May 29, 1994 - AM
THE FRIEND OF GOD
(Genesis: Abraham)
INTRO: (1) There is a political fraternity currently referred to as the FOB or Friends Of Bill. The reference, of course, is to the affiliates of President Bill Clinton. Today I want to increase enrollment in the FOG. I want us to think along loftier planes than that occupied by the president’s cohorts. You might even say that I would like to get your heads in the FOG this morning. The FOG is a fraternity whose presiding officer is a man named Abraham. I am talking about the Friends of God. James 2:23 says Abraham was called the friend of God. The phrase is also found in II Chr 20:7 and Is 41:8.
(2) Why was Abraham called the friend of God?
PROP: THERE IS NO OTHER FRIEND LIKE JESUS.
TRANS: I have located six evidences of Abraham’s friendship with God. Abraham was God’s friend
I. Abraham was God’s friend Because he built altars (Gen 12:7)
A. Abraham is seen in Scripture repeatedly building altars. An altar is a place of sacrifice and the picture of something “given up for God” is expanded by the fact that Abraham built the altar himself. The Lord had appeared to him and Abraham viewed the land as hallowed and therefore built a place of worship for the God who appeared to him ( p. 196, 222.1/Ke). Barnes says the word means, “place of slaughter.”
Altars become altars when the victim is slain. To have the former without the latter is like kneeling to pray without actually praying ( p.420, 222.111/Ba). When Abraham built an altar, he intended to use it because he was a friend of God. It was in this new land that The Lord appeared and an altar was built. Abraham built even the altar Isaac was laid upon (Gen 22:9).
B. Friendships have an invested cost to them. It cost Abraham to be God’s friend. Proverbs tells us that he who would have friends must show himself friendly (Pr 18:24). One cost Abraham was willing to pay was building and using an altar. The worship of Jehovah was established in his life. If we would be a friend to God, we must establish worship in our homes -- worship must be taken home and not left at church. It must find its place in the home which is not friendly to the world. A man or his family cannot simultaneously be friend to both God and the world (see James 4:4).
Family life very seldom includes an “altar” these days - a time and place where the members of a home make the sacrifice of meeting with the Lord. One traveling preacher once announced that he had been in hundreds of homes across the United States and only three of them held a time of family devotions while he was with them. Evidently there was a time when this was a regular practice in most Christian homes. What happened to the family altar? The principle is first mentioned in Deut. 6:6-9 where the nation of Israel is told to teach the Lord’s word diligently to their children. Diligence - now that’s sacrifice. One reason the Jews have survived so many catastrophes is that they had the benefit of family altars. One high school teacher once conceded in a conversation we were having that my profession at least had a foundation from which to counsel. If someone comes to me for counseling, I have the word of God to consult. If someone goes to this teacher, he has to work with little or no foundation. By making an altar in your home, you add to your foundation. I am not talking about a earthen construction, but an in-home commitment to meet as a family with the Lord. Here some thoughts on the family altar:
WHY WE SHOULD DO IT
1. Parents are responsible for educating their children.
2. Worship begins at home not the church.
3. Family worship times are things children remember in adulthood.
4. Many children’s groups do not worship.
5. It is harder to lead children in worship with a large group than it is in the home.
6. The church cannot focus on the real needs of a child like the home can.
7. Tuesday’s problem is not in the child’s mind on Sunday.
8. Those who know us best, lead us best.
9. The family altar helps make God part of everyday life.
HOW WE SHOULD DO IT
1. The practice ideally starts in one’s personal life before marriage and then develops into a routine observance before children arrive. The matter needs to be discussed with school-aged if the family altar is a brand new part of family life. You may even want to consider asking the help of a tutor family. Be careful not to take too big a bite to start with. It is better to be consistent than frustrated or discouraged because you are overwhelmed with what you have assigned yourself. Start small and be regular.
2. Assign turns to each family member for various parts of the altar time.
3. Make use of Sunday School material that children bring home. Do you know what your kids are learning?
4. Make use of Bible tapes, books, constructive game-playing, singing, character studies, and Scripture memory for your family meetings with the Lord.
WHAT SHOULD WE AVOID:
1. Shotgun Salvation
2. Dullness
3. Mindless Repetition
4. Excessive Newness
5. Inappropriateness
6. Disciplining by Review
7. Preach-Praying
8. Excess Formality
9. Hastiness
10. TV Devotions
11. Skipping for Guests or Vacation
(-Week 9, 101.24)
II. Abraham was God’s friend Because he called on God’s name (Gen 13:4).
A. Abraham appealed to all that he knew about the Lord. By calling on the name of his God, he expressed penitence at his lapse from truth out of personal necessity, and he maintained an honor of the Lord via public testimony (432, 222.111/Ba).
B. You cannot befriend whom you will not address.
III. Abraham was God’s friend Because he shared personal moments with God (Gen 13:14,18; 15:1-3; 17:3).
A. These passages reveal some tender and tense moments between Abraham and the Lord. In his worship he had nothing in common with the idolatrous Canaanites (443, 222.111/Ba). He knew his God and was His friend. When Abraham was fearful at the thought of remaining childless, he had the comfort of the Lord in a personal way ( Gen 15:1-3). Barnes makes an astute observation here on this passage :
Holding these two responses of Abraham together and noting that each is
separately introduced by “and Abram said,” we gain the impression that
Abram spoke twice before God answered. Apparently, this was exactly
the way this event transpired. Before God applies the new comfort that
He is about to administer to Abram, He gives Abram full opportunity to
give vent to the thoughts that oppress him, in order that the divine comfort
may operate the more effectively.
(472-73, 222.111/Ba)
B. Friends share with each other in spite of each other. God was really a friend to Abraham.
He loved him in spite of his tense remarks.
IV. Abraham was God’s friend Because he was identified with God (Gen 14:19, 22-23; Lk 20:37; Acts 3:13).
A. Over 54 times in the Bible reference is made to the God of Abraham. A number of times this title is used in tandem with the names of Isaac and Jacob as well. In Luke 20:37 this title is used to remind the Saducees of Jehovah’s identification with Abraham. This God, said Christ, is not the God of the dead but the living. Abraham is still alive and identified with the Lord.
B. Are you identified with the Lord?
V. Abraham was God’s friend Because he knew who God was and it affected his walk (Gen 17:1; Jn 8:40).
A. The Lord told Abraham who He was after Abraham had become involved with Hagar. Abraham needed to be reminded that the God he worshipped was “Almighty” and nothing was too hard for Him. Neither Abraham nor Sarah reasoned that there was some “other-than-earthly” way for the Lord to keep His promise. With the reminder in Gen 17:1, came the reproof to walk before God and be perfect. In the context this had to serve as a rebuke for the “imperfect” way the Hagar plan was evaluated and adopted. John 8:40 tells us though that Abraham still did not do the kinds of things the Pharisees, who made a great deal of being sons of Abraham, would later do. Abraham responded faithfully to the rebuke of God because he knew this holy God was His friend and He would deal with him in truth. The covenant God is described as “possessing the power to realize His promises even when the order of nature presented no prospect of their fulfillment, and the powers of nature were insufficient to secure it.” ( p. 223, 222.1/Ke) El Shaddai is “ the God who compels nature to do what is contrary to itself and subdues it to bow and minister to grace.” ( Delitzsch as in 222.111/Ba, p. 513) Hence there was a need to stipulate the importance of keeping man’s imperfect methods out of God’s perfect plan. As Pink says, “ Another lesson which we do well to mark - never to employ unlawful means in seeking to promote the cause of God.” (pp. 184-85,222.11/Pi) “Such a demand does not ask Abram to make himself fit to receive divine blessings, but it does warn him against doing those things whereby he renders himself unfit.” (p. 514, 222.111/Ba) Because Abraham knew who God was, it affected his walk.
B. The glory for spiritual work - even that which has a physical manifestation - must be left for and given to God Almighty. If we know who God is, it affects our walk. Do we know who God is? An old Sicilian proverb says that only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. God is friend enough to tell us when we are not walking before Him perfectly. Reflect on who He is and it will affect your walk before Him. Contemplate the greatness of Almighty God:
1. He controls all nature and fashions it unlike man at his best is able to. I remember being in awe of Him as I stood at the top of a large slope with a lake at the bottom about a mile below. The hillside was like one giant meadow tilted on its edge in the
Gifford -Pinchot National Forest.
2. I am amazed at the sweet spirit with which He enables people to endure through tragedy.
3. None but Almighty God can turn, change, and convert a sinful heart. But He does it.
4. His word is to be spoken by the man of God with authority because He is the Almighty.
5. He can restore the wayward soul. Wherever it crashes it is never so lost that He does not know the way back home.
6. He is able to display His power in the crash of thunder and lightning or the convicting quiet of the still small voice. His greatness is present whether viewed through the telescope or the microscope, whether measured by the minute or the century.
7. He is the God of Abraham and the God of the Resurrection. He alone is awesome!
Spurgeon said it so well: “There is no dynasty to follow His dynasty; no successor to take up the crown of our Melchizedek. My immortal spirit rejoices in the hope of rendering endless homage to the eternal King.
-Spurgeon’s Sermon Illustrations
VI. Abraham was God’s friend Because he believed God (Rm 4:2-3; Gal 3:6; Jms 2:23).
A. Of all the distinguishing characteristics in Abraham’s friendship with God, this one has to be the greatest. For all time and eternity, Abraham will be known as the man who was a friend of God. He had to believe the Lord for this testimony to be had of him. Without belief there would have been no imputation of righteousness. Without belief there would have been no way to please God or even come to Him for help (Heb 11:6). Without belief there is no way for a friendship to go anywhere.
B. He who would be a friend of God must choose to believe what He says about Salvation and everyday life and eternity and ....
CONCL: (1) If He is your God, He is your friend. Building for, calling on, sharing with, identifying with, knowing, and believing the Lord demonstrate friendship with Him.
(2) Moses was the great lawgiver, who received from God and gave to the Nation of Israel the Ten Commandments, and led them out of Egyptian slavery to the very threshold of the Promised Land.
Joshua, as a great general, guided more than one-half million men, women, and children across the Jordan in conquest of the land flowing with milk and honey.
David was not only a brilliant king, but also the sweet psalmist of Israel.
Daniel, that comely lad who was taken captive by the Babylonians, rose to the position of prime minister and, spanning five rulers, must be considered one of the great statesmen of all time.
Elijah was an outstanding prophet of Jehovah who, through God’s enabling power, could restrain the rain or call down fire from Heaven.
But when one considers the life and ministry of the man, Abraham, there appears none of the greatness which characterized so many other of God’s choice servants. Wherein lies the greatness and significance of this man? The answer is so obvious that it can almost be overlooked. Three words - that is all it takes - to define the pre-eminent personalities in all the Bible: ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD.
Realistically, most Christians realize that they will never be a lawgiver like Moses, a general like Joshua, a poet-king like David, a statesman like Daniel, nor a prophet like Elijah. But, 20th Century believers can be what Abraham was - simply a man - a man who believed God - a man who was convinced that what God had spoken, He would do. (p. 2, 26.32) - Marv Rosenthal
(3) Abraham had certain advantages as the friend of God. The Lord was His shield and reward (Gen 15:1-2). Abraham received promises from Him (Gen 15:18; Acts 7:17; Heb 7:1). God protected Abraham’s wife (Gen 20:18). God chose, traveled with, and changed the name of Abram (Neh 9:7). And God’s blessing was on Abraham (Heb 2:16). The man who believes God, can be God’s friend. There is no other friend like Jesus.
