philosophy can be—how involved—& a lot of theology is just philosophy with religious language. And the fault of being an average theologian, you come out with a lot of complicated long sounding words. But he didn’t, he came down to what the Americans call the knitty gritty.

What is it? What do to with your body.

So in the light of all His glorious truths, Paul says now I want you to put your body on God’s altar as a living sacrifice. So it’s essentially what you do with your body that’s going to determine your success in life.

Why does Paul say a living sacrifice?

Because he’s contrasting it with the sacrifices of the OT. Where the animal sacrificed was placed on the altar, but it was dead. He says I want you to put yourself just as really it was dead.

He says I want you to put yourself just as really, but alive not dead. >> So that’s the response that God requires: Is that we give ourselves unreservedly to GOD, as a sacrifice. We put ourselves on the altar.

Now Jesus in His teaching to the Pharasees, He pointed out to them that the sacrifice didn’t sanctify the altar, but the altar sanctified the sacrifice that was placed upon it.

To sanctify means to make holy.

Now I don’t need to go into your background, but many of you in the course of your lives up to this point had been involved in things that were impure & sinful & unholy. Basically that’s the major problem of the younger generation in the world today. They’ve been involved in sexual immorality, drugs, the occult.

Maybe by God’s grace, that doesn’t apply to some of you.

But suppose someone like that gets wonderfully saved by Jesus.  >> Is there any possibility that a body that’s been defiled by sin & evil practices can ever become holy? The answer is yes, but only in one way.

If you place your body on the altar, the altar will sanctify what’s placed on it. There’s no other way, that you can have a holy body in the light of all that you’ve been through...some of you.

And suppose that you’re not married. You meet another Christian that you want to marry. Marriage is the union of two bodies. Can you come together—with holy bodies? YES, if you’ve placed your bodies on God’s altar.

It’s marvelous.

When I think of my own background, & I don’t need to go into any details, but I could look back on so many things that I wished I had never done. But I don’t have to spend the rest of my life regretting what I did. All I have to do is put my body on the altar, & let the altar take care of the past.

>> The altar sanctifies the sacrifice.                  _____________________________________________________

So that’s the 1st thing. And then Paul says that your sacrifice will be acceptable to God, & it’s your reasonable service.

It’s the least you can do, in view of what God has done for you.

You see the first great sacrifice, in the Christian life, was offered by who? Who offered the first great sacrifice? JESUS, that’s right.

He gave His body, on the cross, as a sacrifice for our sins. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

That we being dead to sin, might live for righteousness. By whose wounds we were healed?

Now if we follow in the steps of Jesus, we will come to the place where God asks us to put our body on the altar — not in literal crucifixion — but in a total surrender to God.

Where you say: “God now my body is Yours. I don’t control it. I don’t choose what happens to it; it belongs to You.”