Open—Steve Stewart
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Some of what I'm going to touch on has already been taken up, but in I think a little different light and purpose. I like to look a little at some things in connection with the life of Abraham.
Call of God. Let's start with Genesis 11.
And we get the lineage that takes us down to.
Abram.
Verse 23 we'll start with and Sarah lived after he begat Nahor 200 years, and he begat sons and daughters, and they were lived 9 and 20 years and begat Terra. And they are lived after he begat Terra 119 years and begat sons and daughters. And Tara lived 70 years and begat Abram Nahor and Heron.
Now these are the generations of Terra Tera begat Abram, Nahorn, Heron, and Heron begot Lot.
And Heron died before his father Tear in the land of his nativity and Ur of the counties.
And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife Milka the daughter of Heron the father of Milka the father of Isca. But Sarah has barren, she had no child. And Tara took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Heron his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, and his son Abraham's wife. And they went forth with them from ur the Chaldees to go into the land of.
And they came unto her, and dwelt there in the days of terror were 205 years. And Tara died in Heron. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house into land, that I will show thee.
And we find in Stephen's address.
In Acts Chapter 7.
That the God of glory had called Abram, had appeared to him and called him and.
What I would like to take up is the effect of that call.
Not just upon Abram, but upon his family. His family lineage is given here.
That call came to him when he was with his father and his brothers, one having died, his nephew Lot, his brother's wife, his wife and his brother's children. And you know, as often the Spirit of God works, he begins to work in one individual.
And we find in Romans that in time we're called by the gospel, and though chosen in a past eternity, in time we're called effectually by the gospel, by his word. And the call of God came to Abram, and it affected Abram. And no doubt there were conversations in that family.
God had called him to leave and perhaps he should have just got up and left, but it seems to me he must have discussed this with his father and his brother.
Lot their wives.
And Tara takes the lead. He's the patriarch. And I know I'm assuming a little, but I think probably the simpleness of the account here would bear it out. And Tara says, good idea. You know, it's time we kind of uproot out of her, and maybe we can.
Head South and make some better money and prosper and do well, etcetera.
I say head South, you know, most of us think of her. The counties is way down in southern Mesopotamia where there was a city ur that was associated with Sumerian society and so on.
But her of the Chaldeans was the northern part of the Tigris and Euphrates. There were no Chaldeans at the time. The city of Err was built in Mesopotamia. In that area. The Chaldeans lived up north and there was another city up there called Earth, and you head down from that cross the rivers.
Across the river and you come S down into the land of Canaan, but there's a city on the way called Heron, and that's where he stopped. It's a crossroads of the Middle East and a lot of good trade and good opportunities. And perhaps Tara said, you know what, Don't need to go any further than this. Let's just settle down right here and we'll do quite well.
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But he died there. He was really a hindrance to the call of God being effectual in Abraham's life.
There's someone who didn't go.
And that was Nahor.
Now he had no doubt was fully aware of the call of God to his brother. His father was affected. He no doubt was somewhat affected.
But he said, you know what, we're doing fine right here. Doing just fine right here.
But he was affected, you know, they descended. We didn't read it from Shem.
And God has spoken of as the God of Shem, and that godly line down through the years had become corrupted. And we find in the book of Joshua that by time you come to tears generation, they were just idolaters.
Now, no doubt there were the vestiges, you might say, of what they inherited from Shem, who certainly was a believer and had a relationship with God. But by the time you come there, they're just idolaters. And Nahor says I'm fine right here.
And he's content to just coast through life and have a nice prosperous life and.
No response in connection with a real effect with the call of God, at least that we can see at this time.
But Lord, he picks up, and he goes.
With Abram, and he comes with him into the land, and as we was noted before.
The time comes when love is going to be tested. The call of God was real and effectual with Abram. There was energy. He did pick up after his father Tara died and that hindrance was gone and he went down.
Into the land that God had said he would show him, and there was energy.
The energy of faith at work in his life in response to that call. And he walks the path of faith. And we know Abrams life. He fights battles.
In his victorious he walks in the councils of God.
And what God is unfolding really in his seed, looking on to the seed.
He enjoys communion and fellowship with Gone.
He walks by faith through a land that is not his, a Pilgrim and a stranger. He looks for a city.
Which hath foundations is Builder, and Maker is gone.
He enjoys all those things that come with the life of faith being called by God. But what about law?
He's kind of under Abraham's umbrella, you might say under his protection. Any goes along fine, but you know.
He's got to be tested. Is the call of God as real with Him?
As it is with Abram.
And you know, many of us are in that kind of a situation where there is someone in our family, maybe it was our parents, maybe it was our grandparents or great grandparents, where the Spirit of God really worked and there was a call of God and it was effectual.
And we've grown up in that sphere, and that's a wonderful sphere to grow up in. Fathers, raise your children. What does it say? Not provoking them to wrath, but in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What a wonderful thing that is in provision of God as the days of heaven upon earth, Moses said.
To raise a family for the Lord.
Paul could speak of Timothy and of the faith that dwelled in his grandmother and in his mother, and now he was convinced in Timothy, and it was proved by the tears, the exercise of heart, the expression of the energy of faith in Timothy's life.
And you may have gone along in a family.
Where the call of God has been effectual, but the time comes.
Where you you have to walk by faith.
And it's going to be proved if the call of God is effectual in your life.
Or not.
And the test comes.
And as we had before us, Abram says. And you know the story, the conflict between.
The herdsmen of their sizable flocks, the land couldn't contain it. And Abram says you choose. And verse eight of chapter 13, Abram said unto lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between thy herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren. And you know that's beautifully true more than just in the family sense, because we read of law that he was a righteous.
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Man, and yet our righteous soul.
James tells us. And so we be brethren, it's not the whole land before thee. Separate thyself, I pray thee for me.
And if thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right, and if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as Alhameston to Zoar, that which he had seen before in his heart had gotten set upon. He says, I see it there, that's what I want.
The well watered plains of Jordan. Beautiful.
And one might say, isn't it the Providence of God to provide such a thing as that?
And he's laid it all out before me. Why shouldn't I take it? But I tell you what the problem was, Satan had planted a Sodom there.
And the men of that city were exceedingly wicked.
And this world spreads out before you.
And you might say, all is in the Providence of God.
To just take advantage of what lays before me. But remember, Satan has planted a Sodom there.
Do we find fault with Lot because he made that choice? Well, we say it was not a good choice, but we find fault with him because he made a choice at all.
Abram was the one who had been called by God, under whose shadow he had come down to that land. Abram was the senior one. Abram was the one who had manifested the energy of faith. He should have said no, you choose.
And he would have gotten the victory.
And he would have responded in that sense to the call of God in his own soul.
But the test came, and he chose for himself.
He chose for himself.
Well, what happened? We know he went down into that plane and soon that wonderful lush plane was a scene in Chapter 14 of Conflict and War.
And he's carried away, Captain.
Does he learn the lesson? No. He comes back and settles in that city again.
And what was his end?
God had to drag him out and he lost.
Everything.
His daughters completely devoid of any evidence.
Of faith whatsoever.
Abram Lot, his daughters. By the 3rd generation, there was nothing.
You too are going to be called by God. You are probably already called. And I felt that.
And you need to respond in faith and it can't be on your parents or grandparents faith. It's got to be your relationship with God personally. It's so easy to go on in just a family religion.
It's so easy to go on and somebody says where'd he go to meeting or where'd he go to church? Ohio. My church is over here. Our church does this. Our church says that. You know, it's where my church, where my family always went. And that's how it is in your mind.
It's just a religion. It's just a family religion.
And you haven't heard the call gone personally. It's so easy to go on in that family religion where the energy of faith was seen in a previous generation.
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How about with you? How about with me?
All poor law.
He lost it all.
He married a woman who her only thought was here, and he lost her.
Lost his daughters.
Everyone of us needs to individually respond to the call of God. It's wonderful to be raised in a Christian home.
But the call of God is individual.
To you and me.
Turn over a little.
The family of Nahor comes back into view.
After Isaac was offered up.
And received from the dead, and a figure as we read in Hebrews.
There is someone that now comes into view and her name is Rebecca. Beautiful picture we know of. The church doesn't come into view until after that which is a picture of the death and resurrection of Christ.
News comes to Abram and that far away land.
And he hears of his brother, verse 20 of chapter 22.
And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abram, saying, Behold milk as she hath born children unto thy brother Nehor Hussein's first born.
Buzz's brother Camuel, the father of Aram chested, and Hazel and Pill, Dash and Jit laugh, and Bethuel and Bethuel begat Rebecca. These eight did milk a bear to Nehor Abraham's brother and his concubine, whose name was Ryuma Shiber, also Tiba Gaham.
Fahash and Miyaka.
Two names stand out.
In the children of Nehor.
I don't know if you picked them out.
There's two names that stand out.
This man who lived.
In this idolatrous country.
From the family of Shem that had descended into idolatry, but he had been affected in a certain sense.
By the call of his brother Abram, he names one Bethie Well.
That El is the name of God.
And came UL.
He associates the name of the Lord with two of his children anyway.
And he is been, you know, sort of stirred up in the past and maybe a little of the remnants of coming from the family of Shem. And there's this sort of a sort of a profession of Christianity, but as her brother said, just slapping his way through the world and nice comfortable life down here. And, you know, he attaches the name of Lord to a couple of his kids and.
That's it.
Affected. Do you have a family like that?
They've infected.
By the real effectual call of God and someone else, and there's sort of a stirring up in a.
Outward profession and so on.
And that's where Abram sends his servant to get a bride for his son Isaac. At least out of this family, not out of those who are just rank heathens.
But the call of God isn't effectual in their lives.
And so God is going to have to start again.
He's going to have to start again. He's going to have to start fresh in that family with a call.
To one named Rebecca.
And dear ones, the call of God to your mother and your father, your grandfather, your grandmother, great grandmother, great grandfather is not effectual for you. You need fresh call of God in your life to follow him in faith and to enjoy the path of faith fellowship with him. All we know is Abram sends his servant he encounters.
Rebecca, according to the prayer that he had requested.
Of the Lord, and she introduces him to her family.
In verse 29, Genesis 24 And Rebecca had a brother, his name was Laban. And Laban ran out unto the man unto the well. And it came to pass, when he saw the earring and bracelets in his sister's hands, when he heard the words of Rebecca, his sister saying, Thus spake the man unto me, that he came unto man unto the man. And behold, he stood by his camels at the well. And he said, Come in.
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Thou blessed of the Lord, wherefore standest thou without? For I have prepared the house and room for the camels. And the gold opened his mouth up, and he gives something that sounds very religious and nice, fits the family religion. He knows how to talk.
The talk.
That the call of God has not been effectual in Laban, but gold is.
And that opens his mouth.
And so this is the family that the servant of.
Abram, Abraham comes to looking for bride.
For Isaac.
And the Lord has showed him the one. But it comes down to.
Just drop down in the chapter.
Verse 56 and he said, well, let's just read.
Verse 55 and her brother and her mother said, let the damned soul abide with us. A few days at the least 10 or a year or at least ten months is really what it is.
And after that she shall go. And he said unto them, Hinder me, not seeing the Lord hath prospered my way, Send me away, that I may go to my Master. And they said, We will call the damsel.
And inquire at her mouth.
And they called Rebecca, and they said unto her, Wilt thou go?
With this man.
And she said.
I will go.
And then a beautiful response.
To the call of God.
She was young, I think probably maybe like 141516 somewhere in there she had a nurse who went with her.
And this lovely young girl.
Response to the call of God by faith to go.
To join herself, be associated with the man she had never seen.
The call of God is to you. Will you go with this man? And I'm not Speaking of salvation.
I'm Speaking of walking the path of faith, you and the Lord through this world.
Outside of that, what you have is nothing but a family religion.
And you won't last any longer than Lot.
And by the next generation of your children, there will be no professional Christ at all.
The call is to you.
And to me.
Here's the response.
All there are many other things we could take up.
Baggage she took with her because she had been raised in that family of just kind of an outward profession.
But that's for another time.
For now, the question is will you go with this map?