You Are My Friend (LS45)

        'Last Sermon of Jesus'

John 15:12-14 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."

  Just as He had laid down His life for His friends (us), we also need to lay down our lives for our brethren. If we keep His commands, then we are His friends.

Isaiah 41:8 "But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham My friend."

   Abraham was also His friend.

What had Abraham done?

Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

   Similarly, all Christians are only pilgrims on this earth for their inheritance is the kingdom of God. Have we started our journey to inherit the kingdom of God by forsaking (getting out of) this world?

1Pet 2:9-11 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

Heb 11:9-10 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promises; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

   Although he was dwelling in the Promised Land, he did not build permanent homes, but dwell in tents, for he was looking forward to the New Jerusalem as his eternal inheritance. Similarly brethren, we are to lay treasures in heaven our eternal home and not on earth.

Heb 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.

   His faith and love for God were perfected for he even offered Isaac his only begotten son, to be killed as a sacrifice to Him.
Brethren, will you do it?

Heb 11:18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed shall be called," concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

    Abraham believed that after Isaac was killed, God would raise him from the dead, for Isaac was the promised one in his inheritance.
What great faith and obedience, Abraham had towards God! No wonder, Abraham was God’s friend.

Rom 4:19-21 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

  To become Jesus’ friends, we thank our Father God that He did not call us to kill our children, but to love one another as Jesus had loved us.

Brethren,  by this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  (1John 3:16-18)