As a pastor, there's often times when you get
really discouraged. When things just don't go
well, people criticize you for no reason. If
they do have a reason, it's probably a wrong
reason. And so you're kind of at the point, and
I remember being discouraged. This text really
helped me. But I really thought, hit on that,
a friend, Abraham, a friend of God. You know,
I have many friends. A lot of friends I help
out. Some we just get together and enjoy each
other. We go out to dinner with some of our neighbors
and friends. But friendship is so important.
And this is friendship. And, you know, there's
only three times a friend of God is used in the
Bible. Abraham. Moses is sometimes considered,
by implication, a friend of God. Not even David.
David is called a servant of God. The prophets
are servants. But Jesus then called the disciples
his friends, and he called his friends those
who believe because of the work of the disciples.
That's you and me. We're here because of the
disciples. So the whole friendship thing, I really
wanted to hone in today because I wanted to look
at what that means. There's probably no individual
that has played a greater part in the drama of
salvation than Abraham himself. Abraham was growing
up in the city of Ur of the Chaldeans. And his
father, you know, Terah was a moon worshiper.
His name, even Abram. was coming from the moon
cult. And I think that was one of the reasons
that God eventually changed his name from Abram
to Abraham instead of part of that moon cult.
Ur of Chaldea was a beautiful city. Some of the
excavations have found there were two -story
homes, brick homes, very nice homes, with...
This was unusual in a time with hot and cold
running water. It was a very affluent city. It
was one that was all part of that area of Iraq,
what we call today down the Mesopotamian Valley.
It was a fertile area. It had the two rivers,
the Tigris and Euphrates that came down, and
Ur was sitting right in the middle where the
two came together. And it was a lush city. And
it was probably an enjoyable place to live. Abraham
had lots of friends. He had lots of family. And
then suddenly when he was 75 years of age, God
says, Abraham, I want you to leave your father's
home. I want you to leave your family. I want
you to leave this city and go to some place that
I'm going to tell you where it is. I heard one
pastor talking about this and he said, it's kind
of like this. Can you imagine a conversation?
God says to Abraham, I want you to leave your
home and your family. Abraham says, why? I'll
tell you later. I want you to go to this land.
Where? What land? Where? I'll tell you later.
I want you to, you know, I'm going to make a
great nation of you and you're going to have
descendants. Well, how's that going to happen?
Well, I'll tell you later. Then finally a son
comes. So take your son and take him to the mountain
and kill him. What would Abraham do? Why? And
again, God says, I'll tell you later. You wonder
what kind of friend is that, you know? Whereas
God in this, he's not giving very good details
on this whole thing. But yet Abraham, by faith,
did what? Followed every single thing God said.
Was he a perfect man? No way. He made many mistakes.
Some mistakes that I think... in today's day
and age, we would probably be very upset about.
But he somehow, whatever it was, he came back
and was obedient to God and said, God, I will
follow you. He knew God. God knew him. And so
God considered him a friend. Throughout Abraham,
God revealed. The whole process of divine election.
Now, we don't like to use that word as Seventh
-day Adventists because that gets you into Calvinism,
but yet there is a divine election because what
was it about Abraham that stood out from anybody
else? He was no richer than any other rich people.
He was wealthy. He wasn't taller. He wasn't better
looking. He wasn't from a big family. Why did
God choose Israel? There were greater countries
than Israel. God chose and picked it out. He
picked Israel out. He picked Abraham. So it's
divine election. A covenant that he gave, you
know, culminated in Jesus. And then we also find
that for 2 ,000 years later, Paul writes about
Abraham. and talks about the covenant relationship
that God set. The very first verse in the New
Testament, Jesus was descendant of Abraham. Abraham
was a beginning of some very important things.
But we're going to look at this. The four Gospels,
Acts... The Pauline letters, three of Pauline
letters, Book of Hebrews, 1 Peter, and James,
all record the name of Abraham, and it's in the
New Testament 71 times. Abraham is looked at.
The patriarch is at the center of New Testament
teaching concerning God's faithfulness. of the
New Testament teachings, of his covenant prophecy,
identifies God's people, justified by faith apart
from the law, is all found in the life of Abraham.
Abraham is the center of the gospel. The gospel
of Jesus is found in Abraham's life. He was not
perfect. He was a normal man. He went through
all the difficulties that we do, but yet... Salvation
came to him by his belief. And I want to look
at that. If you wouldn't mind, open your Bibles
to Exodus 15. I mean Genesis 15, excuse me. It's
an interesting fact. And I just, looking through
the life of Abraham. My wife and I this year
were going through reading the Bible and we read
this whole aspect of Abraham. And things just
kind of, we're thinking about it and looking
at it. And do you realize that there were seven
times that God repeated the covenant to Abraham?
Does that mean anything to you? Seven in the
Bible means what? Complete? The complete promises
of God, seven times this covenant was repeated.
And one of this, the passage I want to look at
today is one that I've never preached on. And
it's been close to 50 years in ministry. And
this one. I've never preached on this before.
And I wanted to share something that I've been
studying about on this one today for you. The
Lord comes to... I'm going to 15 .1. After these
things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in
a vision saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am
your shield, your exceedingly great reward. I
just couldn't help but look at that. First of
all, God comes to him in a dream, in a vision,
and he tells him, don't be afraid. You realize
how many times when God comes to people, that's
the first thing he tells them? Moses, when he
came to the burning bush, don't be afraid, Moses.
Take off your shoes. The ground you're standing
on is holy. I think of Isaiah having a vision
of God. You can imagine the temple. Just shown
he saw God high and lifted up. The angel was
there and the doorpost even shook at the temple.
In other words, don't be afraid. And yet Isaiah
was trembling. Anytime there's a confrontation
with God, it has got to be the most terrifying
and frightening thing for individuals. Because
we know a holy God We can't be around. I even
think in the second coming when Christ returns,
how that's going to be. There's going to be people
that are terrified, crying to the rocks and the
trees and everything else to hide them and buildings
to fall on to hide us from this one that's coming.
But on the other hand, I hope I'm part of that
that says, behold, this is the Savior I've been
waiting for. But he was terrified on this thing.
And he says, do not be afraid. I am your shield
and your exceedingly great reward. And I like
that. Notice the reward was a person. It was
God. The reward was not money, was not wealth.
He already had all that. It wasn't power. He
had that. He had enough men to work for him to
put together an army. So Abram, what rewards?
The reward was God. The relationship that he
had, that was his reward in the person. I kind
of like that. But Abram said, Lord God, what
will you give me, seeing I have no children and
the heirs of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
And Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring
indeed. No, and one board in my own house is
my heir. So he said, I don't even have an heir.
What can you give me? Yet, you're my reward.
You have promised already a couple of times by
this point, and it hadn't happened yet. And the
Lord says, this one shall not be your heir. Eliezer's
not going to be your heir. You're going to have
a son, and it will be the one. And then verse
6, and he believed the Lord and he accounted
it to him for righteousness. I like that point.
Too many times we believe on the Lord, right?
But do you believe the Lord? Listening to what
he says to us is a very critical point of our
lives. Hebrews 6, if you want to turn back over
to Hebrews. chapter 6. And I'm going to read
a few verses here because I think it's very important.
Because it's going to help us to understand a
little bit more what's going on. For when God
made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear
by no one greater, he swore by himself saying,
surely blessings I will give you and multiplying
I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. He was 75 when
he moved there. When was his son born? He was
99. It took 24 years. That's patiently waiting,
isn't it? For men indeed swear by the greater
and an oath for confirmation to them at the end
of all dispute. Men will... swear by heaven or
by other people, by the word of God, something
greater than themselves. That was the custom
at the time. But God couldn't swear by anybody
greater than himself because why? No one was
greater than God. So he swore upon himself on
that. And this is in verse 17. Then God determined
to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel. God couldn't
change. The immutability means he does not change.
That is the way it's going to be. God the same
today, yesterday, and forever. It's impossible
for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation
and have fled from refuge to lay. Now this, verse
19, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast. My grandfather, I was
11, and we were living on a farm in Pennsylvania.
Even though I'm a Tennessee boy, born in Nashville,
my parents moved when I was a little fellow and
moved up to Pennsylvania, and eventually my dad
bought a farm, a dream that he always had. But
I'm a severe asthmatic. Guess what happened?
I got very, very sick. And it was almost on a
weekly basis that my parents, sometime during
the middle of the night, would have to rush me
into the emergency room. The medication was not
as good back then as it is today. And so my grandparents
had bought a place in Florida, and they had moved
down there, and my great -grandparents were there.
I'm one of those kids. My grandparents, great
-grandparents, my grandparents, and my parents
were the oldest in their family, and I'm the
oldest. So I had the privilege of knowing all
of my grandparents, all but one of my great -great
-grandparents, and one, two great -great -grandmothers.
Matter of fact, I'll just tell you this interesting
thing. My great -great -grandmother... I was
about four years of age. So we're looking at
1953, and she turned 99. And I'm sitting there,
and I'm just so impressed. And I says, Grandma,
you're almost 100. And she said, Yes, I am. And
I don't know what caused me to do this. I've
always been a history buff, and I just blurted
out. Grandma, did you know Abraham Lincoln? And
she says, no, I never met him, but I remember
when he was shot. Figure it out. 1864. She was
about 9 or 10 years of age. You know, and that's
my generation. I'm thinking, wow. But anyway.
That's what we're looking at. But my grandfather,
when I moved to Florida with him, he was a fisherman.
He just had retired. He was a bricklayer that
laid brick in glass furnaces, and he would go
into furnaces at 3 ,000 degrees, totally in an
asbestos suit. If he slipped and fell, he was
dead. That was a very, very high -risk job, and
he would travel all across to Corning Glass and
to other glass manufacturers. Because there was
only like a dozen men in the country that could
do this job. And he got paid well for it. So
he retired in a nice place in Florida. And so
because I was sick so much, they said, let's
go to Florida. So we went down to Florida with
my grandparents. And I lived with them a year,
went to school down there. Did not have a whole
lot of improvement in asthma. But the thing that
I did enjoy, my grandfather retired. and he loved
to fish. Every single day that I can remember,
we went fishing. Sometimes he would meet me when
the school bus stopped, and I'd jump in the car,
and we'd go someplace. Sometimes we'd take his
boat, and we'd go to Lake Okeechobee fishing,
the rivers. But there was one river we used to
fish a lot, the Myakka River near Venice, Florida.
And he would bring the boat in, and we would
go up. But the current was pretty good in that
area, and he always would drop an anchor so the
boat wouldn't drift and we could stay put up
in a cove where we could catch some things. And
we would catch the fish, and we just had a good
time. Those are memories that you'll never forget.
And, you know, something with my grandfather's
funeral, all my brothers and my cousins all around,
all of them felt like they were granddad's favorite.
Every one of them felt that way. And then my
brother, he was just crying. He says, I know
I was his favorite. He just, you know, I said,
did he ever take you fishing? Well, no. He did
me. But dropping that anchor was to hold to keep
you from being pushed around, and the anchor
would catch into the sand, but sometimes that
would move, but sometimes it would catch a piece
of coral, and it would hold fast, and your boat
would pull against that, and it wouldn't move.
I think the anchor being cast in, catching onto
a deep rock, and who's that rock? It'd be Christ.
We're not tossed around. We have an anchor and
that is the promises of God. So I want you to
go back to 15. And he believed the Lord and he
counted it to him for righteousness. Now jump
over to, let's see, verse 10. Abraham has this
vision and he is told to bring... And God came
to him and says, take an ox and a couple of animals.
You see what it says here? Then he called him
and said to him, well, let's see, bring me a
three -year -old heifer, a three -year -old female
goat, a three -year -old ram, a turtle dove,
and a young pigeon. Abraham knew exactly what
to do with this. God didn't tell him what to
do. He knew that now God was going to draw up
a contract. These were exactly the things that
you were to bring to do a contract. When we do
a contract, we do what? You have a piece of paper
signed up, and you sign it. You put your signature
on it. This was in a different time of age, and
their understanding was that, first of all, it
was an oral society. handwriting, written things
weren't all that important at that time. There
was only a few people that could even write.
And language was just at the beginning of being
written down at this time. So it was always acted
out. And when he acted it out, Abraham knew.
This was the contract. Today, we have a contract.
Let's say, you know, when I do a wedding, it's
interesting. We get the marriage license, right?
We go through the vows after the promises are
made. The question is, how do I know you're going
to fill this obligation? You know, how do I know
it's going to be for richer and for poorer, sickness
and health, for better or for worse until death
do us part? What we do is we place our name on
the contract. We sign it. That's what we do today.
And this means I'm assuring that I'm going to
follow this covenant, this contract. If you buy
a piece of land, the person gives you a warranty
deed. The deed is, I guarantee and I warrant
that this property I own and I have a free right
to sell it to you with no encumbrances, no problems,
and it's a legal binding contract. Your signature
guarantees that. They didn't do it that way.
So Abraham immediately knew what to do. He cut
the ox in half, the goat in half, the sheep in
half, cut it in half, and you parted on both
sides, split right down the middle, lengthwise.
And it would be laid there on the side, and then
both of you are in this agreement, would come
and you would walk through that together, and
you get to the middle. If I do not fulfill this
contract, then may I be like these animals. That
have been here. But this is interesting. Abraham
did that. And he fell asleep. But then he is
in a vision. In a dream. and the darkness comes
upon him. It's pitch black, dark, smoke coming
in, just a horrible feeling, and he's just suffocating.
Have you ever been in so dark, like the cave
that you've been in, where it is so suffocatingly
hot, and the smoke, and that you just want to
fall on your face? This was that kind. And it's
interesting, the same words, the same expression
is used when God comes down to Mount Sinai. And
it fills the whole area with that smoke. It's
the same concept, the presence of God. When the
pillar of fire leads children of Israel by nighttime
to give heat and warmth, a pillar of cloud, the
smoke, during the daytime to provide shade. It's
the same concept. It's the presence of God. But
then you see the picture here in this illustration.
And it came to pass, when the sun went down and
it was dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking
oven and a burning torch that passed between
these pieces. The burning oven or the torch,
the flame, it would come and pass through that.
Notice, Abraham didn't pass through. The torch
and the flame represented God. God was the one
that passed through that. And God is saying,
this is the promise I'm making. This is how you
will know what's going to happen. This is how
you know that the promises I've made, the promise
that the land that I'm going to give you and
your inheritance will be, in fact, there. The
promises are threefold. The land, the seed, the
descendant, and a blessing. A blessing to all
the nations of the earth. That was the covenant.
And he said, just as sure as I'm walking through
this, if I can't, this is what's going to happen.
I'm willing to give up my immutability, as we
read in Hebrews. I'm willing to give up my life.
I'm willing to be torn asunder. And what does
Isaiah tell us about Jesus? He was ripped asunder.
Christ was. His heart was broken at Calvary.
This was the promise. This was the covenant.
that was made. On the same day, the Lord made
a covenant with Abraham, saying, To your descendants
I have given this land from the river of Egypt
to the great river, the river Euphrates. This
was the blessing that Abraham got. I really like
this concept because it visually acts out the
descendant of Abraham. was Jesus Christ. Jesus
is the seed of Abraham. Through Jesus, the land
is secured. Do you notice from the very beginning
in Genesis, the land that God had created for
Adam and Eve was cursed. Adam was supposed to
be the ruler of the earth. But after the sin,
he gave that up and the earth was cursed. Now
we have to struggle with this. But the promise
is that the land is going to be restored. The
earth is going to be restored new. You also have
the descendant, the seed, which is Jesus. And
then you have the blessing. Through Jesus, all
of the countries of the world have been blessed.
Right here, God was showing. the whole gospel
message. Acting it out. And that is, to me, the
anchor that we can hold on to. The promises of
Jesus. Anytime I see individuals struggling,
I worked at Madison Hospital as a chaplain. but
also as the program director for the psychiatric
department after I finished my doctorate. And
one of the things that I did there was helping
individuals restore a relationship with God,
doing a spiritual assessment, going through a
history, helping individuals to deal with their
struggles. And one of the things that we found
out working in psychiatric care... Psychiatric
care doesn't have anything to deal with forgiveness.
It doesn't deal with the promises of God. And
that is something that only comes through a relationship.
The forgiveness, the promises are all built right
in here from Abraham. So you can see why I find
Abraham's life so fascinating. Abraham was God's
friend. He placed his confidence in the promises
of God. Gracious Father, we pray that you will
bless each one of us as we leave this sanctuary
today. Pray that the grace of God, the hope from
the Holy Spirit will travel with each of us.
We thank you in Christ's name. Amen.