Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn with me to Genesis, the 12th chapter. Chapter 11, after we talked about that tower
and that city of Babel, is a genealogy. And that genealogy leads us up
with the sons of Seth or of Shem, it leads us up to the birth of
Abraham. And Abraham marries a wife, and they move to a place, and
they stay there a little while, and then he leaves and goes And
the Lord begins this work through this man Abraham. Now, I want
us to look at these first five verses here in Genesis chapter
12. Now, the Lord had said unto Abraham,
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from
thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless
them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in
thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." So Abram departed
as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram
was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haman. And Abram took Sarai, his wife,
and Lot, his brother's son, and all their substance that they
gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran, and
they went forth to go into the land of Canaan. And into the
land of Canaan they came. I want tonight to begin a series
of messages. I began this study here on Abraham
and realized that this subject that we're going to talk about
a little bit tonight, I'm going to have to do in a couple of
parts. So I've decided to bring a follow-up message on this. move from the Old Testament to
the New Testament and we'll talk about this call, this effectual
call of God. Abraham, this is what this is
about here. God calling Abraham. But I want
to begin a series of messages and we're going to continue on
for a while with this man Abraham. God the Holy Spirit devoted 12
chapters of the book of Genesis to creation to the fall of man,
to the antediluvian world, to the flood, and to the Tower of
Babel, to the beginning of what we know in our day as religion. He devoted twelve chapters to
it. He now devotes twelve chapters to just this one man, Abraham. I'd say it was important. Twelve chapters he devotes to
this one man. And nearly all of the rest of
the Old Testament deals with his offspring and deals directly
with those promises that God spoke to him, the entire Old
Testament. So from this point on, basically,
we're just dealing with Abraham and his children from here clear
to the New Testament. I'd say it was important. I tell
you, very important. So highly esteemed was Abraham
that when the Lord told of the blessings of heaven, he said a certain rich man died
and went to hell, and Lazarus, this old beggar that laid there
with open sores before him, And the rich man ignored him, and
men walked by and paid him no attention whatsoever. When the
Lord began to describe the blessedness of Lazarus in heaven, how did
He say it? He said the rich man looked up
and saw Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. That's how highly esteemed
this man Abraham is. God says he's my friend. He talked
to him face to face as a friend. as a friend. He's the most referred
to of all the Old Testament patriarchs. He's called in the Scripture
the father of all them that believe. He's the prime example of imputed
righteousness in Romans chapter 4. He doesn't single out another
single individual in the Old Testament, but he does point
to Abraham. And he said, it was not written
for his sake alone that the Lord imputed this righteousness to
him, but for us also who shall believe. He's the prime example of the
quality of faith and its nature that produces good works and
displays the very fruit of the spirit of life. James uses him
over in chapter 1, verses 22 and 23 to illustrate what kind
of faith saving faith is. and says that Abraham was justified
by works. Those good works. God singles
out Abraham through the Apostle Paul to teach us the superiority
of God's covenant of grace over the covenant of works and law.
The Holy Ghost uses Abraham's two sons as an allegory to teach
the difference between the covenant of grace based entirely upon
the promises of God and the covenant of works based upon the works
and obedience of men. And there are lessons enough,
I believe, in these next 12 chapters to supply us with subjects to
preach on infinitely. I've been hearing them all my
life. And I still look on the Internet and they're still coming
up. But I want to begin tonight where
the Scriptures begin. When God called him out, here
in chapter 12 of Genesis, it begins with these words, Now
the Lord said. The Lord said. Just let that rattle around for
a little while in there and let it sink in. The Lord said. A lot of things took place. There
were some births and some deaths A lot of things. There's some
moving and acquiring and working and acquiring substances and
all kinds of stuff. But now it comes up to this twelfth
chapter and it says, now the Lord's saved. The Lord's saved. Salvation is of the Lord. Abraham is the father of all
them that believe. He's the father of the faithful.
He's the father of all those that the Lord's going to call
out. You're going to call them out. Salvation of the Lord. What does that mean? We're quick to say that in conversation. We start to talk to somebody
who's raised in religion and they start talking to us about
whatever kind of foolishness it is, walking down an aisle
or making Jesus your personal Savior or whatever it is they
want to say, joining the church speaking in tongues, getting
a second blood, whatever it is that they begin to talk about,
and we stop them, we say, now wait a minute, salvation is of
the Lord. Well, what's that mean? What's
that mean? Salvation is of the Lord means
that it's of Him in its beginning, that it's of Him in its design
before the world was. Before there was a sinner, there
was a substitute. That's what that means. Before
there was a transgression, there was a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek who had neither beginning of days nor end of
life. That's what it says over in Hebrew. He said he was made
a priest forever. When was he made? When did he
take this priest to us? Doesn't have a beginning. Doesn't
have a beginning. Or when does it end? Doesn't
have an end. It is after the order of Melchizedek. Before
there was a fall, there was a covenant of grace in place to make provision
for all those chosen of God who would fall. Salvation is of the
Lord. Before the apostle John would
tell us the gospel of Christ, I labored to point this out to
you. Many, many weeks we spent on that first chapter. Before
John will tell you anything at all about coming to Christ, believing
on Christ, anything that has to do with any of those things,
before John even introduces his subject, he'll have you to know
that Christ is the eternal Word who was with God in the beginning,
who created all things. And all things were not only
created by Him, but they were created for Him. Salvation is not man's idea.
It's the eternal decree of God. It's not something born of circumstance
and unforeseen problems that the Lord run into. He didn't
realize Adam was going to sin. And when he sinned, then he had
to come up with some way to save him and all this kind of nonsense.
Salvation is not something born of circumstance and unforeseen
problems. God is all seeing. All-knowing,
everywhere present, and omnipotent in power. That pretty much covers
any mistakes that could happen, don't it? He alone declares, He said, the
end. He didn't say He knew the end.
He said He declares it. When? From the beginning. Does
that include salvation? That especially includes salvation. That's what I want to show. Everything that happens in time
is in some form or fashion. It has something to do with God's
eternal work of salvation. Everything. Everything. Satan's fall, his being cast
out of heaven, everything has to do with this eternal work
of God, this eternal decree of God to save a people for the
glory of His name. This One who redeems chosen sinners
through His blood and gives them forgiveness of sins is in fact
the very image of the invisible God and the firstborn, Paul said,
of every creature. Turn with me to Colossians, the
first chapter. Colossians chapter 1. Paul said He has translated us. He translated us out of that
darkness, called us out of that darkness, and translated us into
the kingdom of His dear Son. He redeemed us by His blood,
gave us the forgiveness of sins. Now watch this, Colossians 1
verse 16, For by Him were all things created that are in heaven,
that are in earth, Visible and invisible, whether they be thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created
by Him, now watch it, and for Him. And for Him. And He is before all things.
He's the reason behind them. That's what He's saying there.
He is the purpose given to them. He is the reason that all things
have their being. He is before all things, and
by Him all things consist. Talking about this One, this
Jesus Christ the Lord, this eternal appointed Savior. Now listen,
verse 18, And He, this same One who created all things, who holds
all things together, and who has given all things their purpose,
this same One, He is the Head. He is the head. He is the beginning. He is the head of the body of
the church. He is the beginning. He is the
firstborn from the dead that in all things He might have the
preeminence. All things. For it pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And I read this
verse to you all the time over in II Thessalonians if you want
to turn over there. I read this verse to you all
the time and I quote it often to you, but I want you to look
at it again in the light of what I'm saying here tonight, 2 Thessalonians
2.13. And if you'll do a little study
on this chapter, you'll find out that he's not talking about
some man that's going to be born in time and going to be the man
of sin and he's going to raise up and there's going to be a
A thousand year period and this man gonna come up and be prominent.
That's a bunch of foolishness. What he's talking about here
is exactly what took place back here in the days of Abraham.
That power of Babel had risen to dominance and men had become
one in the thing in their union together to build this idolatrous
religion and they were building this tower and building this
city. Same thing went on. I preached to you Sunday morning
about that king of Babylon, that Babylonian empire. Same thing
going on. That's what's going on here spiritually. Paul said, you don't have to
be worried. The Lord is not coming back today. Some things have
to happen. And he begins to talk about this
rising of Babylon, this rising of Satan and his religion and
his religious principles and stuff. This spiritual Babylon
is going to raise up in power and it's going to deceive even
the very elect if it were possible. I was reminded by a good friend
of mine who is a missionary down in the islands, Moose Parks.
He was talking to me about my bulletin article in there, and
he said, when I was studying that, he said, I looked up that
word tower, and that word tower means high place. So he said,
what's going on with spiritual wickedness and high places? He
said, that's what's going on. That's exactly what Paul's talking
about here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. All the way through
there, he's talking about that man of sin being revealed. He's
going to make himself known. How's he going to do it? In religion.
He's going to sit in the temple of God just like he is God. He's going to be making decisions
and that's what he does. He sits in there and he declares
man's will and man's ideas and man's destiny being his own and
all that kind of nonsense. Oh, but he said this, look down
here in verse 13. Paul said, but we're bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God, and this is what we're talking about tonight,
God, God, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Ain't that what that says? Chosen
you to salvation. Now that didn't say he had chosen
you to the possibility of it. That's what men say that it says,
but that's not what it says. He didn't choose you that you
might have the option of it. No point in choosing you. If
you have an option, where's the election fit in? He said He had
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. That's why He hadn't
given to you that strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned
for believing it. That's why you're not sitting
down there in that building in the temple of God like you was
God and all those things that he talks about earlier in this
chapter. Paul said, I give thanks unto God for you, brother. Beloved
of the Lord. He didn't hesitate. He said the
Lord loved you. Because He's chosen you from
the beginning. From the beginning. When He appointed
Christ to substitute. When He made all the provisions
from the beginning. He chose you to salvation. Chose
you to salvation. Now watch this. Through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, God's Spirit creates life. He creates life. I don't think
there's a man or a woman that I ever went to church with in
my life who really believed that. Do you? You wouldn't walk down
them aisles if you believed that, would you? He creates life. And he has to
create life. You'll sit there, I don't care,
you can get so religious, you can put the gowns and the robes
and the necklaces on, and you can go and you can speak in tongues,
they can teach you, can't they Russell? They can teach you how
to speak in tongues. They can teach you just about
anything. The one thing they can't do,
and that's create life. The Holy Spirit of God creates
life. He convinces of sin. All the
preachers in the world can't convince you of sin. He can. Don't take him long, either. He's the only one that can convince
you of righteousness. And He's the only one to convince
you. If you were ever convinced of sin and convinced of righteousness,
He's the only one who will ever convince you that judgment's
been satisfied. He convinces. He creates. God's Spirit comes into a man
and sets him apart from the rest of the world. Changes him. Makes
him different. Sets him apart. Just like Israel
was set apart out there and those plagues fell on those Egyptians,
but it didn't fall out there on them Israelites. They sat
out there in Goshen. And the frogs didn't get on them.
They sat out there in Goshen. How come? Because God set them
apart. The Holy Spirit of God comes into a man and sets him
apart. He's totally different now than
what he was. Now, he's willing. He's willing
to listen. He's willing to be taught. He's
willing to repent. He's willing to believe. Why? Never had been. He wasn't born
willing. He wasn't willing out there when
he was sowing his wild oats. When did he get willing? Huh? I tell you when a man will get
willing, when God the Holy Spirit comes into his heart and sets
him apart. Then he gets willing. He's willing. He gives them eyes to see and
ears to hear. And he said, they shall be willing
in the day of my power, and they will be. Paul said, I know your
election of God, you Thessalonians, because our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and
in much assurance. It came in power. That's how
you know. And this salvation to which we
were chosen of God from the beginning and which comes in the power
of God's Holy Spirit and truly sets a man apart is the very
reason, Paul said, why he preached. He said, whereunto, huh? Ain't
that what it says over in 2 Thessalonians 2? Whereunto He called you, God
called you by our gospel. Ain't that what that says? The sovereign God, the God who
from the beginning set you apart and chose you to be saved, chose
to save you through the preaching of the gospel. Read Galatians,
I think it's chapter 3 sometime. Find out what happened to Abraham.
It said the gospel was preached unto Abraham. Ain't that what
it says? The Gospel was preached unto
him. Who preached it? I don't know. Might have been
a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
know who preached to him. I just know they preached. And
I know he heard. That's what it says. The Scriptures foreseeing that
God would justify the heathen through faith preached before
the Gospel unto Abraham. But it says God spoke. How can that be? I don't know.
I don't know. Old Abraham was in a cursed land,
dwelling among cursed people, living in a house that he was
given instruction to leave. God found him. God found him. He didn't find God. Here folks
talk about on the We used to have stand-up testimonies in
our church on Wednesday night. They'd give 10-15 minutes and
people would stand up, what they called stand-up testimonies,
and they'd stand up and talk about when they found God. I thought the Scripture said
no man has ever seen God. Ain't that what they said? Only one has ever seen Him. Only
one ever Ever saw Him and that was Christ who's in His bosom.
Everything we know about God we got from Him. God spoke to me in a dream. That's
amazing. That's amazing. He came to Abraham in his house
of idolatry and He called him out because God purposed to do
it. God's people are described as
God. Listen to this. They're described
as the called according to my purpose. Ain't that what it says
in Romans 8.28? Who are the called according
to my purpose. Well, I know you've got a purpose.
When God convinces you of sin, you do. Oh yeah, you've got all
kinds of purpose, but that ain't what brings Him. That ain't what
begins the call. The call of God stems from the
purpose of God to glorify His name. It all started back in
the beginning. All started back in the beginning. He says in verse 29 of Romans
chapter 8, He said, For whom He did foreknow, I challenge
you to look up that word, it means foreordain. But we'll read
it tonight, poor Noah, I don't mind that term. Whom he did,
poor Noah, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son. Now listen to me. In predestinating
wisdom and power and grace, God himself ordered everything in
creation, providence, and salvation to effect this end. That's what
that means. God from the beginning, Glenn,
chose you. And He looked as only God can
look and ordered everything from that point to the end of glory. He ordered everything, predestinated
it to accomplish that end. And it's going to be accomplished.
That's just all there is to it. There's no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. It's going to be. He ordered everything in creation,
providence, and salvation to affect this end. And so He says,
whom He did predestinate, He called. Calling is a part of
that predestination of purpose set forth from the beginning
of time. That's what I'm trying to show
you. Whom He did predestinate, then He also called. Whom He
called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified.
He said, from the beginning to the end. He said, I am God. Beside me there is none other.
I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done. And he said, I say my counsel
will stand and I'll do all my pleasure. David said, I don't
know that you are God, but our God is in heaven. He hath done
whatsoever he pleased. What the Lord pleased, that did
he. In heaven, earth, the seas, and all deep places. Abraham was a married man. Moved over here to Iran and said
he got a little substance over there. A little substance. Got him a job. Had a wife. Suffered some things. His daddy
died. Things took place. Adopted his
nephew. He did a lot before God actually
took him out of that place. But before God spoke to him,
grace ordered his life. It ordered his life. He didn't
know it. He still talked like a cursed
man. He still lived like a cursed man. He still rebelled. He still did all those things.
But grace surrounded him, hedged him, prepared him for the day
before God would call him. There's a leading up. There's
nothing. What I'm trying to preach to
you tonight is this man Abraham, look at what he come out of.
He come out of that religion of Nimrod. He come out of that
religion of Babel. He come out of that mess. The
old ancient historians say that his father and his grandfather
both made a living selling idols. I don't know if that's true or
not. I can't find any account of it in the Scriptures. But
even if they did or even if they didn't, look at the mess he come
out of. Everybody around him talked that
mess, everybody. And when the Lord called him,
He called him out of it. He didn't leave him in it. He
called him out of it. He took him out of it. Especially
his father's house. Get out of there, he said. And
get away from your kinsmen. Get away from them. The Lord came to him as he was. The Lord came to him where he
was. And the Lord came to him on purpose. An everlasting, immutable,
irresistible purpose to save this chosen sinner for the glory
of his name. And then I'm told that this was
a holy colleague. according as He hath chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. That was the first consideration.
That's why He chose us in Christ. This predestinating purpose of
God, and then He chooses us, but He chooses us in Christ,
and He made provision for us that we might be holy, that we
might be without blame, and that we might be before Him in love.
And this holy calling, he said in 2 Timothy 1.9, he said, is
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Are you starting to see what
these words are all about? Now the Lord said. The Lord of
what? The Lord of everything that is.
The Lord of Time. To everything there's a time.
Everything. Where'd that come from? The Lord
of Time. Opportunities, where do they
come from? The Lord gives them. How come Abraham didn't hear
nobody else? Because the Lord spoke. The Lord spoke. It's not according
to our works. There wasn't any difference in
His works and anybody else's work. It's not according to our
works. It's according to His own purpose
and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You know, in his message, Stephen,
the first martyr, in his message to the Jews, his opening remarks
concerned Abraham. I want you to listen to this.
You can find this over at Acts chapter 7. But in his message to the Jews,
Stephen began by telling them that the God of glory appeared
to Abraham. Now that's very important right
there. That's a very important thing. Now what he's pointing
out to them is two things. Number one, what God taught to
him. And number two, he's pointing
out to them that he was still an idolater, still in Mesopotamia. In other words, God didn't call
him. Evidently, those Jews have been saying that God called him
because he took off out of there and was on his way to Canaan.
He got some direction and he obeyed God, and so then God came
and God had fellowship with him. That's not what Stephen said.
Stephen, point blank, listen to this. Acts 7, verse 2, and he said, brethren and fathers hearken,
he said, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when
he was in Mesopotamia before he went to Turan. Now Turan is
just the Greek version of Haran. It's the same city, same thing. And he said unto him, Get thee
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come to the
land which I will show thee. He's telling them that this wasn't
a reaction of God to something Abraham purposed to go do, but
that God talked to him and called him out while he was still in
idolatry down in Mesopotamia. It wasn't his moving toward Canaan
that the Lord blessed, but He blessed him in his call to leave. Abraham didn't have any intention
to leave. He didn't have any intention to leave. He didn't
have any desire to leave. He didn't have any instruction
to leave until the God of glory appeared to him. That's what
this message is all about tonight. It wasn't a god. It wasn't some
god. It wasn't a mixture of the gods
of Nimrod and the god of Noah. This was the God of glory. That's what he said. The God
of glory. What's that mean? Well, the glory
of God is who He is. The glory of God is His name.
It's His perfections. It's His eternality. It's His
deity. He's God. And He's not giving
it up for us. You can't bring Him down from
His throne. He won't share that. He's not going to share His glory.
He's God. He's God. It's who He is. It's His perfection of character,
His eternality, the plurity of His persons, His oneness of deity. Listen to these scriptures here
in Isaiah. He said, I am God and beside me there is none other.
I am the Lord and there is none else. There is no God beside
me. He said, I form light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.
I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. And if I call a bird from the
east, it'll come and do my bidding. And if I call a man from a far
country to come and take my counsel out to men, he'll come and do
my bidding. I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord. I've spoken it. I'll bring it
to pass. I've purposed it. I'll do it. There is no God else
beside me. I am a just God and a Savior. Look unto me. Look unto me, he
said. Not to your vain imaginations,
look unto me as I am declared through my holy prophets. Look
unto me and be you saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. The God of glory appeared unto
Abraham. And before chosen sinners are
ever to be moved to do the will of God, they must be called to
see the God of glory. That's what moves means. Paul
said, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to the lost, in whom the
God of this world hath blinded their minds. What did they blind
their minds to? Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts." Now
listen, "...to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." That's what you have to see.
The God of glory appeared to him. That's what moved him. That's what made him get up.
Where are you going, Abraham? I don't know. He didn't tell
me that. He just told me to leave. So he didn't know where he was
going. Nowhere he's going. People go on in their religion,
go on in their daily routine because they have not seen the
God of glory. Some people only worship when
it's convenient. Why they do that? Because they
haven't seen the God of glory. People make public worship and
baptism and Bible reading and prayer and all those things,
optional exercises, because they had not seen the God of glory.
That's why they do it. Men and women look at their lives
and find a satisfaction in what they do because they had not
seen the God of glory. Oh, Isaiah the prophet, he was
just a young man and he was woe and everything coming and going.
You read Isaiah chapter 5 sometimes. Woe is the drunkard. Woe is that
man who esteems himself in his own eyes. Woe is that man who
justifies men for reward. Woe is that man. He just goes
on and on about seven or eight times. He's woeing everything
coming and going. Then comes Isaiah chapter 6,
and he saw the Lord high and lifted up. It says in the New
Testament, Isaiah said these things when he saw His glory.
That's what he saw. He saw his train fill the temple. He saw those angels in their
conversation did nothing but say, holy, holy, holy, and covered
their eyes in his presence. The smoke from the door rose
up in his presence. He saw the Lord. He said, woe
is me. I'll tell you why men and women
find satisfaction in themselves and find satisfaction in their
lives, because they haven't yet seen the Lord of Glory. People
put off faith, put off hearing, have no fear of God before their
eyes. They don't care how they hear,
what they hear, when they hear. Quick to find fault, ignore what
they hear, because they have not seen the Lord of Glory. That's why. Abraham was an idolater. He was never going to change.
Had the Lord left him there and been silent, Abraham wouldn't
have been any different than anybody else. He'd have been
another Nimrod, what he would have been. But God didn't choose
to remain silent. God spoke. God spoke. What did He tell him? He told
him who he was. He told him who he was. He saw the God of glory
And the God of glory he saw called him out of his father's house
and he left, not knowing where he was going. I tell you, this world, if you
close your eyes and just listen sometimes, turn them on. I'm
not afraid for you to hear them. Turn them on. Turn them on the
TV. Turn them on the radio. Lay back there in your chair
and close your eyes and listen to how they describe their God.
He has no hands but your hands, no feet but your feet. He can't
do anything He wants to do. Listen to Him. I'm telling you
the truth. He's fickle in His purpose. He's weak in strength.
He can't finish what He starts. He can't do what He wants. He
can't keep what was given to Him. He teaches, but nobody learns. He calls, but nobody answers.
He knocks, but nobody opens. He leads, but nobody follows.
He reveals His will, but everybody goes on and does what they want
to. What kind of God do you got? The God of glory spake. You see
what I'm saying? That's who has to speak. That's
the effectual call. What I'm doing tonight is a general
call. I just stand up and tell you
about God. Tell you about the called according
to His purpose. Tell you the declarations and
promises of God. Teach you what the Scriptures
say. I stand up here and talk. I'm just a man. It just goes
in here. But boy, when he speaks, the
job gets done. The job gets done. The God of glory. And I tell
you what's wrong with the average church is not because of some
troublemaker or some weak pastor or some weak doctrine. It's because
nobody in the whole outfit has ever seen the Lord of glory.
That's what the problem is. You can't tell what you don't
know anymore and you can come back from somewhere you haven't
been. Did Abraham see Christ? What
did Abraham hear? Did he see Christ? The Lord said he did. He told
those Jews, they said, why? You're not even 50 years old.
You talking about being before, he said, before Abraham was,
I am. Why, Abraham? He said, let me
tell you something, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and
was glad. He saw it and he was glad. You find that over in John 8,
verse 56. When God calls a sinner, it's not a call to reform or
a call to turn over a new leaf or a call to straighten out his
life. When God calls a sinner, it's a call to see his glory. That's what you see. That eliminates
99.9% of the arguments. It boils back to God's glory. God can't change. He's God. God
is perfectly just. He can't just pardon. You see what I'm saying? The attributes of God are His
perfections. He's not going to compromise
those things. When you see the God of glory, a lot of things
will just fall into place. We won't talk about election
being unfair. Let me ask you something. Whose
hands would you rather it be in? Yours or His? Now come on. There's not an evil in Him. He's good. That rich young ruler came to
the Lord and he said, Good Master, why callest thou me good? There's
none good but God. He's right. He's never wrong.
He's always right. We define right by what God does. A thing is right because He does
it, because He is righteous in Himself. You see, whose hands
would you rather this be in? Yours? Huh? You can't make a simple decision
of life without messing it up. And you want this eternal decision
in your hands? Boy, not me. I'd rather be in Hell. It's a call to see His glory.
And when he sees his glory, he'll seek his will. When he finds
his will, he'll do it. He'll rejoice in it. And he'll
rest in the God of glory. He can't stay in his Father's
house because it's not a house where God's glory will abide.
Now let me show you one more thing and then I'll close. And
then Sunday I'm going to give you seven things on this call. on this divine call. I'm going
to give you seven places in the scripture. We're going to look
at seven different texts that define this call. Peter said,
make your calling and election sure, because you don't know
anything at all about your election except through your calling.
That's how you know. So we're going to take a real
close look at this calling. But what I'm working on tonight
is the God who calls. It's God. And what Abraham saw
was not just a God, And it wasn't just a God of supreme purpose
that he saw, but he saw this purpose and will of God on his
behalf. Now that's what happens in this
call. What Abraham saw, he wasn't just this untouchable, unreachable
God, but this sovereign God. whose will can't be challenged,
whose will is going to be done. He saw that will as it was connected
to him in salvation. That's what he saw. He saw this
God of glory and His goodness toward him, and His love toward
him, and His intentions toward him. He saw the glory of His
mercy and the glory of His grace. Moses said, If I found favor
in your sight, he said, show me now your glory. What did the
Lord tell him? He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. It's mercy and it's grace. That's
what he showed him. Abraham's vision of the God of
glory was inclusive of his promises. Listen to this. Paul said this
over in Romans 4, verse 21, that he was fully persuaded that what
God had promised, God gave him promise, he was able also to
perform. And God speaking in Christ has
nothing to say but blessings to those who can hear him. And
those who don't hear him, he don't speak. There's no such
thing as God speaking and you not hearing. I can speak and
you can't hear it. But you're going to hear when
He speaks. The Lord said, There's coming a day, and now is when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and neither
hear or live. The dead can hear His voice. That's who spoke to Abraham.
God spoke to him. And when God speaks, Write this
down, when God speaks, it's to save sinners. It's to save sinners. All God
has to do to damn you is just leave you alone. Just be silent.
That's all He has to do. Just be silent. But to save,
He speaks. So I tell you this, He said,
keep your foot when thou enterest into the house
of God and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of
fools. You see what he's talking about? When you come in here,
listen for God to speak. Pray before you come here that
God will meet with us and that God will speak. I stand up here
and preach until I get hoarse. It ain't going to do you any
good unless God speaks, but more when He speaks, if He speaks. Things happen. Things happen. God has no intention to save,
He just keeps silent. But to that man or woman given
Him by the Father, how sweet and tender are His words. You can't find any reason in
you. The reason is all in Him. It's all in Him. That's what
Abraham learned. He journeyed all through this
world. And the more he journeyed, the
more he learned. But here's what he finally learned.
All of the reasons, all of the glory, all of the love, all of
the mercy, all in Him. That was purposed of Him from
the beginning. And nothing could stop it. Not
even that old evil tower, not that old family at Nimrod. None
of them could stop Him in His purpose to save. I tell you,
if you get a sight of that, you can go through anything. You
can go through anything. I'll show you Sunday where that
calling is a call to peace and you find that peace in trouble.
You find it in tribulation. You find it in disagreement.
I don't care what goes on, you have a peace because the God
of peace has called you to peace. And there's a peace in His name,
in who He is, in His strength, in His power, in His purpose.
There's a rest in it. a satisfaction in it. And you
see it. You don't have to get all excited.
You can just calm down. Just calm down. He's in charge.
He can do the work. All we need to do is just what
he tells us to do.