I didn't speak with Joe about
that hymn that he picked there, but I think you'll find it goes
very well with the message that the Lord laid on my heart for
this hour. Jesus, the Friend of Sinners. One of the charges that the Pharisees
And the scribes and the Sadducees and those people that were most
religious and thought they were closest to God, one of the charges
that they laid against him was that he was a friend of publicans
and sinners. Now, when they said this, they
thought it would hurt Jesus' reputation with others. They
thought that this was going to do him some damage. But when
you hear that Jesus Christ is a friend of publicans and sinners,
what does that mean to you? What does that say to you? Is
it good news? Is it good news to you? Now,
just so we're clear, I want to define what is a publican? What's
a publican? Well, when someone's called a
publican, it's speaking about their job, what they do for a
living, and publicans among the Jews were hated by their countrymen,
by the Jews. They didn't like what these publicans
did. They were tax collectors. And
Israel at that time was occupied by a foreign nation, Rome. They
came in, they conquered them, and they were now rulers over
Israel. And, well, they had business
to conduct, and so they would take some of the money that the
Jews earned in their daily lives. What they sold or bought, they
had to pay something to the government because the government provided
roads and protection, security, and kept things going. So the
government said, well, for this service, we're going to take
some of your money that you sell and can conduct business in safely. Well, they didn't like it because
they were foreign occupiers, and so they hated these publicans. And I would imagine that as these
publicans began and heard the words of their fellow countrymen
saying, you're terrible, you're awful people. Well, these publicans
got pretty hard. And they began to be kind of
aggressive with their gathering of the taxes. And if you gave
them lip, they would give you a hard time. And they got used
to hearing the cries of the people asking for mercy and patience.
And they wouldn't hear it. And they said, just pay up. Just
give me what you owe. Oh, you're not going to pay up?
Guards, this person is speaking against Rome. Or guard, this
person didn't pay me when they did pay me. Or they just doubled
what they thought they owed them. And so they made it very difficult
for the people. And they were mean. They were
harsh. They were cruel people in the
eyes of their countrymen. Now, what's a sinner? What's
a sinner? A sinner is someone who's known
for their sins. You could look at them and say,
that's a filthy person. I don't want to know them. I
don't want to be near them. They're liable to take advantage
of me. They might bring me down among
my neighbors. People might think I'm just like
them if I speak to them, if I spend any time with them. I don't know,
but do any of those descriptions describe something of you? Are you sometimes short, greedy,
hasty, pushy with others, take from others what you think is
yours? Maybe that describes you. Maybe you are a sinner. The scriptures
tell us we're all sinners. There's something we all do that's
offensive to the true and living God. Maybe we do look out for
ourselves and are cruel to those that we should be merciful and
kind to. The Lord tells us that we're
not very different from the publican and the sinner at all. We're
just like them. We're just like them. Now when
we look at Christ, What do we see? When we look at Jesus of
Nazareth, the Christ that God sent, what do we see? We see a man who is perfect,
holy, spotless, just in all his ways. You know, when he came,
he didn't take from the people. He gave to others. He gave to
others what they needed. He met their needs. When Christ
came, rather than sin and be rude or cruel to the people,
rather than sin against them, he was very forgiving, very kind,
very receptive of those who wanted to be near to him, of those who
wanted to talk to him, of those who had a need. of him and came
to him and sought him out. He was very kind to them. He
didn't push them away. He's described by those who knew
him as a good man, somebody that I'd want to know, somebody that
I'd want to speak to. Peter, when he was talking to
another sinner, speaking of Christ, he said, God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. And he went about
doing good. He went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with
him. And we have other testimonies
about Jesus of Nazareth. When John the Baptist saw Christ
walking, when he saw him coming, he said, behold, the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world. He called him the
Lamb of God. In other words, he's ascribing
that when Christ came, he came to sacrifice himself for others. He came to lay down his life
for the needs of others, to save them from their sins, to deliver
them from their cruel slavery under the devil and under false
works. Christ came to do that, to save
them. When speaking of Christ as our
high priest, he's asked, when he's spoken of as our high priest,
who's a high priest, what is a high priest? He stands between
the people and God. He stands between the people.
He represents the people to God. And he takes the things of God
and shows them to the people, and teaches the people. Christ
is called the High Priest of his people, and he's described
as being holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. And yet when speaking of him,
Peter also describes him as the Lamb. The lamb without spot and
without blemish. A lamb is gentle. A lamb isn't
going to turn and buck you in the back when you turn against
them, when you turn your back. He's not going to hit you. He's
not going to harm you. A lamb is gentle. A lamb is very
gentle, and that's our Savior. He's gentle. Now, what's so amazing
about Christ, that one who's holy and spotless and without
sin, what's so incredible is just how close he was to publicans
and sinners. Just how close he was to publicans
and sinners. Look at Matthew chapter 9, verses
10 and 11. Matthew chapter 9, verses 10
and 11. Jesus was invited to a feast
and he was there eating and it came to pass as Jesus sat at
meat in the house, behold many publicans and sinners came and
sat down with him and his disciples. These publicans and sinners came
and sat down with Christ. That tells me that they wanted
to be near Christ. They're standing there in the
room in the courtyard where this feast is taking place, and they
can sit wherever they want. And they chose to sit close to
Christ. They wanted to be near Christ.
They felt like they could approach Christ and come up and talk to
him. Republicans, hated by their countrymen,
could come up and talk to him. A known sinner in the community
could come up and talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they felt
no judgment. They felt no hatred. They didn't
feel like he looked at them like they were disgusting or that
he didn't want to be near them. They didn't feel that from Christ.
They didn't experience that from Christ. They felt genuinely comfortable
in the presence of this holy man. of this man who spoke with
authority. This man who they thought he'll
never let us near him, well he did. They could come right up
and sit down in an empty seat and be near him, or stand behind
him and eat listening to what he was saying, or sit down by
his feet or next to him or whatever, they did it. And when the Pharisees
saw it in verse 11, those that are religious, those that counted
themselves to be closest to God and most pleasing to God, they
said unto his disciples, they whispered to his disciples, why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? Don't you know what
that makes him look like? Don't you know what that makes
you guys? If that's your master and he's sitting with publicans
and sinners, That doesn't look good. How is he a man of God? Why are you listening to this
guy? Doesn't that make him a sinner?
Isn't he just like those that he talks to and spends time with? Or is the Lord teaching us that
this is the man we need? This is the Savior that sinners
like you and me need. We need a Savior like that. one
who receives us, one who heals us, one who touches my heart,
broken heart, and heals me, one who receives me and teaches me
the true and living God, as a faithful high priest, kind and gentle,
a friend of publicans and sinners. What the Lord is showing us is
He's the one that sinners need. We need to be near Jesus. We
need the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to go and sit at Christ's
feet. I want to go and be near the
Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't always want to be like
that. But when he showed me what I am by nature, when he showed
me what I am, that I'm a sinner, that I'm just like the sinner
and just like the publican because that's what I am by nature. And
he received sinners. Lord, receive me. Help me. Bring me into your company. Bring
me into your fold. Make me one of your people. I want to know you, Lord. I want
to know you. He received sinners. He received. Christ is the provision of God. He's the one whom God has provided
to save his people from their sins. What's so precious to sinners
about Christ is that he's their savior. He gives them hope. that
we that are imperfect, we that have no righteousness of our
own, we that have nothing to boast of God and can look back
at either at everything or certain times in our lives and see, I've
failed, I've come up short of what God deserves, and I'm not
perfect, and I haven't spoken perfect, and I haven't done things
that are perfect and right, and I've hurt people, and I've done
things against the true and living God, Lord, Would you be gracious
and merciful to me? Would you receive me and cleanse
me of my sin and wash me of my sins and clothe me with the righteousness
of Christ and bring me near to you and teach me of you, Lord,
the true and living God? We see Christ embracing the sinful. He went up to the filthy and
the dirty in their stinking rags and touched them and healed them. healed them of their diseases
and sicknesses. And He cured them of their withered
hands and putrefying sores and their eyes with eyes out of their
sockets. He touched them and He healed
them and He received them. He receives sinners. He receives
those whom others that are good and think that they're holy with
God, Those that would reject them, Christ receives. Those
that are rejected by man, he receives them. And that's why
they rightly, when they charge Christ with being a friend of
publicans and sinners, they're right. Christ is a friend of
publicans and sinners. And that's why he's so precious
to you that are sinners, to you that have no righteousness of
his own. Now last week we saw when in
Luke we were looking at John the Baptist as his ministry was
wrapping up and he described Christ as having a fan in his
hand and that fan, that fan that would blow things like this and
move papers around, that fan in Christ's hand is something
that farmers would be used to that grow grains because you
would harvest the grain and bring them in and you'd beat that grain
off the stock and then you would take your fan and you'd blow
that as you're moving that grain around you'd blow it and what
happened there's this papery substance called chaff and that
chaff would be blown away but the wheat would remain. That
precious wheat that we eat, that we get good hearty bread from,
that we eat, that would remain. And so by that fan, Christ separates
the precious from the vile. He separates the wheat from the
chaff. He separates the sheep from the
goats. Christ does that. And one of
the ways that he divides his people, one of the ways that
he makes known who are his people is he makes them to know I'm
the needy sinner. And my brethren who come to Christ,
that believe Christ, they're needy sinners. And we together,
being needy sinners, having no righteousness of our own, come
to Christ, the Savior of the needy sinner. And so we're drawn
to Him. We come to Him because we need
Him. I don't have any righteousness
of my own. I don't have anything to boast of in myself. I boast of Christ. I boast of
him. So Christ, we see the needy sinner
is drawn to Christ. And those without, who are those
outside of Christ? They have religion. They have
righteousness. They have what they need to come
to God. And so they don't need Christ.
And if they did need something, they wouldn't go to him or take
anything from him. They'd figure it out and do it
themselves. And so you see two kinds of people. You see needy
sinners. who have no righteousness, and
you see others that have something. They have a righteousness to
come to God. Well, which one are his people?
Who are the people of God, the needy, stinking sinner, or the
one who's good in themselves, and has their religion down,
and has their discipline, and can come to God whenever they
like? They just maybe make a few tweaks and adjustments, but they
get it all back on track. Who are the people of God? Which
one is Christ's people? The ones who are his friends.
The ones who are his friends. The one that he makes known are
his friends. He draws them to himself and
they come. They're the ones that sit down
and eat with him and eat with his disciples. All right? They
want to be with his disciples. They want to be in the presence
of Christ. They want to hear of Christ.
They want to know, Lord, what do you say about this? I know
what man says. I know what man thinks is righteousness
and salvation. Lord, what do you say is salvation? What do you do for someone like
me, who's got nothing, to stand before you, who's poor and needy
and can't do anything for you, Lord? Can you do something for
me? Please, because I got nothing.
That's who the Lord draws to himself. People who have nothing
to give back to God, but are just thankful that Christ will
receive them as a friend. Gently, kindly receive them. We want to be with him because
of his love and his kindness and grace toward us. His friends
are the kind of people that the religious call publicans and
sinners. Stinky, dirty people that you
don't want to be near. They got problems. You don't
want to go by them, they'll bring you down. But that's where Christ
is pleased to dwell, in the presence of the needy sinner. And so the
publicans and sinners are his friends. His people are the needy
sinner. Therefore, knowing that, which
one are you? Are you the needy sinner? Or
are you the Pharisee, the one who's religious and got it all
down and can take care of yourselves? Which one are you? Again, which
one is of faith? Because the Lord tells us we're
all sinners, but he brings his people through Christ by faith. Which one is of faith? That one
who's needy and comes to Christ asking, Lord, save me? Or that
one who says, I got this. I'll do it. I'll do what needs
to be done. I'll figure it out. Don't help me. The one of faith. The one of faith is the child
of God. The one of faith is the one that
draws near to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in spite of what man
thinks and what man teaches, we want to know what the Lord
teaches. And he says, I'm going to make you know your need. I'm
going to make my people know that they're sinners. I'm going
to make you know that you don't have what it takes to stand before
a holy, righteous, almighty God that you might hear, that you
would stop what you're doing and hear Christ and hear faith
that you would hear by the grace of God with faith and come to
me in the Lord Jesus Christ whom I've sent I've sent him for the
needy sinner that's what the Father teaches you and so unto
you therefore which believe Christ is precious he's precious indeed
precious to us now I want to give you a few examples of those
that Christ called friends, of those that Christ drew near to
Him. We don't always see the word
friend in there but I want to give you the examples of those
who were drawn to Christ and came near to Christ and who received
His help. who were given his help, who
sought him and asked him for help. I want to show you seven
examples, seven examples. These, you that are of faith
and you that that trust Christ for his righteousness. These
are your brothers and sisters in scriptures given as examples
so that if there is one among us who's the worst of the worst
of the worst of sinners, you would have hope that you would
come and draw near to Christ. because he saves the worst of
the worst of the worst of sinners. He delights to save his people
and come to them with power and heal them and give them light
and life and hope in him. All right, so seven. First, there's
Peter. Peter, before he was a disciple
of Christ, he wasn't always a disciple of Christ. He was a fisherman.
And fishermen have a reputation for being some pretty hard, foul-mouthed
people. And so he's a fisherman, and
he's out there with his partners. And one day, the Lord came there
near the shore, near the sea there. And Peter's there, and
his partners, James and John, are there. And they're cleaning
their nets. They had come back from fishing. And they caught
nothing. And there's a lot of people that
wanted to hear Christ. And they're crowding around Christ. And so
the Lord, who's all powerful and knows exactly what he's doing,
he gets into Peter's boat. He steps in Peter's boat and
says, push out just a couple of feet. I'm going to speak to
the people. And he does that. And maybe Peter's just kind of
listening, half listening, and he's cleaning his nets and taking
care of things. And then when Christ was finished,
he said, Peter, push out. Let's go out to sea. And he said,
Lord, we've been out already tonight. We've been there all
night, and we caught nothing. I'm a professional. I know what
I'm doing. There's nothing out there. And
as he's talking, talking, talking, he looks and sees Christ's face
just straight same. Push out, Peter. And so he says,
all right, Lord, I'll do what you say. I'll show you. I'll
do what you say. And then we're told that he told
them to throw the net over, and the hole was so big a fish that
the nets began to break. They were breaking, and he had
to get help from his partners, James and John. And when Peter
saw it, We're told in Luke 5.8 that he fell down at Jesus' knees
saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, oh Lord. I'm a sinful man. He knows, he
couldn't hide it. I was doubting you, I resisted
you, I didn't believe you, I thought you were just some other guy,
but now I see that you are sent of God, that you know the true
and living God, and what you say is truth, Lord. Now I know,
but you shouldn't be near me, because I'm a sinful man, not
worthy to be in your presence. And that's one of the things
that the Lord does. All his people, none of them,
none of your brothers and sisters, you that believe Christ by faith,
none of us denies that we're sinners. The Lord shows us our
sin and when we forget, He reminds us. He reminds us of our need
of Him. And so we're brought to confess,
I need you Lord. I'm the sinner. I need your grace.
I need your salvation. That sin there in Peter, that
didn't stop Christ. In fact, our Lord said, Peter,
you and James and John, your partners, follow me. I'm going
to make you fishers of men. And we're told that when they
brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
Christ. But that wasn't the end of Peter's trouble. Peter, having
denied the Lord that first time and saw sin, he denied him again.
When Christ allowed himself to be taken to be crucified for
the salvation of his people, we're told that his disciples
forsook him, all fled from Christ. And then Peter thought, well,
let me see what happens. And so he follows Christ, but
at a distance. He follows him at a distance.
And he gets into the courtyard. And someone recognized Peter
and said, Peter. Well, they said, yeah, you. You're
one of his disciples, aren't you? And Peter vehemently denied
it. He said, no. And another one
said, I think you're one of his disciples. And he got angry and
said, no, I don't know this man. And it happened again. And Peter
swore that he did not know the Christ. But did that turn Christ
from Peter? Although he denied Christ and
turned from him? No, the Lord was very gracious
to him. And the Lord drew Peter after
he rose from the dead. He always made sure you tell
Peter, my disciples, and you tell Peter, who I know is broken
because I broke his heart in grace, you tell him, come, meet
me. I'll meet you in Galilee. You
come with your brethren. And our Lord restored Peter.
Our Lord didn't turn from Peter. He restored him. He made him
one of the faithful leaders in the church. One of the faithful
leaders in the church. And Peter never left him again
after that. Second, the second example, after our Lord's resurrection,
we read how the Lord saved a soldier, a Roman soldier, a centurion
in fact. He was the head over other soldiers. We're told of the Italian band. This was a man named Cornelius
of the Italian band. Being a centurion, he led those
men And he was moved by the Lord to search out Peter, to call
for a man named Peter. And Peter, being taught of the
Lord, came to that Gentile's house. And as Peter was coming
in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped
him. Peter, another man. And Peter said, what are you
doing? Get up. I'm just a man like you. Don't
worship me. And so this Cornelius showed
he's an ignorant man in darkness. He's stirred by the Lord, but
he doesn't know the true and living God. And yet that's who
God calls ignorant people in darkness who don't know the truth.
He doesn't save his people because they know something about him.
He saves people who know nothing about God. We think we know something
of the Lord, but we're idolaters by nature. We're false worshipers
by nature. That's who the Lord calls. And
Peter goes in, and he sees there's other people gathered to hear
what he has to say. And Peter tells them, I'm just
letting you know, I'm a Jew, you're Gentiles, and I shouldn't
be here. It's wrong for me to be here,
except God has showed me that I should call nothing common
or unclean. And so I came to preach the gospel
to you filthy, sinful Gentiles. And that's why we have the gospel
this day, because God didn't keep it from us. He sent that
word out in His grace and power even to filthy Gentiles like
us who are ignorant of the true and living God, to make us to
know the true and living God. And that man was a soldier, a
man who went into war, a man who took men's lives in the line
of duty. And yet God was merciful to that
soldier and said, you're mine now. You're mine. And he revealed
himself to that man. Third, we have another Gentile.
This man, we're told of, was possessed by a legion of devils. This man was so bad, no one wanted
to be by him. He was a horrible character. He was awful. He was nuts. He
was crazy. No one wanted to be by him. So
they would chain him up, drag him out as far as they could,
and leave him there, hope that he never came back, that he just
disappeared and died or something. But they didn't want to be near
him. And so what happened? Christ comes. This is a Gentile
man. Christ comes to that place for that man. And he drove that
legion of devils out of that man. And something happened. The pigs reacted and killed themselves. They went off a cliff. And so
the people wanted to go out and see what happened. What's going
on out here? And when they got there, they
found the man. That man, that nut job, they
found him sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed in his right
mind. He was different. Christ was
a friend to that man. Christ came and drew near to
that man and did for that man what the chains and the binding
of the law and the chains of religion could not do for that
man. Christ did it. Christ did it. He saved that
man. And so when no one else would
or could be this man's friend, Christ was a friend to him. He
saved him. He delivered him. That's what
our Lord does when He's a friend to the sinner. When He clothes
you in His righteousness. He's not looking for what you
can do for Him. He gives you His robe of righteousness. When Christ draws near, He brings
you to sit at Christ's feet. to hear him. He gives you a desire.
Lord, I want to hear what you say. Lord, I want to be with
you. Our Lord does that for his friends. Fourth, Christ befriended a Gentile
mother. This woman, a Syrophoenician
woman, had a daughter possessed of a devil. She might have even
been a single mother. I don't know. It doesn't really
say. I don't know where her husband was, but she had a daughter possessed
of a devil, and none could help her. None could give her or her
daughter relief, but Christ did. Christ did that for this woman. And we see him there drawing
her near to himself, speaking to her in such a way so as to
reveal in her his faith, his life, his light, so that she
testified of the righteousness of Christ. And you can't speak
ill of Christ if he's your friend. You're going to speak the truth.
He's going to give that to you. You're going to declare the faithfulness
and the power and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
when he had drawn faith in her, when he formed faith in that
woman's heart, he brought forth, he drew forth that confession
that only he could save her. And he said, be it unto you,
just as you asked. And he healed that woman's daughter
from that very hour. He healed her. Fifth, we see
that Christ befriended a Samaritan woman. The problem with the Samaritans
in the Jews' eyes is these were half-Jews and half-Gentiles.
They were really mixed up and bad and they were hated by the
Jews. And this woman was divorced five
times. Now if you're married and divorced
five times, There's some problems there, right? It's pretty obvious
that there's some big problems with you. There's nobody can
live with you, and you don't want to live with nobody. And
the woman she was with at the time wasn't even, she wasn't
even married to him. So here she is with another guy,
and Christ knew all that, and yet Christ spoke to her. He spoke
to her and rather than steer clear and saying, she's not going
to hear the truth, she don't want to hear this. No, Christ
spoke to her and revealed to her who the Messiah is, that
he was the Messiah and he's talking to this sinful woman divorced
five times that nobody in their right mind according to man,
would want to talk to and be near this woman or get to know
her. You certainly wouldn't want your husband being near her or
somebody that you cared about, your sons. You wouldn't want
them near her. And yet Christ came and spoke
to her and declared the truth to her. And so that when she
heard, when she understood Christ and what he was saying, she said,
come. She went back to the city and
said, come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. He knows every dirty, dark secret
about me, and yet he's still speaking to me. He's the Messiah. He showed me he's the Messiah.
Come, see for yourselves. He's the Messiah. And so she
was made a friend of Christ. She was delivered from her sin
and her filth that very day, and he changed her life by his
grace. Sixth, Christ befriended one
of the chief tax collectors. Remember, they're the publicans.
And this man was the chief, means he was the boss of the other
publicans. They reported to him. And so
they worked for him. This man's name was Zacchaeus.
He was chief among the publicans, and he was rich. He was a rich, wealthy man. And we know from the scriptures,
it's impossible for the wealthy to hear, except God be gracious. They're no different from us.
No different from us. And so this man wanted to hear
Christ. He was a sinner. He wanted to
see Christ. And so he climbed up into a tree
to see Christ. And Christ went right up to that
tree and said, Zacchaeus, make haste. Come down right now. I
must stay at your house. And Zacchaeus brought him in
there. And he spoke with Christ. He heard Christ. He sat with
Christ. He invited his friends to be
with him at that feast with Christ. And Zacchaeus, being moved by
the Lord, stood up and said, Lord, This day I'm giving half
my goods to the poor. And if I've wronged any man of
his wealth, I'll give him back four times. And if he unjustly,
he's saying, if I took someone a hundred bucks from somebody
that I shouldn't have taken, I'm going to give him back $400
for their trouble and their pain and suffering. And the Lord said,
This day of salvation come to this house for so much as he
also is a son of Abraham. You know one of the things that
Abraham is called in scripture? The friend of God. Abraham is
called the friend of God. He's saying Zacchaeus, this man
Zacchaeus, he's my friend now. He's my friend. And so, for the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
If you're lost, if you're ignorant and in darkness of God, if you're
a sinner, God has shown you you're a sinner, don't hide from Christ. Come to Christ. He receives sinners. He's the friend of sinners. There
is no one off limits to Christ. None. And that brings me to the
seventh and final one, Those Pharisees who whispered and said,
why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? They hated Christ. And Christ
saved one of those Pharisees named Saul. He knocked him off
his high horse, put his face in the dirt, and he called Saul,
saying, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why are you harming my people? Why are you putting my people
in jail and putting them to death, Saul? Why are you doing that?
And he spoke to Saul and he drew him to him, sent the man Ananias
to preach the gospel to him, and Saul heard it, rose and was
baptized, and then he began to eat. The Lord pursued that Pharisee
who hated him. who persecuted him and he made
him his own so that he became the man we know today as Paul
the Apostle. And so the Lord saves all kinds
of sinners. You might have been the most
holiest roller or the biggest legal law-mongering, self-righteous
Pharisee and the Lord, if you hear him and believe him this
day, come. Come to Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever's keeping you from Him,
don't let it keep you. Come and hear Christ. Call upon
Him. Ask Him for salvation to save
you. He delights to save the sinner, to heal the brokenhearted,
to heal the diseased and the sickly, to give them hope in
Himself. Our Lord shows us in His Word
that God chose whom He would be gracious to. and He chose
us before the foundation of the world. And in Adam we fell in
sin, and then are born and come forth, and we sin. And yet the
Lord is showing us that Christ loves those whom the Father gave
Him, so that nothing prevents. Our sin after didn't stop Christ
from coming, didn't stop Him from going to the cross and shedding
His blood for everyone whom the Father gave Him. He loves those
whom the Father gave Him. He laid down His life for them.
And so you that believe Him, let nothing stop you. Because
if you believe Christ, that's what the Lord reveals and manifests
in all those whom He loves. He gives them faith. And all
who come to Him in faith, asking Him for forgiveness, asking Him,
Lord, be my friend. Receive me. Help me, Lord. Save
me. He refuses none. He receives
all that come to him. Greater love, he said, 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. In other words, what he's saying
is, I work salvation in you. And you'll do. You'll obey. You'll come in the obedience
of faith, is what he's talking about. You'll come believing
the word of God that Christ is all my salvation. And you that
come, he will not refuse. He will not turn away. Because
he receives sinners. He's the friend of sinners, the
needy sinner. who needs Him and believes Him
and cries out to Him for grace. So sinner, come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe on Him. He is the Savior
of sinners. That's why the Father said, save
His people from their sins. I pray He bless your heart with
that and encourage you to always come. Keep coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.