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There are many terms which are used of him in the Scriptures. Terms to describe him. To explain him.

But what were the outstanding characteristics which would explain such a description? What justifies calling him that? Why should he be described as "The friend of God"?

There are a great many things which made Abraham what he was. Many personal characteristics. Many important responses. Many vital commitments. And so much more.

Yet all of these very significant factors appear to have but one focal point: Abraham was THE MAN OF FAITH!

The New Testament draws our attention to that focal point in the life of Abraham. Paul writes in Romans 4: 3, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”

Paul was quoting from Genesis 15: 6. "And he believed in the LORD, and He counted it to him for righteousness."

Paul was specifically concentrating on the faith of Abraham in Romans chapter 4. He begins to draw special attention to that focus on faith in verse 9. Then in verses 19 - 22 we have a most revealing statement about the crucial place of faith in Abraham's life. Those verses include the following words: "Was strong in faith, giving glory to God!"(verse 20)

As does James in his Epistle. In James 2: 23, which verse moved to the most dramatic climax: "And he (Abraham) was called the friend of God!''

The study of the life and faith of Abraham should be most inspiring to every Christian. Particularly if we keep the focus where Abraham kept it.

Many Christians today appear to ignore a most significant truth. The key is not to focus on the person who has faith. Rather to focus on the Person in whom that faith is placed.

The Lord must always be our focus. He must be the first priority in the study of faith. Abraham is a means, and only a means, to draw our attention to the central reality. The true center of attention is God. Faith in God.

When we really do understand that we will more adequately understand true faith. The importance of faith. The power of faith. The effect of faith. We understand by focusing on: The Lord.

It was: The Lord who came to Abram. The Lord who spoke to Abram. The Lord who initiated this relationship with Abram, this action by Abram.

The Lord stepped into Abram's life in an act of sovereign authority. He was acting in love, yes! In sufficiency, yes. In Sovereignty? Most definitely!

The Lord stepped in in sovereign authority to exercise His will in the life of Abraham. He was calling him to respond personally. To accept the Lord's call. To act on that call in personal and positive faith.

In John 15: 16 we have this statement of Jesus. "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit."

Here we are faced with the same vital emphasis. The Lord is saying to us, "It was not you who initiated this relationship!"

Yet all too often we talk and act as though we did do just that. As though it was all our own idea. Our initiative. Our action. That is not the case. It is false to act as though it is the case.

It was the Lord who initiated this relationship. He chose us. He called us. If He had not made the initial approach we would not have turned to Him.

The Lord spoke to Abram. It was the Lord who inspired Abram to hear that call, and who enabled him to hear it. To hear that call clearly. To hear it among the multiplied distractions of all of the other various calls that would demand his attention. To discern the call amid all the multitude of distracting noises of life.

The Lord comes to us. To call us. To inspire us to hear. Enable us to listen to Him. To hear and to believe! It is only as He speaks and we hear that we can believe!

Paul states that vital principle so clearly in Romans 10: 14 - 17. "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?"

The Lord Jesus is constantly reaching out to us. Speaking to us. Attempting to inspire us to hear His Word. To listen to what He is saying. To hear and believe.

He is not silent! He has not left us to work things out for ourselves. He does not stand back and let us struggle to work up our own faith. Yet sadly too many who profess to be Christians live, talk, and act as though He is not speaking to them today.

He does initiate the approach. He does speak! Why then are so many so totally unaware? Unaware and unresponsive?

In many cases it is because of ignorance. There are far too many who have not been adequately taught this crucial reality which is so vital to their Christian life, as well as both their growth and their experience of true maturity.

They have not been taught, nor encouraged to believe that the Lord Jesus seeks a closer, deeper personal relationship with them. The kind of relationship in which He can fully share with them. In which He can freely speak to them. Continually inspire and encourage. Constantly guide and help.

There are others who do know. But carelessly they have allowed themselves to be so easily distracted. There are other calls which they find more interesting. More urgent. Other concerns have been allowed to demand their attention and their time. The Lord has been crowded out of their lives.

Then there are those who are accurately described in Hebrews 4: 2. "The Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

The Lord speaks. As He speaks He seeks to inspire faith. But He does not impose faith! He does enable us to believe His Word, yet He does not compel us to believe His Word!

There are so many who hear. But they choose not to respond in faith. That is the sad fact!

The Lord Jesus does seek the closest possible relationship with us. He does want to greatly bless us. Yet all that He seeks to accomplish is far too often thwarted when His Word is not received in faith. He is grieved. The possibility of a meaningful relationship is so greatly weakened.

This negative response to the Word of the Lord is quite accurately described in I John 5: 10. "He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar!" That is very strong. It needs to be. Because it is so very true. And so very humbling.

It is in this challenge that we are confronted with another aspect of God's approach to Abram.

When: "The LORD had said unto Abram," the Lord was present with Abram. This truth is also of such great importance. The Lord was: There! Present!

There is so much to indicate that many Christians have not come to terms with this principle. Have not? Perhaps cannot! At best they have the vague idea that the Lord is: distant. He could not, would not, be close to them. So perhaps they think, the Lord uses a very special method of communication.

Our minds, our thinking, have been confused and clouded by a lie. By a deception. A delusion. And we pay a very high price as a result. We have accepted that God is the holy and remote Other. So far above us. So different. He would not want to get too close to us. Or for us to get too close to Him.

We may sing that well known old Hymn, "O Master let me walk with Thee!" But to us today that is a romanticized poetic expression. It is not reality as people live it. It is explained away. That is not life as we live it.

God is so utterly "holy". He must maintain His distance from us. We are careful to maintain our distance from Him. He would not, could not approach us. We are far too sinful. Too contaminated.

The Lord wanted Abram to know that He was there! Actually, personally present. He wanted Abram to fully accept that reality. Depend on it.

The Lord is actually present. With us! Personally! Continually! "I am with you alway" (Matthew 28: 20).

It was Jacob who was brought to the point where he confessed his personal astonishment, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not" (Genesis 28: 16).

The Lord is in this place. The Lord is present. Yet so many are oblivious to the reality! It is only as we humbly honestly confess our ignorance of His presence that we can begin to experience His presence. Know something of what He is seeking to accomplish. For us! In us!

Abram grasped the truth of the personal presence of the Lord. Thus he could also begin to understand: The priority of His Person. That principle never varies!

Present as all that He is eternally! The Almighty One. From everlasting to everlasting the same! Infinite in glory and majesty. Who by the authority and power of His Word spoke the universe into existence out of nothing!

THE LORD is present! HE speaks His Word to Abram. His Word to Abram is spoken with absolute authority and infinite power.

This was true for Abram. It is equally true for us. The Lord who is with us insists that this is the case. "All power (all authority) is given unto Me in heaven and earth" (Matthew ; 28: 18).

He assures, "I am with you alway.'' He also assures us that He speaks His Word of total authority to us.

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2: 9 - 11).

He does all that He can to leave us completely free from doubt in this matter. He is present with us in absolute authority. He speaks His Word to us in infinite power. All that He is and all that He says guarantees to us all of the infinite resources needed. Thus there can be no reason to question or doubt His commitment to us in His Word.

Abram accepted that truth. It was the Almighty Lord who was present with him. Who spoke to him in absolute sovereign power and authority.

Paul bears eloquent testimony to his response. He "was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform" (Romans 4: 20, 21).

Fully convinced! Unshakably persuaded! God Himself said it! He had all of the resources that were necessary to bring His promise to complete fulfillment.

Surely we should be just as fully convinced. Surely we should be as unshakably persuaded as he was!

It is the Lord Himself who is with us! He is actually personally present with us! He speaks His word of authority and power to us.

That must settle the matter! The priority of the personal presence of: The Lord. Not the servant. The Lord. That is where we must start.

of the Lord was very simple. He spelled it out for Abram with unmistakable clarity. He permitted no room for error. No misunderstanding of what was required.

In one word it was: "Leave!" "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house."

Leave - all that you hold dear. Leave - all that most people naturally and so highly value. Leave it all.

Abram had been born in Ur of the Chaldees. It was there that he and Sarai became husband and wife. Later they left Ur with Terah and the rest of the family.

"Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Caanan, and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." (Genesis 11: 31).

We are not told how many years Abram and Sarai lived in Haran. It had become their home. But it was not the home which the Lord had planned for them. They may have been very comfortable there. Even satisfied to stay there.

"Thy country!" According to human feelings and expectation - perhaps it was. But not in the will of the Lord. Leave!

The only close family which Abram had were there in Haran. His father was buried there. Such family ties can be both strong and persuasive. Yet the Lord said, "Leave!" "Get thee out . . . from thy kindred, and from thy Father's house!"

Which would prove to be stronger? The ties of home and family? Or: the plan and purpose of the Lord?

Which is stronger for us as Christians today? There are many people who do not live the life of true faith today. Other ties are much too strong, especially the ties to family and loved ones. Too many refuse to bring such ties to the altar of the Lord.

"He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matthew 10: 37, 38).

The life of faith inevitably demands the response of faith. The response of faith demands that the Lord always fill first place. That His Word is always given first priority.

The life of faith is committed to the renunciation of all else, so as to ensure that the Lord Jesus will always be central. The true life of faith has but one desire, one motivation: that He be glorified in all things all the time.

The one who genuinely lives by faith knows that there is only one way to glorify Him. In love to listen to Him. In love to give diligent devoted attention to His Word. In love and faith to obey Him.

Faith: hears in the attitude of love. Faith: obeys in the attitude of love. Even when the Word heard is: Leave!

“Lord, can I look around for a place that I feel is suitable?" That was not the response of Abram. It is not the expression of the life of faith.

"Get thee out . . . unto a land that I will show thee." The Lord was telling Abram that He made already the choice. It was so important that Abram let the Lord make that choice.

Sometime later, Abram's faith was confronted with a famine, and at that point his faith faltered. He left the place which the Lord had chosen for him, and he went down into Egypt.

That negative decision, made as his faith faltered, was to have continuing negative consequences. It caused deep pain and great heartache. Abram chose for himself. He chose Egypt. With Egypt came Hagar! And Ishmael

"Unto a land that I will show thee." Later when Abram and Lot had to separate, Abram refused to choose for himself. Lot willingly made the choice. And Lot lost everything!

Abram was content to leave the choice with the Lord, and he did not lose anything. He gained immeasurably.

"A land that I will show thee." Being in the place which the Lord chooses. Knowing that you are in the center of His will. Confident in that reality. What an exciting difference that makes!

Because it. is the choice of faith two things inevitably follow. First: It is the place of blessing. Second, It is the place of testing.

The presence and involvement of the Lord with us assure us of great blessing. Yet He does not, and will not, protect us from the fiery trials. How dramatically this reality unfolds for us as we study the life of Abraham.

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptation: that the trial of your faith, being more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1: 6, 7).

Let the Lord choose! But what if He chooses a place that is difficult? What if we feel that it is not a suitable environment for us to be put in? What if ? It is all too easy to come up with self-serving, conniving, self-justification. But that is not the way of true faith.

Let the Lord choose. Nothing else matters but that He makes the choice. And then that faith embraces His choice.

When it is His choice, it is His place of blessing for us. Our response is, "I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God!"(Proverbs 40: 8).

The call to faith is the call to: "The Priority of His Person!" It is the call to: The Priority of His plan. It is also the call to:

"I will make of thee a great nation!" The Lord emphasizes that He has a special, a perfect, plan for the one whom He has called.

The Lord had spoken to Abram. He had commanded him to leave all. To go out - by faith! To trust the Lord fully as to the choice of the place where he was to settle. This important initiative of the Lord was a prelude, to prepare the way, to then be followed with the actual working out of the plan of the Lord.

The Lord had Abram's attention. He had inspired his faith. Encouraged his commitment. Now the Lord spoke about what He plans for the person himself. "I will make you!"

When Abram heard the call of the Lord he was "unformed" material. Like a lump of unformed clay in the hand of the potter, the lump of clay from which a vessel is to be molded.

This marked a very significant beginning. The Lord had much to do in developing the life and character of His servant. Abram had to be subjected to whatever was necessary to make him all that the Lord wanted him to be.

The future inevitably involved very real testing and trial. The aim was to refine his character, and his personality. To develop both according to the perfect plan of the Lord, so as to bring about a significant transformation in him.

This experience was not unique to Abram. It is the experience of all who hear the call to the life of faith. It is the inescapable reality of each one who genuinely seeks to walk with the Lord.

The Lord Jesus said to some of His disciples, “Come ye after Me, and I will. make you to become fishers of men”(Mark 1: 17).

Simon and Andrew heard that call. They were called to be fishers of men. But, not yet. First, the Lord Jesus must "make" them! "I will make you to become!"

In the years that followed they experienced His working in them. Making them. Molding them. Refining them. Equipping them. They were given no reason to prematurely feel: "I have arrived." Not until the Lord Jesus had completed what He had set out to do in them.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2: 10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

He is the Creator. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1: 26). But the image and likeness of the Creator was marred in the created man. It was defaced and disfigured by sin!

That is not the end of the record. "And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it"(Jeremiah 18: 4).

"He made it again!" "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus!" (Ephesians 2: 10). We hear His wonderful words of assurance, “I will make you to become!'' Made! Made again! To be made all that He plans us to be!

Paul writes, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure!"(Philippians 2: 13)

Those two parts of God's promise cannot be separated. On the positive side we see this principle: As Abram responded to the call to faith he enabled God to carry out His plan in his life. He was letting the Lord "make" him. To enable the Lord to "make" him at the same time enabled the Lord to greatly bless him.

The more fully that Abram responded in faith to the Lord meant that the Lord could more fully bless him.

It is important that we exclude a common modern deception at this point. There are those who put themselves in the place of God. Who preach that if people do as they say, then great blessing will follow. Most often people are told to give to the preacher or his organization. The implication is, Do it for what you will get out of it. Such an approach and attitude is alien to true faith. It is certainly not what we see in God's dealing with Abraham.

The first priority is: The Lord! His Person! His presence! That priority inspiring the deep personal desire of faith: To know HIM! To walk with Him!

The response of faith enables the Lord to have His way with His servant. Thus the Lord is able to make His servant all He wants His servant to be. It is from that relationship and that reality that the promise of blessing comes. And only from that.

The Lord Jesus clearly reveals what He has in mind. He does seek to make us. To bless us. Yet He also clearly reveals the vital principles which control the experience of that blessing.

"He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him" (John 14: 21).

It is love that is expressed in the obedience of faith which gives the Lord His opportunity.

"I will make thee . . . a blessing." - to others. Abram to be so greatly blessed, to be used by the Lord to bring blessing to others.

All this! Through one man! How? The answer to "how?" is not found merely in the man. The answer is: that one man in the hands of God!

That one man is the willing cooperating instrument, freely choosing to be available. Available to be made. To be used. Knowing that he was in the hands of the infinitely great and all-gracious God!

The resources of God are released by faith. That faith which the Lord inspires. The faith which Abram had in the Lord. In the presence of the Lord with him. In the purpose of the Lord for him.

He believed the Lord. He believed the Lord's: “I will!” That is what made the dynamic difference.

Again today we hear the Lord Jesus saying, "For without Me ye can do nothing!"(John 15: 5). That is the actual reality. The undeniable reality.

In that same verse the Lord Jesus says, "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.''

The Lord seeks to make us. To make us a blessing to others. Will we really let Him have His way? Allow Him to make us all He wants us to be?

By: faith! Faith in The Lord Jesus! "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4: 13).

The faith He inspires. Faith in Him personally. Faith in His living presence with us. As He works out His plan in us. For us. Through us.

We hear it. We respond to it. Some respond to it positively. Willingly. They want the fullness of all that they hear in the promise of the Lord.

Sadly, others respond to that call negatively. They refuse to take the Word of the Lord seriously. They will not believe. They turn away from Him. From His call, and from His promise.