The name of the message is A
Friend of God. Turn, if you would, to James,
chapter 2. James, chapter 2. Now, we've been looking through
this wonderful epistle. Some people say it's a legal
epistle, but it's not, as we've seen. It's a wonderful epistle.
It's an epistle of freedom and liberty in Christ. And it speaks
of the work of the Holy Spirit in us, what he's doing in us.
And not of anything we've done, but what he's done, his mighty
work. And last week, we looked at two examples of faith with
works, which was Abraham and Rahab. And again, this is brought
forth. Remember, the true penman of
this epistle and the true penman of all scripture is the Holy
Spirit of God. He just uses and moves holy men
of God to write And again, those people are only holy in Christ,
just like us. We're only holy in Christ. And
they're just like us. Sinners saved by the grace of
God. And we've learned so far in our study that these works
which James speaks of in no way justify a man before God. They
are evidence of a salvation, evidence of a work that's been
done in us by the Holy Spirit of God. And these works are a result
of God's regenerating power. It's the Holy Spirit working
in us. Remember, we looked at, now you love the gospel. Now
we love the gospel. We didn't love it before the
Lord saved us. Now we love the brethren. We didn't love them
before the Lord saved us. Now we love the Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Savior of sinners. We didn't love him before he
saved us. We may have known about him. We may not have shaken our
fist at him and encouraged his name, but by our actions and
our sins, we were showing that we were at enmity with God. Now
we have peace with God, peace with God, in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. So with that in our minds, let's
turn to James chapter 2. We'll be going back to verse
23. We finished chapter 2 last week, and I didn't tell you that
we're going to be going back to 23 today. But I already knew
that. And I figured, well, if the Lord
wills, we'll be looking at this verse. And here we are today
looking at this verse. And I was so blessed putting this message
together. It's incredible what we're going
to see here. James chapter 2. where we're going to read verses
21 to 24 to get the context of verse 23. It says, was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac, his
son, upon the altar? And remember, we looked at in
Genesis 15.6 that Abraham was justified way before he offered
Isaac up. He was justified by faith, God-given
faith. So this justification here isn't
talking about his justification before God. Again, it's talking
about his justification before man, as we've looked at in this
study. And it shows you that faith works. Faith is obedient
to God. Obedient to God. True faith. See, seest thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by his works was faith made perfect? And the
scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God,
there is the key right there, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness. And he was called, look at this, the friend of God.
And then it says, you see then how that by works a man is justified
and not by faith only. Now I'd like us to consider this
little phrase in verse 23 this morning. This little phrase. this incredible statement, this
incredible title given to Abraham, not because of anything he's
done, but because of the grace and favor of God. Remember the
scripture says, Noah found what? Grace in the eyes of the Lord,
right? That's what every one of us have found, right? That's
what Abraham found. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. And it says, and he was called the friend of God. What a blessed statement. This
is incredible. We see here brought forth the
fact that Abraham was called the friend of God. And what a
title. What a title given to him among
all the sons of men. Can any title in this world come
even close to that? I'm talking about the highest
office in the world. Can it even come close to this,
being called a friend of God? Nothing compares to it, does
it? Nothing even comes close to it. The highest title in the
world doesn't even come close to being called the friend of
God. The friend of God. Turn, if you
would, to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles, and then put your
finger also on Isaiah 41. 2 Chronicles in Isaiah 41. We will see here in the Old Testament
the fact brought forth that Abraham was a friend of God. A lot of
commentators believe this is where James found this and bought it and
penned it out, but we know it's by inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
because the same author wrote the thing in the Old Testament,
this fact. as he does in the New Testament,
right? The true author is God the Holy Spirit. Look at this
in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verse 7, and it says this, Art not thou
our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land?
So remember, the Canaanites were driven out before the people
of Israel when they came into the land? Before thy people Israel,
and gavest it to the seed of Abraham, look at this, thy friend
forever. This is in the Old Testament,
it says this. Now turn, if you would, to Isaiah,
chapter 41. What a title! Could you imagine being called
the friend of God? That's amazing! Look what it says in Isaiah chapter
41, verses 8 to 11. But now 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." What
promises right there in that verse. Hey, that's for us too,
you know. That's for us, those promises,
too. And it says, 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. But look what it says
in verse 8. But thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, whom I
have chosen the seed of Abraham, my friend. What a statement! So James is
bringing forth what the Old Testament Scriptures proclaim. And he's doing this again by
inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, because again, these
men pen the scriptures, but the true author is God, the Holy
Spirit. And the scriptures declare this wonderful truth in Abraham's
history in life, prove, prove by his actions that he found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now he was a sinful man just
like you and I. Right? But he was a sinner saved
by grace, just like you and I. And it says here that he was
the friend of God. The Scriptures declare this very
clearly. And think upon this, that the
Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the one who has saved
his people from his sins, did you know that he declared that
his disciples were his friends? Turn, if you would, to John chapter
15. John chapter 15. Now, we who
are the blood-washed saints of God and the servants and bond
slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, we delight to serve Him, don't
we? We delight to serve Him. We delight to come and hear the
gospel preached and proclaimed. We delight to gather together
and worship our great God and King. But we're seeing this verse that
we're more than just servants. We're more than just servants,
beloved. Look at this, John 15, 15. henceforth
I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what the
Lord doeth but I have called you friends this is God in the flesh speaking and he's speaking to his people And he says here, but I have
called you friends. For all things that I have heard
of my father, I have made known unto you. Not known unto everybody. And think of what he's made known
unto us. He's revealed himself to us, hasn't he? He's revealed
to us that he died for us 2,000 years ago on Calvary's cross.
Wonder of wonders. And note what the Lord is saying
to his disciples here. And let your heart rejoice, beloved
of God, at these wonderful truths. that he's telling us, that we're
more than servants, we're his friends. We're his friends. Now a master,
back in the master and servant days that way, a master would
keep himself distant from his servants. And they would, by
his command, do his bidding, or her bidding, without explanation
and without argument. And they would be rewarded according
to their productivity. But oh, how much different is
a friend? How much different is a friend? Think of a, we have
acquaintances, right? But how much different is a friend
to you? A friend's someone you love. A friend's someone you
confide in. A friend's someone who you communicate
all the time with. Now, you may go long distances
between communication, but you pick up right where you left
off when you get together again. I've seen that happen with Grace,
folks. I'll go down south, haven't seen anybody for five years,
and we're sitting across the table, and it's like we just
talked again yesterday. It's amazing. But oh, how much different is
a friend, one whom we love, one who's been taken into our confidence,
One who we reveal our plans to. Do you know Christ reveals himself
to us as we are able to receive it? We see through a glass darkly
right now, beloved. But then face to face, Sister
Louise is seeing Christ right now, face to face right now.
We're still looking through a glass darkly. Oh my, and he reveals his almighty
purpose to us as we can bear it. And his almighty counsel,
and the great designs of his almighty grace, and as he reveals
these things to us as we're growing in grace, we just grow in awe
and wonder of who our great God is. Of the great sacrifice that
Christ made on Calvary's cross for us when he redeemed us with
his precious, precious blood. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
17, just a couple chapters over from 15 there. Christ has made known himself
to us, to his friends. And what has he made known to
us? His glory, his gospel, who he is, why he came to this world,
what we are, He's revealed all these things
to us. We didn't know them before, did we? I thought I was doing
okay. Until the Lord revealed himself
to me. Oh my, I'm just a sinner and I desperately need Christ. Look at this in John 17 verse
six and seven, six to eight actually. I have manifest thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me. And remember, these are the disciples,
these are his friends, which thou gavest me out of this world.
Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy
word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I come out from thee. and they
have believed that thou didst send me." There was a time when
we didn't believe God sent the Son. We didn't believe that He
was God. Oh my. Or we had a warped interpretation
in our own minds of who we thought God was. And then when He reveals
Himself, what do we find out? He's entirely not like us. That's
what we find out, eh? We are animated pieces of dust. Remember that dust you see floating?
Just think, that's like us. We're just these little pieces
of dust to the Lord, and yet he has mercy on us. He has mercy
on us. Think upon this. Be astonished
at the fact that our holy God, he condescends himself and comes
down to sinful men and women and are their friends. And he
gives his life for them. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And Christ
laid down his life for us, for his people, for his people. Think of this, what grace, what
mercy, what love would drive him to come to this sin-cursed
world? In his sight, the heavens aren't even pure. He's so holy,
he charges his angels with folly. And here in the scripture, he
calls a man, a fallen man, a sinful man, his friend. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? What are we that God's mindful
of us little pieces of dust? or the son of man that thou visiteth
him. Who among our sinful race can
be worthy of this title? The friend of God or a friend
of God. Who's worthy of this? No one.
Abraham would be the first to tell you he wasn't worthy of
that title. The disciples would be the second and the first to
tell you, too, they weren't worthy of that title. We would be quick to say we're
not worthy of that title, are we? Not at all. Who can attain to the friendship
of Jehovah? Well, none of us. None of us
can become his friends by anything we do. We are his friends by his grace
and his mercy in Christ Jesus. That's the key. In Christ. Beloved of God, we are certain
only the grace of God can make us friends of God. Only the grace
of God can make worms like us God's friend. Only the grace of God. Isn't
that wonderful? The grace of God has done that
for his people. Wonder of wonders that man can
be taken into the friendship of God. And again, this is only
by a very gracious act of Jehovah. A very gracious act of our great
sovereign in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God
does not need any friends outside of the Blessed Trinity. He does
not need anyone else outside the Blessed Trinity. And yet
the Scriptures declare that Abraham's a friend of God, that the disciples
are friends of God, and we know that we're friends of God, too,
as God's people. And we'll look at why we know that. Because
we have communion with Him. We have a relationship with Him
others do not have. It's incredible. And it only
comes about by the grace and mercy of God in Christ. So we
see then the method of entering into friendship with God is graciously
appointed by God. And it's all according to his
mercy and his grace, which was shown us when he chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And what does that
do? It gives God all the glory, doesn't
it? It gives him all the honor and it gives him all the praise.
Again, he didn't need us. And yet he chose us in Christ. And as Abraham was called a friend
to God, we are called a friend to God. It's only in Christ,
and it's absolutely incredible, isn't it? It shows that on no
ground can we claim acceptance with the majesty of heaven. On
no ground of our own, we have absolutely no ground of our own
to expect acceptance with God on anything we do. Nothing. The only acceptance we have with God is in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it is something he has devised. And it's something that he has
enacted. That which He planned and purposed,
He's put into action, hasn't He? And it all comes by His wisdom
and grace. And then it's manifested to us.
Isn't that amazing? We who are the people of God
have had manifested to us the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ
died in our room and place. That's wonderful. That's absolutely
incredible. And again, we can claim no acceptance
before God based upon anything we do. Salvation is of the Lord
from start to finish and everything in between. It's all of Him. And so then by the exercise of
God-given faith, we believe the Word, don't we? We believe the
testimony now. of what the scriptures say. I
was talking to Vicki last night and I was saying, man, everything
I've learned, everything I know about Christ, all comes from
Him. I was talking to a friend who
came in. He comes in, stops in, talks
to me once a week. I said to him, I said, man, you
need to start coming to church here. You're agreeing with me
more than you're disagreeing with me now, like this. And he said
he'd probably come for a conference to hear Donnie. But I said to
Vicki afterwards, I said, I went upstairs and I started thinking
about the conversation I had with Jim. And I thought, I didn't
know any of this before the Lord saved me. I was totally clueless. And here I am now testifying
of Christ and what he's done. Isn't that amazing? It all comes
from him. Everything we know. And the only
reason he's showing us that is because we're his friends. He
chose us in Christ from before the foundation of the world.
He's chosen to have favor upon us. That's amazing. God's grace is
incredible. And so now by God-given faith,
we exercise that God-given faith. We believe what the word says.
We believe what the gospel's about. We believe when a preacher
stands up, we rejoice now. We rejoice. I got to listen to
a few messages this week at a conference in rescue, and I was able to
listen, and I was just sitting there soaking it up, rejoicing
in the word being preached. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And now I believe. Now you who
are the people of God, we believe that Christ justified us, don't
we? We believe that our only acceptance with God is in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we believe that? Because
God's revealed it to us. Why did he reveal it to us? Because
he chose us in Christ. Because he's showing us favor. You only really reveal things
to true friends, don't you? About yourself. They really know who you are.
Well, actually, I remember hearing Spurgeon say, the only one who
really knows who you is your husband and wife and your kids.
They really know who you are at home and everything. But still,
a close friend, you reveal a lot to them, don't you? There's someone
you can confide in. Look what God's done for us.
Look what he's revealed to us. He doesn't reveal it to everybody,
does he? But he's revealed it to his people
who he is, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, why
he came here to save his people from their sins, where he is
right now. He's a risen savior in heaven, seated at the right
hand of the Father, interceding for us. And he's coming again
sometime. He's coming again because he's
told us he he's told us in his word, he's coming again. We believe
it, don't we? We're just waiting patiently. whether he comes at
our time of death or whether he comes again when we're alive.
We're waiting for him. We're waiting for him. Now let
us consider the foundation of this friendship. It's all of
God. It's all of God. Abraham's friendship
with God all comes from God. God condescends to his level. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this sin-cursed world. He's the one who condescends.
He is the effect of Abraham's friendship with God. It all comes
in and through him. But it is God's friendship which
is the sole cause of this friendship, because it's based upon his everlasting
love that he has for his people. which is the cause of this wonderful
friendship. Consider how sweetly the Lord
proved Abraham's faith by the trial of demanding his son. This shows that true faith has
properties, doesn't it? It believes God, it trusts God,
because Abraham believed that God could just raise his son
up again. So the question for us is, are
you trusting Christ for the salvation of your soul? If you're not, then you're lost
and without hope in this world. You may hope in yourself or something
you do or something you said, like praying a prayer, but let
me tell you, if you're not trusting Christ, you'll leave this world
condemned and go into everlasting torment. So again, what think ye of Christ? What do we think of Christ, each
of us individually? Not what someone else believes,
what do I think of Christ? Well, he's my savior. He's my
substitute. He's my redeemer. He's my wisdom. He's my sanctification. He's
my redemption. He's my righteousness. He's my
king. He's the bishop of my soul. Hallelujah. What a Savior. He's the only Savior of sinners
in Him. In Him alone is salvation. So
what think ye of Christ? He's everything. The believer
says He's everything. He's all my salvation. Christ is my all in all. Why? Why has Christ become our all
in all? Because He's our friend. He's a friend that, what, sticketh
closer than a brother, right? Remember the scripture says that? Rejoice, beloved of God. You're
a friend of God. Not by anything you've done,
but all according to God's mercy and His grace. We're a people,
what, saved by Jehovah. We saw that last week, right?
We're a people saved by Jehovah. So now let's not overlook the
design of the Holy Ghost and this precious record of Abraham. These things are examples because
every son and daughter of faith is like man or the friend of
God, and proved to be by the same effects. Am I speaking to
someone who's truly born again? Who, like Abraham, hath been
bought to believe the record God hath given of his dear son?
then you know God's friendship is Abraham knew God's friendship
to him. He's proved himself to be a friend, hasn't he? Oh, he has. Before we were saved
and after we're saved. Oh, my. And my dear brother and
sister in Christ, what was it that caused this friendship?
but the ancient, everlasting, unchanging love of God in Christ. That's the only thing that caused
this friendship. And remember that this friendship
with God's people is so dear to God, so dear to Him. We're so dear to Him that He
gave His Son for us. That's how dear we are to Him.
that he gave his son to die in our room and place. That's how
dear we are to God. He chose us again in Christ before
the foundation of the world, so what's the cause of this wonderful
blessing? The everlasting flowing streams
of God's love, grace, and mercy. That's the cause. And it is because of this wonderful
friendship, and remember, this is an unalterable friendship,
too. Now friends in this world, We have them, we think, oh, we're
real close to them, and then they're gone. But you know what? God doesn't
operate that way. He's always our friend. He has been from eternity. We
needed to be reconciled to God, right? And praise God. Praise God that
in times we thought we should have died in this life, right?
And we can all look back at that and go, man, I should have died
there. But God preserved us, didn't
he? He kept us. And I look at times before the
Lord even saved me, and those things happened. But he had appointed that I hear
the gospel. He appointed that I be regenerated by the Holy
Spirit of God, and same for you, too. Why? Because we're his friends.
Because his everlasting love has been set upon us. Now, think of this wondrous friendship,
again, as the cause of the Holy Spirit's regeneration of us,
of our soul. We didn't know about this friendship,
did we? We had no clue. We had no clue. Usually a friend,
you know a friend, right? You have a friend, you know him.
We didn't even know we had this friend. And what a friend. He's
a friend like no other. He's a friend like, but we didn't,
in our natural state, we didn't know we had this friend. Didn't
have a clue. Didn't have a clue. Didn't even
see our need for this friendship, did we? I'm good. No, you're not. No, I'm not. I'm speaking personally,
right? No, I'm not. There's none good
but God, eh? My. And we were altogether unconscious
of this friendship. And we were unconscious of our
desperate need for this friendship. Oh, my. And the fact that God
has mercy upon us, and cause His face to shine upon us, by
the salvation of our souls in and through the Lord Jesus Christ,
and by the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit, and by
clothing us in Christ's righteousness, does not this prove God's friendship
to us? Him doing all those things, does
it not prove His friendship to us? It does, doesn't it? Because
we are so undeserving of all that. My, what a friend. What a friend
we have in Jesus. So let us not shrink back, too,
from this comparison. Because one might say, well,
Abraham, he had great faith. Oh, he had great faith. Yep. But if your faith is weak
and tried and tested, even though our faith is not so grand as
that of the father of the faithful. Have you made no sacrifice to
the Lord? Have you no Isaacs, no offering
to give up on what's the natural nature would wish to lean? We've given up things, haven't
we? We've sacrificed things. Not our son like Abraham was
going to do, but there's things that every believer sacrificed. Does not every regenerated child
of God indeed and in truth sacrifice his Isaacs and all that natural
man would cherish? Natural man, they're all about
themselves and all about whatever they can get. We've sacrificed
all that, haven't we? That's not important to us anymore. We're being stripped of everything
so that we might glorify in Christ and His salvation. Remember, it's not the greatness
of our attainments, but it's the Lord's love for us, which
is the source of this friendship. It's not about anything we do.
It's about his love. He is strong. We're weak. And he saved us by his mercy
and his grace. And we quickly discover that
the Lord's friendship is not based upon anything in us, no
merit, no deserving, This friendship finds its beginning and its end
in the fountain of God's grace and mercy. Here are some things to think
upon to end this. Think upon these facts. As a friend of God,
Abraham was favored with divine direction, and by faith he followed
that direction. The scripture says the steps
of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And we're only good in Christ,
but he orders our steps, doesn't he? He directs our paths. As a friend of God, Abraham had
intimate communion with God. We have one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And we can go talk to him anytime,
can't we? We can cry out to him anytime. We don't have to go
in a room and shut the door and pretend to be holy and humble,
no. We can be working on the yard
or working outside and driving in the car and praying to our
king. We could be walking through a
mall praying to our king. Isn't it amazing? We can commune
with him any time we want. And think of this too, we have
access communion with God in and through Christ as well and
as a friend of God there was in the case of Abraham submission
and obedience to the divine will of God combined with trust in
the divine promises of God that what God said he would do he
would do And beloved God, we come in humble submission, don't
we, before our great God. He brings us low, and we come
in humble submission to our great God. And we seek to walk in obedience
to our wonderful, merciful Savior. We trust His divine will in our
lives. And we love the promises of God,
which are all yea and amen in Christ. And lastly, as a friend
of God, Abraham was looking for a full and final happiness in
God. The Lord was his Savior. The Lord was his Redeemer. He
was made righteous by Christ, and it's so for every single
born-again, blood-washed believer. Marvel at this wonderful truth,
which we've looked at today. Each believer in Christ is a
friend of God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and all
because of God's mercy and his grace. And all we can say is
praise his mighty name.