Two brothers, fishermen, were casting their nets from their boat into the Sea of Galilee. This was the way they made their living, and they probably expected to continue that trade until they got too old to fish. But God had a different plan for them. One day a noble-looking Man walked down to the edge of the lake and say them in their boat a little way form shore, fishing. Extending His hand to them, He called: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” Matt. 4:19. Thus Peter and Andrew were confronted with the greatest decision of their lives.
The two brothers had been reared in the Jewish religion. Jesus was beginning a new and, in many ways, different movements, a church that would be unpopular and despised. Peter and Andrew didn’t realize this fully at the time, but if they accepted the call it would mean they would eventually have to separate from the religion to which they had belonged since childhood, and unite with this new church of Jesus. It meant giving up their fishing business, the only way they knew of making a living. It meant giving up their life plans.
Did they say: “This is such a tremendous step that we can’t take it now”? No. the record declares that “they straightway left their nets, and followed his” Matt. 4:20.
That was the best thing they ever did, because their decision brought their lives into alignment with the plan God had drawn up for them before He brought them into existence. That decision led to the high honour of becoming two of Christ’s twelve apostles, and to that highest honour of all, having their names inscribed for eternity on the foundations of the eternal city of God, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:14).
What if they had No to the call of Jesus? That would have been the worst thing they could have done. So it is with you and me. The best thing is to say Yes when Jesus calls. The worst is to refuse or neglect to respond to His call.
A Jewish tax collector for the Roman government was sitting at his desk, taking in the money. It was a lucrative job. He planned to go on collecting taxes and getting rich. But this was not God’s plan for him.
One day Jesus´route led past the tax office. There was Matthew at his desk, taking in money. Jesus looked straight into his heart, and spoke two words: Follow me” Luke 5:27. Matthew was thus called to make the greatest decision of his life on a moment’s notice.
What if Matthew had been like the vast majority of people? He would have said to himself. This overzealous carpenter from Nazareth is interrupting my businesses. I will not be torn away from a good job by responding to his call. Or he might have thought, I cannot go because I have other plans. Besides, this is such a tremendous step that I need more time to think about it.
No. he recognized that God was speaking to him through this Nazarene. This was an interposition of God in his life, to help him choose Heaven’s plan for himself. The record says: “He left all, rose up, and followed his” Luke 5:28.
Matthew left a well-paying job to serve Jesus without pay. But this was the best thing he ever did, because it brought his life into alignment with God’s plan of immortality for him.
So it is with you and me. The best thing we can ever do is respond to the call of God to surrender our lives to Jesus and keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus – that faith that stretches out and takes hold of Jesus´ forgiveness and sin-defeating strength. Nothing exceeds letting Jesus take over completely in your life. Then you have the right plan for our life – the plan that God drew for your life before He brought you into existence.
Friend of mine, has the blessed Lord intervened to bring you His last-day message through a book, a magazine, a Bible course, sermons, Bible studies, a telecast, or a radiobroadcast? How have you responded to that call? I would invite you to accept that invitation and obey the commandments of God and live in the faith of Jesus.
On the day of Pentecost God intervened in the lives of thousands of Jews. There thousand said Yes to His call. In order to be right with God, not only did they repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit but their acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah forced them to come out of the Jewish religion, in which they had been all their lives, and enter into Christ’s church for that time.
The Jewish nation once composed the true church of Christ (see Acts 7:38). But the Jews had departed from the truth of God by substituting the traditions of men for the commandments of God (Matt. 15:1-9). This led them to reject the Son of God. Because of this rejection there was no way by which they, as a nation, could be retained as God’s chosen people. The best God could do was to call His true followers out of the Jewish church into His new church.
A similar situation applies today. In many areas the churches have departed from the truth. The time is quickly approaching when God will call the rest of His people out of these religious bodies into His remnant church, which is committed to proclaiming His present truth to every nation.
Loyalty to one’s own church is commendable, but loyalty to Christ’s truth must have precedence over every other tie – above wife or husband, son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother, church or religious training (Luke 14:26,27; Matt. 10:37).
If the apostles and first Christians had placed loyalty to the Jewish religion above the call of Christ, they would not have become Christians. But they left a noble example for us by accepting the truth as it came to them from Christ and His Word. Let us, then, place loyalty to our Lord and obedience to His call, to come out of the world and Babylon and into His remnant, above every other consideration.
Who answers Christ’s insistent call
Must give himself, his life, his all,
Without one backward look.
Who sets his hand unto the plow
And glances back with anxious brow,
His calling hath mistook.
Christ claims him wholly for His own;
He must be Christ’s – and Christ’s alone.
Anonymous
Henry Ward Beecher said: “I would as soon go courting with my father’s love letters as to join a certain church because my father belonged to it.” What happened to a man in Noah’s time who refused to believe Noah’s message or do any differently than his father and grandfather had done? You certainly would not have wanted to be in his shoes when the Flood came.
The horse and buggy and the tallow candle were once the best that people had for transportation and illumination, respectively. But are they good enough for us? Wu prefer to use the electric light and ride in an automobile. Is we are sensible in taking advantage of every improvement along material and technical lines, why are we often so reluctant to advance with the unfolding truth of God’s Word?
What if Luther had been content to advance no farther in religion than his father or mother had? He could not have been used for God to inaugurate the Protestant Reformation. Who can measure our loss in truth and liberty had Luther taught only what the Catholic Church stood for?
You and I and every soul must make his choice between Babylon and Christ’s remnant. There can be no neutral ground in the conflict between truth and error. The great Babylonian system will sink like a millstone cast into the sea (Revelation 188:21). Christ’s remnant, with the save from all previous generations, will be caught up to heaven when He comes. Every soul can have his destiny either way. No one can have it both ways. Surely your decision is to be one of Christ’s remnant under the banner of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
It was twilight when a Minnesota farmer started to cross a lake in his small sailboat. As he was sailing along the wind suddenly changed and a gust overturned his boat in the middle of the lake. Being a good swimmer, he started to swim to the part of the shore where he thought his house was located.
It was springtime, and the water was covered with masses of floating ice. In the darkness he became confused and swam in the wrong direction. His strength began to give out. As he was about to give up and sink into the freezing water, he heard a voice. It was that of his little girl on the back porch of their home, calling: “Father, father.”
Her voice put fresh life into him. He thought, if she would only call once more, I could tell which way home is by the sound of her voice. I am afraid she will go into the house and close the door, because she has heard no reply to her call.
Then another call came, “Father.” The sound told him he had gotten turned around in the darkness and was going in the wrong direction. He fought his way through the ice and reached the shore and home at last.
Friend of mine, there is a voice calling you. If you are numbered with Christ’s remnant in this end-time, the call of god is “Be faithful to the end.” If you are not in His remnant, the call of God is “Come into My remnant.” Tell Jesus, “Here’s my YES to Your call.”
May it be said of you and me:
He say God’s truth, but did not stay
To ask if others say the way.
Content was he in heart to know
That Jesus walked there here below.
And evermore He walks with men,
That men may walk His paths again.
And He is more than all besides;
For others fail, but He abides.
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