Well, if you have your Bibles
open, turn back with me, or if you have your Bibles, turn back
with me to the 18th chapter of Proverbs. I want to read the 24th verse. I hope to preach very simply
this morning. I don't much feel like preaching
very deeply. I can't preach very deeply anyway.
but I don't feel like getting too technical this morning. Now
I want to read this verse of scripture, listen to it carefully.
A man that hath friends, or a man that would have friends, must
show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Notice that in this 24th verse
it says a man that would have friends must must, that word
must, must show himself friendly and then this statement there
is a friend and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother
now let me begin this morning like this there was a man a number
of years ago out west here that was being tried for stealing
a horse You need to remember, and I think most of you are aware
of this, that stealing a horse back in the early days of this
state was a very, very serious matter. That was a very grave
and serious offense, and a person could be hanged if they were
found guilty of such a deed as stealing another man's horse.
And I'm sure that many were, sometimes even without a trial,
they were hung for stealing horses. Now it so happened that the man
was accused here of stealing a horse from another man in town
whom nobody cared for, whom nobody liked. He was nobody's friend. The man whose horse had been
stolen had always made it a point in all of his business dealings,
various dealings around town, to get the best of any person
whom he had any dealings with, and he never tried to do anything
good for any other than himself, just looked out for old number
one, for himself all the time. Consequently, the man whose horse
had been stolen didn't have, he did not have a supporter,
he didn't have a single friend in the entire town, and the case
was tried And it was presented to the jury, and the evidence
against the accused man was very strong. It was a very strong
case against this man that had stole the horse. And after about
30 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned to the courtroom,
came back into the courtroom, and the judge asked, gentleman
of the jury, he said, have you reached a verdict? Have you reached
a verdict on this case? And the chairman of the jury
stood up and said, yes, we have, Your Honor. And what is your verdict, replied
the judge. And there was a few moments of
silence, and the chairman of the jury, he spoke and said,
we find the defendant not guilty if he will return the horse.
Well, there was much laughter, of course, that broke out in
the courtroom, and the judge, he silenced the court, and he
admonished the jury and said, I cannot accept that verdict.
I cannot accept that verdict. He said, you go back and you
deliberate until you reach another verdict. So they went back and
they deliberated for a while, and no member of the jury now,
they had There was no member of that jury that had any particular
liking at all for this man whose horse had been stolen. At one
time or another, as we said, he had done about everybody in
that town dirty. So about an hour passed before
the jury could reach another verdict, and they took their
place back in the courtroom in the jury box, and the courtroom
grew very silent, and the judge asked again, have you reached
another verdict? And they said, we have, your
honor. And what is your verdict, asked
the judge. The courtroom was totally silent.
You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone awaited the verdict. The chairman read the decision
reached by the 12 good men, I say tried and true men. And he said, the chairman said,
we find the defendant not guilty and he can keep the horse. The
courtroom, of course, burst into laughter. Now the moral of the
story is this, that it pays, wherever you live, it pays for
you to be interested in someone other than yourself. It pays
for you, if you would have friends, it would pay for you to show
yourself friendly. It would pay for you to spend
your life trying to do something for somebody else other than
taking advantage of others and never caring about others in
any way except what you can get from them or what they can do
for you because if you are that kind of a person you're going
to end up a loser like the man who lost his horse because you're
going to be without a friend. And this is very important admonition
here. Now, if you desire a friend,
then you had better be a friend. If you desire for other people
to help you, then you'd better help other people. And if you
want to be treated right, then you'd better treat others right,
because the biblical statement is true, what you sow Beloved,
you'll reap when it comes to this matter of friendship. Now,
one writer said, friends are like priceless treasures and
he who has none is a social pauper. Bishop Riles said, a friend is
one of the greatest blessings on earth. He is the poorest of
poor who has no friends. Now, we all need friends in this
world because this world is a rough place in which to live. It is filled with disappointment,
it's filled with tears, it's filled with sorrows and pain,
bereavement, trials, troubles, heartaches, physical pain, emotional
pain. We all need a friend just to
be able to survive in this world, to be able to stand up under
all that we must undergo in this world. I need a loving friend,
I need a forgiving friend, somebody who will be a friend to this
sinner. I need a friend. And I'm sure
that every one of you agree that you need a friend also, and praise
God, we have found such a friend. Now Solomon, the writer of the
book of Proverbs, said, and there is a friend, and there is a friend. And who do you suppose that he
was talking about? And there is a friend. Now then,
in Matthew chapter 11, there's a statement of scripture, and
I'd like for you to turn there with me, in Matthew chapter 11. And it's in the 19th verse here
of the 11th chapter of St. Matthew. Now this is a short
statement that is very, very precious to me. It's been a great
encouragement to me, and the Lord Jesus here is speaking,
and he quotes other people. And what they said critically,
And what they said with meanness in their hearts and what they
said with hatred in their hearts toward the Lord Jesus, we rejoice
in and we praise God for. Notice this statement here, they
say, now look in verse 19, the Son of Man came eating and drinking
and they say, And they say, the people say, behold a man gluttonous
and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom
is justified over children. And they say that this man, the
son of man, is a friend of publicans and sinners. This, to me, is
the best quote that I ever read in my life regarding a friend. Jesus is the friend of publicans
and sinners. You see, we're imperfect friends
even if we attempt to be and guard in every way we can our
various friendships, we're imperfect friends to those around us. We're
imperfect. you to be my friend, I want to
be your friend, but I want to tell you up front that I'm going
to be an imperfect friend. I want to love you and I want
you to love me in Christ and I want to stand behind you and
fellowship with you and support you and pray for you because
I want you to do the same for me. But our friendships here
in this world They're always lacking, and there's always something
that we just simply can't be all that we'd like to be. But
when all is said and done, there is only the only friend, I should
say, that I desperately need in life, and when I come to die
especially, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the friend that
I most desperately need. Now, like I say, friends in this
world, very comfortable to have them, and I really feel that
we cannot be healthy and happy in this world without having
friends, and I believe there ought to be, and I believe that
God will as we cultivate Friendship among the people of God that
we all will have friends in our Lord Jesus if we're living right
if our attitude is right and if we're honest and true Souls,
I think we will have but there will be imperfection there, but
this friend and there is a friend Solomon said there is a friend
and I want you to understand that I want you to get that well
however you feel this morning I want you to know that there
is a friend and There's a friend of publicans and sinners, and
if I have made friends with everybody else in the whole world, but
he is not my friend, then I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble unless
I know this one that Solomon is talking about, who said that
there is a friend, unless I know him. But if all other people
in the world, if people all over this world that know me, if there's
no one that speaks good of me, but all speak ill of me, and
nobody else likes me, and everybody else turns against me, Well, beloved, but he who is
my everlasting friend, if he's for me, and if he is indeed my
friend, it's all right. If he is my friend, then it is
all right. Now, how do we know that Jesus
Christ is the friend of sinners? Well, the reason I know that
he's a friend of sinners is because he has proven over and over again
his friendship to the sinner. Over and over again he has shown
me through the Word that he is indeed a friend of sinners. Now, he is not loved in Word
only, but indeed in truth. Isn't that right? He has loved
indeed and in truth. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
just stay up in heaven and send a message of love down here and
say, well now this is just a message I'm going to send down to you.
No, He came down here. The Lord Jesus came down here.
And the Lord Jesus just didn't sit back up there and say, well
now you do this, you do that, you do something else, and finally
one day you may make it up here where I am. No, He didn't. He
said, I'm going down there and I'm going to do whatever's necessary
to fix it up so those people that I have loved fix it up so
that they will be with me. I'm going down there and I'll
do whatever's necessary. You know what was necessary.
The Lord Jesus Christ must take upon himself our nature. The
Lord Jesus Christ must assume our sin debt. The Lord Jesus
must stand in our room and stand in place. There had to be some
deed in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved not in
word only, but in deed and truth. And there are evidences of his
friendship. Let me just give you some of these today. Number
one, I believe that he was the friend of sinners before there
was such a thing as a sinner. Before there actually was such
a thing as a sinner in this world The Lord Jesus Christ was a friend
of sinners turn to first Peter chapter 1 first Peter chapter
1 and I want us to look here beginning with verse 18 and I
want to show you something that is a real blessing to me now
notice here as we read for as much as as you know that ye were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot. Now notice verse 20, who verily,
the word verily there is truly, who truly was foreordained before
the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times
for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from
the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be
in God. Now that 20th verse there is
the verse of Scripture that tells me that before there was such
a thing as a sinner actually, before man was ever created,
before God ever put Adam and Eve in this world, before that
time, before the foundation of the world, Peter says, that Jesus
Christ was foreordained. Then there came a time when he
was manifest in these last times and take note that it was for
you It was for the people of God, but he was foreordained
to be the Savior Before the foundation of the world now in the covenant
of grace God chose a people more numerous than the sand of the
seashore and all were sinners at the time he chose them and
only in the foreknowledge of God. There was none of those
whom God chose and gave to his Son that were actually sinners
except in the mind of God at that time. But now Jesus Christ,
through the covenant of grace, was the agent who represented
all those people who were sinners in the mind of God, those whom
God had chosen for reasons known only to Himself, for reasons
that His own nature moved Him to choose. And Jesus Christ,
you know, being our representative there, he was that one who was
our representative before we were ever born, before we were
ever created and brought into this world. Now, all these sports
figures that we read about and hear about on television that's
making these big bucks in our day and time, they generally,
all of them, have an agent. that represents them and to the
management of various ball clubs and so on, and they work out
their contracts and they get them these big salaries. But
I'm here to say this morning that sinners had an agent in
the council halls of eternity that represented us in that legal
binding agreement between God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. And we had, as this covenant
was drawn up in eternity past, we had a surety there. We had
a friend in that council hall. We had somebody that knew of
us and knew our name and knew what we would be and knew what
we would need and he stood for us and represented us in that
covenant and he covered us completely, covered our need. Covered our
situation. He covered it completely now
This one the Lord Jesus. He stood up on our behalf and
volunteered to represent us because he loved us you see the Bible
speaks of the love of our Lord Jesus as being from everlasting
to everlasting God loves his people and the Lord loved us
first and He loved us eternally. He has been our friend from before
the foundation of the world. He stepped in. He knows and he
knew exactly what we would by voluntary transgression become
as we were born and as we lived out our life in this world. He
knew we would become rebels. He knew that. He knew that we
would have to have somebody that would answer to God the Father
for us. He knew that before we were ever
born. And to be our sin bearer, somebody
to bear the guilt and the penalty of sin that we would commit. Now when he saw that we would
become unrighteous, He stepped in to become the Lord, our righteousness. And when he saw that we would
become bankrupt, he stepped in to pay our debt. And when he
saw that we would become ugly through iniquity, he stepped
in to make us beautiful through his own comeliness. That's what
he did there before we were ever thought of except in the mind
of God. When he saw that we would violate
God's holy law, he stepped in to honor that law for us. He
said, I'll just go down there and I'll live under that law
and I'll obey that law, every jot and tittle of it. I'll completely
satisfy God. I'll so satisfy God there will
not be one imperfection in my life. There will not be one spot
or one blemish in me. I'll be the Lamb of God and I'll
be perfect. And I'll honor the law of God. Now, you talk about a friend.
Well, he is the friend that Solomon is talking about. He is that
friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, who represented us in the covenant
of grace before the foundation of the world, before we ever
actually were made sinners. Now then, the second thing I'd
like to say is that he was the friend of sinners when he came
into this world 2,000 years ago to die on the behalf of the Lord's
people. You see, now turn with me to
John chapter 15. John chapter 15, and I want us
here to look verse 13 and 14. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. So here we find the Lord Jesus
as he went to the cross. It was that great love which
he had for his people that caused him to go to that gory tree and
to die on that cross. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are
my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command
you." And all those who are converted through grace, all of those who
have the divine principle, the new nature of God in them, they
are those that obey the Lord. It's not those who say merely,
Lord, Lord, but those who do the will. of the Father in Heaven
that are the Lord's people. God's people are those that bow
their knee to the Lordship of Christ and live under the rule
and authority of the Son of God. They obey the Lord. They do whatever
the Lord commands them. And we're told in the Great Commission
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature
and to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and to tell them whatever it is that the Lord
has commanded them to do. That's part of the commission.
And that's why that we preach practical messages at times and
exhort you as to your walk in this world is because God's people
are to do what they're commanded to do. He said, He are my friends
if you do whatsoever I command you. Then if we consider then that at His
coming into this world 2,000 years ago that He was our friend
When we were in reality, because you know, when the Lord Jesus
came into this world, there was many for whom he died at that
time, and those that he has died for down through the ages, as
he died there on that cross, we were all in reality his enemies.
But yet He was our friend. But God commendeth, Romans 5
and 8 says, His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I'm showing you
His friendship in that that He laid down His life. He loved
us and laid down His life for us. What a friend we have in
Jesus. Because he came and bled and
died under the wrath of God in our room and place. He died for
my sins in order that I would not die in my sins. He died for my sins that I wouldn't
die in my sins. Now then, do you know this friend
that Solomon said, there is a friend, do you know him? Do you know
this friend? Have you met this friend of sinners? Have you been reconciled to God
through the Lord Jesus Christ? Now if you ever meet this friend
that Solomon's talking about, this friend that men spoke of
in the days of our Lord Jesus when they said, He's a friend
of publicans and sinners. I don't think you'll ever get
over it because the Lord Jesus becomes sweeter and more precious
as time goes on. And when you hear his gospel,
you'll rejoice in his person, his works, and his righteousness,
and in his blood. This one who laid down his life
in order to save us, he said, I call you friends. I call you
friends. That's in verse 15 of John chapter
15. And henceforth I call you not
servants, for the servants knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but
I have called you friends. And I'll use the last part of
that verse here in just a moment. Now the Bible says that Abraham,
that he was the friend of God. He was the father of the faithful,
we read in the book of Galatians. Galatians 3 verses 6 and 7 says,
Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham. Abraham's, in this world,
whether it be the patriarch himself, or all of those who are children
of faith, They are all the friends of God, and God looks upon them
as being friends. I agree with the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm a friend of God. All true believers are friends
of God, and they're reconciled to God, and they're in sympathy
with God, and they adore the character of God, and the attributes
of God, and they're in sympathy, full sympathy, with whatever
his purpose moves him to do in this world. By the grace of God
we are. By the grace of God. And we say
it's all right. He died for my sin. He had no
sin. Peter said, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, yet he took my sin, all of my
wicked, horrible guilt, all of my thoughts, works, deeds, all
of the false motives, all of my nature, I say, all in my words. You ever thought about how many
sins there's committed in your words? Well, the Lord Jesus took
them all. He took upon Himself and He bore
my sin to Calvary. The Bible says in Peter that
He died on the tree that He might bring us to God. He died on that
tree, and He put all of our sin away. This is our friend, our
heavenly friend. And He put them so far away that
David said that the omniscient eye of God cannot ever see them
again. He cannot find them. They're
gone as far, you remember, as the scripture says, the east
is from the west, never to be remembered against any anymore.
Now, beloved, that's our friend. That's what he's done for us.
That's how he has dealt with us when he was manifested in
this world. He's not the friend of good people.
I want you to know that. He's not the friend of good people. It is publicans and sinners. That's who he's a friend to.
The scum of the earth, not the good and the moral and the loving
people, not the people that are looked upon as being the elite
of the world and the noble of the world, publicans and sinners. You knew what a publican is.
I'm not talking about republicans, I'm talking about publicans.
Publicans, they were tax collectors, they were extortioners. They
were those that were looked upon by the common ordinary people
as being the scum of the earth. the offscourings of the earth
because they were collectors which went out and exacted more
taxes than they should have been exacting, robbing the people
of their livelihood. But the Lord Jesus, the Bible
says he's a friend of publicans and sinners and wisdom is justified
of our children. Wisdom is justified by the actions
of of its children and the Lord Jesus Christ loved publicans
and sinners. Now when he rose from the dead,
when he ascended on high, he is Jesus the forerunner and he's
entered into heaven to lay hold, to lay claim of the inheritance
for us. There's a scripture over in 1
Peter chapter 3 that I'd like you to turn and look at with
me. This scripture really, really blessed me as I looked at it
and meditated on it this morning. Look at verse 22 of 1 Peter chapter
3. It says, Who is gone into heaven? Christ is gone into heaven and
is on the right hand of God. And look at this, angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. Now, I want you to understand
what I'm saying. That our friend, the friend of
publicans and sinners, those that are in Jesus Christ, those
that love Christ, that God has received His Son back to His
right hand And when the Lord Jesus Christ entered in to heaven,
the right hand of the Father, after he had been in this world,
after he died on the cross, after he'd been buried in the grave,
after God had raised him up from the dead, he went back to heaven,
and we're told here that he's on the right hand of God, angels
and authorities, powers being made subject unto him. Now this
could be a tremendous blessing to the Lord's people in that
we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has authority from this
what we read here he has authority in the earth that the Lord Jesus
has authority over the authorities that he has power over the authorities
that the authorities and the powers of this world even the
angels and the demons are all subject unto him now he proved
that when he was in the world you know he cast out demons demons
were subject to him but now he's going back to heaven and we're
told here that the authorities and powers and angels are subject
unto him now that's why a believer should never There are many times
when we find ourselves very weak and find ourselves in situations
where we feel maybe trapped and feel that our own natures get
the best of us or maybe even the demons because the demons
do oppress the Lord's people. And there's many afflictions
that we have in this world that we feel maybe we'll never escape
from them. We'll never get away from them.
influence of those situations and we know very little about
the the mysterious workings of angels and demons in this world
and there's so much going on that we don't know anything about
but there is one that all of these demons and angels and authorities
and powers are subject to and that's our friend the Lord Jesus
Christ and so my friend don't ever hesitate as a believer in
Christ, to lay your case before the Lord. Don't give up on laying
it before the Lord and crying to God that that one that has
control, that he will intervene on your behalf and that he will
come to your rescue. And if there's somebody that
you feel that is maybe mistreating you or somebody that is maybe
putting you in a position where that you shouldn't be. If you feel some situation has
got you and you're locked in and you can't get any release
or you can't get any relief from the situation, then you cry to
this one because every power in this world is subject unto
him. It's subject unto him. and he's able to handle it. An
old preacher one time said that the only spirit that can handle
the spirit of this world is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy
Spirit. And the Spirit of God is able.
And so don't give up on yourself and think, well, I'm consigned
to this misery the rest of my life. Nope, all of these powers
and authorities are subject unto Him. So now in heaven, He is
still our friend, appearing in the presence of God for us, making
intercession for us, and we have one to pray for us. And the Lord
Jesus is our friend in high places, and He providentially controls
all things, working all things together for our good and for
His glory. Now, I'm telling you the truth.
It may sound like too much. Are you carrying a heavy burden
this morning? Are you going through some fiery
trial? Well, your friend, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He knows what it is. He was tempted, tested in all
points like as we are. And He knows exactly what you're
going through. He knows what you're dealing with. And He's
your friend. You can count on Him. because
as we said he didn't love in word, he loved in deed and truth
and he's your friend. Now listen, the poet said and
shall come to pass, last and end, I shall please our heavenly
friend. He controls providence. He controls it. Now he watches. He's the divine refiner and he'll
not let the fire get too hot in your life. You may say, Preacher,
the fire is hot. Well, He won't let it get too
hot. He will over and over teach us the vanity of this world and
bring us back to our need always of Him. And back to our need
to trust Him, because without Him, well, we all know what we
are. Scripture says, without me, you
can do nothing. And so with Him, then, He's our
friend. Another thing that I like, too,
is that He shows and shares secrets. mysteries with his friend. Now
look back in John 15 again. I bypassed this just a little
while ago because I had intentions of using it here. So turn back
there to John 15 and look at verse 15 again. He says, Henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. A man who was a slave in a household,
the master of the house wouldn't come and say, well now, this
is our plans for the future. No, the slave just works on day
by day. Just keeps on plodding along,
doing what he's given to do, doing his duty day by day. He
said this, I call you not servants. He said, you're not a slave to
me in that sense of the word. Because a 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. You see that? He said, I've called
you friends because I've let you in on what the Father has
let me in on. I've let you in on it. I've not
dealt with you like you was a servant in my house. I've dealt with
you like you're my friend. I've shared these things with
you. Now that's precious, isn't it? That's very precious. to
me. You know, the mysteries of the
gospel, I think often how that men for the life of them, left
to themselves, cannot understand the gospel. They just cannot
understand how that God could have been in Christ coming into
this world doing a work that would reconcile sinful, fallen
man unto God. How he could do this? Well, the
Lord, of course, He lets us in on the truth and the mystery
of the gospel. And then too, I think that he's
a friend that we can talk to at any time. Now this is very
precious also, that he is a friend who we can talk to 24 hours a
day. We can always talk to this friend.
And then not only that, but he's our friend that visits with us. He visits us. He visited 2,000
years ago when he came into this world. to live and die for the
salvation of his people and he visits us in the day of salvation
in the day when we were converted the Lord had to be there and
he was there nobody gets saved without God being there without
the Lord being right there without the Lord doing the saving it
takes a visit from God to be saved I just tell you that now
also he visits his churches When two
or three are gathered together, He's right there in the midst.
And I believe He's here this morning, and I like His company. I have had enough visits from
the Lord that I like His company. I really do. I enjoy His company. And He's been visiting with friends,
and I hope He's been visiting here this morning with us. And
He's been visiting. I think we're friends. Aren't
we friends of God? I hope we are. Amen? I hope that
we're God's friends. So what a friend. He calls on
me to believe and then he gives me faith to believe. He calls
on me to persevere and then he keeps me by his grace. And he calls on me to bear a
trial and then he gives me grace to endure that trial. He calls
on me to walk with him and then he takes me by the hand and he
leads me in the way. This is the friend that we have
that Solomon was talking about. He picks me up when I fall and
when I get too high-minded In love, he brings me down. This,
my friend, is that friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
When I cry, he bottles up my tears. And when I'm depressed,
he cheers my soul. And when I'm alone, he reminds
me that I am not, that I am not alone. One time, I don't know,
a few years back, I told you about Joseph Scurville. And I
want to finish up here this morning by mentioning him again. I really
don't know how long ago this has been, but I remembered this. Joseph Scurvin, he left Ireland
and went to Canada. And the young lady that he was
to marry was supposed to follow him at a later time on ship. And this ship, with her on it,
sunk. in the North Atlantic and Joseph
Scurvin was crushed when he found it out. Shortly thereafter he
took sick and was bed fast for a while. And the ladies in the
village there in Canada brought him food and one day a lady brought
him some soup and she gave him the soup and she noticed an envelope
that was on the stand beside the bed and she asked if she
could look at it and he told her yes and so inside there was
a note that he had wrote to his mother, and there was a poem. And the poem said, what a friend
we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. And when
Joseph Scurvin died, sometimes later, they inscribed the title
of that poem on his tombstone there in Port Hokie, Canada. What a friend we have in Jesus. So God's people do have this
friend. Solomon said, and there is a
friend. And there is a friend. And we
have that friend. And you may wonder this morning,
will the Lord be a friend to me? Well, He's a friend to some
of us here. And if He's our friend, surely,
surely, just maybe, He'd be your friend too. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the friend of publicans and sinners. May the Lord bless these scattered
remarks today very simply presented, but I do hope they were an encouragement. I do hope they'll help you and
meet the need of your soul and feed your soul this morning.
Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're not able
to utter what we feel and we're not able to say thanks as we'd
like to be able to say it. We cannot muster the feeling
and we cannot Lord, we do not have the words, the tongue to
say what we'd like to say about the Lord Jesus Christ, what he's
been, what he's meant to us as he's revealed his friendship
to us in our lives. We just thank you, Father, for
what thou hast done in manifesting the Lord Jesus and that there
is a friend. How glorious. And he has stuck
close. even closer than a brother. And we praise You for Him this
morning. In Jesus' dear name, Amen.