Friends with God

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much, And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, it’s your friend, Dr. Cook, and I’m so glad to be back with you to share from the Word of God. What we try to do on these broadcasts is to put a handle on the Word of God so that you can get hold of it for yourself. God’s inerrant Word, the Bible, is forever true whether or not anyone reads it or believes it, but it becomes of value to you and speaks to your life when you apply it, and that’s my purpose in these broadcasts; to make it possible for all of us to apply God’s blessed Word to our own lives and thus to benefit thereby.I hope that will be true of you today, dear friend.

We’re in the book of Colossians Chapter 1 and we’re in the middle of a long sentence, characteristic of Paul, the Apostle. He said, “I’m praying… ” It starts in verse 9 actually, “We don’t cease to pray for you that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will, walk worthy of your Lord, be fruitful in every good work, increase in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might and power. The result will be patience, and long suffering, and joy, and thanksgiving.” And then you have a phrase tacked on there, “Partakers of the… In giving thanks to the Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son,” another connective, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,” another connective, “who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. For by Him were all things created.” See, Paul is a master at long sentences.

So where we are now is in the middle of that long passage and we’re talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, “God’s dear Son,” Paul calls him. “The Kingdom of His dear Son.” We have redemption in Him. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” We talked about that, if you recall. Now he goes on in verse 15, he says, “This wonderful person, the Lord Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, made him real.” God in a package, in other words, that you and I can know and become acquainted with.”He hath declared Him.”

Everything you need to know about God the Father is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Savior said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, ‘Show us the Father.'” The image of the invisible God. Now you can see then how important it is for you to get acquainted with your Savior. Do you spend time with your blessed Lord? I know the theological approach in prayer is we pray to the Father in the name and the merits of the Son and through the enablement of the Holy Spirit. I know that, but I also know that people actually addressed the Savior in their prayers, as for example, Stephen when he was dying said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit so on.” So that I think we are perfectly within our Scriptural rights to say that it is important for you to get acquainted with the Lord Jesus in a very real and precious and wonderful way, so that you can know what He can show you about God the Father.

Now, He himself, taught this. If you wanna turn to the 15th of John, you find his teaching there, “He that loves me will keep my commandments and I will love him and come to him. My Father will love him, and we will make our abode with him.” Do you remember that passage? “He that loveth me not, keepeth not my saying,” says John 14:24. “And the word which he hear is not mine but the Father’s, which sent me.” “Man love me, he will keep… ” Love me, see love to Christ is involved, “He will keep,” that means obey, “he will obey my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.”

The presence of the Lord Jesus is made real by the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit. But one of the things that is highly neglected it would seem to me, is that we are busy presenting our little laundry list of requests to the Lord; we’re praying to the Father, just as Jesus said we should. “When you pray, say ‘Our Father,'” and we come with our list of requests, but we don’t stay long enough in the presence of our Lord to get to know him. Oh, spend some time with your Savior today. Spend some time allowing the precious indwelling Holy Spirit of God to teach you something about the Lord Jesus Christ today.

Our Savior said, “When He, the Spirit of Truth is coming, he’ll show you all things and will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” The Spirit of God will tell you some things about the Lord Jesus, if you’ll let Him. Spend some time with your Savior, alright? He is the image of the invisible God. You wanna know God? Get to know the Savior. Then He says He’s the first born of every creature. The first born of every creature. Everything in other words that is, came from Him. “For by Him, “it says, “were all things created.” This is verse 16 of Colossians 1. “By him were all things created, things that are in Heaven and that are in Earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things and by Him all things consist,” or hold together.

And besides, He is the head of the body, the church. Now what does he mean when he says the first born? Well, he explains it then, in Verse 16. He’s ahead of everything because he made everything. You see. “All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made,” says John. “For by Him,” says Paul, “were all things created.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator. And so here you have the meaning of this first born of every creature that is to say He’s ahead of them and everything else depends on Him. So you have things in heaven, things in Earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things created by Him and for Him.

Do you stop to think at all about the fact that your Savior is the one who is responsible for the universe in which we now live? We think of him in terms of Bethlehem’s manger, and Calvary’s cross, the miracles, the teachings, the spotless, sinless life, the atoning death, the resurrection, and the coming again. This is all true, but stop and think for a moment of the fact that the air you breathe, the world in which you live, the environment which you enjoy or with which you cope as the case may be, all of these things are part of His creation. He is before all things.

And not only that, He holds them together, “By him all things consist or hold together.” The power of the atom is held in the mighty nail-pierced hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. All that keeps this universe and our world with it from exploding is the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Next time you bow to pray, let it be soon, will you worship him, this wonderful creator, sustainer, redeemer Lord Jesus, who not only is able to create and run the universe but who has you in mind. He says, “I know you, and I’ve loved you with an everlasting love.”

The greatness of salvation is not only that God saves me, but that he has me and you in mind in terms of a particular part of this vast, ineffable, indescribable, immeasurable universe. This great God is our Savior.

And then you go a step farther. He’s our friend. “I have not called you servants. I have called you friends. You’re my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.” This great creator, sustainer, redeemer, revealer God is my friend. That’s the normal relationship, beloved, that a Christian can sustain to his Lord. It’s a normal relationship to be friends with God. It’s just as Evelyn Christianson says in one of her books, looking up in the darkness just before she fell asleep and saying, “Hey God, I like you.”

Oh, to be friends with God. Not only I say to know that He created and that He sustains and that He redeemed and that He keeps and that He is coming again in power and glory, all of that. Not only all that, that’s all true, but to be able to say, “Jesus is a friend of mine.” There used to be an old song they sang in Sunday school, my father used to sing it as he sat in the old rocker after super. I’d feed him supper that I had prepared before he came home from work and then it was my job to wash the dishes and clean things up and he would sit down in the old rocking chair and sing. That was his recreation, and the way he conquered the blues, which he had many a time as he thought of the loss of his dear Daisy, my mother. And so there he’d be sitting and singing and like as not, he might tune up his little crack tenor voice and sing the song, “Friendship with Jesus, fellowship divine. Oh, what blessed sweet communion, Jesus is a friend of mine.”

Sometimes after he’d sang that once or twice, he’d look over at me as I stood by the sink washing the dishes, and he’d say, “Hallelujah, my boy.” I can still hear it. What is your relationship with the Savior? Are you friends with Him? You see the thing that blunts the edge of friendship is disloyalty. We can put up with the mistakes of our friends, but we cannot abide disloyalty and dishonesty, isn’t that true? If you’ve ever had a tiff with someone, and you’ve been heard to say, “I thought you were my friend.” What was the basis of this? You felt betrayed, wasn’t that it? You felt that you had become the victim of disloyalty.

Now friendship with the Lord Jesus Christ is spoiled and the edge of it is blunted. The keen enjoyment of it is dulled when you and I are disloyal to our Savior or disobedient to His commands. Would you sort of think about that and pray about it in your own heart and life to find out, dear friend, those things where you may very well have been compromising your friendship with Jesus in favor of some other fancy value or relationship that you thought important? Put Him first, today, will you and get to be friends with the one who is the image of the invisible God.

Dear Father today, help us to get to be friends with Jesus. I ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!