Good morning. Thank you all for
having me again. I'm thankful for everything you
all do for me, but there's times when we get things that we weren't
expecting. Sometimes you get some nice gifts. I send greetings from Sovereign
Grace Chapel. Those folks there, I love them
dearly and they're very supportive of me and Walker and Joe as well. We love them but we also love
meeting brethren elsewhere too. Thank you all for having me.
If you would, let's go and get started. Turn with me to Proverbs
18. Proverbs 18. And I'm going to read one verse. Proverbs 18, verse 24. Proverbs 18, 24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother. A man that has friends, that
is a fellow or a companion. Just as we might say today, a
man that has a best friend. It then says, must show himself
friendly. It struck me as I looked at this
word, I was kind of taken back for a little bit. The one Hebrew
word translated into four English words here as must show himself
friendly means good for nothing, evil, or to break or shatter. I mean, when I read this, when
I read those words, must show himself friendly, I'm thinking
must be nice to someone or to help someone or to listen to
someone. Well, being a friend does mean that. But as it is
saying it here, must show himself friendly, it doesn't mean that.
This is telling us that the one who has friends, or this friend
in this way, shows himself vulnerable, no good, broken, and in need
of help. Isn't that what friends do? They
help one another because they know another one's faults. They
open up to one another. You might hear some say of an
individual, they just won't let anybody in, they won't open up.
This is the idea here, that a friend is someone who you can share
deep, intimate thoughts with, and things with. We do have friends,
and we are friends with some. When you become friends with
someone, you know how to help them, and you know they can help
you. They know how to help you, or
you might say comfort you. But we are fallen, sinful men
and women. We do this hit and miss. Sometimes we are there for someone,
and then other times we are not. But then there is something else
that is said here. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. I want to say this about this
verse that I'm reading. It all goes together. What I
mean is, being friends with someone means nothing without this one
who sticketh closer than a brother. Let me say right off, in this
verse, this is not one of us. I dare say that even most families
who have actual brothers and sisters do not even stick closer
than a brother and sister. And I just say this knowing myself. I know the thoughts and the deeds
that I have had have not been very friendly to others at times.
We are fallen, sinful men and women and we cannot do this. But there is one, and this is
not a question, it is a statement of Scripture. There is no doubt
about this. There is only one who sticketh
closer than a brother. We may not come to others showing
ourselves to be broken and of no value, but there is one friend
who will make it so that you come to him broken. He will make
you to come to him this way. If you come to him, you will
find out that this friend sticketh closer than a brother. He tells
us, and this is Jesus Christ the Lord speaking in Matthew
11, 28, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Those who labor, and that is
they are fatigued from their laboring or their working, they
feel themselves broken from their laboring. He says, come unto
me. Heavy laden, overburdened with
ceremony is what it means. They are burdened with having
to do the same things over and over again, but with no real
progress, if you will. Their conscience is not purged.
They know themselves about to be squeezed to death by this
heavy burden of doing, doing, doing. What does he say? He says, come unto me. This is that one that sticketh
closer than a brother, Jesus Christ the Lord. There is an
account in scripture that will give us a word picture, if you
will, of this one who is my friend, and that is my title, my friend.
Turn with me to Luke 10. It will be very familiar when
you see it, Luke 10. Luke 10 beginning in verse 30.
I'm just going to read 30-37. And Jesus answering said, a certain
man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves,
which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed,
leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down
a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by
on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he
was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the
other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion
on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil
and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to
an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed,
he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto
him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come
again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three thinkest
thou was neighbour unto him, that fell among the thieves? Have you ever heard someone ask
the question, Who is my neighbour? I have. I've asked this question
myself. Now this lawyer asked this question,
but he was asking this question trying to justify himself. Not
because he was truly wanting to know who his neighbor is,
because he was really trying to get the upper hand on our
Lord, is what he was trying to do. It is important to know who
your neighbor is, or that is, who your friend is. Christ here
is going to tell us about one who is a neighbor or friend.
We have a man here that Christ speaks of who is going somewhere. Where does it say he went? Down. He went from Jerusalem down to
Jericho from blessing to curse. Mankind in Adam has made a decision,
and all of his posterity still make those kind of decisions,
and those decisions take them down. The choice made for us
in our federal head, Adam, and here in this account, the choice
this man made had a deadly consequence. It says here he was left half
dead. We are spiritually dead. Should
we die in this state, in this flesh, with no remedy given,
we will surely perish. His state was that he would surely
die if there was none to help him. The problem is that most
of those who pass by him pass by on the other side. And they
actually will not help and they could not help. This is talking
about the Law and Sacrifices. It's showing us the Law and Sacrifices
that were actually done back in the Old Testament. You have
both the Law and the Sacrifices spoken of here. But it is also
speaking of those religious folks who happen to be going our way
as well. They are going down as well too.
But these religious folks like to speak of doing the Ten Commandments. But the law and the sacrifices
cannot help us. These both were given and had
their place, but they pointed to a more excellent glory. These
could never in and of themselves do anything to help man out in
his deadly situation. These two were going the same
way that this man was going. I just want to point out, both
of these men it says were going this way by chance. Just keep
that in mind for a minute. But those sacrifices that the
priest made pointed to the one true sacrifice which could help. We read in Hebrews 7 and verse
11, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people received the law. What further need was
there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek
and not be called after the order of Aaron? But these sacrifices
themselves done by these earthly priests could not take away sin.
Again, Hebrews 9, verses 11 through 14. But Christ being come and
high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood
he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? Remember there in Luke 10 that
this was a lawyer asking Christ this question. And when it says
lawyer there, I think we all know what it's talking about.
It's not talking about an attorney. We're talking about someone who studied
the law and knew the law. The Levitical Law, the Mosaic
Law, the Ten Commandments. So Christ, in telling this lawyer
this account, is telling him that those sacrifices cannot
help one who is half dead. So it is with the Levite, which
here represents the law itself, the Law of Commandments. Do this
and live. This law can look upon you and
confirm that you are in fact half dead, but it cannot help
you. They both passed by on the other
side, but there is one who did not pass by. Now you remember
I said the others by chance went that way. It does not say this
about this certain Samaritan. Although in the words of scripture
this Samaritan is not called the good Samaritan. It just says
a certain Samaritan. He certainly is a certain one. And because of who he is, we
know he is good. So he is in fact the good Samaritan. But it says when speaking of
this Samaritan, it says that as he journeyed, he was going
to the same place, but he intended to do so. He had a specific reason
to journey here. He had a man to help. There is
one who while this man was in this half-dead state and who
would have surely perished had this one not stopped to help
him. And that's what he does, he comes
to us. But this one did not just stop
and look at him and tell him, oh, you look pretty bad, I hope
you can get some help. What does it say he did? He bound
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and what a message
there is there. This Samaritan put this man on
his own beast, it says. What do we read in scripture?
He looks for his lost sheep, and when he finds them, he puts
them on his shoulders and takes them home. He did not leave him. He took him, and he did not leave
it up to him to be fed and nourished. It says he took care of him. But he also made provision for
him when he was gone. He promised he would return.
But I want you to look at the answer this logger gave to the
Lord. I'm not saying this man was saved
or lost. It is not what man says, but
it is the answer our Lord forces that I am interested in." And
I said, forces. Christ asked him, which of these
three? Three, does that not bring a
lot of remembrance in your mind? One on the right hand, one on
the left, and the Lord of glory. Three days and three nights,
and then resurrection. One, only one was a neighbor,
was a friend to this man. Which one was it? What was this
lawyer's answer which Christ forced him to answer? The one
that showed mercy. I'm here to tell you today that
he that hath shown me mercy is my neighbor and is my friend. Everything I have done has put
me in this situation and everything about me has put me in danger
of death. I mean spiritual, eternal death. But it is my friend who has saved
me from certain death. Help comes from nowhere else
if you are to be helped at all. What does Christ tell us in John
15, 13? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends. There is no doubt that mankind
and even brothers and sisters in Christ can lay down their
life for their friends, for one another. But in doing this, it
does not in any way make them or the one they died for any
more secure. There is a greater love spoken
of here and a greater one spoken of here. Christ is speaking of
himself. He did lay down his life for
his friends. And he did this before they were
friends. He died for them before they
were ever even born. And even before they even knew
Christ was or is their friend. Romans 5, 8 through 10 we read,
but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
So Jesus Christ died for us when we were sinners. He reconciled
us when we were enemies of God. We were in a ditch on the side
of the pathway of our own doing, and he came along in his infinite
mercy and saved us. He did this judicially by dying
on that tree, making me righteous before a thrice holy God. But
it also tells us that he died for ungodly people, Romans 5,
6. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. We had no strength to pick ourselves
up, and we are in our flesh ungodly people. We are as bad as we can
be. totally depraved and we are sick
from our head to our toes. From the sole of the foot even
into the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores. They have not been closed up,
neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. From the very
bottom to the very top of us there is no soundness, nothing
wholesome or worth anything. But we are full of gangrene,
bruises, and putrefying sores. We need a friend who will bind
up our wounds, pouring in oil and wine. He has done this so that we are
accepted of God, and he does this now in time, he makes us
whole. He does this so that we might
have peace with God. God is already at peace with
us. because of the Son. But he causes us to have peace
with God. We are no longer angry at God. Just like the woman with the
issue of blood, there is none that can help but one. If we
can but touch the hem of his garment, we will be made whole.
He comes to us and he causes us, he forces us to admit to
him we are good for nothing, evil, broken and shattered. He will cause us to show ourselves
friendly to him. His ointment is the Holy Ghost
and the Gospel. He gives us life from the dead
and he applies the ointment of the Gospel to our soul. This
mending that he does has lasting effects. Jesus Christ, if he
is anything to us, He is our friend and He has shown us this
very thing in Him dying on the tree because it is manifested. 1 John 4, 9 and 10, in 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.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation to our sins. He could have done
this and left us right there. We would be miserable. But he
was not pleased to do that. In time, he comes to us in power
and heals our rotten souls. I want to show you this. Joe
at Chapel pointed this out and it's a good illustration from
scripture of how close Jesus Christ is to us and how that
he calls us to be close to him. So turn with me back to Exodus
28. I really like this. Exodus 28. Exodus 28, and let's right now
read verses 9 through 12. And thou shalt take two onyx
stones, and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel,
six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the
rest on the other stone, according to their birth. with the work
of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet. Shall
thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of
Israel, thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold.
And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod
for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel. And Aaron
shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders
for a memorial." God's people's names are engraved. They're not penciled in or written
with chalk. They are engraved. And where
is this placed? On His shoulders. We are born
forth, that is, we are carried on His shoulders. His strength
is our strength. Look at verse 17 through 21. And thou shalt set in it settings
of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be
a sardis, a topaz, and a carbuncle. This shall be the first row.
And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an
agate, and an amethyst. and the fourth row a barrel,
and an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in
their closings, and the stones shall be with the names of the
children of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings
of a signet. Every one with his name shall
they be according to the twelve tribes." Again, the names of
the children of Israel engraved. And where does this get placed? 29 and 30. And Aaron shall bear
the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of
judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place
for a memorial before the Lord continually. And thou shalt put
in the breastplate of judgment the urim and the thummim, and
they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord.
And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon
his heart before the Lord continually." So the children of God have their
names written on his heart. His love is our love. Are you getting the picture here?
The last one, verses 36-38. And thou shalt make a plate of
pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet,
holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put it on a blue
lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront of
the miter it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things,
which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy
gifts. And it shall be always upon his
forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord." He is the head. And he bears our holiness for
us. And we are on his mind when he
goes before the Lord. We are holy for he is holy. He has us wrapped up in himself. We are on his shoulders. We are
on his heart. We are on his mind. Always and
forever. So what kind of friends do we
need? He is enough. If you know Him, and that's only true if He knows
you, if He does, it will manifest itself. How? You will fall down
before Him in submission, your Lord and Savior, admitting your
worthlessness. There is no doubt that the one
who sticketh closer than a brother is none other than Jesus Christ
the Lord. That is the message of scripture
and of the gospel. It is He who has saved us. He
has done this judicially, and He has done this literally. He
comes to us and heals us of our wounds, and He takes care of
us. But there's something else that
the scripture tells us, and what a glorious truth this is. We
read in James 2.23, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and
he was called the friend of God. If I believe God, and I will
only if he gives it to me to believe, but if I believe God,
God says I am his friend. Can you imagine that? One who
is a sinner such as me, his enemy, one who is ungodly outside of
him, one such as that when he binds
our wounds is said to be God's friend. That's just amazing to
me when I think about it. How can this be? But it is. There is nothing but endless
love and mercy when it comes to Jesus Christ and his people.
This world will have nothing of the sovereign Lord of all
creation, and they will have nothing to do with those who
follow him. Hear this familiar passage. This
is the world and how they think and treat Christ and his people.
Luke 7.33 we read, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread
nor drinking wine, and ye say, he hath a devil. He was a teetotaler
and they said he hath a devil. Then Christ says, they say this,
and this is Christ speaking and talking about himself. The Son
of Man has come eating and drinking and ye say behold a gluttonous
man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. He
was no gluttonous man and he was no winebibber. He did eat
and he did drink wine. But he was absolutely righteous
and perfect in all he did. And he not was, but he is the
friend of publicans and sinners. He is the friend of publicans
and sinners. He says he will never leave us,
nor forsake us. And he manifests his love for
us in his works. He died on that tree in publicans
and sinners' stead. Jesus Christ is a friend of publicans
and sinners. So if you cannot take your place
there, he may not be your friend. There is one that sticks closer
than a brother. There is not one of us that sticks
closer than a brother, but he does. We cannot trust in ourselves
that we will do this or we will do that. We must trust Him, because
without Him, we can do nothing. With Him, we can do the works
He does. We can do everything. It is Jesus
Christ the Lord who sticketh closer than a brother. Will you
show yourself friendly to Him? I want to read an article by
Carol Poole. I don't know if you all know
him or not, The congregation made, had this book made, it
has a lot of his little articles. I just want to read one little
article, the first one in the book, that touched me. The title is, I Had a Friend. If you ask me today, how have
you continued these years, how have you made it this far? My
answer is just this, I had a friend. I never made it on my own. Have
you not made many mistakes that should have destroyed you? Yes,
but I had a friend. Have not many dear ones you loved
turned away and in so doing broken your heart with a hurt too much
for you to survive? Yes, more than once, but I had
a friend. Have not self-righteous religionists
rejected you enough to stop you? How have you survived all the
criticism, ridicule, and accusations of men? Just one answer, I had
a friend. To have so many year after year
turn up their noses in disgust at the message of God's sovereign
grace, has this not discouraged you enough to quit? Many times,
but I had a friend. Is the ingratitude, lack of interest,
and unfaithfulness of many not a depressing thing? Yes, but
this is all about my friend. When many as close as brothers
have forsaken, my friend sticketh closer than a brother and has promised never to leave me nor
forsake me. They forbid me to continue with
them, but I continue with him. Why am I not this day, right
now, separated from God forever and tormented in the pits of
the damned?" Only one answer, I had a friend. When the chief
shepherd returns to set the sheep on his right hand and the goats
on his left, if you stand among his redeemed sheep, there'll
be but one reason, you had a friend. On that day, fleshly religion
will have melted away. In His presence, all your professions,
pretense, and performance will mean nothing. If you stand with
the redeemed, your testimony will be the same as mine. I had
a friend. You'll not say then, I did better
than him, I did better than her, I tried to be faithful, I did
my best. Spare yourself these words now,
they'll be worthless then. For the only testimony of every
redeemed child of God is this, and this for all eternity. I had a friend. Who is your neighbor? Who is
your friend? Amen. Thank you.