Jesus Christ
The Best Friend
"This my friend" [Song of Solomon 5:16]
A friend is one of the greatest blessings on earth. Don't tell me about money: love is better than money; sympathy is better than owning property. He is a poor man who has no friends. This world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. It is a dark place. It is a lonely place. It is a disappointing place. A friend is like the brightest ray of the sun on a Spring day. Friendship eliminates half of our troubles and doubles our joys. A real friend is scarce and rare. There are many who will eat, and drink, and laugh with us in the sunshine of prosperity. There are few who will stand by us in the days of darkness—few who will love us when we are sick, helpless, and poor—few, above all, who will care for our souls. Does any reader of this article want a real friend? I write this to recommend one to you this day. I know of One who "is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." [Proverbs 18:24] I know of One who is ready to be your friend for time and for eternity, if you will receive Him. The friend I want you to know is Jesus Christ. Happy is that family in which Christ has the foremost place! Happy is that person whose chief friend is Christ! 1. Do we want a "friend in need?" Such a friend is the Lord Jesus Christ Man is the neediest creature on God's earth, because he is a sinner.
There is no need so great as that of sinners: poverty, hunger, thirst, cold, sickness, are all nothing in comparison. Sinners need forgiveness, and they are utterly unable to provide it for themselves; they need deliverance from a guilty conscience and the fear of death, and they have no power of their own to obtain it. This is the need the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to relieve. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." [1 Timothy 1:15] We are all by nature poor dying creatures. From the king on his throne to the pauper in the slums, we are all sick of a mortal disease of soul. Whether we know it or not, whether we feel it or not, we are all dying daily. The plague of sin is in our blood. We cannot cure ourselves: we are getting worse every hour. All this the Lord Jesus undertook to remedy. He came into the world to "bring health and healing;'' He came to deliver us from "the second death;" He came to "destroy death and bring life and immortality to light through the gospel." [Jeremiah 33:6; Revelation 2:11; 2 Timothy 1:10] We are all by nature imprisoned debtors. We owed our God millions of dollars, and did not even have a penny to our name. We were wretched bankrupts, without the hope of freeing ourselves. We could never have freed ourselves from our load of liabilities, and were daily getting deeper in debt. The Lord Jesus saw all of this and undertook to help us. He engaged to "ransom and redeem us;" He came to "proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners;" "He came to redeem us from the curse of the law." [Hosea 13:14; Isaiah 61:1; Galatians 3:13] We were all by nature sinking and rejected. We could never have reached the harbour of everlasting life. We were sinking in the midst of the waves, lethargic, helpless, and powerless; tied and bound by the chain of our own sins, floundering under the burden of our own guilt, and likely to become the easy prey of the devil. The Lord Jesus saw all of this and undertook to help us. He came down from heaven to be our strong "warrior;" He came to "seek and to save what was lost;" and to "spare us from going down to the pit." [Psalm 89:19;