Then I want you to find Nehemiah
chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 11, and Acts
chapter 7. Now mark those. Joshua chapter
24. Joshua chapter 24. If you find that and you mark it,
then you turn to Nehemiah chapter 9. Nehemiah chapter 9. If you go
to the book of Job, the book of Psalms, that's a pretty large
book. If you find that and start turning to your left, you go
past the book of Job, and you keep turning, you'll go past
the book of Esther, and you'll find the book of Nehemiah. And
you mark that chapter 9. And then you go to Hebrews chapter
11. That's in the New Testament.
For you who go home and set your Bibles on your coffee tables
and won't read them, you'll find this, Hebrews 11, in the New
Testament. And then you find the book of
Acts, chapter 7. Okay? I don't have a lengthy reading
in these passages, but they do pertain to our study this morning. Now let's begin in Joshua chapter
24. I want to read three verses for
you. Joshua chapter 24, begin in verse 1. Joshua was saying
goodbye. This was a great man of God saying
goodbye to the tribes of Israel. And Joshua gathered all the tribes
of Israel to Shechem and called for the elders of Israel and
for their heads and for their judges and for their officers.
And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said unto
all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers
dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah
the father of Abraham, and the father of Nechar, and they served
other gods. And I took your father Abraham
from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the
land of Canaan. and multiplied his seed and gave
him Isaac." Now when you see this phrase here, the other side
of the flood, that probably means the Jordan River. When you and
I think of the flood, we think of the big flood that drownded
the world. But this place here simply means a stream or a river. And he was probably speaking
of the Jordan that was flooded when they passed over it. Now
look here at Nehemiah chapter 9 and verse 6. Nehemiah chapter
9, verse 6. Thou, even thou art Lord alone,
thou hast made heaven the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts,
the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all
that is therein, and thou preservest them all, and the host of heaven,
heaven worshipeth thee. Thou art the Lord, the God, who
didst choose Abram, and brought us him forth out of the air of
the Chaldees, and gave us him the name of Abraham." Now look
with me in Hebrews chapter 11, and look in verse 8, just one
verse. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 8.
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and
went out, not knowing whether he went." Now, one more place
over in Acts chapter 7. And this is the message that a man
here preached that got him stoned to death. This is Stephen. In verse 1 of Acts chapter 7,
then the high priest said, Are these things so? And Stephen
said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken, the God of glory appeared
unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before
he came to Herod, Asherah, and said unto him, Get thee out of
thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which
I shall show thee. Now I want you to turn over to
our text in Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. We're told there in Genesis chapter
11, and you, that was your last son to remember us reading this,
that a man by the name of Terah begot Abraham and Abraham's brothers,
and they married wives, Heron, Abraham's brother, died, and
Terah took Abraham and left and came into a place called Heron. Now in verse 1 of chapter 12.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, and to 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 them that curse thee, and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed.' So Abraham departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was
seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abraham
took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the
substance that they had gathered. And the souls that they had gotten
inherent, they came forth into the land of Canaan, and to the
land of Canaan they came. They went forth to go into the
land of Canaan, and to the land of Canaan they came. Now, I want
to call your memory just for a minute to what we preached on a few weeks
ago in the eighth chapter of the book of Genesis, when Noah
and his family, only eight souls, came from the ark. And I want
you to remember what they did as soon as they came out of that
ark. Noah took stones and built an altar, and he put wood upon
that altar, and he offered clean beasts. unto the Lord for a burnt
sacrifice. And as we studied that, if you
remember, we realized that God had revealed to Noah and his
family the way of true worship. The way that sinners could approach
unto God and worship Him and be accepted of Him. And that
was by sacrifice. It's obvious, as we read here
in this passage that I read to you, that somewhere between Shem,
Noah's son, and Terah, Abraham's father, they had lost this gospel. They had lost heart worship of
God. I don't know if they continued
to offer the sacrifice of burnt offerings, but it's obvious they
didn't know what it meant. Because Joshua reminds us here
that Abraham and Terah, his father, and their whole families was
given over to idolatry. Now why do I even mention this
this morning? Why do I mention that somewhere
along the line they had lost the true worship of God? They
had lost the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, because you
and I are here this morning to begin a study on this man, Abraham. And I don't know of a man in
the Old or New Testament that is any higher regarded or spoke
more often of than this man was. The Lord blessed him. Kings came
out of this man. Nations came out of this man.
And the Lord said, in you, all the nations of the world will
be blessed. This was a blessed man. He was
a great man. And you and I are beginning a
study of this great man's life. And I think, as we do, it's critical
that we go back to find the first place where the Scripture introduces
this man to us and find out what kind of man he was, who he was,
and where he lived at. And I bring this point up this
morning because if you and I hadn't read this passage in the book
of Joshua about what kind of a man Abraham was, And Tira,
his father was. And Abraham's whole family. We'd
have never known it. We'd have just come here and
the Bible would have introduced this man to us that he had a
father and his name was Tira. That he had two brothers and
one of them died. Abraham and his other brothers
took them wives, and they came and went into the land of Canaan.
And that would be all we know about Abraham. He just heard
the voice of the Lord, and he got out from his kindred and
his country and his father's house, and he came into the land
of Canaan. That's all we would have known
about that. But when we come here to the book of Joshua, and
Joshua tells us about this man. That he did not know the living
God. He did not believe in the Lord. He did not worship and
serve Him. But he served other gods. He
worshipped strange gods. I don't know what kind of gods
they were. I don't know if Abraham took his knife and he whittled
him out with little gods with his hands. I don't know if he
took him some sort of chisels and chiseled him out gods from
stones. But Joshua tells us here that
he served other gods. Now why is that important in
our study of this great man? Well, it tells us this. It turns
our attention to this. And that is this. Why would this
man suddenly leave his country and his father's house and all
that he knew and cherished? How did he come to believe in
this living God and obey Him and love Him and worship Him? And that's what makes this interesting,
ain't it? If the Lord wanted to bless somebody,
why didn't He go to the land of Canaan? There was a man there
in the land of Canaan already by the name of Melchizedek. He
was a great man, the priest of the Most High God. Why didn't
the Lord go to him and say, Melchizedek, I'm going to bless you, and I'm
going to make a great nation out of you? He didn't do that.
But he comes here to this man whom Joshua tells us was a worshipper
of other gods. He was an idolater. And God speaks
to this man. And He brings this man out. And
He blesses this man. Now that's very interesting to
me. It's interesting to know how He does it. It's interesting
to know why God did it. And I think as I remind you of
the text here, we begin to find out some of these answers. Why
did this man come out? Why did he hear and obey the
Lord? Why was God's blessing upon this man? Why would He even
choose to bless this man? Let me remind you again of the
text. Nehemiah said this, Thou art the Lord, the God, Thou art
the God who did choose Abram and brought him forth out of
the air of the calvaries." God brought him forth. Why did he come out? Why did
he leave his country? Nehemiah says it like this, God
brought him out. And the book of Hebrews says
it like this, By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out
into a place which he should after receive for the inheritance,
he obeyed and went out." He says it like this, Abraham, when he
was called. See how he stresses that? When
he was called. Not until he was called, but
when he was called. And here in the book of Genesis
chapter 12 verse 1, the Holy Spirit says it like this, Now
the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out. The Lord said. The Lord spoke to him and said,
Get thee out. But the text in chapter 7 of
Acts that Stephen spoke, I think is very telling. And probably
what makes the rest of these verses So effectual. And here's what Stephen said.
The God of glory, and that is the glorious God, appeared to
our father Abraham. God appeared to him. The glorious
God appeared to him. So this calling of Abraham, and
the Lord speaking to him and instructing him, was not some
weak influence that Abraham could have resisted. He couldn't easily
resist this voice. He couldn't go on about his business.
He couldn't say, well, I feel like I should leave this land
and go into another land, but right now I'm just too busy.
I'll give it some thought later on. He couldn't say that. Why? Because the God of glory
was speaking. How did He appear to Abraham?
How did He reveal Himself to Abraham? I have no idea. The
Scriptures doesn't say that He appeared to him in a dream, or
in a vision, or He spoke to his conscience, his spirit, or He
spoke to him in an audible voice. We don't know. But I tell you
this much, brothers and sisters, The God of Abraham, this glorious
God, spoke to Abraham. And Abraham never heard a voice
like this before. He said, this is not like my
gods that I've been worshiping. I've bowed down to these false
gods and I've never heard a voice like this. I've never heard a
glorious, convincing voice speak to me in the power that this
voice has spoken to me. There's why the Scripture says,
when he was called, he went out. But who called him? That's the
thing, ain't it? It wasn't some mere influence
dealing with Abraham's heart. No, no, no. It was this glorious
God. The God of glory. And He revealed
Himself to Abraham. And when He spoke to him, it
was in convincing power. And Abraham said, I'm out of
here. I'm out of here. Before we consider this calling,
I want us to go back one step further. just before God calls
Abraham. One step back. And Nehemiah is
the one that lets us do this. Nehemiah doesn't begin with calling. The other texts that I read to
you begin with calling. Abraham when he was called and
so on. But Nehemiah goes one step before
calling. And here's what he says. O LORD,
thou art the LORD, the God, that didst choose Abraham. There's what comes first, isn't
it? O LORD, O God, thou art the God
that didst choose Abraham, and then He adds, and didst bring
him out. We know why Abraham believed.
We know why he came out. Because God called him. But,
why did God call him? That's a good question to ask.
Of all the other people around him, why did the God of glory
appear to this man? Well, Nehemiah gives his answer
this way. The Lord hath chosen him. That's why the Lord called him.
Thou art the Lord that did choose Abraham, so what comes next?"
And brought him out. See what goes first? Election. Calling. Choosing. Now what does
this teach us? It teaches us that when God calls
a sinner to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved
by Christ, He does so because He has chosen that sinner to
that end. Now, I want you to turn with
me over to 2 Thessalonians and look here with me in 2 Thessalonians.
You hold Genesis chapter 11 and turn all the way over in your
New Testament to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and look here in verse 13. First thing that happens is God choosing. Election comes
first. And then out of that and because
of that comes calling. Thou art the God who chose Abraham
and therefore brought him out. Now look at what the Apostle
tells us in verse 13. We are bound to give thanks always
for you, brethren, because you're beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning, from the beginning of time, before
the foundation of the world, chosen you To salvation. And here's the way He saves you.
Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And because He has chosen you
to salvation, look in verse 14. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now ain't that plain? Ain't that
wonderful? Paul says He first chose you
to salvation. And because He's chosen you to
salvation, therefore He called you to come to Christ and share
in His glory. Now, why is the Scripture so
plain about this? Well, it seems to me that God
is determined, sooner or later, to bring us to know and understand
that the most critical aspect of our salvation, the most important
aspect of our salvation is in His hands. It's in His hands. Now, I'll
say this this morning, and I know you won't misunderstand me, but
there's something more critical than calling. And I don't seek
to diminish that calling. We'll get to that in a minute.
But there's something in this aspect of salvation that's even
more important than our calling. And you know what it is? Our
election. You go way back yonder before
the foundation of the world, and there's where God made His
choice on who He was going to save. Now that's critical, Andrew. That's critical. and what He
means for us to know and understand that that aspect of our salvation
rests with Him. And before Abraham was ever called,
before Abraham knew the Lord, before he knew anything about
the Lord or the Lord's will, the Lord had already set His
elect in love upon that man. Abraham didn't know it. Abraham's
family didn't know it. Nobody knew it but God Himself. And that's why God called him.
That's why God brought him out. Abraham came out because God
called him. But God called him because God
had chosen him. Now boy, that's a stripping thing,
ain't it? I tell you what, this is the
most comforting thing to God's people. To the believer, this
is a sure foundation. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal. The Lord knows those that are
His. When they were dead in sin, He said, they're Mine. They don't
know it. And they won't know it until
I call them. But I've got other sheep. They're Mine. And they're
lost. But I'm bringing them. Boy, when
you find yourself in Christ, isn't that a comforting thing?
Your salvation was settled upon before the foundation of the
world. But I tell you what election does. Boy, it's a trumpet, a
clarion sound. It's a loud sound, a disturbing
sound in the heart of the self-righteous. In the ears of the self-sufficient
and those who are in love with themselves and say, it's left
up to me. I'll come when I'm good and ready.
My salvation is mine, whether I want it or reject it." And
when they come here and God says, No, no. No, no. The most critical aspect of salvation,
who's going to be saved, is left with Me. And I've already settled
it. That's a stripping thing, isn't
it? But that's the first thing we see about this man Abraham.
Before we see his calling, And him coming out, Nehemiah says,
you've got to stop and consider this. God chose this man. And we come here to the Apostle
Paul and say, we thank God that He's chosen you and He's called
you. Back over to our text again.
Back over to our text. Let's look now at the calling.
The Lord's called to Abraham. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called. When he was called. Now, a person just don't wake
up one Sunday morning and say, I've discovered I'm a believer. I've discovered I'm a child of
God. Well, how did you become a child of God? Well, I don't
really know. I don't know. You know, it's dangerous to profess
to be a child of God and not know how you become one. I'm
a Christian. How did you become a Christian?
I really don't know. Never thought about it. That would be like
Abraham going into the land of Canaan. And some Canaanite say,
what's your name? I'm Abraham. Where are you from? Over in the area of the Chaldees.
What are you doing all the way over here in the land of Canaan?
And Abraham said, well, I never thought about it. I really don't
know. It's not that way, is it? If
a Canaanite had asked Abraham that, he says, here's why I'm
here. I was living over there in idolatry. I was worshiping other gods and
this God of glory spoke to my heart and He said, you get out
and I'm going to bless you and make you great. That's what I'm
doing here. I'm here because God awoken me from my deadness
and sin and lostness and He saved me and He's brought me here.
That's what I'm doing. What is this calling about? Well,
this is the second time that we read about calling. The Hebrew
writer said, Abraham when he was called. But we go all the
way back to Genesis chapter 3. Brother Glenn was commenting
on this this morning. This is the second time here
in chapter 12 that this calling is mentioned. But you remember
the first time it's mentioned. This is so important. What is
calling? What is it? What is calling? What's it about? And you go back
there in the Garden of Eden. First time we ever see this word
used, call. And Adam and Eve had sinned against
the Lord. They had eaten the tree, the
forbidden fruit. And they discovered they were naked. And their conscience
was guilty. And they heard the voice of the
Lord speaking, and they ran and hid themselves. And the Lord, the Scripture said
in Genesis 3 and 9, the Lord called unto Adam. And He said,
Adam! Adam! Where art thou? You think the
Lord didn't know? He knew, Glenn. He knows everything. Then why did he say, Adam, where
art thou? He wanted Adam to acknowledge
where you are. Adam, you've eaten that tree
I told you not to eat of. You have, haven't you? Where
are you now, Adam? Adam, you've disobeyed me, haven't
you? Answer me, have you? Where are you now? You know what he sought to bring
Adam to? than acknowledgment of what Adam
had done, than acknowledgment of where he was. And when you and I look through
the Old and New Testament, one thing that's abundantly clear,
the Lord saves us by bringing us to acknowledge the truth about
our sin against God. That's the first thing about
this call. Listen to these passages of Scripture, Jeremiah 3.12.
Go proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, thou
backsliding Israel. Return unto me, saith the Lord,
and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful,
and I will not keep anger forever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity. that thou hast transgressed against
Me, and you have not obeyed My voice." What does this calling
have to do with? It's God bringing us to acknowledgment
that we've sinned. Where are you now? Where are
you now? Listen to Hosea 5, 14 and 15. I will be to Ephraim, as a lion
and as a young lion to the house of Judah, I will tear them and
goeth away, saith the Lord. I will take away, and none shall
rescue him out of my hand. I will go and return to my place
until they acknowledge their offenses and end their afflictions. They will seek me. Psalms chapter
51, very familiar passage. David said, I acknowledge my
transgressions. I acknowledge them to the Lord.
I don't hide them anymore. I tried to hide them. I tried
to deny them. But now I acknowledge them before
the Lord. And my sin is ever before me. Abraham never left the heir of
the Chaldees. with his little gods hid away
in his back pocket. He never done it. This is what
calling is all about. To bring us, Glenn, to the place.
Go get your husband and bring him here. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. My husband. Which one? Which one? I'll hide it from him, he don't
know. You go get your husband and you bring him here. You go
get your idols. Where are you? Who are you? What
have you done? That's what calling does. When
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees, he left his gods down there.
And he left ashamed. And he left with a thorough confession
to God, I have all my life been against you. I'm a sinner. I acknowledge it. I confess it.
That's the first thing about calling. We won't get around
this. We will not get around this. There are no secret Christians. There are no Christians out there
any place thinking, I'm a good man. I'm a good woman. The first
thing God will bring us to is this. I'm a sinner. I've been against God all my
life. And now I'm owning it. I stand in His presence and I
own it. The second thing about calling
is this, in chapter 12 of Genesis verse 1. Not only do they acknowledge
their sin, but they come out of their sinful lifestyle. He was a man that was an idolater.
His family was an idolater. And what does the Lord demand
of him there in verse 1? Get thee out of thy country.
Get you out from away from your kindred. Get you out from your
father's house. Now don't read over this too
quickly, folks. This is everything. This is where Abraham's farm
was. He's a pretty well-to-do man.
This is where his shop was that he earned a living with. This
is where he was born and raised. This is where he fished at. This
is the mountains he set on and watched the sun go down. This
was his country. And God said, get out of it.
It's a land of idolatry. Get out of it. Get out not only
of your country, but look at this, get away from your cousins.
But I've known them since I was a youth. I've got some aunts,
I've got some uncles, my relatives. I love them. We have had sweet
fellowship together. Get away from them. You're living
in sin with them. Come out of it. And boy, he really gets down
to the nitty-gritty. In your father's house. My father. Those who watch me grow up? Those
who love me? Care about me? Have sweet fellowship? Never see their faces again?
This is a sinful place. You're in a sinful family. Your
relatives are living in open idolatry. Get out! That's demands,
ain't it? That's demands. What does this
calling do? This is what takes place when
the God of glory appears to a man. It brings us to take sides against
those sins that we once loved and valued. That's what it does. Abraham, it's obvious as we read
this text that anybody that wanted to go with him could go. His
father went for a ways and died. The Lord said, can I go with
you? He says, you can come on. You're welcome to go. But I'm
leaving. There's one thing that's settled
in my heart. I don't care what you do. Saria,
I love you dearly. But if you don't go with me,
I'm leaving anyway. I'm out of here. The lifestyle
that I lived before, the sins that I loved before, I'm leaving
them behind. I'm out of here. How did He do
that? The God of glory will make a
difference in you. I tell you, you think right now,
you think right now, I love my sin too much, I can't come out
of it. And you won't in your heart until the God of glory
appears to you. And then you'll see your sins
in a different light then. And then you'll say, I'm out
of here. I'm out of here. That's what calling is all about,
ain't it? I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. What does that mean? I call them
to acknowledge that they are sinners. And I call them out
of that lifestyle. I call them out of that sin. Abraham said in his heart, I
am leaving this place. I count all loss that I may win
Christ. It's done that I may win Him. You and I often read in the Scriptures
where the Lord says such verses like this. He makes these statements
to people. I called, and you refused. I stretched out My hand, and
no man regarded. And He says this, How often would
I have gathered you as a hen gathers her little chicken, and
you wouldn't. And now we know why, don't we?
Now we know why. Leave all? Leave everything? I've married a wife. You expect me to leave her? She
won't come with me. Then you going to stay there
with her? Or you going to come to Christ without
her? And if you stay there with her, and you won't come to Christ
without her, then you and her will go to hell. I bought five yokes of ostens.
I can't come. I bought some land and I've got
to go look at it. I can't come. But this call says
you will come. You will come. And if the Lord
is not a God of glory, that he cannot bring a sinner
from the love of his sin and bring him to Christ.