Lord, as we come to Thee this morning, we have sung this song thousands of times. Yet, Lord, as many times as we have sung it, it always touches our hearts because we desperately need a friend.
Lord, in this world of vanity, pressures, and the strife of life, we need a friend. And what a friend we have in Jesus.
As we come this morning, Lord, I pray that Thy Holy Spirit, who is within us, would also pour out upon us, that we might know the anointing and that there might be power in Thy Word—power that can truly affect our lives and alter us.
Lord, I pray that our eyes would be opened to see the greatness of this Friend that we have. Lord Jesus, we come this morning humble before Thee because, Lord, Thou didst shed Thy blood for us.
Lord, we come back to Thee now. We just want to hear from Thee—not from me, but from Thee, Lord. We ask that Thou wouldst bless our time and that Thy Spirit would touch us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, this morning I did want to share on this matter of friendship—of being a friend, and what a friend is.
A number of months ago, Gary Bupkins, who is in Mattituck, Long Island, called me and said that they were going to have a little retreat up there. Dana Congdon was going to speak on the Book of Job, and he asked why I did not speak on friends.
I said, “Yeah, all right. You gave me the three friends—the guys that did not come through for Job.” So anyway, as I was before the Lord, I was really touched on this matter of friends, being a friend, friendship, and what the Scriptures say about it.
This morning I would like to share with my brothers and sisters here a few thoughts that I believe the Lord gave me along these lines. We will need to read a few Scriptures. First, turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 15.
This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it unto you.
These things I command you, that ye may love one another.
Let us turn to the Book of Job, just to give a little flavor here. Poor Job had lost his entire family and all that he owned. The Lord was doing a tremendous work in Job’s life—a work of sonship.
I think most of us remember the story of Job and all the trouble he was in. I want to give you a flavor of the interaction with his friends. Job 11 summarizes his friends’ reaction to Job.
At first they came and sat with Job for seven days. They were concerned about Job; they saw his condition and sat before him seven days and seven nights without speaking a word because they saw how grieved his heart was. They could not say anything.
Then finally Job spoke, and by chapter 11 we see how things are going. Zophar responds to Job:
Should not the multitude of words be answered?
And should a man full of talk be justified?
Should thy boastings make men hold their peace?
And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?
He was basically calling Job a liar. “Job, we cannot seem to get through to you. What is the problem?”
Then Job answered and said,
I have heard many such things:
Miserable comforters are ye all.
“Shall vain words have an end? Or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?” In other words, Job was getting pretty fed up with his friends at this point. He was saying, “Look, enough, enough. I have heard all I need to hear from you guys.”
And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends; for ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath.
Then the Lord had Job pray for them, and the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends.
Here were three men who knew Job—friends of his, or at least acquainted with him enough to come and help him. As I said, they sat with him for seven days and seven nights, so they were fairly close to Job.
But unfortunately, as the conversation went on, they ended up condemning Job. Their conclusion was, “You reap what you sow.”
That is a good principle. Honestly, we do reap what we sow many times. If you stand out in the sunshine naked long enough, you are going to get sunburned. I mean, that is a principle: you reap what you sow.
If you never brush your teeth—there are no children in here—but if you never brush your teeth, your teeth will eventually fall out. So you reap what you sow. It is a general principle.
They said to Job, basically, “Job, you have messed up. You just will not admit it, and you are reaping what you sowed.” Of course, Job kept reacting to that because he knew deep down in his heart that was not the issue. And he was right. That really was not the issue.
These men were misrepresenting God and who God is. Often we think God is like that. We have this concept of God as the Man with the big hammer: when we mess up, the hammer comes down and something terrible happens in our lives.
But as we know the Lord, as we get to know Him, we find that He is far different from that. He does have a big hammer, but most of the time He uses a gentle hand with us.
That gentle hand is full of mercy, love, and compassion. He frankly puts up with a lot from us before His hand of discipline comes upon us.
Even His hand of discipline is not done in angry wrath, but in love, wanting to correct us from our wayward ways. So we find that these men really did misrepresent the Lord, and that is why Job did not receive a correct answer from his friends. Neither could they comfort him.
As you read the Book of Job, another man shows up toward the end—Elihu. Read The Splendor of His Ways sometime, by Stephen Kaung. It is really an enlightening book.
Elihu represents man’s spirit. It is not until God begins to speak to Job through the spirit that Job begins to turn his heart toward the Lord. Finally, the Lord appears to him in the whirlwind and shows Himself to Job.
These three men had to offer Job what was really the best the world had to offer: the wisdom of the world.
Brothers and sisters, there are really three kinds of people in this world. The first classification is believers and unbelievers. In God’s eyes, you are a Christian or you are not.
If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a Christian. That means your spirit, which was dead toward God, has been quickened and made alive so that you can now communicate with God Himself. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells within you.
Therefore, you can hear from the Lord, and you can share with others what the Lord has given to you.
But then there is the unbeliever. The highest he can attain to is man’s philosophy—the principles he sees in the earth. He can understand gravity. It is a principle: if I jump off a building, I am going to fall to the ground. That is gravity.
He can understand that because he experiences it daily. These principles that people experience are the highest they can attain to. But for the Christian, he can actually hear from God.
Those are two great classifications of man. But the classification of Christians is broken into two categories according to the Bible: the spiritual Christian and the carnal Christian.
A spiritual Christian is one who is in communion with the Lord and obeys the Lord—one in whom there is fruitfulness of life.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, and faith. In other words, when you encounter this person, these are the things you encounter in them. They are living a life before the Lord.
Now, the fruit in their lives is not for themselves. The fruit is for the ones they encounter. It is for the ones around them. It is for their friends.
If you think about it, the fruit tree never eats its own fruit, does it? And that is what we are to be: fruit trees. Now, some of us are right fruity. Y’all did not get that. I am myself.
The bottom line is that we are to be fruit bearers, and that is a spiritual Christian.
But the Word of God says in 1 Corinthians 3:1–4 that Paul was speaking to the Corinthian believers and saying, “You believers are carnal. I cannot give you the deep things of God because you are so carnally minded.”
What is a carnal Christian? A carnal Christian is one who has truly been made spiritually alive in Christ but still walks in the way of the world and depends on worldly wisdom rather than the wisdom of God.
Instead of fellowship and communion with God, where we gain real wisdom, they still depend mainly upon the wisdom of the world—the wisdom learned from books. That is what they share with others.
Therefore, you do not encounter in them the fruit of the Spirit. You are not refreshed and nourished when you are with those who are carnally minded.
If you come across a spiritual Christian, even if he says nothing about Christ, there is something in his life that touches you, is there not? There is something of the Spirit of God that touches and refreshes you.
Even if you are talking about things not specifically related to the Word of God, you can tell it. You can sense it. These are the spiritual ones.
The Lord has said that the wisdom of the world is foolishness. Frankly, that is what Job’s three friends brought to him. It was foolishness—the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God.
In James 3:17, God describes what His wisdom is like:
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
There was not much peace in Job’s friends’ conversation, I can tell you. But God’s wisdom is peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, full of good fruit, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
That is the wisdom of God. Brothers and sisters, we sense that as Christians. When we encounter another brother or sister and sense the wisdom of God, we know that this is the Lord speaking through that brother.
Job could not find his answer from these three men because, in today’s terminology, they were carnal in nature. They were giving worldly wisdom instead of wisdom from the Lord.
So what is the key to being a friend? These three men wanted to be friends and thought they were friends, but they actually ended up being Job’s enemies.
What is the key? I have already mentioned it: our vertical relationship needs to be right if we are going to have a horizontal relationship with others.
Our relationship with the Lord is primary. In Matthew 22:37, a lawyer came to the Lord and asked Him what the greatest commandment was.
The Lord said that all the Law and the Prophets—everything in the Old Testament—can be summed up in two commandments:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Think of that. All that you read from Genesis throughout the Old Testament can be summed up in these words. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
If we are to have a true relationship with a friend, with another brother or sister, our relationship with the Lord has to be right. It has to be primary. It has to be first.
If there is to be a flow of the life of Christ to your brothers and sisters—to your friends—then there has to be a flow from the Lord Himself, from the throne, so that you may have fruit to give to your brothers and sisters.
If you want to be a true friend to your brothers and sisters, first you are going to have to be a true friend of God.
This is the question this morning that we need to get down to the bottom of: What is our relationship with the Lord? Is the Lord your friend, or is He a casual acquaintance?
Friendship runs the gamut from casual acquaintance to someone with whom you are very close and can frankly share the secrets of your heart. Those are the kind of friends we hope to develop and have in this life—those we can come to and truly share our hearts with.
Jesus wants to be your friend as well. But is He just an acquaintance, or is He a real friend?
This morning, even, you may go by a brother or sister and say, “How are you doing?” Did you really want to know how they were doing?
Sometimes we are just acquaintances, are we not? “How are you doing?” Well, I do not really want to know how you are doing, but I want you to know that I recognize you are here.
A real friend asks how you are doing because he really wants to know. He wants to be able to support you.
Gary Bupkins and I got together last weekend for the first time in twelve years. I asked him, “How are you doing, Gary?” I really meant it. I wanted to know how he was doing. He was a friend of mine.
Gary and I have a close relationship, even though I had not seen him for twelve years. I consider him more than an acquaintance.
The question is: What is our relationship to the Lord as a friend? Is He just an acquaintance, or is He a dear friend? Or, even worse, is He a stranger?
Is He a stranger where, if you meet Him, you say, “Well, how are You doing?” and keep on walking?
Open again to John 15, and keep your finger there, because I am going to refer to it on and off this morning.
What I really want us to see this morning is that the Lord is your friend. The Lord is your friend.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Brothers and sisters, we were dead. The Word of God says we were dead in trespasses and sin. We were sinners. The death sentence was upon us all—the death sentence of God.
This past weekend I was staying with a brother, and he had a book on the sermons of Jonathan Edwards. There was that great sermon he wrote, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. You ought to read that sometime.
I think Jonathan really touched something of what God’s wrath would be like and His anger over sin. He speaks of the fires of hell lapping at our heels. He speaks of the fires of hell waiting to grab anyone they can.
He says that we live life as though there were a rotten tarp over hell, and we are walking on that rotten tarp. At any moment, we can break through that rotten tarp into the pit of hell—into fire and brimstone forever, to be tormented in those fires.
So powerful was this man’s sermon that people were hanging onto the columns in the building to keep from slipping into hell. This was God moving, brothers and sisters, because our brother was almost blind.
All he could do was read the sermon. He could not even share it as we are doing this morning. He had to stand close to it by candlelight and read it. Yet it was so powerful. The Holy Spirit moved so powerfully that people turned to the Lord because it was so real.
Brothers and sisters, we were dead in trespasses and sin. The sentence of death from God Himself was upon us, and we walked a very precarious life.
Until somehow God opened our hearts to see that He had a way from hell. He had a way out, and that way was the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, when He decided to take our place in death.
The death sentence was upon you, and it was upon me. But we had a Friend, brothers and sisters. We had a Friend who came to God the Father and said:
I know that You are just in placing the death sentence on them. I know that You are justified, Father, in what You have done, because You are God and sin cannot dwell in Your presence.
But listen: this is My friend. I choose to make them My friend.
I know what they have done. I know all their sins. I know what they have become. They are bound in sin. There is a nature in them that is sinful. But I love them. They are My friend.
I am going to take their place. I know that You have to judge. As God, You have to judge. That sentence of death has to be carried out. I am going to take their place because they are My friends.
He took your place in judgment. He took my place in judgment.
We sometimes think, brothers and sisters, that the Lord became our Friend when we accepted Him as our Savior—when we accepted the Lord as our Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit came and quickened us. Then we chose Christ.
Indeed, we must exercise our will. We must humble ourselves, admitting that we are sinners, under the conviction of the hand of God, and come to Him saying, “Lord, I choose life. I choose You.”
But John 15:16 says:
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you.
And in Ephesians 1:4, He says that we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Before God even made the earth, we had already been chosen.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
He chose us. Do you see that we were His friends even before the foundation of the world? He made us His friends. He chose to be our Friend even before the foundation of the world.
He is our eternal Friend—our eternal Friend.
He knew all the trouble we would get into. He understood what we are and what we are made of, but He did not reject us.
When we see somebody in serious trouble, we often back away from them because we do not want to be associated with them. We do not want to be caught in their company.
But the Lord said, “No. They are in trouble—serious trouble—but I am not going to reject them. I reject what they are, but I am not going to reject them. I am going to lay down My life for them.”
Brothers and sisters, He was your Friend from the foundation of the world.
He said, basically, “I am still your Friend.” Deuteronomy 31:8 says:
And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
He goes before you, and He will not forsake you.
Turn to the last chapter of Matthew, Matthew 28. I thought this was quite profound: the Lord sharing His heart with us through Matthew.
The very last thing He wanted Matthew to say to us is at the end of Matthew 28:20:
Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
That is a commitment. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He is still your Friend.
Brothers and sisters, He went to the cross of Calvary for us as our substitute in death. He rose from the grave. What is He doing today? Has He forgotten about us?
No. It says He is our High Priest. He is praying for us every day. He is praying for you. He is praying for me. He is our Advocate before the Father.
He is your Friend. He sticks with us.
I think I have shared this before, but I believe it illustrates what I am trying to say, because sometimes we wonder if the Lord is our Friend.
It is that little story about the footsteps in the sand. I know some of you have heard it.
This man had passed on and was with the Lord. The Lord was going over the man’s life with him, and a picture came up before him. What he saw was footsteps in the sand along the beach.
There were two sets of footprints side by side. The man looked at the Lord and said, “Look, I see it. I understand. You were my Friend. We were walking side by side. Thank You, Lord.”
Then he looked and saw only one set of footprints. He said, “Oh, Lord, I remember what that was. That was that dark time in my life—the time I could not understand what was going on, the time when the world seemed upside down, the time when it seemed as if I was all alone.”
“And You had to leave me. You left me.”
The Lord looked at him and said, “I want you to look real close at those footprints. If you look real close, you will see that those are My footprints. I did not leave you. I was carrying you.”
Brothers and sisters, the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. There are times when it may appear that way, but those are the very times when we cannot sense His closeness and cannot sense His presence.
When our lives are in turmoil and upside down, that is when He is carrying us. What preciousness. How gracious is the Lord.
So the Lord is your Friend. He has chosen you, brothers and sisters.
He took your place in judgment on the cross. He died for you, and He died for me. But praise the Lord, He rose from the dead.
On the third day He rose from the dead, and for forty days He walked this earth to prove that He was alive—that He had risen from the dead. At one time, five hundred witnessed Him.
Then He went out to the mount and ascended into the clouds as they looked up. There was the promise that He would return again.
Then He ascended to the throne. How do we know that He made it to the throne? Brothers and sisters, on the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out.
You remember the story about tongues of fire and people speaking in other languages. Peter stood up in Acts 2:33 and said:
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
In other words, that was fruit that the Lord had made it back to the throne. He is on the throne, sitting at the right hand of God. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Here is the point: He is King. He is King of all the earth, all the universe, all the worlds that are out there. He is King.
And He still calls you His friend. You are His friend. You have access to the King at any time you need it, by the blood of Jesus. You have access to the King of the earth.
Now, I want someone to do this this afternoon, if you would, please. Drive your car up to the White House in Washington, D.C.—it is only an hour and forty-five minutes—and knock on the door and ask if you can speak with the president.
Well, we will probably see your picture in the paper tomorrow.
We do not have access to our president in that way. But the Lord Himself says, “You come to My house anytime, and I will open it to you. I will listen.”
You have full access at any time. My security guards will not stop you. What a Friend—even this great King.
Here is a real probing question. Jesus is your Friend. The Lord is your Friend. Brothers and sisters, there is no doubt about it.
But here is the real question: Are you His friend? Friends require a two-way relationship.
Is He your Friend, or a casual acquaintance? He is fully committed to you and to me. Are we fully committed to Him? That is the kind of Friend He is.
You may say, “Well, I do not know. I am not sure it is really possible to be the friend of God like He is a friend of us. Could He really ever call me a friend?”
There is one man in the Bible whom God calls a friend. Actually, kind of two. It says that He spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. But the one man He calls His friend was Abraham.
In 2 Chronicles 20:7, Jehoshaphat appealed to God while Jerusalem was surrounded by the enemy:
Didst not Thou, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Thy people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend for ever?
“Abraham, Thy friend forever.” Jehoshaphat was in trouble. Jerusalem was in trouble. The people were in trouble. On what basis did he appeal to God? He said, “You made a promise to Abraham, Your friend, and to his seed, of which we are his seed.”
Does God let His friends down? No.
Isaiah 41:8 says:
But thou, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend.
That is God speaking: “Abraham, My friend.”
Then James 2:23 says:
And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.
That was when Abraham offered up his son Isaac. It says he believed God, it was imputed to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
What was it about Abraham that caused God to call him His friend? I think James gives us the secret when it says that Abraham believed God.
It was a real belief, brothers and sisters. He trusted God so much that he could offer up his own son, Isaac, in sacrifice back to the Lord.
The Word says that Abraham believed God so much that, even if he had to slay his own son, God would raise him from the dead. That is the kind of faith and belief he had in God.
I remember the story about the man with the wheelbarrow. A tightrope walker put a steel cable across Niagara Falls and said, “I am going to walk across Niagara Falls and back on this cable.”
Great crowds gathered on both sides of Niagara Falls, and he did it. He walked across Niagara Falls on the cable, and then he walked back.
Everyone was clapping and cheering. Then he said, “Look, I am going to walk across it again, except this time I am going to push a wheelbarrow in front of me. Does anybody believe I can do it?”
Everybody said, “Oh, yes. You can do it. You can do it.”
He said, “Okay, get in the wheelbarrow.”
Can you get in the wheelbarrow? Let me ask another question: Could you put your son in the wheelbarrow?
Abraham believed God. He had a faith that worked. He was called a friend of God.
John 15:14 says:
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
He believed God. He trusted God. So he obeyed God. Are you a friend of God? Have you obeyed the Lord? Do you have faith like Abraham had, to be a friend of God?
Let us be honest. I think if we answered that question, we would probably say, “Well, no, Jerry. I am not really like Abraham. I do not really have that kind of faith.”
But brothers and sisters, Abraham was not really so different from us.
Joshua 24:2 says that Terah, Abraham’s father, and Abraham were idol worshipers. They were idol worshipers in Chaldea. Tradition says that his father may have actually been an idol maker.
Abraham was an idol worshiper. But God had chosen Abraham, even before the foundation of the world, to be a friend.
Abraham was lost. He had no hope. He worshiped idols. He was lost. But somehow God was able to stir Abraham’s heart.
I do not know, but maybe Abraham was sitting there whittling on a piece of wood and asking, “Is this really a god?” Now, for us today, it is easy to think in those terms. Obviously, it is not a god.
But in those days, people put a lot of faith in those idols. In fact, today there is a lot of idol worship in the world; we just are not as associated with it in America.
You cannot help but think that somehow Abraham began to question, “Is this really God? This thing that I make with my hands—can it really be a god?”
I do not know for sure, but somehow the Lord did stir his heart. How did the Lord stir your heart? Is that not the way you began?
Maybe you were in some sin that trapped you, and you felt so guilty. You had no hope and no way out of what you had done. One day the Lord began to stir your heart and convict you of that.
Finally, somehow, the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins was shared with you. You came to a living knowledge of Jesus Christ and were delivered from who you were.
Maybe you got into serious problems in your life. You had no one to help and no answer. Somehow God touched your heart that He was the way, the truth, and the life. He stirred your heart.
Maybe you were like Epicurus, whose philosophy was that the pleasures of this world are an end in themselves. Maybe you were seeking the pleasures of this world and found out, as our brothers shared this morning, how empty they were.
Somehow God was able to stir your heart with the emptiness of that life. He touched you, you came to Him, and your heart was stirred.
Acts 7:2 says that the God of glory appeared to Abraham. Abraham did not merit anything. Abraham did not merit the God of glory appearing to him, but the God of glory appeared to him.
He did not merit God’s friendship, but God appeared to him. Did He not do that to you as well? When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, the God of glory appeared to you, and it changed your life.
You became alive to the Lord, and you wanted to obey Him.
What did the Lord do with Abraham when He appeared to him? He said, “Look, Abraham, I want you to leave your family behind. I want you to leave this country and go where I am going to show you. I am not going to tell you where it is yet, but you go.”
“That is all I want you to do. I just want you to obey Me and respond.” In other words, He wanted Abraham to leave his old life behind.
Brothers and sisters, the problem is that we want to hang on to that old life, do we not?
Did Abraham obey? Yes, he did. He went out. But we know that his obedience was not totally complete, was it? He was not able to totally get it.
How do we know that? We find that his father looked at his son and said, “Son, I see that the God of glory has appeared to you. I am not sure about that, but you are determined to go out. It is not right that you leave your family. I will go with you.”
His father loved his son. He did not want him to go. So he hung on to his son, and his son said, “Okay, Dad.”
His father actually led him out. But did his father lead him to the promised land, brothers and sisters? No. It says they got about halfway there, to a place called Haran, and they settled down.
They started growing things. In other words, Abraham had obeyed, but he could only get so far. The old man was still with him—the old flesh that we carry with us, the old way of life that we cling to.
It was still hanging on. But God delivered him. Abraham could not deliver himself, but God delivered him. How did He do it? Finally, Abraham’s father passed away. Then it says Abraham went on.
He had stopped short, but God spared him. God spoke to him again, and he moved on.
Remember, there was a famine in the land. He was not supposed to go down into Egypt, but we remember that he did.
He went down into Egypt and said, “Wait a minute. My wife is so beautiful that the king of Egypt is going to want her for his harem. I have to figure out a plan.”
His plan was for Sarah to tell the king that they were brother and sister, so that the king would not get upset and kill Abraham in order to have Sarah.
We know how that turned out. The Lord plagued the king, and eventually the king said, “Look, I see what you have done here. You need to leave.”
Once again, Abraham could not deliver himself. He got in trouble in his life and in his walk with the Lord. He was in trouble, and the Lord appeared to him and delivered him.
Lot was still with him. Lot was his nephew—part of his family. Part of that old life was still with him, and it hung on to him.
But remember what happened. The herdsmen for Lot and Abraham got into arguments, and finally Abraham said, “Okay, Lot, you choose what you want, and you can have it. I will take the rest.”
That took faith, because the Lord had promised the whole land to Abraham. Yet he was able to give it up and say, “It is in the Lord’s hands.”
Lot went out and took the best of the land. But neighboring kings came in, took Sodom and Gomorrah, and took Lot and his family captive.
Abraham went and delivered them. Then the king of Sodom came back to Abraham and said, “Thank you very much. You take all these spoils of war and keep them for yourself.”
Abraham said, “No. I am not going to do that, because you will say that you made me rich. All I need is the Lord.”
Now that is faith. Do you not see how his faith was growing?
We are like Abraham, brothers and sisters. We have failures, we create problems, and the Lord gets us out and delivers us. He is a faithful Friend.
Finally, remember the great test of Abraham. After years, he had Isaac. He took him up to the mountain and was about to slay his only son.
The Lord stayed his hand. He said, “Okay, I see that you totally trust Me and believe Me.” Basically, Abraham, you passed the test.
Abraham became a friend of God because he trusted and obeyed.
In John 15:14, we have already read:
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
What is the evidence of our friendship with the Lord? I have already spoken about trusting and obeying. It is very simple to be His friend.
But there are two very key characteristics. One, which we have already talked about because the Lord did it, is to lay down our lives for our friends—to lay down your life for your brothers and sisters.
That brought glory to God when Abraham was able to offer up Isaac. It brought glory to God. Brothers and sisters, we are called today to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
If we are truly God’s friends, we will do it.
The second thing, the thing that is really on my heart this morning, is this: What do you do with your best friend? You share with him. You share the secrets of your heart with him.
Do you have that kind of relationship with the Lord?
It is interesting that in Abraham’s life, after he had Ishmael, there were thirteen years of silence. God did not speak to him.
What a dealing time that must have been—thirteen years without knowing the presence of God, without hearing His voice again. What a difficult time it must have been.
But finally, the Lord appeared. Abraham, once again, was helpless. There was nothing he could do until the Lord chose to appear to him.
The Lord appeared to him on the plains of Mamre. Remember the story: the Lord and two angels appeared to Abraham.
The Lord reassured him that Sarah would have a son—the promised son. The promised son would come from Sarah’s womb, and Abraham believed God. It was counted to him for righteousness.
But the interesting thing about that story is that, as God and the two angels turned to leave, the Lord said something very interesting. He said to the other two, “Should I withhold from Abraham what is on My heart? Should I withhold from Abraham what I am about to do?”
Then He explained to Abraham, “Look, Abraham, I am going to have to bring judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, and I want you to know that.”
Abraham said, “Whoa, Lord, You cannot just destroy this whole city.” It seemed to be quite a large city at that time, with thousands of people there.
Abraham said, “Lord, You cannot destroy this great city. If I can find fifty righteous men there, will You spare it?” The Lord said, “Yes. You find fifty.”
Abraham kept bargaining with the Lord, as a friend would do, and got Him down to ten. The Lord said, “I will spare Sodom for ten, if you can find ten righteous people.”
Well, he could not. But what was interesting to me, brothers and sisters, was that the Lord considered Abraham such a friend that He could share something that was in His heart—something important.
God is not a God who likes to rain judgment down, but it was time to do it. He had to do it, and He wanted Abraham to know it.
What if this afternoon President Bush’s helicopter landed on your front lawn, and he came to your door and said, “Look, I have something I need to talk with you about. We have some problems in Iraq and in the Middle East, and these are some things I am considering doing. What do you think?”
Boy, would that not be a shocker? But here, God did that. He appeared to Abraham, had something on His heart, and shared it with Abraham—sharing the secrets of His heart.
There are two precious secrets God shared with Abraham. We do not really learn those secrets until we get to the New Testament. In the Old Testament they were hidden, but in the New Testament we see them.
The first is in John 8:56. The Lord Jesus Himself said:
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.
Think about that. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Abraham saw My day.” He saw the Messiah, and he was glad.
Do you think, brothers and sisters, as Abraham was going up to that mountain for three days before he offered up his son, that he was asking, “I wonder what this is all about?”
“I am going to obey the Lord. I believe He can raise Isaac from the dead. But I wonder why.”
I believe—and I could be wrong—but my thought is this: when Abraham offered up his son and the Lord stayed his hand, we all know that this was a picture of the day when God would offer up His only begotten Son on Calvary’s cross for the sins of the world.
God would have to offer up His own Son. This was a foreshadowing, worked out experimentally in Abraham’s life, of what God would one day do on our behalf for the sins of the world.
I wonder if, after that event, somehow the Lord began to share with Abraham that this foreshadowing pointed to the day when the Messiah would come.
It says Abraham saw His day—that He would be offered up as a sacrificial Lamb on our behalf.
The other secret is found in Hebrews 11:9–10. It says that Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations.
Nowhere in the Old Testament do you see that Abraham was looking for a city. The only thing Abraham ended up with was a grave plot for him and his wife. That was all he received of the promise for himself.
But it says Abraham was looking for the city that hath foundations. Brothers and sisters, we know from Revelation that the city that has foundations is that city which is going to come down from heaven as a bride for the Son.
God shared something very precious with Abraham. Not only did He share Jesus, the Messiah, the love of God’s heart, whom He was going to offer in sacrifice; He shared that one day God was going to have a bride for His Son.
It was a secret. It was on God’s heart. He shared it with Abraham, and Abraham saw it.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, I believe that when Abraham bought those two plots and put his wife in one, knowing that later he himself would be there, he was saying, “This is the promised land.”
“This is small, but this grave site means that one day God will have His city that has foundations—His bride for His Son.”
Those two great things are on God’s heart, and He shared them with Abraham.
The question this morning for us is this: Has God shared His secrets with you? Are you a friend of the Lord?
The Lord is your Friend, but brothers and sisters, He is not satisfied with a casual-acquaintance relationship. He wants you to be the kind of friend to Him with whom He can share the secrets of His heart.
Looking back, that great secret we already know about, do we not? He has died. He has offered His only begotten Son. John 3:16.
The other secret He has also shared with us: the city which has foundations, the bride for His Son. That has been shared too.
But as I thought about that, brothers and sisters, I asked, “Is it real to us?” Sometimes the Lord can share something with you and you do not get it.
Or something can be shared, and you understand it, but you do not really see it. You do not really grasp it.
Remember Matthew 13:10–11. The Lord was sharing the parable of the tares and the wheat, or the sower. The disciples asked, “Lord, why are You sharing in parables with the people?”
He said:
Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Listen to that. The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven is given to you, speaking to the disciples, but not to them.
They all heard. They all heard the parable. But only a few saw the secret.
Remember how the disciples said, “Lord, can You share a little more with us? Can You help us here?” They were His friends, so He did. He wanted to be sure they really saw what He was saying.
So He took His friends aside and said, “I speak in parables. They do not understand. But you are My friends, and you need to understand what I am saying.”
Brothers and sisters, there is much that the Lord wants to share with us, much He wants to show us. But we need to be His friends.
I am humbled when I think of being a friend of God. It is one thing for Him to be my Friend. He is God.
That He would humble Himself and be our Friend is tremendously amazing. But the fact that He wants us to be His friend—the dust of the earth, the creation of His own hands—He says, “I want you to be My friend. I want to share My secrets with you.”
When I share them, I do not want them just to be knowledge. I want you to really see what is on My heart, because I want you to be a part of what is on My heart.
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
“I call you friends because I have made the secret known to you.”
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. We thank Thee that Thou art our Friend.
Lord, we want to have that relationship with Thee that is a true friendship, where we can share the secrets of our hearts with one another.
Lord, we do not want to have a passing acquaintance with Thee. We want Thee to be real to us. We want Thee to draw us in, Lord, and Thy love does draw us. We thank Thee.
I pray, Lord, that Thy love will draw us all this morning. Lord, may we all become Thy friends, that Thou mightest be able to share Thy secret with us.
May we trust and obey Thee, live for Thee, and, Lord, may Thou finally have what Thou art after: a bride for Thy Son. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.