May it please God to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
book of the Proverbs chapter 18 and we'll read the last verse,
verse 24. Proverbs chapter 18 and reading
verse 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. This verse has two parts. The first is a general statement
to everyone really, a man that has friends must show himself
friendly. And then the second part tells
us, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,
And of course, that friend is the Lord Jesus Christ. So, just firstly, speaking on
this first section, a man that hath friends must show himself
friendly. It is, of course, a statement
that everyone should take note of, and of course, especially
the Christian Church, that we should be friendly to people,
we should not turn away from them. We are told in the word
of God, we are to do good unto all men, and then especially
unto the household of faith. And sometimes we perhaps tend
to forget the first part of that statement. Nonetheless, it is
right to do good unto all men, whatever their situation. And surely we are reminded of
the account of the Good Samaritan. There was a man going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among thieves who stripped him
and wounded him and left him half dead. And what do we read? We read, well there were those
who came and saw him and passed by on the other side. They didn't
want to be involved. They didn't want, as it were,
to dirty their hands. They didn't want to have to stop
and be delayed. Of course, we read in that account
that came by that Samaritan, one who wasn't normally had any
dealings with such people, and yet he stopped. And he did all
that he needed to do. Perhaps you might say he did
more than he needed to do. We have a very good example,
therefore, in the Good Samaritan, who bound up his wounds, pouring
an oil of wine, put him on his own beast, took him to an inn,
and paid the bill. And he said if there was any
more needed, when he came again he would pay it then. You see
then, there was a man who was really going, as you might say,
the second mile. He didn't just do that which
was absolutely necessary, he did more than that. Sure that
is the whole tenor of Scripture. The whole tenor of it is that
you and I are indeed to do good to all men and therefore we should
be friendly to one and another whatever their situation. Let
us not turn away from people just because they don't kind
of come up to what we might think is our standard. It's very easy
to turn our back and just be like the Pharisees and and the
priests and the Levites and just pass by on the other side. Well
the Lord graciously gives us words of instruction in his word
to direct us and to not pass by. And therefore a man that
hath friends must show himself friendly. He doesn't say, way
up everything and if you think it's okay then you can be friendly.
It says a man that has friends must show himself friendly. So may we all heed the word of
God and desire to be friendly to those that we come in contact
with even if they seem to oppose themselves. And then moving on
to this second part which is very wonderful. There is a friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. Now we know generally speaking
brothers are good friends to each other and they help each
other and they speak well of each other. I'm speaking generally
as it should be and therefore there is an evidence of what
a brother's love is and how there is a relationship one to another.
But the example here is, and there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. And if you just think of this
word sticketh, you young, you children, you think of the word
sticketh, it means something stuck, doesn't it? from one thing
to another. You put some glue on a piece
of paper and put it on another piece of paper, it sticks together,
doesn't it? It doesn't easily come apart. Well, here we have a wonderful
statement, really, that the Lord Jesus, he sticks very closely
to us, if we are indeed his people. Ponder that thought. that Jesus,
the great saviour of sinners, sticks himself to us, is very
close to us, is right beside us. How often we perhaps forget
that. If we realise that perhaps more
and more, what effect would it have? It would affect us, wouldn't
it? If you thought today that Jesus
Christ was right by your side, right alongside you. Would it
change what you're doing? Would it change what you're going
to do? Would it stop you doing some things that you were going
to do? If Jesus was right alongside
you, I'm sure it must have, it would have a wonderful influence. But the truth is, He is beside
us. He does know what we're doing.
He knows what we're thinking. He knows what you're thinking
in chapel now. He knows whether you're listening to what the
preacher's saying or if you're thinking about something else.
He knows everything. You see, we don't come to chapel
to waste our time. We don't come to chapel to just
draw pictures in books. We come to chapel to listen.
what Jesus may speak to us. So think of that this morning,
visualize it as though he's sitting beside you on the seat and he's looking at you, he's
wondering whether you are listening or not, whether you're just as
it were passing away the time. Well here we have this statement
that He is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Well now, if Jesus is sticking
very close to us, because he's our friend, he's not an enemy,
he's sticking close to us to help us to do those things which
are right, and to think those things which are right. And it's
not the devil turning us to wrong things. We might find the devil
sits on the other side. And there is, of course, a conflict
in our life. We have things to remember that
the devil wants us to do wrong things and the Lord will have
us to do good things and right things. And it's a sad thing,
isn't it? If we listen to the devil, and
don't realise that the Lord is by us, he knows what the devil
is speaking to us. He knows if we listen to the
devil rather than listening to him. Now, if Jesus is indeed
our friend and sticketh very closely, if someone is very close
to us, if you like to say stuck to us, You know that person would
hear everything that we, perhaps we made a noise if we sighed. And if we groaned, well that person would know,
wouldn't he? Or she, they would know all about
it. Well this is the favour that Jesus, if we are his friend,
he sticks by us, Although perhaps we won't always be found speaking,
he will hear, he'll know our sighs, and he'll know our groans. They might be very quiet, but
because he's right by our side, he hears them, he knows them. Now, this will be two God's children,
a comfort. It may make us ponder ourselves
and think, well, fancy, I've said those wrong things, I've
done those wrong things and there's Jesus being by my side all this
time. And it may make us very sorry. And it may make us truly
pray to God for forgiveness. That he may forgive all the bad
things we've done, the bad things we've said. But it's a comfort to know that
he's there. He's there with us at all times. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Well, may we have the evidence
of it in our own lives, and it must be a comfort, it may be
a concern sometimes if we step out of line and do wrong things,
but if you and I are constantly aware that such a word as this
is true, it will have a good effect upon us. It will have
a good effect in two ways. It will stop us doing wrong things
and it will encourage us to do right things. It will encourage
us to do right things because, as Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ. who strengthens me. And if the
Lord is there by us, stuck to us, he will strengthen us and
help us to do those things which are right, and to do those things
which are in accordance with the will of God. And the Lord
Jesus left on record many wonderful words to encourage us. And when he was speaking to his
disciples in the upper room, Having instituted the Lord's
Supper, partaken of the Passover, and just a few hours before he
was to be crucified, he was so mindful, and so kind to his disciples,
and so kind to the Church of God today. And he speaks to us
in the 15th chapter of John, and the 13th verse he says, Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man laid 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. So what a friend we have here.
Jesus telling his disciples, and of course, through the word
of God, telling the whole Church of God such a wonderful truth,
to realize this applies to us if we are his people. And it
is true, there's no greater love, is there, than a man should lay
down his life for his friends. Just try and think of that. You
know a natural friend, don't you? We all have friends, at
least most of us have friends anyway. And if we have friends,
and they needed a deliverance from such situation, and the
only deliverance offered was that if we were to die for them,
so that they might be freed, well that would be a tremendous
Sacrifice, wouldn't it? If you were required to die for
your friend, what would your reaction be? Well, I'm sure very
few of us would be willing to actually do that. But here we
have this great example of the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us
there can't be any greater love than this. It is the greatest
love. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. So, is Jesus Christ our friend? Is he our friend? Are we his
friends? Well, if we are, the great blessing
is this, that Jesus Christ has laid down his life for us. The disciples heard this great
truth and then there was to be the fulfilment of it in just
a few hours. What they must have thought as
these words came back into their minds, to realise the one who
they'd worshipped, the one who they'd been with, The one who,
as it were, had stuck closely to them, had now willingly given
his life, that they might be freed and blessed with spiritual
and eternal life. My friends, not only was it true
then, it's true down through time, and it will be true down
through the end of time. Well, today, I suppose the great
question is, Is this friend our friend? Is Jesus our friend? You know there's that lovely
hymn, isn't there, which starts, what a friend we have in Jesus. We sing it. Do we mean it? I hope we do. What a blessing
if it's true. Because if it is true, Then we
have the wonderful truth that this blessed Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God, the second person in the Trinity,
the true God, he was so gracious as to come and lay down his life
that we might live. Because he goes on to say, ye
are my friends. And then there's a qualification
to that. Sometimes we pass over the qualifications. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Now that's a proof that we are
a friend of God and he is a friend of us. And again it's a comprehensive
statement. It doesn't say ye are my friends
if you do so and so. if you do this or if you do that. It says, if ye do whatsoever,
I command you. That means whatever, whatever. Let us emphasise this. Whatever
the Lord has commanded us, we do. Because We're told, if, ye
are my friends, if. And therefore, if we do not do
whatsoever he commands us, surely we are therefore not his friends. That's very searching, isn't
it? That's very searching. And again, perhaps sometimes
we just need to come down, and as it were, sit before our God,
just like David did. He came and sat before his God.
just to see what he should do and what things were right and
wrong. And it's good for you and me to come and to sit before
our God, because surely the great question is to know that we are
a friend of God. We don't want to be an enemy
of God, do we? We don't want to be amongst those
who on that great day of judgment, the Lord says, depart from me,
I never knew you. We were not then a friend of
God. Oh what a blessing it is then if we are one of his friends
and we are in the words of scripture made willing in a day of his
power and surely that power is when he conveys to us that he
is our friend and that he's died for us to take away all our sins
he shed his most precious blood upon that cross at Calvary And
therefore we are his friends. And he goes on to say, henceforth
I called 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. And so there's
another proof, isn't there, that we are a friend of God. if the
Blessed Lord has made known unto us the things concerning his
Father. My friends, it's a great Gospel,
it's a great truth in the Word of God. And often we don't seem
to appreciate what it consists of. And we just muddle along
as it were. The things of God don't take
the preeminence in our lives that they should do. And yet
here we have the friend of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was
so willing to come into this world and to die that sin atoning
death. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Well, today, do we believe, do
we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is sticking very closely to us? Do we have the evidence that
it is so, that he's right by our side? Well the scriptures
are very full and very instructive and in James we read this in
the second chapter and the 23rd verse. And the scripture was
fulfilled, which says scripture is always fulfilled. And the
scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God. Not only Abraham believed God,
but all God's people believe God. So this morning, do you and I
believe God? Believe is great word. Abraham
believed God. And what was the result? There
was a wonderful result. And it was imputed unto him for
righteousness. God imputed, God gave to him
his righteousness because he believed God. Well, may we possess
that grace of God to believe God. And it doesn't stop there. This is what it goes on to say.
And he was called the friend of God. What a mercy, if you
and I today are called a friend of God, not the enemy, a friend
of God. God is holy, God is righteous,
God is just, God is perfect. But if the Lord gives us grace
to believe in God, then this is the outcome. We are clothed
with his righteousness, it's imputed to us. And we are called
a friend of God. It's really a truth. So great,
isn't it? So great to be called a friend
of God. But how wonderful it is if we
are. And you see, we do need to be
a friend, don't we? Really it's only the two situations. We're either a friend or we're
an enemy. So let us look into our hearts
this morning. and to examine whether we are
a friend or whether we are an enemy. And I said, well, I would
like a little more evidence to be able to prove whether we are,
whether I am a friend and whether God is my friend. Well, we have
a very blessed proof in the Song of Solomon. Again, that's a little
book which is not read very often. and often it's misread and people
don't find it very interesting as it were and they turn away
from it. But it is really a very wonderful account and it's between
Christ and his church. And the illustration is spoken
to us in these terms that Christ is the heavenly bridegroom and
the church is the bride, and the church is referred to as
the people of Jerusalem. Now, in the fifth chapter of
the Song of Solomon, we have the picture, and this is full
of pictures, the Song of Solomon. And we have a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ coming into his garden, And speaking of what
he's done there, and then we have this statement by the bride,
and she tells us, I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice
of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister,
my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew
and my locks for the drops of the night. Here was a very gracious,
and glorious invitation by the Saviour to his church. And it's a very important and
very clear statement, because here we are told, it is the voice
of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me. Well, did this woman, did this
bride open to the Lord Jesus? The heavenly bridegroom? And
perhaps we might say, well, if the Lord has knocked at our door,
do we open the door or do we keep it closed? Now, what happened
was, this bride, this person, she was very comfortable. She
was in bed. And she tells us, I put off my
coat. How shall I put it on? I wash
my feet. How should I defile them? He didn't want to rouse
herself. And that's very much the truth
today. People are not willing to rouse themselves from the
sleep. The sleep which we find ourselves
come into through the materialism of this world. We don't want
to bestir ourselves. We don't want to turn ourselves
to the gracious invitations that the Lord gives us. No, we want
to stay where we are. Well, we're told then that the
Lord put his hand by the hole of the door and then her heart
was moved. Then she thought, well, now I'll
get up. So she got up to open the door to her beloved. But
what had happened? the Lord had withdrawn himself. And that's very solemn, my friends.
And don't just pass over these words. It's a very painful experience
if you and I ignore what God is saying to us. If we turn away because we don't
want to obey the voice of our Beloved. You see, the Lord has
a program for us. The Lord doesn't work to our
program. We are to work to His program. Well, the Lord had withdrawn
Himself. He wasn't there. And this was
a great concern to this person, this woman, this bride. And therefore,
she called out, And she wandered about trying to find her beloved. And she walked around the streets
and we're told that the watchmen, which is of course the analogy
for the preachers of the gospel, the watchmen, we're told they
smote her. You may ask, what does that mean?
It means this. If you and I are disobedient to God and we come
and listen to the preaching of the gospel, then the word may,
as it were, be aggressive to us, may speak harsh words to
us. It's as though we're being smitten,
and we deserve to be. And then she went around the
town and the Church of God, the Daughters of Jerusalem, she said,
tell me if you find him. The church asked this question,
What is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest
among women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that
thou dost so charge us? Now that was a fair question,
and it would be a fair question to you and me if perhaps we are
walking have been walking in an opposite direction and now
are desiring to do that which is right, now desiring to find
the Lord Jesus Christ, to find our Beloved. And the question
was this, what is thy Beloved more than another Beloved? O
thou fairest among women, what is thy Beloved more than another
Beloved that thou dost so charge us? It would be a wonderful thing
if that question is put to us. And it would be a greater wonder
if we are able to answer in the words that this bride was able
to answer. From the 10th verse down to the
end of the chapter, she gives a good account of why Jesus was
precious, why he was beloved of her. She comes down to the
very last sentence in this fifth chapter and she says this, this
is my beloved and this is my friend, oh daughters of Jerusalem. And so may we be able to come
having been asked a question What does Jesus mean to us? Be
able to give an account of why Jesus is precious to us, why
we do love him. It's because he loved us. And to come down then and be
able to say in conclusion to the Church of God, to the daughters
of Jerusalem, and be able to say from our very heart, this
is my beloved. And this is my friend. Oh, bless God this morning. If
you're not able to come in to that situation, to realize the
great truth of this, there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. Yes, this bride, she knew what
her beloved was and how she desires to once again know the union
and communion and fellowship with the Saviour. There is a
friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Well, I wonder this
morning then if you and I have the evidence that the Lord Jesus
Christ is sticking very closely to us. There was another wonderful
testimony, again in the Old Testament, where the Prophet Zachariah speaks
of the truth of God, and to be able to realize how comforting
such words are. And this is what it says in the
6th verse of the 13th chapter. And one shall say unto him, speaking
to the Lord, what are these wounds in thy hands? And he shall answer,
those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. What does that mean? It means
therefore that we helped to crucify the Lord of life and glory. Yes,
We at war, we were guilty. What are these wounds in thy
hands? I think the Lord says those with
which I was wounded in the house of my friends. It was because
of our sins that the Saviour was wounded. It was because of
our sins He was nailed upon the cross at Calvary. Yes, how solemn
really, and how sacred it is to think that it was because
of us. We had a hand in his death. Because if we had no sin, there
would be no need for a Saviour. But because we have sinned, and
because that sin had to be forgiven, because that sin had to be blotted
out, because the price paid to take away that sin was none less
than the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why this
word is true. Those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends, to think that our sins caused the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe if the Holy Spirit
convinces us of that great truth, it must have an effect upon our
heart. It must have an effect. And what
will that effect be? It will be to soften our heart.
And it will be the desire to know the experience, to take
away the stony heart. and to give us a heart of flesh,
a soft heart, a heart that is touched by the blessed Spirit
of God, to bow down before Him and recognise that we caused
the death of the Lord of life and glory. If we have caused
the death, then what's the position? The position is that you and
I owe a great debt to such a glorious Saviour that we will not be able
to repay. We won't be able to repay it.
Yet if we think of our friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, so willing
to die for us, to give his life for that ransom price, that we
might be set free. Oh, what a wonderful gospel it
is. And how it's spelled out, you
see, right through the Word of God. The way of salvation. The only way of salvation is
that we could not save ourselves. We needed a saviour. We needed
a saviour. And oh, what a wonderful thing
it is. The Lord Jesus Christ came as the great and wonderful
saviour to save our souls. and ponder it, don't pass it
by, the cost of our salvation. Here is our friend, our friend,
willing to die for us, willing to take away our sins, that by
his grace, we should be eternally with him forever. It is a prospect,
a wonderful thought, isn't it? The day will come, when we should
have finished our life on this earth, this little life, this
passing life, this life which is just like a vapour. And then
may it be indeed to go and to be with Christ eternally, and
to go and to be with Christ which is far better. Naturally, we
don't think it is. Naturally, we don't want to go
to heaven. I remember very clearly when
I was a young man, I didn't want to go to heaven. I didn't want
to go to a place which was a holy place. I wanted to enjoy the
things of this world. I suppose you might say I was
loving the world. I didn't want to persuade the
things of this world. I didn't want to give up all
the things which were attractive to my natural being. And yet
you see on the other side, I didn't want to go to hell either. And
that's a fearful thought, isn't it? So you just may be in that
position, not wanting to go to heaven and not wanting to go
to hell. So you might say, where are you?
Well, you're in what we might say, no man's land. Now, you
might ask the question, well, what am I to do? Well, I'll tell
you. what I was told to do, and what
I did, by God's grace. And that was this, to pray for
a desire after heavenly things. That's to pray for a desire to
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. To come to know our need of a
saviour as a sinner. That's a simple prayer. But my
friends, if it comes from your heart, you can believe that God
will answer it. And he'll answer it in this way.
He will come and he will draw you to himself because he's your
friend. He's looking after you. And now
the time has come to reveal himself to you as his friend, the friend
of sinners. We don't want Christ to be our
enemy. We don't want to come to that judgment and he says,
I never knew you. Remember, he is the judge. I
never knew you. We want to be the stand there
and realize the judge is our friend. Who will then say, come
in now, blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom, reserve
for you. from the foundation of the world.
Now all of us want to be standing on that ground. And so this morning,
as we have these words before us, and there is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother, to have the wonderful evidence
in our hearts that Jesus is our friend. Let me reiterate He is
either our friend or our enemy. If he is our friend, we shall
go to heaven when we die. If he is our enemy, we shall
perish in hell. It's a very solemn thought, isn't
it? But yet it's a very blessed thought if we are those whom
Christ has loved with an everlasting love and therefore with loving
kindness has he drawn us, because if we pray this prayer that I
just referred to. You know, the effect will be
that the Lord will come and he will draw us to himself, draw
us to himself. And then we can revert again
to the Song of Solomon, this time the second chapter, where
we're told, draw me. It's the bride crying out, praying
out, draw me. And we will, and I will, run
after thee. What a blessing it is to be found
running after Christ, not running away from him. Not running away
because we think, well, that's too hard a way, that's too onerous. No, when the Spirit of God draws
us, our hearts are touched, we are moved by His Spirit, and
we are made willing in a day of His power, and we're drawn
we desire then to run after him. Well may we all know that wonderful
experience, that God-glorifying experience, because it's the
effect of the wonderful sovereign grace of God. And there is a
friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Amen.