I may quote Proverbs 17, 24 several
times tonight. The end of that song says, he
is with me to the end. And Proverbs says, there is a
friend that sticketh, sticketh closer than a brother, stayeth
with us, with us to the end. Go back to John 15 now. John 15, these are wonderful,
amazing words our Lord speaks to His disciples, and that's
us. John 15, look at verses 12 through 15 one more time. He says, 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. He are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not What is Lord doeth, but I have called
you Prince. All things I have heard of my
Father I have made known unto you. The Lord and Master of the
universe, what an amazing thing is. He's friend of publicans
and sinners. That's who He's Prince of. I
hope and I pray, I believe the Lord is my friend. I believe
you are. And I want to be a friend to
him and to you. I want to be a friend like him. To him and my friend. John Newton wrote, if I haven't
loved thee before, let me begin today. The definition of friend,
and I always enjoy looking up just in Webster's Dictionary,
the definition of the word friend means a person attached to another
by feelings of affection and personal regard. A person attached
to another by feelings of affection and personal regard. Attached.
Our Lord is attached to us. He said, I as a father to you. He called us his little children. Are you attached to your children? You will be. As long as you live. He says, I am the vine. He's
attached to us. And we're the branches. We abide
in Him. He said, I'm your friend. An
eternal attachment to us. My feelings of affection. Feelings
of affection. He said, the Father loves me
as the Father loves me. So have I loved you. I love you
as the Father loves me. Feelings of affection. He said,
greater love hath no man than this. And he laid down his life
for his friends. And that's exactly what our Lord
did. Feelings of affection for him.
And personal regard, regard means you think on. That personal regard. You think on. David said, I am
poor and needy, but yet the Lord thinketh on me. Thinketh on me. A friend also means a person
who gives assistance and help whenever they're needed. More
than assistance. Our Lord gives us more than assistance.
My, my. He does all things for us. He's
an ever-present help, Scripture says, in time of trouble and
need. A friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity. A friend loveth at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity. A friend never quits loving,
and a brother is truly a brother or friend when you're in adversity. We get that saying, a friend
in need is a friend in deed. I think it comes from that. That
your true friends show themselves when you are in need. And that's
our Lord in them. That's our Lord. David's the
one that wrote that. I'm poor and needy. But the Lord
thinketh on me as his friend. The Lord calls some men his friend. He spoke face-to-face with Moses
as a friend-to-friend. He said, Abraham, three times
Abraham was his friend. And he called his disciples,
and that's us, his friend. You want to be his friend? Well,
you'll never have another like him. How amazing what love, mercy,
and grace of the Lord is our friend. Now, he's a friend of
publicans and sinners. Go with me to Ephesians 2. Ephesians
2. Who are his friends? He chose
his friends. They didn't choose him. He kept
saying that, that you didn't choose me. Who are his friends? Who did
the Lord choose to be his friends? And you're going to see how that
he has to make us friendly toward him. Ephesians 2, this is the
bunch of nobodies that he chose to be his friend. Verse 1, you
had be quickened who were dead and trespassed in sin. For in
a time past you walked according to the course of this world.
According to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the Spirit
did not work within the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past. The lusts of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God was rich
in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins. Look at verse 11. Remember, in
time past, you were Gentiles in the flesh. You were called
uncircumcision. Verse 12, at that time you were
without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenant of promise, no hope, without God. Without
God means ungodliness. Christ died for the ungodly.
Christ came for the ungodly. Without God and all of His friends
that He chose, none of them were friendly toward Him. None of
them. None of them chose Him. He chose
them. The word reconcile is all through
the Scripture. The word reconcile means to bring
two parties that were separated together. Two opposing parties
together, that is, make them friends. And that's why Christ
came, to reconcile us. There was never a time that He
was not a friend to us. There was never a time that He
was not a friend to His people. But there was a long time in
which they were not friends to Him. A long time. So, look at Romans 5. These are verses you've read
and heard preached or heard quoted all your life. You need to know
where these are. Romans 5. Look at this. And you
remember the story of Hosea and Gomer? Remember that? You know how it started? Our
Lord said to Hosea, He said, Go love a woman beloved of her
friend. but an adulteress. She had nothing to do with him.
She was an adult. She left him. She was unfaithful.
She had no regard for him whatsoever. She went after other things.
But her friend went after her. He went after her. Look at Romans
5. Look at this. Verse 7 and 8.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die, but God. But God is all through the Scriptures.
But God commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Look at verse 10. 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. Reconciled. One more. 1 John
4. 1 John 4, and then we'll go back
to John 15. 1 John 4. John was there when
the Lord said this. And much of what John wrote sounds
exactly what our Lord said. Because it is. 1 John 4. John, as you know, wrote of love
throughout this epistle. And 1 John 4 says this in verse
8. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God. For God is love. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us. Because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world, that we might live through him. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. Verse 19, we love him. We do. Why? Because He first loved us. We were reconciled while sinners. He befriended us. He befriended
the public and the sinners. And loved us while we were yet
sinners. While we were enemies to Him.
Keep saying that through Colossians and Ephesians. You were enemies
in your mind by wicked word. But God. John 15. Go back there. And then
our Lord says here, no greater love. There is no greater love
than this. John 15, verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Why didn't
He say family? Because nearly everyone would
probably lay down their life for their family. Right? You wouldn't stop and think about
it. That's natural. The Lord gives you a love for
your blood kin, doesn't He? You have this love. And I'm glad,
because we might kill our children off when they're young. But it's
just so in it. We love our own. We love ourselves,
and they're part of ourselves. That's why the Lord says, love
others like you love yourself. He said, this is the greatest
love a man lay down his life for his friends, not family. Friends. See, love for family
is natural. That kind of love for a friend,
someone that's not your blood kin, is super natural. That's of God. Only God can give
someone that kind of love. To love, there is a friend that
sticketh closer than a brother. I believe the Lord has given some
of you that love. You have brothers and sisters
that don't love your Lord, and you love these brothers and sisters
more. You prefer them over your blood
kin. That's not natural. Not natural. That's supernatural. That's the
love of God shed abroad in our heart, to love a friend like
family. And as we read, love an enemy. Our Lord said, love your enemies.
I say unto you, love your enemies. He did just that. Now, He doesn't
love all His enemies. Every enemy He loves, He makes
them His friend. Makes them friendly toward Him.
They end up being His friend. And here I go again. There is
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. David and Jonathan. Don't you love that story? There's
not a more wonderful story of friendship in all the Bible than
David and Jonathan. They were not related in no way. They weren't even cousins. They
weren't distant cousins. They became such fast friends,
such close friends, it says their love surpassed the love of a
man for his wife. Think about that. That's love,
isn't it? That's love. Why? How could that
be? The Lord did that. Because these
two are such a picture, such a type of Christ and His people,
right? Christ and His people. If you've
never heard that message, in spite of the fact that I preached
it, go back and listen to it on David's friend, Jonathan. But they loved each other dearly,
didn't they? David's the type of Christ, you know, and Jonathan
was the son of his enemy. Right? Jonathan could have been
on the throne. He didn't want to be on that
throne. After he heard David speaking, remember when he heard
David speaking and saw David's conquest of Goliath, he said
his heart was knit to him. He loved him, John Sheeley, more
than he loved his father. In fact, he defended David in
front of his father. His father tried to kill him
because he loved David. That's God's people. That's all
of God's people. There are no exceptions. That's
supernatural. David loved Jonathan. Saul wanted
Jonathan, his son, to be the next king. He knew David was
going to be the king. He knew that. He didn't want
David as king. He would not have this man reign
over Israel. He wanted his son to be king. Jonathan didn't want
to be king. He wanted David to be king. You
see what I mean? Greater love hath no man than
it. He lay down his life for his friend. Alright? Here's the Lord our friend. He
laid down His life. He left His life in glory. He left His home. This is what
a man does when he takes a bride. He leaves his father and mother
and goes to cleave to his wife. Our Lord left His Father. He
left heaven. He left glory. He left His throne to come down for His lowly friends.
That's great loving. He who was rich, yet for our
sakes became poor. Scripture says he gave his all.
Through his poverty we might be made rich. He was king. He made himself with no reputation. He was high and lofty. He came
down into this cesspool of iniquity to find and save his, who? His forlorn bride. They didn't even know him. They
didn't want him. Isn't that something? What a friend. What a friend. So he left his life in heaven
with the Father. He gave his life for 33 years.
for 33 years in service to His friends. He gave His every waking
hour of every single day in service to His friends. These disciples
were with Him three and a half years and they knew it. Everything
they had and knew and did and were and all their safety and
protection, their provision, everything came from Him. He
was always up before they were and the last to go to sleep.
Slept very little, ate very little wine. He just worked, worked,
worked, worked for his friends. Serving them. What would you
think if one of your friends came over to your house every
day for three and a half years and said, now what can I do for
you? That's what he did. Three and a half years. He gave
his life. Gave his life to serve their
every need and hour. And he laid down his life. He
laid down his life. He died for his friends. He took our place on death row.
Again, who were his friends? Children of wrath. Like the story
of Barabbas. The story of Barabbas. Who let
Barabbas go? Pilate? Jesus Christ. He gave the command to tell Pilate
to let him go. Who's Barabbas? A murderer, a robber, a no-good,
worthless human being. But Christ took his blade. He
laid down his life for him. I am certain that Barabbas ended
up knowing and loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody Christ
died for, anybody Christ was a substitute for, they're going
to know him, they're going to love him. So Barabbas, the Lord, no greater
love of this, and he laid down his life for his friend. He gave
his life, he laid down his life, and now he spends the rest of
his life, you know, he ever lives to do what? Make intercession,
friend. Do you forget your friends? Sure
you do, all the time. He never, he ever lives to make
intercession for that one friend. He's our advocate. Advocate is
something that sticks up for you. He's our intercessor. He's
our high priest, one you confess to. He's our friend. Our friend. Here's some things about a friend.
A true friend. A true friend is faithful. Look
at Proverbs 18 with me. Proverbs 18. Again, I quote it. There's a friend that stick it
closer than a brother, and here it is. Proverbs 18, I've been
quoting it to you, and now you're going to look at it. Verse 24.
Proverbs 18, 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly. My, my. That's exactly what he
did. He had many friends, so what
did he do? He was their friend, faithful to the end. He sticks
closer than a brother, faithful to the end. He said, I will never
leave them. He told them all, you're going
to leave me. Every one of you is going to be offended this
night. He said, I will never leave you. There is a friend. Oh, what a friend. Jesus, what
a friend of sinners. Saving, helping, loving, keeping.
A friend is faithful to the end. A friend is a confidant. One you can speak to, talk to,
commune with. Proverbs 27. Go over there. Proverbs
27. And Proverbs is the book that
speaks of friends and friendship more than any other. I forget
how many times, but it's throughout Proverbs about friend. A friend
is a confidant, one you commune with and talk with. Proverbs
27.9, ointment and perfume rejoice the heart. Everything speaks
of him, doesn't it? The ointment of his oil and perfume,
or his cheeks, Solomon. The Shulamite woman, the black
Shulamite woman said, this is my beloved and this is my friend. But it says, so doth the sweetness
of a man's friend by hearty counsel. It's face answered to face. So
friend with friend. Our Lord said this in John 15.
He said, I call you friends because I tell you everything. I tell
you everything. I reveals things to you that
I don't reveal to other people. You know a friend, somebody said
a friend and somebody will tell you the truth whether you want
to hear it or not. How do I look? Bad. How do I smell? Not too good. You got bad breath. You don't
want to go out like that. Tell you the truth. Tell you
the truth. Listen to Psalm 141, verse 5. You know it is. It says, Let
the righteous smite me. Where is it? I don't want to
misquote it. It won't be a good formula. Psalm 141, verse 5. It says,
Let the righteous smite me. It will be a kindness. Let Him
reprove me. It will be like excellent oil.
It will not break my head. It will heal my hand. Yet, let
the righteous smile. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to Proverbs 16 with me. Proverbs 16. A friend covereth
and concealeth a friend's faults. A friend covereth and concealeth
the faults of a friend. Proverbs 16, verse 27. An ungodly man diggeth up evil.
Verse 28. A forward man soweth strife.
A whisperer separateth cheap friends. Chapter 17, verse 9. He that covereth the transgression
seeketh love. He that repeateth a matter, separateth
prayer for him. He that covereth a transgression,
isn't that what our Lord came to do? Cover our sin in His own
precious blood. Well, cover our sin. He that is faithful to matters,
concealeth a matter. Our Lord in the judgment hall
became our substitute, didn't He? The Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. He took our sins in His body
on the tree. When He was before Pilate, He
became us. He took our guilt. He took our
sin. All the charges that were laid against Him, all of our
sins were laid on Him. All of our deep, dark secrets
were with Him. Now someone may say, a friend
of yours may say this, my secret is safe with you, your secret
is safe with me. They may mean that, but it may
not be so. But it is true with him. Scripture says he opened not
his mouth. So he's not going to defend himself
because he's us. He became us. So he concealed
the matter. He covereth, covereth. You know,
our friends will fail us at some point, disappoint us, let us
down, get mad at us and vice versa. But our Lord will never
disappoint. He will never let you down. He
will never get mad at you. Here's the one thing
about true friends, and it applies to our Lord and it applies to
His people. A true friend will never betray
a friend. A true friend will never betray
a friend. Isn't that right? Our Lord will
never betray us. Never. He said, you may leave
me, but I won't leave you. You'll deny me, Peter, but I
won't deny you. Didn't it? You'll forsake me,
but I won't forsake you. You're going to disappoint me,
but I'm never going to disappoint you. What a friend. What a friend. All right, I want us to look
at what it means to be a friend to Him. A friend to Him. He said, you're my friends. He
called us His friends. You're my friends if you do what
I command you. What did He command you? Love
one another as I've loved you. Everything just said. He said,
you do it. That's the way I did it. You
do it. I proved the man that had friends
must show himself friendly. He did, didn't he? He said, now
you love like I love you. Friends to the Lord. He left
everything, didn't he? Didn't he? He left his father
and left his house and heavens and gave his life to serve. He
dropped everyone and dropped everything to come down here
for his people, didn't he? Some of you have done just that. There's some families in here
that left family and friends and houses and lands and come
to this place, and they're still here after all these years. So he left everything. True prayer,
that's what they did. That's what they did. He laid
down his life for them. And Simon Peter in the garden. Remember? Our Lord said, you're going to
deny me. But not before Simon is going to lay down his life
for them. Did Simon love him? Was Simon
his friend? befriend our Lord after he made
him his friend? Did Simon act like the Lord?
He sure did. In that garden, they came after his friend. They
came after his Lord. And this is the true Simon. See,
Satan got a hold of him. But this is the true Simon that
was a friend to the Lord Jesus Christ. He took out that sword.
One sword against a mob of all that had many swords. He's going
to die for them. But he said that, I'll lay down
my life for you. He meant it. He almost did. But the scriptures had to be
fulfilled. Had to. Our Lord had to be taken. He
had to be taken. And none of them, like Simon, none of them
could be taken. None of them could. Of those
that thou hast given me, I've lost nothing. They can't take
them. Our Lord said, if you seek me, let them go. Why didn't they
come down hard on him? Simon cut that servant, the high
priest, cut his ear off. Everybody saw it. He looked like they'd have grabbed
him first thing. Thrown him in the jail and hung him on a cross
right beside the Lord. Let him go. Why? Because the Lord said to him.
But Simon was going to lay down his life. And later on he did
lay down his life. Our Lord said that. They're going
to take you, they're going to carry you where you don't want
to go. And most believe that Simon was crucified. Crucified. For Christ. For Christ's sake. You know, Scriptures, Hebrews
11, is full of a great cloud of witnesses that actually laid
down their life for Jesus Christ, their friend. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. A whole
cloud of witnesses. Would you? Would you lay down
your life for Jesus Christ? You say, I don't know. I do. Because if the time came, if
you truly love Him, God would give you the grace to do just
that. Can you imagine? Many women accepted
not deliverance, cruelly tortured. Fox's Book of Martyrs is full
of stories of women who they took their children and did horrible things to them
because they wouldn't recant. That's not natural, is it? That's
the grace of God. If you don't think you would,
if you're a true friend to Christ, you would if the time came. What
a great honor that'd be, huh? Wouldn't that be a great honor?
A great honor. Lay down our life for Him and
He laid down His life for us. Greater love if no man did. Greater
show of love if no man did. Lay down His life. And they did
too. Every one of the apostles were
killed except John, for Christ's sake. They all considered it
an honor. Paul said that. He said, I have
no greater joy than to offer myself up as a sacrifice to your
faith. They said, don't go to Jerusalem.
He said, why not? Spirit witnesses everywhere.
That's where I'm supposed to go. That's what our Lord did
for me. Besides, it won't last long. That pain, endure it for a moment. Oh, but joy comes in a minute.
So many laid down their lives for Him. Many did. They confided in Him. They communed
with Him. And so do we, don't we? Pour
out your heart. Do you pour out your heart to
the Lord? You tell Him everything. You confide in Him. You tell
Him your deep, dark secrets, do you? He's your confidant, isn't He? He's the one. He's the one. He's our high priest. He's the
one we confess our sin. Don't confess your sin to mortal
men, but confess them all to the Lord Jesus Christ. They say
confession is good for the soul. Well, it is if you confess to
Christ it is. So we commune with Him. We are
constant companions of His. Our Lord came down and was the
constant companion of His disciples. Constant. For three and a half
years, He never left them. There was a couple of times they
thought He'd left them. They got in a ship, you know, and
were heading across. And they said, where is He when
we need Him the most? Now, he said he would never leave them.
And he put them through that to show them that he'd never
leave them. That he's not just a man, he's a God man. He came
walking on the water. Walking on the water. So, he
was their constant companion and so are his people. David
said this, I'm a companion of them that fear thee. He was the
Lord's companion with them. That means to keep company with,
spend time with. That's the one he spent time
with. His companion. Yeah, I'll get to my last point in
just a minute. But look at John 15. John 15. Look at this. Look at verse 17. He says, These things I command
you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know
it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the
world hateth you. Remember the word I said unto
you. Servant is not greater than his Lord, not above his Lord.
Everything they did to me, Christ said, they'll do to you. If they
persecuted me, they'll persecute you. They've listened to me and
kept my say, and they will keep yours also. But all these things
they will do unto you for my name's sake, Because they don't
know God, they don't know my God. And they don't love Him. And he went on to say, they don't
love God and they don't love me. And they hate me without
a cause. Here's my last point. You can't
be a friend of our Lord and be friends with this world. James 4. Turn to James 4 with
me, OK? It's not possible. Our Lord just
said that. James 4. Our Lord said it didn't
He? And James says it even more plainly and explicitly. James
4. Look at verse 4. He says, 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. Is that
what it says? How can you? Paul said, how can
light and fellowship with darkness? How could I be a friend with
and spend time with somebody that hates my wife? It's not possible. That person
is not my friend. How? The true friends will be
known in the end. How? How? Can't be done, can
it? Can't be done. Can't be done.
Oh, boy. My dad used to say the two greatest
dangers for believers are the things of this world and the
people of this world. People of this world. They'll
draw away your... This is the sense in which Moses
wrote in Deuteronomy 13, he says, if your friend, whoever it is,
your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, draw you
away, he said, you trap on your sword and you go kill that person. Didn't he? I didn't say any of
this, did I? Our Lord said no. Our Lord said
that. It's that serious. It's that
serious. You cannot love... The only way... What if somebody doesn't love
my wife and they say, we'll get along just fine as long as you
don't bring her up. Don't ever speak of her. Don't ever bring
her up. We'll get along just fine. Seriously. Is there a day that goes by you
don't think of your mate? Is there a day that goes by you
don't think of your God? We are friends to the Word. We treat
people friendly. They don't know it, but we're
their best friend that they could have. Friend tells the truth. A friend, you know, wants you soul saved. And so that's the sense in which
our Lord said, Woe is unto you if men speak well of you. You
must not be talking about your Lord. The only way you can get
along with them. But I can't be that person's
friend. They're not my friend. They're not my friend. I don't
know of anybody in this and anywhere, anywhere that would call me their
close friend. And I try to treat people well. I do. I'm the best neighbor in
all of my neighborhood. You know what I mean? But I don't
run with them. I run with you. You're my friend. I don't have
any others. Our Lord didn't either. Didn't. He's a friend of the
public and the sinner. Every single sinner he's a friend
of, he saved. He didn't hang with the Pharisees.
He didn't hang with the Sadducees. When it was all over, there was
120 people in that upper room. That was it. Thousands of those thousands
that hung around the cross said, kill him. We hate him. And they ended up killing his
friends. Oh no, he's not a friend of the
world. Now let me close with this illustration. Let me close with something pleasant. You all have heard every illustration
I've ever given. I'm sorry, but some of them can't
be improved upon. My dad's the one, he told it
more times than I did. He told the story of a A fella
that came driving up to a friend's house in a brand new automobile. Brand new automobile. He drove
up and a friend came out and said, wow, Joe, look at that.
That's a new car. He said, sure is. He said, where'd
you get that? He said, my brother gave me that.
Gave it to you, this fella said. Your brother just gave you that
car? Yeah, he sure did. He just gave it to me. That fella
said, oh, I'd like to have a brother like that. And the man said,
I'd like to be a brother like that. Greater love hath no man than
he that lay down his life for his brethren. That's our Lord
and that's our friend. Stand with me.