Welcome and to be seated. Our text this evening is verse 17 from this chapter, which has been read in your hearing. A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity. This coming as it does amongst the Proverbs of Solomon, can be taken as being prescriptive. It can be understood as an application of God's precepts for us. And it is in many ways a sum of the second table of the law that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is indeed true that this is what God requires. that we should be those friends who love at all times and those brothers who are born for adversity. It is a precept or has at least behind it an implied precept. All of that is true. And yet at the same time, this verse is also a description. And here in the book of Proverbs, we do find descriptions of the way that things are. We find a description of a wonderful and good provision of God. Why should it be that the Bible has anything to say about friendship? Why is there such a thing as friendship? This is good news, and it reflects the goodness of the Lord Himself. And God has provided something to us in the realm of nature that we, by His provision from the beginning, we saw that it was not good that the man should be alone. He provided for the man a helper and meat for him. And through the marriage union, He's provided children. And therefore, He's provided brothers, one to another. And that is indeed a marvel of God's goodness that we're not alone. that we don't live in a wilderness by ourselves, and that there is such a thing as the human family, and there is good and blessing in that. To take a step beyond that, what God has provided in the church of Jesus Christ is better than what He's provided in the realm of nature. And there is such a thing as friendship within the church. Praise God. We think of Jonathan and his covenant with David, and he loved David as his own soul. He advocated for David even to the point of arousing the murderous anger of his father Saul. He came to David in the wood and strengthened his hand in God. No way, shape, or form had any rivalry towards David, nor did he covet the throne that was promised to David. Or there's the friendship of Ruth towards her mother-in-law, Naomi. Where you lodge, I will lodge, and your people shall be my people, and your God will be my God, and where you die, there will I die, and there will I be buried. There's the friendship of Anesophorus towards Paul, who, in his last imprisonment, was not ashamed of his chain, but came and oftentimes refreshed him. Praise God. He is good. He does provide friendship by grace in the midst of his church, With all that being said, there's something that is still better, that is still more good news than anything I've described, and that is God's provision of Jesus Christ. He, above all, is the friend who loves at all times, and the brother who is born for adversity. I want to speak to you this evening about the constant and active love of Jesus Christ as our friend and brother, especially in distresses and adversities. This is a source of consolation to every believer in Christ, and it is a source of praise. We'll consider two simple things this evening, and the first will be what assurances do we have of this constant friendship of Jesus Christ. How can we know that there is a friend who indeed loves at all times, and a brother who is born for adversity? We know something by experience of friendship, But yet we do also experience that there are limits to all earthly friendships. We experience that there are times when our friends fail us, or even when our friends are simply unavailable for us, or they've been removed by death. So where can we know for sure that there's a friend who loves not just fairly constantly or at most times, but a friend who loveth at all times and a brother who is born for adversity? There are several things about the Lord Jesus Christ that can teach us and assure us that he is such a friend to all who trust in him. And the first is the strength of his Godhead. Because in friendship, we experience the weakness of flesh. We experience changeableness in all human friendships. We see, sadly, those occasions even when the highest form of human friendship, which is marriage, where even this friendship, at times sadly and always as a result of sin, it can be ruptured and broken. But not so with Christ. And first reason is because Christ is God, because there is a strength in His Godhead that nothing can ever change. or bring an end to. Our love is a changeable passion. We get excited about something and we love it because we see good in it, but then perhaps our affection cools over time or we discover the faults of a person and so our love towards them cools, but not so Christ because he is God. We love those who have some good for us, or perhaps our children, because they have some reflection of who we are. But Christ does not love because He needs anything. He loves out of the fullness and completeness of His Godhead. This friend was forever blessed without beginning in communion with His Father and with the Holy Spirit. that within the Godhead from all eternity, and He needs nothing from the creatures, but He loves because of who He is, because God is love. Therefore, Christ, who is God, is love, and He is pleased to move out towards His friends with love. And consider how there in Ephesians 3, where the apostle, before he speaks of that unsearchable love of Christ, he speaks about the dimensions of the divine fullness. He speaks about the breadth. He speaks about the length. And because Christ is God, there is a length in his love that is infinite. And that means that you can, the believer can never be so far away from Christ that in the length of His infinite Godhead that He cannot reach you. Your arm to reach Him may be short, but His arm is infinitely long. There is a depth in the divine fullness which we experience in the love of Jesus Christ. It is impossible for Christ's friends to sink too deep to where He cannot reach them, because in the fullness of His Godhead, underneath are the everlasting arms. There is a bottom, we saw, to the chariot of Christ, which is paved with love. The friends of Christ can never fall out of His chariot. If they fall, they fall upon love. Christ is God. and therefore it assures us that he is the friend who loves at all times. Add to this the experience of Christ's manhood assures us that he will be the friend that loveth at all times, and the brother who is born for adversity. He has experienced everything that could make you cry out for a friend. He has experienced trouble of soul before the cross. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? He was at a loss for what to say. He has experienced being a stranger and a sojourner upon the earth. in need literally of those to take him in from place to place into their homes, having nowhere to lay his head. He himself was betrayed by one who pretended to be his friend. He was forsaken by all the others. who were indeed His friends, but were changeable friends. He was left friendless. He was indeed left naked, alone, and exposed to the mockery of His enemies on the cross. All of this experience of His manhood He now remembers, and it makes Him tender and merciful as a friend. We can be assured that Christ is the friend who loves at all times because of the nearness of his union with us. In the Incarnation, He took our flesh and blood, and from that we conclude that He is not ashamed to be called our Brother. He is, in fact, literally the Brother who was born for adversity. He became our Brother by being born of the Virgin, and He was not born in order to be to have the red carpet rolled out for Him and to be given honors and so forth upon the earth, but He was born for our adversity. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. His incarnation was because He saw our distress, our hopeless condition. He is the one greater than Joseph. who little did his brethren know who rejected him and sold him, yet he was born for their adversity, born for the time when they would need him to save their lives and give them the bread of life. His incarnation is a step of union because He united our nature unto Himself. But there's more, because Christ is not united savingly to every person who's human, but He brings into marriage union with Himself, His dearly beloved and blood-bought people. And think of how the Scripture declares it. There in Ephesians 5, we are His flesh and His bones. And in the marriage union between Christ and His people, this is a near union and a permanent union. It is an intimate union in which Christ takes on Himself all that is ours. Think about Boaz marrying Ruth, and when he did so, all of her debts and all of her liabilities became his. And through that marriage union between Christ and His people, all the troubles and adversities of His Beloved become His own to deal with. He took our debt upon Him and our guilt in His sufferings and in His death, but even so our troubles continue to be His concern and His Spirit indwells us. We might say that in some cases, there's an earthly friendship that becomes so near and so dear that it's as if there were two souls, or one soul and two bodies. How about with the case of our Lord Jesus Christ? His friends are literally indwelt by His Holy Spirit, searching us and knowing us. And then that Spirit moves us to pray, even when we do not know what to pray for as we are. The Spirit helps us with groanings that can't be uttered. He is a friend whose ear is always open to the cries that are produced in us by His own Spirit because of the nearness of the union of Christ with His people. Also this, The history of Christ with His disciples assures us that He will be the Friend that loveth at all times. Consider actually how His love rose and increased towards His friends, His disciples, as the time advanced and as He went further and further towards the cross. There was his love for Lazarus. And as we briefly touched on last week, we're told that Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary and Lazarus. And when he went to the tomb of Lazarus and he wept, they said, behold, how he loved him. So Jesus loved Lazarus. And did Jesus love Lazarus at all times? Jesus loved Lazarus even when he was dead and raised him up from the grave. Think about that. In friendship, we get fulfillment from receiving something back from our friend, from being able to tell them something, and they can understand and respond appropriately, or they can sympathize with us or help bear our burdens, or they're able at times to give us gifts, which encourage us and bring a little sunbeam of joy and so forth. But what could Lazarus give to Jesus when he was dead? And the fear was, he stinks. It's been four days. What could Lazarus give? But Christ was the true friend to Lazarus, who loved him at all times. What condition can you possibly be in that would be worse than being dead? What misery could you possibly have? What is it that you're afraid? This condition that I have will make me unpalatable. It will make me stink in the nostrils of Christ. He can't possibly love me when X, Y, Z. Well, whatever the condition is, it can't be worse than being dead. He is the friend that loves at all times. He loved Lazarus. He loved His disciples. I told you that His disciples fled and they forsook Him. And this was a great failing on their part. They couldn't watch with him one hour. He took especially Peter, James, and John. He took them with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked them to watch with him. It was the request that a friend would make. Pray with me. Help to share this burden with me. And we might think that our Lord Jesus Christ would have a right to blast His disciples and say, what miserable friends you've been to me. But what does He say about them? Luke 22, verse 28, just at that season when He's approaching His last sufferings, He's with Him in the upper room, He's instituting the Lord's Supper, and He knows, and in fact, He's about to tell Peter that He is going to betray Him. But what does He say right in the midst of this? Luke 22, and verse 28, Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. He is looking on His disciples and saying, you've been faithful friends to me. You have stuck with me. These miserable disciples who failed, that's the kind eye with which Christ looks upon them. And then He promises them a kingdom. If this is the friend that Christ is and was to His disciples, will He not be a faithful friend to you? And then it's as if His love keeps on growing and mounting up higher and higher. because then He goes to the cross, and then He rises from the dead, and then upon His resurrection, He begins to use a new word, brethren. Go and tell my brethren that I am risen from the dead, and I'm going before them into Galilee, and tell Peter too. Christ loved. His love for His disciples has only grown, actually, and it's the same now in heaven. And now He serves in heaven as the faithful and merciful High Priest of His people. And His friendship is a great encouragement unto prayer, because we have a tender, sympathetic High Priest experienced in all manner of suffering. Therefore we are to draw near with boldness to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. There's a need upon me. My circumstances are pressing in upon me, but Christ understands. Let me therefore go and cast my burden upon him, unbosom myself to him. We have assurances, great assurances, that Christ is the friend who loveth at all times and a brother who is born for adversity. Secondly, this evening, how are we to make use of this wonderful good news? Well, in several ways. The first, is this, that you are to trust this friend constantly. Now, perhaps you've never, you're here this evening, maybe you've never begun to trust Christ as the friend that loveth at all times and the brother who is born for adversity. But the way that God is speaking to us here in His Word shows us that by implication, He's inviting you to trust this friend who loves at all times, and this brother who is born for adversity. You're sure to face adversity in life. You're sure to get sick. You're sure to get weak. You're sure to die. You're sure to experience conflict. You're sure to experience trouble of conscience. If never before, then you'll experience it when you're on your deathbed and you realize that you have to depart into eternity and meet your maker and be judged. And you need a friend. You need one who can speak up for you, protect you, and carry you through adversities. And this is what Christ will be if you come unto Him. Look, on His side, He's beginning. He's showing what a faithful friend He will be. And does He put any limitation here in His Word? Does He say that Christ will be a friend who loves at all times, if at least you're not as bad as a certain set of people, or if at least You haven't been so unkind as to hold out against Christ's gospel offers for a long, long time. If you haven't done that, then He'll be this friend to you. None of that. It simply says, there's a friend who loves at all times, and He's willing to receive you. Come unto Him. So this, it's inviting those who've never come to Christ to come unto Him. And now it's also inviting those who have come unto this friend to continue trusting Him. And we need to stir up. Believers, our faith, and we need to exercise constancy in our faith. So there should be a constancy and unwaveringness in our trust in this friend that is suitable to his constancy in loving. As constant a lover as he is, and as faithful a brother, so we should lean upon him at all times. So this means, for instance, that we should always be casting our cares upon Him and making them known to Him in our prayers. And we do Him an honor, in fact, if we believe enough about His friendship to bring to Him everything that troubles us. We honor Him when we run to Him when there's no one else who can understand our trouble. We trust His friendship also when we listen to His counsel at all times, because this book of Proverbs speaks about the hearty counsel of a friend and that the kisses of an enemy are deceitful, but yet faithful are the wounds of a friend. We honor the friendship of Christ when we believe His word, even when it cuts against the grain, even when it rebukes us. Yet we are to see love in His rebukes and see the good intentions and loving intentions of His heart. We are to trust Him constantly. And let me give you some particular examples. Well, if we come into a situation of poverty, we are to believe that Christ is the friend that loveth at all times. When we don't have gifts that we can multiply that will attract other people, we are to believe that Christ has not cast us off when we come into a situation of sickness, of body, when we're laid aside, we can't perform the duties that we would love to. We are to believe the constancy of the friendship of Christ. We are to believe that He will come even and make our sickbed a place where we will gain and grow in spiritual riches. When we are in trouble of soul, We are to believe the constancy of Christ's friendship. We are to, if we would believe concerning an earthly friend, their disposition to hear of our troubles and to take them on board and to give us some answer of counsel and consolation. We are to take our troubles of soul to Christ. Perhaps others would laugh at us if we're troubled over something that may seem so small in their eyes, or they wonder, how can you not get over this? Why are you not strong enough to deal with this? Never is there such a reproach from Christ. He's the friend who loves at all times. We are to bring and cast our burdens upon him. When other friends fail us, when other friends are unavailable, It's nighttime, and there's no one else awake, and we're troubled. Go to this friend who loves at all times, and this brother who's born for adversity. We're in a hospital bed. No one is there with us, and we are to go to the friend who loves at all times. We are to go to this friend who loves at all times when we are tempted towards the friendship of the world, and it is a temptation that we'll face. The friendship of the world is enmity with God, There will come a temptation because the world will be ready to flatter us if we'll only fall in line with us. The world will be ready to give us company in a godless way of living, and it's a powerful pull. Friends are a pull. Children, mark that, that friends are a pull upon us. And how can we navigate through the season of youth, or any time of life for that matter, without being ensnared by friends that will ruin us? That is, by making fast friends with Jesus Christ, welcoming Him as our bosom friend. What will be the fruit of trusting and embracing this friend who loves at all times? Well, it will be praise to God in the first place. And it's a fitting evening for us to enlarge greatly upon the praises that are due unto our God for this friend, Jesus Christ. We've been at the Lord's Supper. We should have a posture of thanksgiving to God for his mercies in Christ. Communicant think with yourself about the friendship of Christ think perhaps of the different Seasons that you've been through how it's it's been you've been in a different state At one time and at another when you've been partaking of the Lord's Supper you have on your side You've given many provocations unto Christ to withdraw from you entirely But can you not say that Christ is the friend who has loved at all times? the brother who has been born for adversity, that He has known how to feed you, how to protect you, and how to guide you, that He's seen better than you have, what it is that you've needed. Has He not been a faithful friend to you? Then return praise unto God that it is so, even when you've not been mindful of Him, He has been so towards you. The first fruit is, then praise towards God. The second fruit, of taking Christ as our friend and trusting Him constantly would be that we would become a friend like this to others. And I began there this evening. This verse is rightly understood as being prescriptive, as telling us what we should be and do. And so here's good news, that in Christ there's such a friend And then, here's the application, that out of His fullness, receiving such things from Him, we should be this kind of friend to others. And we should be steady and rock-solid friends. We should be those who learn to pass by transgression. because he who repeats, just like it says in verse 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth the matter separateth very friends. First of all, and primarily towards our brethren in the church, we ought to be seeking to exercise that, covering over their transgressions. We ought to be thinking kindly upon their infirmities and covering them as well wherever we can. We ought to think about our own many transgressions and infirmities. We ought to be not only by covering transgressions and infirmities, but when our brethren and our friends are suffering. We ought to be friends towards them at that time and to move towards them when they are most in pain and may not know what to say or how to ask for help. We ought not to forget them because they're weak or don't have something to offer to us. And this will be like our savior. Well, may the Lord then Give us the blessing that Paul prayed for, to know the love of Christ that surpasseth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. All praise to his name, that there is such a constant friend. May we be taught to abide in him, and so to bear fruit.