Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Thursday, August 19,

Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.— Amen.

Memory Verse John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:12-14 Doctrine of Friends, Friendship

VII. Wrong friendships

1. We should not be friends with the world (Satan’s Cosmic System). James 4:4

James 4:4, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

2. Sometimes even believing friends will turn on you, especially in the Tribulation. Luke 12:16; Job 19:14; Psa 55:12-14

Luke 21:16, “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, 17and you will be hated by all because of My name.”

Job 19:14, “My relatives have failed, and my intimate friends have forgotten me.”

3. Intensive Divine discipline can result in the loss of friends. Psa 38:11; 88:18

4. Self righteous legalism falsely projects sinfulness in terms of friendship onto the Grace Oriented believer. Mat 11:19; Luke 7:34-35

Mat 11:19, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’…

…Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds (ERGON).”

Luke 7:35, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children (TEKNON).”

5. Wrong friends stab you in the back, gossip about you, slander or malign you. Prov 12:26; 16:28; 17:9

6. True friendships can be neutralized or destroyed by any of the following.

a. Mental attitude sins. Job 19:19-22

Job 19:22, “Why do you persecute me (mental attitude sins) as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?”

b. Verbal sins. Prov 16:28, 17:9

b. Verbal sins. Prov 16:28, 17:9 c. Overt sins. Rom 13:8-9

b. Verbal sins. Prov 16:28, 17:9 c. Overt sins. Rom 13:8-9 d. National disaster. Jer 20:4

7. We should not make friends with those prone to anger. Prov 22:24

8. Friends who are in it for the money are not true friends, Prov 19:6-7. Stingy people lack capacity for friendship. True friends show up even when you are broke.

9. Those who have common enemies become friends. Luke 23:12

Luke 23:12, “Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

VIII. The Biblical applications of other Greek words for “friend”.

1. In Mat 5:25, we are commanded to reconcile with those who take us to court.

Mat 5:25, “Make friends (EUNOEO) quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”

2. In Mat 20:13; 22:12; 26:50, the Greek word for friend is HETAIROS, used in regard to the unbeliever in relation to Jesus Christ.

HETAIROS means, “clansman, cousin, a companion, or friend.”

a. Of those who reject Jesus Christ and their fate at the Great White Throne Judgment. Mat 22:12-14

b. Of traitors such as Judas Iscariot. Mat 26:50

c. To describe the sovereignty of God, in relation to saving both Jews and Gentiles and regarding rewards at the BEMA seat of Jesus Christ, Mat 20:8-16.

3. In Luke 5:20 we have a wrong translation in the NASB. “Seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend (man), your sins are forgiven you’.”

Grace Fellowship Church Thursday, August 19, 2010 Tape # Friendship with God, Part 4 Upper Room Discourse, Part 404 John 15:13-14; James 4:4; Psa 38:11;55:12-14; 88:18; Prov 16:28: 19:6-7 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2010