Go with me again to 3 John. 3 John. A few months ago, a brother
read 3 John in my study on a Wednesday night. And when he did, one word that
is used two times grabbed my attention. And I just love it
when that happens. I love it whenever a passage
is being read, whether I'm reading it or somebody else is reading
it, and the Lord just grabs hold of you and blesses your heart with it. And
this just so blessed my heart. It made me want to write it down. I made a note and I set it to
the side. I'll do that a lot to see if
the Lord will at some point give a message on it, and tonight
is that point. So let me read this epistle again,
and when we get to it, I'm going to point out the word that is
our subject matter. It says, The elder unto the well-beloved
Gaius, whom I love in the truth, and the truth is Christ. He said,
I am the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul
prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the
brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee. Christ
in you is the hope of glory. Even as thou walkest in the truth,
that's how God's people walk, in Christ. I have no greater
joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou
doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to
strangers, which have borne witness of thy charity. That means love
before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey
after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. And that's our motivation
for everything that we do in the ministry, for the ministry,
love, love for Christ, love for the brethren, charity, he calls
it. Verse seven, because that for his namesake, it's all for
his namesake. They went forth taking nothing
of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive
such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. Our Lord
said, if we want to know what it is to be a helper in the ministry,
our Lord said, as much as you have done it unto the least of
one of these, my brethren, you've done it to me. We are the ministry. God's people
are the ministry. We're, we're preaching the gospel
as a ministry to the ministry to find the ministry. So God
will call out his ministry and then we're going to minister
to him. But we are the ministry. And
he said, uh, for his name sake, they went forth taking nothing
of the Gentiles verse eight. We therefore ought to receive
such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth, the gospel
of Christ. I wrote unto the church, but
diatrophies who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth
us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will
remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious
words and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive
the brethren and forbid them that would and casteth them out
of the church. There must be heresies among
us, sad to say. But the gospel and the truth
will always have enemies and opposition. But God overrules
all that. Verse 11, beloved follow, not
that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth
good is of God, but he that doeth evil has not seen God. Demetrius
has good report of all men and of the truth itself. Yay. And we also bear record and you
know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but
I will not with ink and pen write unto thee, but I trust I shall
shortly see thee and we shall speak face to face. Peace be
to thee. Now here's our word. He said,
our friends salute thee. greet the friends by name. He said, our friends here salute
you and would you please tell all of our friends there, greet
all of them by name. And that's what we do when we
see somebody from another place and we know another brother there,
we say, tell And make sure you tell, greet them by name, tell
them individually that we said hello, we miss them, we love
them. Greet the friends. When our brother
read that, I thought that is absolutely beautiful. That is
just such a beautiful word that our Lord has placed in his word. He is referring to brethren in
Christ. So he's referring to usually
the wording of these epistles. They're written by different
apostles. And usually the wording is greet
the brethren. That's what it will say. Greet
the brethren, salute all those in Christ Jesus. It'll say, this is to the elect.
That's who I'm writing to. To the strangers scattered abroad. All of those terms are referring
to the same people. Brethren in Christ, the elect,
strangers scattered abroad. But John at the end of his epistle
said, they're our friends. They're our friends. He said,
we're friends. That's what brethren, In Christ
elect strangers scattered abroad are friends. We are friends. We are friends. I just love that so much. That
is just so special to me. The apostle Paul. As a prisoner
one time, it says in the book of Acts, he was given liberty
to go unto his friends to refresh himself. He had the favor of
a centurion. He let him go for a little while
to his friends to refresh himself. The scripture says that the Lord
turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. It's just a sweet term, friends. It is a heartwarming thing to
think about having someone that you believe in your heart and
your soul is a true friend. You know what I mean? There,
we have friends. True, true friends. Here's a
couple of definitions of the word friend. One attached to another by affection
or esteem. One who is just attached to another
by affection or esteem. It means a favored companion. That means a favorite person
to be with. A favorite person, that's a friend.
When I hear that, it makes me think of David and Jonathan in
the Old Testament. They're one of the greatest examples
of what friendship truly is. It says David loved Jonathan. And it says Jonathan's heart
was knit to David. And I've told you this before,
but it happened when David slew Goliath. What a glorious story. Saul, Jonathan's father, was
the king. That whole army was lined up.
The Philistine army was lined up. Saul was taunting everybody. Nobody would go. And he was saying, send one man.
Whoever loses will be the slaves of the other one. So David goes
out there. Slays Goliath. took his sword, cut Goliath's
head off, and came walking back up to Saul with it. And it says
when Jonathan saw that, his heart was knit to David. His heart
was knit to the one who he saw as his king. His heart was knit
to the Savior of his people, Savior of himself. And that's
Christ to us. That's Christ to us. Seeing Him
and what He's done, it just knits our hearts to Him. People who
are true friends truly love each other. They desire each other. They will be there for each other.
And in Christ, that's what God's people are. That's what they
are for each other. That's what they feel for each
other. true friends. God's people know why they are
friends and they know what made them to be friends. And that's what I want us to
look at just for the rest of the message here. The one and
only reason, the one and only ground, the one and only foundation
of our friendship, Christ Jesus, our Lord and our Savior. We're gonna take just a minute
here and turn to a few scriptures and we're gonna read about our
friend, okay? Capital F, our friend. Turn with me if you would to
Proverbs 18. Proverbs 18, look with me at
verse 24, it says, a man that hath friends must
show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. We have friends. We are spiritual
eternal friends only because Christ showed himself friendly. Friendly to us. We are his friends,
friends with him only because he showed himself friendly to
us first. He first showed Himself friendly
to us. It was a one-sided friendship. We're friends with Him. One-sided, one-sided friendship
until He made us to be friends with Him. Had that responsibility
fallen on us, like men falsely declare it to be, You know, people say, have you
made your peace with God? Are you right with God? Had that
fallen on us, had the Lord been waiting for us to make friends
with him, he would have had to have walked away from us a long
time ago. Because we did not want to show
ourselves friendly to him. We despised and rejected him. That's what we read this morning.
But in His faithfulness, He was a friend to us. He was a friend
to us. And He stuck closer to us than
a brother even would. And in doing so, He made a covenant
with us to love us and to never leave us and to break down that
middle wall of enmity between us that we were holding on to. and to make peace. And in that
peace, He said, we're friends. In the peace of the cross, by
the blood of the cross, because of that blood, He said, we're
friends. We were made to be friends with God by Him making us to be friends
with Him, one with Him. Turn with me, if you would, to
Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, verse 8, it says, But thou, Israel, art my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof
and said unto thee, thou art my servant. I have chosen thee
and not cast thee away. Fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with thee. They that were against thee shall
be as nothing and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I
will help thee. Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and
you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." That is a friend. That is a friend. He said, I'll
do all of that for you because you are my friend. It's because I have chosen you
and made you to be my friend. He said, I will strengthen you
because you're my friend. I'll help you because you're
my friend. I'll uphold you with the right
hand of my righteousness because you're my friend. He said, I'll fight for you.
I love how Moses, whenever he was leading the children of Israel
out and they came up to the Red Sea, can you honestly imagine the
fear and the dread of knowing we are now at the sea. And that
whole army that we just left is coming up behind us. And we're
pinned in and there's nowhere to go. And they came to Moses
saying, what are we going to do? And I'm sure Moses, the Lord
may have given him great strength in that moment, but in his flesh,
I'm sure he was worried too. But he said to them, Fear not,
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. He said, the Lord
shall fight for you. What a thing to say at a moment
like that. The Lord shall fight for you
and you'll hold your peace. And that's what he said right
here. I'll fight for you because I'm your friend. I will protect
you. He said, I will shield you. because you're my friend. And
when you get down, he said, when you get discouraged and when
you become afraid, I'll sit beside you and I'll hold your hand and
I'll say to you, fear not, I'm right here, I'm still right here.
And I'm not going anywhere. And he said, I'll do that because
you're my friend. Turn with me to Matthew 11. Matthew 11 verse 19, it says,
the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, behold,
a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and centers,
but wisdom is justified of her children. That's who he is. That's
who he is. The friend of vile, wretched
men are miserable centers. A person who knows he or she
is a sinner loves to hear that. Loves to hear that. Thank God
he is the friend of sinners. That's what I am, a sinner. He
is the true friend that sticketh closer than a brother who made
a covenant. He made a promise to protect
and defend and shield and strengthen and encourage and raise back
up. A bunch of sinners like us. And
that promise was from the judgment of God and for every moment thereafter. On that cross, he said, I will
shield you and defend you and protect you. And every moment
thereafter, that's what he does for us. Turn with me over to
John 15. John 15 verse 13, it says, greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Here's the amazing thing about
this. Clearly, we want to be friends
with him, clearly. All right, clearly, we want to
be friends with him. But amazingly, he wants to be
friends with us. That's the amazing thing. That
is the amazing part about grace. Every sinful ruined soul that
his father gave to him. He loved that soul and desired
that soul. He desired that soul to the point
that he was willing to lay down his life to cleanse and redeem that soul
because that soul was his friend. That soul, all of his people
are favored companions to him. You know what the definition
of the word friend is? A favorite person to be with. A favored companion. Someone that you are attached
to. He was attached to his people
because of his affection for his people. And it's the understatement
of eternity to say that God's people want to be with Christ.
Obviously we want to be with Christ, but the glory of eternity
is in hearing that Christ wants to be with his people. As much
as we love and desire Him, infinitely greater He loves and desires
us. Infinitely greater He loved and
desired us. And He proved that to us all
the way down to the grave. He was willing to be separated
from God for us. Have you ever thought about the
statement that the apostle Paul made? He said, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ for my brethren. Have you ever thought about that?
And in your heart honestly said, I don't know if I could say that.
And I'm a center talking about other centers, just like me.
But think about the spotless, Holy
lamb of God. He was willing to be separated
from God for his people. You talk about holy, holy, holy. His love for us and his desire
for us was so great. He was willing to be forsaken
by God. Who could ever imagine what that
is like? Verse 13, John 15, verse 13 says,
greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. What is his commandment to us?
Come to me. Follow me. Cast your all on me. He said, if you see yourself
doing that, That's the evidence that you are my friend. 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 things that I have heard of my father. I have made known
unto you. He said, I've let you in on our
secret conversations. Our secret communication between
me and my Father. Everything He has said to me,
I've made it known to you. I've hid nothing from you. You'll
do that with your friends. That's who you'll do that with.
Somebody you consider to be a true friend, you'll say, now listen,
this is not for everybody to know. Don't tell anybody. But I'm gonna tell you. I'm going to confide this in
you because you're my friend, my heart to yours because you're
my friend. Verse 15 says, henceforth, I call you not servants for the
servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I've called you
friends. For all things that I have heard of my father, I've
made known unto you. You've not chosen me, but I have
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit. and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall
ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things
I command you that you love one another." He said, I'm telling
you all of these things so that you can love one another as friends,
just like I've loved you as friends. Look back up a few verses at
verse 11, John 15, verse 11. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment, that
you 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. For our friends' sake, capital
F, for our friends' sake, we're friends. All because of His love
and His commandment and His commitment, we're friends. We are friends
in our great friend. And because of Him, we love each
other. We do. We love each other. We desire
each other. We prefer to be with each other. I do. I prefer to be with you,
brethren, wherever a brother or sister may be. Don't you prefer
to be with brethren? We prefer to be together and
together with Him. We prefer to be together with
Him. And by His grace, for all eternity,
we're gonna be able to say this right here. Just turn, we're already in John.
Go to John 3, okay? John 3 verse 29, John the Baptist said, he that
hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom. which standeth and heareth him,
rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This
my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease." That's what all of his friends have to say. That's
all I have to say about it. I just want to stand next to
my friend and hear his voice. My joy will be so full. He must
increase, I must decrease. It's good to be friends, isn't
it? So good to be friends. I told you about that dear man,
Brother Hubert Davis. I never met him. I heard the
story that a long time ago, he had a condition where he couldn't
stand upright. The man was bent over and he
had some medical issues and he and his wife had a daughter that
had some medical issues and he got to a place where he realized
his wife couldn't take care of both of them, so he voluntarily
checked into a nursing home. Brother Henry Mahan and Brother
Paul went to visit him one time and they walked into his room
and he was staring out the window, bent in half, just crippled over
and had his back to the door and couldn't see who was coming
in. And when they walked in, they said, Brother Hubert, are
you all alone? And he said, with his back to
him, he said, no brother, the Lord is with me. The Lord is with me. My friend
is with me. Never leave you. Never leave
you. What comfort it is to have our
true friend. All right, Brother Dwight, you
come.