Good morning. If you will turn
with me to Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs 18. Our text will be Proverbs 18
verse 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother." That friend is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Is He your friend? Do you need Him to be your friend? A friend is someone you can trust.
There's nothing like having a good friend, a true friend. A friend
is someone you can count on. When you need them, they're going
to be there for you. A friend is someone you can rely
on. You can really trust them. A friend is someone you can come
to. Whatever problem you have, you can come to your friend.
Bring it to your friend. Take it to your friend. A friend
is someone who cares for you. They really have your best interest
in their heart. They really want you to be well
off. They care for you. I ask again,
do you need Him to be your friend? I need Him to be my friend. More than anything in this world
or in the world to come, I need Him to be my friend. And I pray you do too. Now here's
the good news, all right? This verse that we just read,
this is all about Christ. And the first thing it says is
a man that hath friends. Jesus Christ is a man. He's God
and He's a man, and He's a man that hath friends. If you need
Him to be your friend, then I pray you, like I, will rejoice just
reading that. A man that hath friends, He has
friends. God, just consider this glorious fact, God Almighty,
the holy, righteous, just God of heaven and earth, He has friends. Isn't that wonderful? He has
friends. He chose to have friends. He
didn't have to. He alone is holy, just, and righteous,
and he chose to have friends. What a blessing. What a blessing. Well, who are his friends? Who
are the friends of God? First, it's a particular people.
You just consider yourself. Is everybody your friend? No. And it's not so with God
either. He has a particular group of
friends. He called them my friends. Not
everybody's His friend. Now, I know we live in a religious
world where anybody who has some religion or so-called Christianity,
they'll claim Jesus is my friend. We're best friends. We got a
good thing going, or however they want to say it. That's what
people think. Everybody thinks they're God's
friends. But that's not the case. It's just not the case. Turn
to James chapter 4. Let me show you this. James 4,
verse 4. And I'll go ahead and tell you,
it's not enough for us to say God's my friend, Jesus Christ
is my friend. I need Him to tell me He's my
friend. And I pray by the time this message is over, we'll see
who His friends are. And I pray that we'll be able
to say He's my friend, that's my friend. Here in James four,
look at verse four with me. Says ye adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. Everyone claims to be
his friend. This whole world claims him as
their friend. That's not what the book says.
Everybody in this world, we all by nature love this world. And
yet we think we love God and the world. It's one or the other.
It's one or the other. This world, and we see it, don't
we? This world is clearly not God's
friend. It's not God's friend. And the reason is because this
world does not know God. This world does not know God,
and this includes all of us. As we're born into this world,
we do not know God, and we're not his friends. We're not his
friends. We're actually, we're born into
this world his enemies. Just consider that. If there's
one thing I don't want to be, it's the enemy of God. He's the
one we're going to stand before. He's the one that's gonna judge
us. Either say, come on in, enter into the kingdom prepared for
you, or depart into everlasting darkness. I need Him to be my
friend. Romans chapter eight tells us
that our carnal mind, this fleshly, wicked mind, is enmity, hatred,
against God. If you don't believe me, just
look at the cross. Never was our hatred for God so clear.
Everybody wants to say, Jesus is my friend. Well, look what
we did to him. And you want to tell me, oh,
he's your friend? We were not his friends. We're
his enemies by nature. Isaiah 53, the prophet, he prophesied
he's despised. He's rejected of men, all men. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. We hid our faces from Him. We
esteemed Him not. This speaks of all of us. We
did not want Him. We didn't want Him. No man wanted
Him. You can claim to be God's friend
all you want, but He tells us we're not. We're not His friend. Well, then who is? I just said
all of us, we're not His friend. Well, who is His friend? Who
are His friends? Here's the good news, turn to
Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11 verse 19. The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they say, behold, a gluttonous and a wine-bibber,
a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners."
Jesus Christ is the friend of publicans and sinners. That's
who He chose to be His friends. The publicans and sinners, they
didn't decide to make Him their friend. They didn't choose to
be His friends. Our Lord chose to be our friend.
He chose to be their friends. Let me show you this over in
Luke chapter 15. Love this verse. Luke 15 verse
one. Luke 15 verse one says, then
drew near unto Him all the publicans and sinners for to hear Him."
Publicans and sinners, they wanted to be in His presence. They drew
near to Him. I love that. They drew near to
Him. When they heard He was near, they took off running. Gotta
get to where He is. I gotta hear Him. Is it so for
you? Is it so for me? I pray that
all of us are here to hear Him. And I pray that we can take our
place right here as a publican in a center unworthy. Those who wanted to be with him
are those who knew by nature they despised him. They're those
who knew there was nothing good in him. They're those who needed
him. Do you need him? Not everybody does. Not everybody
drew near to hear Him. Lots of times people knew where
the Lord was and they came to Him, but for all the wrong reasons,
not to draw near to hear Him. Look at verse two right here,
and the Pharisees and the scribes, the religious people, they murmured,
they complained, saying, this man receive his sinners and eateth
with them. Is that your reaction when you
read that Christ is the friend of sinners? Why would He do that? Well, I ask myself that, but
not for the same reason. God can do whatever he's pleased
to do. He can dwell with whoever he's pleased to dwell with. He
can make whoever he wants to be his friend. I pray our reaction's not like
the Pharisees. Don't you know she's a sinner? I rejoice to know this man received
his sinners. If he didn't, there'd be no hope for me. This man receives sinners, praise
God. Sinners are his friends. Lost, you ever been lost? Needy, helpless, hopeless, dying,
damned. Sinners, are you a sinner? If so, let me tell you about
your friend. Look back in our text, Proverbs
18. Proverbs 18, 24. Jesus Christ is a man that hath
friends. Our text says, a man that hath friends must show himself
friendly. Now, it just goes without saying,
if you want to have friends, be friendly. Be a friend. Don't
expect to go around being an angry, grouchy person and to
have all these people behind you as your friend. You want
a friend, be a friend. Well, this is talking about our
Lord Jesus Christ. He must show himself friendly.
And we can say without a doubt he has, has he not? It's just
the first thing I'll say here, it's who he is. He is friendly,
he is a friend. His name is Savior. He purposed
in His heart to come into this world, not to do something for
Himself. He didn't come here and do anything
for Himself. He did only that which pleased the Father. He
came to save His people. He went about doing good everywhere
He went, every single day. He told the truth. That's something
you want in a friend, isn't it? Someone that'll tell you the
truth. Whether or not it's what you want to hear, it's what we
need to hear. And He does. He is the truth, and He only
tells the truth. I love reading how our Lord healed
them that had need of healing. I wonder how many of them, all
of them, all of them. It says he healed all manner
of sickness. Are you sick? He's the great physician. The
whole knee, not a physician, but they that are sick. He healed,
he cleansed lepers, a deadly disease, most miserable disease
a man could have. He healed them just like that. I will be thou clean. He made
the dumb to speak. He made the deaf to hear. He
made the blind to see. He made the lame to walk. He caused the
dead to rise and live again. Lazarus come forth. He that was
dead came forth. Brethren, all of these things
that our Lord did, all of this sickness that he healed, all
these miracles he performed, it's what he's done for us spiritually. He's shown himself friendly to
us like no other man possibly could. like only God could do. He saved us from our sin. Now
I wanna show you something that I heard and then that I looked
up for myself in studying for this message. Here in verse 24
it says, a man that hath friends, that word friends can also mean
associates, all right? A man that hath friends or associates
must show himself friendly. Here's the true meaning of that,
show himself friendly. It means to spoil by breaking
to pieces. It means to make good for nothing,
to be bad. That just don't hardly make any
sense, does it? A man to have friends must be bad and good
for nothing? Spoiled by breaking to pieces?
What does that mean? Well, here's what it means. In
order for the Lord Jesus Christ to associate himself with me,
In order for him to be able to call sinners like us his friends,
in order for us to have any friendship, any fellowship, any bond, he
had to become what we are. He had to identify himself with
us. Turn to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Verse 16,
and this is speaking of Christ, it
says, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham, his friend. When he came into this world,
he didn't take, he is the angel of the Lord. He didn't come that
way. He took on him the seed of Abraham,
his friends. Verse 17 says, wherefore in all
things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. Now
that word behoove, it behooved him in all things. It means to
owe. It means to be obligated. It
means to must needs. We just read he must show himself
friendly. What this here means is in order
for us to be reconciled to God, in order for there to be any
peace with God for us, he had to be made like unto his brother. He had to be made like unto his
friends. He had to be made sin. And he was. God hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin. He didn't know no sin. He
knew no sin that we might be made what he is, the righteousness
of God in him. I love this. Philippians 2 says,
he made himself. He did this all by himself. He
made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Why did he do this? To
make us his friends. What happened at the cross? We
became his friends. He joined himself to his friends
by his death. Turn to John 15. John 15, verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. When Christ died on the cross,
it was for his friends. I thought it was for his enemies.
Yep, it was. But he made us to be his friends.
In the eternal covenant of grace, he said, they're my friends.
I'm gonna do this for them. I'm their surety. I'll bear the
blame forever if I don't get it done. They're my friends.
And I just thought about this for a minute. Who did he die
for? You look, read the account of what happened at the cross.
We saw Peter, just thought he'd die with him. Thought he'd follow
him to the end, didn't he? And all the disciples agreed
with him. We would have said the same thing. I'll never do
this. I'll never deny you. Sure enough, before the cock
crowed twice, in just a matter of minutes or hours, he denied
him three times. That's who he died for. That's who he died for. You consider
that thief on the cross. He saved one of them, but we
read that both of the thieves stood there casting the same
in his teeth. Both of them stood there and mocked him, laughed
at him, reviled him, and then the Lord saved one of them. He
said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. That's who he
died for, a thief. Unfaithful disciples. And more
than that, he said, Father, forgive them. who those who drove the
nails in His hands and in His feet and placed that crown on
His head and stripped Him of His clothing and put on Him that
scarlet robe and said, King of the Jews, Jesus, King of the
Jews, they mocked Him. Mockingly, they hailed Him. That's
who He came to save. That's who He hung on that cross
for. Those who did that to Him. Isn't that amazing? Forgive them. At the sermon at
Pentecost, Peter told them, he said, you crucified him. He said, he was delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, but you did this. And
it says they were pricked in their heart. God revealed him. He made these
things known to his friends. They realized it was revealed
unto them. He died for me. I did this to
him, and he died for me. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? How can it be? Turn over to Romans chapter five. Romans five, verse six. I don't want it to just go in
one ear and out the other. I want this to really sink into
us. Just what he did, for who he
did it. Romans 5 verse 6, for when we were yet without strength
in due time, according to the time predetermined by God, Christ
died for the ungodly. Not only does that mean we didn't
deserve him to die for us, We're totally contrary to Him. Everything
God loves is the opposite of us. Everything God hates is what
we are, and yet He died for the ungodly. Why would He do this? Verse seven, for scarcely for
a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man
some would even dare to die. And let's just acknowledge this.
He didn't die for good people. He didn't die for a good man.
He didn't die for a righteous man. Verse 8 says, but God commendeth
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. I'll tell you this, if there's
one thing I do not deserve, it's to be His friend. It's to be
able to call Him my friend. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Verse 9, much more than. Every time we read that, Much
more, just think, wait, there's more. Not only did He die for
us, much more than, being now justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. It just told us, We shall be
saved. We shall be saved. All right. Verse 10. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And
not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. He's reconciled
us to God. He's justified us by his blood.
He's made us to be one with God. Can it get any better? Honestly,
can you imagine anything more wonderful? That he would make sinners like
us to be his friends. Look back in our text. If God has revealed to you that
you're a sinner, that you're unworthy of Him, that you're
unworthy of anything but eternal death and damnation, then you
can say with me, by the grace of God, He's my friend. He's
my best friend. Religion might float that around
flippantly, but I mean that. He's my best friend. He's done
for me what you couldn't do for me. He's done for you what I
couldn't do for you. Proverbs 18, 24, a man that hath
friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend, there's
just one, that sticketh closer than a brother. Now I got to
thinking about the friends I have in this world. I've been blessed
with many friends, many true friends. And I'm talking about
friends in Christ. I'm talking about my brother,
you're my brother, you're my friends. God has given us the ability,
the privilege, the opportunity week after week after week to
worship our God together. You're my friends. You're my
best friends, but you're not my best friend. That belongs
to Him. Now I value your friendship. All my brethren whom I've been
blessed to know, we had some in our house last week, have
some in our house today. Words can't describe how thankful I
am for your friendship. I could never put it into words
just what that means to me, just what you mean to me, by God's
grace. But we must acknowledge there would be no such friendship,
there would be no such fellowship without Christ. You're the saints
and faithful brethren in Christ. I thank God for you because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. I thank God for you. I thank you, but I thank God
for you. Thank God for your friendship. But it does not matter how many
friends I have. Doesn't matter how many conferences
we can go to, how many brethren we can meet, if we don't know
Him. He's the one we must know. Does
He know your name? That's what matters. Are our
names written in the Lamb's book of life? We must know Him. He must be our friend. See, our
friendship doesn't compare to His. Just doesn't compare. I could potentially give you
everything I own, but I can't give you eternal life. And I wouldn't give you everything
I own. I'm sorry. I'm too selfish. I'm too sinful. He gave everything
he had. He gave it all. He told that
rich young man, you sell everything you have, you come follow me,
you'll have treasure in heaven. Christ literally did that. He
came down from heaven. He condescended. He took upon
him. The form of a servant came in
our likeness without sin. He gave everything. He gave himself. I can pray for you daily. I should,
I don't. I'm sorry, I don't think of it. But I could pray for you daily.
but my blood can't intercede for you. I could potentially die for you,
but I can't put away your sin. My blood is sinful blood. There's
only one person who had holy blood shed that could put away
your sin, and that's Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners. There
are a lot of things I could do for you, but I can't save you. I can't
make you one inch closer to God Almighty. Can't do it. Proverbs 17 says, a friend loveth
at all times. Boy, wouldn't that be nice to
be able to love at all times. I certainly don't. Pray for the
ability to, but I'm just not able. I don't find the ability
in myself to love at all times. Christ loves at all times. He
said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God in him, nothing.
His love is perfect. His perfect love casts out our
fear. Fear not. Consider Him. A friend loveth
at all times. His love never fails. His love
never fails. If God loves you, you shall be
saved. His love is perfect. A friend
loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. He is
our brother. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. He's our elder brother. And He
was literally born into this world for our adversity. Literally. He bore our sins in His body. He traded places with us. He
became us. He stood on that cross in our
place. He suffered the wrath of God in full. The full payment
that was required for my sin that I've earned. The wrath that
I deserve. He bore it all for me and for
you, if you're a sinner. I can't do that for you. We can't
do that for one another. Only He can. He is our friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. May we rejoice in Him. Often
in this life, we suffered division, separation. Personally, I've experienced
it a little bit, and it absolutely breaks my heart. Especially when
it's with someone who you thought was your brother, and you pray
that they still are, but at the moment you're separated. You
think they went out from us because they were not of us. Had they
been of us, they would have no doubt continued with us. But God knoweth. But here's what gives me great
comfort. There's no division in Christ. Is Christ divided? No. No, in Him, there's perfect
peace and rest. No separation. No division from
Him. In heaven, we won't get in spits
and spats with one another. How foolish. We're in Him. We're going to
behold Him. We're going to worship Him forever
and ever. Perfect peace in Him. We're one
with Him. He married us. Just like Hosea
and Gomer, I'll betroth thee unto myself forever. What he
was saying was, I'm never going to put you away. I'm never going
to leave you to yourself. We belong to him. He said, that
weren't mine. He bought us with his own precious
blood. We're not our own. We're bought
with a price. And we can come to him. I mentioned
it early in the message. What's a friend? We can come
to him. He urges us to come to him. Come unto me. Come daily.
Come to him for everything. Trust and cast all your care
upon him. He careth for you. He's for us. Child of God, He's
for you. If God be for us, who can be
against us? It doesn't matter if the world's
against us. He said if the world hate you, you know it hated me
before it hated you. But He's our friend. If He's my friend,
it don't matter who else is my friend. He's our friend, brethren. He's for you and He'll never
be against you, never. And we have His promise. He said,
I will never leave you. A mother can forget her sucking
child. I don't understand how, but it's possible. It happens.
Friends will leave. Those whom you counted dear,
you may open your eyes one day and they may no longer be there.
He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll
never forget you. He is our friend that's thicker,
closer than a brother. Praise God for him. Christ our
friend. Amen.