I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this morning. Let us ask the Lord's
blessing, let us pray. With our merciful and gracious
Lord God, we come into thine earthly courts and desire that
help and blessing from thy house. But Lord, we desire to worship
thee, to sing forth thy praise, to lift thee up on the pole of
the everlasting gospel, to have a fresh view of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, in thy glory in the Church of God. O
Lord, do bless us thus and help us this day. We ask through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn, 132. Tune, Lloyd 172. This morning I wish to read from
two portions of God's holy word. Firstly, the book of Proverbs,
Proverbs chapter 18. If you're joining with one of
our free Bibles, that is page 629. Proverbs chapter 18. Through desire, a man having
separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. A fool hath no delight in understanding,
but that his heart may discover itself. When the wicked cometh,
then cometh also contempt, and with ignominy reproach. The words
of a man's mouth are as deep waters and the wellspring of
wisdom as a flowing brook. It is not good to accept the
persons of the wicked to overthrow the righteous in judgment. A
fool's lips utter enter into contention and his mouth calleth
for strokes. A fool's mouth is his destruction,
and his lips are the snare of his soul. The words of a tale-bearer
are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the
belly. He also that is slothful in his
work is brother to him that is a great waster. The name of the
Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe. The rich man's wealth is his
strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit. Before destruction
the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility. He that answereth a matter before
he heareth it It is folly and shame unto him. The spirit of
a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can
bear? The heart of the prudent getteth
knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge. A man's
gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.
He that is first in his own cause seemeth just, but his neighbour
cometh and searcheth him. The lot causeth contentions to
cease, and parteth between the mighty. A brother offended is
harder to be won than a strong city, and their contentions are
like the bars of a castle. A man's belly shall be satisfied
with the fruit of his mouth, and with the increase of his
lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power
of the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. Whoso findeth a wife findeth
a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. The poor useth entreaties,
but the rich answereth roughly. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. Now let us turn to the New Testament,
to the Gospel according to John, chapter 15. And we read our Lord's words
from verse 12 through to 17. It's page 1000 in our free Bibles. John chapter 15 from verse 12. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you. that ye love one another. Thus far the reading of God's
holy word, may he bless it to us and help us in prayer. Let us pray. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
once more we come before thy throne and we thank thee for
the throne of grace. We thank thee for the appointment
of prayer that a poor sinner on earth may call upon the God
of heaven and earth and be heard, and that that God should act
according to his will and answer those prayers. Lord, we thank
Thee that Thou hast said that Thou wilt be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. And we thank Thee for the
remembrance of when we first began to pray, when we first
began to call upon Thy name, when first Thou didst give us
to walk in that path that up to that time we did not walk
in. O Lord, do grant unto us then
that access and that help, and that Thou hast granted us Thy
Holy Spirit. For Thou hast said, If ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him? And Lord, we do beg of Thee for
Thy Spirit, and that we might be taught of thee, that we might
not grieve thy spirit, but that thou should abide with us, and
that it might not be said of us, you know not what spirit
ye are of. And Lord, we know that thou didst
say that to even thy dear disciples, but do grant us help that we
might try the spirits, whether they are of God. O Lord, do grant
us that gracious discernment, and that we might not be led
astray with the error of the wicked, but that we be of those
that do know our God as our heavenly Friend. O Lord, do bless us with
that close walk with Thee, and that Thou wouldst have mercy
upon us. Lord, we have sin that cleaves to us. Lord, we would
mourn over it, but feel even our mourning is so often not
sincere. O Lord, we would that Thou wouldst
deliver us from the power and dominion of sin, and do grant
that as oft as it defiles, that we might prove again and again
that redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we might prove
again the blessing of confessing our sins, and Thy forgiveness
and repentance being granted to us. O Lord, who turn us again
and again. And Lord, leave us not to give
up. Leave us not to dejection. Leave
us not to lose hope. Leave us not to listen to the
adversary who says there is no help for him in God. O Lord,
to whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and assure that Thou
art that Christ, the Son, of the Living God. Thou Thyself
has said that there is none other name given among men whereby
we must be saved. O Lord, do revive then our souls
through the ministry today. Revive our prayers our whole
life. Leave us not to live a compartmented
life with having a religious part and another part, but may
it be with us as with the Apostle, when Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, that it might be day by day and night by night,
that we might not be duplicitous that we might be of one true
person that does truly long and desire after Thee. O Lord, we
know Thy word declares that we cannot do the things that we
would because of our sin and because of our infirmity. Lord,
forgive and pardon where we make excuses for sin, where we do
not run to Thee as we should, where we do not cry unto Thee
in time of need. O Lord, do save us, and may thy
power and grace be known in us. Hast thou not said that thou
wilt cleanse thy church, thy church that is defiled by nature,
that thou wilt cleanse it by the washing of water by the word? And we come unto thy word today,
the reading of it, the preaching of it, the grant that we might
be cleansed through it. and that as faith cometh through
hearing and hearing by the word of God, to grant us an increase
of faith and to be strengthened in thy ways. We do see, Lord,
thy blessing upon us as a church and people. Be pleased to build
us up and make us a blessing to this town and to many round
about. We thank thee for the testimony
of many that thy word has been blessed. But Lord, do be pleased
to fill this house with hungering, thirsting souls. And Lord, that
there might be fruit seen yet through thy word distributed
in this town. We do pray that we might be enabled
to continue this ministry and that we might still be able to
send forth thy word throughout this land. And Lord, do bless
each one that has received a copy of it and those who may now be
worshipping in a church where they weren't before. Lord, bless
them in their gathering. Lord, we do seek that thou has
work in this nation, a real revival. Hear prayer, Lord, for the overturning
of the assisted suicide bill to be read and debated on the
29th of this month. And we do thank Thee for those
things that we hear of an increasing number of those in Parliament,
especially in the Cabinet, that are opposing this Bill. But Lord,
we would not take it for granted, we do beseech Thee further, that
it might be a tide of opposition to it, that it is stopped. O Lord, do hear prayer on this
matter. We do seek, O Lord, that Thou
hast remembered Thy people, Lord, those that are in affliction,
thou hast said that thy people are an afflicted and poor people,
and that they shall call upon the name of the Lord. Lord, you
grant thy kind healing hand, grace to help through affliction
and weakness, blessing upon the means and raised up again. Lord, prepare us each and be
with those who are now in the valley of the shadow of death
and bring them safely through and land them safe above. and
do grant unto us each while we walk below that blessed prospect
and hope beyond the grave. Leave us not to lose sight of
this in all of our tribulations. Thou hast said in me you shall
have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation. We pray
for that peace. And Lord, that thou hast be pleased
to go before us in the week that we've entered upon. Bless us
this thy day and grant us sweet savour to rest upon all of the
week. We thank thee for mercy's past
and thy goodness and kindness toward us. O Lord, we do seek
of thee that thou hast increased our faith and grant that thy
word might be made very precious to us. Grant us, Lord, those
openings to be able to speak to others of it. And Lord, may
we speak from the heart. O Lord, out of the abundance
of the heart, man speaketh. Do grant us a heart religion.
Do grant us, Lord, that life of God within. Remember those
that feel so dry, so cold, so dead, so hard, so prayerless. Lord, do pour fresh life upon
the whole, Lord, hear intercession for Thy people, and wilt Thou
not revive us again that we might hope in Thee? O Lord, forgive
our many sins, wash us and cleanse us in Thy precious blood, take
away the love of sinning, and where sin in any aspect has become
a habit, Break that habit. Break those snares. Break those
besetting sins that beset us again and again. Those weights,
those things that hinder us in our race. Lord, do deliver us
and save us. Especially be with thy people
that know and feel where those problems are. Try to deal with
them themselves. Cannot, they still remain. Lord, do be pleased to help and
what the law could not do. O Lord, send thy gospel. We thank thee for the gospel.
We thank thee that not only thou didst suffer, bleed and die,
that not only hast thou shed thy blood, not only hast thou
settled the debt, but thou dost live and live in heaven, that
thou art our advocate with the Father. Thou art a friend at
court. O Lord, do speak for us in heaven's
high court for good. And Lord, do send us help and
blessing and strength and deliverance. No, leave us not. Lord, in spite
of ourselves, do save us. and do deal with us faithfully
and graciously and mercifully, Lord, not as our sins deserve,
lest we be crushed and destroyed before Thee. O Lord, help us
now and be with us throughout this day, and do make Thy Word
precious to us. O Lord, we do. Seek to honour
Thee and praise Thy name, but grant that it might be in all
that we do. We ask, Lord, these mercies through
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Announcements. God willing, I'm
expected to preach here this evening at 6.30pm. On Thursday
at seven o'clock, and next Lord's Day at 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. The Bibles that were taken during
October from our Bible boxes amounted to 25 Bibles, and the
web offer, 48 Bibles, was sent out. That is 73 Bibles in total
were distributed. May the Lord bless each copy
of his word as it goes forth. Hymn, 133. Tune, Columbanus 698 Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Proverbs chapter 18 and reading
for our text the last verse, verse 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly then there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. Proverbs 18 and verse 24, a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. In the Proverbs we have the short
statements of each verse, many of them not connected to the
previous or the one following, but all of them, the wisdom of
God and many that are very precious. As we read this chapter, many
you may have felt were very applicable and so much needed for us. We think of verse 14, The spirit
of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can
bear. One might have great infirmities,
but if we have a firm mind and if we are directed to that help
through the Lord, then we can overcome those infirmities. But if the trouble and affliction
is in our minds, then that is a greater trial, a much more
difficult trial. But I want to look at the verse
that is before us and think first of what a friend is. We read in verse 19, of the brother
offended is harder to be won than a strong city. and their contentions are like
the bars of a castle. But a friend is usually a bond
of mutual affection. It is usually not family, so
not a brother, or not family connection, or not romantically
connected. Although having said that, if
we have husband and wife situation, then they should be. on earth the best friend that
we have. And so friendship is not exclusively
not family or not romantically, but it is indeed able to stand
on its own. It does not need a family connection. It does not need a romantic connection. And that is what is highlighted
really here, a friend who will not give up on a friendship. I remember years ago, and I must
say I feel to fail this person as a friend, but years ago I
had offended him and he said, well, I'm not going to be your
friend anymore. I said, well, that is a problem
then because I'm not going to cease from being your friend.
And the matter was healed and we continued friends and it's
good if we don't give up too easily on a friendship, especially
where there's been a real deep friendship. I think of David
and Jonathan and how their hearts were knit together. It began
when Jonathan saw David go out after Goliath and achieve that
wonderful victory and that bond, how often It was such a strength. They made the covenants between
them. Jonathan went out to David in
the wood and strengthened his hand in God. What a friend to
be able to strengthen another's hand in God when he's walking
through adversity and trial. And of course, there we get an
even contrast because we have Jonathan. It was his own father
that was persecuting David. But Jonathan, he befriended David
and was really a true friend. We read concerning Abraham in
James's epistle that he was called the friend of God. Now the Lord called Abraham,
brought him out of the Ur of the Chaldees, and the Lord was
with him. And may we be then, like Abraham,
a friend of God. But the blessed thing is that
the Lord is the friend of his people. We have a comparison
in our text. The man that has friends must
show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. And the second portion we read
clearly points us to the Lord Jesus Christ as our friend. And it is in that way that I
desire to set the word before us this morning, a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We may view him in many other
titles that he has, as our Redeemer, as the Church's head, as our
advocate with the Father, an elder brother even, born for
adversity, but we have this title, that he is a friend, a friend
of sinners. And so I want to look through
the Word of God at seven real headings where our Lord is so
set forth, and may it be a real strength to us this morning,
to be reminded of what a friend that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We've sung of it in two of our
hymns, and we will close with one as well. And we have one
that was in our Young People's Hymn Book. We haven't got it
recorded, otherwise I would have had it today. What a friend we
have in Jesus and his lovely, lovely hymn. The first thing
I bring before us is that which we find in Hebrews, in Hebrews
13 and verse 8. An unchangeable friend. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. And the context is, in verse
7, we're exhorted to remember them which have the rule over
you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, that is us in
the ministry, pastors, whose faith follow, considering the
end of their conversation or end of their life, Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever. This should be a
real mark as the whole aim and end of in the ministry, you take
away the unchangeable-ness of our Lord, you make him not immutable,
you make him capable of change, and you undo all of the Word
of God, all of the comforts and all of the blessings that a child
of God might have when he falls again, when he gets into darkness,
when he offends, when he falls into sin, then there would be
no assurance that that friendship still holds, or that the Lord
has not changed and turned away from us. The context here in
Proverbs, it is a brother, a brother may be offended, A brother may
drop their hold, something may be done on one side of the friendship
with a brother, with an earthly brother, and it destroys it,
it takes it away. But this is set before us, Jesus
Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. is a precious truth and something
that we in the ministry should have so prominent that those
who hear us get this message. This is the end of our conversation. This is why we can have authority,
why we can bring forth the Word of God, why it is a comfort and
help for the people of God. The word that was given 2,000
years ago is still the same now. Forever, O God, thy word is settled
in heaven. The Lord does not take away his
word, his friendship. Once he bestows it, once he shows
it, once it has been bestowed upon a poor sinner, he will always
be the friend of that sinner, an unchangeable friend. The second thing is a friend
who assures us of his friendship and to this I want to turn to
the reading that we read in John 15. There is two things the Lord
gives and says as an assurance of his friendship. The first
is in verse 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends. The Lord Jesus Christ
was leading up to the time when he was to lay down his life for
his people, and he calls them here his friends. He is to lay down his life for
them. And this is what he says, there
is no greater love. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I passed by thee when thou wast
in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live.
May we remember in a gospel day that Christ died thousands of
years from Now, before we were born, before we sinned, before
we came into the world, before we'd done good or evil, the Lord
Jesus Christ died and put away the sin of his people in this
gospel day before they ever existed. In that same time, he put away
the sin of Abraham, he put away the sin of Adam, Abel and all
those that have gone before, who died in faith of what Christ
would do, we look back to what Christ has done. And our Lord
tells us that what he did, he did in love. And this is where
particular redemption is so vital. If it was said the Lord died
for every man, woman and child, for Judas Iscariot, for King
Saul, for those that are wicked, those that shall never know Him,
that shall always live in enmity against Him, where is the love
in His dying for such ones? If it was then dependent on something
that they did towards Him, that would then kindle that love to
them. But the Lord had that love to
His people As he laid down his life, as he bore their sin, as
he felt the pain, as his father hid his face from him, he knew
for whom he died. He did what he did in love. He
laid down his life for his friends. I say a very strong reason for
particular redemptions, not the only one, right through the Word
of God, I lay down my life for the sheep. Ye are not of my sheep,
ye hear not my word. And then number three, with the
redemption of the firstborn in Israel with the Levites. It is a particular redemption,
a just weight, a just balance, a price paid for his people. And so this is the evidence of
that friendship. And you might say, how then do
we know that Christ died for us? Well, the dying of our Lord
was to settle a debt. And if that debt is settled,
then there comes a time that it must be so, that there is
a blessing upon those for whom he died. Otherwise, it would
not be unjust. If we paid for something in a
shop and never went and got that from the shop, if we were owed
something and never received it, our Lord Jesus Christ will
receive, he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied."
It's very important for us to realize, and it's one of our
articles of faith, that the Holy Spirit never enlightens the non-elect
to make them capable of receiving grace. There may be those that
appear for a while to be God's people but are not, but the Holy
Spirit who shall receive, says the Lord of mine, and reveal
it unto you, will never do that savingly to one for whom Christ
has not died. And so you have a second thing
that the Lord says here to assure of that friendship in verse 15. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, But I have called
you friends, for all that I have heard of my Father I have made
known unto you. It's one of those great blessings
for the people of God that the Lord Jesus Christ, through the
Spirit, makes known to his people the things of God. We cannot
know them. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. But here he says, I have made
known unto you. And where there is choosing,
ye have not chosen me, I have chosen you and ordained you,
then there will be calling. And the Lord says in another
place in John 17, I have given them thy word, the world hath
hated them. The difference where the Lord
opens his word, opens the ear, opens the eyes, changes that
person so that they then are discerning and understanding
in their measure the things of God. You say, what measure? Well, in John 9, We read of the
man that was born blind, one thing I know, whereas I was blind,
now I see. That measure, the measure of
the Ethiopian eunuch, if thou believest with all thine heart
thou mayest, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That
measure, a belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a people
that is made Sinless here below, this friend is the friend of
sinners. But the assurance here is in
these two things, one that he died and the other that it was
made known. And that he died for us is that
it is made known in opening our ears and taking away our ignorance. They shall all be taught of God. They shall all know me. from
the least unto the greatest. And here then is this token of
friendship, a friend who assures us of his friendship. And really, every time we hear
the word preached, and you might gain a little here, a little
there, something that's opened up, something that's precious,
something you had not seen before, a crumb from the master's table,
don't despise small things, or a handful of purpose leaning
amongst the sheaves. Those things are given. You know,
Naomi was able to assure Ruth, she saw what Boaz had given,
and each thing that he had given, What she had gleaned was a real
token of his affection for her. And we must not pass by. If we had a natural friend, if
we had a friend of one of our own people, and they
gave us things, they did things for us, they were kind to us,
They helped us. Wouldn't we be assured of their
friendship by what they were doing for us? Whoso is wise and shall observe
these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness
of the Lord, or the friendship of the Lord. Think of what is
joined in our text here. where we read, a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly. Does the Lord Jesus Christ show
himself friendly toward us? The man Christ Jesus does have
friends. And he does show himself friendly. I want to look then thirdly,
and we see more clearly this friend. A friend though we are
what we are. In the Gospel according to Matthew,
we have our Lord in the 11th chapter, and he's saying of a
slur really that the scribes, the Pharisees, put against him. And he said, John, John Baptist,
came neither eating nor drinking. And they say, yet the devil,
the son of man, came eating and drinking. And they say, behold,
the man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. And there we have an accusation
against the Lord. that really is music in the ears
of publicans and sinners. In spite of what we are, and
we must be real in this, God's people are sinners. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. that they sin
is so evident. David, Abraham, Solomon, Peter,
the disciples, all of us, there's none that doeth good and sinneth
not. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. John says that if we say we have
not sinned, we make him a liar. The truth is not in us. We are
sinners. And that degree of sanctification
won't be so that we walk through this world and we do not sin. But where sin is a trouble to
us. And you think, well, if it was
a real trouble to me, I'd stop sinning. But the trouble is that
we cannot cease from sin. Paul says, the good that I would,
I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. No wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Our unrighteousness. The Lord
comes that he might save us from our sins, from its guilt, from
its power, from its condemnation. from its influence to overrule
us and to overcome us. And it's good for us to remember
what then was said and recorded in the inspired, infallible word
of God. You might say, there were scribes
and Pharisees that said that. You know how many times it is
that the wicked must speak and say a right testimony of the
Lord. Sometimes it can be even stronger
in that way. In Psalm 126, we have it both
ways. Even the heathens shall say,
the Lord hath done great things for them. And the people of God
shall say, the Lord hath done great things for us, whereof
we are glad. Though the scribes and Pharisees
spoke against the Lord, they could not but wonder at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his lips. And so often the testimony of
those that even know him not, they cannot but testify. And there they testified of who
he was going with. who he was speaking to, who he
was ministering to, a fact testified in the Word of God. And may we
know it and prove it too, and be able to say, yes, he is a
friend of sinners, because he is my friend, because he comes
to me as a sinner, and he deals with me as a sinner, but he deals
with me as a sinner. saved by grace. So I want to
look then, fourthly, at a faithful friend. I want to go back to
Proverbs, and in Proverbs 27, and the strength of what we have
before us this morning is the Word of God, and that is why
I'm turning to these portions. It is through the Word of God
that we will have the strength and the comfort of this heavenly
friend. Remember, this is God speaking
to us. And in Proverbs 27 and verse
6, we read, faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses
of an enemy are deceitful. The Lord Jesus Christ is a living
God, a living friend. And in that friendship then is
provided that he is a faithful friend. He speaks of what is
needed. I always remember when I wasn't
faithful to a dear friend and sister in faith, years ago in
Australia, when I saw her in a nursing home, fully taken up
with hobbies and crafts. And those times that we had so
regularly, around the Word of God and in prayer, were stopped. And I saw it, I noticed it, and
this was a time when she was healthy, other times she wasn't
well. But when she went ill again,
she said to me, oh, I was, well and all I used my strength and
my time for was for these crafts and ignored the word of God and
prayer and those times we had together and now I'm not well
again and I thought I knew I saw it and I didn't speak to her
but the Lord is one that does see he knows us better than we
know ourselves and May we then remember what is set before us
in Hebrews 12, that whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. That portion is in the picture
of us being the sons of God, another relationship. But when we join that with Hebrews,
with Proverbs 27, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, where
the Lord chastens and corrects. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? And so as a faithful friend,
he will correct, he will speak, he won't just be silent. What
would we be like if we had a friend on earth? And we were with that
friend. And that friend saw us doing
all sorts of wrong things and never opened their mouth. They
never warned us. They never said, well, do you
think that that is the right thing to do? I wouldn't do that
if I were you. If they never gave a gentle rebuke
or warning. But with the Lord, He is faithful. and He does speak and He does
deal with us. May the Lord bless us with a
tender conscience, a teachable spirit. The Lord with His people
can chasten in a way He cannot with the world. With the world
He might cause things to go wrong in their lives, but He can't
hide His face from them because they've never known His face. But where the Lord knows his
people, where there then seems to be that break in the friendship,
where he's silent, where he hides his face, then they really feel
him. Job, in the midst of all of his
afflictions, the thing that he felt the most, oh, that I knew
where I might find him, he had lost his God. And may we remember
what the Lord suffered upon the cross. Oh my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? That fellowship, communion, and
oneness between the Father and the Son broke as the Father laid
on him the iniquity of us all, as he endured the wrath of God
in our place. And so any sense of that, the
closer we live to the Lord, the more we know and feel of his
friendship, the more quickly we will discern and feel where
we have offended and where the Lord is kindly reminding us and
causing us to look at our ways and to consider our ways. On to then for our fifth point,
go back to Hebrews 13. And in verse 5 we read, Let your
conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things
as you have. For he has said, I will never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. A friend that will never leave
nor forsake, When our Lord ascended up into heaven, he said, Lo,
I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. It's a
blessed thing to realise that, to realise this truth that this
friend will never leave us, never forsake us. So that we may boldly
say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall
do unto me. In the sixth place, on to go
to John 17. This is the intercessory prayer
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. His prayer in verse 24, Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me,
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. A friend who will have us to
be with him forever. That's a real test of a friendship,
isn't it? to actually want someone to be
in our house, to be with us, to live with us, to share with
us, for us to share with them all that we have. What a test
of that friendship. And this is the friendship of
the Lord that extends not just on earth, but to heaven. And indeed it is so in heaven,
for He is our Advocate with the Father. He does make intercession
for us and it is the benefit and blessings of that that come
down to us. I will pray the Father, He will
give you another Comforter which shall abide with you forever. The gift of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost, the gift to every child of God, as they are quickened,
as they are enlightened, as the Spirit shines upon the word,
as those Thessalonians, the word came not in word only, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The Lord already has
gone before us, a forerunner, and already received the benefits
of our living Saviour, our living friend, a friend above. and His
desire is that we be with Him. And all that He does on earth
and all His acts of friendship are to this end. That that union
stay, that it remain, that it increase, that we be with Him
and be with Him forever. For the last one, I want to go
to the Song of Solomon. In chapter 5, at the end of that
chapter, there is a question asked by the daughters of Jerusalem. And they ask this in verse 9. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved, though thou fairest among women? What is
thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? And what she had charged was,
in verse 8, If ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick
of love. And this is then a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the bride, the Church
of God, and how she views her bridegroom. or put in the way
of our texts, how we would view our heavenly friend. And we read
from verse 10. My beloved is white and ruddy,
the cheapest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine
gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of waters. washed with milk and fitly set,
his cheeks are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers, his lips like
lilies dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, his hands are as gold
rings set with the beryl, his belly is as bright ivory overlaid
with sapphires, his legs are as pillars of marble set upon
sockets of fine gold, his countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the
cedars, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. What a beautiful picture of the
friend of the church, a friend and yet the bridegroom, one who
is pure and white, one who is ruddy, one who has suffered,
one who is the chiefest among ten thousand, one who is, as
it were, filled as with the youth, bushy, black as a riven, one
who looks upon his people, one as thou is that, who is beautiful
in every aspect of his person, and summed up in this, yea, he
is altogether lovely. we may ask ourselves, has Christ
been made lovely to us and precious to us and beautiful to us? Can we see him in the various
ways that he is set forth in the scriptures and the way set
before us this morning as a friend, a heavenly friend, an unchangeable
friend, a friend who has made his love known to us, has assured
us that it will never change, as he never changes. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, that friend is the Lord Jesus. May this word
then be precious to us, there is a friend, and be able to say
this is Let us close by singing hymn
149. Hymn, 149. Tune, Hull 714. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.