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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/stuart-thompson/gods-call/
Isaiah chapter 50, verse 2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea.
I make the rivers a wilderness. Their fish stinketh because there is no water, and dieth for thirst. I'm going to lift out particularly the second question that is asked in this verse. When I called, was there none to answer?
The 2010 Winter Olympics are now history. I guess if you have any Canadian roots in you, as I do, you have some measure of favor to what was unfolded. They did themselves proud, I imagine, yet every Olympic event is marked by both the victory, the triumph of victory, and the tragedy of loss.
But some stories probably didn't get much attention, and there is a story that unfolded in the middle of the Olympic events. It was the speed skating event for the thousand meters, one of the heat races.
I wasn't really aware of how they set up the roster for who's going to race, but they do have a list of alternates if somebody can't make the race for which they were scheduled to race. And it came to this race, and actually a former gold medalist had to withdraw.
So they turned to their alternate list, and they started working down through four names, and the first three, for whatever reason, were eliminated, and they went to the fourth one. It was a German speed skater named Patrick Beckert.
There was an hour to the race, and they called, and they called, and they called, and they called. No answer. What was the problem? Patrick did not have his cell phone turned on. Here was a young man that, like many, although only 19 year old, may be another opportunity to come around, but ideally this is what they have spent life for, for a moment like this.
And when the quote golden opportunity arrived, he wasn't available to answer the call. What we have read in Isaiah chapter 50 here together tonight is a word, a message, questions addressed from the God of heaven, particularly to the people of that Isaiah is ministering the truth of God to.
Now they are a people that at this time, because of their sin and choices, have put themselves in a place as it were of separation from God. But God calls, and he calls, and when he asks the question, wherefore when I came was there no man?
Oh, there's plenty. There's plenty there to receive if he's going to arrive. When I called, was there none to answer? There was a nation of people that had tremendous privilege, and I was like that. I was one raised in a Christian home.
Tremendous privilege. Heard the gospel preached. Raised with faithful Sunday school teachers, and a mother and father that prayed and read the scriptures in the home consistently, and loved us, and had high hopes for eternity for our souls.
Three, two older brothers and myself. So it wasn't as if there was nobody there, that God's call as it were was just being thrown to thin air. There was a people with a great need. And dear soul, in this meeting tonight, whether you're really familiar with this or not, or you come by invitation by another that's a drawn you along because they have an interest in you, this call is sent to you tonight.
The call of the gospel message. The sad thing is, here it was a missed call. A missed call. When I called, was there none to answer? I wonder if there's someone sitting here tonight, and you've heard the call many a time, and willfully have refused.
If I could just by that illustration, here's a young man, and he has all the technology. All the wherewithal there is to get the call. But his responsibility was to have the device turned on. That if the call was placed, he would be there and willingly receive it.
But he did not have himself in a position where he would receive it. He hadn't even turned the phone on. Was there none to answer? God said there were plenty that could have answered the call. I would have to tell you frankly tonight, and sadly when I look back on it, I attended a gospel meeting perhaps at the conference in our hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, back in Canada that Max referred to, and Rob Bednarik has referred to as well.
Conference meetings, Sunday night gospel series, as Nathan has just talked about, getting worn out by gospel series after gospel series, so I thought. But sitting in a meeting like this, hearing the men preach, faithfully opening the Word of God.
Men that have been, that are here even today, I heard some of these men preach when I was a boy. But I would sit in a meeting like this, when I recognized that God was speaking to my heart, in the darkness of a soul lost in sin, I would say, I'm okay for now, and turn off the phone.
And either pretend I was asleep, or at times actually go to sleep in the midst of a gospel meeting. In the folly of my unbelief, I would think, oh God's still calling, I'm all right, there's opportunity, turn off the phone.
And God said to the people that day, when I called, was there none to answer? And the redundant, obvious answer is, they're there, but they're not willing to answer the call. Come with me to the first book of the Bible, the Genesis please, chapter 3.
Genesis chapter 3, this is the record of the solemn day, sad day in the history of man, when Adam and Eve, our first parents, have disobeyed God. They have sinned against God. That's really what sin is, it's simply disobedience to God.
And they have disobeyed. God gave them one commandment, they refused the commandment, they disobeyed, they sinned, they're aware of their sin. Verse 8 says, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? In Isaiah, it was a missed call, but in the book of Genesis, as we're looking here in this verse 9, it's God calls first.
God calls first. This is the very character of the heart of the God of heaven and earth. The God that has made us. The God that was, as it were, offended by man's disobedience. But what is he doing? Turning his back, as it were, and leaving man in his guilt and despair?
No. God comes walking. God comes calling. Adam, where art thou? As a boy raised in that home area of Sarnia, my mother was a farm girl, raised on a farm. And I don't know whether it's because in those days they didn't have two-way radios or cell phones or whatever.
You know, you had to use your voice at times. But we lived in the city. Our road was the boundary road to the township area. My buddies across the road, their families owned some sizable pieces of property, small hobby farms, if you would.
And there was a lot of land to play in. And we'd be off running in the fields in the woods. And supper time would come. And my mom would open the door and step out onto the porch of the house. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that.
I think I could safely say we were a quarter mile away sometimes. And she would just open her mouth and it would come out, supper! Nobody missed that. There was no mistaking that call. Head snapped up.
And I didn't care what my buddies were up to. I was hungry and I was heading home. That call could not be mistaken. That was mother calling and you knew there was something good that was prepared. When Adam turned in his despair and sin and the awful guilt that was upon him and headed off into the trees, God came.
God calls first, dear soul. In our sin there is this attitude of rebellion that turns away from God. And if God didn't call, God's calling tonight, are you hearing? If God didn't call, where would you be?
I know where I'd be. I wouldn't be saved. And I have to wonder if I'd even be living today. Be that as it may, God calls first. He calls you though you've refused the call for so long. Let's go to the Proverbs, chapter 1.
We are going to read some of the most solemn words that can be found in the scriptures. From Proverbs, chapter 1. We'll commence at verse 20. We're going to read several verses. And as we read them, I want you each tonight to just listen, if you're not reading, and just hear what God says here.
But we will make mention of comments from maybe two or three of the verses particularly. Proverbs 1, verse 20. Wisdom cries without. That is, wisdom personified. Wisdom seen as a person cries without.
She utters her voice in the streets. She cries in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates, in the city. She utters her voice saying, How long, ye simple ones? Will ye love simplicity?
And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused.
I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. But you've said it not all, my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear comes as a desolation, and your destruction comes as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish comes upon you, then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.
They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil. The words we have read portray wisdom as the voice of God calling to a people.
Calling to you tonight, dear one that knows not Christ, who understands, as it were, the weight of what God's word says. Sin separates from God. Sin's unforgiving will leave you separated eternally from God.
Heaven and all its blessing is inaccessible if you are still carrying your sins, and dying in your sins you'll be lost forever. It's awful. It's the reality. It's hell. And wisdom, God's voice calls. And in verse 22 he says, How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity?
What does it mean to be simple? Well, it's the thought of being naive, or even one dictionary definition for it is open-minded. And someone maybe tonight here saying, well, that's what we're expected to be.
I mean, that's the manner of our present time. Keep an open mind. Listen to all the various things that are offered. Take it all in. Weigh it up. Make a choice. But to be naive as it is here, to be counted simple in God's word, is to do so by choice.
You're not naive because you've never had the opportunity the Spirit of God is identifying here. It's being naive. It's being open-minded to the exclusion of what God's voice presents to you whenever He has spoken.
Loving simplicity. Scorners that delight in their scorning. How do you define a fool? The Word of God here defines a fool as one who hates knowledge. You don't want the knowledge of God. And as I've already told you, that was the fearful condition that I was in as a teenager and into my twenties as a young man.
Just shut it off. Keep mom and dad contented from time to time, but salvation? Oh, I know I need to be saved. I knew that. And I wanted, genuinely, I think I would have had to tell you that I wanted to be saved before I died, but I sure didn't want it when I was living the life that I chose.
Fools hate knowledge. So God says, turn. Then in verse 28, He says, Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. For they hated knowledge, did not choose the fear of the Lord.
They would none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Dear one, tonight, soul without Christ, what we have just referred to there again is something that no man can identify in the experience of any individual.
God's perspective is to know your heart and choices that He makes relative to further opportunity for you are purely in His authority. I would beseech you tonight. If too many times for too long you have said no to the calling of God, don't trifle because here's what it says.
Verse 31,. Therefore, shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. Choices are made. God is refused. You'll get what you choose even in this life. But verse 32 says,.
For the turning away of the simple, when they refuse and they turn away, that leads to what? That shall slay them. And the prosperity of fools, no matter what you accomplish in this life, whatever your objectives may be, when you have refused the mercy of God, the end will be.
It will destroy you. Lost for eternity, dying in your sins, separated from God, eternally in despair. It all seems so wonderful here and now, but the darkness and the agony will immediately eclipse whatever moment seems so wonderful in this life.
When you chose your way and turned from a Savior that had died to save you and to deliver you from your sins, they would none of my counsel. The choice is made. You will not die, naive that is, and be lost for eternity, not knowing.
You will die open minded as it were, having refused the knowledge and the counsel of God. The Savior calls tonight. Turn with me, if you would, into the Gospel of John chapter 7. John chapter 7 verse 37.
I'm just lifting this verse out of this occasion when the Lord Jesus speaks to an audience. Some that are learning the religious zeal and ritual of life will fail them and has failed them. In verse 37 it says, 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.
You just turned back a chapter, chapter 6, and we'll read the same number, verse 37. This is the Savior's call. He says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
The Savior cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me. That's the call of the Lord Jesus. Why does He call anyone, any individual the thirsty one, to come to Him? Of course in this it's a figurative verse.
It's a verse that's telling us that in the inward man, in your soul, if you are willing to recognize before God your lack, your total inability to deliver yourself from your sins. Sin is a weight. It's a guilt.
It's a burden. And there's a longing to be rid of it. The thirsting to have peace with God. The Lord Jesus says, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. Why? Because he'll meet the need. He'll satisfy the burden and take the burden away and satisfy the longing of your soul.
That's His promise tonight. He makes a call. He throws out, you could call it an invitation if you would. Let me suggest this to you. Not suggest, tell you. This is an exclusive offer, an exclusive source, because there's nowhere else to turn to find the need of your soul genuinely satisfied.
Will you continue tonight to not answer the call? Will yours be the woe and the despair to hear the likes of Proverbs chapter one, they would not have? I will not answer. For tonight is your dark heart and lost soul.
So burdened that you are like these different men that just told how they were saved tonight, ready to just give it up. Recognizing you have nothing and can do nothing. I love this verse. The Lord Jesus said, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.
There is no way he will turn anyone away. Why? Because he has already said, Come to me. I will not turn you away. He's true to his word. There's a young man that some of us here tonight know quite well.
Heard the gospel often. Some of us preach to him often. We wondered if he really ever had a serious thought. He sat in an auditorium like this at a conference of another assembly in the school auditorium, waiting the meeting to start that night.
Unbeknownst to family or those other young people that he associated with at the conference that weekend, he sat there realizing, I need to be saved. And to his mind and heart came the words of John 6, 37.
There was a man that I preached with in a series, the two of us, where this young man sat night after night. And it didn't even click with me that my fellow preacher closed his message every night. Oh, I probably recognize it, but it just didn't stick.
Every night he closed his message with those words. The Lord Jesus said, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And years later, he sits in the back of an auditorium minutes before a gospel meeting commences, lost, despairing, realizing he needs God's salvation and he can't get it.
And those words came back into his mind. Yeah, he says, I remembered the words that Uncle Murray said every night. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. You come now, he'll truly receive you.
You say no once more, and all I can say is, how many times will God take the answer? No. He's calling, come tonight. We've heard how many did. And the Savior saved them. He'll save you if you would only come just now.