The Call To Abram

Genesis 12:1–3 (NASB95)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

2 And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

3 And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Introduction:

We see: The call & promise of God to Abraham

Chapters 1-11 cover 2000+ years, 19+ generations

Chapters 12-25 cover Abraham

He is the premier example of faith in the entire Bible

Moses is the great lawgiver

Joshua is the great military leader

David is the great king

Peter is the great preacher

Paul is the great missionary

But ABRAHAM, the great man of faith

Hebrews 11:6 (NASB95)

6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

We shall see:

The Call of God (12:1)

The Promises of God (12:2-3… 7-fold)

1. The Call of God

Genesis 12:1 (NASB95)

1 Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father’s house,

To the land which I will show you;

Is this is the second call of Abram?

Acts 7:2–3 (NASB95)

2 And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’

‘Go’ is an imperative… it is a command from God…

Leave… your country

And the blessing to which Abram is to receive is ATTACHED to that particular place

He must burn his bridges… cut himself from & flee the pagan lifestyle that is found in Haran

Leave… your relatives

Where family would have been most important to him, he must leave them

GOD is #1

GOD must be more important to you than ANY individual in your life!

Leave… your father’s house

A place of comfort/rest

A place of familiarity/affection

Leave… Abrams father would die over the course of the trip

To the land:

He told us this land (11:33… Canaan)

The promised land

The land flowing with milk & honey

The place where Israel shall dwell, where the blessing of God will be poured out, where Abram will MEET GOD!

Requires enormous faith

To follow God whom we suppose he didn’t know

To a land far away that he hadn’t seen

What faith!

So too does God call YOU!!!……

Out of a denomination/culture/family… to a place where the blessing of God is found!

Calling us to leave behind, our old life, of SIN! In order to enter the new life of God

You can’t be in Ur of the Chaldeans and be in the blessing of God… you MUST be, in the promised place, the kingdom of our Lord

You have to leave the world, sin, self-indulgence, self-righteousness

REPENT

2. The Promises Of God

Genesis 12:2–3 (NASB95)

2 And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

3 And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

*I* will make YOU a great nation

That nation, is the nation of Israel

It will be birthed out of Abrams own offspring

It will be a spiritually great nation

There were other great nations in other ways!

Land mass

Population

Military

Natural resources

Rivers

What would be so great about ISRAEL?

They rebel, fight, envy, mourn

Yet what’s so great about Israel, is the greatness of their God

It was to Israel God sent:

Prophets, His word, the covenants, His glory

Proverbs 14:34 “34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.”

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 “6 “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers… ”

*I* will BLESS you

Bless: this word comes from a Hebrew derivative of: To Kneel

And it is as if the God of heaven, has KNEELED DOWN to the earth, to bestow his blessing to Abram… and there is no greater blessing than salvation in Christ

John 8:56 “56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.””

We don’t know the extent of what Abram knew.. a type was in Isaac’s sacrificed

Genesis 15:6 “6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

It begs me to ask this question, have YOU recieved that blessing?

Ephesians 1:3 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”

And make your NAME great

Notice who makes him great?

Anyone who tries to make themself great apart from God is an utter failure

He who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted

Tower of Babel in Gen 11!

And so YOU shall be a blessing

YOU Abram, shall be a blessing to others

Abram would be a channel of God’s grace to the nation of Israel!

“I will bless you so that you will be a blessing to others”

That is exactly why God blesses us! to bless others!

Teaches us, to teach others!

*I* will bless those who bless you

An explanation… God, will bless Abraham, who will bless THOSE… who bless him

Which means, Abram & God are close… if you receive the word of God through Abraham, then God will bless you!

And the one who curses you I will curse

Means: Those who don’t receive Abram, his God, His message, and REJECT him… God will reject that person

Matthew 10:40 “40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

To receive the messenger, is to receive the message

Matthew 18:5 “5 “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;”

Luke 10:16 “16 “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.””

John 13:20 “20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.””

And you and all the families of the earth will be blessed

All the families… thats beyond the physical nation of Israel

There is something much greater to come

To every tribe & nation..

Anticipates the salvation of all the gentiles who would come to obey the gospel!

Through Abram’s SEED… would come the salvation of the world

Genesis 22:18 “18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.””

Galatians 3:6–9 (NASB95)

6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”

9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.

Galatians 3:16 (NASB95)

16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

Galatians 3:26–29 NASB95

26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

What a great hope we have in Christ

If you are not a Christian, then you are cursed and under the wrath of God

But God has shed his blood for you, that you repent, and uplift your life out of sin and into the blessing of God, and are baptized this afternoon… you too may be found blessed

Hebrews 11:8–19 (NASB95)

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise;

10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.

12 Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.

16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son;

18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.