All right, are we on the air? Testing one. Yeah, make sure
this one's running. Okay. I'll say excuse me in advance
for a lot of noise. like that. Bonnie and I, you
know, we've been gone the last couple of weeks, and we were
down visiting our children in southeast Missouri. And after
we'd been there a few days, both of us became sick with some kind
of respiratory thing. And Bonnie got over it quicker
than I did and spent most of the time there feeling pretty
bad. We got back here Monday, and
by then I'd started feeling some better, but obviously not completely
over whatever that was. Now, if you'll open your Bibles
to the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter 1. Let's seek the Lord's blessing
on our study this morning. Our Heavenly Father, your name
is above all names, and to be held in absolute reverence. And this morning we've gathered
in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus, to worship him and
to worship you. And we pray that you will send
your spirit among us, that we may enter into that which is
truly spiritual worship. For it is written that you desire
those who worship in spirit and in truth. So open our eyes, open our ears
and our hearts. to understand and believe the
things that you have recorded for us. And it's in the name
of the Lord Jesus that we pray, amen. Now, we'll begin with verse five this
morning, but since we have been gone for a couple of weeks, we'll
do just a little bit of review. As you know, the name Joshua
is simply the Hebrew version of the name Jesus. And so, as
we read this book and study this book, we are not doing so simply
to become familiar with the historical events of the conquest of the
land of promise. In fact, there is nothing told
to us in the scriptures whose purpose is simply to satisfy
our historical curiosity or to fill us with facts that we can
tell someone else. To know the history of the conquest
of the promised land has no value in and of itself. It would not
have for us any more value than understanding the conquest of
the Roman Empire, unless we take our Lord's instruction as to
how we view the Old Testament Scriptures. He said to the Pharisees,
you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. But these are the scriptures
that testify of me, but you will not come to me that you might
have life. And so he gives us what, in theological
circles, they would call the hermeneutic principle that we
are supposed to apply to all the scriptures. And that is simply
this, that all of them are designed to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
in some way and to fix our thoughts, our worship, and our confidence
in Him and in Him alone. That's their design. And if we
miss that point, we've missed the very purpose for which the
scriptures were given to us. Now, that's quite easy to see
in the book of Joshua. After all, it has the same name.
You know, it bears the name of our Savior in it. But Joshua
is quite the figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there
are many illustrations, pictures, and types of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the Old Testament. Joshua is one of the most remarkable
and, what we might say, fullest illustrations of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I imagine that only David, King David, would be a clearer
illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here, as we enter
the book of Joshua, it says, after the death of Moses, this
is verse one, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua,
so there's been a change now, a change of leadership, a change
from Moses, the lawgiver, to Joshua, the savior. You see,
that's what the name Joshua means. Yah, or Jehovah, is salvation. Do you remember when the angels,
who was talking, I believe it was to Joseph, and he says, you
will give him the name Jesus, or Joshua, because he will save
his people from their sins. Now the people could not go into
the land of promise, under Moses, because Moses stands for the
law. Now promises are received by
faith. Is that not true? Promises are
not given on the basis of works. Consequently, that one, and we
find no fault with Moses here, I mean, that was the ministry
given to him. But Moses can't lead them in because this is
the land of promise, and land of promise must be entered not
by works, but by faith. In fact, that's exactly the point
in which the Jews, when they first came to the promised land,
some 38 years previous to this, the very fault they had was that
they didn't believe. They could not enter God's rest
because of unbelief. They were guilty of many transgressions
against the Lord. None of that would have prevented
them from entering the land. They had complained, they had
broken His law, they had set up idols, they'd done all manner
of wickedness as they crossed that wilderness. None of that
would have prevented them from entering What prevented them
from entering was unbelief. And as the scriptures teach us,
as Paul says, the law is not of faith. Well, there is an illustration
for us there. When they first came to the promised
land, they were under the leadership of Moses. Thus, that picture
is they were under the law and the law is not of faith. and
they acted just like those who tried to approach God and gain
His blessing through obedience to the law. They were not people
of faith, and they balked at the promise. So it was not until
Moses died, and now it's Joshua, Joshua the Savior, and under
him they can enter the promised land. Now, God's been speaking
to Joshua, and it's interesting that in the original Hebrew,
there's some things that the Lord exhorts him to in the singular
and some in the plural. And one of the things we learn
from this if we use the Lord Jesus, I mean, excuse me, use
Joshua as a picture of the Lord Jesus, and therefore the Jews
of that day as illustrating the church of the Lord Jesus, much
of what God says to the Lord Jesus is said to the entire church
through him. And yet while it's said to him,
it is not as though it is as though we must fulfill the charges
that he gives to our Lord Jesus Christ. The benefits that are
declared to Joshua accrue to us, we get them, and that's why
there can be this back and forth between singular and plural.
And yet, when it comes to what must be done it reverts to the
singular. Because for the church of the
Lord Jesus, and let me say this, by church I mean everyone from
at least as far back as able until the last of God's elect
is gathered in. All of them make up what I mean
when I say the church. And I know that the church was
not fully revealed until the day of Pentecost. But, you know,
there are a lot of things in the Scriptures that always existed
but were not completely revealed until later on. So when I say
that the Church of the Lord Jesus, all of their blessings come to
them through the blessings given to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they come to, those blessings come to the church because all
the responsibilities have been laid upon Jesus Christ for Him
to fulfill. Now, He's made some promises
that their territory, verse four, your territory will extend and
He gives the outer boundaries of the promised land. And in
verse five, It says, no one will be able to stand up against you,
now that's in the plural, all the days of your life. And that's
the plural too, that is the word your. But it's kind of interesting
that you have the plural your, but the singular life. And so what's being said here,
again, we're seeing this union between Jesus Christ and His
church because it says, no one will be able to stand against
you, plural, all the days of your, plural, life, one. Paul says, Christ, who is your
life. And so what's being said here
to these people, for then, so long as Joshua is alive, no one
shall be able to resist them. No one shall be able to stand
against them. And to the church of the Lord
Jesus, what's the promise to us? So long as Christ lives,
all the days of His life, which is our life, no one shall be
able to stand against us." Isn't that a blessed thought? I think
it is, because I know that I don't feel that way. That is, I preach. I've been preaching for 40 years.
And there's a lot about me that I think withstands any success
in preaching. And there are those in the world
who don't like what I preach, and they would resist me. And
I don't feel as though I am adequate to stand up against that. But you know what? It's irrelevant. My strength, my power, my ability,
my obedience is irrelevant. in this matter, of possessing
the promises of God. So long as Christ is alive, I cannot be barred from God's
promised land, from God's rest. An old gentleman, a man I knew,
Actually, I'm older than he was at this time, but he had a bad
heart, so in his late 50s, he was near death. And he was asked,
is your soul safe? And he said, is Christ on the
throne? And the preacher asked him that and said, yes. He said,
well, then I'm safe. I'm safe. As I was with Moses, the Lord
said to Joshua, so I will be with you. I will never leave
you nor forsake you. The father promises to be with
Christ. The Lord Jesus said this in John
chapter 16 verse 32, a time is coming and in fact has come when
you will be scattered each to your own home. You will leave
me all alone, yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. Now nearly every English translation
says, I will never leave you. However, the word translated
leave actually means to fail. And of course, if God were to
leave us, that would be for him to fail us. because he has made
promise to us. So both words do work. Fail would include leaving, but
it's a broader thing. God cannot fail to do anything
he desires. He will never fail due to a lack
of power. It is written in Jeremiah 32,
verse 27, I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything
too hard for me? Now, as we experience life, there's
things we call easy and things we call difficult. And things
can get too difficult for us. In fact, they often do. Much
of what we desire to do, we are unable to do. We simply don't
have the power to get it done. We may rise in the morning full
of vigor with plans in our minds about what we will accomplish
in that day, but as the day comes, you know, works itself out, we
find out the day isn't like we thought it was going to be, and
that we're really not equal to what we had planned. And so we
come to the end of the day, we're wore out, and we've still not
accomplished what we had hoped to. But it's never that way with
God. In fact, when it says, I am the
Lord, the God of all mankind, He was speaking, of course, to
the Jews, and they should have understood He's the God of all
mankind, but then they lived in a time and in an area where
most of the nations thought that gods were over certain peoples. There were gods of weather, there
were gods of fertility, there were gods of this and that. There
was no such thing as a god that was god over everything. Consequently,
their gods could fail, because they might meet a god with different
purposes who proved stronger that day. But here, God says,
I'm the Lord, the God of all mankind. I'm the only one there
is. There is no god beside me, he says through the prophet Isaiah.
So who's going to come against me? Will there be anything too
hard for me? In my time here as pastor of
this congregation, We've seen situations where the children of members either
show no interest in the gospel or at one time showed an interest
in it and then seemed not to, and of course this grieves the
parents. But I've always given them this hope, no one,
No matter where he is, what he does, no one is outside the reach
of God. You know, we think, it's natural
for us to think that it would be harder for God to save a murderer
than someone who tells white lies. Friends, sin is sin. There's nobody more lost than
another person. until Christ, or until God in
His sovereign mercy and grace gives life to those who are dead
in trespasses and sin? Well, what are they? They're
dead. And there's no degrees of death. It's no harder, you know, our
Lord called into Lazarus' tomb who'd been dead four days. Okay,
if Lazarus had been dead four years, or 400 years, it would
have been no more difficult for our Lord to raise him from the
dead then. Because dead's dead. So there's nothing too hard for
the Lord. And even if the land of promise
is filled with giants and enemies way beyond us, don't worry. We're not the ones that's going
to do the fighting. God goes before us. And after
he defeats our enemy, all we do is come in kind of as a clean-up
force and gather the spoils. He will never fail due to lack
of power. He'll never fail due to lack
of wisdom. I imagine that everyone who has
been a parent for very long has come to the realization, as much
as he wants to do right by his children at all times, She simply
doesn't know what's right all the time. We're not that wise,
are we? But God is. He's never wrong. He's never presented with a set
of circumstances that He cannot unravel. And He will never fail
due to lack of integrity. Don't you hate it when somebody
tells you they'll do something and they were just lying to you
to get something else out of you and they don't come through?
Our God, shall he promise and not do it? God's not that way. And he said, I'll never forsake
you. Yes, Christ did cry out, my God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? Now this may seem impossible
to reconcile with what God says to Joshua here when he says,
I'll never forsake you. But I think if we look over,
you know, and I say that because that's exactly what our Lord
cried from the cross, why have you forsaken me? But look over
here at Acts, Acts chapter 2. And Peter is preaching, this
is the day of Pentecost, the first time that the full-blown
gospel is preached. Up to this point, God had spoken
to the fathers through the prophets, a little here, a little there,
and they had a very shadowy understanding of God's way of salvation. But now, God has spoken through
His Son, and Peter and the other apostles, they are messengers
sent out to say, to spread the word of what God has said through
His Son. And of course, when God has spoken
through His Son, He's spoken the full message. That's why
we don't believe there's going to be any more revelation from
God. Because once the Son has spoken, there's nothing more
to say. And so here we have this full-blown revelation of the
Gospel. And it says in verse 25, Peter
begins to quote one of the Psalms. David said about him, I saw the
Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I will
not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and
my tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope. because you will not abandon
me," and this is the same, that word abandon there is the same
word, the same Greek word that's translated forsake when our Lord
said, why have you forsaken me? It says, because you will not
forsake me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see
decay. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will
fill me with joy in your presence. Brothers, I can tell you confidently
that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb
is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew
that God had promised him on oath that he would place one
of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke
of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned, forsaken
to the grave, nor did his body see decay. So when he says to Joshua, I
will never forsake you, that is fulfilled in Christ in his
resurrection from the dead. Yes, for a time, God forsook
our Lord Jesus, because our Lord must do that work alone. If he's to be the Savior, he's
got to do all of it. And therefore, as he suffered
the wrath of God, the judge of all, As he bore our sins in his body
on the tree, and you can only imagine what kind of weight that
must be. I can barely stand the knowledge of my sins. And I'm
sinful. Imagine what it's like to be
absolutely spotless. And yet before the God of all
creation, you are held responsible for all the sins of a multitude
no man can number. What a weight, but he must bear
it alone. And so God, as it were, God,
his father, in his relationship as a father, no longer sustains
him. And certainly as judge, he did
not hold back. the least in punishing the Lord
Jesus Christ. Saying something like, well this
is my son, I'll go easy on him. No. All that an infinite God
can do against sin, God did to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
bore it absolutely alone. But having borne it, and his
body dying, and put in the grave, God did not forsake him there.
Why? Well, the grave is for the sinful. And having borne our sin in such
a way that he could come to the end of suffering and say, it
is finished. Now he, the Bible says, he that
has suffered for sin is free. So our Lord had come to the full
end of the suffering for sin. They put his body in the grave.
Three days later, God said, you know, you don't belong there.
The sin you bore is gone. There's no sin on you. Come out. In fact, according to what he
said to that thief on the cross, our Lord Jesus, at least as pertains
to his spirit, was in paradise the very day he died. Why? He'd
come to the end of suffering. Those in hell never do get to
the end of it. They never do fulfill the suffering due unto
their sin. But Christ did fulfill the suffering
required by the sin that he bore in the presence of God. Consequently,
there's no more sin on him. and God raised him from the dead,
did not just abandon him there. Well, I can see the clock well
enough to know it's, we're out of time. So we'll pick up there
next week. to not only know it by way of
fact, but to experience it in the forgiveness of sins, to experience it in our reborn spirits, which have
been set free to worship God in truth and in spirit. May the Spirit of God take the
things of Christ and show them to us, guiding us into all truth. Father, forgive our sins, for
they are many. We would not even try to list
them all. And we freely confess that the
very best things that we have done are yet tainted and spoiled
by sin. And yet for the sake of Christ,
because of him, we are bold to come before your throne, your
throne of grace, and there plead for mercy to help us in our time
of need. Purge our consciences from dead
works that we may serve the true and living God. Take away from
our hearts and minds the things of this world. Lord, we are so easily distracted.
Our flesh has no desire to be involved in the worship of God,
and will interject its own way. And as we try to think about
you, hundreds of other thoughts will seek to take the stage.
Lord, drive them out. May we focus our attention on
you. And it may be with us as it was
with the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration, that it came to the point where
it says they saw Jesus only. All to see him. We are confident that in days
to come, we shall see him with these eyes. Just as Job had confidence
when he said, I know that my Redeemer lives. and in the latter
day he'll stand on the earth, and that he would see his Redeemer
with his own eyes. We know that day comes, but Lord,
may we with eyes of God-given faith see him today. It is written that Abraham saw him who is invisible,
and we pray that that blessing would also be ours today. Bless
this church, Lord. Bless all those places in which
your gospel of grace in your son, the Lord Jesus, is preached. We pray that your word would
go forth in power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit, that people
would turn from their idols and serve the true and living God.
Bless missionaries who serve in foreign lands, who go wherever
it is you send them. We thank you that you worked
in them the willingness to leave their known cultures and leave
the comfort of home and go into other lands. Lord, we pray that
you will not only send them, but send your spirit with them,
that the preaching of the gospel would result in the salvation
of many. Lord, bless our nation in mercy. forgive its many sins. We are appalled, Lord, at what goes on. Like Job, we're
vexed. And we're vexed most of all in
this realization that the only difference between what we see
around us and us is that which your grace has made. We make
no boast in the fact that we are troubled by what we see.
We thank you that you have enlivened us to the point that we would
be troubled. But Lord, we pray for the sake of your people who
live in this country, you would continue our peace and prosperity,
that we may worship you in quietness. Lord, we pray that as the gospel
is preached here this morning, that it would meet each person
at the very point that they need to be met, that every heart would
be stirred up by it. We pray especially for the young. Lord, we love them. They are
our children, our grandchildren. We cannot help but have special
affection for them. And yet we realize our love for
them is not what will result in their salvation. They need
the same thing we need. We need the love of God. We need
the will of God. We need the blood of Christ.
And we need the power of the Holy Spirit to give us life.
Lord, what you have done for us who believe, do for those
who may hear today and as of yet have not believed. Thank
you for all your grace towards us. Thank you for the countless
blessings you give us every day. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, next we will sing
number 127, Hallelujah What a Savior. 127, and you can remain seated
as we sing. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Alleluia! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my
place condemned He stood. Sealed my pardon with His blood,
Alleluia! What a Savior! Beauty vile and helpless free,
Slutless Lamb of God was He. For atonement can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die, Now in heaven exalted high, Alleluia! What a Savior! Then He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring. Then under this song we'll sing,
Hallelujah! What a Savior! And then next we'll sing number
141. Look ye saints, the sight is
glorious. Number 141. And we'll stand as we sing. Look, ye saints, the sight is
glorious See the man of sorrows now From the fight him he turned
victorious Every knee to him shall bow Crown him, crown him
Crowned become the victor Oh Jesus of kings. Sinners in derision crown Him,
mocking thus the Savior's claim. Saints and angels crowd around
Him, moan His title, praise His name. Spread across the victor's face. Hark, those bursts of acclamation! Hark, those loud, triumphant
chords! Jesus takes the highest station,
Oh, what joy the sight affords! Down here, from here, of kings and lords. Are we getting some sound? There
we go. Now we can turn to Proverbs chapter
18. As I was preparing the bulletin
for today, I was looking at the bulletins that I get from our
sister churches and reading the articles they had in them. And there was an article which
began by quoting the 24th verse of Proverbs chapter 18. And they
quoted it as it appears in the King James Version. And in the
King James Version it says, in the first part of it, a man that
hath many friends must show himself friendly. As I read that, and
I was thinking of putting this particular scripture in our bulletin,
I thought, that doesn't sound exactly like I heard it. Because
I've heard people render it, if a man would have many friends,
he must show himself friendly. The idea being that you're not
going to gain any friends if you're not friendly. So I looked
it up. And as is my custom when I'm
preparing things, I don't have many open books. my computer
sitting on my lap, and I use the libraries available on the
internet. And I go, there's one particular
place, biblehub.com, that I often go to for research purposes.
And one reason is, if you type in the verse you want to see,
I think there's like 26 translations. It just shows you. And what was
Shocking to me, because I was looking, you know, just to be
sure whether it was written if a man would have many friends
or if it's, as I found out the King James says, a man that has
many friends. I was just looking for that slight
difference to clarify which one it was. Well, when it opened
up, that page opened up, the very top translation is the one
we use, the New International Version, though it is what we
might call the New New International Version that has some slight
differences from the one we use. Nonetheless, it's put out by
the same outfit, and what is written there is not even anything close to
what is found in the King James. Let's look at this 24th verse.
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is
a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Now, I believe as I looked at those
26 different translations, the King James, the New King James,
and one other, and I can't remember the name of it, translates it
something like a man that has many friends must show himself
friendly. Every other one has something
like this. A man of many companions or a
man of many friends, one of them said, is a loser. Another said,
shall be destroyed. But they all present the idea
that someone who has many friends comes to a bad end. Whenever that happens, when I
find these remarkable differences, I always refer, you know, I look
at the original, not that I am an expert in it, but again, there
are tools available. You can search this out if you
have a little understanding of the original languages. And as
it appears in the original Hebrew of this text, it is, as our translation
puts it, a man of many companions. may come to ruin, may lose, may be destroyed. Now, it may seem strange to us
that the scriptures would warn us against the idea of many friends. After all, shouldn't we desire
to build relationships with other human beings? and engage in friendship
with them. And certainly, as the church
goes out into this world, preaching the gospel, sometimes you can come up to
strangers and simply begin speaking to them or ask them if they would
want to hear about the things of Christ. Sometimes there's
opportunities for preachers, you know, there's street preachers
and they just find them a spot and then they just start preaching.
They don't know the people that are there. But this has been
my experience and, well, the experience of this congregation,
that what growth we have experienced has generally speaking come through
you all talking to your friends and family. And therefore, it does seem wise
that before you just go out there and blurt the gospel, so to speak,
that you try to establish some kind of relationship with the
people that you're talking to. Didn't know we'd get a little
extra instruction. It's, well, Brother Scott Richardson
used to put it this way, people don't care what you know till
they know how much you care. And that requires establishing
some kind of relationship. And so why would the scriptures
put this warning that a person with many friends may well come
to destruction? Well, let's think of what a friend
is. When we think of the word friend, there are many ways the
word can be used. In fact, in this particular scripture,
it says a man of many companions. In our translation, it uses the
word companions and then friend. Again, the King James uses friend
in both cases, but there are two different Hebrew words here.
And the first one is the common word for friend. And if I said someone was my
friend, people would pretty much know what I meant by that. The
second Hebrew word there, which our translation translates as
friend, actually means someone who loves or a loved one. So even here within this single
verse, two ideas of what it means to
be a friend are being put forward. But when we think of friends, we probably first think of those
who share common interests, common goals, We have many acquaintances, but
not all of our acquaintances become friends because we find
out we have nothing in common. You know, our English word fellowship
is a translation, that is as it appears in scriptures, it's
a translation of a Greek word whose root means common. And we might not realize it,
but in English, the word fellow used to mean someone that had
things in common with you. And so a fellowship was a group
of people who had something in common. So a friend is a fellow. A friend is somebody who shares
some kind of commonness with you. And then here's another one that
I like. We often think of friends as
companions, and the English word companion. Now, anybody that's
heard me much knows I love looking up where words came from, because
it kind of like turns an extra special bright light on the meaning
of it. But the English word companion,
com, means together or with. and the pannion part, and I can't
remember what language it comes from, but it means to eat. A
companion is someone with whom you eat, strictly speaking. And indeed, friendship is often
expressed that way. When our friends come over, one
of the first things we'll do, even if they show up unannounced,
One of the first things we'll probably do is at least offer
them a cup of coffee, probably look for some cookies or something.
If it's near a meal, we're going to think of what we're going
to... what can we feed them? It's considered kind of an old-fashioned way
to speak of friendship, but talking of breaking bread with one another. So a companion, that's a friend. Another thing that a friend is,
it's someone on whom you rely. Specifically in times of trouble. Whether your trouble be a mere
inconvenience or something more serious. You get up some cold morning,
you gotta go to work, go out to your car, you hit the key,
And the battery says, I'm not doing anything. Now, do you go call some stranger
and say, hey, could you come over and give me a jump or give
me a ride to work? No, you call a friend. Because
friends are the kind of people you figure that when you're in
need, they'll help you out. First Bible verse I memorized.
And I had to be seven years old or younger because I remembered
where I lived at the time. Proverbs 17, 17. A friend loves
at all times. And a brother was born for the
adverse or difficult times. So we find in the idea of a friend
the concepts of commonness, Reliance, eating together, acceptance,
approval. In truth, I cannot think of anything more valuable in
this life than a good friend. And if you say, well, what about
your spouse? Well, I can say this, and I imagine
many of you would say the same thing. My best friend in all
the world is my wife. I'm glad she's my friend. Imagine
what kind of house it would be were it not that way. Young people want lots of friends,
particularly kids in junior high and high school, or middle school
now, I guess they call it. But they want to be popular. They want it to be that lots
of people like them, you know, and they're in this circle and
that circle. And, you know, it's just human nature. But I've told
some of them, if in your life you find one, two, three really
good friends outside of your family, you've been rich in friends. You'll find lots of acquaintances,
lots of people that you can do some things with, but if you
can find a really good friend, that's rich. But here it says that somebody
with many friends likely come to ruin. Why would that be? How could you be destroyed by
many friends? Well, often in studying, some
of my preparation is I just talk to my wife about it. Because
if I say things out loud, it clarifies it in my mind, and
if that doesn't clarify it, she will. She gives me some good
ideas. But I was saying to her, As I
read this and thought of someone who tries to have many companions,
but it brings him or her to ruin, I could not think of a better
fulfillment of that than a politician. And why is that? Have you ever
noticed that politicians, of course, they've got to get votes,
at least in our country, they've got to get votes, which means
they have to curry favor. with lots of people, and they
have to show themselves friendly to a lot of people. Now, if a friend is someone with
whom you have things in common, and you've got to appeal to a
broad range of people, what does that mean? You're going to have to try to
have things in common with people that don't have things in common
with each other. And you're going to have to say
one thing to this person, and another thing to this person
over here. And you're going to have to be one kind of person
in order to get this friend, and another kind of person to
get that friend. This is where the translation
that the King James uses does kind of come into play. If you
want to have a lot of friends, you've got to show yourself friendly
to all kinds of people. You've got to act like you believe
things maybe you don't believe. Or if you're a politician, that
you're going to promote policies that really aren't the policies
you intend to promote, but you've got to make them think you are
so that you can get their vote. Now, in politicians, you see
that on the big stage. We do the same thing in life. If somebody has something we
want, or we think they can be useful to us, we think, I've
got to make friends with that person. But it could be that
that person does not really share much in common with you. And
so in order to curry their favor, you've got to pretend. or certainly kind of hide some
of the differences. Now you can see, the years go
by, how this is going to create some serious problems. Because
eventually, all these different people with whom you have made
friends, they're going to come in contact with each other, and
they're going to find out you're not just two-faced or three-faced,
you're four, five, six, hundred, thousand, whatever-faced. In
other words, they'll realize you're just a chameleon. You've become whatever you need
to be to get what you want from them. What happens then? You start having less and less
friends. And you also find out that the
ones you thought you had made friends were doing the same thing
to you that you were doing to them. They were just using you.
And when you're no longer useful, you're gone. Now, that's what this scripture
would teach us on its surface. Having many friends requires
compromise, requires deceit, and that will
eventually lead to destruction. And if that's all that this scripture
said, We might say, well, I can see some wisdom in that. And
we might try to apply it to our lives and be more selective with
those that we commonly associate with. But it goes on to say this,
but there is a friend, singular. There's a friend who sticks closer
than a brother. Now, by the grace of our God,
We know how to read scripture. We know what to look for. We realize that while the scripture
has plenty of good advice, advice is not its primary purpose. Wherever we open this book, we're
looking for someone. We're wanting to learn about
someone. our Lord Jesus Christ. And we
have learned, both by what the scriptures say
and by our own experience, as over the years, we have opened
this book so many times. Christ is everywhere in this
book. And it's a great joy to find
him, and it's a great benefit These things, these proverbs,
which may be good advice for our day-to-day lives as human
beings in this world, are actually given to us to instruct us about
spiritual things. Because after all, whether you
have one, two, three, or a hundred thousand friends, it won't be
that many years you don't have any friends at all. Because you
won't be here. So the things of this world,
and whatever advice we get concerning the things of this world, it's
only good as long as we're a part of this world. But it behooves us I don't know
what a modern word for behoove is, so we'll just have to go
with that one. It behooves us. It's a good idea for us to look
for eternal things that are good for now and forever. Wisdom that lasts. A man of many companions may
come to ruin. It is surprising to see how in
the spiritual realm, that is in the matter of one's relationship
with God, how many friends people try to gather. Man by nature understands There's
something, there's an issue between Him and God. God's given virtually
everyone a conscience. We basically, everybody knows
basically what's right and wrong. Everyone knows that most of the
time, if not all the time, there's something wrong with what they're
doing. All people know that it's appointed unto man once to die,
and after that the judgment. And all people realize, if they'll
allow themselves to ponder on these things, they realize the
judgment's not going to go well for them. And so in their minds, they think,
I've got to find me a friend who can speak to God in behalf
of me. I've got to have somebody or
something to mediate between me and God. Because if I just
walk up to Him, it's not going to work out well.
It's not going to end good for me. And it's absolutely amazing,
the friends that people call upon to help them in this matter. Some people will call forth as
their friends, trying to curry favor with God,
they'll call forth their works. They'll call forth the things
they have done, which they believe are more or less good. Things which will either please
God or at least not irritate Him as much as other things. They may plead as one of their
best friends, God, I've come before you and I brought with
me the best that I could do. I did the best I can. They have made friends with their
best efforts. Or they may actually believe
that they have done things worthy of a smile from God, like that
Pharisee who prayed within himself, God, I thank you I'm not like
other men. I do this, I do that, and I don't
do that, and I'm certainly not like that tax collector over
there. And so he had as his friend his
works of righteousness His works of obeying laws, not realizing that he'd never
really, from the heart, obeyed anything. And in his nature,
he was absolutely no different than that tax collector on whom
he looked with such contempt. There are those who will make
a friend of their theological distinctives. Now do not get
me wrong, doctrine's important. The Lord said you will know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. And I'm not gonna stand
here and act like it doesn't matter what you believe, because
it does. But there are those who glory
in their doctrine, not the one that their doctrine
speaks about. You see that difference? As someone who believes in God's
free and sovereign grace, and especially since I came from
an area there in the southeast of this country that's just utterly
immersed in free willism. So as one who believes in free
and sovereign grace, you get into some heated discussions. And once Facebook showed up,
you know, and of course I sought out some groups maybe, again
to be friends with them because we had something in common, groups
of people that also believed Sovereign Grace. And it was surprising
to see how much self-glorying went on as people railed on one another. because of perceived errors in
someone else's theology. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with pointing out to someone, no, this is not what the scriptures
say. But when you start calling them idiots, fools, condemning them, you know what
you're doing? You're exalting yourself, because
you're saying you're an idiot and I'm not. You're a fool, and
I'm not. And generally, what we will boast
of before men eventually becomes something we'll boast of before
God. Well, do you believe that when you die, you'll go to heaven? I believe free and sovereign
grace. So what? Believing a doctrine is not a
work that you do in order to obtain salvation. The purpose
of doctrine, the purpose of Scripture, is simply to point us to the
One who can and does save. That's all. And if you and I
know the truth, it's not because we were smarter than the next
guy. It's because God, in unimaginable
mercy, stopped us in our foolish way, brought us up short like He did
Saul of Tarsus, and said, you're resisting the truth. Now I'm
going to show you the truth. If we know the truth, that's
the only reason we know it. Paul said God, who said let light
shine out of darkness, has shined his light into our hearts to
give us the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. Paul, oh that man, he knew the
Bible better than you and I do. When I say he knew the Bible,
he knew what it said. He didn't know what it meant, but he knew
what it said. what Bible they had in that day. And he described the grace of
God to him this way, when it pleased God to reveal his son
in me. He said, before I was a doctrinaire,
I was a Pharisee. I had, I gloryed in the fact
that Unlike those compromising Sadducees, I do believe in the
resurrection of the dead. And I do these things that we're
commanded to do. I used to have all of that. And
they studied the scriptures and doctrine. That was Paul, and he gloried
in it. And he was doing very well on
earth. But he didn't know anything as
it should be known. until God revealed it to him.
I don't mind standing on two feet and boldly declaring what
the truth is. But friends, it isn't my truth,
it's God's truth. It's true now that I believe
it, but it was just as true before I believed it. And it's the truth
that's glorious, not me. Let us never use our doctrine
as though it is some kind of righteousness in and of itself.
And then there are those who try to make friends of so-called
saints, other intermediaries. They've made an idol, some have
made an idol out of our Lord's mother. And they think, you know, well, I certainly can't make friends
with God, but maybe I can make friends with Mary, and she can
speak to God for me. I read a tract put out with the
approval of the Roman Catholic Church. This was back when I
lived in Owensboro. The Catholic Church in Owensboro, Kentucky
is like the Reformed churches are in this area. It was by far
the dominant religion. And so lots of material. And
there was one that was advocating that you make Joseph the earthly
father of the Lord. You make Joseph your patron saint.
And you want to know why? Because Jesus will always do
what his father tells him to. And if you can get Joseph to
be your friend, and you've got an end with the Lord Jesus. Well,
I fully agree with that tract in this one statement. Jesus
will always do what his father tells him. The problem is his
father is not Joseph. And Joseph has no sway with the
Lord Jesus any more than any other believer. The same is true
of Mary. The same is true of all the apostles and all the
so-called saints that people try to, you know, try to pray
to. They think that because they
were not perfect, very good in their life, but not perfect,
but they're more approachable. My friends, you do need a mediator
between you and God, but you do not need a mediator between
you and Christ Jesus. There's one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and that's all
the mediator you need. You don't need a lot of friends
to get you to God, you need one. You need one. You need one who
shares common cause with you. What is our cause? In a sense,
when we're seeking God's favor, it's salvation. That's why we
go to him. Well, what's our Lord's name?
You shall call his name Jesus, Jehovah Savior, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Well, that means that the Lord Jesus could be
a friend to me. We have a common cause, my salvation. Not only that, we have a common
nature. Most of our friends Of course, we normally think
of friends in terms of humans. Well, I guess they call dogs
man's best friend. But when we think of human friends,
we realize we're all human, but generally we're looking for some
people that are kind of like us in some respects. Well, our
Lord Jesus became one with us. He is God manifest in the flesh. It's a mystery we can't unravel,
so we won't try to. We'll just accept it. He is God.
And yet, He was and is, right now, every bit as human as you
and I are. You think on that a minute, if
you can. Sometimes I think, oh, it's like my brain explodes.
I just can't get my head wrapped around it, you know? Kind of
like trying to put a rubber band around something that's just
too big. Eventually it breaks. But though He is God in every
sense of the word God, yet He is man in every sense of the
word man, and He shares with me you every aspect of humanity. And it was necessary that that
be true in order that he could represent our case to God, in
order that he could bear our sins. You know why no sin was
ever forgiven by all those millions of sacrificial animals that were
offered on Jewish altars over the years? You know why? Because
they weren't human. The blood of a lamb can't take
away the sin of a man. It takes the blood, the life
of a human to redeem the life of another human. Not only that,
it requires one that's without sin. And indeed, that's one aspect
that we don't share with the Lord, do we? He came into this
world Born of a woman, made under the law, but he didn't come into
this world with what theologians call original sin, because Joseph
wasn't his father. God is his father. And throughout
his entire natural life, we might call it, he never once committed
sin in any way, shape, or form. Now, in that respect, he is different
from us. That made it so that not only
in his nature as a human, he could be our substitute, but
also that he himself, being free of any sin of his own, could
bear ours, our sin. Now, I wouldn't even act as though
I would be willing to bear the wrath of God in your behalf.
I'm just not gonna make that boast. But even if I was willing,
it would be a useless effort, because I can't bear your sin,
I got my own. Not the Lord Jesus. So here we
have a friend, a friend who's like us in nature, one of us. And yet, in the most important
respect, he's not like us. He's someone who can come into
the presence of the Father. Because, as the Father himself
said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. There is a friend, a loved one,
who sticks closer than a brother. I said that a friend is a companion,
someone with whom you eat. You know what they accused our
Lord of? This man receives sinners and
tax collectors and eats with them. He's the companion of sinners. And when he eats with us, what
is the food? Himself. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This cup is the new covenant
in my blood. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do so in remembrance of me. And we
do that symbolically. We don't believe that there's
any power in those elements to accomplish anything. What they
represent though, oh what power that has. And as we believe Christ
and cling to Him, we are feeding on His flesh. We are slaking
our thirst on His blood. We have become companions of
the Lord Jesus. And then what else did they accuse
Him of? Being a glutton? A drunk and a friend of sinners and tax
collectors. He is the friend that loves at
all times. You know, sometimes our sin makes
us feel as though the love of God has been withdrawn. Do you
ever have that feeling? I do. I'll just admit it. I see
my sin and I just, I'm aghast. And I feel that old legal bondage
lay hold of me again. My sin comes before me, accusing
me and making me think I am cut off. But our Lord Jesus is that friend
that loves at all times. Paul said, I'm convinced. that
neither, and he went through a set of contracts, heights,
depths, life, death, whatever, nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If Jesus Christ is your friend, so is God the judge of all. And
that will never change, period. He is your friend when you think
you're doing well. He is your friend when you know
you're doing wrong. He is your friend when your heart
flows with love for him and prays for him. He is your friend when
you've played the unfaithful friend. and as it were denied him like
Peter did. He is your friend in the vigor
of your health. He is your friend when you draw
near the end of your days and have none. He is your friend when you're gathered like this
to worship him. and he is your friend even if
you've gone several days without even thinking about him. There is a friend, a loved one
who sticks closer than a brother. You know, one of the most amazing scriptures, verses of scriptures,
Hebrews 2.11, in which it says that our Lord Jesus is not ashamed
to call us brethren. Now you imagine that. Nearly
every family has people in it that they really don't want to
own up to. Is that your brother? Yeah. Our Lord's got a house full of
people like that. And yet he's never ashamed to own us as his
brethren. He sticks closer. He stuck so
close to us, our sin ended up on Him. He carried us within His bosom
to the cross, and He bore our sins in His body on the tree.
But then did He leave us? No, the Scripture says we died
with Him. What else? We rose with Him before I was born. In the economy of God, I was
raised from the dead in Christ. He ascended on high. Did he leave
me here? We're seated with him in the
heavenly places. He sticks with us closer than
what we might count the closest of our loved ones in this world. So the question is, how many friends do you have? How many people are you relying
on in these spiritual things? If you're
relying on many, you're going to destruction. But if you've got that one, You've got all the friends you
need. He was friend to us long before
we were friend to him. And he's been a whole lot better
friend to us than we've been to him. But blessed be his name. His friendship to us was never
initiated by anything we did positive towards him. nor has
it been the least bit diminished by all of our failures. Indeed, as we sang, hallelujah,
what a savior, what a friend we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. James? We'll sing from number 125, Jesus
Paid It All, number 125. Stand as we sing. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to
Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Nothing good have I, whereby
thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in
the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. I stand in Him complete. Jesus died my soul to save, my
lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. It's all right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. th th Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. In time, there came of the issue of the place of
the royal companions. And those who strayed the more
formal position on that, continue calling themselves reform factors,
and some, He did hold that position. He still held that position,
but he left the ring in hand. And others, rather than continuing
the reform, I guess reform was helpful to some of them. If I present to people that their
blessings were from God and determined by their actions, that's legal. And, um, you know, um, for us,
uh, we were very, very proud of Charles Spurgeon. And, uh,
you can't really say he was the baddest, you know, but, you know,
he was a solid, uh, he was also very strong, and I'll never act
like it, you know, and, uh, he was one of the most sacrificed
people in the world. But David Gerrigan, who met the
public at one time, And it was a big exhibition. Anyway, when I found
out about it, I was like, I'm going to have to do a little
bit more. I was like, I'm going to have to do a little bit more.
I was like, I'm going to have to do a little bit more. I graduated
from college trying to go back to that Well, he's not really going to
figure ahead of what was going to happen. He's going to move
forward. And Hillary would be on the other
side. But Hillary also did not make
this a big issue in Washington. But in respect to his views about
the place of Moses at all in the life of a believer, that's
where he would take it from. He most probably would have called
himself a formalist. But again, that wasn't his issue. And while I knew some of his
teachings were important, making him feel more a part of it, again, So I can't, just like there was
a demonstrative area in the story of Joshua, you can't enter the
throne room under the wall. You have to be under the wall
and you have to make a blessing. You can only do it that way.
And the theological argument, again that's all it is. They were obsolete, right, in
application of the New Covenant. Some people, they figured out,
so that doesn't matter what we do. No, uh-huh, yeah, right,
and as my preacher friend said, it matters, it just doesn't count. And, you know, it matters how
I live, A lot of, it's a lot of theological
warfare that goes on, and the more we talk past each other, So evidently, the message is
getting across. Inevitable truth is what we say. You can tell people. That's good. That's good. He
arrives. He arrives. He always tries to work for a
reason. But they reach him a lot. th th Oh my God.