When the cares of this life confront us many times our friends, family, and fraternal acquaintances let us down. They fail us in various ways leaving us depressed and sad. But we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother. We know one who will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus is the one who will never let us down. He is the one who will never fail us.

Proverbs 18:24

24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Jesus is the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He is the only one who will never fail us. He is the one who will never let us down in times of need. When all others have failed us, Jesus is our ever loving companion. Job's friends failed him, but the Lord never left him.

Job 16:1-5

1 Then Job answered and said,
2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

The comfort that Job's friends brought was not a comfort to Job at all. They were too busy telling Job that there was sin in his life because all of these things would not have happened to him if there wasn't sin in his life. There are many who would like to play judge when they do not know all of the facts. These friends of Job never saw Job sin, but they assumed that since there was a calamity in his life then he ``must'' have sinned. This is the same error that many Christians make. If they had witnessed a wrong doing or sin then they would have been able to judge righteously, but since they neither saw any sin, or even heard of any instance of sin they cast their judgment in error.

Matthew 7:1-5

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

There are many who do not see clearly to judge righteously, but judge the person rather than the sin. The Christian is not in the position to judge the person, but he is in the position to judge the sin. In other words, the Christian should be able to say that a specific deed is evil based on the scripture, but that same Christian is in no position to judge the person. How many of us lived lives deep in sin before the Lord saved us from our own wicked deeds. How many Christians judged us as never being able to be saved based on our own unrighteousness?

It was the Lord that was able to judge us righteously for he was able to judge our heart. He knew when, where, and how we would repent and become a Christian even when we were in the deepest pit of sin. When the Christian community had already condemned us to the lake of fire Jesus saw our redemption.

There are many who cannot see the difference between judging the sin and judging the person. Many confuse the two and consider them the same. But the Christian is to be able to look beyond the sin and see the sinner repenting of their sin. This is where many Christians fail. For they do not see the heart of the individual, but only the outward appearance. I will tell you that before I became a Christian I was one of the blackest sinners hating everything that was good and righteous. I was serving Satan with all of my heart and refused to even acknowledge Jesus Christ and his righteousness. The day came where I wanted to be with a specific girl even if it meant going to church. She was not able to ever see me repenting, thinking that I was too far gone. But the Lord used the situation to be able to bring me to a pl;lace where I was able to here and respond to the Gospel. Jesus was able to see through veil of sin and saw me for what could be. He was able to see me as a preacher when everyone saw me as a drunk. He was able to see beyond the present and was able to see my heart as it really is.

Jesus will never let you down or fail you, he will always be there when the the whole world lets you down. Jesus never fails for he sees you as you really are and his judgment is righteousness.

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Published by: Rev. LeRoy D. Cressy (215) 535-4037

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Copyright © 2002 LeRoy D. Cressy
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