book of Genesis as we continue our series of studies in the life of Abraham. And I have a message entitled, Remarkable Pictures from a Remarkable Passage. Remarkable Pictures from a Remarkable Passage. And I'm going to tell you now what the two pictures are that we have here from this passage. First of all, we have a picture. of the soul-thrilling possibility of friendship with Almighty God. You haven't thought of anything more thrilling today than that, the possibility of friendship with Almighty God. Just savor that for a moment. Kind of roll that around in your mind. Friendship with God. Friendship with God. Now, I've been blessed with a few friends in my life. Some of you are surprised to hear that. You probably don't think I have any. And I don't have very many. If I think of friendship in terms of this definition, A friend is one with whom you can share your heart. A friend is one with whom you can share your heart. I've got many acquaintances, but that kind of restricts the number of friendships. But I'm thankful for the friendships that I have, and I want you to know that I count among my friends, I talked about Sylvia being a true Baptist big shot. I count among my friends some true Baptist big shots in addition to Sylvia. By the way, my friend Adrian Rogers resigned as pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee last Sunday night, announced his retirement from Bellevue Baptist Church. Many of you know Dr. Rogers from his TV ministry. But you take the friendship of the biggest shot in this world. And it is nothing compared to what I'm talking about, friendship with Almighty God. And that's one of the two pictures we have here. I call it a soul-thrilling picture. And I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, this is something that's calculated to thrill your soul. Friendship, intimacy, with Almighty God. I don't know of anything on this Lord's Day that is more conducive to encouragement. I don't know of anything that will pick you up more, anything that will help you more. I don't know of anything more exciting and thrilling. Friendship with God. Friendship with God. It's possible. It's one thing. And then the second remarkable picture we have here from this remarkable passage is the picture of intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer. Now I want to read the verses, and you see if you can't see these things that I've talked about. Then the men rose from there and looked toward Sodom. By the way, Lord willing, next Sunday night I'm going to preach about, from Genesis chapter 19, about Lot and the destruction of Sodom. And my sermon is entitled, From Councilman to Caveman. What a difference a day makes. What a difference a day makes. Can you imagine? Lot got up one morning and he was a councilman. The next morning he was a caveman. Well, I hope I don't have a day like that before the Lord takes me home. But then the men rose from there and they looked toward Sodom. The men are nothing less, no one else other than God and two angels in human flesh. We've already talked about that. And Abraham went with them to send them on the way. That was, by the way, the custom of that day. When someone came for a visit and got ready to leave, the host accompanied them along the way for a while. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, and I want to underscore that, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. There's a sermon there. But I don't have time for this sermon, let alone that one. And the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom, that is, these two angels in human flesh. But Abraham stood still before the Lord, the Lord in human flesh. And Abraham came near and said, Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were 50 righteous within the city. Would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do right. And you can mark it down, brothers and sisters in Christ, all outward appearances aside, the judge of all the earth will do right. He will, you don't have to worry about that. So the Lord said in verse 26, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Then Abraham answered and said, indeed now I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose there were five less than the 50 righteous, would you destroy all of the city for a lack of five? So he said, if I find there 45, I will not destroy it. And he spoke to him yet again and said, suppose there should be 40 found there. So he said, I will not do it for the sake of 40. Then he said, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 should be found there. So he said, I'll not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, that is Abraham. Indeed now I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 should be found there. So he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 20. Then he said, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak once more. Suppose 10 should be found there. And he said, the Lord did. I will not destroy it for the sake of 10. So the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. And in Genesis chapter 19, we have the account of Sodom being destroyed, which tells you that there could not be found ten righteous people in Sodom. How wicked was the city of Sodom that ten righteous people could not be found there. But we have here these two remarkable pictures that I have already indicated. The first is the soul-thrilling possibility of friendship with God. And this emerges from verses 16 through 21. Now, get the picture here. God has come to Abraham in human flesh, and as I preached to you a couple weeks ago, this is nothing less, ladies and gentlemen, than a preview of the Incarnation. I'm talking about God taking human flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. And I'm telling you that Abraham got a preview of this. HOW ABRAHAM'S HEART MUST HAVE LEAPED WITHIN HIM AS HE REALIZED THAT HE WAS LOOKING THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEFORE AT THE SAME REALITY THAT WOULD BE SEEN WHEN GOD TOOK HUMAN FLESH IN THE FORM OF JESUS. AND YES, I WANT TO TELL YOU THAT ABRAHAM KNEW THAT JESUS WAS COMING. And Abraham was saved by the grace of God that drilled faith in his heart. And the faith that Abraham had in his heart was that the Messiah would come and the Messiah would make atonement for his, Abraham's sins. And I say how thrilled Abraham must have been to gaze there upon God in human flesh. And he knew it was God in human flesh. You can tell that from the conversation that Abraham had with God right here in these verses. And oh, how Abraham must have rejoiced. In fact, the Gospel of John tells us, doesn't it? Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John that Abraham, he saw my day and he rejoiced. And so Abraham has here This is an indescribable experience. God comes to Abraham in human flesh. God puts his feet under Abraham's table. God eats Abraham's food. And all the time Abraham's heart is leaping and dancing inside of him because he says, I'm receiving here a preview of the Messiah who's going to come in human flesh and make atonement for my sins and make atonement for all who will come to God in faith. What an experience for Abraham. God in human form. And not only had God put his feet under Abraham's table, we might say, and not only had God eaten of Abraham's food, but God here speaks in human fashion. Look at verse 17. Here they are now walking along the road. God and these two angels have visited Abraham, and now they've taken their leave. and they're walking along and Abraham is accompanying them. And the Lord says in verse 17, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Now, to whom was God speaking here? Well, the commentators are somewhat divided on that issue. I think that there are two possibilities. When God says, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? He may have been speaking to the two angels who were with him. Two angels in human flesh, now, had visited Abraham along with God in human flesh. And here they are now, the four of them, the two angels and God and Abraham, and they're walking down the road together and God says, What am I going to do about this? Am I going to tell Abraham about this? And one school of thought believes that God was speaking to the two angels. Another possibility is that God was just kind of talking to himself, kind of thinking out loud. Do you do that? Do you talk to yourself? Well, if you don't, just give life a little bit more time to wear on you and tear on you. You'll be talking to yourself. I find myself thinking out loud, talking to myself. And some argue that this is what God was in fact doing here. He was talking to himself. What am I going to do about this situation? And listen, when God speaks this way, Don't think that somehow God is suffering from the same limitations and deficiencies that we're suffering from. Now, this is a slice from my life. This is a slice from my life. What am I going to do about this? What am I going to do? I mean, that is an ongoing part of my life. What am I going to do about this? But God does not say this because because God is suffering from any kind of perplexity. Now, that's my life. Oh, I've got my perplexities. If you'll stay for a couple of hours after church, I'll tell you about them. And I vex myself with my perplexities. I say, what am I going to do about this? And I have some very dear friends that I unload some of my perplexities on, and this is how I put it to them. What am I going to do about this? But God never has perplexity. God's never uncertain. And when you have God speaking like this, It is not because God is suffering from the same limitations and deficiencies that we suffer from. It's rather because God is demonstrating again. He's coming down here to Abraham's level. He's dealing with Abraham in a familiar way. He has put his feet under Abraham's table. He has eaten Abraham's food. And now he's speaking as if he were in the same situation that Abraham might find himself in. What am I going to do about this? But God always knows what He's going to do. And it was because He was conveying this familiarity, this closeness, this intimacy, that He spoke to Abraham in this way. By the way, it might interest you to know that Abraham is the only person in the Old Testament who is called in the Bible, the Friend of God. the friend of God. Now, I don't mean to suggest that others weren't friends of God. Of course they were. But I'm just telling you that Abraham had an intimacy and a closeness with God that earned him that title, the friend of God. And he's the only one who gets this Description in the Bible and twice the Old Testament calls him a friend of God. There's your homework find those references. Oh My friends what a God we have That he will come down that he will stoop Here he is in Abraham's flesh Here he is talking to in a very familiar human sort of way Now, ladies and gentlemen, Abraham occupied a unique and unrepeatable place in God's scheme of things. And you and I will never be in exactly the same position that Abraham was in. But listen. every last one of us here can enjoy friendship with Almighty God. Almighty God. Some of you are more interested in the flesh of Abraham and you're more interested in national Israel than you are in the faith of Abraham. Oh, I'll tell you, I'm interested in the faith of Abraham. Because part of that faith of Abraham is this, a man can have friendship with God. Man can have friendship with God. And the Lord Jesus spoke of this over there in John chapter 15, didn't he? He said to those disciples, greater love hath no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. I tell you, my brother in Christ, my sister in Christ, when Jesus went there to Calvary's cross, He went there to lay down His life for His friends. His friends. And here we come to the very heart and soul, the very core, the very center of the whole plan of salvation. You want to know what the plan of salvation is about? Here's the plan of salvation. Man was originally in friendship with God, but through sin, that friendship with God was broken and a friendship with Satan was established. And now, through the plan of salvation, God is breaking that friendship with Satan and forming friendship with himself, bringing sinners into friendship with himself. That's the plan of salvation. We were originally friends of God. That friendship was broken through sin. Now we're friends of the devil. But God in the plan of salvation breaks that friendship with the devil for his people and he brings them back into friendship with himself. That's what salvation's all about. And by the way, this is the reason you have the Bible speaking so often of salvation in terms of reconciliation. We're reconciled to God. We were in peace with God, but now the peace has been fractured, and now salvation comes in, and the peace is restored, and we're friends with God again. Do you realize what was necessary for us to have friendship with God? Well, Jesus gave the answer right there in John 15 when he said, "...greater love hath no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends." And friendship with God, our friendship with God comes at an exorbitant price. Our friendship with God comes at the price of Jesus Christ laying down his life freely and voluntarily on Calvary's cross. Have you wondered why it was necessary for Jesus to lay down his life? In order for you to have friendship with God. Well, I've already told you, my friends, that the thing that keeps us from having friendship with God is sin. And in order for us to have friendship with God, sin has to be taken out of the way. All of you parents know about this, don't you? You come in the door, and here comes Junior, and he's got jelly and peanut butter all over his hands, and he wants to throw those arms around you and hug you. And before you can have any real closeness with Junior, the peanut butter and the jelly have got to come off the hands. And my friends, before we can have friendship with God, sin's got to be dealt with, and there's only one way. There is absolutely only one way for sin to be taken out of the way between us and God, and that is this, its penalty has to be paid. And the penalty for sin is eternal separation from God. You want to know what that cross was about? That cross was about Jesus enduring the separation from God that our sins deserve. And because He endured it in my stead, the penalty has been paid, and now there's nothing between me and God. And I can be reconciled to God. I can have friendship with God. Isn't that a glorious, glorious message? The message of the gospel. Abraham here pictures for us this remarkable reality of friendship with God. And it's a friendship that you and I can enjoy. Now, I want to tell you that just as there are levels of friendship that we have with one another, so there are degrees of friendship, so there are degrees of friendship with God. And while every believer is a friend of God through Jesus, do you agree with that? Every believer is a friend of God through the redeeming work of Jesus. There are some believers who enjoy a higher level of friendship than others, and it should be the business of each and every one of us here to take our friendship with God to a higher level. I've said a friend is one with whom you can share your heart. One with whom you can share your heart. And, oh, my friends, we need to desire, through attendance in public worship, through diligent study of the Word of God, and through faithfulness and constancy in prayer, to take friendship with God to such a level that we not only share our hearts with Him, but He also takes us, as it were, into His confidence and shows us things about the Word of God that we never imagined possible. Are you aspiring to a higher level of friendship with God tonight? That's possible for each and every believer. Well, I've just left myself here a few minutes to talk about the second picture, and that is this picture of intercessory prayer. And oh, how very thankful we should be for this. And you see here how this intercessory prayer came about. The Lord said there in verse 20, 20, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. And verse 21, he says, the outcry against it has come to me. I don't know what to make out of that, that outcry. I wonder, I wonder, I cannot say this with certainty, but I wonder if we do not have here God's justice crying out to Him, His justice crying and saying, Oh God, You are a just and holy God, and you must judge the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's a frightening thing, isn't it? Is God's justice tonight crying out to him regarding America? Is God's justice crying out and saying, oh God, You must bring judgment. How close are we to devastating judgment from God because we've thumbed our noses in God's face, disregarded God's laws? Well, when Abraham heard about that, he began to pray. Oh, how he prayed. He began to plead. This is disturbing news. Yes, Abraham had family in Sodom, but Abraham had a heart for sinners. Someone has said that Abraham was not only the friend of God, he was the friend of sinners. I ask you tonight, my fellow Emanuelite, do the sinners have bitten? And there are plenty of them. Do they have a friend in you? Do they have a friend in me? Are those tonight, the old timers, although I'm very young, I like to refer, I like to adopt the language of the old timers. They used to talk about the arc of safety. Remember that kind of language? Those who are out of the ark of safety, do they have friends here at Emanuel Church? Is Emanuel Church a friend to sinners? Some say, well, Abraham prayed just because he was concerned about his family. I think Abraham's heart was bigger than that. I think he was concerned about his family. What decent honorable man is not concerned about the spiritual welfare of his family? But Abraham My friends did not have 50 in his family living in Sodom. And that's where he begins. Oh God, would you spare the city for 50? He's got a heart for sinners. He's got a heart for them, a heart of mercy. The friend of God is the friend of sinners. And now he goes down the list. He loses his nerve with each request. 50? And there's something inside his head that says, Abraham, you know there aren't 50 there. Well, Lord, what about 45? What about 40? What about 30? What about 20? What about 10? And each time, oh, what a glorious picture this is. Abraham pleading with God and God being moved by the Lord. pleading of Abraham and agreeing with Abraham each step of the way until finally God says, yes, Abraham, I'll spare 10. If 10 can be found, I'll spare the city for that number. What a moving picture that is. Now, some people have an approach to the Bible that causes them, when they come across a passage like this where numbers are used to get their calculators out and their pencils and papers, and they say, well, we've got some kind of a mathematical equation here for figuring out the judgment of God. There must be a percentage here somehow. And if we can just figure out the percentage, then we'll know when judgment's gonna come on America. This passage is not here to give you some kind of mathematical formula for determining when God might judge us. This passage is here to drive you to prayer. Drive you to prayer. I say again, my friends, the sinners in your family have a friend with you. You see, the situation is not different today than it was when Abraham was praying. Sodom was under the sentence of divine wrath. Let me say to you, that family member of yours is not saved, is under the sentence of divine wrath. And the fact that Sodom was under the sentence of divine wrath moved Abraham to pray. And that family member, that friend, that neighbor, that acquaintance, who's apart from Christ, is under the same sentence of divine wrath as Sodom. Didn't Jesus himself use Sodom as an example, an emblem of judgment for all of those who are apart from Christ? Didn't he? Sure he did. My friends, each believer here tonight has somebody under the sentence of divine wrath. It drove Abraham to pray. Has it driven you? pray. I close with those lines from that great old hymn, Brethren We've Met to Worship. We've thought about these lines before here at Emanuel Church on a Wednesday evening or two. Listen carefully. Brethren, Brethren, see See poor sinners round you, slumbering on the brink of woe. Death is coming. Hell is moving. Can you bear to let them go? And many in the church today so wrapped up and absorbed in their own affairs, so wrapped up in their own comfort, so occupied with their own convenience, so unwilling to sacrifice anything for the cause of Christ, have answered that question. And they have said, yes, Yes, let them go. Let them go. Death is coming. Hell is moving. And yes, poor sinners all around are slumbering on the brink of war, but yes, let them go. I cannot be disturbed. I must not be asked to sacrifice for the cause of Christ. I'm too busy. I've got too many things that I want to do. My comfort is too precious to me. My ease. Let them go. And Abraham laid hold of God. Yet he said, O God, I cannot let them go. If there are only ten in the city, will you spare the city? And Abraham, the friend of God, was the friend of sinners. May God be pleased to raise up here from Immanuel church people who will not consult their own comfort and convenience, but people who will say, I cannot bear to let them go. I'll be a friend to sinners. I'll pray for them. You may not be able to speak to sinners as well as you'd like, but you can speak to God for them. Amen.