Many times in the Scriptures,
those who hated the Lord Jesus Christ said things about Him
that were meant in a negative way. But the words that they used
to describe Him And what they meant in a negative way, God
actually used those words to glorify His name. Do you remember the time when
our Lord Jesus hung on the cross? The chief priests, scribes, and
elders said, while He hung there, He saved others. Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him come down from the cross and we will believe Him." What they said was really true. Not that He didn't have the ability
to come down, but He did not come down because He came to
save His people. He could not save Himself if
He was going to save us. He could not come down from the
cross without putting His people there. Therefore, He stayed on the cross
in His people's place. What they meant is a negative
comment. Well, He saved others. He can't save Himself. If He
were truly the King of the Jews, the Son of God who He professed
to be, then He'd come down off that cross. No. No. They didn't mean that
in a positive way, but nevertheless, God used it to confirm the gospel
and to comfort His sheep. Now before us this morning, if
you turn with me to Luke 7, verse 34, we have one of those instances. It's but a few words, but it
speaks multitudes of comfort to God's people, to God's chosen. And in these verses, our Lord
is given a title that is certain to cheer and comfort those who
love and trust Him. It's found in the last six words
of verse 34. Christ is a friend of publicans
and sinners. Now, that won't mean much to
you if you don't know what a publican and a sinner truly are. You see,
a publican was considered the worst of the worst. They were tax collectors. They
overcharged whenever they had the opportunity. They often brought
false charges of tax evasion to honest people in order to
collect hush money from them. I'm going to turn you in if you
don't give me some money. That's just the type of folks
they were. They hoped to extort money from
honest people. They were of a class in and of
themselves, and they were detested not only by the Jews, but by
other nations also. Arrogant men, harsh, greedy,
deceptive. And I'll tell you this, to be
called a friend of a publican was not meant as a compliment.
I can tell you that much. Sinners? Oh, that's a term that
we hear often. Those who God has called by His
grace knows something of what it is to be a sinner. But when
these self-righteous Pharisees said, He's a friend, a publican,
and sinners, they didn't mean sinner to be someone who just
did a few things wrong. No, they meant a man or a woman
who was exceedingly sinful, who was especially wicked. They meant
men and women who were stained, rotten, no good, way below their
haughty selves, that had certain definite vices and crimes. When they called Christ a friend
of publicans and sinners, they meant it negatively. They meant it in the worst possible
way. But this title is one of the
most true, positive, hopeful things that any sinner could
ever hear. Do you know why it's comforting
to me to know that they titled him that? Because that's what
I am. By nature, I'm a publican, haughty,
greedy, distrustful. I'm a sinner, so much so that
I, like Paul, consider myself to be the chief of sinners. If
God's revealed to you that that's what you are, then that title
blesses your heart also. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners. Our only hope for redemption. Now listen, our only hope for
salvation is that Christ is a friend to publicans and sinners. Notice also that this is something
that he says concerning himself. I find that remarkable. It's
Christ our Lord here that says this. That's what they called
him, but Christ himself said it. And it's clear from this
fact that he was not in the least ashamed of that title. He repeats it almost as if he
enjoyed it. as if he took the title home
to himself and he wore it as some distinction which he was
glad to have. Look at verse 33. For John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say that he is a devil. And I, the son of man, has come
eating and drinking, and you say, behold, a gluttonous man
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." Well, let's consider this title
first in the way that it was meant. In the way it was meant,
it wasn't true. You've heard that old saying
that a man is known by the company he keeps. Our Lord was not a friend of
publicans and sinners in the sense of being like them in any
way, shape, or form. Our Lord and Savior was holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners that even when He
was present with sinners and received them as He did and ate
with them, Had a glass of wine with him? Oh no, not our Lord,
yes. There was still, when he did
those things, there was a great distinction between him and them. Friends, our Lord and Savior
could never be considered to even be in or of the same class
with these publicans and sinners in that respect. His most bitter enemies couldn't
truly lay anything to His charge. When they did finally get around
to condemning Him and sending Him to the cross to be crucified,
they had to hire false witnesses against Him. They had to make
up accusations about Him. Our Lord is not the friend of
publicans and sinners in this sense. So in the sense of being known
by the company he kept, our Lord was not a friend to publicans
and sinners. Now I don't know about you and
your past, but I used to have and be a friend that encouraged
others to do evil. I think back on the times when
I was younger and the things that I instigated. And the more that came along
with me, the merrier. I would about drag them along
with me. I'm not speaking for you. I'm
speaking for me. There's been many times that I've joined with
others and encouraged them to be sinful, unclean, but this
could never, ever, ever be said of our Lord and Savior. He never
did a single act by which any man would have said that he was
a help to be a transgressor. I don't reckon that any other
man who's ever lived could truthfully say, be said to be harmless. For all of us do some harm in
some way, don't we? Even if it's unconsciously. And
in this sense, friends, he cannot be called the friend of publicans
and sinners. He can't be called that because
he never endeavored to be popular among them. There again, to my own shame,
it seems like when I think back, a lot of times the things that
I did was to be popular. Do you know what that crazy nut
did, people say, and I don't know why I thought that was A
good thing. Popular. Popular among sinners. The Jews at this time, even those
that walked close with the Lord, would have taken him by force
and made him a king, but he hid himself from them. Many of them
drew nigh unto him to hear from him, but he never, ever said
a single syllable to encourage sin in another. He came to heal
the sick, save the lost, comfort the brokenhearted. Many preachers
today seek nothing but popularity. I recently saw in a news clip
where a so-called preacher from Arizona preached a message on
Obama being the devil. And he said that he prayed every
night that the Lord would kill the president. This man's true desire, dear
friends, was to make a name for himself, even if it was a negative
one. publicity. He's consumed with only being
popular, even if it's in a negative way. Now, let me tell you something.
What I think of the president, and I have my opinions, and sometimes
when it's just me and you and you ask me, I may tell you, but
the pulpit is not the place for it. The urgency of this thing
called preaching the gospel is that God's sheep may come unto
His foe, may come unto Him. I don't know who they are, so
I preach that God might bring them unto Himself. That's the
urgency of preaching, that sinners might be saved. The message of
Christ doesn't have anything to do with politics, world issues. Why do men bring that in the
pulpit with them? But it has everything to do with
God calling out His sheep, calling them by name, bringing them unto
Himself. One time they asked our Lord,
they showed Him a penny and they said, What about taxes? What's your opinion on that?" He said, you render unto Caesars
what is Caesar's, and you render unto God's the things of God.
Christ came into the world to save sinners. This is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. I heard a politician in a past
election advertise himself as the friend of the working man.
I laugh because I'll bet the working
man would find it difficult right now to discover any particular
friendship in him now that he got elected and he's in Congress.
You see, it's easy to proclaim to be a friend. It's easy to proclaim to be a
friend to anybody when there's something to be gained from it.
But our Lord had nothing to gain by being a friend to us. No, He had everything to give
though. And He gave all that He had to
redeem His people. He gave Himself to be a ransom. For even the Son of Man came
not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life
a ransom for many. Now in a higher and a better
sense, I want to take just a few more minutes to try to explain
to you how our Lord was truly a friend to publicans and sinners.
We sing that hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. I don't think
we truly understand when we sing the words how much that's true.
Christ loved the chosen sinners God gave him before the foundation
of the world. He left his sovereign throne
on high, came to earth as a child born in a stable, a babe laying
in a manger. Now this is a time of year that
we see a lot of the nativity scenes in front of churches and
different places. And the next time you see one
of those, I want you to think about this. In that little manger there,
the baby that they portray, the child lying in a manger, that
was God of the universe. He was the most despised of the
despised, the most rejected of the rejected. All this was because he loved
chosen men and women, and he didn't love them only as men
and women, but he loved them as sinful men and women. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a true,
sincere, intense, affectionate, and earnest friend to the most
undesirable. Never before did any man have
a nature so loving and so affectionate as he did. Ever. And if I could only be just a
molecule of a friend to you that he is to us, it would thrill
me beyond measure. You see, to tell someone you
love them, if only in words, will come to very little, if
anything. But with true love comes a corresponding
action, doesn't it? That's right. Love is not just
saying you love someone. With that love, and if you truly
love them, comes a corresponding action. I ask you parents who
have children, what you do for them is out of love for them. You love them and with that comes
a corresponding thing of love. Our Savior proved His love to
men in His very coming to this earth, as I've already said,
but when He was here, He always, always went about
doing good. As I read this morning, Peter
wrote, who his own self bear our sins and his own body on
the tree. Friends that we might live, he
died. And that's what Christ did. He
died that we might live. He was cursed that we might be
cleansed from all our iniquities. God laid them all on our friend. Christ is truly your friend.
Now if you continue to have no need for him in your heart, I
can't promise you that he's your friend. But I know this, if you
come to him as that leper, begging at his feet, with the attitude
in your heart, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. He will,
every time. He's your friend. He's your friend. his rising from the grave, his
ascending to his throne, and he continually, as we speak,
makes intercession for his people. And he continues and continues
and continues to prove his love for his people by daily pleading
for them. That prayer that he prayed on
earth has never ceased, never been closed, Gary. Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Do you know or have
a friend like this? We're nothing but blind mercy
beggars. We've ruined and we've wasted our life and our health
in sin. And like that woman that was
caught in adultery, we've been unfaithful, destitute, guilty,
and we stand alone, caught in the very act of our sin. There's
never lived a man on earth that could truly condemn us, but Christ
and He as our friend comes and says, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. The Lord
catches us when we're down at our very lowest and he brings
all his people to the end of themselves. Now I tried for 30
plus years to make myself happy, content, peaceful. Tried. I tried everything known to man
to do that. And you know what? It got worse. It got worse, not better. And
you know, today I stand thankful to God for that. For it wasn't
until I came to that point of utter despair, it was when I
knew that I deserved nothing, had nothing, that only death
and condemnation waited for me, that's when God revealed Christ
to me. There was pardon. There was pardon
in Him alone. And as I refer to men to go to
the woman who was caught in the act of adultery. Now you think
about that. How humiliated she must have
been. She's brought down to the town
square in front of all the crowd. accused, judged, embarrassed
by the religious and self-righteous Pharisees. They're telling people,
we caught her in the act. Can you imagine how embarrassing
that alone must have been? You and I have sins that are
hid from others. She was caught in the act. Oh,
how humiliated she must have been. And then to make matters
worse, they drag her out there into the town square, and there
stands a man I know she had heard of him. His name was broadcast
all around. The wonderful things that he
did. Here stands the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And these self-righteous
Pharisees, they tell him everything. We caught her in the act of adultery.
Can you imagine just how alone, friendless she felt? But our
Lord proved to be a friend, a true and a loving and a capable friend,
I might add. And he stooped down as to say,
coming down to where you are. And he began to write on the
ground in the dirt. And all of her accusers, one
by one, left. I suppose if there's ever any
answers that I would like to ask, once in glory, it would
be what our Lord wrote there. Some have their suspicions and
their own thoughts on what it was. Maybe the names of those
men who accused her and the same type of acts that they themselves
had committed. I don't know, but I know this.
When He lifted Himself up and He saw none but the woman, He
said unto her, He said, Woman, where are thine accusers? They
had all gone, every one of them. Has no man condemned you? He
said. She said, No man, Lord. They
are all gone. Left to accuse. And he said,
neither do I condemn thee. What a friend. What a friend. The historian Josephus wrote,
he said, it's an old tradition that one day in the streets of
Jerusalem there laid a dead dog. And one man came up to the dog,
kicked the body, and he said, must have had to mange. And another kicked it, and he
said, look at how its bones stick out. It's disgusting. What an inferior mongrel this
is. But there came one who stood
by this dead dog and he said, what white teeth he has. You
see, he spied out the only good thing that could be found in
the dead dog. Now that dead dog represents
you and me. And the one that saw the only
good thing in the dead dog represents Christ. And friends, the only good thing
found in dead dog sinners is Christ Himself. There's nothing good in me but
Him. He is truly, truly a friend of
publicans and senators.