Abraham: The Making of a Friend (Wayne Owens, 04/05/25)

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

Hebrews 6 · chapter mention

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.