Look at this last line of verse
23 once again. And he, Abraham, was called. Who called him this? God did. He was called the friend of God. Now what comes to your mind when
you think of being a friend of God? Would God call you His friend? I have listened to some messages
on this passage of Scripture, and every preacher that I listen
to seemed to make this something we should aspire to. Oh, that
we might be friends of God. It's a place we can't attain
to. But let's see what the scripture
teaches about this thing, about being a friend of God. Abraham was called the friend
of God. Not a friend, but the friend. God was the friend of Abraham. And Abraham was the friend of
God. I love that passage of Scripture
with regard to Moses where it says, Moses and the Lord spake
face to face as a man speaketh with his friend. That is how
the Lord spake to Moses. Now it would be a high honor
to be called a servant of God, wouldn't it? But to be called his friend, that's staggering, isn't it?
The friend of God. Now, Abraham represents a special
race, the elect of God, all of whom are called his friends. Let me show you that from the
scripture. John chapter 13. Somebody may be thinking, I can
see how Abraham could be God's friend, or Moses, or Paul, or
John, or somebody like that, but could I dare to think of
myself as being called by God his friend? Well, look in John
chapter 13, verse, I'm sorry, John 15, verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his, what? Friends. Everybody that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for, He calls His friends. He would own me. It wouldn't just be me saying
it. He would say, that's my friend. And that is said concerning every
single person for whom he died. Isn't that amazing? But that
scripture says it. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And do you know how you could
know if he's your friend? I can answer that very simply. Are you a sinner? I'm not going to add anything
to that. Are you a sinner? He is called the sinner's friend,
and the only people he died for are sinners. If you are a sinner,
He came for you. And He calls you His friend. It really is that simple. I think
this is so amazing. Everybody that's a sinner is
His friend. And everybody that has a higher
opinion of themselves than that is His enemy. His enemy. Look in verse 14 of John 15. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. Now, is he talking about obeying
the Ten Commandments? Well, if he is, I've obeyed them
in my Savior. When he obeyed him, I did too. So yes, I have done whatsoever
he's commanded. Truly, his righteousness is my
righteousness before God. His obedience is law-keeping.
So if that's what he's talking about, I'll wear that hat. If
he kept the law, I kept the law. Somebody says, I try to keep
the law. I don't. I kept it. In the person of my
substitute and representative, I've kept and honored God's holy
law. And the only way you can truly
honor God's holy law is by looking to Christ. He's the end of the
law for righteousness. But turn with me, hold your finger
there and turn with me to 1 John chapter 3. Verse 23. And this is His commandment that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as He gave us commandment. Now listen to me.
I'm believing on the name of His Son right now. I know that
my only entrance into heaven is through His name. You know
that? And I love everybody that loves
Him. I really do. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ,
I love you. And you love me, too, if you
love Christ. We love one another in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That is a commandment we keep. And he says, if you keep my commandment,
my commandments, you're my friends. Well, we're his friends. And
what do friends do? What do friends do? Well, more than anything
else, friends confide in one another. They make known secrets,
what's most precious to one another. And look what the Lord says in
verse 15. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. Now, the master
says to the servant, do this. What's the servant to do? Why
do you want me to do that? No, he just does it because he's
told. He doesn't need an explanation.
The master doesn't owe him an explanation. Do it because I
said. But I have called you friends,
verse 15, for all things that I've heard of my father I've
made known unto you. Now, I want you to think about
this. If you're a believer, If you're someone who He's died
for, if you're someone who keeps His commandments, you believe
on His name and you love His people, that's real. Do you know
God has made known to you that which is most precious to Him? He's brought you in on the inside. Every believer is on the inner
circle. Every single believer, God has
made known that which is most precious to him. If you have
some understanding of the gospel, it's because God has given you
this understanding and made himself known to you. Now go back to
our text. James chapter 2. This can really be only understood
because of what is said at the first. Verse 23, And the scripture
was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. Now the only friends that God
has are righteous people. He will not be friends with an
unrighteous man. You say, how are you saying that
he's a friend of sinners, and then you turn around and say
something like that? I mean, they seem to contradict one another.
Well, they don't. You see, every sinner is righteous,
because righteousness has been imputed to them by God, and they
have the very righteousness of God, and therefore they're fit
for fellowship and friendship with God. Now, people say, when
they talk about a dog, a dog is man's best friend, but he's
still a dog. He's still a dog. You can only be so close to a
dog. Not that close. I mean, you can
love him, I understand that, but it's a dog. It's a dog. I
can't make myself known to a dog. I can't have an intimate conversation
and confide in a dog. He's a dog. And God could not
confide in a sinner, in an unrighteous man in that sense. But every
believer is righteous because righteousness has been imputed
to them. Now, when Rich read that passage
of Scripture from 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 1, it says,
Let a man so account of us as stewards of the mysteries of
God. Now that word account is the exact same word as impute. Now, Paul doesn't say, let a
man account us as stewards of the mysteries of God even though
we're not. No, he says, let a man so account us as stewards of
the mysteries of God because that's in fact what we are. You
see, when God imputes righteousness to you, you know why he does
it? Because you're righteous in Christ, perfectly obedient,
fit for fellowship with God. Now in Christ, I'm fit for God
to have fellowship with me, for God to count me his friend. 2
Peter 1 verse 4 says we're partakers. Every believer, partakers of
the divine nature. Now somebody says, explain that
to me. I wouldn't dare try to explain
something like that. But what's it say? It says we're
partakers of the divine nature. God can have fellowship with
someone who is a partaker of His nature, can't He? 1 Corinthians
1.30 says, Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made
unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
God can have fellowship with somebody like that. Colossians
1.12 says we're fit, we're made meat, for the inheritance of
the saints in light. Right now, while I'm preaching
to you, there's a vast group of people, the saints in light,
the saints in heaven right now. What communion, what fellowship
they're having with God, with the Lord Jesus Christ, singing
the praises of the Lamb. And right now, every friend of
God, every believer is right now fit for that. Fit. Now, I realize you've got flesh.
It'll be gone then. It'll be gone. Your sinfulness,
it'll be gone. It'll be no more. But the nature
you're going to have in heaven, you have right now. Fit for fellowship
with God. That statement is true and that
gives us some idea as to how bad the flesh is and how much
it brings us down, doesn't it? Now, Abraham was the friend of
God. There is a love between friends. Proverbs 17 says, A friend loveth
at all times. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. A friend loveth at all times. And friends know each other and
they accept one another as they are. And they love one another. as they are. Now God in Christ
knows me as I really am. He says to me, and he says to
everybody that he died for and made his friends, there is no
spot in thee. Thou art all fair, my love. Now that's how God sees all of
his friends. And I've said this many times,
How God sees things, that's the way it is. You might not see
it that way, but He does. You can see all kinds of spots
in me. You can see all kinds of inconsistencies in me. Stay
around me long enough and you'll find them, but that's not how
God sees me. And how God sees me is how I
really am, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight,
accepted in the Beloved. As He is, speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, so are we in this world. Now, how is He? I could spend a whole lot of
time talking about that, but I know this. God the Father sees
His Son as altogether lovely, as altogether beautiful. Desiring
fellowship and communion with Him. You think of the communion
between the Father and the Son. That's how the Father sees every
believer. Because as He is, so are we in
this world. You know, I don't know of anything
that I dislike more than people talking about unconditional love.
There's no such thing. There's got to be something to
love. And every believer in God's sight
is lovable. Lovable. He loves His people. And He's the only one who knows
me altogether. And He loves me because I'm united to Christ.
And I know Him. He knows me. And I know Him. I know Him. I know Him from His
Word. He's holy. That's the first thing
I'd say about Him. I know Him. He's holy. He's altogether
just. He's altogether righteous. He's
absolutely sovereign. He's immutable. He's altogether
lovely. We know Him. We know Him from
His Word. He knows us, and we know Him. You know, with regard to the
Lord Jesus Christ, with regard to God the Father, with regard
to the Blessed Spirit of God, if it were in my power, I wouldn't
change anything about Him. He's perfect. Do you feel that
way about him? That means you know him. You
wouldn't change a thing about him, would you? Oh, you'd change
things about yourself if you could. But oh, he's the one being
who you would not want to change because he's perfect. Now, in
a friendship, Abraham's his friend. Abraham represents every believer.
Every believer is his friend. This is not something that only
a few attain to. Because this friendship, this
meekness for friendship, is not because of anything I've done.
It's because of what Christ has done for me. And that gives me
this meekness for friendship. Now, in a true friendship, there
is a choice. You choose your friends. The friends you have, you choose
them. There are some people you don't
want to be friends with and you'd rather not be friends with. And
there are some people you desire to be friends with. Proverbs
22, 24, and 25 says, Make no friendship with an angry man.
There's a man you don't want to be a friend with. Make no
friendship with an angry man lest thou learn his ways and
get a stare to thy soul. We want a friend we can trust.
That's the kind of friend we want. We want a friend that we
don't have to worry about them using what we say to harm us. We want a friend that has our
back, don't we? That's the friend I want, someone who has my back.
There's a selectivity in friendship. There are people we would hesitate
to be friends with, and there's people we want to be our friends. Now, Christ selects his friends. He said, You've not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit. Christ selects his friends. It's called election. You know, the older I get, the
more I love election. I hope I'll be saying that 20
years from now. Now, not only does He choose
us by His grace, by His grace, we choose Him in return, don't
we? We love Him because He first loved us. Now, for a friendship
to be a good friendship, there is a nearness. There is a proximity,
where there's true communication. The proverb says, there is a
neighbor that is nearer than a brother that is far off. For a friendship, there has to
be a nearness. Now, Christ is always near. He's always present. He said,
I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. And that being the case,
He's always near with me. Whether we feel it or not, you
know, sometimes we feel His presence. Sometimes we feel His presence
when we're reading the Word. Sometimes we feel His presence
when we're hearing the Gospel preached. Sometimes we feel His
presence when we're unable to pray and our hearts just bubble
out. Sometimes we don't feel anything.
Sometimes we hear the Word, bounces off us like water off a duck's
back. Sometimes we get nothing from
the scripture. Sometimes prayer is so difficult and it's moved,
but you know what? However we feel, He's still just
as near. He's always there. He's always
present. We have not a high priest that
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace. And right now you have
every right as a believer through Christ to come boldly. To come
boldly expectantly to the throne of grace that you may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need because this
friend is always there. Now think about this. In a true
friendship boundaries are recognized. Isn't that so? In a true friendship,
boundaries are recognized and appreciated. The wise man said,
withdraw thy foot from thy neighbor's house, lest he be weary of thee
and hate thee. Now, you can be my friend if
you're over at my house all the time, non-stop. I'll probably
get tired of you being there. And I guarantee you, if I'm your
friend and I camp out at your house and I'm there weeks at
a time, you'll finally say, get out. Boundaries must be recognized. Think of this scripture, Amos
3, 3. How can two walk together? Remember the rest of the verse?
Except they be agreed. The fact of the matter is two
cannot walk together except they be agreed. If we're not agreed
in the gospel, we can't walk together. If we're not agreed
on how God saves sinners by a son, we can't walk together. It's
impossible. If we're not agreed on who gets
the glory and salvation, we can't walk together, can we? How can
two walk together except they be agreed? We can't walk with
God unless we're agreed with Him. Now, listen to these statements
real carefully. God says that His Son is all
in salvation. We agree. God says His righteousness is
the only righteousness there is. You know what? We agree, don't we? We're a complete
agreement. God says that all of the glory
of salvation goes to His Son and absolutely none to man. We're a complete agreement. When we hear, by grace are you
saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. You know what we say? Amen. We
agree, don't we? John 14, verse 6, our Lord said,
I am the way. We agree. There are no other
ways. I am the truth. We agree completely. He is the truth. I am the life. Oh, we agree. His life is the
only life that counts. His life is my life before God.
I simply want to be found in Him. There is agreement and we
dare not cross those boundaries. In a true friendship, boundaries
are recognized and appreciated. We wouldn't dare, by His grace,
we wouldn't dare come waltzing into God's presence apart from
Christ only, would we? We wouldn't. We know He's the
only way we can approach. Now, in a true friendship, this
is glorious to think about. And remember, God calls every
believer, you're my friend. If you're a believer, don't think
this is something you need to aspire to. It's something you
are. God calls you His friend. And if friendship is never one-sided,
it always goes both ways, isn't it? In true friendship, there's
a mutuality involved. The scripture says, iron sharpeneth
iron, so a man sharpeneth the counsel of his friend. These
two friends are together, sharpening one another. Ointment and perfume
rejoice the heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by
hearty counsel." Now, He communicates to us through His Word, through the preaching of the
Gospel. And we communicate to Him. We unburden our heart to Him. He speaks well of us. You know,
if somebody's really your friend, you're going to speak well of
them, aren't you? He speaks well of us. He says, Behold, thou
art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. And
we speak well of Him, don't we? He's altogether glorious. He's altogether lovely. You know, when people Speak bad
about your friends, you defend their honor, don't you? When
we hear someone speaking wrong about our dearest friend, the
Lord Jesus Christ, by his grace, we're going to defend his honor.
And you know what? He defends our honor. He takes
great high priest and intercessor. Now here's a very important point
regarding friendship. And this is just staggering to
me. In a genuine friendship, the foundation is respect. Isn't that true? In a genuine
friendship, a real friendship, the foundation is respect. You cannot be a true friend to
someone you do not respect, nor can you be You can't be a true friend and
someone can't be a true friend to you that you don't respect,
and if someone doesn't respect you, you really can't be a friend
to them, can you? The very foundation of a true friendship is respect. An actual feeling of admiration
because of the abilities or the qualities in someone's character. There's an admiration. It's easy to respect the Lord,
isn't it? Oh, what respect we have for
his glorious person. That's why we feel uncomfortable
the way we even use his name. I want to use his name with the
utmost respect. Every time I use his name, we
have, he's easy to respect. If he gives you the grace to
respect him, I realize that, but you know what? Turn with
me to Genesis 4, verse 3. And in process of time it came
to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering
unto the Lord. Genesis 4, 3. And Abel he also
brought of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel. Unto Abel. Now it was and to
his offering. You couldn't separate Abel and
his offering. Why does the Lord have respect
for the child of God? Because of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But the scripture still says
God had respect to Abel. If you're a believer, God respects you. That's hard
to say. This is what the scripture teaches.
I just read it. To Abel and to his offering,
God had respect. He admires you. He sees something
in your character. It's his own. As you're united
to him, he sees something in your character that he respects
and admires. That gives us some idea of the
power of the blood of Christ. It makes everybody he shed his
precious blood for to be somebody who God himself respects. In a true friendship, you confide
in one another. You can speak to a true friend
and not worry about what that person is going to do with what
you say. You can confide in that person. You're not worried about
them using it against you. You don't have to walk on eggshells
around them, fearing you're going to offend them. You can be honest
with a true friend, can't you? You can be honest. And God has confided in us. He's made known to us what is
dearest to Him in the gospel. And we can unburden our soul
to Him and confide. There's no point in hiding anything.
He sees it all anyway. And we can confide. We can open
up our hearts to Him. There is no friend like the friend
of sinners. Now, two or three more things.
In a true friendship, there must be candor. What do I mean by that? Faithful are the wounds of a
friend. I am, I want to say this the
right way, but I'm so thankful for the wounds of the Lord Jesus
Christ when he wounds me. All he's got to do is show me
who I am, and it's a hard wound. It's a hard thing to deal with.
But you know what it does in these faithful wounds? It does
not permit me to look to myself for a thing, and it causes me
to look to Christ only. Faithful are the wounds. of a friend. It drives me to
see my need of Him. And you know what? I don't come
to Him by His grace. Now let me say this. I've always
got to give this disclaimer. It's always by His grace. But
I come into His presence in honesty. knowing that I'm nothing but
sin, not trying to pretend to be what I'm not, knowing I'm
nothing but sin, seeking his mercy. There's honesty and candor,
no guile. I love that scripture, blesses
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered, blesses
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose
spirit there is no guile. They go together. They go together.
You're honest before God. You don't try to pretend to be
what you're not. Now, in a real friendship, there's always forgiveness. If you're going to be friends
with me, you're going to forgive me. If I'm friends with you,
I'm going to forgive you. In a real friendship, there's
forgiveness. But you know, this is a one-sided thing here. The
Lord doesn't have anything to be forgiven for. I'm not going
to talk about, well, I need to forgive him. No, I don't need
to forgive him. He's all together glorious. But I need to be forgiven
over and over and over again for the same sins I commit over
and over and over again. Thank God for His forgiveness. What a friend. I love that. 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 in a true friendship, listen
to this, you stay friends. You know, I love old friendships.
I'm thankful for new friendships. I hope they turn into old friendships.
But there's nothing like old friendships, is there? where
people stay friends year after year after year after year. There's a constancy in their
friendship. They continue friends. You know, somebody that can't
keep a long friendship, something's wrong with them. Something's
wrong with them. I want to be somebody who's a
faithful friend for a long time, all the way to the end. What
about his friendship? A friend loveth at all times,
and he's the friend who loveth at all times. And a brother is
born for adversity. Christ is that friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. Now isn't this glorious to be
a friend of God? A relationship of love. You love
your friends. Choice. He chose me. And by his grace, I choose him
in return. A friendship of nearness, agreement, respect, confiding,
candor, forgiveness. and constancy. A friend loveth
at all times. Now what a blessing. Abraham was called the friend
of God. But I'm looking at some more
people who are called just as much as Abraham, God would call
you. That's my friend. That's true of every believer.
Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
blood of thy blessed Son that makes us thy friends. Lord, what
a high, glorious honor to be thy friends. And Lord, cause
us to be friends to thee and friends to one another. Lord,
give us this true friendship. Lord, we have it in our son and
we give thanks. Bless this word for your glory
and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
You got Duane? I kind of figured that.