Sermon Tone Analysis

| 1~/4~/97 \\ \\ THE FRIEND OF THE WORLD \\ GENESIS 13:19 \\ \\ James identifies Abraham as “the friend of God.”

He does this because of the intimate relationship that developed \\ between the living God and Abraham across the years of his life.

In his little letter James refers to another character \\ as “the friend of the world.”

He writes, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is \\ hatred toward God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

When I read \\ about this “friendship with the world” I am reminded of Lot, the nephew of Abraham.

\\ \\ The brief biographical section that relates the life of Lot to us in the book of Genesis demonstrates the folly of \\ friendship with the world.

Lot is explained by Simon Peter as a righteous man whose soul was “vexed” by the \\ sinfulness of Sodom.

He is indeed a man who knew the living God, and had reason to fear the living God, and yet \\ choose to make too much of his relationship with this world.

In the process instead of becoming the friend of God \\ like Abraham, he became a friend of the world.

\\ \\ Every one of us stand in danger of becoming a friend of the world.

We are more likely to become a friend of the \\ world than we are the friend of God.

There is a natural inclination in us in that direction.

But before we choose \\ friendship with the world over the friendship with God, let’s do a study on the life of Lot to make sure that is the \\ course that we want to follow.

\\ \\ I.  HIS CHOICE \\ That Lot was on the way to becoming the friend of the world, became obvious when he was confronted with a major \\ choice.

It occurred when God had so prospered Abraham and Lot that their herds were too much for the land.

\\ Because of the size of their holdings the herdsmen of the two men began to quarrel with each other.

It was Abraham \\ who suggested to Lot that they separate and take their herds in opposite directions.

The big hearted and generous \\ Abraham left the choice up to Lot.

If Lot chooses to go to the right, then he would go to the left.

If Lot chooses to go \\ to the left, then Abraham would go to the right.

\\ \\ Lot took advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate that his character was a mixed character.

Even though he \\ knew the God of Abraham, he did not make his choice in the light of his knowledge of Abraham.

Instead Moses tells \\ us that, “Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like \\ the land of Egypt, toward Zoar.

(This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

So Lot choose for \\ himself the whole plane of the Jordan and set out toward the East.”

His choice was obviously a very selfish choice.

\\ \\ The values reflected in his choice were the values of this world.

While Abraham was throughout his lifetime a seeker \\ after the city of God, Lot was seeking a place in this world.

In that period of history the most prosperous and wicked \\ spot on the earth was the cities of the plains, Sodom and Gormorrah.

Lot chooses to make his home on the plains \\ near Sodom.

He did it for one reason – it was the place that would bring to him the greatest material prosperity.

His \\ choice was the choice of a friend of this world.

\\ \\ Choices have a way of revealing what we really are in our hearts.

I remember a story that made the rounds in my \\ home state of Tennessee when I was a teenager.

We had a rather popular governor in our state during those days, \\ Frank Clements.

Governor Clements was a man who could quote the Bible, give moving speeches, but who was \\ pretty much a man of this world.

The story that made the rounds in that day was of some parents who wanted to \\ know about the future of their child.

So they put their child in a room with three items on a table.

They placed a \\ Bible, a bottle of liquor, and a stack of money.

They placed their child in such a position that he would have to \\ choose one of the three.

If he chooses the money then they knew he would be a businessman.

If he chooses the \\ Bible then they would know that he was to be a preacher.

If he chooses the liquor then they would know that he was \\ to follow a path of indulgence.

To their embarrassment their son chooses all three.

He put the money in his pocket, \\ put the Bible under his arm, and picked up the liquor and began to drink.

The dad exclaimed to the mother “Oh, my \\ soul, another Frank Clements!

He is going to be a politician!”  Choices do have a way of revealing who we are.

\\ \\ The choices that you made over the past week, do they reflect your confidence in God?  Would someone who \\ observed you making those choices know for sure that you knew and feared the living God?  Or, would your choices \\ simply reflect that you are a man or woman of the world, a friend of the world?

\\ \\ II.

HIS COURSE \\ The course of the man of this world is rather predictable.

It is said of Lot in the historic account, “Abram lived in the \\ land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plains and pitched his tents near Sodom.”

At first, evidently, \\ Lot did not become a citizen of Sodom, rather he simply moved to a spot near Sodom.

It is of interest however, that \\ when we come to that climatic end of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, that when the two angels appearing as men \\ come through the gates of the city of Sodom, they find Lot sitting at the gate.

This may well indicate that at this point \\ in his life Lot had become such a part of the structure of Sodom that he was actually sitting on the city council.

The \\ gate of that city in that ancient day was the place where the business of the city was transacted.

And Lot is sitting at \\ the gate.

\\ \\ This is an indication of the course of the friend of the world.

No one sets out on a course to live a life of complete \\ opposition to God.

No one makes a deliberate choice to be a friend of the world rather than a friend of God.   \\ Rather, one sets out on a course of compromise and attempts to still be a friend of God while making the most of life \\ in this world.

But the course is always one that is downward.

Increasingly there is in the life less of the things of God \\ and more of the things of the world.

\\ \\ When the two angels appeared in the city of Sodom with the purpose of bringing judgement upon the city, there is \\ nothing to indicate that Lot recognized them as being messengers from God.   Rather he seems to have viewed \\ them as two ordinary strangers who have come to the cities to spend the night.

When the two had appeared at the \\ doorway to Abraham’s tent, Abraham has such spiritual sensitivity that he had known at once that they were \\ messengers of God.

The course of friendship with the world is one of an increasing loss of sensitivity to God, of the \\ values of the things of God, and an increasing comfort with the things of the world.

\\ \\ This might be an appropriate moment to ask myself and to ask you, do the sins of the world about me bother me less \\ or bother me more than they did five years ago?

Is my sensitivity to God greater or less than it was a year ago?

Am \\ I hearing the Lord speak more clearly or less clearly in my life?

The course of friendship with the world is one that is \\ downward and into spiritual darkness.

Beware!

Beware!

The friendship with the world that so many pursue is \\ moving in the wrong direction.

\\ \\ III.

HIS COMPANIONS \\ When the extended chapter describing the judgement on Sodom and Gormorrah opens, we find Lot living rather \\ comfortably in the city of Sodom.

We know something about the citizenry of that city.

The character of the citizens of \\ that city became obvious when the two strangers were taken into the home of Lot.

As evening began the men of the \\ city came knocking on the door demanding an opportunity to have a sexual relationship with these two men who \\ were in the home of Lot.

The conversation between Lot and these two men is very revealing.

Like a good man of \\ that part of the world in that period in history, he was prepared to do anything within his power to protect those who \\ had come into his home.

It was the law of the desert that you protected a guest in your home with life itself if \\ necessary.

Lot was prepared to do that.

In fact he was prepared to offer his two virgin daughters to these men for \\ the satisfaction of their carnal lust.

These were his companions.

These were his friends.

\\ \\ He had spurned the companionship of Abram in order to gain a place in the world.

He had moved away from the \\ places where he would have opportunity to walk in fellowship with Abraham so that he could gain a place in the \\ world.

Someone has said in the past, “Choose your friends very carefully for you will become like your friends.”

\\ That is a frightening thought!

When Lot chose to be a friend with the citizens of Sodom, it wasn’t long until some of \\ Sodom began to find its way into his heart and even more of it into the heart of his wife and his daughters.

\\ \\ Let me just ask you a question.

Who are your primary companions in life!

Do you feel more at home with the beer \\ sipping crowd at the country club than you do with a prayer group at the Church?

Do you feel more comfortable with \\ men whose obvious love is money than you do with a fellowship of men who have a heart to know God and to study \\ His Word?

The friendship of the world brings into the life those companionships that are destructive in their \\ influence and in their impact.

\\ \\ IV.

HIS CONTRIBUTION \\ When you contrast Abraham and Lot at the point of their contribution to history, the contrast is obvious.

Abraham’s \\ life continues to bless the human family until this very day.

How do you measure the contribution of Lot?

The \\ primary contribution of Lot as presented in Genesis was the Ammonites and Moabites.

Amon and Moab were born in \\ shame.

The story of their birth is one of sensuality and incest.