A friend loveth at all times, and
a brother is born for adversity. Darrell mentioned Scott, and
I remember Scott telling me one time, if a man has one real friend
in his lifetime, he has been greatly blessed of God. And to
have a friend, I need a friend, that's a choice, choice blessing
from God. Now, I'm not talking about acquaintances,
people that we know, but a real, genuine friend. The Scripture
says here, a brother born for adversity, that when the going
gets tough, when things start going against you, this friend
and this brother will love you at all times. And let me show
you another thing. Look with me over in Proverbs
18.24, just a moment. I'll show you something else
that I want to talk about. I'm talking about friends. A
friend loveth at all times. Proverbs 18.24 says this, A man
that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend
that sticks closer than a brother. Now look in Proverbs 27.6 with
me just a moment. Proverbs 27, 6. Oh, listen to
this one. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend. You know, a friend may be able
to say something to you and should say things to you that nobody
else could because they're such a friend. Because they love you
that much. And they love you at all times.
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And Judas proved that. So we go back over here to our
text, a friend loveth at all times. A real friend, a brother
born for adversity, one whose wounds are faithful. I tell you,
that's a choice, choice blessing from God, from our Father. And
it's a pitiful, pitiful human being who doesn't have a real
friend. And what in the world would be
the cause that a person wouldn't have a real friend? Well, I read
it to you. He that hath friends must first,
first show himself friendly. If you don't show yourself friendly,
you could never possibly have a friend. And there is a friendship
that is not what it seems. With most people, friendship
means very, very little. I remember years and years ago,
the man's gone now, but I could tell you his name even. But he
attended funerals, whether he knowed the people or not. He'd
hear about somebody from some community or something who knew
somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody. But he went to
funerals all the time. I asked him one time why he did.
He said, I asked. He says, well, I go to those
funerals and attend their funerals so people will come to my funeral
when I die. Now, that's why he died. He didn't
have that many friends. That's sad commentary on a man's
life, ain't it? Sad commentary on a man's life.
And most folks think, well, if I can lose one friend, I can
get another friend. And you know when the summertime comes, and
everybody knows how bees are. Bees get around the flowers,
and they stay around the flowers, and they stay around the trees,
and when they're in bloom, they're all around. That's where a lot
of people's friends are. And you know, the frost comes
along, kills all the flowers, kills all the things, and then
there ain't no more bees around. And that's the way things are.
That's the way a lot of friends are. Whenever everything's going
real well, there's like a bee around the flower. When the frost
kills the flower, the bee's gone, and that's the way a lot of people's
friends are. And I tell you, O'Hitherfield, David's choice,
choice counselor. turned against him and became
a counselor for his enemy Abimelech. But, O beloved, let me tell you
something. Among true men, and there are some true men in this
world yet, there are some true men, Christian souls, men and
women, whose life to them is more than just a profession.
When we read these words here, a friend loveth at all times,
And he that hath friends must show himself friendly, and faithful
are the wounds of a friend." I mean, with those whose life
is more than a profession, there's a real meaning in this word.
They cherish, they build, and they guard, and that they uphold
the blessings of their family and their friends, and by being
a friend. I mean, we want to be a friend
as much as we want to keep a friend. I heard John Fortner say one
time, he said, I ain't got enough friends to afford to lose one
of them. And that's the way it is, ain't I? I ain't got enough
that I can afford to lose one. And so we want to show ourselves
friendly. We want to guard those that are
friends to us, those that love us at all times, those that take
us the way we are, those whose wounds are faithful. That brother
that's born, when the going gets tough, he stays right with you
through thickness or thin, through darkness or light, through troubles
or trials, or whatever's going on, he's right there with you.
That's what we're talking about. There are still men who, like
David and Jonathan, they love one another as their own souls.
And oh, beloved, the Scripture said here, as the wise man did,
a friend loveth at all times. He's not talking about sham friends.
No, no, he says, hey friend, how you doing, friend? No, no,
he's talking about friends who are indeed friends and in truth
friends. And I tell you, beloved, true
friendship, true friendship is not dependent upon bank accounts,
not dependent upon gifts, not dependent upon the sunshine.
It's fixed It's faithful, and it's firm, and it'll stay with
you throughout your lifetime if you ever really have one.
I believe that with all my heart. But I'm not going to talk about
and preach about friendship between men. But I'm going to talk about
a friend. What a friend we have in Jesus,
who all our sins and griefs bear. I want you all to talk about
a friend, the Lord Jesus. And I know this about him, he
loveth at all times. He's a true brother, a true brother
who in the most emphatic sense was a brother born for adversity.
It said here, a friend loveth at all times. And you know, and I tell you,
when we look at this, we consider this a free and loveth at all
times. Let's talk about the endearing, blessed love of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, let me tell you something
about this love of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loves at all times.
When I say loves at all times, let's look at some of the times. Our Lord loved us before there
was ever time, before time ever began, before time ever started. The Lord Jesus Christ loved His
people. Ain't that what He said in Jeremiah
31.3? Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and with cords of lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. And He loved them so that He
entered into a covenant with His Father, who gave them to
Him in this covenant. And He promised Himself to be
their surety for them, to pay their debts, pay their obligation,
put away their sin, and make them acceptable to the Father
throughout all time and eternity. And He did that before the world
ever began because He stood as the Lamb slain. And here's another
thing about it. He saw them as they were. Our
Lord Jesus Christ didn't see us in any other way than what
we really are. And he saw who they were. He
saw Simon Peter. He saw Paul, who hated him with
a passion. He saw me and he saw you before
we ever were. And he saw what we were and who
they were that he would redeem by his blood unto himself and
to the glory of his blessed Father. You see, it was in love that
He elected them is in love that He chose us. It was in love that
He received them as a gift from His Father. He said, Father,
they were Thine, and You gave them to Me, and may the love
for which You loved Me be into Him. And, O Beloved, before time
began, before time began, now listen, before Adam was ever
made, before God ever said, Let there be light, Before time ever
began, our Lord Jesus Christ engraved our names upon His hands
and upon His holy heart. And bless God for the truth of
eternal life. I mean, it's eternal life. If
it was based in time, it wouldn't be worth it. I mean, it was an
eternal life. Having loved us with an everlasting
love. And let me tell you something
else. He loved us before time began, when he said he loves
us at all times. He loved us when time did begin. When time began for the human
race, when God put Adam in the garden, and when God gave him
the commandment, don't you eat of that fruit of that tree of
good and evil, for the day you eat thereof you shall surely
die. And when Adam fell, Our Lord Jesus Christ loved us at
the fall, and He gave the promise of His love to all of His people
in one way. Let me show you that, Genesis
321. Look at this. And this is just a picture of
the love that He had for us, Genesis 321. At the fall, He
gave the promise of His love. I'll put in between thy seed,
the woman's seed, thou shalt bruise his, he'll bruise your
heel, but you'll crush his head." And here he gave us a picture
of his love in Genesis 3.21. Now watch this, unto Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. That's what God does for us.
He promised that before the world began. We stood naked before
Him. Naked as the day we was born. Naked in our sins. Hidden in
our sins. Covered with our fig leaves.
And He promised, I'll do for you what I did for Adam and Eve.
I'll clothe you in my righteousness. So since no time, since time
began, Has our Lord Jesus Christ not
loved us? Oh, I know that talk about love, this was when
time began. What love was it that caused him to go and come
into this world and be laid in a manger? And you know what a
manger is? They throw the hay down. The cows walk up there and eat
it. The horses walk up there and eat it. And our Savior, that
friend that loved Him at all times, that brother born first
to Him when He was born, they had some clothes there, some
old swaddling clothes. They wrapped Him up in them.
And they took Him in there and laid Him in that manger. Laid
Him in that hay. Laid Him in that manger. Oh,
how He loved us to do that. How he must have loved us to
lay at a virgin's breast as a baby, dependent absolutely upon his
own mother and father. How much love was it that caused
him to hide himself in obscurity for thirty years as a carpenter's
son, and all those thirty years working out by his holy and sinless
light a perfect righteousness for you and me. How in the world
can we plumb the depths of His love that caused Him to labor,
labor for three years with the hatred and rejection and despisement
and cursing and envy and lies that was told on Him, and then
come down to the day that He's going to die? and love us to
die such a death so full of pain and grief and sorrow and shame. How much did He love us when
time began? You and I, listen to me, we didn't
have no being then. We had no being then. We didn't
exist then. But He loved us. And He gave
Himself for us. And he'd done it as a friend
who loves at all times. For you, there was Gethsemane,
where he went and he prayed as his sweat became as great drops
of blood. And when he told his disciples,
could you not watch and pray for one hour? And he said, sleep
on now. But he loved them. And oh, it
was for us. that the scourging was put on
his back. For us, the crown of thorns was
put on his head. For us, They put that purple
robe on him. For us, they slapped him across
the face and said, prophesy who smoked you. For us, he went to
that cruel mock trial. For us, he carried that cross
until they took it off of him and laid it on another man. It
was for us that they put the nails in his hands and in his
feet. and took that spear and ripped
His side open. It was for us and the love that
He bore towards us that He dipped that vinegar and that gall. It
was for us and the love He bore towards us He cried out in agony
on that cross and said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? He loved us in the darkest hour
of time and eternity when our sins were laid upon Him. that
crushed him down in spirit to the lowest hell. It was love
that caused him to go and endure that and gladly and joyfully
for his blessed people that he loved from all eternity. So,
listen, he's a friend. When he says a friend loves a
good old time, you can say this friend does. And let me tell
you something else about him. He not only loved you before
time was, he loved you when time began, when the fall in the garden.
He loved you in his life on this earth. And he loved you when
time began for you and me. I love to think about this. And
I've thought about it many, many, many, many, many, many times
in my life. The day we were born, His blessed
eye was fixed on every one of his children. Yes, sir. Yeah. Saul, I know you're going to come out
of your mother's womb, and you're going to hate me without a cause. You're going to persecute me.
You're going to persecute my people. But I'll separate you
from your mother's womb. Oh, His love arranged your birth? I know that without a shadow
of a doubt. My mother and father was, and
I've said this before, but my mother and father, up until God
saved me by His grace and taught me something about genuine love
and respect, my mother and father, I often, I had such anger for
them, I had such Bitterness, cordial for the way they treated
me, the way they raised me, the way they pursued me, the way
they betrayed me, and all my brothers and sisters. But His
love arranged my birth. When I look back on it, I say,
Oh, my mother and father forsake me, yet the Lord will take me
up. And all His love not only arranged
my birth and your birth, but He arranged the name that was
given to me. He said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. Call His name Jacob. Call His
name Esau. Name Him Isaac. I mean, God chooses
our name for us. And He chose our parents. Now, you've got believing parents,
parents that loved you, and raised you under the sound of the gospel,
and raised you and brought you to hear the gospel. And you've
got parents that pray for you. and grandmothers and brothers
and sisters that pray for you. Bless God for every single one
of those parents. Bless God for them. I'll tell
you, there was a man born one day, and his mother and daddy
began to pray for him. He grew up, he grew up. Got in
with the wrong crowd. Maybe he himself was the wrong
crowd, but his mother and his father kept praying for him.
The older he got, the meaner he got, and his mother and daddy
prayed for him. He got in some awful trouble, got put in jail,
but his mother and father said, get praying for him. Maybe the
Lord will do something for him. And one day they come and took
him out of the jail, took him out of the prison. And they took
him out and they put him on a cross. And they nailed him to that cross.
And even his mother and father stood there hanging on that cross
and said, why, there's life, there's hope. And they prayed
for him. But there was another man on
that cross in the middle. And that man blasphemed and cursed
his mother and father, continued to pray, I still breathe and
know there's life, there's hope. And finally that man looked over
into this one on the middle cross and said, Lord, remember me.
when you come into your kingdom. And He says today, thou shalt
be with Me in paradise. Huh? Bless God for somebody that
prays for you. Our Lord Jesus prayed for a whole
bunch. He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they
do. And you know who He was praying for? Those He died for. Those that He loved at all times.
Even in His adversity, He loved them at all times. And guess
how many was converted over that one prayer? Huh? Oh, bless His
holy name. And His love not only reigns
your birth, your name, your parents, and your place. I tell you what,
there's never been a moment in your life without His love. You may have never had nobody
else to love you, but you've always had His. Jeremiah, when
you sworn in your mother's belly, I knew you and called you by
name. In fact, He loved us enough to
give His angels charge over us. And I tell you, He loved us so
much that there was no way in the world that He's going to
let one of whom He loved die, lost. It ain't going to happen.
Look in Ezekiel 16 with me just a minute. Ezekiel 16. I often thought of this, and
I know you have too. If it wasn't for Christ, if it
wasn't this brother that loveth at all times, this friend, and
this brother born for adversity, where would I be? What would
I be doing? What would I be saying? How would
I be acting? Where would I be? Look in Ezekiel
16. He wasn't going to let us die
lost. He loved us even when we cursed Him. It said here in verse
2, Son of man calls Jerusalem to
know her abominations, and He makes us know our abominations,
and oh, we had abominations. Thus saith the Lord God unto
Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity as of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, the
mother a Hittite, heathen, pagans. As for your nativity and the
day you was born, your navel was not cut, you were still connected
to your lost mother and your lost father. You were shaven
in iniquity and conceived in sin. You wasn't washed in water. You wasn't taken and cleaned
out. Nobody suppled you. You wasn't salted. You wasn't
purified. You wasn't swaddled. Listen,
none of I pitted you. Nobody pitted you to do any of
these under thee. To take care of you like a baby
ought to be taken care of. Nobody had compassion on you,
but throwed you out into an open field to the loathing of your
person in the day that you was born. Now watch it now. And when I passed by thee, and
I saw thee polluted, I know where you was born, I know who you
was born to, I know your mother and your daddy. And when I saw
thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee, yea, when I
was in thy blood live, I said unto thee, when thou was in thy
blood live. Look down at verse 8. Now when I passed by thee,
and looked upon thee, thy time was the time of love. And I spread
my skirt over you, and covered you nakedness. Yea, I swear unto
thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God,
and thou becamest mine. Oh, what did you do for me? I
washed you with water. I thoroughly washed away thy
blood from thee, and I anointed you with oil. I clothed you with
blood at work, shod you with Look what it says. Down in verse 14. And thou where
now went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, it was perfect
to my covenants which I put upon thee, saith the Lord. Oh, that's
where we was. That's where we was. That's the
condition we was in Christ found us. When justice started to smite
down to hell itself. It looked like it was impossible
for us to ever find any hope. We are bound to our Lord Jesus
Christ by cords of love that He Himself bound Himself to us.
And let me tell you something. This friend, a friend loveth
at all times. What a friend we have in Jesus.
This friend loves at all times. Now, look at all the times of
our lives. How many lifetimes have we lived in our lifetime? We had our youth, we got married,
raised kids, buried people, people being born. Lifetime, lifetime,
lifetime. But His friend loveth at all
times. His love came and sowed the good seed in our hearts when
so much other fell by the wayside. His love brought us to the Father
and made us like the prodigals to enjoy the gospel feast. And
even since He gave us faith and we believed in the best times
and the worst times, He has loved us at all times. We've played
the fool. How many times have we played
the fool? How many times have we threatened to go back? How
many times have we said, there's nothing to me? I'm the biggest
hypocrite that ever drawed a breath. How many times have we come to
the service with a guilt of something we said, something we acted,
someplace we've been, and our guilt was on us, and we played
the fool, threatened to quit, threatened to go back. Our hearts
has been like gomers. And we played the harlot, took
out after so many different things. But bless His holy name. Bless
His holy name. and bless His love towards us
because He doesn't measure it by our love toward Him. He measures it Himself. And He
loves us at all times. And He's been a faithful friend.
He's been a faithful friend. He's loved us through all of
our changes. Look at all the changes we've
went through. Who's going to supply my needs?
Has the Lord ever failed? I found the Lord Jesus Christ,
and I know you have a faithful friend when all others were unfaithful.
When you couldn't unburden your heart, when you couldn't tell
anybody what was going on in your heart, in your life, in
your mind. And all the things that you might have intended
to do and had a desire to do, and yet you didn't do it when
everybody else would not listen to anything you had to say. The
Lord Jesus Christ loves you at all times. Huh? And I tell you what, do you know
when we're going to really, really need Him to love us? There's
a time coming when our eyesight's going to go down. Our breath's
going to get shallow, and our steps going to get slow. And they're going to say, well,
we need to call the hospice. Oh, there'll come a time for
us to leave this world, a time for us to die. But a friend,
this friend, will love you at all times. And, oh, how the friend
will need them. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. Why? Because
thou art with me. Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards. Here's a man. Everybody, no matter
who you find, says anything about Jonathan Edwards. They say he
was the greatest American theologian that ever lived, and probably
the greatest American philosopher. And God used him. God used him
and had a great, great revival up in the Northeast. Lots and
lots of people. He's the one that had the famous
message, you know, sinners in the hands of an angry God. And
he got time for him to die. Here's a man who passed through
church for over 20 years. Northampton, Massachusetts. David Brainerd was his son-in-law.
And because he demanded a regenerated church membership, and they just
wanted to let anybody who wanted to be a member, be a member. Didn't have to believe the gospel.
And Mr. Edwards stood his ground. And
do you know that they put him out of that church that he pastored
for twenty-something years. And him and his wife went off
and moved into a little old bitty house in them old cold northeastern
winters. And he was the man who started
Princeton University. And it come time for him to die.
And you know what he says? Where is Jesus of Nazareth, my
old and faithful friend? I know he'll be with me. I need
his help now. I need his help now. When he's
getting ready to leave this world. I need him now. And you know
what? It's like those disciples on
that ship in that storm that night. And the Lord Jesus come
walking to them on the water. And they got scared. And He says,
this is where He'll save us. Be of good cheer. Here I am. Be of good cheer. Here I am. Do not be afraid. It's me. Here's the life of the love.
I've got a little bit to describe the life of the love of our Lord
Jesus Christ from the beginning that had no beginning to the
ending that has no ending. Is He really a friend that will
love us at all times? And let me tell you a little
something about His nature, the nature of His love towards us.
Let me tell you this. He had absolutely nothing, nothing
to gain by loving us. What did He gain by loving you?
What did He gain by loving me? What did He gain? The love that he had towards
us couldn't have possibly come from anything in us. We had no
personal beauty, no great types of character. And let me tell you something
else about the nature of his love. His own love maintains
itself without drawing any reasons or motives from us. It maintains
itself. He don't look in any reason in
us for Him to keep on keeping on loving us. It maintains itself. And His love is a wise love. It's not blind like ours. Not
blind like ours. I've married people and six months
later they is divorced. Married people, a year later,
they're separated. Oh, I love you. I've gone through
sickness or health, through poverty, riches. I'm going to love you. I'm going to love you until death
do us part. I'm going to love you until ever you cross my path
and I don't get what I want from you, and you don't treat me the
way I think ought to be treated, and then I'm going to not love
you anymore. But our Lord Jesus Christ, His love's not blind
like ours. He loved us knowing exactly, exactly what we were. And there's nothing about us,
nothing about us that He didn't perceive about us. Nothing about
our sin, nothing about our natures, nothing about our constitution,
but He loves us still. Jesus Christ the same today,
yesterday, and forever. Aren't you thankful for that?
And oh, listen now. He is so patient, so patient
with us, and His love is so constant. And I think, and this is me and
Tom talked about this a little while yesterday afternoon, and
I think, and the reason he is, because he sees us That's what
we are to be, not what we are. He always views us as what He's
going to make us and what we'll be. And He's a
friend who loves us at all times. And let me quickly give you this.
Not only is He a friend that loves us at all times, but He's
a brother, a brother born for adversity. Christ is not ashamed
to be called our brother. And a brother that's born for
adversity, when everything's against you. And he shows what
a brother he is in the time of trouble in the family. And our
Lord Jesus Christ was born as a brother, born for adversity. Unto us a child is given, unto
us a son is given, and unto us a child is born. And our Lord
Jesus Christ was born Because we were in such adversity, because
of our sin, because of our rebellion, because of our relationship to
Adam, that we could not deliver ourselves. And he came to deliver
us from this awful adversity and awful condition that we were
in, and our father Adam. And the Lord Jesus said in Psalm
69 and 4, I restored that which I took not away. And because our adversity was
so great, it required a great Savior. And as a brother born
for adversity, he can actually, actually fill our adversity in
our lives. Psalm 63.9 says this, in all
our afflictions, in all our afflictions, he is afflicted. It says, you
know, we don't have a high priest. who cannot be touched with the
feelings of our infirmities. They'd go to the high priest
and they'd start telling the troubles off. All I'm telling
you is get your sacrifice and take it to God. But we can go
to Christ, and Christ Himself knows, knows He is touched with
the feelings of our infirmities. He's touched with our heartaches.
He's touched with our grief. He's touched with our troubles.
He's touched with our tears. And in fact, He's so touched
with them that He puts them in a bottle. And as a brother born for adversity, he gives us his blessed, blessed
presence when you or I have trouble in this world. How many times
has our Lord Jesus made himself known to us and revealed himself
to us and made us feel his presence when we were going through troubles
and heartaches and sorrows? And I tell you how he really
manifests his presence to us. by His people being with us.
Oh, when we're in trouble and things are going a bit, God's
people gather around. I'll tell you how He speaks to
you and gives you His presence. He comes and gives His presence
in the message He sends to you and speaks to you in your heart.
He comes and gives you His presence, but when the storm starts raging,
He comes and brings peace in that storm. And I'll tell you this much,
beloved, because he is a brother born for adversity. We really, really, really know
him when we're in adversity, because we turn to him with our
whole being when we're in adversity. Huh? No wonder David said, it's
good for me that I have been afflicted. And let me say this
in closing. God help us to love Him at all
times. I know we don't love Him as He's
worthy. We don't love Him like we want to. We don't love Him. Sometimes we wonder if we love
Him at all. But let's love Him at all times. Let's be like Abraham. a friend of God. Let us love
Him in deed, not just in our words. Let us love Him in truth,
not just in saying it. By being there for His blessed
church, for His blessed people, and through the things they go
through. Loving with the church seems dull and dead. Loving with the preacher is not
what he ought to be. Love him when you're on the job.
Love him through his people as they suffer. And you be a brother who is born
for adversity when you see your brothers in adversity. And I
do know this, that He is worthy. We aren't, but He is. Let's love Him for His sake. For His sake.