ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP
TRANSLATION ALERT 32
Eternal Friendship | Neal Frisby’s Sermon CD#967b | 09/28/1983 PM
There is a song that says, “When we all get to heaven, what a day that would be!” For the ones that make it, it would be a day! First, we unite here in the fellowship of the power of the Lord. It would be powerful here, too. Then, we would have a day over there. Believe God for the forming and coming together of His body, the elect.
Tonight, it just came upon me to do it this way and I picked up some scriptures. So, I thought, “Lord, what would I title this?” Then, I thought about this—you can see it on the news—nations that were once friends are not friends anymore. People who were once friends are not friends anymore. You people in the audience have had friends, then, all of a sudden, they are not friends anymore. As I was thinking about this, just as sure as the Lord is eternal, this is what He said, “But our friendship is eternal.” Oh mine! That means, His friendship, when you are the elect of God, it is eternal friendship. Have you ever thought about that? He put His hand out for eternal friendship. None can do that for you. A thousand years is one day and one day is a thousand years with the Lord. It makes no difference; it’s always the same eternal time. His friendship is for eternity. There is no end to His friendship.
“The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved” (Psalm 99: 1). He sits, but He is acting and activating at the same time. He is in many dimensions as He sits in that one place. You see Him in one dimension; yet, He is in millions of dimensions, worlds, galaxies, systems, planets and stars, you name it. He sits right there and he is in all these places. Satan can’t do that. No one can do that. He sitteth; yet, He is activating and creating all new worlds and manner of things that the normal eye would never see. And yet, He sitteth. Can you say, praise the Lord? He is God; He sitteth there and He is everywhere. He is the Eternal Light. No one can approach that light. The bible says that no one can approach that light unless you are changed. The angels can’t get into that light. Then, He changes to where angels and men get to see Him. And He sitteth between these angels and seraphims. It is a tremendous atmosphere of holiness that surrounds Him. He sitteth between the cherubims. “The Lord is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people” (Psalm 99: 2).
And yet, He is down where we are, too. The One that I just talked about, the One that appeared to the Jews, the Messiah, the Eternal One that Isaiah described (Isaiah 6: 1 – 5; Isaiah 9: 6), the One that I am talking about tonight; He is your Eternal Friend. Yes, He has that much power, but faith in His word and faith in how great He is goes eternal with Him. It means a lot to the Lord to see people honestly praise Him from the heart, not the lips. It means so much to Him to see them really worship Him for who He really is and to be thankful that He created them. No matter how many trials and no matter how many tests, the bible showed that the great saints of the Lord and the prophets, even at the point of death, rejoiced in the Lord. No matter what we have to go through, when we worship Him in our hearts, act upon His word and have perfect trust and believe in Him, that’s an honor. He just loves and lives there. No matter how many worlds he has created and is creating, no matter how many galaxies, He takes notice of that (our worship). He is something to behold; He is your Eternal Friend.
Now, He was Abraham’s friend. He came down and talked to Him. Abraham prepared a meal for Him (Genesis 18: 1-8). Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced (John 8: 56). However, if you don’t understand all this, He is your savior, Lord and Savior, Amen. Now, there are certain laws in the bible and commandments, the reading of the word, what He wants us to do and they are kind of strict. But more than anything else, He doesn’t want to be a warlord over you. He doesn’t want to see people get to where He has to make them do anything. He wants to be, saith the Lord, “your Friend.” He created a friend. He was Adam and Eve’s Friend in the garden. He wasn’t a warlord over them. He wanted them to be obedient for their own good. In the bible, in all His rules, statutes, judgments and commandments, if you get right down and study them, they are for your own good in the final end; lest satan should get a hold of you, rip you apart and cut your life short and unhappy in sadness.
More than anything, when He created Adam and Eve, it was for divine friendship. And, He kept creating more and more people as friends, little bands of friends. Just imagine yourself being the creator, at the beginning, alone—“One sat.” He sat between the cherubims and he is everywhere. Yet, in all that, “One sat” all alone, in eternity before any of the creation that we know of today. The Lord had created the angels as friends and the beings that look like beasts in the book of Revelation—they are altogether lovely. He had created the seraphims, the patrollers and all kinds of angels with wings; they all have their duties. I can’t go through how many of these angels that He has, but he has them. He has created them as friends and He loves them. He has kept creating and he has millions of angels, far more than Lucifer can think about; angels everywhere doing all of His work. Those are His friends. We don’t know what he did before He came to man on this planet for 6,000 years. To say that God set up shop 6,000 years and began to create sounds strange to me when He has eons of time. Amen. Paul says there are worlds and he gives the impressions that God has been creating a long time. We don’t know what He did and why He did it except that he wanted friends.
And so, He said, “We would make friends. I will make man. I want something/somebody to worship me and somebody to have faith in me.” The angels could do Him no harm. They knew where they came from. Now, the angels that fell with Lucifer, He predetermined and knew what would happen, and those came and went with Lucifer. But the angels that are fixed, the angels that He has, will never fall. They do no harm against Him; they are with Him. But He wanted to create something that is kind of neutral to where it can think, and it is up to him (man) to come to Him. In His great plan, He had seen that it would take predestination to do exactly what He wanted to do. He created man simply to be His friend. He loved them so much when they were good and obeyed Him. “I don’t want to force them; Adam, he wanted to come here this morning, or Jacob or this one or that one.” He loved to see that they did it without being forced to do it. They did it because they loved God.
Then, He said, “To show them how much I love them, I will come down and become like one of them, and give them my own life.” Of course, He is eternal. So, He came and gave His life for what He thought was valuable or He would never have done it. He showed His divine love. He is a Friend that sticketh closer than anybody, a brother, or anybody else—a father, mother or sister. He is God. He wants friends. He doesn’t just want to order people around. Yes, He has authority like you have never seen before; but, you should take Him as your Friend and not be afraid. Have no fear. He is a great Comforter. He will always say, “Do not be afraid.” He wants to comfort you. “Peace be unto you.” He is always saying, “Fear not, only believe and don’t be afraid of me. I lay down strong laws. I have to.” He does all that. He wants you to obey Him and he wants you to love Him and believe in Him too.
He is our Eternal Friend and the only Eternal Friend we would ever have. No one can become like Him; not angels, nothing that He has created can become like Him. If you look at Him as your friend that goes beyond any earthly friend, I tell you, you will get a different aspect/perspective. He asked me to do this tonight and He told me that “our friendship, that is, the people that love me, it is eternal.” Glory to God, Alleluia! There, you will never have bad feelings. He will not do you in. He will never say anything to hurt you. He is your Friend. He will watch over you. He will guide you. He will give you great gifts. Glory, Alleluia! He has great gifts for His people, that should He reveal all of them to me, I doubt if you could even stagger out of here.
What gifts He has for the elect bride! But He couches it, it is hidden and you can’t find all of it in the bible because He didn’t put it all there. He wants you to get it by faith and not try to lure you with too much sparkle. How many of you can say, praise the Lord? Although, He put the holy city in there, didn’t He? How magnificent where He sits! But all the gifts, the rewards and what He has for us, I tell you, eternal is a long time. Anyone else would run out of gifts, but not Him. He has these gifts and rewards for His people that make it into eternity with Him. All well prepared before—the gifts he was going to give—before He created His friends. Oh yes, before anyone ever came here, He knew all about what he was going to do. So, His friends, those that come out here, what gifts he has for them! You’d be spellbound. You’d just be startled and shocked what he is going to do for His people, but He wants you to get it by faith. He wants you to worship Him as the Eternal Messiah and believe in Him with all your heart. Have faith in His word, believe what He said to you and He is going to give them to you.
How many of you can say, praise the Lord. I haven’t heard anyone preach a sermon like this before. That’s what He wants to tell you tonight. He is your Friend and He is great. “…but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits” (Daniel 11: 32). The greatest thing in life is to know God. You may know a president. You may know a great personality. You may know a movie star. You may know a rich man. You may know somebody that is educated. You may know angels. I don’t know how many things to tell you, but in this life, the best thing there is, is to know the Lord God. “Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 9: 24).
“And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” (Exodus 33: 13). How many of you believe that? He spoke to me before I went into the ministry in the same manner. He will always go before to set it up. Anything that I do, He goes before to set it up. In your life, according to what we have read in the bible, He goes before you whether you know it or not and He watches over you. Those that have faith and those that believe in Him will understand what He is trying to tell you tonight. If you approach Him in simplicity and you know that He is the Great Ruler and the Majestic Figure, the Powerful One and Potentate, but yet, He is your Friend; you will get a lot from the Lord. He loves friendship.
But you know when you turn your back and do not believe His word; when you turn away from what he is teaching and walk back into sin and leave the Lord—even in that, the bible says,. He is married to the backslider. He is married to you, you see, wooing you back. Then, you break your friendship, with Him because you walked away from Him. But he will never forsake you. Adam and Eve walked away from Him. But He said, “…I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13: 5). What kind of friend are you going to find like that? I tell you when the ship is sinking; they will jump out on you. When the fiery trial got hot, Paul said, “Demas has forsaken me….Only Luke is with me…” (2 Timothy 4: 10 & 11). We find out in the bible that men walked away from God, but He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” How many of you believe that tonight?
Paul had real spiritual friends, he thought. He had a long line of people that wanted to go with him. So, they had to choose who would go with him (missionary journeys). But as he stayed true to the word, his friends forsook him. He took the Lord as His friend; no matter what they did to him. One by one as he began to go deeper in his ministry; one by one, his friends dropped. Finally, he said, Demas has forsaken me and only Luke is with me. All those friends would almost do anything for him, but where were they now? When he got on that ship to go to Rome, the storm arose, He said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; your Friend is here. Glory to God! The secondary people dropped one by one, but the major disciples still loved Paul and they were with him. The power of God broke on that island. He healed their king. A snake tried to bite him; it wasn’t his friend, he threw it into the fire. But his Friend appeared on the boat. He talked to him; everything that He told him happened. A mass revival broke out on the island. Satan could not stop him. He got a new line of friends on the island. That was startling!
So, we find out in the bible, “My presence shall go with you and I will give thee rest.” He will go before you as He did Paul. “My presence shall go before each of you in this building right now.” He is your friend. The presence of the Lord will go before you in your daily work. He goes before me in the major moves in my life. He is the great God and He loves His people. How many of you are getting this message tonight? He watches over you more than you think. He wants to come to you in a different way tonight. This is the way He wanted me to bring it tonight. I would like to read a few more scriptures:
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him” (Psalm 28: 7).
“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5: 7).
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5: 18).
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10: 31).
“Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1: 9).
“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually” (1 Chronicles 16: 11).
The greatest thing in this life is to know the Lord. What a great Friend and a great God! When there is no hope, death is upon us and there is no one to turn to, He is your friend. Someone will say, this is a simple message, but it is a deep message. Most people that are sinners will say, “Oh, the Lord, He said He will destroy the people. You will go to hell. Oh, but look at the nations” All that is up to Him and what he is going to do. They look at that, but we walk by faith in what He has said in His word. But they wouldn’t know until they know Him what kind of a Friend He is. The very ones that are saying these things, He lets them walk around breathing the air that He created; letting their hearts pump. Glory to God! One time, we will have an eternal heart; it won’t have to pump. Oh, praise the Lord! What a dimension, what change! The power of God lasts forever, man’s power is through; but, the power of the Lord lasts forever.
Tonight, our Friend is going before us. When He was in the boat with the disciples–about 5 miles from land–immediately, the boat was on the other side; but, He already knew it would be there (John 6: 21). What manner of a man is this? He stopped the storm right in front of them and got in the boat. As far as He was concerned, He was already over there on the ground, and immediately, the boat was there too. He was already there, yet; He was standing with them. Man, that’s faith! Praise the Lord Jesus! He moves in symbolism. He loves His friends and He is always with us; not matter how busy He is in the galaxies. He is always with us. Come on, say hello to your Friend.
When I was praying, the Lord said, “Tell them you are the special friend I sent to them. Amen. I believe there is a song that says. “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”
Eternal Friendship | Neal Frisby’s Sermon CD#967b | 09/28/1983 PM