Turn once again with me, if you
will, to Luke chapter seven. I want to begin reading where
we left off reading just a few minutes ago. Let's begin in verse
31 and read down through verse 35. And the Lord said, whereunto
then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what
are they like? They are like unto children sitting
in the marketplace and calling one to another and saying, we
have piped unto you and you have not danced. We have mourned to
you and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine and you say, he hath a devil.
The son of man is come eating and drinking and you say, behold,
a gluttonous man and a wine beaver a friend of publicans and sinners,
but wisdom is justified of all her children. Now I want to take
for my text tonight the words that the Lord Jesus Christ attributed
to these religious men of his generation. Do you see in verse
31, he is speaking about the men of this generation. And the Lord said, where unto
shall I liken the men of this generation? That means, of course,
the generation of men who were living when the Lord Jesus Christ
was here in the flesh. Now look at verse 34. The Son of Man has come eating
and drinking, and you say, the men of that generation, This
is what they said. You say, behold, a gluttonous
man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. And that's my text this evening,
a friend of sinners. A friend of sinners. Now we know
that these words were spoken by these religious men. in a
form of criticism, form of derision of him, but they're true. But they're true. You know, Pilate
commanded the words, these words, this is the king of the Jews,
that it be written in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and placed
above the Lord Jesus Christ on his cross. He could, I just thought,
he could have well have written, this is the friend of sinners,
in all the languages of the world, not just in those three languages,
but in all the languages of the world. Because we know that he
was suffering there on the cross to redeem his people, as the
scripture says in Revelation chapter five, to redeem his people
to God. by his blood out of every kindred
and tongue, every tongue and people and nation. So I want us to think tonight
for just a little while about Jesus, the friend of sinners. I looked up the definition of
a friend in Noah Webster's 1828. It's been a long time ago. 1828, the American Dictionary
of the English Language. And it gives this definition
of a friend. One who is attached to another
by affection, one who entertains for another sentiments of esteem,
respect, and affection, which lead him to desire his company
and seek to promote his happiness and prosperity. A friend of sinners,
the Lord Jesus Christ, he sought the company of the publicans
and the sinners, and they sought his company. They sought his
company. And he ate and drank with them. A friend is one, as Noah Webster's
dictionary says, who seeks to promote a man's happiness and
prosperity. His company is happiness and
prosperity. Pat, she has framed and hanging
on one of the walls in our house these words which were given
to her by a friend a number of years ago. And I quote, a true
friend warms you with her presence, trusts you with her secrets,
and remembers you in her prayers. That's one definition of a friend,
and I know that many, many others probably that could be given.
And yet we know tonight that these words of the hymn writer
are true. There's not. There's not. a friend like the lowly Jesus. None else could heal our soul's
diseases. No matter how close, no matter
how great another friend may be, there's not a friend like
Jesus. No believer, no child of God
has any friend like Jesus. We know that the scriptures speak
to us about friends and there are examples in the word of God
of men who were friends, bad friends and good friends. Bad friends and good friends. We always like to try to encourage
young people especially to choose your friends. Choose your friends
carefully. Evil communications, that's companions,
isn't it? Evil communications corrupt good
manners. But let me give us a couple of
examples of bad friends and one example of a good friend. One
of King David's sons named Ammon. Ammon. And the scripture says,
but Ammon had a friend. a friend whose name was Jonadab,
his friend. And Jonadab, his friend, is the
one who counseled Ammon as to how he could abuse and violate
his sister, his half-sister, Tamar. That's a bad friend. That was a bad friend. And we
know that Judas Iscariot, In prophecy, he was also called
a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, in Psalm 41 in
verse 9, we read, yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
which did eat my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. And when Judas led those soldiers
and men out into the garden to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ,
you remember our Savior, spoke to him and he said, friend, friend. There's examples of bad friends
in the word of God. There's this example of a good
friend. This was a friend of David. He
was one of his counselors. His name was Hushai. And Hushai
remained loyal to David. When Absalom, David's son, reared
up in rebellion against his father and tried to steal the kingdom
from David. One of David's counselors whose
word was as the oracles of God, the scripture says, you remember
he gave Absalom counsel and this man Hushai gave Absalom counsel
and overturned the counsel. of Ahithophel. Hushai gave Absalom
counsel, which caused him to wait and not to pursue his father
that night. He was David's friend, and he
risked his life for David, his king, to stay there and give
Absalom counsel that he knew was bad counsel. And about that
other man, he was so certain of his counsel, you remember
when Absalom didn't follow his counsel what he did? He went
home and hanged himself. He knew, he knew this wasn't
going to turn out good. Now, what I want for us to do
tonight, I want us to look at three proverbs. Three proverbs which speak to
us of a friend. and see how each of these proverbs,
what is said in the proverb, may picture the Lord Jesus Christ,
the friend of sinners. First, let's look back to Proverbs
chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17. And verse 17, a friend loveth
at all times. Jesus is the friend that loveth
sinners at all times. He is the friend of sinners that
loveth at all times. That's him. That's him, the sinner's
friend. He loves at all times. Now, we divide time into three. portions, don't we, past, present,
and future. A friend loveth at all times. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
friend of sinners who has loved sinners in time past. Now I'm sure that all of you
tonight, you have some friends who have loved you for a long
time. Some of you have friends who have loved you from your
birth. Some of you have friends, no
doubt, who loved you even before you were born, when you were
conceived in the womb of your mother. They've loved you a long
time, past time. But no matter how long they've
loved you, they've not loved you as long as the sinner's friend
has loved his people. Because his love has no beginning. His love is eternal. The friend of sinners, his love
is eternal. He loved his people from before
the foundation of the world when he betrothed them unto himself. Now that word betrothed is a
word we don't use and yet it is in the scripture and we would
use the word engaged probably when a man and woman are engaged. The Lord Jesus Christ betrothed
his people unto him from before the foundation of the world.
And then we fell. Then we fell. Then we sinned.
Well, what about his love? It didn't change. It didn't change. His love is eternal, his past
love. You know, we have a beautiful
story of that in the scriptures, don't we? Of Hosea, the prophet
Hosea, and his wife, Gomer. The Lord commanded him to go
and take a wife of whoredoms, and he did. And they had children,
and then it wasn't long before she left her husband and went
after her lovers. That's a picture of us in the
fall. Betrothed to the Lord Jesus Christ,
chosen in him from before the foundation of the world, but
yet fallen in Adam. And yet his love, just like the
love of Hosea, followed Gomer and provided for her. She thought
her lovers were providing for her. Remember the corn and the
wine and the things that they supplied her with? She assumed
that it was her lovers who were sending her those supplies, when
all the time it was her husband that she had left, Hosea. And God commanded him to go and
buy her again. She was already his. We were
his from before the foundation of the world. We were given to
him in that eternal covenant of grace. And yet he came and
he bought us, didn't he? He bought us just like Hosea
had to buy his wife, Gomer. And then he told her, now you
shall remain for me. And that's us. We've been married. We've been brought to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our Lord. He's our Savior.
He's our everything. And all of our life should be,
and God help us, is committed to Christ, to Him who loved us,
loved us past tense. What about present tense? He
loves us today, doesn't he? His love is present tense as
well. And every day, he doesn't change. He's the same. For his love to
change, then he would have to change, and we know that's not
true. After Simon denied the Lord three times, you remember
the Lord restored him by asking him, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest
thou me? But Peter never asked the Lord
that question, did he? The Lord asked Peter, does thou
love me? But Peter never asked the Lord
that. He couldn't doubt his love. His
love is present. Many waters, we read in the Song
of Solomon, many waters. We think of the flooding we've
seen on the news recently how sad it is, isn't it, in some
of those hollows and valleys there in Kentucky where the water
flash flood just comes down and my, those four children and one
family just washed away. How sad. How sad. Many waters, the scripture says,
cannot quench love. Cannot quench his love. for his
people. Neither can floods drown it. Just impossible. And then future. We divide time
into past, present, and future. He will always love his redeemed.
Throughout the endless ages of eternity. You remember the passage
in Romans chapter eight where the apostle goes through all
of these things And then he ends up saying nothing can separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature. I think the apostle, he just
run out of things, didn't he? And nor any other thing, nothing,
nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So Jesus is the friend of sinners
that loveth at all times. Now notice another proverb, if
you will, chapter 18 and verse 24. Jesus is the friend of sinners
that sticketh closer than a brother. Proverbs chapter 18 and verse
24. A man that hath friends must
show himself friendly And there is a friend, thank God, there
is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. That's him, that's
Christ. That's the friend of sinners.
He sticketh closer than a brother. You know, I was thinking about
that. In human relationships, that between two brothers is
a very close relationship. Very close relationship. They
both have the same parents, at least they have one parent the
same. But brothers usually have the
same parents, they're part of the same household. And many
brothers are very, very close. And that's beautiful, that's
wonderful when brothers are close like that. But that relationship,
as close as it is, There's one human relationship that's closer. Only one. Only one that's closer
than two brothers. And that is man and wife. Man and wife. Because when God
created Eve and brought her to Adam, That was the first marriage,
wasn't it? The first marriage when God created
Eve, showing his goodness, brought her to Adam. Let's read about
that, Genesis 2. Here's a relationship that's
much, much closer than two brothers. In Genesis chapter 2, Verse 22, the scripture says,
and the rib, well, let's begin in verse 21. And the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God
had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones. This is a picture,
this is a type, isn't it, of the Lord Jesus Christ and his
people. We were taken out of his side. Remember when that Roman soldier
brought that spear and plunged it into the side of the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ and what flowed out? Blood and water. We were taken out of his side. It's a picture, I know that.
And the same thing is true here. when the Lord said, therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave
unto his wife. Now notice, and they shall be
one flesh. Now you can't get any closer
than that, right? He's a friend that sticketh closer
than a brother because we know the scriptures reveal unto us
that we are in union with him. It's a eternal union. I understand that. When we were
chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and it's pictured
in several examples, several human examples, it's pictured
by the body, isn't it? He's the head. We are members
of his body. He's the vine. We are branches
of the vine. There's union. He's the husband. and we are his bride, his wife.
He's the friend of sinners that sticketh closer than a brother. I was thinking about this union,
these several unions that are mentioned in the word of God. What about the one in Romans
where the apostle speaks about being grafted, grafted? Have you ever seen something
grafted? I have. I've never tried to graft
anything, but I've seen other men who've grafted. And they
took something that produced good fruit, usually, and just
a small piece, the ones I saw, and then they cut this old stalk. It was a good stalk as far as
growing, but it didn't produce good fruit. And they put that
piece of that good fruit, that good tree, into that place they
had cut, and then they wrapped it around, and eventually it
became part of that tree. God uses that to show us our
union with Christ. There is a brother that sticketh
closer, closer than a brother, and that brother is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then I have one other place,
if you turn to Proverbs 27. Jesus is the friend of sinners
that wounds. W-O-U-N-D-S, wounds. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend. Proverbs 27, verse six. Faithful
are the wounds of a friend. That's him. That's him, the sinner's
friend that wounds in faithfulness. What does that mean? Well, it
means that he corrects us, doesn't it? It means he admonishes us. And yes, it means that he chastens
us. Remember the scripture in Hebrews
12 tells us, for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth
every son that he receiveth. He chastens, he wounds. Faithful
are the wounds of a friend. That's Christ. These wounds are
what John Gill called friendly reproofs, which may be severe,
at least thought to be so. and may grieve and wound and
cause pain and uneasiness for the present, yet proceeding from
a spirit of love, faithfulness, and integrity, and designed for
the good of the person reproved, ought to be kindly received,
faithful, or the wounds of a friend. Aren't you thankful tonight that
you have a friend like Jesus? If you know him tonight as your
Lord and Savior, he's a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
He's a friend that loveth at all times. His love will never
change. He's a friend that, yes, he wounds. He corrects us. He corrects us
because he loves us. When we need correction, he does
that. We wouldn't thank much of a father
who never corrected his children when they needed to be corrected.
He's just allowing them to grow up and they'll pay for it eventually
in society. No, a father who loves his children
corrects his children. And the same is true of our friend. He's a friend, faithful are the
wounds of a friend. Well, I pray the Lord will bless
these thoughts to those of us here tonight.