The Sinner's Friend
Matthew ix, 19. A friend to sinners.
The sinner needs a friend, an all-gracious, all-sufficient friend. He needs such a friend, if it were only to comfort him under the trials of life, and carry him safe through them. He needs such a friend to counsel and guide him, because he is prone to evil, and is easily led astray. He needs some one to assist him, and help him on in the journey which has proved so fatal to thousands of his fellow-travellers. He needs help to enable him to overcome his habits of wickedness, to subdue his spiritual enemies, arid disappoint all those who are doing what they can to lead him to destruction. He needs a friend at home and abroad, in sickness and in health; and more than all, when he comes to pass through the dark valley of death, when he goes up to the judgment, to enter upon his unalterable eternity, O then he needs a friend who will stand by him to cheer him, and make his cause his own.
But is there on earth or in heaven any such friend as this? Yes, there is One — one such friend, and only one in the universe. I hear some of you say, Who is he? where is he to be found? I wish I had such a friend as this!
Well, I am to speak to you about him; to tell you who he is, and where and how he may be sought and found. And you may be assured that, however evil, sinful, guilty and wretched you may be, that if you come to him, he will in no wise cast you out. He never did refuse, and he never will refuse, any who come to him. You have often read in the Bible about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that great and gracious Being who “came to seek and save that which was lost.” He is “God manifest in the flesh;” the only Mediator between God and man, the great Immanuel, God with us. He it is who is “the friend of sinners,” creatures of yesterday and worms of the dust as they are. He stoops to their low condition; and such is his mercy toward them, that “angels desire to look into it,” and the more they think of it, the more they wonder. He has revealed himself as the friend of sinners in his word, and his uniform conduct shows that these professions and declarations of friendship may be confided in.
There are several different views which may be taken of this interesting thought.
I. In the first place, Jesus Christ is a friend whose personal character and excellence render his friendship of unspeakable value and importance.
We have friends among our fellow-men; and if they are great and good men, we highly value their friendship. If by any indiscretion, or neglect, or folly of our own, we have lost their friendship, we feel the loss. Yet, for the most part, earthly friends are not greatly to be relied on. There is too much sin and imperfection in men; too much error and weakness, too much pride and impatience, too much that is untender and unforgiving, too much of self, to justify us in counting largely on their friendship.
The angels in heaven, too, are the friends of fallen, sinning man. They are beings of great benevolence, great kindness, and loveliness of character. They have done much to save men: they are doing much more, and often “encamp around them” to defend them from harm; and they are ready to do all in their power. They are all “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation.” But they are finite beings, dependent on Almighty God, and in the scale and gradation of their existence, but a little above men. Neither the best, nor the wisest, nor the most powerful men on earth, nor the greatest and best of all the angels in heaven, are, or can be such friends to us, as the friend I am speaking of
There is no imperfection or blemish in the character of Christ, that should ever make his friendship suspected. There is no excellence anywhere to be compared with his. There is no such greatness and goodness to be anywhere found as dwell in him; no such intellectual and moral worth, so unstained, so unobscured, even by a passing cloud. He is all light, and in him there is no darkness at all. He is not more exalted, than he is condescending. Though “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” he “dwells with the humble and contrite.” Though all nations are as a drop of a bucket before him, and no created mind can search out his unfathomable glory, yet does he stoop to dwell with men of the meanest rank, to “choose the base things of the world,” to “suffer little children to come to him,” and himself to wash the feet of his followers. He is not more just than gracious, nor is he more gracious than just — “a just God and a Saviour, there is none like him.” More glorious is he than all created beings, yet “the servant of all,” and the lowest of all in humility. The infinite majesty with which he “rides on the heavens, and is terrible out of his holy places,” is equalled only by the meekness which, ‘Svhen reviled, reviles not again,” which forgives his enemies, and prays for his murderers. His infinite worthiness of all good is equalled only by his patience under all suffering; his supreme dominion and sovereignty only by his filial obedience and submission; his self-sufficiency by his self-denial; his native riches by his abject poverty; his renown as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” by his love and tenderness as “the Lamb that was slain.” Where the power of other friends is limited, his is almighty; where their knowledge, and wisdom, and judgment are questionable, and they are deceived, or mistaken, and perplexed; he is never in error, never deceived, never embarrassed, because his comprehensive mind knows all things.
Such a friend is Christ. And if other friends are valued in proportion to their excellence, their rank, their influence, and the strength and ardor of their attachment, how ought his friendship to be valued who is so infinitely above all creatures!
II. Jesus Christ, in the second place, is the friend of those who, icithout him, would be utterly friendless.
There is weight in the proverb, ‘* a friend in need is a friend indeed.” Who is more friendless than the man who is lost and ruined by sin, and has no interest in the favor of the adorable God? There is a solitude, a melancholy in his r.uin, which is like the condition of the mariner who has fallen overboard in a dark
38 THE SINNER’S FRIENdT
night, and when the storm is raging. No ear heard the fall; no eye sees him; the mingled tempest rushes furiously; the gallant ship is past hearing, and he feels alone amid the wide and dark ocean. “Help is far, and death is nigh.”
There are times when the sinner feels that he is lost. Somehow or other, he knows not how, he has lost his interest in the concerns of time. He has no relish for the world. Its riches and its pleasures seem to him but vanity, and the noise of its mirth fills him with melancholy and distress. The cheerful sunlight is overshadowed, and the clouds are dark and gloomy. His honors wither:
“The blue heaven wither’d; and the moon and sun, And all the stars, and the green earth, and morn
And evening wither’d.
Withered to him is all the universe.”
He is “without God, and without hope in the world.” Conscience, that ought to be his friend, has become his enemy; it is troubled in view of his outward §ins, and the inward plague of his own heart. All his wonted excuses for sin have mouldered away and are forgotten; what once, in his own view, palliated them, now aggravates them all. Forgotten sins are called to remembrance; secret sins are set before him; open sins rush upon his thoughts in all their odiousness; and present sin, unrepented of, binds him in its inexorable bondage. He feels like “an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger to the covenant of promise.” He feels alone in the world, and he is afraid to be alone. He is afraid of God, because he is afraid that God is his enemy.
In such a condition, the Son of God, the Saviour of lost sinners, addresses him with the voice of a friend. He calls him. He says to him, “Hearken unto me, ye that are stout-hearted and far from righteousness; behold I bring near my righteousness, and my salvation shall not tarry!” He says to him, “Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” He stoops to his sins, to his cares, to his fears, to his solitude and helplessness. Never sought as he ought to be, often abused, despised, rejected, trampled on, yet this Saviour becomes his friend.
It is a wondrous truth which was just now uttered, that the very sin of this lost and disconsolate sinner interest this compassionate Saviour. The sins of men are the cause of all their woes and helplessness; and these woes touch his heart. The greatest sinners have the greatest need; and where there is the greatest need, and that need is most deeply felt, there he is wont to show his kindness and friendship. He ‘’ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance;” it was to make good the declaration, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help!”
III. In the third place, Jesus Christ is the most efficient friend.
Others may love us, but their love may be unavailing. Others may wish us well, and desire to make us holy and happy; yet can they do us very little good. Other friendships may be inconstant and weak; they may hesitate and falter, and become remiss and forgetful, because they are not willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to our well-being. But where other friends fail us, his friendship is available to our every want. He is as willing to befriend us, as he is able.
No matter how great the sacrifices that our condition calls for; where they are the greatest, there his friendship is the most prompt, the most active and self-denying.
Do you ask for proof of this? Go to his word and read it there. Go also and read it at his cross. He was a sufferer there; never was there any sorrow like unto his sorrow: never was there such a sufferer in the universe. But why did he suffer? He had done nothing to deserve it; for he was holy and harmless, and not even the holy God could accuse him of sin. No; they were your sins and your sorrows that he bore, the just in the room and stead of the unjust. When men as sinners were obnoxious to the sword of justice, and ignominy and woe were coming upon them like a flood, he put himself in their place, bore the suffering and despised the shame. When the bitter cup was mingled for them, he took it from their hands, and himself drank it to the dregs. When wrath was coming upon them to the uttermost, and the Avenger would take no denial, no alleviation, no delay, he gave his own life the ransom. Where is there such another friend as this? “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends; but God commendeth his love toward us, in that when we were enemies, Christ died for us.”
It is this that makes the friendship of Christ so effective. The sinner that humbly looks to Christ, and receives him as his Saviour and surety, will find to his joy that the blood of this great sacrifice has paid the full demands of avenging justice, and that justice asks no more than what a trusting faith thus offers. This single act of friendship is also the pledge and earnest of every other expression of it that the sinner needs. There is nothing his friendship will not lead him to do for sinners, after he has thus given himself for them.
IV. In the fourth place, Jesus Christ is the most unwearied, faithful, and unchanging friend.
Once secured, his friendship lasts. “Nothing shall separate us from his love.” It bears long and loves still. It bears with ingratitude, with perverseness, with jealousy and suspicion, and still it loves. Men are slow to believe it, slow to learn it, slow to repay, and quick to forget it; but still it is the same. Its current is too deep and strong to be checked or diverted from its course; and though obstacle upon obstacle is thrown in its way, it still flows deep and strong.
It is rather a contrast to all earthly friendships, than a comparison with them, that is presented by the friendship of Christ to sinners. Earthly friends are fickle and changing; he is “the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever.” “Whom he loves, he loves to the end.” The changes of this world do not affect his friendship. Earthly friends are forgetful; the best of men, and the most watchful and tender, are sometimes forgetful and thoughtless. “They may forget,” says he, “yet will I not forget.” They may become languid and weary; they may be hasty and rash, provoked and angry; but his never slumbers nor sleeps; he is ‘’ slow to anger and of great kindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin.” Even a parent’s friendship, a mother’s love, may be exhausted; years of disappointed hope may chill it and depress it into apathy. But such is not the friendship of Christ. His is that tried friendship that is far above the instability of those passions which put the soul alternately into a ferment of jealousy and apprehension, and sink it into despondency, and distract and toss it like so many restless waves. Glorious, soul-reviving truth! it never alters. Whether the sun cheers, or the clouds grow dark, it never alters. No change of condition alters it, nor is it altered by passing years. It decays not with withering fame, or wasted fortunes, or decaying time.
“E’en down to old age my people shall prove My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love; And then when gray hairs shall their temples adorn, Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.”
I add,
V. In the fifth and last place, Jesus Christ is a friend who is entitled by his own merits to clairnfor his friends all that his love desires to bestow.
He has nothing to ask for himself, but everything to ask and claim for them. When he consented to become obedient unto death, the court of heaven engaged by solemn covenant to give him all he should desire on their behalf. “Ask of me, my Son, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” The reward he asks for, and claims, is the pardon of guilty men who trust in him; their acceptance and justification, their sanctification and their eternal glory. He claims it for services rendered by himself; it is but his rightful and stipulated recompense. This claim was completed when he expired on the cross, and acknowledged when he rose from the grave. All the good ever intended for sinful men is measured out and dispensed as a reward to Christ. Whatever the sinner needs is included in his promised inheritance.
And it is this which gives the friend of sinners such claims and such influence where the sinner most needs them. He has a friend at the court of heaven, whose merit is known and whose rights are acknowledged; and they are merit and rights that are sure to be honored. It is but for him to plead their cause, and it must prevail. If he does but point them out and say, “Deliver them,” they shall be delivered from going down to the pit. It is but for him to say, ‘’ Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me, where I am,” and they shall be with him, and behold his glory.
Earthly friends die. We weep because we shall see their face no more. Their affectionate heart no longer beats for us; it is cold. They have left us the rich legacy of their example and their prayers; and now their counsels of love sound in our ears only from the tomb. Sinners have a friend who never dies. “Fear not,” saith he, “I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive forever more!” He lives no more to die; and their life “is hid with him in God.”
Such is the sinner’s friend. The more you know of him, the more ought you to confide in him. If you have felt your need of him, and have actually placed all your hopes in him, you will find him faithful and true. It is not worthiness he seeks for in you; he is the friend of sinners; he came to “justify the ungodly;” the blessings of his friendship are of pure grace, and he gives them “without money and without price.”
He is the sailor’s friend. It was from the lakes of Judea that he called some of his first disciples. It is you he calls to-day. Do not doubt it. “Reach hither thy finger, and behold his hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into his side; be no more faithless, but believing.” Reason hesitates here, because here are heights to which her eagle wing never soars. Conscience hesitates and trembles, because here are depths so dark and fearful that one dare not penetrate them. But faith triumphs here, because “it is Christ that died,” and he is the sinner’s friend.
Ye who are the friends of Christ, take heed how you abuse and betray his love. Be watchful to act the part of friends toward your Divine Lord. Humbling to be thought of, it is in the house of his friends that he sometimes is the most deeply wounded. Be you never so treacherous as to cause him pain and dishonor. Henceforth, when that hand, or those feet, or those lips are tempted to evil, let the remembrance of his friendship wake you to jealousy, shut your lips, guide those feet, and stay that hand. And when that restless and rebel heart wanders, O let the thought of him arrest the prohibited purpose, and restrain and subdue the evil desire!
I shall close this discourse wath the thought with which I began it. You need a friend. No class of men need such a friend as Christ more than seamen. Earthly friends with you may be few in number; for once then gain his friendship, and prove his love who “sticketh closer than a brother.” He will stand by you when all other friends forsake you. He will not fail you amid those calamities that “put lover and friend far from you, and your acquaintance into darkness.” He will be with you in storm and in sunshine, and dwell with you even here, afar off upon the sea. He will be with you in trials; nor will you have to struggle in your conflicts alone. He hath said — -what is it that he hath said, and said, sailor boy, to thee? He hath said, “I will never leave thee, no j- forsake thee!” O, what a sweet promise is this! Make but him your friend, and he will stand by you to the last. His love will breathe peace over your pillow of death, and embalm with its fragrance the sepulchre where your dust shall rest in hope. And when these seas of time shall have been sailed over; when this low earth where you have sinned, and toiled, and suffered, and wept, and died, shall be left behind, and all its associations shall be forgotten; you shall join that company who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“One there is above all others,
Well deserves the name of friend;
His is love beyond a brother’s,
Costly, free, and knows no end.
“Which of all our friends, to save us,
Could, or would have shed his bloods
But this Saviour died to have us
Reconciled in him to God.
“when he lived on earth abased,
Friend of sbm-ers was his name;
Now, above all glory raised,
He rejoices in the same,
“Oh for grace our hearts to soften!
Teach us, Lord, at length to love;
We alas! forget too often,
What a friend we have above.”