If you could be turning your
Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 10, and while you're turning there,
as I'm hoping patiently for the redemption of this body, I'm
hoping this morning, more than any time in my life, that the
Lord would reveal his gospel and speak to my heart. That is,
that's all I want, that's all I need. That's it. We're going
to begin in verse 9. Chapter 10, verse 9. That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. We know that only through the
Holy Spirit are we able to say, Lord? For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. Verse 13, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if we ever call upon the
name of the Lord, it is because He first saved us for the foundation
of the world and called us out. And only then can we call upon
Him. The only means and the only purpose
the Lord has ever used to call His people is in these next two
verses. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? I'm so thankful that The Lord
calls out his preachers when he looks into the sheepfold amongst
all the sheep, and we're all dumb sheep, and he's pleased
to pick one of them to call out to speak the truth to us sheep. There's no clergy lady here.
This is what the Lord does. And it's what the Lord says about
that preacher, that pastor according to his heart. How beautiful. Our defeat of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Only God is good and when He
reveals Himself, He desires to give us good things. His mercy,
forgiveness of our sins, His righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ, His faithfulness, all good things. But they have not
all obeyed the gospel, or believed the gospel. For Isaiah said,
Lord, who hath believed our report? Who hath believed your gospel?
Verse 17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. May the Lord be pleased this
morning to do that, to bless us word Give us ears to hear,
so when we leave here this morning, we can say, Lord, we believe
you. We believe your gospel. Let's
pray. Lord, unless you are pleased
to do that this morning, Lord, we will not be able to
hear or to see or to believe. And so, Lord, we ask that you
would do that, that you would be merciful to us this morning.
Lord, that you would come in the power of your Spirit to bring us the gospel of peace
and of good things, Lord. And that can only be said of
our Savior, our Lord, Lord Jesus Christ. Would you lift him up
again this morning, Lord, that we may be drawn to him, lifting
him up, glorifying him. We're thankful for your church,
we're thankful for our pastor, a preacher you have sent from
the sheepfold. Pray now that you would give
him the power and the ability to take that which you've given
him. And Lord, edify your body. Oh Lord, give us a heart to believe
that we may give you all the praise and glory. In Christ's
name, amen. Y'all remain seated, we're gonna
sing Will you open your Bibles with
me to Luke, chapter 7. Luke, chapter 7. I've titled this message, A Friend
of Publicans and Sinners. A Friend. Words change their
meaning in language. Not in God's Word, but in the
way in which we use them. I can remember a day when gay
men happy, and a tablet was made out of paper. In fact, the word awful that's
used in the scripture to describe our God, meant that he is full
of awe in a good sense. And men have replaced that with
awesome. Don't ever refer to things of
God as awesome. They're not awesome. They're
awful. They're awful. Another word that
has changed its meaning, I fear, And our use of it is the word
friend. The word friend. We've called gossip partners
who really only have an interest in one upping one another. You
do understand that, right? We call them friends on Facebook.
I hope that you have. one or two true friends. A friend, as the scripture says,
that sticketh closer than a brother, a friend that will have your
back, a friend that will always be faithful to you. Don't think
for a moment that all those people you call friends on Facebook
are in fact friends. But what you and I need more
than anything else is we need what Moses had. The Scripture
says that Moses talked with God face to face as a man speaketh
with his friend. With his friend. Our Scripture makes it clear
that the Lord Jesus Christ is a friend to sinners and to publicans. Look, you have your Bibles open
to Luke chapter 7. Look at verse 34. The Son of
Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous
man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans. Now a publican was a Jew that
was hired by the Roman government to exact taxes from his fellow
citizens. He was hated by the Jews. The publicans had no friends. No friends. Matthew was a publican. And when the Lord saw him at
the publican's table, he looked at Matthew and he said, follow
me. And Matthew got up and left his table and the irresistible
call of grace was so powerful on Matthew's heart that he followed
after Christ. Zacchaeus was a publican. Don't you know everybody in Jericho
thought, what's he going to his house for? Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going to your house today,
for today salvation has come to your house. Zacchaeus was
a publican. He had no friends. however blessed we might be in
this world to enjoy true friendship, true friendship. There is no
friend, no friend that you have in this world like the friendship
that the Lord Jesus Christ has with sinners. My hope and prayer
this morning is that that we will find Him to be our one true
faithful friend. Sinners are drawn to Him. The
Pharisees were offended by Him, but sinners were always drawn
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Publicans found something about
Him so attractive It's like we sang in that hymn at the beginning
of this first hour, Christ came to save sinful men. I wonder
if we're sinful enough to find the Lord Jesus Christ to be our
friend. Look at verse 29 in our text.
And all the people that heard him, And the publicans justified
God being baptized with the baptism of John. How did they justify
God? They believed. They believed
God and it was accounted unto Him for righteousness, the scripture
says, about Abraham. But the Pharisees and the lawyers
rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized
of Him. The self-righteous, the one who
believed that he had some merit in himself to deserve God's favor,
the one who believed that he was better than others, that's
what the word Pharisee means. It means a set-apart one. You know the word Pharisee and
the word holiness come from the same word? It means to be set
apart. I mean they mean the same thing.
The word translated Pharisee and the word translated holy
actually mean the same thing. It means to be set apart. The difference is who does the
setting apart? If you set yourself apart from
other men and believe yourself to be better than other men,
then you're a Pharisee. If God has set you apart, then
you're holy. You're holy. And you can believe
what he said. when he said, He that sanctifyeth,
and they which are sanctified are all as one, for which cause
he is not ashamed to call them his brethren, his friend. There is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, and that friend is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not a friend of public.
I mean, he's not a friend of Pharisees. He's not a friend of lawyers. Oh, plenty of that going on in
there. Plenty of law-mongering going on. Plenty of men who are
looking to their obedience to the law as the hope of their
salvation. Truth is, sinners know that they've
never ever kept one of God's laws one time. That's what a
sinner knows about himself. He's never been able to keep
one of God's laws. He's never been able to satisfy
its demand. And so he comes to the Lord Jesus
Christ as his friend, a friend that will represent him before
God. a friend that will have his back,
a friend that will have his front, a friend that will present himself
on his behalf before God for all his righteousness. Plenty of false friends in the
world. David said in Psalm 35, I behaved myself as if he were
my friend or my brother. But in my adversity, they rejoiced
and gathered themselves against me. The friendships that people call
friendships today are only friendships in fair weather. When adversity
comes, They gather against them, and they have nothing to do,
those aren't friends. The friendship of the Lord Jesus Christ is especially
strong in times of our adversity. And when the weight of our sin
bears upon us so that we cannot carry it, he says, come unto
me. All ye that labor and are heavy
burdened, I'll give you rest. My burden is light. My yoke is
easy. Come learn of Me. I'm your friend."
Friend? Yeah. Yeah. Proverbs 17 verse 17, A friend
loveth at all times and a brother is
born for adversity. Truth is, your dearest friends
that you have in this world, you know, those friendships as
precious and special as they are to us, they're just human
friendships and they can be, I mean, I've seen some very Precious
friendships turn sour. You have too, haven't you? You've
seen them in your own life, haven't you? This is a friend who's born
for adversity. He steps up his work in being
your friend when you're in the deepest mire and the deepest
trouble of all. A friend loveth at all times. Oh, that the Lord would speak
to us as he spoke to Moses, face to face, as unto a friend. James puts it like this in James
chapter 2 verse 23, Abraham believed God. Now that's what a friend of the
Lord Jesus Christ does. He just believes God. We just
read that these publicans, I mean the Pharisees and the lawyers
rejected the counsel of God. They didn't believe God. The
publicans and the sinners, what did they do? They justified God. Look down with me to verse 35
in our text. But wisdom is justified of her
children. Luke chapter 7 verse 35, wisdom
is justified of her children. The sinners, the publicans, those
who had no friends, those who had no righteousness, that's
what sinners and publicans are. Have no friends and no righteousness. They justified God. Why? Because they came to the Lord
Jesus Christ. They believed God. They believed
who He was. They believed what He said. The
lawyers, they didn't. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed to him for righteousness and he was called the friend
of God. Now that's what I want to be
called the friend of God. I want you to be called the friend
of God. If it be so, it'll only be if
God imputes to us the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, if
he gives to us faith to justify God by believing what he has
said. In Luke chapter 15, the scripture
says that The publicans and the sinners drew near to Him to hear
Him. The publicans and the sinners,
they're the ones who came to Christ. They're the ones who
found Him to be friendly. If a man is to have friends,
he must be found friendly. The Lord Jesus Christ makes us
to be His friends by being found friendly to us. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. The Pharisees and the scribes
in Luke chapter 15 murmured, saying, This man eateth with
sinners and with publicans. And the Lord in Luke chapter
15 gives three parables, doesn't he? He gives the parable of the
man who had a lost sheep. And he goes, he leaves the 99
and he goes out and he finds the one sheep that's lost and
he brings him in and all of his friends gather together and they
rejoice over the fact that this one sheep had been lost. And
then he tells this parable of the lost, the woman who had a
lost coin and she sweeps her house clean and she finally finds
it. And what does she do? She says to her friends, come
and rejoice with me. This coin that was lost has been
found. And then he tells this parable
of the lost son, the prodigal, doesn't he? The prodigal comes home and the
elder brother is not able to rejoice. Why? Because he was
a publican. I mean, he was a Pharisee. He
was a lawyer. He didn't see himself as a sinner.
The Lord gave these three parables against the Pharisees and the
lawyers who murmured at the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ was
a friend of sinners and publicans. They didn't like that. You know, the elder brother couldn't
rejoice. Why? Because the father found
his son to be his friend. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
5, verse 16, his mouth is most sweet and altogether
lovely. In other words, the words that
come out of his mouth are gloriously hopeful. They're what a sinner
longs for. They're what publicans need. The hope of salvation from the
lips of a friend. And then he goes on to say, this
is my beloved. This is my friend. Proverbs chapter 27 verse 6,
God says, faithful are the wounds of a friend. Faithful are the
wounds of a friend. When the Lord Jesus Christ as
a friend of sinners and publicans wounds us over our sin, that's
a faithful wound. And the purpose of that wound
is to drive us to himself. The purpose of that wound is
to cause us to see that our only hope is in having the Lord Jesus
Christ as our friend. He has to make us to be a sinner,
doesn't he? Before he can be our friend, he has to make us
to be. He's only a friend to sinners. He's only a friend to publicans.
He's not a friend of Pharisees. He's not a friend of lawyers. Proverbs chapter 18 verse 24,
a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. If you're going to have friends
in this world, you've got to be a friend. But that passage of scripture
is most true as it applies to the Lord Jesus Christ. For the
rest of that verse says, and there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. And he's proven his friendship.
You don't just have a friend with someone until they give
proofs of their faithfulness as your friend. You don't just
give yourself as a friend to someone that you don't know.
They've got to prove themselves to be a faithful friend before
you're going to risk having them as a friend. What proofs has the Lord Jesus
Christ given of his friendship? Well, from before time began,
in the covenant of grace, he committed himself to the Father
to be surety for his friends. He struck hands with God. And
he committed himself to pay the dowry price for the salvation
of his friends. He is the lamb that was slain
before the foundation of the world. He proved himself to be
the friend of sinners and publicans, didn't he? Even before time ever
began, from everlasting he was the surety of his covenant promise
to his people. agreeing with the Father in the
covenant of grace. He took on our nature. He was
born of a woman, born in the likeness of sinful flesh, born
under the law to satisfy the demands of the law so that the
law could be silenced and it could execute no sentence against
us. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. Why? Because your friend has
satisfied the demands of the law. Why do lawyers hate the
Lord Jesus Christ? Because their hope is in their
keeping the law. That's their hope. Why do the
Pharisees hate the Lord Jesus Christ? Because they've separated
themselves from other men and believe themselves to be better.
They're doing exactly what the friends on Facebook are doing.
They're comparing themselves to one another, waiting for an
opportunity to get one up. That's all it's about, isn't
it? I mean, let's be honest. That's all it's about. He married our person. He took us for his bride. He did what Hosea did for Gomer. Take for yourself a harlot. That's
what God told Hosea to do. And Gomer played the harlot,
didn't she? And Hosea continued to provide for her even when
she was living that life. and he ended up purchasing her
on the slave block and bought her to himself. That's what the
Lord Jesus... Gomer's lovers weren't her friends. Hosea was her friend. He paid all our debt. all our
debt. Sin had left us bankrupt before
God. That's what we are. We're bankrupt.
We've got nothing. How are we going to pay the debt
that we owe to God? God requires the death penalty.
He requires justice. He'll not allow one sin to go
unpunished. Not one. Not one infraction of
God's law will go unpunished before God. Neither you and I
will be punished for those sins for all eternity, or our friend. Our friend will bear in his body
upon that tree the full weight of all of our inequities, all
of our sin, and suffer the full judgment of God's wrath, putting
our sin away. What a friend! What a friend
we have in Jesus! You don't have a friend like
that! You need a friend like that. You need God to be your friend.
I need to be a friend of God's. Don't substitute this friendship
with human friendships. We were homeless beggars. and by his precious blood he
paid the ransom price to God. What the Lord Jesus Christ was
doing on Calvary's cross is he was doing business with God.
He was laying down his life for his friends, for greater love
hath no man than this, than he lay down his life for his friends.
That's what he was doing. But he was satisfying the demands
of God's holy justice. He bore the whole weight of our
sin before God and he suffered the shame and the wrath of God's
holy justice. Why? He did it for his friends.
All these publicans and sinners were drawn to him. They ran to
him. That was the only hope they had. He endured the contradiction
of sinners against himself. Why? The God of glory, the God of
omnipotence, who could have destroyed his gainsayers and his opposition
at any time. The God who could have... There
are stories in the Old Testament where one angel destroyed the
whole army of men that were against Israel. One angel. Now there's a multitude of angels
in glory. And they all stood with flaming
swords drawn ready at the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ as He
hung on. The angels didn't know what was
going on. They couldn't understand it. Why? Because they're not sinners. They're not sinners. They're
innocent creatures, but they're not sinners. They didn't know
what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing on Calvary's cross. They
couldn't relate to it. All they could see is that their
king was suffering at the hands of the men that he had made.
And they were ready to come deliver him at his beckoning call. And as a lamb going to the slaughter,
open not his mouth. He died on Calvary's cross. Why? For his friends? For sinners? For publicans? Nobody loves you like that. Nobody
loves you like that. And you know what? If you've
got that, enjoy whatever relationships you have with other men. But
here's the truth. If God be for me, who can be
against me? Let the whole world turn against
me. God's my friend. Not for one moment, not for one
moment in time and eternity has he failed to take up the cause
of his people. He's our everlasting surety.
He ever lives to make intercession for us. He ascended at the right
hand of glory, he's seated before God, and he's interceding for
his friends. And not for a moment Has He forsaken
His friends? Not for a moment has He forgotten
their needs. Not for a moment has He failed
to provide for them exactly what they needed. You know what justifying God
does? It says, in spite of our circumstances, Amen. Amen. with his whole heart and with
his whole soul. He is a friend of sinners. He
hasn't nor will he ever lessen his friendship to do us good. I'm so thankful for that. Do you have a friend in Christ? Do you? You say, well, I don't know.
Well, let me ask you this, are you a sinner? He's a friend of sinners. He's
a friend to every sinner. I don't know how to make this
any more clear, but the natural man really doesn't believe himself
to be a sinner. He really doesn't. You find the most despicable
individual that you can find, and you talk to them enough,
and you're going to find out they've got some righteousness. They've
got some righteousness. They've got something they haven't
ever done. Something that they're better than someone else about. If you're sinful, then that means
that you're full of sin. That means that you have no righteousness
before God. None. Zero. If you're a publican, it means
that you've got no friends. Not a friend like this. You may have friends in the flesh.
I hope you do. But that friend's not going to
save you. I don't care how faithful of a friend they are. They can't
save you. Here's a friend that can save you before God. What
a friend. He will not divert His eye from
us until He brings us home to glory and we see Him in all His
splendor. He's a friend. You know, in order to be a friend
with someone, that person needs to be your peer. I always am concerned when parents
try to have a peer relationship with their young children. You
know, I've seen it. Well, I'm just going to be their
friend. Well, I hope that when your children
grow up that they'll be your best friends. My children are
my best friends in this whole world. I hope they'll be that way for
you. But as long as they're at home, they're not your peer. You have a position of authority,
don't you? Those of you who have employees
that work for you, there's just a certain barrier between you
being... You can't be a friend to a person
that you have authority over at work, any more than you can
be a real friend to the person who has authority over you. A friend has to be a peer. has to be a peer. Now how are
you and I going to be peers with the Lord Jesus Christ? Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 2. Verse 8, Thou hast put all things in subjection
under His feet. God has given Him all preeminence
and put everything under His feet. He's the Lord of the living
and the dead. For in that He put all in subjection
under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now
we see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus. who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory
and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for
every man." He's tasted death. That didn't
mean that his death was effectual for the salvation of every man,
but his death before God made him to be Lord over the living
and the dead. That's the point here. He reigns,
he's talking about the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ over
all his subjects, which is all men. For it became him for whom
are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory. Out of all of these men he brought
not all but many unto glory, to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering." So the Lord Jesus Christ now
is the captain of our salvation and he's made perfect through
his suffering. For both he that sanctifies. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one who set apart many sons of glory by his death. And here's what God says, for
both he that sanctified and they who are sanctified, that's his
peers, are all as one. For which cause he's not ashamed
to call them, what? His brethren. Rich, you're from Philadelphia.
The word friend is the word philos. And the word adelphos is the
word brother. In Philadelphia, you know, means
the city of brotherly love. I doubt there's a whole lot of
that going on there. Any more than there is going
on here. But here's the truth of this.
We've got a brother. that loves us. The word here
used for brethren is adelphos, and the word for friend is philos. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother, and he's not ashamed to call us his friends. He's not ashamed to call us his
brethren. Why? Because he's made us by
the virtue of his death and the imputation of his righteousness,
he's made us to be his peers. As he is, so are we. Perfect
before God? Sinless before God? Yes! How? In the person of our friend? That's why publicans and sinners
are so attracted to Him. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. in
the midst of the church while I sing praise unto thee." Here's
the Lord Jesus Christ singing praise to the Father in the midst
of His church over His brethren. And again, the Lord Jesus Christ
is speaking in verse 13. I will put my trust in Him, and
He did. to his dying breath, he said,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He trusted the Father. And again, behold, I and the
children which thou hast given me. So he calls us his friends, he
calls us his brethren, he calls us his children. What affection. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, and
deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
do that for everybody. He did that to those who were
subject to bondage. He did that for His friends who
He caused to see that they couldn't satisfy the demands of the law.
Not everybody is subject to bondage. Not everybody is burdened and
heavy laden. Not everybody comes out. No!
No, most people want to be under the law. They enjoy being under
the law. And they fool themselves into
thinking that they're satisfying the demands of the law and they're
earning favor with God by their own righteousness. They're not
under the burden of bondage. Only His friends are put under
the burden of bondage. Has the Lord caused you to realize
that there is a burden to the law that you can't satisfy. You need a friend. You need a
friend. All flee to Christ. And not all
men are afraid of death. They're not. The natural man
doesn't think about it. He just goes about his life as
if he's going to live forever. That's why I tell you all the
time, we're not going to be here very long. I want you to think
about death. And if you're a believer, you
do think about it. You do think about it. And you
rejoice in it. And you're able to say, for me,
to live is Christ, to die is gain. I want you to think about
it. The natural man doesn't think
about it. I'm encouraged when I hear somebody talk about them
being afraid of dying. That's a good thing. Maybe that's
a person that God's got their hand on. The natural, the religious man,
he's made a covenant with death. He's not worried about it. He's
presented his righteousness to God. He thinks he's okay. The Lord Jesus Christ came as
a friend to sinners to set free those who all their life are
afraid of dying and are in bondage to the law. That's who he came. Is that you? Is that you? Has God given you
some understanding of the severity of death and eternity? And has
He caused you to know that you can't keep the law? You can't
keep the law. You need a friend. And your friends in this world can't
do this for you. Publicans and sinners. What's a publican? a person who
has no friends. Is that you? I mean really. I'm talking about
a friend that can do what we're talking about here. I've got
no friends. I need a friend. A sinner? What's a sinner? A person who's
got no righteousness. If you've got no friends and
no righteousness, there it is. You've got a friend! A friend
before God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that You would enable us to justify Thee through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. For it's in His name we ask it.
Amen. Number 354 in our hardback terminal. Let's stand.