Called, Chosen and Faithful

"These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful."

Revelation 17:14

Jesus is described as one day returning to earth with His saints in judgment over Satan, the antichrist and the world.  God's people, born again by faith in Jesus and given eternal life by Him, are "called, chosen and faithful."  It is good for us to realise this is not some sort of divine fate at work, but everyone who follows Jesus faithfully has been called and chosen by Him.  We love Him because He first loved us.

Judas Iscariot gives us great insight into this matter, for he was called by Jesus to follow Him.  Of the many disciples Jesus had, Judas was chosen to be one of His 12 apostles Jesus sent out.  We know Judas had responsibilities among the apostles to responsibly handle the money of the group, yet sadly he was a thief.  He was called and chosen but not faithful to Jesus, for he bargained with the chief priests to betray Jesus into their hand when he had opportunity for 30 pieces of silver.  His hypocrisy was shown in the Garden of Gethsemane by identifying Jesus with a kiss of greeting.

Judas teaches us that being called and chosen does not guarantee we will choose to be numbered among God's faithful servants.  He later regretted and lamented Jesus being arrested and sentenced to death, yet he did not sorrow in a godly manner that leads to repentance:  he sorrowed as the world does which leads to death (2 Cor. 7:9-11).  Judas died a violent death at his own hand, choosing to murder himself rather than humble himself in contrite repentance before God.  He was called and chosen, but he was not faithful.  Jesus said because of his sinful, unrepentant choices, it would be better for him to never have been born (Matt. 26:24, Mark 14:21).

The Strong's Concordance defines the Greek word translated "faithful" as "faithful, reliable, believing."  Genuine faith in God is practically expressed and demonstrated by obedience to God.  Jesus told His followers that if they loved Him they would do as He said.  This fits perfectly with loving God with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind.  Jesus is God made flesh, and having been called and chosen we are to be faithful.  1 John 5:11-13 says, "And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."

By believing in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, we have life because He is our life.  Christians can know we are called and chosen because we are faithful to believe in Him and continue to do so.  We have the assurance of salvation and future judgment by the resurrection of Jesus.  Our confidence is not in ourselves or efforts to obey, but because of Who Jesus is and the new life He has provided through the Gospel.  Confidence in our calling and election is misplaced when God requires us to be faithful by His grace.

Still Blaming or Broken?

"So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD."

1 Samuel 7:2

After the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines to their country, it remained there for seven months.  Whilst the Ark was passed from city to city, God plagued the Philistines with great destruction.  The situation became so dire the Philistines decided the only remedy was to return the Ark to Israel with a trespass offering, and the five lords of the Philistines each providing a golden image of a rat that plagued the land and their tumours that caused them to suffer greatly.

The Israelites were harvesting wheat in Beth Shemesh when they saw the Ark of God on a new wooden cart amble into their land.  The people rejoiced exceedingly the Ark had been returned to them, and they promptly used the cart for firewood and sacrificed the oxen to the LORD as a burnt offering.  However, the joyous celebration ended in sorrow, for tens of thousands of men of Beth Shemesh died before the LORD when they transgressed by looking into the Ark contrary to the Law of Moses.  They wondered, "Who can stand before this great God?" They sent a message to the people of Kirjath Jearim and asked them to retrieve the Ark--which they did.  A man named Eleazar was sanctified as a caretaker of the Ark, and it remained in the home of his father Abinadab for 20 years.

While the Ark remained in Kirjath Jearim, all Israel lamented after the LORD for decades.  The prophet Samuel provided a path to restoration before God in 1 Samuel 7:3-4:  "Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." ⁴ So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only."  Brothers and sisters, recognise this:  grief, lamentation and sorrow over decades provided no penance for the people.  Their humiliation at the hand of their enemies or God was no substitute for humbling themselves before Him.  Regret was not repentance.  Samuel urged the people to return to the LORD by destroying their idols and preparing their hearts to seek and serve the LORD only.  The promise of deliverance from the Philistines God gave would be fulfilled in short order later in the chapter when God thundered against the Philistines who drew near to attack His people.

The Bible does not record the conversations the people of Israel had together over those 20 years of lamentation after the LORD, but I strongly suspect there was blame for their situation being thrown around without addressing their own idolatry.  There were likely people who blamed Hophni and Phinehas for bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the battle, and other blamed Eli who allowed them to continue "serving" in the priesthood.  Some blamed the Philistines for their brutality and oppression, and others blamed the men of Beth Shemesh for their own demise by looking into the Ark.  In a land and world full of sinners, there was plenty of blame to go around.  As long as they continued to blame others or even themselves without repentance, it revealed they were not yet broken for their sin.  It was after they accepted the blame for their own sin and repented of it they were restored to fellowship with God.  The Philistines remained idolatrous; the corrupt within Israel remained as corrupt as ever.  However, there was a sure hope of salvation for those who lamented after the LORD and prepared their hearts to seek and serve Him.

Today this pattern remains true as ever for God's people.  When we hear of tragedies and problems in the world, one of our first reactions can be to cast blame at the feet of a person, a political party, organisation or nation.  Lately the news has been inundated with reports of a "failed" referendum in Australia, a full-fledged war in Israel, a murder at a school in Sydney, and a mass shooting in the United States--and this only scratches the surface of the pain and suffering that overwhelms us.  Hear this:  as long as we are blaming we are not yet broken, and that is the place God desires to bring us to even if it takes decades!  In light of this, consider the value of brokenness before the LORD as it is written in Psalm 34:18:  "The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."  Psalm 51:16-17 also says:  "For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart--these, O God, You will not despise."  Rather than lashing out at others for their wrongs, let us be crushed and broken before the LORD, repent of our sin, prepare our hearts before the LORD and serve Him only.

Glorify God's Holy Name

God is a Saviour Who gives eternal life to all who trust Him, a life so powerful it overcomes death.  As our risen LORD Jesus demonstrated through His death, burial and resurrection, the process to enter eternal glory often involves the physical death of the body.  This is true concerning those who come to faith in Christ and are martyred during the Great Tribulation.  As Jesus laid down His life for lost sinners on Calvary, so they will choose to lay down their lives for His sake.  It is a privilege and honour believers embrace by following in our Saviour's footsteps and surrender our lives for Jesus Who joyfully did so for us.

Revelation 15:2-4 describes a heavenly scene that includes this group of victorious martyrs:  "And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. ³ They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! ⁴ Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, for Your judgments have been manifested."  Revelation 12 describes believers who overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and by faith in Jesus these worshippers were also victorious over the beast (the antichrist), his image, mark and number of his name.  This is only possible by the miraculous power of God at work in His people.

These redeemed believers sang the song of Moses found in Exodus 15 and the song of the Lamb.  The context of the song of Moses was after God lead His people to pass through the Red Sea and drowned the army of Egyptians that sought to pursue them.  They sang in Exodus 15:11, "Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"  Both the deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea and the overcoming of the antichrist during the Great Tribulation are miraculous.  As the children of Israel left Egypt in haste and were guided through the Red Sea, through tribulation many people will be ushered into God's presence in glory with exceeding joy.  Many who will be born again during the Great Tribulation will be martyred for their faith, yet the end will be unending joy and worship of our awesome God, victorious in His presence.

Praise God He will not subject His redeemed people to His wrath which will ultimately consume the heavens and earth.  All who fear the LORD, let us glorify His name because His judgments have been manifested to us through His word.  It has been revealed to us by the Gospel God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  The believers who praise God in the heavenly scene were justly in heaven because of the atonement for sin provided by Jesus.  How gracious is God Who has opened heaven to us and given us Himself, for the Holy Spirit has taken residence in our hearts by the Gospel.  The LORD God Almighty is just and true in all His ways, and let us praise our God Who is our strength and song forever.

Standing in God's Might

When people are born again by faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit regenerates us spiritually and indwells us.  One aspect of His powerful influence and impact on our lives is described by Paul in Ephesians 6 through the analogy of amour that protects us in the spiritual battle we find ourselves.  Believers are called to understand how the Holy Spirit works in our lives and gives us victory over Satan's attacks so we can stand strong in the LORD and in the power of His might.

A passage I read in Gurnall's book, The Christian in Complete Armour, affirms something I long have believed:  rather than habitually "putting on the armour of God" daily, we are never to take it off, walking in the Holy Spirit to do what pleases God.  Should one of Satan's flaming arrows find its mark or we fall into sin, there can be a correlation with our negligence to appropriate all God has provided for our successful sanctification.  The exhortation to "put on" the armour of God is to utilise it, to exercise ourselves by faith in Christ by reliance on the Holy Spirit.  William Gurnall wrote:

It is not enough to have grace, but this grace must be kept in exercise.  The Christian's armour is made to be worn; no laying down, or putting off our armour, till we have done our warfare, and finished our course.  Our armour and our garment of flesh go off together; then, indeed, will be no need of watch and ward, shieled or helmet.  Those military duties and field-graces--as I may call faith, hope, and the rest--shall be honourably discharged.  In heaven we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory.  But here these are to be worn night and day; we must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are not true soldiers of Christ.  This Paul professeth to endeavour.  'Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience voice of offence toward God and toward men,' (Ac 24:16).  Here we have this holy man at his arms, training and exercising himself in his postures, like some soldier by himself handling his pike, and inuring himself before the battle. (Gurnall, William, and J. C. Ryle. The Christian in Complete Armour. Banner of Truth Trust, 2002. pages 63-64)

Paul told believers to put on the whole armour of God because it is likely we have failed to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit given to us to protect our minds and hearts.  Many times we have walked around without traction and support of the Gospel of peace which is like combat boots or God's truth which is like a belt.  We have wandered unwittingly into a conflict without the shield of faith or left the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God) in the sheath or at home.  We are able to "be" strong because this rests completely on Who Jesus is and the new creations He has made us to be.  Our identity in Christ does not mean we always or are currently using the full range of protection afforded us by God's grace, and thus we are called to put on the whole armour.

While soldiers sharpen their swords, knives and bayonets for hand-to-hand combat, we are told the manner which is to mark our preparing for and engaging in battle in Ephesians 6:18:  "...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints..."  If we are not praying, it is likely victory will be an ideal instead of the continuous reality in practice.  We are told to pray without ceasing and in everything give thanks because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us.  Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 26:41, "Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  When it comes to the spiritual conflicts, the Holy Spirit is able and willing to protect us from all harmful defeats.  If we are unwilling to pray, refuse to look to the LORD Jesus or yield to the Holy Spirit in obedience, we cannot stand in the power of God's might.