Sermon: Are You a True Friend of Jesus Christ?
#1686
Martin G. Collins
Given 24-Dec-22; 64 minutes
description: In every platitude and truism about friendship that we have read, all point to loyalty and faithfulness as the most desired attributes. No one excels God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ in the display of loyalty and faithfulness. Consequently, because the loyalty and faithfulness of the Builder of the House (God's Church) exceeds that of Moses the servant of the house, He is indeed the epitome of faithfulness and loyalty, qualified to be our High Priest, interceding, and making propitiation for God's called-out ones before God the Father. Jesus Christ has exceeded the perimeters of human faithfulness and loyalty (exemplified by Abraham, Jacob, Ruth, and David), He has also modeled the desired attributes of godly loyalty and faithfulness. God has always been faithful to His covenant, but those whom He has called have disappointed their Heavenly Father and Savior, hardening their hearts in unbelief, which automatically extinguishes loyalty and faithfulness. In John 15:13, Jesus tells His disciples (then and now) that greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for another. Jesus Christ's death is exceptional in that He: 1.) freely gave Himself up for all the sins of humanity, 2.) He knew beforehand that He would die (He died for us before we were His friends, while we were still sinners), enduring the horrible experience of separation from God in our stead and the people who have received a reprobate mind for rejecting God and His holy and spiritual law. But to us, His chosen saints, God has mandated loyalty and faithfulness between us and Him, between spouses and family members, and our spiritual siblings, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves (Hebrews 10:25) enabling us as God's people to edify one another.
transcript:
Sometimes a statement is made about our human condition that succinctly expresses the reality of a relationship with others, often with a tongue in cheek approach. Let me give you a few quotes along this line.
American writer, publisher, and philosopher Elbert Hubbard is credited with these two truisms:
A friend is a person who knows all about you and still likes you.
He also wrote:
There are three kinds of friends: those who love you, those who are indifferent to you, and those people who want something that is yours.
Lawrence J. Peter is credited with writing:
You can always tell a real friend: When you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.
Ed Cunningham is credited with saying:
Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait to hear the answer.
And then, finally, Wendy Jean Smith says,
Never tell your friends "I told you so"—even when you did.
So we can see a lot of truisms in those comments from a world standpoint, but they in reality are quite accurate.
The word "friend" or "friendship" is quite endearing. It is partly due to our desire for a close friend or friends and partly to our remembrance of them. We look to our past and can almost mark the significant periods of our lives with friends we have had. We think of our friends who went to school with us and of the things we did with them. We sometimes think not only of our friends, but of the adventures we had—occasionally experiences that greatly influenced our lives. We value friendship and know we would be miserable or miserably disadvantaged if we had no friends.
Everyone desires friendship, but friendship requires loyalty. A loyal friend sticks by and proves reliable even in adverse circumstances. He is also faithful and loyal in his dealings.
The New World Dictionary of American English defines a loyal person as "one who is faithful to those persons, ideals etcetera, that one is under obligation to defend, support, or be true to." It defines loyalty as "the quality, state, or instance of being loyal; faithfulness or faithful adherence to a person, government, cause, duty, etcetera."
Loyalty is an issue of faithfulness which makes it a relational term. While we can be faithful to an ideal, duty, or vow, we are loyal to a person. In a general sense, loyalty, faithfulness, and trustworthiness are used interchangeably. Loyalty is the trust and faithfulness people pledge to and expect from each other in a relationship between relatives, friends, brethren, master and subject, employer and employee, or nation and citizens. These relationships vary in their degrees of friendship.
We have the responsibility of loyal friendship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the essence of loyal friendship. Faithfulness and loyalty are virtues required in the performance of roles that do good and cover evil, and their effects on conduct are what God delights in.
The New Testament describes Jesus as faithful and He is called a merciful and faithful High Priest. He fulfills that role finally and ultimately in the service of God "to make expiation for the sins of the people," according to Hebrews 2:17. Now Jesus Christ is faithful in Moses' role. He surpasses and fulfills the faithfulness and loyalty of Moses in building and ruling the house of God, the household of God, the church of God.
Hebrews 3:1-6 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful [or you could say loyal] to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
The servant owns nothing, is heir to nothing, has no authority, and no right to control anything, and is himself wholly at the will of another. A son, however, is the heir of all, has a prospective right to all, and is looked up to by all with respect. But the idea here is not merely the Christ as a Son, it is that as a son, He is placed over the whole arrangements of the household and is one to whom all is entrusted as if it were His own.
We belong to the Family of God the Father and Jesus Christ. And Christ is the consummation of God's determined loyalty to His gracious covenant relationship with His people. He is loyal to the Father and the Father to Him. We have the wonderful opportunity to be part of this faithful and loyal Family. The training ground for it is here and now in our own households and in the household of God.
Hebrews 3:7-13 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.'" Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called, "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
The children of Israel continually tested God's faithfulness and loyalty. And God was always faithful to His covenant and He was loyal to those who were loyal to Him. But they suffered from the human trait that comes out of rebellion. That is, unbelief. Unbelief is faithlessness, which prevents loyalty.
There are two main categories of biblical descriptions of loyalty—human and godly. On a human level, loyalty is a prime virtue without which human relationships become undependable and the fabric of society loses its stability, which is what we are seeing today in our nation and around the world.
When Abimelech wished to reach an agreement with Abraham, he appealed to their mutual loyalty as the basis for their agreement. Abraham's servant, in the quest to find a wife for Isaac, made a similar appeal for loyal dealing with Rebecca's family. And then Jacob, in his request to Joseph that he be buried in Canaan rather than Egypt, also made an appeal for loyal dealing.
In all of these instances, loyalty is regarded as the ultimate court of appeal for people to act with integrity and personal dealings. Ruth is a shining example of loyalty, and her relationship with her mother-in-law combines friendship and family ties. Her loyalty is unforgettably expressed in,
Ruth 1:16-17 But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you [speaking to Naomi]; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me."
This is similar to the loyal attitude husbands and wives should have toward each other. And when Boaz first expressed his interest in Ruth, it was Ruth's reputation for loyalty that he mentioned.
Ruth 2:11 And Boaz answered and said to her, "It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before."
There is a spiritual picture here that parallels leaving our unconverted lifestyle behind to pursue God's way of life of obedience and service because of the loyal friendship we desire with Jesus Christ.
If you will, please turn to Psalm 18, verse 20. Overshadowing human loyalty are biblical references that link loyalty to God's covenant relationship with His people. It is the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love Him and keep His commandments. For example, it is seen in the Lord's friendship and loyalty to David when God delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, which inspired David to write Psalm 18.
Psalm 18:20-26 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands in His sight. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd.
That is an interesting verse there, we will have to get to that.
Psalm 18:25 tells us that the response that God desires is people who respond by being merciful (as translated in the KJV and NKJV). Now, the RSV translates this verse as, "With the loyal you [God] show yourself loyal."
The principle stated here holds true for mercy, faithfulness, and loyalty. David explained the reason for his deliverance is by God. He said that the Lord dealt with him and rewarded him according to his righteousness, according to the cleanness of his hands. It was because he had kept the ways of the Lord and had not done evil by turning from his God. He was repentant, genuinely remorseful, and changed his ways.
Now, the general principle is that God justly deals with every person as that person deals with Him. In a sense, God lets people choose the pattern after which they will be dealt with. If a person keeps faith with God, he will find that God keeps faith with him. If a person's conduct is blameless, he will never find anything that he can blame God for. The same holds true regarding a pure person or as we might say, a sincere person. God meets him with an approach that is in turn entirely pure.
Nevertheless, God will not keep faith with a person who blames Him for not being faithful or not intervening on their behalf. We have to be very careful when we pray to God, that if He delays the answer, that we do not blame Him for our condition. I have heard people do that. People in the church, they will be blaming the air, but in reality, when you consider what they are actually saying, they are blaming God for their condition.
The general principle also applies to the opposite characteristics.
Translators have had difficulty rendering the second half of Psalm 18, verse 26. It says "to the devious [or the crooked] You show Yourself shrewd." and it may be that David himself had difficulty writing it. It is easy enough to say that when a person exhibits good characteristics toward God, God reciprocates with good characteristics to him. But if a person shows a bad or evil characteristic, can God really show a bad characteristic back? Of course not! God cannot do evil.
So, David expresses the second half of the parallel with a somewhat ambiguous word, the root meaning of which is twisted. Psalm 18:26 actually says, "To the twisted [or crooked] You will show Yourself twisted [or crooked]. But even that does not sound quite right, which is why the NIV translators used the word shrewd instead of the second, twisted.
The idea seems to be that if a person insists on doing devious ways or going devious ways in his dealings with God, God outwits him as that person deserves. This general principle does not cover situations like that of Job who was a righteous man or the man born blind of whom Jesus said in John 19:3, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."
The principle simply means that unless other special factors are involved, the righteous person will be blessed and protected by God, while the ungodly will be judged. This does not mean that the ungodly may not prosper for time either. Often they do. Tyrants sometimes rule for decades. Still, justice frequently does come.
The faithfulness of God can be defined in unwavering loyalty to a gracious covenant relationship with His people. This is revealed by the relation of the faithfulness to lovingkindness. In other words, love conforming to the covenant in Scripture. Faithfulness is frequently linked to lovingkindness and truth. Psalm 40:10 says, "I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly."
Loyalty to a gracious covenant relationship with God's people is pointed to by other words, to which faithfulness is sometimes joined or paralleled. It is joined to the words uprightness, just, and righteousness. It parallels the terms "Your wonders" and "upright." This interpretation of faithfulness is confirmed in Hosea 2 where God promises to betroth His faithful people forever in righteousness, justice, lovingkindness, mercy, and faithfulness.
Hosea 2:19-20 "I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord."
This close association of words itself points to God's unwavering loyalty to a gracious covenant. But the covenant reference is sealed when God continues three verses later.
Hosea 2:23 "Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, "You are my God!'"
In God's mercy, He will say, "You are My people whom I will faithfully own and bless." And they will say, "You are my God whom I will loyally serve and worship."
Now, Deuteronomy 7:9 affirms that God is faithful and carries out His covenant with lovingkindness.
Deuteronomy 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all peoples on the face of the earth."
Deuteronomy 7:9-10 "Therefore know that the Lord Your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him with to their face to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face."
Because God Himself is faithful, all His works are faithful and just. His works are done in faithfulness; His judgments have been appointed in faithfulness; and His paths are faithfulness.
The psalmist can even discern that afflictions are given in faithfulness. God gives people their rewards faithfully. His plans are faithful. God's faithfulness firmly establishes His loyalty to His people and faithful enthusiasm for His covenant with us. In Psalm 85 the psalmist praises God for His gracious favor in the past and then appeals to God to manifest His favor in the present distress. And finally, with the assurance of hope, recites his vision of a time when steadfast love and faithfulness will connect and when righteousness and peace will join.
Turn over, if you will please, to I Corinthians 1. The New Testament reaffirms this faithfulness of God, now powerfully and finally confirmed in Jesus Christ. Paul says that the faithful and the loyal God calls us into the fellowship of Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 1:4-11 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren [Paul speaking to the brethren there in Corinth and to us today], by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.
For some reason, God allows there to be contentions below the surface in all the churches of God. It has always been like that and it always will be until we are all changed into spirit beings. But I just do not understand why there is people who dwell on the negative constantly.
Because of loyalty, Paul was confident that God will sustain the elect of God, even in temptation and dissension.
I Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
The one God who made heaven and earth can be entrusted with our souls because He has the strength and the love to carry and care for each and every one of us. Because God is faithful and just, and because He is faithful to His gracious covenant relationship with His people, He wants us to be loyal to Him by doing good works, by obeying Him in other ways.
I Peter 4:17-19 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?" Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.
So God can be trusted, or confided in, in all His attributes and in all the relationships that He sustains as Creator, Redeemer, and Judge. In these and in all other respects, we can come before Him with confidence and put unwavering trust in Him. As Creator, particularly as One who has brought us and all creatures and things into being, we can be sure that He will be faithful to the design and plan that He has in view and from that design He will never depart until He has fully accomplished it. He does not abandon the purpose that He has formed and we can be assured that He will faithfully pursue it to the end. And He will do what it takes in our lives to get us there.
Please turn over to John 15. We are very familiar with Jesus Christ's ultimate statement about love and friendship.
John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
Jesus speaks of friendship in terms of our relationship with Him. He calls us friends. Genuine friendship requires loyalty from both parties. Proverbs 19:22 says, "What is desired in a man is loyalty." This refers to our relationships and we desire loyalty in a person. The word for loyalty in the RSV is translated as kindness, as well as in the New King James and King James versions, and unfailing love in the NIV.
Loyalty means enduring commitment to a person over a long time, often with the implication of the responsibility persisting in the face of obstacles that threaten the lasting commitment. We see this in the relationship of Jesus Christ with members of God's church.
John 15:12-17 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another."
When Jesus says, "You are My friends," it is evident that He is speaking to us on the human level in terms we can clearly understand and He is doing this so that we might contrast His friendship, which is excellent and perfect, to even the best of the other friendships we have known.
The best known biblical friendship between Jonathan, the son of King Saul, and David, the future king of Israel, is recorded in I Samuel 20. Jonathan was in line for the throne, but David was so evidently blessed by God that the people wanted him to replace King Saul. And yes, it was God's plan and it was going to be carried out despite what the people wanted. But here was cause for potential great antagonism between the apparent rights of the one and the supposed aspirations of the other. But there was no antagonism. Instead, there was a great friendship. It was a case where each sacrifice to put the other's interests ahead of his own.
Sometimes the love between one friend and another friend leads to the ultimate sacrifice—death. The ultimate sacrifice is the sacrifice of one's life. Because of such sacrifices, we understand what Jesus is saying when He declares in an apparent reference to His own self-sacrifice, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
On the other hand, it is not fair to talk about Jesus' sacrifice in merely human terms, because His death surpasses anything we can imagine. It may not happen often, but sometimes one human being will voluntarily die for another. Still, this gift never equals or even parallels Jesus' sacrifice. We see this when we reflect on Jesus' death.
First, when we begin to reflect on Jesus' death, we recognize that His death was exceptional, if only in a sense, because Jesus did not have to die. That is not true of us. We are mortal. We must die, but Jesus (before His incarnation) was immortal and therefore did not have to die. Truly, He was life itself. He said in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life." He could have come into this world, performed a full and varied ministry, and then returned to heaven without ever having experienced death.
Of course, if Christ had not died for us, our lives would be lost forever. So, in that sense, it was necessary. But I am saying that He had a choice. On the other hand, of us it is said in Hebrews 9:27 man is destined "to die once" and after that to face "the judgment." What does this mean in terms of self-sacrifice? Merely this: If you or I were to give our lives for someone else, while that would be undoubtedly be a great and heroic sacrifice, it would nevertheless, at best, be merely an anticipation of what must eventually come anyway. We would simply be dying a bit sooner than normal.
Christ did not have to die under any circumstances. But He freely gave Himself up as the only sacrifice great enough to cover all the sins of humanity.
Second, the death of Jesus Christ is exceptional in that He knew He would die. But this is not usually the case when a man or a woman gives his life for another. Few who die in this way do so knowing in advance that they will die. Instead, it is usually the case that, although the act is a risk and death is possible, they nevertheless think they may escape death while saving their friend. People take calculated risks and sometimes die but do not often die deliberately. Jesus by His testimony, deliberately went to the cross to die for our salvation, which makes His death exceptional.
There is another area in which the love of Jesus Christ for His friends shines brighter than any love we are capable of. The passage says that we are Christ's friends and He would give His life for His friends. But if we think of this closely and honestly we must recognize that we were not precisely His friends when Jesus gave His life for us. True, He calls us friends. It is also true that we become His friends because of His act, because of His electing grace toward us, manifesting itself in the atonement and in the ministry of His Spirit by which our natural rebellion against God is overcome and our hearts are drawn to love and serve the Father and the Son.
When He died for us or when in eternity past He determined to die for us, He did so while we were yet enemies or were foreseen to be enemies. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 5:8 it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us. Here especially we see the incredible love of Jesus Christ. So long as we think of ourselves as somewhat good in God's sight we do not see it, but when we see ourselves as God sees us, then the surpassing worth of the love of Christ becomes evident.
Paul's opening chapter to the Romans deals with people's sins, showing how all men and women have possessed a certain knowledge of God but have turned from that knowledge to worship a god of their own devising. Today we see in this nation a god of their devising is the medical profession. There are many other gods as well. But this one is one that is just overwhelming the globe. People make idols of their spouses, their children, their homes, and their jobs. Anything that has priority over obeying and serving God has become an idol.
Please turn with me to Romans 1. Paul says the knowledge of the existence and power of God is disclosed in nature and the consciences of all men and women. But people have rejected that knowledge and this has inevitable consequences. People have given up God. So Paul, in a sense, says that God has given us up and He has given us up to inevitable consequences. By us, I mean humanity. People have given up God, as I said.
Three times in this chapter of Romans 1, we read that God "gave them over." In every case, however, we are told what God gave them over to. This is important because it is not as if God were literally holding humanity in His hand and then let go with the result that humanity drifted off into nowhere. If I let go of an object, the object falls and I have not given it up to nothing. I have given it up to the laws of gravity which draws it downward in the same way God gives us over to the sad consequences of our rebellion.
First, God has given us over "to sexual impurity." Speaking of humanity, as in Romans 1:24, where it says, "Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves."
Second, God has given us over "to shameful lusts."
Romans 1:26-27 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use of what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
In part of that penalty is not only misery in general, but disease and a terrible influence on the rest of humanity. The good affections we have and that we rightly cherish become warped because they are severed from their source. Love becomes lust. A proper sense of responsibility becomes the driving pride of personal ambition. Self-sacrifice becomes selfishness, and so on.
Third, God says that He has given us over "to a debased mind" (and by us, again, I mean, humanity in general).
Romans 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undeserving, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful [sadly, verse 31 sometimes describes some people's attitudes, maybe the attitudes of the tares, I do not know]; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
That should make the hair raise on the back of our necks.
This means that we, as human beings, have developed a way of antagonistic thinking toward God so that we are constantly devising philosophies and actions that try to eliminate His presence from our lives.
These verses from Romans give God's assessment of humanity. He made us more than this. He made us in His own image. But humanity has rebelled against Him and defaced that image.
Please turn over a few chapters to Romans 5. Instead of God's glory, we have advanced man's depravity. Instead of His sovereignty, we as a people have sought human autonomy. Instead of holiness, we sin. Instead of love, we hate. Yet despite our depravity, Christ came to be our friend and prove His friendship by dying for us. Paul states,
Romans 5:6-8 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
There is one more reason why the love of Jesus Christ for His friends, seen in His death for us, is superior to all human loves. His was a spiritual death, whereas ours is only physical. If we were to give our life for someone else, the death would endure. The death we would endure, it would be only physical. We cannot die spiritually in the place of another person. But that is precisely what Jesus did.
By die physically, I mean that we can physically die. Of course, the spiritual side of whether we have God's Holy Spirit is another story. If we were to give our life for someone else, the death we would endure would be only physical.
Death is separation! Physical death is the separation of the physical life and the human mind from the fleshly body. Spiritual death is the separation of the Holy Spirit from God. In this sense, this is the separation that Jesus endured for us. He died physically also; that is true. His death was excruciating and degrading, but the horrible aspect of His death was His separation from the Father when He was made sin for us and bore sin's punishment.
This is the meaning of the cry wrung from His lips at that moment: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!" But this is what happened as Jesus experienced ultimate spiritual death so that we might never have to experience it. Love like that goes beyond our understanding.
Now, three chapters later, if you would, turn over to Romans 8. We find that loyalty points beyond human relationships to the relationship of God with His people. A relationship based on covenant and expressive of permanent love from which no saint can ever be separated here.
Romans 8:35-39 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 Your sake we are killed all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am 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 created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because of God's loyalty to us and our loyalty to Him, nothing can separate us from our intimate loving relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
True loyalty requires humility and outgoing concern for others. The result is that, as the church of God, nothing should be able to separate us as members of God's church from being loyal to God and to one another. And we often forget about the "one another." We are not talking about blind loyalty. We are talking about loyalty based on truth, not on speculation and assumptions.
Following Christ's example, we have the responsibility of loyal friendship within the church. (In one sense, what I have spoken of so far has been my introduction, but not really. But in a sense, it was the background that was needed.) God's people are to be faithful and loyal friends, dutifully responding to God. God's loyalty to His covenant demands a response of loyalty from His people. God is faithful, and therefore His people are required to respond with faithfulness to His commands.
Let us turn over to I Samuel 12. Samuel recounted God's faithfulness and then demanded that the people serve God faithfully with all their hearts. He told them to know, respect, and reverence God, to submit to Him as their Lord and Master, and to consider themselves His servants. Samuel admonished them to be always honest and sincere with their whole being and to be obedient and to act, not merely from a principle of duty, but also from a conscientious sense of obligation. Samuel told the Israelites to view their fathers' history and their own lives as a reminder of the power and the mercy and the goodness and truth that God had displayed on their behalf.
I Samuel 12:22-24 For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. [It is important for us to recognize and know this is speaking to us as well.] Moreover, as for me, far be it for me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.
Without an appreciation for what another person has done for us, there can be no dedication or loyalty toward that person. Without an appreciation for what another person is going through to reach the same goals that we have, there can be no dedication or loyalty toward that person. God's faithfulness in His dealings obligates us to be freely loyal to Him. The same holds true between husband and wife, and between brethren.
I have a series of questions to ask you that I ask you to contemplate deeply.
Are you a loyal friend to your spouse? Are you a loyal friend to all your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, whom you regularly meet with? Especially, do you long to be with them every Sabbath, every holy day, at the Feast of Tabernacles, and at church activities? It is understandable that there are valid reasons for not being able to do this. Some are so isolated, some may be sick at the time, it may be may be other problems that come up.
I am not talking about whether you are able to fulfill this at this point in the sermon, fulfill this personally in an active or open or physical way. I am asking you to think about your attitude toward these things and whether your attitude desires these things.
Do you long to be with the brethren every Sabbath, every holy day, at the Feast of Tabernacles, at church activities? That is my question. What is your attitude towards this? Psalm 133:1 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." This is not only the matter of coming together, it is a matter of being together in unity and that requires that we be spiritual friends, that we be friends as we want to be with Christ and as Christ is with us.
God's loyalty to us is a gracious act, but human loyalty to God is not a gracious act, but rather a beautiful response. The law of God is the way of faithfulness, therefore the commands of God are to be performed as a faithful and loyal response. God makes His claim upon the character and the actions of human beings and He claims a total response of faithfulness and loyalty. Faithfulness and loyalty bring the fulfillment of God's promises and provide a basis for appeal before God.
Psalm 26:3 records that David asked for vindication on the grounds that he had walked in the faithfulness of God's covenant. The relationship of faithfulness and loyalty to both the law and the fulfillment of God's promises is assumed by David when he exhorts Solomon to follow God's law lest national ruin follow and to be faithful to God so that his reign would be blessed.
It is in the context of this admonition that Solomon recognized its truth and God's blessing upon his father David, and that caused him to respond by asking for wisdom. Although God answered Solomon's request for wisdom, in time he showed himself to be a man who lacked loyalty to the One who gave him the great gift of wisdom and wealth. He followed the same pattern of response that the children of Israel have consistently followed—faithlessness and disloyalty to God. We do not know because it is not recorded, but we are hopeful that Solomon did turn around and repent. He sure did have some wonderful insight into man's nature and also what God is trying to change us into.
Please turn with me to II Timothy 2. Human beings by nature are unfaithful and disloyal. Ungodly men are always self-seeking. God's faithfulness starkly contrasts the unfaithfulness of sinful human beings. I speak in generalities, of course. There are human beings who do have a sense of loyalty and do have a dedication to one another, but I am speaking about humanity in general, as a whole, who rely totally on their human nature.
II Timothy 2:10-13 Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
Remember, with the loyal God is loyal and with the disloyal God is not loyal; neither is He disloyal. Nevertheless, whether we are faithful to His covenant and plan of salvation or not, God is still faithful to them. (That is, His covenant and His plan of salvation.)
Interestingly, faithfulness is most often linked with steadfast love and lovingkindness. When God is the subject, it is connected with other terms such as righteousness and uprightness and sincerity. When the human response to God is described biblically, faithfulness is not joined with steadfast love when man's loyalty to God is in view. But when man's loyalty to man is considered, faithfulness as a human virtue is typically joined with steadfast love or lovingkindness. For example, it is recorded in Joshua 2:14 that the spies tell Rahab they will deal with her kindly and faithfully. So they had promised their loyalty to her in that sense.
Please turn over to Hebrews 10. Since the priestly work of Christ has established the privilege of access to God, we must approach God faithfully, with conviction, and find ways to encourage others. In the first of three exhortations in Hebrews 10, verses 22-25, we are called to act faithfully upon our confidence to enter by the blood of Christ into God's presence.
Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
This first exhortation, "let us draw near," in this context is a cleansed and believing heart that is submissive to God. Jesus' atoning work purifies the inner person. Our bodies are washed with ritually pure water by baptism.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
The second exhortation, let us hold fast," demands a faithful, unwavering grip of the confession of our hope, which is the church's conviction to the teachings concerning Christ and His work; teachings that produce hope because Jesus is faithful in His promises. Confident hope in God's promises stems from God's trustworthy character.
Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
This third exhortation, "let us consider," demands serious consideration and concern for other Christians with the purpose of stirring them in their love and service. Christian perseverance is therefore also a community effort, church-wide. It is everyone's responsibility and it is our group responsibility.
Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Sadly, we still see people forsaking the assembling of themselves together with God's people, but again, I understand that there are extenuating circumstances and that it can be sickness or it can be distance. There can be any number of things. I ask you please just do not let it be an excuse not to be assembling with other brethren.
Mutual encouragement toward perseverance requires being together. We are together here on this conference call, and thankfully so, because we are able to and feel that we are together as we hear the roll call about many people all around the nation and into Canada and in other areas like Trinidad and Switzerland, South Africa and England, who are quite often on this conference call. So we really do appreciate having this, to be able to feel that we are together.
But we have to make sure, at least if we have any opportunity, that we try to spend time together. That is why I do not understand why ten years ago we had 300 people with the feast site here in the United States and now we are down to 150 when we have more people who are contacting us, more people contributing. However, as a core group, what happened to the rest of them? Granted, some died, sadly so. But where are the others? So when we are there, even this 150 together at the feast, we are friends and we are very concerned for one another and we are excited every year to see one another.
Please turn with me to I Thessalonians 5. This encouraging requires active urging with the goal of strengthening another's faith. We are pressed for time for this encouragement because life is so fleeting. The coming day of Christ's return and judgment will be here at a time when we least expect it. Of course, He will tell His saints ahead of time, but we know that we will be given probably at least three and a half years notice.
I Thessalonians 5:1-18 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night, for when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's state. Be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing [as we heard in the sermonette], and in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Our integrity is manifested in our loyal treatment of others in word and action. Our families and our brethren yearn for our loyalty. We all want friendships based on faithfulness. We all want to believe our friends will stand by us through thick and thin. Proverbs 18:24, "There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
Please turn with me to John 15 once again.
John 15:13-14 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."
John 15:17 "These things I command you, that you love one another."
The most important question arises from this: Is Jesus your friend? This emerges from John 15:13, in which Jesus speaks of His love and therefore His friendship for us. But in verse 14, we have what might be called the other side of that question. Are you Christ's friend? Jesus suggests this when He declares in verse 14, "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." This means we are to show our friendship to Him by simple obedience. Simple obedience must be active, continuous, and in everything.
First, we see that our obedience must be active, for Jesus said you are My friends if you do. Sadly, some Christians talk about the Christian life as though it consists mainly in refusing to do certain things. If we fall into that way of thinking, we imagine after we have refused to drink alcohol, refused to have extramarital sex, refused to cheat in business, and so on, that we have done a great deal. But we have not. We have obeyed negatively, but not positively.
Christ calls upon us to love one another, which cannot be done in practical ways, totally. We are also to pray. We are also to worship with other Christians. Our lives are to be marked by achieved obedience resulting in good deeds. It would make a tremendous difference in our lives as Christians if, as we read our Bibles and pray each day, we would pause as part of our prayers to ask what practical things God would have us do to be of service to Him, our families, and our brethren.
Second, our obedience should also be continuous. Jesus did not say, "If you do what I command and then quit." or, "If you do it when you feel like it." The verb is a present subjunctive meaning, "if you are doing." The idea is continuous action. Day after day, year after year, there is no vacation from being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For a final scripture, please turn to John 3.
Third, our obedience is to be in everything because He says, "If you do whatever I command you." It means coming to Him in love to do whatever He asks of us, not picking and choosing, not exalting those aspects of God's way of life we like and neglecting those we dislike. Instead it means coming with that obedient humility of mind and body that places us prostrate at His feet and asks from that position, "Lord, what will You have me to do?" It is only when we ask that question and mean it, that we find ourselves being lifted to do the great errands of our King. And not as a slave either, but rather as a friend of Jesus. Jesus' bride will first have been His friend.
John 3:27-29 John [the Baptizer] answered and said [speaking of Jesus], "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the groom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled."
John the Baptizer was first the friend of the bridegroom, and as one of Christ's 144,000 saints, he will be among the loyal friends who make up the Bride of Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
I have one question for you that I hope hangs in your head for a long time. Are you truly Christ's friend?
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