The Church’s Calling
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
In Ephesians 6:12, we read “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This can be no more evident than it is today, right here in our own backyards. We are living in an unprecedented time of madness that is wreaking havoc with our nation's morals, politics, government, economy, education, churches, and families. More and more, many Christians have come to believe that unless there is direct intervention by the Lord God Almighty, both our country and many of our churches will face devastating disaster! By and large, Christians seem devoid of power to stand up to the evil forces pressing against us; powerless to make progress against them. Across this nation, Churches are succumbing to and conforming to the influences of this godless society despite the admonition in Romans 12:1 “not to be conformed to this world”. Worse yet, many have forgotten what the church is, and what the church’s calling is. This is neither new nor unique: for even in biblical times, several New Testament churches were guilty of the same error. One of the most notable of these churches was the Corinthian church. Paul spent 18 months establishing the church during his second missionary journey, firmly grounding them in the faith through his teaching. Sadly, like many churches that start off on the right foundation, Corinth became a troubled church. Confronted with several spiritual and moral issues, the church was ceding to the prevailing culture and worldly influences. They were forgetting who they were and what they were to be. Verse by verse, Paul carefully addresses the church’s problems with love and concern, problems that today’s churches face. Dr. Keith Foskey said of Paul’s epistle, “After 2,000 years, it reads as timely and relevant today as it certainly did when it was written.”
Today, I would like for us to focus on the opening verses of this epistle, which I believe answers both the question of what the church is and what the church is called to be. Notice how Paul addresses his readers in verse 2, “to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints...” Paul begins using the term “church”. But what does that mean? What is the significance of this word? The dictionary might define “church” as: a building for public worship; the clergy or officialdom of a religious body; the whole body of Christians belonging to a denomination; or a public divine worship service. None of these definitions communicate the true meaning of the word rendered in our Bibles as “church”. The word translated “church” in our Bibles is the Greek ekklesia, which is a compound word. The first part ek is a preposition that means “out of,” “out from,” or “from.” The second part — klesia — is a verb that means “to call.” So, ekklesia in its most basic form means “the called out” or “those called out from.” In ancient Greece, ekklesia was used to refer to people who were called out and gathered for a specific purpose. But notice that Paul qualifies the word ecclesia when he says, “To the church OF GOD which is at Corinth”. God’s church is a unique institution. It is to be a unified body of called-out individuals with the express purpose of glorifying and enjoying God while carrying out His purposes in this world.
It must be pointed out that the church is not “my church” or “your church”; it is God’s church. Men often begin to serve God with the right purpose and objectives, but, in time, become so familiar with traditions and service that they begin to think it’s “our church”, never stopping to consider what the church is and why it exists. Instead of belonging to God, they believe the Church belongs to them. In Acts 20:28, the Word of God tells us that Christ purchased the “with His own blood.” The church belongs to God, not any man or group of people
While many may have their names on a church’s membership list, the reality is that the true church is not comprised of those who have their names on a Sunday School roster or church membership list. It is comprised only of those individuals who have responded to God’s effectual call to salvation and have been born again by God’s grace.
Note verse 2 again, “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours”. In verse nine we read, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:9)
There is a general call to salvation where the gospel is presented and salvation in Christ is offered to sinners, together with an earnest exhortation to accept Christ by faith, that they might obtain the forgiveness of sins and life eternal”. This general call can obviously be resisted and many indeed do so resulting in their rejection of the gift of salvation through Christ. But praise God there is the effectual call of God where God “summons” you to respond positively to His call, the Holy Spirit whispering your name and calling, “Come to Christ, repent of your sin and surrender to Him as your only Lord and Savior.” The word comes into the soul and is so overpowering that you can no longer resist His call. God speaks and you respond. Jesus said, “All that the Father has given to Me shall come.” That is the effectual call. – copied
Understand that we are not saved by any works of our own but by solely by the effectual grace of God. We are not saved by going to church, getting baptized, tithing, doing good deeds, or even by choosing Him. In John 15:16, “Ye did not choose me, but I chose you.” Listen, you did not choose Him, but He chose you. For every child of God, there is a time when the Holy Spirit draws him or her personally to faith in Christ, resulting in surrender to the Lordship of Christ, belief in the need for cleansing from sin and genuine repentance. Oswald Chambers said, “It is not that you have got God, but that He has got you. Why is God at work in me, bending, breaking, molding, doing just as He chooses? For one purpose only—that He may be able to say, “This is my man, my woman.” First Peter 2:9 says of the church, “But you are a CHOSEN GENERATION, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
If God’s Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart saying, “Come to Christ, repent of your sin and surrender to Him as your only Lord and Savior.” Do not delay heeding His call to salvation.
There is a second call that answers the question, “What is the church called to be?” In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter says that the church is called to be a “holy nation”. In verse 2 of our text, Paul identifies believers as “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” We are called to be saints – saints! Paul calls the Corinthian Christians to be saints. They committed every imaginable evil that a church could do; and yet Paul begins by saying to them, "You are called to be saints." How is it that the Corinthian Christians could ever be called to be saints? How is it that we can be called saints?
To understand this, we need to note that Paul says that the Corinthians were both sanctified and called to be saints. We could easily gloss over two great truths presented to us, in that simple declaration. Paul says that those who are genuinely saved, those who responded to the call to salvation, have been sanctified, a present reality. Sanctification is an integral and essential part of our salvation. You cannot claim to be saved if you have not been sanctified. Sanctification is as much a part of our salvation as is justification. The meaning of the term “sanctify” is quite simple. It means “to make holy”. John MacArthur says, “Sanctification is what God does to each of His people when He saves them: He makes them holy. There is a clear difference between your position before God and your practice; between your standing and your state, as they used to call it in the past, and your actual behavior. I am a Christian. I am a saint. I am one who has been made holy before God. I am, in the eyes of God, as righteous as Jesus Christ; however, I do not always act like it. My standing is defined as holiness, my behavior is defined as unholiness.” This positional sanctification is best understood in a transaction known as double imputation.
Second Corinthians 5:21 declares, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God does not simply write off the debt of sin when He forgives the believer. God imputes or credits the sin and guilt of the believer to Christ, who has borne the full penalty for our sin upon the cross. At the same time, God imputes or credits the righteousness and perfect obedience of Christ to the believer. When we come to a saving knowledge of Christ, we have a righteous and holy standing before God. We are “in Christ.” This is known as our positional sanctification and is solely the work of God. Nothing we can do can merit this status. J.C. Ryle wrote, “Our purest works are no better than filthy rags, when tried by the light of God’s holy law. The white robe which Jesus offers, and faith puts on, must be our only righteousness—the name of Christ our only confidence—the Lamb’s book of life our only title to heaven. With all our holiness we are no better than sinners. Our best things are stained and tainted with imperfection.” (J.C. Ryle, D.D., Holiness Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots, James Clarke & Co., Ltd. 1952)
While we are judicially declared righteous in Christ, having Christ’s righteousness credited to our account and are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) with a new heart, we still have remaining in us the vestiges of our sin nature, called the flesh, against which we struggle. Paul addresses this in Romans 7:22 and 23 where he wrote, “For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” It is the struggle between what is called in God’s Word the old man and the new man.
Therefore, Paul says to those of us who are are sanctified that we have been called to be saints. That is, after we have answered the call to salvation, we are called by God to be holy. In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we read, “as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” This is a process known as progressive sanctification, which begins at the time we are justified by faith and continues throughout our life on earth. Our salvation and positional sanctification are monergistic, that is solely the work of God. Our progressive sanctification is a cooperative process. It involves God working in us and our obedient daily surrender to God’s commandments and will. In Philippians 2:12, we are instructed to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. John MacArthur commenting on this passage writes, “the Greek verb rendered “work out” means to continually work to bring to fulfillment or completion...it refers to the believer’s responsibility for active pursuit of obedience in the process of sanctification.” It is through this process that we grow in grace gradually – but steadily – changing to become more like Jesus. Understand that Christianity is a vocation not a vacation.
As born-again believers, our lives are to reflect Christ more each day. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, we read, “we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore, he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.” The Amplified Bible renders verse 2 as “this is the will of God, that you should be consecrated (separated and set apart for pure and holy living) ...”. Paul urges the Thessalonian believers to increasingly seek to please the Lord, to abstain from sexual immorality, to control their own bodies in holiness and honor, and to walk properly toward outsiders.
We are instructed in Romans 12:1-2, to be holy and to stop being conformed to or literally “following the scheme or behavior’ of this world. But we are to live changed lives; not embracing the human-centered, self-exalting, self-gratifying values of this world. Hebrews 10:14 says, “Pursue (continually seek after) peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” It has been said that as believers, we daily must remember who we are (in Christ) and Whose we are (Christ's bride).
There are two questions we must address today. The first is, have you heard and responded to God’s call to salvation? Is the Spirit speaking to your heart? Is He saying, “Come to Christ, repent of your sin, surrender to Him as your only Lord and Savior?” Listen, the call to be saved is the most important message we will ever hear from anyone because the response to that call will determine your destiny for all eternity. Have you responded to that call? Confessed your need for forgiveness? Surrendered to Christ as Savior and Lord? If you have not responded to His calling, call upon Him today. A person must confess with their mouth and believe in their heart, as Paul says in Romans 10:9. Salvation is always based on acceptance of God's call without conditions or qualification. And so, the call goes out today. 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. - Revelation 22:17
The second question is “If you are a born-again child of God, having answered the call to salvation, have you been pursuing His call to you to be holy? Holiness is not just for matured believers but is for everyone who names the name of Christ. Listen to 2 Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” This is God's call on all our lives: "Be holy, because I am holy." Are you walking daily, yielded to the Holy Spirit or are you yielding to the old man?
Spurgeon said, “The salvation of Christ is not a salvation in sin, but a salvation from sin.” So often we hear I cannot overcome my sin. Jerry Bridges writes, “It is time for us Christians, to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient. It might be well, if we stopped using the terms victory and defeat, to describe our progress in holiness. Rather, we should use the terms obedience and disobedience.” We as believers are to work out our salvation, that is our responsibility and yet it is also 100% the enabling ability/provision by His indwelling Spirit!
We are told in Ephesians 5:18 ...not to be drunk with wine; but to be filled (yielded to and under the control of) the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16 makes it clear that if we “walk by the Spirit, we will not carry out or gratify the desire of the flesh (the old)” So the question is have you died to self that you might grow more like your Savior? To “put off “the old man” and “put on the new man” requires unconditional trust in God in all things at all times. We must daily yield ourselves to His Lordship over our lives.
Both the call to salvation and the call to be holy must be answered, if this church is going to be the church God wants it to be. Have you answered His call?
Disclaimer: Please note that all my sermons come from the Lord. But I get my info drawing from many sources both from my library and other sources. I do not claim originality. I attempt to give credit for most sources but don’t quote all sources. I do, however, give credit to the Lord who is the author of all biblical sermons.
