The Divine Covenants

The Abrahamic Covenant (Part 2)

It was not until the total depravity of men had been fully demonstrated, first by those before the flood and then again by the apostasy at Babel, that God now dealt in sovereign grace and mercy. Abraham belonged to a family that was not religious at all. In fact, his parents were idol worshipers.

· Josh. 24:2-3, Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.

So there was nothing in Abraham to commend him to God and nothing that merited God’s choice of him. You see, the cause of election is always of grace. If that were not so, it would not be grace. One of the first lessons we are to learn from the story of Abraham is the concept of “election”.

· Acts 7:2-3, To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

Notice that Peter here says that “the God of glory appeared to Abraham”. It is not too much of a stretch to believe that the shekinah itself appeared to Abraham! Can you possibly imagine how this must have impacted him? We think that God always suits the revelations which He makes of Himself according to the effect that He wants to produce.

Here was a man in the middle of a heathen city and raised in a heathen home. Something striking and supernatural was used by God in order to suddenly change the course of His whole life. This theophany was the first that we read of in the Bible. If this was the first (that is, God appearing in human form) that we read in the Old Testament, and if this theophany was accompanied by the majesty of the shekinah glory, then this certainly was intended to place special attention on Abraham.

There was nothing in Abraham that merited such attention.

· Isa 65:1, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; was found by those who did not seek me.

What a revealing statement by God Himself. The counterpart of this is found in the parable of the lost sheep in the New Testament. The “lost sheep” did not seek and find the shepherd; it was the shepherd who went and found the lost sheep. This should speak clearly to the definition of “the elect” and “the chosen”.

God tells Abraham to leave his home and family and go to a place that God will lead him. This call to Abraham came to him in Ur, a city of the Chaldeans, near the Persian Gulf. It demanded absolute obedience. It was a call for him to be separated from the world. This was no ordinary call. It was an effectual call. Do you know what an effectual call is?

If a person is elected to the office of elder or deacon he or she receives training in the role they are to assume. Included in this training is the matter of effectual calling.

That part of our church constitution called the Westminster Confession of Faith describes effectual calling as follows:

“At the right time, appointed by Him, God effectually calls all those and only those whom He has predestined to life. He calls them by His word and Spirit out of their natural state of sin and death into grace and salvation through Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually with a saving understanding of the things of God. He takes away their hearts of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. And so He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ. But they come to Jesus voluntarily, having been made willing by God’s grace.”

This is the official position of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Arthur Pink says it simply: it is a call accompanied by divine power. He goes on to say that there are two kinds of divine calls mentioned in Scripture, the one which falls only on the outer ear and produces no definite effect; the other which reaches the heart, and moves us to a real response.

The first of these calls is found in such passages as Prov 8:4.

· Prov 8:4, To you, O men, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.

It reaches all who hear God’s Word. It is a call which makes the claims of God and the Gospel and reveals Jesus as the Mediator. This call is universally ignored because it is not palatable to the fallen nature of the unregenerate.

· Prov 1:24-26, But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I stretched out my hand,  since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke,  I in turn will laugh at your disaster;

· Acts 7:2-3, 2 To this he replied: "Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.  'Leave your country and your people,' God said, 'and go to the land I will show you.'

· Luke 14:16-18, Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.  At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'  "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

The second of these calls is found in such passages as Rom 8:30.

· Rom 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The first call is general; the second, particular. The first is made to all who hear the Word; the second is made only to the elect. It is by the effect produced that we are able to distinguish between them.

· John 10:3-6,  The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

So here is the grand effect that comes to the soul when it receives the “effectual call” of God: the understanding is illuminated, the conscience is convicted, the stubborn will be conquered and the affections are drawn to God. Such an effect is supernatural! But be sure you understand that nothing but the immediate power of God working on the heart can produce such a miracle. Nothing external acts to change the depraved heart of fallen man.

Now it is this effectual call that Abraham received when God suddenly appeared to him in Ur. Think of what this call involved for him: he was to forsake his parents and family, sever all ties with those that were closest to him, make a complete break with his manner of life and step out on faith and go to some place, not knowing where that would be. What was his response to God’s call?

· Heb 11:8,  By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

While regeneration is a wonderful experience, yet it is only the beginning of God’s work in the Christian. The further work of sanctification is required for the Christian to mature in his faith. Even though we have a new nature as new Christians, we still have the old nature. So there is not only a continual conflict between these two natures, but their presence prevents the soul from fully attaining its desires and doing as it would like to.

· Gal 5:16-17, For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

Now Abraham did not precisely follow God’s instructions. He disobeyed by taking his family with him and he stopped at Haran.

· Gen 11:31, Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there

God had instructed Abraham to go “alone”. It is interesting that Abraham’s father Terah’s name means “delay”. They stayed in Haran for five years.