FRIENDSHIP

J.A.Petersen

Isaiah 41: 8-10; 2Samuel 16: 16-19; John 15: 12-14

Beloved brethren, the concern I have is - I think from the Lord - to speak about this relationship of friend. The believer is set in several relationships with God and with his brethren, with other Christians. Perhaps we can, with profit, think of this relationship of friends and how these passages speak of it, and how it is to be entered into and experienced by us. The writer in John's third epistle says "Greet the friends by name" (v 14): the last words of his epistle. He does not say, Greet the brethren, which he might have said, but "Greet the friends by name". If you had received such a letter from John, who would you extend greetings to? Friendship involves moral integrity with God and with one another, and it involves, I need not say, affection. The scripture says "There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Prov 18: 24), and that is the Lord Jesus; I hope that everyone here, young and old, knows that there is a Friend who sticketh closer than a brother. Maybe you have not thought of that, but from that point of view the friend is a nearer relationship than the brother, and that is a relationship which Jesus has taken up and is ready to take up with every one of us. He sticketh closer to us than a brother.

Have you put your trust in Jesus? You say, Yes, I was converted and came to know the Lord and He died for me. But that is not exactly the question; have you found Him as a Friend? He says in John's gospel: "Ye are my friends", but there are qualifications for that. "Ye are my friends if ye practise whatever I command you". In the great church crisis Peter failed, so Paul says "I said to Peter before all", Gal 2: 14. But there was One who stood by Paul in all his sufferings; he said "the Lord stood with me" (2 Tim 4: 17), and that is a great matter that you learn in your soul, that there is Someone who will stand by you; He will not stand by your sins, or support you in your sins, but He does stand by, and He does not leave us. We sometimes sing 'What a Friend we have in Jesus'; it is a wonderful thing to know the friendship of Christ. I think we need to explore this relationship, dear brethren, not only the relationship of brethren. Peter finally says "our beloved brother Paul" (2 Pet 3: 15), but the relationship of friends is a matter that comes forward in John's ministry; it involves love, which endures.

In our first passage God is speaking of the history of Israel and refers to Abraham, calling him My friend: "Thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend". Are you a friend to God? God said as to Abraham: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?", Gen 18: 17. It means that Abraham is a believer, a man of faith, and Hebrews 11: 8-19 enlarges on Abraham, not on Adam. Abraham is the great man of faith, the father of the faithful, and he was a man who took sides with God and who entered into the feelings of God and the thoughts of God. "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?". So we do not need to have things hidden from us. Abraham, speaking reverently, was in the know when Sodom and Gomorrah fell. There are thousands of people in Edmonton tonight, who when God's judgment comes, as it surely will come, will be in despair; there will be no notice to them. There was no notice to the men of Sodom. The only notice to the men of Sodom was that God came into that wicked city and took a righteous man out of it, and we have to come out of what is corrupt. Abraham knew the great things of God - His judgments, His righteousnesses, His purposes of love. What God gave to His friend was this: "in Isaac shall thy seed be called", Gen 21: 12. As you become a friend of God you begin to see His thoughts and He confides in you, and the subject of His thoughts is that in Christ shall all be blessed and in Christ shall all be glorified.

Now Abraham had to go through exercises as we do, he had to be helped in his prayers as we do. We do not want to come to the prayer meeting and pray against one another. He came, as we say, to the prayer meeting, and even went so far as to say to God: "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!", Gen 17: 18. That is how far we go, put our hands on the wrong thing, the wrong persons, and even pray to God that it might stand; nevertheless God did not forsake His friend Abraham and He helped him. God helps His friends. You may aspire to be one of His prophets or to be one of His preachers, you may aspire to other things which are right. We are to desire earnestly the greater gifts - there is nothing wrong with that - but think of what it is to be a friend of God, that He can confide in you, that you can be on friendly terms with God because of what Jesus has done! The Lord Jesus has settled every moral issue between you and God, and Abraham was one who laid hold of it by faith; it says that he believed God, and righteousness was imputed to him because he believed. Abraham began to think of things as God thinks of them, and so it was as to the judgment of Sodom. Dear young people, dear brethren, God's judgment is surely coming on Sodom and on Gomorrah, the wicked fruits of it are showing themselves everywhere; the friend of God knows that and he is seeking to secure his brother out of that condition. It does not say that Abraham ever went into Sodom to get Lot. What did he do to secure Lot out of it? He prayed to God, he interceded with God. We are to intercede with God about our brethren who are caught up in things; many have drifted away from fellowship and are worldly. Maybe there is some worldliness amongst us; we must not trifle with it. The Bible speaks of friendship in that area too; "friendship with the world is enmity with God", Jas 4: 4. But Abraham was a friend of God and he interceded for his brother. Let us not fail to intercede for our brethren in the prayer meeting. O dear sisters, you may be weary with your work in the day, in your families - I know what it is - but let us get to the prayer meeting and intercede with God for our brethren who have been lost, that God may recover them and our children that have gone away. Abraham wanted to save the city perhaps, as there were righteous there, but what was God concerned about? To save the persons. What was Abraham concerned about? To save the persons. He was in agreement with God, he was a friend of God. Figuratively God looks down from heaven, looking for His friends. Who is on His side? Who can He entrust with His thoughts? He has great thoughts. To Abraham He entrusted Isaac, and Isaac speaks of Jesus. God will have no other Man but Jesus before Him, and it took Abraham time, as it takes us time, to come to that. We put our hands on the wrong order of man in ourselves and in others, and God is all the time seeking to bring us to His thoughts. Finally the word comes into Abraham's house: "the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son - with Isaac", Gen 21: 10. Is that not fine? It is as when some sister stands up in a household and stands for God; she says, I want the work of God to stand in my house, not the works of the flesh. God is saying to us that He will send His word to us through Sarah, like Priscilla of whom we spoke this afternoon; she is like Sarah, she was able to bring in the word of God and do it gracefully, and that is what is desired at the present time. I know the brothers take part in the readings, but we want to hear the prophetic word from the sisters. They are standing for the truth of God in the households and they are seeking to establish what is for Christ.

The second scripture, in Samuel, is in a broken day, as we are at this time. David was driven from Jerusalem. Who was he driven away by? It was his own son. That is how things have come to us, brethren, very near to us. It has not been through the powers of government, they generally are not persecuting the saints at the present time. Where is the persecution? It is coming from very near to us, from our own families, from our own brethren. When the apostle speaks of his sufferings he includes "perils among false brethren", 1 Cor 11: 26. How he suffered from them! Mr Taylor said that assembly exercises caused him more suffering than any other area of suffering in his life, and I believe that is so. So in this chapter the king is driven away; and that is what it is at the present time, dear young people the Lord Jesus has been displaced publicly in Calgary and Edmonton and in every one of our cities. He has been displaced, the features of the man of sin are showing themselves; that is what Absalom represents and he seems to be getting the upper hand religiously, economically, politically, I want to say this for our encouragement, that the kind of man who overthrows the power of this world is a friend of Jesus. What I want to bring out in this passage is this, that friendship with Christ here is the secret service of a friend. We walk down the street, we wear the same clothing as everyone else; we go to our work, outwardly not much different in that sense, but the great thing is that in our hearts we are true and loyal to Christ. It is the secret service of a friend of Jesus.

In the court of this wicked man this friend stood up and turned aside the evil that was determined against David. That is a wonderful thing! The passage is obscure in a way, but Hushai was the king's friend. That is the title he had. You read earlier in this book and in Chronicles that Hushai was the king's friend. That was his name. He was a cabinet minister without portfolio (see 1 Chron 27: 33), not the war minister or defence minister or the finance minister; no, he was the king's friend, but he was in the cabinet. You may not have all the ability of someone else, but you may be a friend of Christ, and you are in the cabinet, and He is going to use you in this day of difficulty. How are we going to get through, brethren? Even in an assembly crisis will you be a friend of Christ? David could not send his army to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, the enemy had a very wise man there; but I will tell you this, David had a friend, and the Lord Jesus has His friends in Edmonton that will stand by Him and will confess His name, and preach the gospel, and will not be swayed by the principles of the man of sin which is rolling in on this world. The man of sin may be living now, he has not been manifested yet, but the spirit of antichrist is all around now, and how are you going to stand? That is why John in his epistles speaks of the friends, because they will stand against what is anti-Christian, and what is against God. That is what we are facing, beloved, we are facing what is against God. He is not wanted in the business world, the trade union, the schools, and not wanted anywhere in this world. Why? Because they said at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, We will not have this man to reign over us (see Luke 19: 14). They passed the verdict. John's ministry is dealing with the day when the man of sin is about to appear. Anti-Christian features are everywhere, but will you be a friend of Christ? And will you be a friend of the brethren? because that is involved too. Thus this man stands here in the presence of Absalom and you can study his words, very carefully chosen. He says: "as I have served in thy father's presence, so will I be in thy presence". But he was not going to serve in the way they thought. Beloved, we are serving Christ and His rights are first. His rights are first in the local assembly, His rights are first in my house, His rights are first in my heart; and Hushai is standing for that in the court of this man Absalom. And why was he there? Because David sent him there. Why are you in Edmonton? It is because the Lord sent you here. Why are you in Calgary? Because the Lord sent you there to be a testimony for Himself, to hold the ground in a day when publicly everything is in the hands of Satan, and to stand in the area of Satan's ministers and maintain the truth at the present time in friendship to Christ. Look what it says as he came to Absalom: "Hushai the Archite, David's friend". Did he cease to be his friend? When you go out to work in the morning do you cease to be a friend of Christ? You have to go into the world, you have to go to your business, you have to go to school. David said, I want you to go there. God has not taken us out of this world, we are left here. The Lord said in His prayer; "I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world", John 17: 15. We are here: why are we here? As friends of Christ. In our business, do I forget to speak about Christ all day? Do I forget to think about Him all day? Do I forget to pray to Him? When I go into a restaurant do I bow my head? Yes, I am a friend of Christ, I stand by Him and I confess Him. See the skill with which this man moves in the presence of Absalom. You say, He was deceiving Absalom. Yes. Beloved, the ways of God are a mystery and things are hidden from the eyes of men, and so are the saints, they are here in mystery. The apostle said to Timothy; "For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion", 2 Tim 1: 7. Notice it is wise discretion - that is Hushai; he is the friend of David and he is acting very wisely in the presence of Absalom; he is overthrowing that power and he is witnessing to what was right. It is all hidden from Absalom. So I would say, beloved, that there is much hidden from this world. When the Lord Jesus was here, men said to the Lord Jesus, His own brethren said to Him, "manifest thyself to the world", John 7: 4. We are not in the business of showing ourselves to the world. We need to watch our dress and deportment; we are not living on the world's side, we are living before God, we are living before the saints, and piety involves that I have to be righteous in all those matters.

So I just refer to this matter of friendship, that it is the secret service of a friend being true to Christ in the place that will not have Christ. The Lord Jesus has gone up on high. David is on the mount of Olives, his friend is down with Absalom and he is holding the ground for David with skill. Another thing: this man Ahithophel was a very wise man and Absalom had him, and sometimes we cannot just do certain things. So what do you do? You pray. What did David do about Ahithophel? It says he prayed (see 2 Sam 15: 31), and the word to Hushai was: "then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel" (v 34).

Dear brethren, in any crisis we need to be on our knees that the counsel of Ahithophel, wherever it is, and in whatever form it shows itself, may be defeated. Just pray about it. We cannot do much about it, but pray about it and God will bring down what is against Christ and against His assembly.

I close with the reference in John's gospel where the Lord says "I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy be full" (v 11). The Lord Jesus wants to have joy in you and me. Sometimes we give one another sorrow; I suppose we have all done that at one time or another. Peter said: "For the time past is sufficient for us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles" (1 Pet 4: 3), and he gives us a list of things. He says, The time past in your sinful history - that is enough. You may say, The iniquity of the Amorites is full as to my history, I have been bad enough, I am going to cease from sin. Make up your mind that God is going to help you to do that; "cease to do evil, learn to do well", Isa 1: 17. Then the Lord says; "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends". In this passage we learn that the Lord Jesus regards us as His friends. He lays down His life for His friends. He looks at the persons for whom He is laying down His life as His friends. He has the right to do that. He has the right to view us as His friends, and He says, I want this spirit among you. Tell me, dear brother and sister, are you ready in this locality to lay down your life for your friends? Are you ready to stand by the truth? the glad tidings? the truth of the assembly? these two precious ministries that have been given to us? This is what the Lord is saying. How attractive it is!

Then He says "Ye are my friends if ye practice whatever I command you". There is the qualification for friendship. I know some brethren here, I can say they are my friends, and I am their friend - in the truth. There is no friendship existing before God except what is in the truth, and the truth is in Jesus, and He is the link and the bond between the friends, the Holy Spirit the power of it. So John writes: "Greet the friends by name", 3 John 14. Oh beloved, these are great matters, and are we friendly with one another? Are we friendly with our neighbouring localities? I believe it is so here. We were reading at home the other day a very remarkable scripture in the book of Zechariah (chapter 8: 21): "the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to supplicate Jehovah, and to seek Jehovah of hosts"; and do you know what it says? "I will go also", that is the response. Is that not fine - to have friendly feelings with our neighbouring gatherings? We should have friendly feelings for one another in the truth. I think we should be encouraged to see that David had in his cabinet a minister who was his friend. Will you not come into David's cabinet today? Will you not be one of the friends of Jesus and stand for him in the day of his rejection in which we are? The devil will be overthrown along these lines, and that love is amongst us, beloved; "that ye have love amongst yourselves". You lay down your life for your friends. That is what we have to do in our localities, lay your life down for the brethren. It is here put as the friends, and if we do, beloved, there will be victory for God, victory for His people.

Well, may we enjoy these things, for His Name's sake.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

20 May 1983