A Friend of Sinners

Good morning to the Gospel of
Saint Matthew chapter 11. I want to read the 19th verse. Verse
19. The Son of Man came eating and
drinking And they say, behold, a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber,
a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her
children, a friend of publicans and sinners. I want to speak
this morning on Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners. Jesus
Christ, the friend of sinners. Now, there are many things that
I'm grateful to God for as a child of God living in this world,
but the thing that I have on my mind this morning is that
I'm thankful to God for the true friends that I have in this world. I'm thankful to God for the true
for the real friends that I have in this world. Now one writer
said, and there's a few quotes that I've written down here that
I want to share with you this morning. At the outset of this
message, I wish that you would listen carefully to what we have
to say today. I believe this is a message that
you'll probably not forget. It's a gospel message, not because
I'm preaching it, but because of the truth that we have to
talk about today. Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners. One writer said, friends are
like priceless treasures. He who has none is a social pauper. Another one said, the best antique
is an old friend. And again, a real friend will
warm you with his presence, trust you with his secrets, and remember
you when all others forget you. And here's another one I like.
A true friend will joyfully sing with you when you're on the mountaintop
and silently walk beside you and hold your hand when you're
in the valley. A real friend is one who sticks
by you even when he gets to know you real well. You can trust
a friend in the light or in the darkness, at home or away, in
your presence or in your absence, anywhere, anytime you can trust
a real friend. Bishop Ryle said, a friend is
one of the greatest blessings on earth. He is the poorest of
the poor who has no friends. Now, beloved, this world is a
rough place in which to live. Most of us are aware of that
because this world is filled with disappointment, tears, sorrow,
pain, many trips to the cemetery, trials, troubles, and heartaches,
trips to the nursing home to look after someone that we've
loved a long time, physical pain, emotional pain. This world is
a very difficult and trying and testing place to live. And one
of the brightest, I believe, sunbeams in this world is a true
friend. We all need friends. I want friends. I want to be a friend. I'd like
to know how. to be a good, a real friend to
you. I'd like to be your friend. I need friends to talk to me.
I need friends to write to me. I need friends to call me. I
need friends to visit with me, just to hear a word from someone
who is thinking about me. Someone who's interested enough
to get in touch with me. Somebody to think about me, to
remember me, to visit me, to pray for me. I need a friend. I need prayer. Trying to preach
the gospel, trying to run the race. You pray for me, if you
will. Pray that I won't quit. I've
seen others quit. The door swings both ways, you
know. Some people come in and then others go out. Why haven't
we gone out? We haven't gone out because God
is gracious. You pray that he might continue
to be gracious unto me. Now, there are friends like the
prodigal son had. They'll eat with you and they'll
party with you as long as you have some money. But when the
good times are over, and you need somebody to stand by you
and to hold your hand to be there for you, you look for them and
they'll be gone because they're false friends. And then you have
those friends like Judas. They'll kiss you on the cheek
and then they'll stab you in the back. And as the old saying
is, with friends like that, who needs enemies? Well, I'd like
to say that I don't deserve a friend, but I'm grateful to God for the
friends that I have. I'm grateful to God for your
friendship. And then there are others in
other places that have proven to be real friends, true friends
to me, and I'm grateful to God for them. I need friends who
will be on my side. I need friends who will walk
with me and stay with me, who won't leave me. Friends who won't
forsake me. I need a friend who will love
me no matter what I do and how bad I mess up, how many times
I foul up. One that will stay with me. And
although they don't condone when I mess up, but they will forgive
me and they'll love me because they are my friends. I need those
kind of friends. Everybody in this world needs
those kind of friends. Yes, I need a friend who will
stick closer than a brother. I need somebody who will stand
with me and stick closer than a brother. I need a forgiving
friend. I need a loving friend. I need somebody who will be a
friend to this center. Somebody who will befriend this
center. Praise God, I found such a friend. in the Lord Jesus Christ. I found
the friend of sinners. Now this short statement here
that we read in Matthew chapter 11 is very precious to me where
the Lord Jesus now is speaking but he's quoting what they say. And he's referring to this generation
that he talks about in verse 16. And he's telling us what
they say. And he says, they say that he's
a friend of publicans and sinners. That's what they say, that he's
a friend of publicans and sinners. But now listen to me this morning.
This and what they said critically, what they said with meanness
in their heart, And what they said with hatred in their hearts
toward the Lord Jesus, we rejoice in and we praise God for. They say he's a friend of publicans
and sinners. Now listen to me, a friend of
publicans and sinners, this to me is the best quote of all regarding
a friend. Would you agree? This is the
best quote of all regarding a friend, a friend of publicans and sinners. Now you see that we're imperfect
friends. We want to be friends. I want
to be a friend to you. I want you to be my friend. Listen
to me. I want to love you and I want
you to love me. I want to stand behind you and
I want you to stand behind me. But when all is said and done,
the only friend that I desperately need is the Lord Jesus Christ. I need the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, if I have made friends with everybody in the world, everybody
else in the world, and he is not my friend, then I'm in trouble. and you're in trouble. If you've
got all the friends that you can possibly make in the world,
and he's not your friend, you're lost and you're in trouble. Now
listen to me, if all others speak ill of me, and nobody else likes
me, and everybody else turns against me, but he who is my
everlasting friend is for me, it's all right. If he's my friend,
then it's all right. It really doesn't matter, really,
when it gets down to the bottom line. What else and who else
reacts and acts toward us, friendly or unfriendly, if He's our friend,
it's all right. Well, how do I know that Jesus
Christ is the friend of sinners? Well, I answer, because He has
proven His friendship. He has proven His friendship
over and over again. Well, He has not loved in word
only, but he's loved in deed and in truth. There are evidences
of his friendship and just let me give you some of them here
this morning. There are evidences of his friendship. Now listen to me now and you
listen carefully to what I'm telling you. Number one, he was
the friend of sinners before there ever was such a thing as
a sinner. Now you listen carefully to what
I'm saying. The Lord Jesus Christ was a friend
to sinners before there ever was such a thing as a sinner. Now in the covenant of grace,
God chose a people more numerous than the sand of the seashore
and all were sinners in the foreknowledge of God before God chose them
in His Son, the Lord Jesus. And Jesus Christ, in the covenant
of grace, was the agent who represented those sinners whom God chose
before a man was ever created, before a sinner was ever known
to be a sinner. Jesus Christ was the agent who
represented these people. They were his people given to
him in the covenant of grace. Now all these sports figures,
you know, have agents that represent them to the management and works
out their contract and gets them the big dollars, gets them the
big bucks, you know, and you read about it all the time in
the paper. Well, I'm here to say that sinners had an agent
in the covenant of grace. When that legal binding agreement
between the Father, Son, and Spirit was drawn up in eternity
past, we had a surety, we had an agent, we had a friend in
that covenant who stood up on our behalf, who volunteered to
represent us. Because He loved us. And He was
there when the covenant of grace was drawn up. And He stood up
for us. And He was the friend of sinners
there at that time of the signing, if you please, of the everlasting
covenant of grace. He loved us eternally. Eternally
the Lord Jesus Christ has been our friend. He stepped in. He knew we would by voluntary
transgression become rebels, and he stepped in to answer to
God for us. and to be our sin bearer. When he saw that we would become
unrighteous, he stepped in to become the Lord our righteousness. When he saw we would become bankrupt,
he stepped in to pay our debt. When he saw we would become ugly
through iniquity, he stepped in to make us comely through
his comeliness. To make us beautiful, might I
say, through his comeliness. When he saw that we would violate
God's holy law, this friend of ours stepped in to honor the
law, to make it glorious and honorable for us in our place. You talk about a friend, my friend,
this is a true friend. This is THE friend, THE friend
of sinners. Now the second thing I'd like
to say is this, that he was a friend of sinners not only before there
ever was such a thing in reality as a sinner, but he was a friend
of sinners 2,000 years ago when he came into this world to die
upon a gory tree. on the cross. Now in John 15
verses 13 and 14, greater love the Bible says, hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And Jesus
said in verse 14, ye are my friends, ye are my friends, if you do
whatsoever I command you. He was our friend when we were
in reality His enemies. In Romans 5 and verse 8 the Bible
says, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than 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. And so my
friend, even when we were enemies, in reality against God, the Lord
loved us. Jesus Christ was our friend. What a friend we have in Jesus.
He came and bled and died under the wrath of God. He died for
my sins in order that I would not die in my sins. The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend. Now listen to me. Do you know
my friend? Have you ever met my friend? If you ever meet The
friend of sinners, if you ever meet the Lord Jesus Christ, you
will never get over it. Because, listen to me, he becomes
sweeter and more precious as time goes on. If you know him,
if you understand who this friend of sinners are, and if you have
received from him the benefits of his shed blood, His righteous
merit if you've received the benefits of the bloody cross.
Listen to me. He becomes more precious to you
as time goes on. You'll never forget this friend
of sinners. And when you hear his gospel
preached, You rejoice in his person, you rejoice in his works,
his righteousness, and in his blood, this one who laid down
his life in order to save us. He said, I call you my friends. I call you my friends. Now the
Bible says that Abraham was the friend of God. He was the father
of the faithful, if you remember. And in Galatians 3, verses 6
and 7, it 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. And so all
of God's Abrahams are God's friends. And all God's people are God's
Abrahams. Because they're all children
of faith. And they're children of Abraham. And so they're friends. They're God's friends. Now we
are God's friends. We weren't enemies. But now,
by the grace of God, we're on God's side, and we stand with
God. There was a time when we were
enemies against God, but we were reconciled to God, and now we
stand with God, and we're behind the Lord. Whatever He wants to
do, we can say, by God's grace, Father, I'll love you still.
By God's grace, I'll stand with you, because I've been reconciled
to you, and we're friends. We're friends. He's my friend
and I'm his friend. Now everything's alright then
with me that God does because he is my friend. Now he died
for my sin. The Bible says that 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, He took upon Himself all the thoughts,
the works, the deeds, and the nature, and the words. He took
upon Himself and bore my sin to Calvary, and He put them away. And He put them so far away,
even the omniscient eye of God cannot see them anymore. They're
gone as far as the East is from the West never to be remembered
against me anymore now that my friend is a friend one that will
do that one that will bear take upon himself him being guileless
and sinless take upon himself our sin and our guilt and own
it in our place in our room instead in place and This, my friend,
is indeed the friend of sinners. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
I'm talking about. Now, He's not the friend of good
people. No, He's not. He's not the friend of good people.
He's the friend of publicans and sinners. He's not a friend
of the good, the kind, the moral, the loving people in the world. No, no, no. He is not their friend. He's the friend of the scum of
the earth. He's the friend of the fallen.
He's the friend of those that are down. He's the friend of
those that are transgressors, that are breakers of the law.
He's a friend of those who are in iniquity. He's their friend. He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. And this we need to remember.
Now, when he arose from the dead, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ
was a friend of sinners. We know that he was delivered
for our justification, and he was raised again, or he was delivered
for our sins, but he was raised for our justification. And I
believe that when he rose from the dead, that all God's people
were in Him, and His resurrection was a proof that the Father had
accepted His sacrifice that He had made on our behalf, and He
did that on my account. He did that on the account of
sinners, and they're saved through what He's done. And so, I say
when He arose, now when He ascended on high, The Lord Jesus, He's
the forerunner, and He has entered heaven to lay hold, to lay claim
of the inheritance for us. This, my friend, is what the
friend of sinners has done on our behalf. He's the forerunner,
as we said. He's entered heaven to lay hold
of and to lay claim to the inheritance on our behalf, to secure it,
as it were, for us. Now in heaven, the Lord Jesus
Christ is still our friend. Because there he appears in the
presence of God for us. There the Lord Jesus Christ is
appearing in God's presence making intercession for us on our behalf. Now here in this world we talk
about people and we're very quick to tell people that we will pray
for them. We'll say to people, they'll
say, well, you know, I've got this problem or that problem.
We'll pray for you. We'll pray for you. Well, my
beloved, listen to me this morning. You know the thing, and I do
have confidence in you, and I do believe that you do pray for
me and that you pray for the ministry of the gospel. I do
believe that you pray for the church, that you pray for each
other. But listen to me this morning. We have a friend, and
he's over in glory. Now, and He is making intercession
for us, He is praying for us. And I make bold this morning
to say that I do not need the prayers of Saint Jude. I do not
need the prayers of any Catholic priest on earth. I need only
the prayers of this one. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is always heard and I have that much faith in the gospel of Christ
and in the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let
the priest take their prayers, spend them on somebody else.
I don't need them. But the prayers of this one I
need. He's my friend and I need his prayers. I need him to pray
for me. And thanks be to God he is this
morning remembering his people. We're forever in his mind. He
never forgets us. Once he has been given the name
of one whom the Father has chosen, that one is forever in his mind.
And the Lord never forgets him because the Lord Jesus is our
friend. He is our friend. Listen to me now. This is something
that's very important that you need to see. He's our friend
who providentially controls all things. and works out all things,
works them together out for our good and for His glory. This is our friend that I'm talking
about. Are you carrying a heavy burden?
Are you going through a fiery trial right now? What is the
difficulty that you're dealing with? Many of the Lord's people,
I mentioned it in the prayer a few minutes ago, are struggling
greatly at this time and having tremendous difficulty in this
world and trying to stay, as it were, you know, steady in
this world as a believer because there are many trying winds in
this day and this time. But your friend the Lord Jesus
Christ knows what's going on. He knows what's going on. And
He's not ignorant of your situation. He's not ignorant of the heavy
burden that you bear, of its heaviness. He knows the amount
it weighs. He weighed it out for you. He
weighed it out for you, I'm saying. And not only that, He knows about
the fire. And listen to me now. The fire
will not be too hot. The Lord will see to it that
the fire will not be too hot. And the Lord will bring you through.
There's no testing taking you but such is common to man. God
is faithful who will not allow you to be tested above what you're
able, but will with the testing make a way of escape that you
might be able to bear it. The Lord will enable you to bear
that because He knows He sent it to you. He sent it to you.
He put it upon you. And the poet said, and shall
come to pass, last and end, as shall please our heavenly friend. Now that's exactly what I believe,
my friend. He watches. He is the divine
refiner. And I said, he will not let the
fire get too hot under you. Because now listen to me. This
is our friend I'm talking about who providentially controls all
things and working out all things to his good, to our good, and
for his glory. Now listen to me, he will over
and over, and if you watch this closely in your life, I'll tell
you, the Lord means business. And he will over and over teach
us the vanity of this world, and he will bring us back, bring
us back, over and over again to our need and shut us up to
our need of Him. To our need of Him. And in this
life you'll be surprised how God will wing you away from this
world and the vain things of this world. And how that in His
providence He'll teach you that there is one whom you desperately
need and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to me, my
friend. He'll show you that you have
nothing without Him. He'll show you that He Himself
is the friend that you really need. He'll show you that He's
the priceless treasure. He'll show you that He's the
pearl of great price. And He'll bring you to see that,
that you have nothing unless you have Him, and that if we
have Him, then we have all. We have all if we have Him, regardless
of what we don't have. But we have, my friend, nothing
without Him. He is the substitute for all
things. Nothing is a substitute for Him. Remember that. Nothing is a substitute
for Him. There just isn't anything to
compare with this one I'm talking about. I'm talking about the
friend of sinners. And I'm talking about the fact
that there's no substitute for Him. And we need to be brought
to that. And that's what the Lord's doing
in your life. That's what He's doing now in your life. That's
what all this means. All this trouble and afflictions
and trials and tests in this life. He just keeps bringing
you back over and over again to the fact that He's all in
all. And it's wonderful to learn that. But it's painful to the flesh.
It's killing to the flesh to learn these lessons. But my friend,
it's a wonderful lesson to learn because all God's people need
to know these things. He is our friend. And then next
I'd like to say that He being our friend, He shares secrets
and He shares mystery with His friends. The secret of the Lord
is with them that fear Him, the Bible says. Now listen to me
now. The mystery of the gospel How wonderful, the mystery of
godliness, the mystery of the gospel. How many people, listen
to me, men for the life of them. cannot explain and understand
the gospel of Jesus Christ. They cannot understand it. They
cannot explain it. They cannot in any way, shape,
or form enter into the mysteries of the gospel. Only those who
have been taught by the Spirit of God. Only those whom the Lord
will be pleased to share His secrets with. I mentioned Abraham
who was a friend of God. You remember that God said, now
I'm not going to hide this thing from Abraham. What I'm going
to do over there in Sodom and Gomorrah, I'm not going to hide
it from him because he walks close with me and he fears me
and he's going to command his family after me. And he said,
I'm going to share my secrets with Abraham. He's my friend.
He's my friend. And I'll tell you this, God shares
His secrets with His friends. And those of you that know the
gospel this morning, and you know something about the way
God saves and justifies and cleanses sinners, and yet remains just
Himself as the holy, the thrice holy God, God has shared the
secret of His gospel with you. God has been pleased to show
you how He saves sinners. God's been pleased to reveal
to you His very heart. And if He's revealed His Son
to you, He's revealed, He's bared His very bosom to you, and showing
you the Son of His love, He's revealed Him, and made Him known
to your heart. This, my friend, is because you're
God's friend, and because God, through Jesus Christ, is your
friend. And so Christ, being our friend,
He shares these secrets. The secrets of his mystery, the
secrets of his gospel. And like I say, no man apart
from the revelation of God's Spirit, they just simply do not
understand. We read it there in Matthew 11
this morning. Now that God hid these things from the wise and
the prudent and revealed them unto babes. The babes the Lord
shares secrets with. Those who are chosen of God in
Christ, and those who are the poor of this world, those who
have the gospel preached to them, this revealed to their hearts.
And they know the secrets of the Lord, and they know the truth
of God. Now listen to me now. Then I
believe that he is a friend that we can always talk to. He that
keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord is always
awake and he's always ready. His ear is open and a tent under
the prayer of the righteous. That's the ear of this friend,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can just speak to him
anytime. And then also, I think he is our friend and he visits
with us. He visits with us. Now, He visited,
we know, in reality, 2,000 years ago, and then there was a day
in which He visited us in salvation. The Lord visited us. I believe
that there is, like Abraham and Moses, I believe God appeared
to them. I think he appeared to Abraham
four times. And the first time that God appeared
to Abraham was in salvation, was when God revealed himself
to Abraham and he was saved. God visited me one day and saved
me. And when God saved you, that
was a visit from this heavenly friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. by the Spirit and then I believe
that and I trust this morning that he's visiting here in this
service. I believe that he visits. I believe
Christ comes and walks down the aisles of the church and I think
he visits in the meetings, where he is honored, where he is glorified,
where his word is proclaimed and where it is preached I believe
the Lord visits. Well I like his company, don't
you? I like his company, I really do. I do not have enough visits
from him. I'd like to be visited more by
this friend, wouldn't you? The Lord Jesus Christ. Well praise
God He's been visiting friends even here this morning. Amen.
He's been been visiting with us as we've been talking about
him as we've been trying to preach him up and to show that he's
the friend of sinners. What a friend. Now the Lord Jesus
calls on me to believe and then he gives me faith. He calls on
me to persevere, and then He keeps me by His grace. I'm talking
about my friends, who I'm talking about. He calls on me to bear
a trial, and then He gives me grace to endure this trial. He calls on me to walk with Him,
and then He takes me by His hand, and He leads me. What a friend
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. He picks me up when I fall, and
when I get too high-minded. In love, He brings me down. This
is my friend. 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'm not alone because He's with me. Because He's with
me. And whatever your situation is
here this morning, widow or widower, it wouldn't make any difference.
God is with you. You are not alone. You're not
alone. As a child of God in this world,
whatever be your situation, whatever be the trials you face, the test
that you must endure, the heartaches that's upon you, whatever, you're
not alone because this friend of sinners is with you. He's
with you, and he'll not leave you alone. Now, Joseph Scurvin,
He left Ireland and went to Canada many years ago. And the young
lady whom he was to marry would follow sometime later on a ship.
And the ship sunk in the North Atlantic. And Joseph Scurvin
was crushed. Pardon me. And shortly after this, he took
sick and he was bed-fast for a while. And the various ladies
around there in the village 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 his bed. And she said, what is this? And
he said, well, you can look at it if you want to. And inside
was a note to his mother and a poem. And the poem said, what
a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything
to God in prayer. And when he died sometime later,
They inscribed the title of that poem on his tombstone in Port
Oak, Canada. What a friend we have in Jesus.
What a friend we have in Jesus. You say to me this morning, you
reckon that he'd be my friend? You'd reckon he'd be a friend
to me? Well, you can look around you, he's a friend to some of
us. Why not you? Why not you? I believe he'd be a friend to
you if you're a sinner. I believe he is the friend of
sinners. He's proven himself to be. I'd like this morning
for us to sing at this time, page 460, the song, What a Friend
We Have in Jesus.

A Friend of Sinners

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A Friend of Sinners

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