It is so very good to be with
you again. I trust God will be pleased indeed
by his word to speak peace to your souls through Christ Jesus
the Lord. Such a delight to be with you
and a delight to see so many of you. I see just once or twice
a year that you are on our hearts and minds. We pray for you and
continually seek that you, by the grace of God and He enables
you, will pray for us. And your folks, your friends
in Danville, send their greetings to you. I want you to be opening
your Bible, if you will, to Genesis chapter 43. While you're turning, listen
carefully. The whole of our acceptance with God is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Now let that settle in. It may
be a phrase you might have often heard, but we tend to pay little
attention to things we often hear. The whole of our acceptance
with God is Christ. In the person and work of our
Lord Jesus Christ alone, sinners are accepted with the thrice
holy God. The whole of our assurance, the
whole of our assurance is Christ. We have assurance that we belong
to God only because we trust Jesus Christ. Not because of
what men call evidences or good works, but Christ alone is our
assurance. Be sure you understand this.
Our relationship with God does in great measure determine what
we do. But what we do does not in any
measure or to any degree determine our relationship with God. The
whole of our security is Christ. We are secure in grace because
we're in Christ. As Christ seated on the throne
of God is secure in his place as our substitute, we being one
with him are as secure as he is. Now if that doesn't ring
your bell, your clacker's broke. We, being one with Him, are as
secure as He is. We're in Christ. Accepted in
the Beloved. Accepted because Christ is accepted. Secure because Christ is secure. Holy because Christ is holy.
We have no sin because He has no sin. He put away our sins. Therefore, God Almighty will
never, not now, not tomorrow, not in eternity, God will never
impute sin to sinners in Christ the Lord. Blessed is the man
to whom God will not, for any reason, at any time, impute sin. how Satan roars and raises up
law, raises up Moses, God's commandments given by Moses, and would accuse
us. But who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Our security
is all together in Him. We are one with Christ. This
matter of the believer's union with Christ, is a subject so
broad, so immense, so full, so rich, the more I study it, the
bigger it becomes, and the fuller it becomes, so that I'm lost
in wonder all the time. And I've been trying by God's
grace to study this matter as it's presented in the Word of
God the whole of my life as a believer, one with Christ I am. Imagine
that. One with Christ you are if you
believe Him. If you trust Him, one with Jesus
Christ the Lord as really and truly one with Him as this hand
is one with this body. Really and truly one with Him
as He is one with the Father. That's his very word in John
chapter 17. He says, Father, this is what
I pray. When I'm finished with all I've
committed myself to do as the surety of my people, when I finish
all the work trusted in my hands, that the world may know that
they are one as I am one with you. Soon God will show to wandering
worlds the perfection of our life in Christ as one with Him. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. Dear, so very dear to God. Dearer I cannot be, for in the
person of His Son, Don Fortner is as dear as Jesus Christ. Oh, thank God for rich, free
grace, making me one with His Son. Christ Jesus is described
in this book as our good shepherd. As such, he gave his life for
his sheep. He seeks his sheep and seeks
them till he finds them, every one. And when he's found his
sheep, he lays his sheep on his shoulders and carries it all
the way home. The good shepherd knows his sheep.
He calls them by name. He leads them, feeds them, protects
them, and preserves them. He gives his sheep eternal life
and declares they shall never perish. My heart rejoices in
the knowledge of Christ, my shepherd. I'm his sheep. The Lord is my
shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God,
is our substitute. That means that he lived in righteousness
and died in shame as the representative of his people. He lived in righteousness
in my place, and he living in my place, I lived in righteousness
in him. And he died under the wrath of
God in shame bearing my sins. and he dying under the wrath
of God bearing my sins until justice was fully satisfied and
sin utterly put away, I died in him. I was crucified with
Christ. He is our representative. Substitution
is a glorious, glorious revelation of Scripture. It is the basis
of hope for fallen men. It's the foundation and the very
essence of the gospel. Substitution is the message God's
servants everywhere are sent to proclaim. It is good news
for guilty sinners. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. As Brother Allen has already
stated, And I'm sure will be stated by others this week and
will be stated by me many times this weekend. We believe and
insist upon this fact. Jesus Christ effectually redeemed
every sinner for whom he died at Calvary. He redeemed every
sinner he intended to redeem. He redeemed every sinner he came
to redeem. He redeemed every sinner he represented. Now, who are they? The ungodly. The ungodly. I'll tell you what
I'll do. You find me someone who's ungodly. Is there anybody here ungodly? Ungodly. Are you? Ungodly. If you are, Christ died for you.
So above God, everybody's ungodly. Stop somebody on the street and
ask them. Just ask them. Nobody's ungodly, but all who
are called by God's grace know themselves ungodly. In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. We have nothing to offer God,
nothing to give God, nothing to bring to God except sin, nothing
to bring God except our own filth, nothing to bring to God except
our unrighteousness, and we look to Christ for everything. In
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He, His own self, bear
our sins in His body on the tree. For my own heart, there's nothing
so deep, so mysterious, so profound, so wondrous, so inspiring, so
full of joy, so comforting, so assuring as this glorious God-honoring
doctrine of substitution. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him." Christ is our substitute and Christ is our
priest. He is our great high priest.
He has our names engraved upon his heart. With his own blood,
our high priest entered in once into the holy place, having obtained,
having gotten in his hands eternal redemption for us. The Lord Jesus
Christ deals with God on our behalf. He makes intercession
to God specifically for us. He entered into heaven as our
forerunner and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high as our great high priest, this great high priest. God. He's God. He's Jesus of Nazareth
is God. I never will forget the first
time I heard that statement, an old man who was a pastor at
Anstead, West Virginia, Pastor Beacon Baptist Church. When I
was pastoring in Lookout, I was just a young man. I was 21 years
old. And Brother Watson Dufour and I got to be good friends.
He was the only preacher that had anything to do with me. And
he was the only preacher I had anything to do with. But we got
to be good friends. And there was an old man. He
was preaching for me one day, and he stood in the pulpit, and
he said, Jesus is God. And I was taken aback a little
bit. Man, I was just out of Bible college and I knew you're not
supposed to talk like that. You're supposed to say, Jesus
Christ is God-man. Jesus Christ is the God-man and
He is God and man. Jesus is God. That man. who lived on this earth in our
room instead in obedience to the will of God, tempted and
tried in all points like we are, that man who lived here and knew
no sin and did no sin and could not sin, that man, however, is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, this one who's God. He who sets yonder in heaven. in flesh just like this, in a body just like this, is
moved in his heart with everything that touches this man's heart.
Can you grasp that? He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities so that this one who is God in human flesh
is able to succor them that are tempted. That's a good old English
word. I don't know that I've ever heard
anyone use it except when reading the scriptures or preaching.
Sucker! Sucker! We help one another. But you can help someone and
not be moved by anything. You can help someone and it not
affect you at all. Doctors and nurses are trained
to be callous to the things that patients experience. It'd be
next to impossible to do the things they do, dealing with
death all the time, if they weren't trained to some kind of callousness.
But oh, how thankful we are they can help. But I've had a little
sickness and I've been nursed by a lot of folks. But I'll tell
you what, in all the times I've had weakness and sickness and
debilitating circumstances, there was one person, make it two,
who suckered me, that woman and her daughter. They help with
feelings. And when she would make me move
and I winced in pain, I could see the pain in her face. So it is that God in human flesh
is touched with what touches you, his son, his daughter. Understand that? touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. Oh, what a great safety must
be ours if this one whom we trust, who sacrificed himself for us,
is our great high priest. And this one who is our high
priest is described in scripture as our advocate with the Father.
John writes his epistle his first epistle and he says, all that
I said to you in these opening verses of John chapter one. He
gets to chapter two and he says, these things have I written to
you that you sin not. Children of God don't sin and
don't ever take sin lightly. I fear for myself and for I fear
for me, I fear for you is that we who know the full forgiveness
of our sins, have a horrible proneness to take our sin lightly. Don't ever take sin lightly.
These things have I written unto you that you sin not. And if
any man sin, if any man sin, well, now you're
in trouble. Oh no. If any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. We have one called alongside
the Father. One who is one with the Father. one who pleads our calls with
the Father and the calls he pleads with the Father for the non-imputation
of sins to us is a just cause. It is a just cause for he is
Jesus the Christ the righteous one and so when he pleads our
calls before God in heaven He pleads righteously and justly
that God never charge us with sin. We have an advocate with
the Father. Among the many, many titles given
to our Savior, these are titles that will tell you something
that we need to understand. As you read this book, I was
discussing with Alan and Christine and my wife Shelby earlier today
or last night, The whole of religion, the whole of the religious world,
it doesn't matter whether it's Islam or Buddhism or the papacy
or Pentecostalism or Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist, liberal
or conservative, fundamentalist, orthodox, it doesn't matter.
The whole of religion outside the grace of God is designed
to bring you in bondage. Most of you have been raised
in some form of religious bondage, and you still carry the baggage
with you. Man, it's heavy. Oh, it's heavy
baggage. It makes you miserable. It makes
you miserable. You've got to do this, and you
don't do that, and you go there, and you don't go there, and you
dress like this, and you don't dress like that. And when you're
with your family, it's all right. Maybe let your hair down a little
bit, just not too much. But you get out with other folks,
and be careful here. Brother Fortner's here now. He's
going to be watching you. Religious bondage, bondage, horrid,
horrid bondage. I just saw you laugh. You remember
the first time you met me? We were up in Darlington, somewhere
up north, and I knew what I was saying, but lots of folks, preachers
sitting around, and the kids were standing around on the farm
up at the main camps up there. I mean, they were, it was on
Sunday afternoon, beautiful day, prettiest day, and they're standing
around like this. enjoying the Sabbath. I said, y'all want to play some
ball? Man, you thought I'd ask them if they wanted to go to
the honky-tonk. What? This is Sunday. We don't play
ball on Sunday. We're enjoying the Sabbath day. Now nobody said that, but that's
exactly what everybody was saying. Religious bondage. Just bondage. The Holy Spirit has written this
book to show us the blessedness, the fullness,
the absoluteness of our salvation in Christ, giving us every reason
to have comfort and joy and peace by believing. You mean preacher? You can have peace with God without
doing something? Brother Harry, you can't have
peace with God as long as you're trying to do something. I believe on the Lord Jesus,
but now I read my Bible every day. Is that your peace? Tell
me how much peace you've got. I believe on the Lord Jesus,
but I go to church regularly. Is that your peace? You don't
have much peace. I believe in the Lord Jesus,
but now I want to be sure I live a good life before men. Is that
your peace? I'm telling you, you don't have
any peace. You don't have any peace. Christ is our peace. And the Spirit of God writes
this book to teach us that we have in Christ the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. I lift my heart to heaven and
look God eye to eye, face to face and say, my Father, my Father,
Abba Father. Among the many, many descriptions
used in Scripture to describe our glorious Savior and His redemptive
work, none is more assuring than my subject this evening. The
title of my message tonight is Christ Our Surety. And we have a picture of it given
here in Genesis chapter 43. Genesis 43. Christ Our Surety. Here in Genesis chapter 43 and
verse 8, you know, Benjamin, Joseph has held him in Egypt
and he's going to bring now all of his family into Egypt. So
he's held Benjamin there. And Judah said to Israel, his
father, send the lad with me. Now, if you want to back up to
chapter 42, the last two verses and read them, you'll see that
Reuben said the same thing. Reuben said, he said, Daddy,
send Benjamin with me. Send Benjamin with me and I'll
take him up there. But Joseph required that they bring Benjamin.
And Israel said, No, you can't take Benjamin. No, you can't
take Benjamin. You can't take Benjamin. Reuben
said, Send him with me. And if I don't bring him back,
then slay my two sons. And Israel said, no, you can't
take him. Now watch what Judah says. Our Lord, you remember,
was not the lion of the tribe of Reuben. He's the lion of the
tribe of Judah. And Judah said to Israel, his
father, send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. of
my hand shalt thou require him. Now listen to what Judah said. If I bring him not to thee and
set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now that's a surety. That's a
surety. You send Benjamin with me. And
if I don't bring it back, don't take it out on my boys, take
it out on me. I assume total responsibility for your darling
son, Benjamin. Require everything of me." And
Israel said, all right, take it. Our Lord Jesus is described
this way, Hebrews chapter 7 verse 22, the surety of a better covenant,
the surety of God's covenant, the covenant of grace by which
we are saved. As Judah became surety for Benjamin,
the Lord Jesus Christ became surety for God's elect in the
covenant of grace from all eternity. Now let me briefly answer three
questions and I won't be long. First, what is assurity? That's not a term we use much
these days. Assurity is one who approaches
one person on the behalf of another person, assuming responsibility
for the one he represents. He's a representative man. He
lays himself under obligation to another person for the one
he represents. In this sense, Christ is our
surety. Turn back to Psalm 47. Psalm
40 and verse 7. Psalm 40 and verse 7. The Lord Jesus, our Savior, drew
near to his Father on our behalf and laid himself under obligation
to God for us. He laid himself under obligation
to God. You remember the second Psalm
finishes up like this. The Father says, ask of me, and
I'll give you the heathen for your inheritance. And you get
to Psalm 24, and the King of glory is ascended and spoken
of as that which Christ has already done, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And our Savior, when he comes
to the end of his work on this earth, says, Father, the hour
has come. Give me the glory that I had
with you before the world was. So this is something that was
finished before the world was, and the Savior says, now I ask
you to manifestly give me that which you gave me before the
world was. Look here in Psalm 40. Watch
our Savior's suretyship engagement. Verse 7, Then said I, Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to
do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Assurity is one who strikes hands
with another. We used to say a man's as good
as his word and shake hands and that's it. Now we've got to have
a team of lawyers and a bunch of contracts and then you've
got to go to court because somebody didn't keep his agreement. An
honest man strikes hands with another and the work is done.
Suretyship to a man of honor, to a man of integrity is a voluntary
bondage. Turn to Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs
chapter 6. Hear what the wise man says. I want you to see how the surety
ship is spoken of in scripture. My son, if thou be surety for
thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, watch
this, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth. Thou art
taken with the words of thy mouth. You strike hands with a man,
you stand surety for a man, and you've trapped yourself. You've
trapped yourself with your own words. When the Lord Jesus became
our surety, he voluntarily placed himself in bondage to the Father
until his service was performed. He snared himself with the words
of his mouth. Look at Isaiah chapter 50. Let's
see how he spoke, Isaiah chapter 50. You remember the law of the
servant given, I think it's back in Leviticus 25, God gave a law
concerning a bond servant. He said if the bond servant goes
out free, Then if he came in alone, he goes out alone. If
he came in with wife and children, he goes out with wife and children.
If he was married while he was a bondservant, then if he goes
out, he's got to leave his wife and children behind. But if he
loves his master, and he loves his wife, and he loves his children,
and he says, no, I will not go out. I will remain a servant,
a bondservant. Then he shall go to his master,
and his master will take him to the gates, and the gates,
before the elders of the city, bore his ear through with an
awe. And so he will become his servant
forever, saying, I love my wife, I love my children, I love my
master, I will not go out free. I do not choose to go out free. I choose rather to be bond-servant
to my Master because I love Him. So the Lord Jesus speaks here
in Isaiah 50 and verse 5. The Lord God hath opened mine
ear. He bore it through with all.
And I was not rebellious. I wasn't forced into this thing.
Neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters. And my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. For the Lord God will help me.
Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint. I know that I shall not be ashamed. You remember how our Savior spoke
in the same phraseology in the book of John chapter 10. He said,
Other sheep I have which are not of this folk, them also I
must bring. How on earth can it be said that
Christ must do something? He's God. How on earth can He
be compelled to do something? He snared with His own words. He's entrapped with his own words. He said, other sheep I have,
which are not of this foal, them also I must bring, and there
shall be one foal and one shepherd. He said, I laid down my life. I have the power, the right,
the authority, and the ability to lay it down in myself. No
man takes it from me. This commandment have I received
of my father. What? What? You mean the Jehovah
Witnesses are right and Jesus is subservient to God? No! No! A thousand times no! But as our
surety, he placed himself in voluntary obligation to obey
God in our stead. And thus he is obedient to the
commandment of God. And he says, therefore doth my
Father love me. Because I laid down my life for
the sheep. This commandment have I received
in my Father. When you get to chapter 17, the
Savior says, now Father, this is what I'm praying for. I'm
praying that the world may know that thou hast loved them just
like you loved me. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. How is that? He loved me before
the world was. And God Almighty, looking on
us in Christ our Savior, in our surety, loved us because of his
perfect obedience to the Father as our surety in covenant grace
before the world was. This is our surety in his voluntary
obedience. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ
did as our surety in covenant grace. He drew near to the Father
on our behalf. He promised to faithfully perform
all that the triune Jehovah required for the salvation of his people.
He struck hands with the Father, and the work was done. God the
Father, looking on our souls as one with Christ. trusted his
son with his people. He trusted his son as our sheriff
did. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 for
a minute. Ephesians 1. After preaching
the gospel for 50 years or more, Robert Hawker was laying on his
deathbed and one of his friends came in and Hawker asked him
if he would read to him the first chapter of the Ephesians. And
as he was reading, he got down to verse 12 where the apostle
says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. And Hawker paused and said to
the man, asked the man to pause and he said to him, and who first
trusted in Christ? And like most people would, he
stood there as if to say, I don't dare respond, I might get it
wrong. And Hawker said, the triune Jehovah
first trusted in Christ. That we should be to the praise
of the glory of God, who before the world was trusted in Christ
as our surety. This one who first trusted in
Christ is God, who hath saved us and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought
life and immortality to life through the gospel. Now, I know
folks get upset with that, so you've got to explain that. It's
strange to me how when people read a passage of Scripture that's
as plain as the nose on your face, but it runs contrary to
everything they believe, and they go, wait, wait, wait, that
can't mean that. No, what you believe is wrong,
what the book says is right. At home, we have folks called
primitive Baptists, hardshells, and some folks say, well, that
sounds like hardshell doctrine. And my response is, I don't care
if it's Buddhist doctrine. If it's true, it's true. And this says
God saved us and called us with a holy calling in Christ Jesus
before the world began. What does that mean? That means
God saved us and called us with a holy calling in Christ Jesus
before the world began. Well, you mean when a person's
saved from eternity, then what happens when you're born again?
God lets you in on it. That's what happens. That's exactly
what happens. He brings to light. He brings
to light the light of the glory of God shining in the face of
Jesus Christ when He reveals Christ in you and thereby giving
you the blessed, blessed, blessed assurance of faith in Christ
Jesus. All right, here's the second
question. How did Christ become our surety? With men, suretyship
is a mere guarantor. A co-signer, the one who is jointly
responsible with a principal debtor. I'll give you an example.
When I was a young man, I bought my first car when I was 15 years
old. I was working. I saved up the money, paid $225
for the ugliest car ever been made in the world, 1956 three-tone
gray Dodge. Oh, it was ugly, but it was mine.
And I wrecked it before I got my driver's license. And I wanted
to get another car when I was 16 years old. And banks don't
generally do much business with a 16-year-old boy. They have
a reason for that. Because 16-year-old boys are
16-year-old boys, and you ain't likely to get paid. That's just
the way it is. So I talked my dad into signing
the note for a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, white, triple black,
racing stripe. Man, it was the sharpest looking
car I ever saw. And he signed the note for it. And what that
meant was this. If Don doesn't pay the bill,
we're coming after you. We're coming after you. And that's
the way the law works. If something happened that I
got killed or I just got lazy and quit working and I refused
to pay the bill, they're going to collect from my dad. No need
to bother with me because I was just 16 years old and I got nothing
for him to get. That's a guarantor. That's not
a surety. A surety sometimes is forced
into suretyship. For example, A father is legally
responsible. I don't know how it is here,
in our country at least. A father is legally responsible
for the debts and legal liabilities of all his minor children. So
it doesn't matter what they do, doesn't matter what damage they
cause, doesn't matter what habit they reap, doesn't matter what
they mess up, go to daddy, daddy's got to pay. That's just the force
of law with our surety. the Lord Jesus Christ, this was
altogether voluntary. When he became our surety, the
Lord Jesus willingly, anxiously, can I say excitedly, became totally responsible for
all the debts liabilities and obligations of all his people
before God. The Lord Jesus voluntarily assumed
total responsibility for our souls. And as soon as the father
accepted his son as our surety, he set us free and ceased looking
to us for anything. God Almighty, Alangelic, has
never looked to you for a thing. Nothing. Why should he? You got nothing to bring him.
You got nothing to give him. God Almighty looked on his son
as our surety, and it looks to his son for perfect righteousness,
perfect obedience, complete satisfaction. The whole honoring of his law
and his justice and his name is all put on the surety. All becomes his responsibility. We're called his sheep. What
a good name for his people. He is the Lord our shepherd.
Now I don't know about you and I don't know much about the shepherding
work. I wasn't raised in an area where
they raised sheep like some of you folks were. But my suspicions
are, my suspicions are that if a man is hired as a shepherd
and given the responsibility for sheep, the man who takes
care of the sheep, is responsible for every one of the sheep. And
if something happens to one of the sheep, the owner doesn't
come and berate the sheep, and whip the sheep, and get after
the sheep. That's the shepherd's responsibility.
The Lord Jesus is our shepherd. And the whole responsibility
we have before God, He has fully satisfied as our shepherd and
our surety. When Christ became surety for
us, our sins were laid on Him and made His. Made His and placed
on His account. so that he, not we, became responsible
for them. The Lord hath, Isaiah said, laid
on him the iniquity of us all. In the fullness of time, the
Lord Jesus bear our sin in His own body on the tree and was
made sin for us when He died upon the cursed tree. But our
sins were laid on Him as our surety, as the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world before ever time began, before ever
we sinned, so that in Him our sins were given satisfaction
to the justice of God. And the Lord God looked on us
as righteous and holy and beloved and accepted in Christ the surety
who bear our sins in his own body on the tree. Our Savior
prayed like this, innumerable evils have come past me about.
My iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm not able
to look up. They're more than the hairs of
my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, my guiltiness, and my sins are not hid from
thee." When the Lord Jesus then became our surety, the Lord God
Almighty justified, pardoned, made righteous and accepted all
his elect through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Father's eye, the eye of
God, has always been on his son, our surety. When Adam transgressed
in the garden, do you remember what the warning was that God
gave to him? He said, in the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. Well, Adam ate the fruit and
he's still walking around. Oh, but he died spiritually.
Yeah, but he's still walking around. He's subject to eternal death. Yeah,
but he's still walking around. He's going to die physically,
yeah, but he's still walking around. Why wasn't he slain in
the garden? Because in that man Adam was
the seed. of all the peoples of the earth,
among whom God would scatter his elect, the chosen seed, into
all the nations of the earth that he might gather them in
his grace. And God did not destroy the human
race in the garden because of the suretyship work done in eternity. And so it is to this day, the
very thing that holds back the judgment of God upon the nations
of the world is the fact that God has a people, redeemed by
Christ, chosen of God, who must yet be called by His grace. And
therefore, He does not yet bring judgment upon the world. That's
the meaning of 2 Peter 3.9. God is not slack concerning his
promises, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward,
not willing that any, any of his elect should perish, but
all should come to the knowledge of the truth. This surety ship
is something that was known to God's saints in the Old Testament.
Sadly, it's known by little, but known by few in our day,
but it was known by God's saints of old. Listen to Joe. Job spoke
like this. Now remember, the book of Job,
probably, probably, is the oldest book in the Bible. The oldest
book in the Bible, written before Genesis. This is an early, early,
early, early believer. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
And though after my skin were destroyed this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God, my Redeemer, whom I shall see for myself.
And mine eyes shall behold in not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." Christ is our surety. God, the triune
Jehovah, accepted him and trusted him as our surety before the
world was. Here's the second question, and
I'll be very brief. I'm sorry, the third question.
What did the surety, the Lord Jesus, agree to? He agreed to
meet and perfectly fulfill all our requirements from God. What does God require of you? perfect righteousness. Brother
Scott Richardson was preaching to me once in dance. Brother
Richardson pastored for 50 years in Fairmont, West Virginia. He's
with the Lord now. He and I were good friends. And
he got up one night and said, I want to preach to you tonight
on the holiness of God. And he paused for a minute and
he said, now the holiness of God, H-O-L-I-N-E-S-S, has a lot
to do with the wholeness of God, W-H-O-L-E-N-E-S-S. I thought that's good. And the
more I thought about it, I thought the gooder it is. What is it
that makes God holy? What is it that separates God
from all his creatures and all his creation? What is it that
makes his name hallowed, distinct from everything and everybody?
What is it? All that God is in the entirety
of his being separates himself infinitely beyond us all. Understand
that? His whole being is his holiness. What is it that the Lord Jesus
did when he came to folks on this earth? And there was a man with a withered
arm, and the Lord said, stretch forth your arm, and he stretched
out. He made him whole. A man born blind, and the Lord
Jesus said, receive your sight. And he opened his eyes, and he
saw perfectly. And the Lord Jesus made him whole.
There was a man in two, and the Lord raised him from the two.
And what did he do? He made him whole. And the lame
he made to walk, he made them whole. And the deaf he made to
hear, he made them whole. And the dumb he made to speak,
he made them whole. He took that which was maimed,
and crippled, and dark, and needy, and made it whole. And this is what God, in infinite
mercy, does for sinners in Christ Jesus. Related is He makes us
whole. Whole. Whole before God. God said, walk before me and
be thou perfect. That's what God will accept.
He won't accept your best effort. He won't accept the best you
can do. He won't accept the best effort you give at being obedient.
God demands perfection, perfect righteousness, without which
you cannot see the Lord. Holiness, without which you cannot
see Him. People talk about obeying the
law and living by the law. And some of you may. And if you
are crazy enough to tell me you do, I'd say, pfft, fat chance
of that. Fat chance of that. You're lying.
You're lying. I know it, you know it, and God
knows it. What you do by your pretended obedience to the law
is you bring it way down here where you can call it filth and
sin. Because your best effort is just spitting in God's face.
Your best effort is just filth and degradation and sin. You've
never thought righteous, let alone done righteous. But in
Christ, we are declared to be the very righteousness of God
in Him. What does God require? Perfect
obedience. Perfect obedience with no sin,
from the womb to the tomb. Perfect obedience. Well, nobody
can do that. Somebody did. Jesus Christ, our
surety, in the name of Don Fortner, walked on this earth for 33 years,
the full age of a man, and perfectly obeyed God, not for himself,
but for Don Fortner. And God requires satisfaction. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The soul that sinneth, It shall
die. That means you're going to suffer
the wrath of God until justice, infinite justice, is completely
satisfied. Now people hear us talk about
election and predestination and limited atonement, effectual
redemption, and they say, oh, but God has no place in the death
of the wicked. What fool ever thought he did? That doesn't
mean God doesn't laugh at the death of the wicked. Oh, no.
The word is satisfaction. Should God send the world to
hell, the reason hell is eternal is that finite creatures can
never satisfy infinite justice. But listen to this, it pleased
the Lord to bring him. He made his soul an offering
for sin and was pleased with it. So that the Lord God looks
on His Son and says, that's enough. That's enough. That's enough. And faith in Christ is neither
more nor less than full agreement of my soul with God Himself. Here stands a man guilty of every crime, of any
reprobate in hell. Brother Norman, that's just fact.
That's just fact. You and I are as filthy as anything
in hell. That's just fact. And believers
know it. How can I ever be accepted with
God? and you start trying to do, and
trying to do, and trying to do, and trying to pray, and go to
church, and read your Bible, and join the church, get baptized,
go to the mission field, go to Bible college, go to seminary,
come out and preach, and you just keep trying, and trying,
and trying, and your conscience keeps screaming, guilty, guilty,
guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, hell must be your portion, until
God reveals Christ in you. And when God reveals Christ in
you, you look away to God's darling son. And the screaming conscience
says, that's enough. That's enough. God, oh, God cannot. God cannot. Require more than faith brings
when faith brings his son. God says enough. My conscience
says enough. Oh, may God speak peace to your
heart and say enough is found in Christ Jesus. Complete righteousness
and complete satisfaction by our surety. Amen.