Turn tonight with me to the book
of Isaiah. If you will, please, Isaiah chapter
41 in verse 8. Isaiah chapter 41 in verse 8. But thou, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend, the
friend of God. I hope with the Lord's help and
blessing to bring several messages concerning what is recorded concerning
the man in this text that God called his friend, Abraham. I counted and found that he is
named in 27 of the 66 books in our Bible. His history, of course, is recorded
in the book of Genesis, where his names, Abram and Abraham,
are found 193 times. He's also mentioned in the New
Testament, in each of the gospels, the book of Acts, three of the
church epistles, and two of the general epistles. It goes without
saying that he was a real person. The Lord Jesus Christ referred
to Abraham just like Noah was a real person, just like Jonah
was a real person who was swallowed by the fish. and to deny the
existence and the reality of any of these men and what is
recorded concerning them in the word of God is to deny the truthfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking at what the scriptures
reveal about Abraham doesn't mean that I will not be preaching
Christ. No matter how important Abraham
may have been, If you and I, if we learn everything possible
to know about Him, it cannot begin to compare with knowing
Christ. Life eternal is to know God,
and it is only through Jesus Christ, His Son, that any man
may know God. All the scriptures testify of
Christ. He said, search the scriptures,
speaking to a group of religious people, Jews. Search the scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. I have two parts to the message
tonight. First, what we know of Abraham's
beginning. what we know of Abraham's beginning. The first time his name appears
in the scriptures is in Genesis chapter 11, and we will turn
there in just a minute, but before we do so, I want us to go to
Joshua chapter 24, because actually we learn more about Abraham,
his beginning, that is, here in the book of Joshua, than we
do in the book of Genesis. If you will turn to Joshua chapter
24. Joshua chapter 24, and beginning
with verse two. 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. That is, on the
other side of Jordan, the river, the flood. Your fathers dwelt
on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the
father of Abraham and the father of Nacor, 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. What we learn about Abraham's
beginning is that he came from a family of idolaters. He came from a family of idolaters. In Ezekiel chapter 16, when God
is speaking to the nation of Israel, and he says unto them,
thy father, now their father was Abraham, thy father was an
Amorite, and thy mother, Sarah, she was an Hittite. Now, how
do we explain that? Because you see, the Amorites
and the Hittites, they all descended not from Seth, the son of Noah,
Seth, but they descended from Ham. How do we explain that? Well, let me let John Gill do
that for us. He explains the statement in
this way. He says, and I quote, this refers
to Abraham and Sarah, And, now listen, neither were Amorites
or Hittites. Yet, because they dwelt among
them, are so called, and especially since, now listen, before their
conversion, that is, before Abraham and Sarah, before their conversion,
they were idolaters. as the Amorites and the Hittites. And we know that's true from
this passage here in Joshua, chapter 24, which we just read. Thy father Abraham and the father
of Nacor, and they served other gods. People sometimes make statements
like this, lost people, make statements like this. You may
have heard this. They may have said this to you.
The only reason that you are a Christian is because of your
parents. The only reason that you are
a Christian is because you just happen to have been born in this
country. And they go on to say if you
had been born in Iran, Most likely you would be a Muslim. If you
had been born in India, most likely you would be a Hindu.
And if you had been born in Palestine, you would most likely be a Jew. Well, how do you answer that?
How does a Christian respond to that? The only reason that
you are a Christian tonight and not by religion, a Hindu or a
Muslim or something like that, is because you were born in this
country and experienced what you did living here with your
family. Well, we might respond with this
example of Abraham. He was born into a family of
idolaters, but he didn't stay an idolater. He left idolatry
and he became a worshipper of Jehovah, the only true and living
God. Why didn't Abraham continue an
idolater? Why didn't he? Well, God had
other plans for Abraham. God had other plans for Abraham. And this brings me to another
text in another book which references Abraham. Look with me now in
the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah chapter 9. This is part of a prayer, Nehemiah
chapter 9 and verse 5. And I'm not going to read all
of those names at the beginning of verse 5, but let's begin in
the middle. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God forever and ever. And blessed be thy glorious name,
which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Thou, even thou,
art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven
of heavens, with all their host. the earth, and all things that
are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest
them, and the host of heaven worshipeth thee. Thou art the
Lord, the God who didst choose Abraham. You see, this God that
Nehemiah is praising and tells the Levites, Stand up! Stand
up and bless the Lord, bless God Almighty, the creator of
everything. Spoke the worlds into existence.
And you notice he says bless him not only because he's a creator
of all things, but he is a preserver of all things, of all of creation. God chose Abraham. God had other plans for Abraham. Why did he not continue an idolater? Because God, from before the
foundation of the world, chose Abraham. And broughtest him forth out
of Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name Abraham. Why? You know, it might be good
that all of us ask ourselves this same question. Why am I
a Christian? Why am I, tonight, a Christian? If I profess to be a Christian,
why am I a Christian? Is it because, as some people
believe, and someone told me this just recently, we need to
study all the so-called major religions of the world and then
choose the one that we like best. Is it because we have chosen,
we have studied all the major religions of the world and we
just happen to have chosen of our own free will, Christianity? Am I a Christian only because
I was born in a place that is considered Christian? Or that
the religion of my parents was Christian? Is that the only reason
tonight that I may say that I am a Christian? Well, I hope not. I hope not. I hope none of us
here tonight would answer like that. We should all be able to
respond by the grace of God with the words that Abraham used when
he was speaking to his servant. Now let's go and look at this
in Genesis 24 and verse 7. Genesis chapter 24 and verse
7. Abraham is speaking to his servant. He's about to send him off to
find a bride for his son, Isaac. And you notice in verse seven,
he said, the Lord God of heaven, which took me, you see that word
took the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's
house, his father, They were idolaters. And there's no question
that Abraham would have continued an idolater as he was raised
in a house of idolatry had not God took him. Took him. Now, in the New Testament, the
Apostle Paul, he used a very strong word about himself. He
said, that God apprehended him. And that's the word that would
be used for the long arm of the law. The long arm of the law,
not the law of Moses. I'm just talking about that phrase,
the long arm of the law, the long arm of the law. But Paul
said, in his pursuit to go to hell, In all of his religion,
God took him. God apprehended him. Or as we would probably say today,
God called him. And that's what he said about
himself speaking to the Galatians. He said, but when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace. You and I know tonight that Abraham
would have continued an idolater, Paul would have continued a Pharisee,
and I would have continued religious lost if it had not been for the
Lord taking us, calling us. And let me say this. No believer,
no child of God should ever beat himself up or herself up over
when, when this took place. The important thing is that you
know that it took place. You know tonight that God took
you. That is the only reason that
you believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight is
because God in mercy and grace called you. Not because you deserved
it. Not because you were living in
this country. Those are advantages, no doubt.
To live in a place where there's Bibles on every hand in churches
and men who preach the gospel. Those are advantageous, no doubt
about it. Why? Because God uses his word. God uses preaching. God uses
the gospel in calling his people. These things are advantageous,
but listen, you could live in a land, and many people do, where
there's a Bible in every home almost. And if God doesn't take
a person, that person will remain in their lost condition. Just
like Abraham would have remained an idolater, Paul would have
remained a Pharisee to his dying day. had not God apprehended
him. And the same is true of Abraham.
If a person studied all the major religions, they say there's six
major religions. I think that's right. Six major
religions. And I'm using Christianity heaped
in there with all those other five. But if a person studied
all those six major religions, he would find, as Christianity
is defined today in most places, he would find there's a common
thread which runs through them all. Doesn't matter which one. That common thread is salvation
is to be obtained by your works. That is a common thread which
runs through all religions. And I say Christianity as it
is mostly understood today. It is Christianity alone that
proclaims good news. Good news of what God has done
for sinners in Christ. When you think of the gospel,
what is the first thing you think of? When you think of the gospel,
what is the first thing that you think of? Well, listen, the
first thing that should come to our mind is good news. That's good news. That's what
the gospel is. It's good news that God has sent
his son into this world to save sinners, to save someone like
myself. I could never save myself. I
could never earn. I could never deserve. I could
never merit salvation. This is good news. God sent his
son to do something for me that I could not do for myself. That's
the first thing that should come in our mind when we hear the
word gospel. That's what it is. It's good
news. I'm afraid too many people look
at the gospel or think about the gospel as something that
is not good news. It's something that you just
have to endure, something that you have to bear. But listen,
the gospel is good news. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. That's good news. Well, Abraham told his servant,
God took me. God called me. And I want us
to look at Abraham's call now. God taking him is what we know
as God calling him. And so if you'll turn to Genesis
chapter 11, we'll read the first time his name is mentioned in
the scripture. Genesis chapter 11 and verse
26. And Terah lived 70 years and begat
Abram. That's the first time in the
scripture that we have the name Abram, which was later turned
to Abraham. Now these are the generations
of Tira. Tira begat Abram, Nahar, and
Haran. And Haran begat Lot. And Haran
died before his father Tira in the land of his nativity in Ur
of the Chaldees. So what we learn in this passage
of scripture, we learn Abraham's father's name, Nahar, We learn
his brother's name, we learn his wife's name, and we learn
the land of his captivity, Ur of the Chaldees. But we don't
learn anything about his call. We've got to go to the next chapter,
Genesis chapter 12. Genesis 12 and verses 1 through
8. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
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 Haran.
And Abram took Sarah his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and
all their substance that they had 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.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sikkim,
unto the plain of Morah, And the Canaanite was then in the
land, and the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed
will I give this land. And there he built an altar unto
the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto
a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent. Having Bethel on the west, and
Hea on the east, and there he built an altar unto the Lord,
and called upon the name of the Lord. This is what we know about
Abram being taken, Abram being apprehended, Abram being called. His calling can all be summed
up in one word, gracious. It was a gracious call. a gracious call. And there are
four things I want to point out about this gracious call in these
verses we just read. Number one, it was a call which reveals God's
power, a powerful call. You see, God's grace is not just
an attribute of God. It is. But the grace of God is
the power of God in accomplishing His saving purpose. And we recognize that God's grace
is powerful. And by that, I just simply mean
it gets the job done. It gets the job done. He chose
Abraham. When did He choose Abraham? Before
the foundation of the world. Just like he chose every believer.
He was born into a family of idolatry and we may assume he
too would follow in the footsteps of his father. And yet God took
him. It was a gracious call. It was
a powerful call. God told him, get thee out of
thy country. Verse one, get thee out of thy
country. Verse four, so Abraham departed. God called, God said, get out
of your country, leave your kinsmen behind, and Abraham left his
country. When God called you, if he has
called you, if he's called any of us here tonight, We recognize
it has been a powerful call, a gracious call, yes, but a gracious
call that is powerful. It gets the job done. If a person
can go back, most likely he will go back. A man or a woman may
run for a long time, but eventually, If that call is not a gracious
call, a powerful call, he'll turn back. They went out from
us, John said, because they were not of us. Because if they had
been of us, they no doubt would have continued with us. It's a powerful call. It keeps
us, right? It keeps us. Number two. It was a call which reveals good
news. I just said that a few minutes
ago, the gospel is good news. And notice verse two, what God
tells April, I will bless thee. I will bless thee. Can there
be any better news than that? Could you ever hear any better
news from heaven than that? That God Almighty says to you,
I will bless thee. What more could you want? What
more could you need? I will bless thee. It was all,
and if you look at that verse, it's all about what God will
do. It's nothing about what Abraham's
going to do. God says, I will make of thee. I will bless thee. It's what
God does for us. It reveals good things. I will bless thee. I will bless
thee with forgiveness. That's a good thing, isn't it? I will bless thee with reconciliation,
with peace with God. That's a good thing. I will bless
thee with acceptance. I will bless thee with eternal
life. I will bless thee with adoption. It's all good news this gracious
call brings. of what God will do. The gospel reveals the Lord to
be a just God and a Savior. Now, He's a just God, and He's
going to be a just God. Thank God He also says, I'm not
only a just God, but I'm a Savior. Look unto Me, He said. Look unto
Me. on the ends of the earth, and
be ye saved. For there is no other God besides me, a just
God and a Savior. We sang that hymn, Look and Live.
That was a simple message, wasn't it, that God gave Moses to give
to the Israelites when they were bitten by those serpents? Put
that brazen serpent up on the pole and go through the camp,
and everyone who is bitten, look, look and live. And our Lord said,
as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Good news. The third thing about this call,
it was a call which reveals the substitution of Christ, because
you notice in verse seven, we're told that he built an altar,
And then in verse 8, when he moved to another place, he built
an altar. Now what was an altar for? Was
an altar just a decoration? Something outside in your garden?
Maybe some little nook in your house? An altar, and it's just
decoration, and you put jewels on it? Just decorate it all up
and show it off? No, no. An altar was for one
thing and one thing only, and that was sacrifice. Bloody sacrifice that God must
be propitiated. And of course, this pictured
the one great and only propitiation that God accepts. And that is
the bloody sacrifice of his son, Jesus Christ. And the last thing, the fourth
thing about this call, it was a call that Abraham believed.
He believed. The scripture in Romans 4 says,
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. How did Abraham become righteous? How was Abraham
justified? There's only one way that any
person, any fallen son of Adam, you, me, the whole world, there's
only one way that we may be declared righteous by God Almighty be
justified. And that is by faith in Christ,
having his righteousness accounted to be our righteousness. Abraham
believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Now
turn with me to one other scripture. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. We read this at the beginning
of the service, but let's look at it again. Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 8. By faith, this call, when God
took him. I like that, don't you? God took
him. That's what he said, God took
me. If God had not taken me, I still would have been in Ur
of the Chaldees, worshiping idols. God took me. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called to go out into a place which he should after receive
foreign inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing
whether he went. May the Lord bless this word
to those of us here this evening, and I pray God will help me to
bring a few more messages concerning Abraham's life, his experience. Let's sing a hymn.