There's no way to change the
heart unless God takes away the heart of stone and gives the
heart flesh. And we ask Him to do that, but
lives have been just ripped apart. And I actually wrote an article
for the Bulletin this coming Sunday about sovereignty. and
responsibility, I do believe, absolutely believe God's sovereign
over all things. All the issues of life and death
belong to God. And I know for many people it
would be a big pill to swallow, but all of those youngsters who
perished and their teachers, They lived a full life just as
everybody else who's passed away in the world. God controls those things. And at the same time, the one
who brought about this horrible tragedy bears responsibility. It's a mystery we can't ever
fathom that men are responsible to God, women are responsible
to God for all that they do. And yet, in the end, it will
be found that God's will was always done. That's what we hold
on to. In times of grief, in times of
devastation when we can't comprehend all that's happened. We know
that our God still governs all things. And he's seated on his
right only throne of judgment and sovereignty, just as he was
when his son died on the cross. All things are of God. We pray for those whose lives
have been touched and actually affected our whole nation. It
affected us and you. I tell you, the only place you're
going to find any consolation is in our Lord, who does all
things well. and who is working all things
out for His glory and the good of His people. And we'll never
comprehend that. We can't comprehend the ways
of God. Who knoweth the ways of God is
what we read, Romans chapter 11. It's not for us to know His
ways or comprehend what God is doing. It's for us to believe
and find some rest in that. So we do. I begin reading here with Genesis
43, 26. Of course, Joseph's brothers
have been in Genesis 43, 26. His brothers have been welcomed
into Joseph's house. by Joseph's steward. And they were fearful when they
went in, realizing whose house it was. Joseph wasn't among them,
but he was very much aware of all that was going on. So I pick
up our reading now in chapter 43, verse 26. And when Joseph
came home, They brought him the present,
that is his brethren, brought him the present which was in
their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the
earth. And he asked them of their welfare
and said, Is your father well? The old man of whom you speak,
is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant
our father is in good health, He is yet alive. And they bowed
down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and
he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's brother, or his younger brother, excuse
me, of whom he's spake unto me, ye spake unto me, and he said,
God be gracious unto thee, my son, Joseph made a haste, for
his bowels did yearn for his brother. And he sought where
to weep, and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
And he washed his face, and went out, and he refrained himself,
and said, Set on bread. And they set on for him by himself,
and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did
eat with him by themselves. And this was because the Egyptians
might not eat bread. With the Hebrews, for that is
an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the
firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to
his youth. And the men marveled one at another. And he took and
sent messes unto them from before him. That is, he made sure they
all had plenty to eat. But Benjamin's mess, his food,
was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank and
were merry with him. And he commanded the steward
of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much
as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.
and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest
and his corn money. And he did according to the word
that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning was light,
the men were sent away, they in their asses. And when they
were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said
unto his steward, Up, follow after the men. And when thou
dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded
evil for good? Is not this it in which my Lord
drinketh, that is, that silver goblet or cup, and whereby he
divineth? The Egyptians thought that with
them that you could look into a silver cup and then be somewhat
of a soothsayer, kind of like a fortune teller. And this steward,
he just assumed wrongfully so because Joseph, what he spoke
and the things that he knew was by divine revelation. But he
just assumed this was the the cup that Joseph used for divination. So he says, You have done evil
in so doing. And he overtook them and spake
unto them these same words. And they said unto him, Wherefore
saith my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servants
should do according to this thing. Behold the money, which we found
in our sacks mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land
of Canaan. How then should we steal out
of thy Lord's house silver or gold?" And of course, what they're
saying was, we brought all the money back that we found in our
sacks after our first trip, when we went back to our father, and
we brought it all back to you. Why in the world would you think
we'd steal from you this time? Verse nine, with whomsoever of
thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will
be my Lord's bondmen. That was a rash statement. One that they would come to regret
saying. And he said, that is the steward,
He said, now also let it be according unto your words. He with whom
it is found shall be my servant. He's speaking as though he were
Joseph. And the rest of you, you will
be blameless. Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack.
And he searched, this steward did, he searched and began at
the eldest, he began with Reuben, worked his way all the way down
to the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. And then they rent their clothes
and laid it every man upon his ass and returned to the city.
And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was
yet there. And they fell before him on the
ground. And Joseph said unto them, What
deed is this that ye have done? Wont ye not that such a man as
I can certainly divine? Don't you think that I know what
you're doing? And Judah said, and Judah speaks
as the spokesman of all of the brothers. Judah said, what shall
we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. Behold, We are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said, God forbid that
I should do so. But in other words, all of you
are not going to be my servants. But the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for the rest
of you, get you up in peace. Go to your Father. And we'll
stop reading there with verse 17. And we'll get into this chapter
as soon as we see God's face in prayer. It is such a joy and
privilege to speak to our Father with full assurance that through
the merits of our Lord Jesus, our Mediator, that God receives
us, and He receives our worship, and He receives our prayers,
and He makes them presentable to God. He, as it were, washes them in
His sin-atoning blood, puts the fragrance of His own righteousness
upon them, and presents us and all that we seek to do for God
presents us to the Father. And as the Father is indeed well-pleased
with His Son, so He is well-pleased with all of those who are in
His Son. Let's pray. We thank You, Father,
for the wonderful honor we have to address You as our Father. After all, you have begotten
us again unto a lively hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have been born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And you have, Lord, been pleased
to make us to live unto thee. to make us spiritually very much
alive. And we come to you tonight, Father,
as your blood-bought and adopted children. And we say, thank you,
Lord, for the privilege of being in your family. the honor of having for our elder
brother, that one who is the very son of God, the one who
saved us, the one who sanctified us, the one who justified us,
the one who will glorify us, the one who redeemed us, and
who will someday redeem our bodies from the grave. We thank you,
Father, for the sweetness of the gospel. You've given us a
taste for the good news of Christ and Him crucified. The one who died and was buried
and rose again because by His death He justified us. And this
is the message we want to hear. This is the message that feeds
us. This is indeed the children's bread. And we never weary of
coming to the table, Lord, to feast on our Savior, who is the
breath of life, and to drink again of the wonderful, exhilarating
wine of the gospel of grace. We do ask, Father, for those
who, of our congregation especially, suffering in a bad way. We certainly remember Greg that
you would Lord ease his pain and that you would work things
out that he would be able to go to some hospital and that
a neurosurgeon would be able to correct this difficulty that
he has. Lord, you're the great physician.
Nothing is impossible with you. So we present his case to you,
knowing that you do what's best for your children. Lord, may
he have sweet thoughts of Christ, even as he languishes upon his
bed of affliction. For the other folks of our congregation,
for Sister Peggy, We ask for your encouragement for her and
yet others. Lord, we pray for them as well.
And as we indicated, Lord, for the families whose children were
snatched away from them, taken out into eternity. of the teachers
and all of the families and friends that are affected. Lord, we know
that the only real consolation has to come from the Word of
the Gospel. And I pray that it's Your will
that somebody in that area tell the truth about Christ Jesus
and read the Word of God that people may find some degree of
comfort in the only Savior of sinners, the Lord Jesus. Lord,
we're full of evil. That was certainly evident in
the very first killing in the Bible, when Cain killed Abel. There was no environment to ruin
him. There was no bad crowd for him
to hang around and be corrupted by. The corruption was in his
own heart. Lord, all of these problems ultimately,
ultimately, they come forth out of the heart of man. A heart
that's evil and wicked and depraved and all things. In fact, Lord,
you said that every imagination of the heart is only evil continually. Oh, God, restrain evil. Work in your children to love
our Lord more, to be thankful and grateful that you reign in
all situations. Lord, these things baffle us. So often, even your people, we
ask, why, Lord, why? Questions are asked that we can't
answer, and maybe even questions that we shouldn't be asking.
But we know that our God is sovereign. You are the authority. You have
dominion over all things. And though we and our pitiful
little understanding though we can't even commence to begin
to get started understanding. Oh, how the complexity of your
ways. Lord, it gives us comfort to
know our God reigneth. Let us always find consolation
there and certainly lay blame where
blame is indeed required due to the evil of men. And yet at the same time worship
the God of glory, the God of all grace, who is himself the
first cause of all things. And now as we meet together tonight,
as we look into the Word of God, we ask for leadership and guidance. We ask for the instruction of
the Spirit of God. Feed us, Lord, with manna from
heaven. And we give you thanks in advance
for that which you will do for us tonight from your word. For
Jesus' sake, I ask these things. Amen. Our subject tonight is
Joseph tests his brethren. Joseph tests his brethren. Let me ask you, don't answer
me, but answer in your own heart. Do you really believe on the
Son of God? Are you one who's only hope of
Salvation, only hope of glory. Only hope of acceptance with
God is founded only upon the Son of God and His work of redemption,
His work of reconciliation. I don't have any confidence in
myself. I don't have any confidence in
my works. I don't have any confidence in
my efforts. I don't have any confidence in
my labors. I don't have any confidence in
my faith. I don't have any confidence in my repentance. I don't have
any confidence in my confidence. My hope and my confidence is
in the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me.
I was re-reading today in 2 Samuel chapter 23, David speaking his
last words. He found his comfort on his dying
bed in that covenant of grace, what God has done. I find no
comfort in anything I do, have done, or yet will do. My comfort's
in the one who governs over all, the one who established the covenant
of grace before the world began, and all of my salvations tied
into that covenant. That's all I want. That's all
of my great delight. And I ask you, do you believe?
Are you a believer? Is the Lord your confidence?
and weak though your confidence is, and weak though your faith
may be, because none of us would profess to have great faith. But we do have faith in a great
Savior, and one who is altogether almighty. Well, if you say from the bottom
of your heart, and I don't want anybody to answer me, of course,
on these things, but if you say, I'll tell you, Christ is my only
hope. He's my only Savior. I believe
Him. Well, then understand this, your
faith is going to be tested. It will be tested, in fact, both
true faith and counterfeit faith. They'll both be tested. Abraham, when he was getting
on up in years, and he could foresee Isaac, the promised seed,
getting married and having children, He thought all the tough times
were in back of him, and oh boy. Right when he thought he had
the world by the tail on a downhill pull, here comes the biggest
trial. Take Isaac, that son you love,
your only real son, by Sarah. Take him up on a mountain, and
don't merely kill him, Offer him as a burnt offering, God
said to me. What a trial. What a trial. The Lord tests his people. If
you say you believe him, if you say you rest in him, I assure
you the Lord is going to put that faith to the test. And if
we're honest, lots of times we failed the test. We don't do
too good. Because it really isn't one of
those tests that you can study for. Because usually, they happen
real quick. And you don't even have time
to brace yourself for them. The scripture talks about the
trial of your faith. Peter talks about the fiery trials
that are sure to come our way. It is the way of our Lord to
test, to try His people, and He will test you. I promise you, He will test you. And usually, those tests They come quickly and before
you can prepare for them. In the message tonight, here
in chapter 44 of Genesis, just two things I want to talk to
you about. Number one, Joseph's brothers are tested, they're
tried. And secondly, Judah intercedes
for Benjamin. But first of all, Joseph's brothers
are trying. Lots of times these trials come
after great, what we call, triumphs. Joseph's brothers have eaten
a wonderful meal. This was just a great supper
or dinner, lunchtime it was. It was so enjoyable. To begin with, they were very
fearful when they realized they were going into the house of
Zaphnath-Paeonea, the man who's in charge of the granaries of
Egypt. They were very much fearful. But then the head, the governor,
Pharaoh's right-hand man, he comes in and he kind of puts
them at ease. He said, let's eat. And Joseph
sits down at his table, and then his brothers, who of course do
not know his identity, they don't recognize him, they sit down
at another table, and then the Egyptians sit at yet another
table. And here's this massive amount
of food. And they're all having a wonderful
time. And I'm sure all the brothers
that are glad to see you, Simeon again, he's rejoined them now. They probably were saying, well,
it's great to be together, isn't it? Wish Dad could be here. This
is so enjoyable. And then the head of the house,
Joseph, he says, now, I've told my steward to pack each of you
a big bag of corn. going to take care of you, you're
going to have plenty to eat to go home. Tell your dad." I said,
hi. So they all went to bed and Joseph
told his steward, he said, pack them a bag, a to-go box, and put all their money that
they brought, each one, put their money in the bag. You start with the eldest, and
when you get to the youngest, you take my silver goblet, you
put it in his bag. You tie the bags up, have them
ready to load up in the morning. When they get up, they're going
to get up early, going to get an early start tomorrow for that
trip." Stewart said, The next morning, the boys get
up, the men get up, and they're ready to go. And Joseph says,
y'all have a good trip. Tell your dad. I said, hello.
And they start off, they're just saying, isn't life wonderful? It's just really been so enjoyable. I don't know why we're worried
at all, y'all. He's a pretty nice guy. Got all this food?" Then Joseph tells the steward,
go after him now. And undoubtedly, he had some
soldiers that went with him because this is one man against eleven.
So, most likely he had some soldiers that went with him. So here he
goes out and he stops him and he says, What did you rob my master for?
And of course, Judah says, what are you talking about? You took
his money. No, no, no. We brought the money. We brought the money to you.
We're not going to take any money from you. And then they start, he says,
unload your mules. Every bag is open, beginning
with Reuben. And there's the money, the money
in every bag. And then they get down to the
last one, to Benjamin. And of course, to begin with,
they said, hey, now listen, if one of us took it, you can go
ahead and put us to death. That's how absolutely positive
they were that they didn't take it. They didn't know what Joseph
had done. And then, they found, this steward
found the silver goblet in Benjamin's bag. And the guys just tore all to
pieces. You see, Joseph, he's testing
them. These are the These are the very
same men who turned against Him 22 years before this. Some of them were ready to kill
Him. All of them were then ready to sell Him as a servant. He is testing them to see will
they band together Or will they hang Benjamin out to dry? Are they going to desert Benjamin
just like they deserted me? This is a big old test. That's
what this is. Would they forsake Benjamin? And then they go home in peace
and leave him to be a servant? We know that they stayed. And we know that their love of
Benjamin was witnessed by Joseph. Their love was proven. There's
so much here spiritually, and I'll just touch on a few things
here. Joseph told the steward, fill
every man's bag with food, as much as they can carry. Ministers of the gospel, and
of course, preachers are called stewards. We're stewards of the
grace of God. Ministers of the gospel are commanded
to provide spiritual food for the Lord's people. We're to provide
spiritual bread and drink for the hungry and the thirsty. After
all, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled." The Lord sends His servant not to
entertain, not to build up a membership, and certainly not to run roughshod
over people. The Lord sends His servant to
feed His people. The Lord said to Simon, He said,
feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. You can read in
Acts chapter 20, when the apostle Paul met with the Ephesian elders,
he said, feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own
blood, with his own blood, with his own sacrifice. Peter says
in 1 Peter 5 to feed the flock of God, which is among you. It's
an interesting passage. We don't have time to look at
it now. It's in Revelation 12 and verse 6. The woman went into
the wilderness, the woman being the church, the redeemed of the
Lord. She's in the world. She had a
place prepared for her by the Lord. that they should feed,
should feed her. The Lord's going to feed His
sheep. He feeds His people the Word of God. And don't think
that when we get to heaven at last that our feasting will be
over. In many ways, our feasting will
have really begun when we get to glory. because it says in
Revelation 7 and verse 17, for the lamb which is in the midst
of the throne of God shall feed them. You think he's talking
about physical food there? He's talking about spiritual
food. Oh, what a banquet of grace and mercy we shall partake of
when we get to glory and our host will be the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He will serve us. He will feed
us. He will teach us. And we will
hang on every single word that comes out of His mouth. Feasting on the riches of His
grace. And then notice this. Another
spiritual truth here. The Lord sees to it that all
of His Benjamins receive the silver cup. You see, the silver cup is the
cup of redemption. Silver is that which pictures
redemption. You remember the hooks of the
tabernacle made of silver, all those clasps. They're made of
silver. And the sockets that the boards
were put in, the 40 silver sockets, that was the foundation of the
very tabernacle. Redemption is the foundation
of God's salvation. We're redeemed by the bloody
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When God told Moses to count
the children of Israel, let there be a census, and then He says
each one of them's got to bring half a shekel of silver. None
more, none less. That's the price of redemption. And the Lord put... He's the
one who put us in a position to be the recipients of the silver
cup of His salvation. And you see, He gives us desire
to drink out of that cup. So that David said, I will drink
of the cup of God's salvation. I'll drink of redeeming grace.
Do you ever get weary of putting the silver cup of God's redemption,
of the bloodied sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord? Do
you ever get weary of putting that silver goblet to your lips
and then taking in that wonderful wine of the gospel? That silver
elixir. I never get weary of that. And you know, really, that silver
cup of redemption, the Lord gave it to us before we ever knew
we had it. Benjamin had no idea there's
a silver cup in my bag, in the saddlebags. But it's already
there. For you see, our Lord Jesus,
He was the Lamb who was killed before the foundation of the
world. Redemption, justification. These are eternal truths. We were redeemed before we knew
anything about redemption. Before we knew anything about
the Redeemer. Before we ever lived. And then we came to this world and
God sent the truth to us. And then like David, we said,
I will take the cup of God's salvation. Another thing I see here, Joseph sees to it that his brothers
come back to him. You see, it was this trial that
forced them to return. And that's how the Lord uses
these trials for our good. You know what they do? They force
us to go back to our great Joseph. And isn't it a pity? And this shows still our depravity. Were it not often for these troubles
and trials and afflictions, we'd kind of go on our journey a little
further. But the Lord has His way of stopping
us, having us come back, having us return. Oh God, keep us at the feet of
the Son of God. And I'll tell you this, whatever
it takes, whatever it takes to keep us coming to the Savior
is a marvelous mercy. It really is. You know yourself from personal
experience. We all do. It's when those afflictions
come, times of trial, that's when we fall on our faces before
our God. Oh Lord, I need you. I need you. And really, whatever it was that
he sent, It's good for you. David said, it is good for me
that I have been afflicted. Really? Yes. Because I learned your statutes.
I learned the truthfulness of your promise. You'll never leave
me and you'll never forsake me. You see, This is all about bringing
these men back to Joseph. It's a test. They've got to come
back to him. And you could even make an application
of it. It's like the prodigal son. He's
out there eating with the pigs. He said, what a fool I am. I'm
going home. I'm going to the Father. And Judah and the brothers, they
return, and when questioned, they do say, we're not guilty
as far as the theft charge is concerned, but they do have a
guilty conscience. And you saw that as I read it,
I'm sure, verse 16. Jews said, what should we say
unto my Lord? What should we speak? Or how
should we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. Oh, God knew all about it. This is their consciences. And their consciences are awakened
and stirred and troubled. You see, the one that they had
done wrong was standing right in front of them. And the one
we've done wrong against is the Lord our God. That's why David
said in Psalm 51, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. Joseph is finding out about his
brothers now. Because here's what came to pass.
That saying, be sure your sins will find you out. They found them. Now their consciences
are pricked. Oh, they weren't guilty of the
one charge of theft. They're guilty of a more serious
charge. But here, and I want to get to
this real quick. Here's the second thing. Judah
intercedes for Benjamin. And really, that's just one of
the most beautiful passages of Scripture in all of the Word
of God. It really is. I want you to listen
to how much passion is in the voice of Judah. He's just talking
to Joseph. And Judah speaks as the surety
for Benjamin and as the intercessor for Benjamin. And you see, as
Joseph, Joseph is a picture of our Lord Jesus, who is the savior
of his people and who is the governor of all things. Judah,
Judah is the surety of Benjamin. And he's the intercessor for
Benjamin. He's sure to be an intercessor.
Now look at verse 18. I'll just make a few comments. And Judah came near unto Joseph
and said, O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a
word in my Lord's ear. Let not thine anger burn against
thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh. I recognize who you
are. I recognize your greatness. And
Judah again, while Joseph is the governor and the judge, Judah
is the surety and the intercessor. He was the one who promised his
dad, Dad, I'll take care of Benjamin. If not, I will bear the blame
forever. If something happens to him,
hold me accountable, I'll bear the blame forever. And that's
our Lord Jesus in the covenant of grace. He's the surety of
the better covenant. And He's the one who makes intercession
for us. So here's Judah. Surety and intercessor. Picture of our Savior. He says,
verse 19, he continues, My Lord asked His servants, saying, Have
you a father or a brother? And we said unto My Lord, We
have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little
one. His brother is dead and he is
alone left of his mother and his father loveth him. And thou
saidest to thy servants, bring him down unto me that I may set
mine eyes upon him. And of course, Judah is now,
he's repeating what has happened, verse 22. And we said unto my
Lord, the lad cannot leave his father. or if he should leave
his father, his father should die. And thou saidst unto thy
servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye
shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we
came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my Lord.
And our father said, Go again and buy us a little food. And
we said, We cannot go down. If our youngest brother be with
us, then we will go down. For we
may not see the man's face except our youngest brother be with
us. And thy servant my father said unto us, You know that my
wife bear me two sons." Rachel had two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. That's all. And he refers to Rachel as being
his dad's wife, and that's an absolutely accurate statement. He was tricked into marrying
Leah, and then he had two concubines. But the love of his life was
Rachel. And the one went out from me,
verse 28, and I said, surely he is torn in pieces, and I saw
him not since. And if you take this also from
me, and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore, when I come to
thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us, if you keep
Benjamin, if you make him a servant, seeing that his life is bound
up, my dad's life is bound up in the lad's life, It shall come
to pass when he see it that the lad Benjamin is not with us,
he'll die. It'll kill him. This is such
a passionate speech. In fact, a couple of writers
said it's the greatest piece of oratory ever spoken. It's really magnificent. It's
a magnificent piece of literature. It's a magnificent piece of Holy
Scripture. And it's a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus, who is the surety for all of his Benjamins,
and who is our intercessor as well. He says, if he's not with us,
father will die. Thy servant shall bring him down,
bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with
sorrow to the grave. Verse 32, for thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father, saying, if I bring him not unto
thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore I pray thee, I
beg you, Let thy servant abide instead of the led. You've always
got to appreciate in the Word of God, whenever you see those
words, in the stead of. In stead of. That's substitution. And here's what Judah said. Keep
me. Take me. I'll be your servant. Let him go. This is what Christ
said to the justice of God. Take me. Take me. It's like what He said to the
soldiers there when they came out to arrest Him in the garden.
He said, if you seek me, let these go their way. You can't
have me. You can't have the Savior and
those He saved. You can't have both. You seek
me? These have got to go free. And
this is what Judah is pleading. Judah says, let Benjamin go. Take me. That's what the Savior
said. That's the sweetest story of
everyone. It's the story of substitution. Now therefore again, verse 33,
I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman
to my Lord. And that's what Christ was to
the Father, a bondman to the Father. Let the lad go up with
his brethren. Let him go free. That's what
Christ said about us. Let him go free. And you know,
not only the mercy of God, not only the grace of God demands
the freedom, the liberation of all of God's people, but justice
does as well. The very law of God that we had
offended. The law has been satisfied and
honored and upheld in all of its integrity. Its penalty fully
paid by our Savior. And now the law says they must
go free. So Judah says, let the lad go
up with his brethren, for how shall I go up to my father and
the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil
that shall come on my father. Our Lord Jesus is the surety
of the everlasting covenant, and he's the intercessor of us.
He prays for us. He prayed for us from the cross
of Calvary. Father, forgive them. They don't
know what they do. Before that, John 17, he prayed.
I pray for those that Thou hast given Me. I don't pray for the
world, I pray for those You gave Me. He prayed for us in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He prayed for us from the cross
of Calvary. And He has gone back to heaven
and He is our intercessor in glory. Not that He's begging
God for anything. So many people, they picture
God as being angry and stern and that Jesus the Savior is
begging God to show grace. That's not the way it is at all.
God is a just God and a Savior through the redemptive work of
our Lord Jesus Christ. So how does He intercede for
us in heaven? Well, He takes our prayers makes
him presentable to the Father. That's one work of intercession
of his. And I like, there's a song in
our songbook, it's kind of hard to sing, but one of the verses
goes like this. Five bleeding wounds he bears
in heaven, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers. They ever, ever plead for me. It's just His very presence at
the right hand of the Father is His work of intercession.
And He has been exalted. You read when you get home again,
Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 12, the last statement. He made intercession. Be thankful for this. He made
intercession for the transgressors. He's our surety. He's our antecessor,
portrayed through Judah.