Effectual Calling -- Illustrated by the Call of Abram

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Genesis 12:5

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered…

I. EFFECTUAL CALLING IS ILLUSTRATED IN THE CALL OF ABRAM.

1. Abram's call was the result of the sovereign grace of God.

2. Abram's call was divinely applied and enforced.

3. Abram's call was personal, and it grew more personal as it proceeded.

4. This call to Abram was a call for separation.

5. Abram was obedient to the call.

6. It must have required in Abram's case much faith to be so obedient.

7. Abram's obedience was based on a very great promise.

8. Abram may be held up as an example to us in obeying the Divine call, because he went at once.

9. Abram did his work very thoroughly. He set out for Canaan, and to Canaan he came.

10. The difference between the Lord's effectual call, and those common calls which so many receive.Perhaps some of us who are professors have been called not by the grace of God, but by the eloquence of a speaker, or by the excitement of a revival meeting. Beware, I pray you, of that river whose source lies not at the foot of the throne of God. Take care of that salvation which does not take its rise in the work of God the Holy Ghost, for only that which comes from Him will lead to Him. The work which does not spring from eternal love will never land us in eternal life.

II. If our text may very well illustrate effectual calling, so may it PICTURE FINAL PERSEVERANCE. "They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and to the land of Canaan they came." That is true of every child of God who is really converted and receives the faith of God's elect. God has purposed it. He purposes that the many sons should all be brought to glory by the Captain of their salvation; and hath He said it and shall He not do it? The way shall not weary us: He shall give us shoes of iron and brass, and as our days so shall our strength be. The roughness of the road shall not cast us down; He will bear us as upon eagles' wings; He will give His angels charge over us, lest we dash our foot against a stone. In conclusion — Think of these three things:

1. We have set forth for the land of Canaan; we know where we are going. Think much of your haven of rest. Study that precious Scripture which reveals the new Jerusalem.

2. In the next place, we know why we are going. We are going to Canaan because God has called us to go. He gives us strength to go, puts the life force within us that makes us tend upward towards the eternal dwelling place, the happy harbour of the saints.

3. And we know that we are going; that is another mercy.

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