I want you to turn in your Bibles
this morning to John chapter 15. If I look out at this congregation
this morning and listen to you sing very much,
I might get encouraged, I don't know. But if you'll turn with me to
John chapter 15, I want to try to bring you this
message that I've entitled, Friend or
Foe? I think most people in their
minds imagine that they are in a kind of middle state on some
kind of middle ground with God. But it is as I hope we will find
out this morning that we are either friend or foe. And to the surprise of many,
the Lord Jesus Christ does not call any of the Pharisees,
or the scribes, or the Sadducees, or any of the religionists of
his day, his friends. Does not call any of them his
friends. And what they say of him, What
they say of him in ridicule is really his greatest glory. And I can tell you this, it's
my greatest hope. Luke says, Then drew near unto
him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eateth with them. So it was among this people,
these publicans, these fishermen, these common people, that he
called his friends. Look down here in verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. In John 10, he says he lays down
his life for the sheep, and here he says he lays down his life
for his friends, because his is the greatest love. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called
you friends. for all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give
it you. These things I command you, that
you love one another." And then he speaks concerning
the relationship between himself and his friends and what he calls
here the world. Look in verse 18. If the world
hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word. that I said
unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have
kept my saying, they will keep yours also." That is the difference
between Christ and His friends and the world. Hold your place
here and turn over briefly to John 17, where he makes this
even the more clear, this relationship. John 17 and verse 6, he prays
to the Father, "'I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world, Thine they were, and thou gavest them
me, and they have kept thy word." Verse 9, "'I pray for them, I
pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me,
for they are thine.'" And then in verse 11, "'And now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come
to thee, Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are." And
then if you'll look down in verse 13, And now I come to thee, and
these things I speak in the world, that they themselves might have
my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world." I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. as thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified,
set apart through the truth." And here in John 15 again, in
verses 21 through 25, he shows us even more clearly
how it is that his friends are exposed and his foes. Verse 21. But all these things
will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know
not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father
also. If I had not done among them
the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and
hated, both me and my Father. But this comes to pass, that
the Word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause." Now, the Lord Jesus is not saying
that they had no sin before He came, nor is He saying that they
would not have had sin had He not come. He's not saying that
at all. But rather, He is speaking comparatively. And that is, compared to the
immeasurable guilt of rejecting the Lord of glory, of rejecting
the gospel of Jesus Christ, compared to the guilt of that, their other
sins are insignificant, utterly insignificant, because the depravity
and the wickedness of these men and all men is manifested by
the coming of God manifest in the flesh. In other words, the
same ones who would have said just short times before He actually
came that they loved God. When He actually came in human
flesh and walked among them and spoke to them, they hated Him. They thought He was their friend,
and they found out that He was their foe. And so John in the
third chapter says this, he says, For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. We know that the opposite of
condemnation is justification, and we know that's in Christ. But he says on the opposite of
that, this is the condemnation, and it also has to do with Christ. This is the condemnation that
light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that
doeth evil hateth the light. Neither comes to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved." But we know by virtue of just
the verses that I have read, it was actually his words that expose who his friends are
and who his foes are. And the same thing takes place
in this hour as it did in that hour that we have just read about. The same thing takes place when
he comes to men and women through the preaching of His Word. In other words, if you stop and
think about it, there are so many ways in which men and women
in religion that barely denies God, there are so many ways that
they are alike, and there are so many ways they are like the
true people of God. There are a lot of moral people
in this world. There are a lot of people who
do good deeds. There are a lot of kind people
and warm people and nice people. But the thing that separates
friend from foe in the midst of this world is this gospel. Why? Because it's the Word of
God. It is the Gospel concerning His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, when He came down to
Nazareth, if you remember, here He was the hometown boy, and
I believe well thought of in a general sense, so much so as
to even be allowed to stand and read the Scriptures in the synagogue
of Nazareth. But when he stood up on that
occasion and read that passage of Scripture and made application
of it concerning himself, when He said, this is fulfilled
in your ears this day. And it was undoubtedly a passage
concerning the Messiah. They sought to kill Him. And
not only that, by their own confession, it says that they went out and
sought to stone Him. They sought to destroy Him on
another occasion. And he said this, he said, for
which of these miracles that I've done do you seek to stone
me? They said, oh, it's not for any
of the miracles. It's not because of anything
you've done. It's not because you made the
loaves to be plentiful or turned water into wine or healed anything. It's not because of anything
you've done. It's because of what you said. Because you made yourself to
be God. And you see, that is exactly
one aspect of the gospel. It is a clear setting forth of
the man Christ Jesus as none other than God manifest in the
flesh. You see, look back in verse 14. He says, you are my friends if
you do whatsoever I command you. Now, if we had just the slightest
understanding here and honesty about us, we would know that
that either says that Christ has set forth a work salvation,
so that He'll save a people and they'll be His friends if they
do everything He commands them, or either He means something
totally different. And when they ask Him, You tell
us what the work of God is. You tell us what God would have
us to do. And we'll be sure to do it. He said, this is the work of
God that you believe on Him whom He hath sent." That's the work that God commands. That's what He requires. It is
for us to believe on Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, which is to
believe what He says in the Gospel about His Son. And so our Lord says this in
John 8. This and another verse I want
to read you, they're so vitally important. And this is exactly
what is set forth here. In John 8, He says this, He that
is of God. That means a child of God, one
of the elect of God, redeemed of God, and a host of other things. And in this case, a friend of
God. He that is of God heareth God's
words. That means hears them to believe
them. Hears them so as to act on them. And then he said to those that
he was talking to, you therefore hear them not because you're
not of God. He said of those Pharisees in
another place, you believe not, because you're not of my sheep. And then here's a sobering verse.
A sobering verse in light of this very thing. In Mark chapter
8, he says this, Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me. Somebody says, well, I'll tell
you, I'm not ashamed of Jesus. But he says this, Whosoever therefore
shall be ashamed of me and of my words. That means you cannot separate
some kind of a mystical Jesus apart from those words that he
spoke and caused others to speak about him. They are inseparably
joined, and one cannot be known without the other. Whosoever
shall be ashamed of me and of my in this adulterous and sinful
generation of him also the Son of Man shall be ashamed when
he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." Someone just told me recently
of a lady that they or someone had heard speak who said she
knew she was going to heaven. And when she was questioned in
light of what she claimed to believe and be so sure of, and
they were trying to tell her what the Bible said, she said,
I don't care what it says. I know I'm going to heaven. Not so. Whosoever shall be ashamed
of me and of my word. And to be ashamed of His words
is to not believe His words. It is not to trust in His words
and rely upon the record of God that He has given to His people
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. You see, the true condition of
men and women The exceeding sinfulness of their sin and the greater
condemnation they are under is made and made known by their
natural response to the truth, to the true gospel of Christ
and Him crucified. Paul makes this statement in
Romans 8, and it is absolutely the truth, and it is always manifested. He says, the carnal mind, that
is my mind and your mind apart from the grace of God. That is
our mind by birth. That is what we believe in ourselves
and of ourselves that is right naturally. He says the carnal
mind is enmity. What is enmity? It's hatred. It's abhorrence. It's malice. It's dislike. He says the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That's right. For it is not subject
to the law of God, it is not subject to or submitted to the
words of God, the commands of God, the requirements of God,
it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And this is where men and women
are confused. You see, we don't by nature hate
religion. All people are by nature religious. You find religion in every place
and in every people of one kind or another. It is as natural
to us after the fall as any other thing we do that's against God. You read Romans chapter 1 and
it makes it plain. And men and women do not hate
good works and morality. As a matter of fact, we go to
some length praising each other for acts of bravery and charity
and heroism and all these things. We're a mutual admiration society
for these things. And they do not hate Jesus as
a healer or a prophet or even as some kind of helper or assistant
in salvation. They don't mind Him being their
co-pilot. And they don't hate being told what they can do,
but they hate being told what they can't do. You know what He said? He said,
can come to me except the Father which hath sent me joy." No man
comes to the Father but by me. And they don't hate being told
what they might do if they are so inclined, but what they must
do. In other words, they don't hate
a Jesus. Their friend Jesus. who's the product of their own
imagination, and it's the product of this false religious world. They don't hate him at all. He's
their friend, but not the true Christ. I can remember so well thinking,
reading some of the texts just like I read to you this morning
in John 15. I can remember thinking so clearly
How that it must be that I, as a religious person living in
the time that I lived in, what he says here must have only been
applicable for his day and the days of the Apostle? Because
nobody felt that way about me. Good old boy. Nice preacher boy. But when he taught me the truth, when I found out what God says. When I began to believe in the
Christ of this book, in contrast to the one of this world, and
read and hear what God had to say about Hisself. When you identify
with what He says about Himself, you are manifested as the friend
of God, but the foe of this world. Does that surprise you? I don't
know why it surprised me, because he had said it again and again
in a multitude of different ways over and over again. Paul says this in Galatians 5,
he said, and I, brethren, If I yet preach circumcision, if
I were preaching a works salvation, that salvation depended on something
that you are or something that you do at some point or in some
way. He said, if I am preaching a
works salvation, then why am I suffering persecution? Because if I were preaching a
works salvation, If I were preaching what men naturally think is right
and wanted to hear, he said, then the offense of the cross
would be ceased. You mean to tell me that the
cross that all these people wear around their neck stick up in
their church yards and this symbol that characterizes Christianity
so-called in our day, you mean there's an offense in that? Absolutely
not. But there's an offense in the
gospel of the cross. That's what he's talking about.
There's an offense, a natural offense to every one of us by
nature in this Christ that hangs on a cross. There's a natural
offense as to who put Him there. There's a natural offense as
to what He's actually doing there. There's a natural offense to
what He actually accomplished there. And a salvation. and a gospel
that sets forth a full and complete and only Savior of sinners in
Jesus Christ is offensive. A gospel that gives Him all the
glory is offensive. A gospel that is all in God's
hands is offensive to us by nature. A gospel of Christ that is all
of God's grace, it stirs up the sinful pride that is natural
to us. But all you have to do is look
at the history of this world All you have to do is look at
how Christ was treated and then crucified, how his prophets were
dealt with by men, how his apostles were some killed and hanged and
everything else, and how those who have stood by his gospel
over the ages, what they've met with, and you'll know this is true. But Paul said, for do I now persuade
men or God? Do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. So that the servant of Christ
The only thing that God sends him to do, the only thing that
he can do, is to honestly and straightforwardly preach the
gospel of Christ. And something always happens.
Something always happens. He finds out his friends. And it exposes His enemies. It's a perfect gospel. It will
be that Word that always accomplishes the thing whereunto He sends
it, to glorify His name in the earth, to bring forth and comfort
and show this salvation to His people and to expose those who
are His enemies. Let me give you a few things.
You see, the Gospel exposes all of us as either friend or foe,
as in it God tells us what we are. You see, if you're not a sinner,
you don't need a Savior. That's absolutely right. If you're
not sick, you don't need the physician. If you're not in bondage,
captive, you don't need a deliverer. And so the gospel, which is called
good news and glad tidings, goes out to somebody who's in such
a condition and brought by God the Spirit to know what their
condition is, and this is good news to them. But if you've got this righteousness,
if you've got this work, if you've got this hope, in a false refuge,
if you've got this idea like that woman that because of a
feeling you've got, you're going to go to heaven, if it comes
to you and it calls you a sinner, how dare you? How dare you? How dare you? I've never drunk
or cursed or I've never done this, that and the other. all
my life. I've treated my fellow man well. I've not beat my wife or done
any of these things. I've not stole from the government.
And you're telling me I'm a sinner? No, I'm not. But I'll tell you this, that's
who God saves. And when they said He's going
to be a friend of publicans and sinners, to real sinners, and
somebody said a sinner is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost hath made
them such. And when he said he's gone to
be a guest at publicans and sinners, what a wonderful thing. We became sinners when sin was
imputed to us, when the head of our race, Adam, fell into
sin. And we came into this world and
were sinners in our birth and are sinners by choice and sinners
by nature and sinners by practice. You can't think a thought, do
a deed, say a word, imagine anything, have a motive that is not tainted
and polluted with sin. You do it for yourself. You do
it for your glory. Sometimes I see these so-called
philanthropists as they're praised on the news because they've given
away a million dollars to a cause. The dogs, they kept 50 million
for themselves. They did it, but they didn't
do it quietly. They didn't do it silently. They
did it in a press release. That's everything we do. Everything. In this flesh dwelleth
no good thing. Paul said, we've proved, both
Jew and Gentiles, that they are all under sin as it is written. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. You say, well, Mama said I was
a good boy. Well, you probably were to her, but not to God. A sinner begat a sinner. And
that's the way it is. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned, that means When he says dead
in sin, it means not only are we dead under the justice of
God, it not only means that we're dead as far as legally dead,
but it means that we are dead insofar as to being able to do
anything toward God. And so much a sinner are we that the only way we could be
saved is for God Himself to come in human flesh and that in order
to die. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. We're not in a case whereby we
could get a a little bottle of snake oil remedy and take and
cure our problem? And we're not in a condition
where we could even go and find the greatest physician or doctor
or whatever it is and have him to do something to cure our thing? Nothing we could do? It took
God to die. Why? Because only God can satisfy
God. And only God in human flesh can
die. And that's why it says that Christ
came into this world to save sinners. that he died and by
the sacrifice of himself he put away the sins of his people. And the truth of man's fall and
guilt and rumen and sin and inability, all of them together, they expose
what we really are by nature. Proud. having high thoughts of
ourselves. And if we say that we have no
sin, John says, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And
if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. Christ said this to everyone. Did he find his foe? Well, yes,
he found his foes. And they said, when he said,
you do the deeds of your father, then said they unto him, we be
not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. He said, and when they rejected
me, when they rejected my words, They showed they were the foes
of God. And then the Scripture says that
there was a woman that came. And he said concerning her and
what he was speaking, he said, it's not me to give the children's
bread to dogs. She was a Gentile. Surely, she'll not stand for
that, will she? Well, she proved a friend. She
said, truth Lord, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from
the master's table. That's a friend. And not only that, the gospel
as it goes forth, it exposes the friend and the foe because
it sets forth one righteousness. The righteousness of God. given
as a free gift through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hold your place here and turn
over to Romans chapter 8. Now, I just want to ask you if this
is true. First verse, and most of the
original manuscripts don't include as a part of that first verse
the last phrase. So what it actually says, most
believe, is this. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Is that true? That's what this whole book says.
They are, that is those in Christ Jesus, they are the friends of
God. And everyone outside of Christ
Jesus, they are the foes of God. In other words, our relationship
with God is not based on what we are of ourselves, but what
we are in Christ. And so if we are, as the Gospel
says, we are sinners, then God in grace has done something in
Christ to make us righteous, that we might not only be accepted,
but blessed accordingly. Do we have a righteousness? Only
an imagined one? We're like the emperor's new
clothes fairy tale. We've been told by religious
people and by our own parents and a whole lot more that if
we do and do and do, then we can kind of put together a garment
before God, we could stand and be accepted. No way. No way. You see, Christ as our
representative, and as a man in the flesh for men, He brought
in, He made manifest that everlasting righteousness through His obedience and death. Paul in Romans 3, he says, being
justified, having been justified, declared righteous, by his grace, freely, by his
grace, through. Now, some people use that verse.
to try to set forth a time. I don't always agree with the
time of justification that some have. But I can tell you this,
it's always, whether we believe in ever-eternal justification
or justification in time, that doesn't say either one that says
through. through the redemption which
is in Christ Jesus. And I feel like that God could
have, and did before the foundation of the world, count his people
justified through the redemption of Christ as much so as he did
in that cross work on the cross at that time, or as much so as
he counts them to be such when he enables them to believe. Why? Because for God to be right,
all He has to do is act, and that's what justification is,
an act of God. All He has to do is act in a
way that is in harmony with Himself and His character, and act on
a just basis. And when He does so through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, He does so. And by His
death on the cross, our Lord satisfied God's justice, enabling
God to be both just and justifier. And everything that a sinner's
salvation is based on, is based on that person and that work
and not we ourselves at any time. You say, well, don't you believe
the Lord's people ought to live soberly and righteously in this
world? Absolutely. I've been telling
men and women that for over 25 years. Don't you believe that
they are to obey the plain commands of our Lord Jesus Christ and
the apostles? Absolutely. That they are to
live purely, that they are to be gracious and kind, everything,
but that at no time. No time is a part of the ground
of our salvation, because the gospel sets forth this One, the
Lord, our righteousness. And it says that His people are
made the righteousness of God in Him. And no other way. No other way. It says and declares God to be
absolutely sovereign in total control, having the one choice
in the matter of salvation. Here we have a great multitude
of people in this world who would If they could get away with it,
they would kill you. Dare you say that they're not
the friends of God? That they're not the ones seeking
God's glory and doing God's work? How many people have you witnessed
to this way? How many people are in your Sunday
school? How many people have you told
to make a decision for Jesus? How many people have you set
forth this gospel before so God can give them a chance? This God says, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. I'll save who I want to save. and I'll bypass everyone I don't
intend to save, and I will be as just and as holy with the
one as I am with the other. I'll love Jacob in Christ. I'll leave Esau to his own deserts
and hate him because of his sin. I'll do what I will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of men, and none can stay my
hand." If we're not brought to the place that we are made to realize that
God doesn't owe us anything except hell for our sins, We don't know
God. We don't know anything about
God. And we certainly don't know anything about ourselves. And
who are we? Who are we in the face of these
plain truths of Scripture to fly back in the face of God and
say, well, you can't do that. Or, if you do that, it'll be
wrong. My friend, the only thing and
the only way we'll ever know is right is if God does it. And if He says it, He says it. I tell you, I came to realize one
day that the Lord God Almighty, there was not one reason in me
for Him to save me. There is not one thing in me
to draw Him to me. There's not any word that could
be spoken by anybody on my behalf to say, well, as the song went,
he might be worth saving. Don't give up on him. And when none of those things
could be, actually before we ever were, in that glorious sovereignty
of God is God. He said, I'm going to have mercy
on him. The devil said, well, you're
wasting your time with him. He's the worst. You don't understand,
devil. I will have mercy on him. And neither you, nor every person,
nor every devil, can stop me from having mercy on Him. Not even Him. I saw one of those, you know,
reality, smashingly frightening video
segments that they show World News and stuff. And here's a
poor fellow out in Thailand, I believe it was, in a train
station. Big crowd all around him. And
he's got the awfulest looking knife you've ever seen. He's
just got fire. He's all upset. And he's come
to kill his boss, except his boss is not there. And so he
starts sticking himself with that knife. And then when everybody
starts to go in toward him, he raises it up higher and higher
and higher. And finally, he just really starts
to stick himself with that knife, to stab himself again and again. The authorities are warning everybody
to stay away from him. And then all of a sudden, this
older man out of the crowd, he rushes out there and dives for
his legs and knocks him down. Saves his life. Stops him from
being the enemy of his own life. That's what God has to do for
us. And it's this sovereign God who does what He will. And if
He wills to save His people, there's nobody can stop Him.
And that's why He gets all the glory. Moses said, show me your
glory, Lord. He said, this is it. I'll have
mercy upon whom I will. I'll be gracious upon whom I
will. Here's Saul of Tarsus. Here he is on the road to Damascus.
He's a religious man. He's a moral man. He thinks everything's
fine. He thinks he's a friend of God.
But all he's doing, he's like that man. He's just self-destructing
in his sin. But he's an object of God's mercy. And God just knocks him off his
horse. Blinds him in that brightness of his glory. and saves him from
his sin, saves him from Satan, saves him from this perishing
world, and saves him from himself. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, it's of God who shows mercy. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to propitiation
for our sins. He's the Initiator. He's the
Sovereign. It's His grace. And then it shows also the wrath
of God against sin. You say, the Gospel shows the
wrath of God against sin? Absolutely. What do you think
has taken place on that cross? Now, there are men who have done
lots of things over the ages. God records a lot of them, like
Uzzah, when he reached out to study the Ark of the Covenant,
and King Uzziah, who entreated into the priest's office, and
all these things. He showed his wrath against all
kinds of various sins. But He really showed His wrath when He laid sin, the sins of
His people, on Christ, when He held Him accountable for the
sins of His sheep, when He imputed to Him the very sins of His people. And there He hangs on that cross
before God under the justice of God. And what does God do? You want to find out what sin
is to God? You want to find out how your
sin will be dealt with outside of Christ if He didn't deal with
it? Here He is, the perfect man, the Son of God. But when sin
is made to meet on His head, God killed Him. And he killed him with a death
so far worse than you and I could ever begin to imagine. Eternal death, which we know
he died. when he said, My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And my friend, the wrath of God
in its greatest, most intense form is just that. It is to be
separated from God, which is to be separated from everything
good and holy and pure, everything truly delightful and lasting
for Eternity. The judgment of those fallen
angels showed His wrath. The flood revealed His wrath. The destruction of Sodom revealed
His wrath. Hell will reveal His wrath. But
the cross worked. And you know what the delight
of that is? If He endured it for me, I'm
not ever going to have to endure it. We shall be saved from wrath
through Him. Then lastly, He finds out its foes and its
friends because the gospel says that
Christ is the one way to God and says there is no other. No other. It's not like preachers such
as Billy Graham who say they preach Christ. They say they
preach Christ, but they believe there's going to be some that
make it to God. No way. You see, it's like I said, it's
not what the world thinks of a man that determines whether
or not he really is the friend of God or the foe of God, but
what that man says and believes concerning God's Word. By your words, you'll either
be justified or condemned. What does that mean? It means
if you believe what God says and are in agreement with God,
you're a justified man. If your words are different than
God's, you're a condemned man. That's why the gospel is not
received well in our day of political correctness. But I'm not in politics,
and I'm not looking for votes, and there are no votes in the
kingdom of God. He's the King of kings. No other foundation, Paul said,
can any man lay than that which is laid. There's no other name
given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. I want to be everybody's friend.
I want to be everybody in this building's friend this morning.
I do. But not at the cost of not being
the friend of God. Said Abraham was what? Friend
of God. What was it that distinguished
him? Abraham believed God. Paul said on that ship, When
everything looked to be exactly the opposite, looked like everyone
would surely perish, he said, I believe that it will be as
God has said. That's what faith is. Believing
that it is, has been, will be as God hath said. The same gospel. We'll find out the friends of
God and the foes of God. Well, I
don't believe that. I'm not surprised. Wish you did,
but I'm not surprised. Paul says, as a matter of fact,
turn, let me, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, I mean 2, 2 Corinthians chapter
2. I'll try to hush. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse
14. If you remember, Paul had been
sent to Corinth, and it was such a wicked place that he was afraid. I mean, he was afraid to open
his mouth just about. But the Lord came to him in a
vision, and He said to them, He said, You preach the Word.
You go ahead and preach this gospel, and don't be afraid,
because I have much people in this city. You mean in that wicked place,
He's got some friends? Yeah. Well, how will I know them
when you preach this gospel? He says, writing to them later,
Now thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in
Christ, and make manifest the savor, or the fragrance, of His
knowledge by us in every place. He's talking about preaching
the gospel. opening that alabaster box of
ointment, and the fragrance of Christ crucified goes everywhere
when it is preached. He says then, for we are unto
God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in
them that perish. You see, the preaching of his
gospel which is the preaching of His
only begotten and well-beloved Son, who He is and what He's
done. That is well received by God
if it wasn't by anybody else. It's a sweet savor to Him, and
it's a sweet savor to His friends, but it stinks to His foes. The apostles, Paul and others,
they went everywhere in the book of Acts preaching. And when they preached the gospel,
when they preached that Christ, He is the Messiah, that He is
all of God's salvation, is the gift of righteousness, the way
to God, and there is no other. When he preached that, it said,
and when the Gentiles heard this, They were glad and glorified
the Word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. And the Word of the Lord was
published throughout all the region But the Jews stirred up
the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled
them out of their coasts." They ran them out of town. Why?
Because of what they preached. Why? Because they were the foes
of God. And yet, here are some that it
says, when they heard, they rejoiced and they believed. They were
the friends of God who were ordained unto eternal life. And because
of that, they believed. Are you a friend or a foe? In past military days, I believe
that that was the challenge that the guard would issue. Somebody
comes up in the night, he holds his weapon, friend or foe, the gospel does that. You're my friends if you do what
I command you. What is that? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. No one else. Nothing else. He's all. Father, this day we give you
thanks and praise for all your mercy and grace
to poor sinners such as we are, weak, helpless. And did you not
save us, we would not be saved. Were it not for your Son, the
One in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, were it
not for that salvation which you have wrought in Him, there'd
be no hope. Help us to look away from ourselves. Help us to believe the record
that you have given of your Son, the account, the doctrine, that
salvation is only through and by and in the person and the
work, the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless Your Word to our hearts.
Enable us to believe it, because all Your friends do. We thank You and pray in Christ's
name. Amen.