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hymns. We sing, “T h ere’s no t a friend like th e lowly Jesu s.” I t’s all tru e, but th e Bible never says it. “The best friend to have is Je su s;” we never read th is in our Bibles. The Bible tak es it for granted. God has never been any th ing else in His a ttitu d e and relations to man, b u t a friend. When Adam sinned, God couldn’t leave him to live and w ander alone, b u t sought him out as He cried: “Adam, where a rt th o u ? ” God could do w ithou t th e gu ard ian of his th rone (S atan ) when he sinned th rough pride. He never gave him a chance, b u t dug hell and damned him, b u t when man, His friend, sinned, He le ft the glory and came down and sought and found Him. The whole Old T estam ent is the record of God’s desire to be friends w ith man. He gave His only Son to cruel death to make it pos sible for man to be His frfend. He is everywhere beseeching man to be recon ciled or friends With Him. Oh, no, He never had to say: “He is th e best friend .” His enem ies were compelled to confess it. “He is th e friend of' sin n ers,” they snarled a t Him. Thank God it is true. The significance of these words is th is: “Ye are my friends,” no t “I am your friend.” Oh no, “Ye are my friends.” Is it tru e ? Are we? Can He look into your face and say: “Ye are my friend s” ? How many th e re are who gladly appreciate th e fact of H is ' friendship and appropriate it, too, bu t how few comparatively, reciprocate it fully and ardently. I can imagine some one saying: “Well, I ’m no t sure w hether I’m the friend of th e Lord Jesus or not, I hope, I tru st, I believe I am, b u t I ’m not quite su re.” You wouldn’t say you hope or tru s t or believe you are m arried or your m o ther’s child, if you were asked about it. No, you would say, “ I am ” or “ I am not.” Well, we are eith er His friends or we are not. If we really are His friends, we don’t need to say we
hope we are, for He makes us sure we are. How may we know we are tru ly His friends and no t sham s? There are th re e essential elements in all tru e friendship and if we have these, then we may be sure we are in tru th and in deed His friends. Let us consider them . F riend sh ip F ounded on T ru th . F irst, th e re is th e elem ent of tru th . T ru th is largely lacking in its pu rity in o rd in ary hum an friendship. We try to deceive ourselves and each other. We are always try ing to hide ourselves and make ourselves out to be w hat we really are not. How many friends, would we have or how long would th e friends we have rem ain our friends if we le t them know w h at we th o u g h t about them or how we felt tow ards them ? Oh, th e re is a lot of pretence, sham , make believe, in th e most of friendship. I am su re we are glad our m other or wife or best friend doesn’t know us as we know our selves or God knows us. The amazing tru th to me is th a t Jesu s Christ, know ing us b etter th a n we know ourselves, calls us His friends. I t’s wonderful. If we really are to be H is tru e, loyal friends, then th e re m ust be no make believe or sham, th e re m ust be pure un ad u lterated tru th . The Lord Jesus would never secure our friendship at th e sacrifice of His integrity. Never! This tru th is m u tu al tru th , th a t is, it is th e tru th about both of us. The tru th about Himself, th e tru th ab 6 u t myself. Now, w hat is th e tru th ? Not fancies or fables or theories about Jesus. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. He was th e uncreated Christ. If He was created as we are, then Christ was an illegitim ate child and Mary H is m other was guilty of im morality, for Joseph was not her hus band or C h rist’s fath er. This is the position a lo t of our modern theories take. Of course they are too cultured and refined to sta te it ju s t in these
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