This evening, if you turn to Hebrews chapter 11, and we'll be looking at verses 8 through 10. Hebrews chapter 11, as we begin to look at the example of Abraham, the example of Abraham is taken by the author of Hebrews from the book of Genesis. Abraham is introduced there as a part of the family of Shem and Terah. We learn that from the end of Genesis 11. And then Abraham's call is recorded in Genesis chapter 12. And I would like to read that account of his call in Genesis 12, verses 1 through 5. The Lord had said to Abram, go from your country. your people and your father's household to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. How old was Abraham? 75 years old. One of those later conversions in life. His earthly story is brought to a close with his death at the age of 175. We find this recorded in Genesis 25, verses 7 and 8. Abraham lived 175 years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. This is the story that the author takes up now in Hebrews 11. He'll spend more time on Abraham than on any other character as he brings forward these examples of faith for us to think about. In Hebrews 11 verses 8 through 10, there's an overview of his life that talks about his call, his obedience, his faith, his endurance, And then verses 11 and 12, Abraham's wife, Sarah, her story is briefly told in the birth of Isaac. Verses 13 through 16, there's a general summary of truths that have been inspired by the example of Abraham. And then verses 17 through 19, the very powerful example of Abraham's faith in a God who brings people, who is able to bring people back from the dead. And so a very lengthy, comparatively, account of one man's life of faith. Tonight, we'll just look at this first fundamental overview of Abraham's life as we have it in verses 8, 9, and 10. Hebrews 11, beginning at verse 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. By faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." In some ways, Abraham marks a reversal of what went wrong in the garden with Adam and Eve. Just as Adam and Eve were the centerpiece of God's purpose for creation and they failed, Abraham is now singled out as God's centerpiece and he succeeds. Adam and Eve were told to do something and they sinned. Abraham is told to do something and he obeys. Adam and Eve were driven out of God's place of blessing and Abraham is called to enter into the place of God's blessing. All of the illustrations of Hebrews 11 are designed to enforce our need for patient endurance. We think about Hebrews 11 in terms of faith, but the practical purpose of this faith, as we have seen, is that we endure and that we persevere and press on to the very end. And this is a need that has been in the mind of the author right from the very beginning of the book. That is, that we not drop out, that we not grow weary, but rather that we endure and we persevere to the very end. Hebrews 2 verse 1, for instance, he says, we must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. Chapter three, verse 12, See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Chapter 4, verse 1, therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. Chapter 4, verse 14, therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith that we profess. Chapter 10, verse 23. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And then as we see when we come to the end of chapter 10, he begins to talk about faith. Verse 36, you need to persevere. So that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. And then he brings in that quote from the book of Habakkuk, my righteous one will live by faith. Verse 39, we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved. Faith is the key to perseverance. And then he brings in all of these illustrations with Hebrews 11 of Here's what this kind of faith is going to look like. Here are a bunch of people who believed what God said, and they persevered. They endured to the very end. Obviously, he's giving these people as examples for us. God's call of Abraham illustrates the sovereign and gracious way that God works in a believer's life in putting us into that position where we can endure, he gives us all of the spiritual life and energy that we need. The first thing that we'll look at this evening, verse eight, Hebrews 11, shows us that Abraham was called by God. 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. As Abraham appears, it's not Abraham on this spiritual quest trying to figure out, well, who is God? How can I be right with this God? All of a sudden, we see that God just breaks into Abraham's life and calls him. He called him to be a brand new man and to come and to walk with him. The call is repeated in Genesis 17. I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. And it's in this initial act of God calling Abraham that we see an illustration of God's method of bringing sinners to himself. Just as God called Abraham and Abraham believed, God calls each one of us and we need to respond to that call that comes to us from God. The most beautiful flower in God's garden is what? Only Calvinists need to answer. The tulip. And so that's what you have on your outline this evening. I thought that we should think through what is implied with this calling of Abraham. You know, what is God doing in Abraham's life as we know it theologically from the rest of scripture? So I'll ask that you indulge me a little bit as we go into this theological lesson. I think we do see God's sovereign work of grace illustrated here in Abraham. Abraham's sin and lost condition is what we call total depravity. Abraham was not always the man of faith as he appears to us in scripture. God calls him when he is 75 years old. We need to think through, where's Abraham been? What was he like? What was his spiritual condition before God entered his life? And this is what we call total depravity. Abraham was a lost sinner without hope, without God in the world. Under God's righteous condemnation, he will perish if God does not step into his life. In the language of Ephesians 2, Abraham was dead in his transgressions and sins. He was following the ways of the world. He was living a self-centered life. By nature, he was deserving of God's wrath. It's what we call total depravity. Sometimes it's called pervasive. depravity because we're not saying that Abraham was the worst person on the planet. It's not that Abraham was as bad as he possibly could be, but what we're saying is that every part of Abraham was infected and affected by sin. He was dead in sin. His mind, his will, his emotions were darkened by sin and he was separated from the life of God, and he was without hope unless God did something. In Abraham, we certainly see an illustration of unconditional election. If anybody is saved, rescued from a life of sin and certain destruction, God must take the first step. If somebody is dead in their sins, God has to step in and do something. And so Abraham was selected, he was elected, chosen by God to be blessed while other people were passed by. God called Abraham. Again, thinking of Ephesians 1, Abraham must be among the elect. He must have been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. In love, God must have predestined Abraham to be an adopted son in Christ because we see the evidence of election in Abraham's life, faith and obedience. The word election means that God chooses. The word unconditional means that God's choice is not conditioned by anything in Abraham or what Abraham does. It is free, unmerited, unearned, undeserved sovereign grace in calling Abraham to be a child of God. Limited atonement. Abraham must have been made right with God through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is salvation in no other, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, they have got to be saved by the blood of Christ. Again, Ephesians 1, I think it's verse 7, in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. That's what makes us right with God, is the fact that the blood of Christ is shed on our behalf. Can you think of anything in Abraham's life, just to see if you're awake tonight, anything in Abraham's life that might indicate the doctrine of atonement, of a substitute, Is that a good word to use there? The offering up of Isaac, isn't that not a clear example that Abraham engaged in where he saw that he was going to offer his only son? And here's a substitute. There's this ram that is caught in the brush and that lamb is taken and sacrificed in place. Abraham, don't you think that he was seeing something? He was being taught some theological lesson there by God. The word atonement means God's justice against sin must be satisfied, it must be atoned for. The word limited means that what God does in Christ is only for his children, it's not wasted. God knows exactly what he's doing when he redeems people. Sometimes we use the term particular redemption Limited atonement sounds a little negative. We don't want to say there's something limited, weak about the death of Christ, but particular redemption, particular people are being redeemed and made to be God's children. In Abraham, we certainly see this doctrine of irresistible grace. Abraham's sin and ignorance and spiritual deadness was overcome by God's grace. Verse eight, by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went. When he was called, he responded. Again, Ephesians two, God who is rich in mercy made Abraham alive with Christ, even when he was dead in his transgressions. Sometimes we call this effectual calling. This is Terry Clark's favorite question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism. What is effectual calling? Don't worry, I've got it written down in case. Effectual calling is the work of God's spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. That had to happen in Abraham's life. Abraham was sitting there one day, spiritually dead, without a clue, who knows what he was doing. But all of a sudden, God broke in and began to speak to him. God showed up, began to speak, pointed out his sin, turned on the lights, as it were, in his mind so that he could understand spiritual truth. Somehow God showed him that a Redeemer would come and it's possible to have sins forgiven. He set Abraham's will free. so that Abraham stopped just choosing to do what he wanted to do in sinful things, but he thought, I need to go with God, I'm gonna choose God, I'm gonna follow him, I'm gonna turn away from my sin, and I'm going to embrace this promise that is coming from God to be blessed by him. And so he was persuaded and enabled to choose and to believe in Christ. Hebrews 11, eight says that it was by faith when Abraham was called that he obeyed. John 8, verse 56, Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day, this is Jesus speaking, he saw it and was glad. I don't understand what's going on in Abraham's mind, but Jesus is saying Abraham saw the day of Jesus that he was able to embrace that by faith, and he rejoiced in the fact that this Redeemer was going to come into the world. And then perseverance of the saints. Romans 8, nothing in all creation is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Abraham was infused with all of the grace that was necessary, not just to initially answer that call, from God, but to persevere, to endure to the very end. Verse 9, by faith, he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. He was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. Abraham one day just got up. He walked away from his old life. He went into the promised land, and he made his home there. He stayed there. You can think back to Genesis, all of the things that happened to Abraham. Difficulties, trials, testings, disappointments, and yet he stayed true to God. There was war. There were acts of terrorism. They were attacked, and Lot was carried off. There was marital disharmony. There was stress in the family. He's got this argument with Lot over who's going to get the best land. Lot wanted it. Abraham wasn't going to argue about it. But there are all kinds of difficulties that Abraham faced, and yet he stayed true to God. He persevered, and he endured to the very end. Now you're worried because I've only gotten through the first point on this outline and it's already 7 o'clock. The rest of this is going to go pretty quickly. But I did want to take that opportunity to look at what we know from the rest of scripture as to what had to happen, what had to be true in Abraham's life as God called him. That's the call that Abraham received. Now quickly at these other points. Secondly, Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham obeyed that call. He was sovereignly called and he obeyed. Every person in Hebrews 11 obeys God in some way. Abel obeyed, how? What did Abel do? He offered a better sacrifice. God must have said something to him about what he wanted. Enoch obeyed God, how? walked with God. Noah obeyed God. What did he do? Built an ark when he was warned about the flood that was going to come. Abraham's obedience is especially clear. The author expressly uses this word in verse 8, that when he was called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, he obeyed. There's an emphasis on Abraham's obedience. And the emphasis on his obedience is how difficult it was for him. It all took place in the dark. How did God communicate to Abraham in that call? Was it a prophet that came? Was it a voice that came from a burning bush or something like that? We don't know how that call came, but some word came to Abraham. But it didn't seem to explain a whole lot to Abraham. It just said, get up and let's go. And the author says here, he obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know how he was going to get there. He didn't know what he was going to find when he got there. And he didn't know who all was going to be there, who all is going to be with him, and who all is going to be there against him. He didn't know any of that. And yet, by faith, when he was called, he answered that call with obedience. Hebrews 11 tells us that he did all of this by faith, Abraham believed. When we read Genesis, there's no explicit statement about the faith of Abel or Enoch or Noah. We get all of that from Hebrews 11. But when it comes to Abraham, we have an explicit statement in Genesis, don't we? What is that statement? Genesis 15, verse 6, he believed God and God counted that, reckoned it to Abraham as righteousness, a very specific statement in Genesis about Abraham's faith. Abraham has already appeared in the book of Genesis as an example of faith. If you look back, chapter 6, beginning at verse 13, When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. So already Abraham is being used by the author as an example of faith. By faith, he answered that call that came from God. By faith, he obeyed. He put aside all objections. And by faith, he embraced the good and gracious promises that God had for him. And then finally, Abraham endured. He persevered. And this is the real point of bringing in Abraham. You know, why are you bringing up Abraham? Well, he's an example of somebody who persevered to the very end. His perseverance, his endurance, his patience is the real point of using Abraham as an example. When he was called by God, he responded in faith and he continued to persevere. Did he make mistakes? Did he get scared and run down to Egypt? Worried about where's this child gonna come from? Well, maybe Hagar can help out here or something. You know, he made mistakes, he faltered. And yet he never turned his back on God. He never went, left the place that God had for him. Abraham endured, he persevered. Abraham obeyed, endured by putting up with present difficulties, which is what we see in verse nine. He made his home in the promised land, living like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents. And then by faith he obeyed by keeping his heart set on future blessings, verse 10. He was looking for something else. The reason he's not going to build a house here, the reason he's going to be content with a tent, is that he's looking for a city. There's this celestial city whose architect and builder is God, something much more substantial and lasting. This is how you and I as Christians are to live. The author expects us to think about Abraham as an illustration for us to follow. He wants people to imitate the faith of these people that he's bringing forward in Hebrews 11. And so like Abraham, we answer the gracious and sovereign call of God as it comes to us in the gospel. Like Abraham, we're to obey that call by walking with God, loving God, and doing what he commands. Like Abraham, embracing God's good and gracious promises as we have them in his word. And like Abraham, refusing to give up or go elsewhere, to persevere to the very end. Hebrews 12, verses 1 and 2, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, since we have this example of Abraham to illustrate and to encourage us, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Let's pray. Father, it's just overwhelming to think of all that is being revealed and taught through the example of Abraham. Such a large portion of the book of Genesis, then referred to so many times throughout scripture. And here, just a brief summary being given of his call. Father, We pray this evening that you would sanctify this word to our hearts, cause us to think deeply about it, to see ourselves as you see us, that we are your people, that we're called by your gospel. We are called to be in union with Christ. We are called by the Holy Spirit. You call us to obey and to believe. and to persevere to the very end. Father, through the reading and the preaching and the teaching of your word, we pray that you would communicate that spiritual energy and strength and confidence that we need, that we would persevere and endure. Preserve us from thinking that it's something that we have to do in our own strength. Keep us from falling into that error that we somehow keep ourselves saved. Help us daily to throw ourselves upon your grace and mercy, to see ourselves united with Jesus Christ, to see in him and especially in his resurrection power that you have supplied everything that we need for life and godliness. We pray as we begin this new week that you would renew our faith and renew our confidence in you. We pray that you would give us eyes to see those around us, that we might engage them and encourage them to run with endurance this race that is set before all of us. We thank you for this day that we've had in your house, for the fellowship that we have had, for the people that we have met. We pray that you'd be gracious and merciful to us as we return to our homes this evening and as we begin this new week. Here are our prayers, for we offer them to you in the strong name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.