A man in our congregation that
built all the furniture that we have there. He built the podium,
the pulpit, beautiful, beautiful work. And the first time I stood
behind it, I said, Cecil, you've got to cut it down. He said,
I can't. He made it for people like Marvin. And he had Charlie Pennington
in mind. And I stood behind that pulpit, and I said, Cecil, you've
got to cut this down. He said, you have no idea what
it takes to cut that down. I mean, it's a beautiful, thick
piece of pulpit. He said, what about when Charlie
comes? Charlie Pennington, six foot
five. Todd Nyberg. I said, I'll tell you what, I'm
going to ask nothing but short preachers to come. The next week I came in and it
fit perfect. I thought of that when I stood
behind this last night. But it fits you perfect. Turn
to Genesis chapter 43. Genesis 43, let me read the first
nine verses. Title of this message, Assurity
for Benjamin. Assurity for Benjamin. There are some Benjamins here
this morning. You're going to enjoy this. Assurity. And the famine, verse 1, chapter
43, and the famine was sore, severe in the land. And it came to pass When they
had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their
father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah
spake unto him, and saying, The man did solemnly protest unto
us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother
be with you. If thou wilt send our brother
with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt
not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us,
You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And
Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell
the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked
us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, Is your
father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And
we told him according to the tenor of these words. Could we
certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down?
And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send a 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. Not try to be. I'll try this. I'll give it my best shot. No. I will be surety for him. I will be surety for Benjamin.
Of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto
thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned this second time." Now, the Word of God teaches
us that there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. He said, there is none good,
no, not one. And by that verse over in Romans,
I wrote, even me, even me. There's not a good man on this
earth. There's not a man or woman on this earth without sin. But
the vast part of humanity does not believe this. Does not believe
this. The vast part of humanity believes
that they are basically good. And from time to time, they make
mistakes. That's basically what humanity
believes. It truly takes the Holy Spirit
of God to make a sinner a sinner. Now, what do I mean by that?
Here's what I mean. For a man or a woman to own their
depravity, to own their wretchedness, to own their ungodliness and
not blame it on somebody else or circumstances, but to own
it, The Spirit of God must convict of sin what I am, of righteousness
what I need, and of judgment what I deserve. That is the work
of the Spirit of God. I can stand here and preach the
gospel to you, but I cannot reach the heart. I can make you feel
bad. You give me enough time, I can
do it. But that's not conviction of sin. That's not conviction
of sin. You know, when I was growing
up, I had good parents. My parents trained us. My dad was strict. You walked the line. And when
I'd get out of line, I didn't feel bad about it. But that's
not conviction of sin. That's not conviction of sin.
It takes the Holy Spirit of God to make a man to see that he
is sin. and not just make some mistakes.
That my nature from head to toe was corrupt and vile. Paul never cried, O wretched
man that I am, until God saved him. That's when he said it. Until then, he thought he was
a pretty good fellow. This is not something we come
to. A conviction of sin is not something we come to on our own.
We are not educated into a conviction of sin by preachers. That's the work of the Spirit
of God in the heart. That's His work. His work. The Spirit must give us eyes
to see, ears to hear, and a heart to believe with. It must do that before there
can be any real understanding of sin and of my need of salvation. That's His work. You know, dead
means dead. And people understand what that
means until you talk about being spiritually dead. You call someone
and say, so-and-so died, they know what you mean. But you stand
in a pulpit and say that men are spiritually dead, somehow
it just doesn't resonate. It's like, well, he's wounded,
he's crippled, but he's not dead. Yeah, he's dead. He's dead in
trespasses and sins. And until we are given life,
we don't even realize that we were dead. You don't even realize
it until God gives you life. Then you realize you were dead
in trespasses and sins. Now, with this in mind, let's
look at chapter 43. And I'm sure that pretty much all
of you are familiar with the story of Joseph. Joseph was Jacob's
favorite son. Jacob made no bones about it.
This one I love more than all the others, all these other sons
there that he had. Jacob or Joseph is the one he
loved. He made him a coat of many colors. He made a distinguish,
a distinction between Joseph and the rest of them. And because
of that, they were jealous, envious. And they hated him for it. They
hated Joseph. And one day Jacob said, I want
you to go check on your brothers. And when he went out to check
on them, they saw him afar off and they plotted against him. And they took him. When he came
near, they took him and put him in a pit. It says where he was,
no water. This is all the providence of
God. Joseph is such a strong type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are so many pictures here. It's like my brother's wife has
a digital One of those digital picture frames. And you stand
there and look at it and then a picture pops up and then a
little bit another picture pops up and then another picture.
That's what it's like reading the Old Testament. It's just
picture after picture after picture. Well, this this here is a strong
picture of Christ. Joseph is. But we're going to
come to this surety where Judah is now the picture of the surety
of Christ. But anyway, Joseph is put in
the pit. And then Judah is the one who
says, let's not kill him, let's sell him. So they sold him to
some Ishmaelites. Well, the Ishmaelites are the
descendants of Ishmael, which was a son of the bondwoman. So
he gets sold to the people who are under bondage, which represents
the law. And so they take him and they
go down to Egypt and they sell him to Potiphar. And Potiphar
takes him and makes him his servant. And Joseph is such an obedient
servant. He doesn't try to escape. He
doesn't try to run off and go back home. He stays there, accepts
the providence of God, the will of God, and serves that man.
And Potiphar just turns everything over to him. And then one day,
Potiphar's wife gets an eye for Joseph. You see, Joseph, it says
in the Scriptures, was well favored, like his mother, and well favored,
stunningly beautiful. Stunningly beautiful. Like our
Lord, fairest among ten thousand. Well, she saw him, she started
putting a move on him. And he would not accept her advances. So what happens, she tells Potiphar
that he made an advance on her, lies on him, and he ends up in
prison. Just as our Lord, he ends up in prison for a sin he
didn't commit. Just as our Lord went to the
cross for sins he did not personally commit. Joseph had sin imputed
to him, charged to him, and he ends up in prison over it, just
as our Lord had sin imputed to him, charged to him. Well, while
he's in prison, a baker and a butler's there, and they have a dream.
And Joseph can encompass the dream. And, of course, he tells
them what their dream is, and then the butler and the baker,
they are released out of prison. The baker ends up being killed,
just as the dream as Joseph interpreted the dream, and the butler stands
before Pharaoh again. Two years goes by, and this man
is still in prison. Patiently there, waiting on God.
And while he was in prison, you know the guard of the prison
turned everything over to Joseph? While he was in prison, it says
that nothing happened in that prison without him. Nothing. While he was in prison,
he was an obedient servant. And so now Pharaoh has a dream. And he comes out as the butler
or the butler. He tells Pharaoh, there's one
in down there in the prison that told me my dream, revealed my
dream. So he comes up and Pharaoh talks
to Pharaoh. He reveals to Pharaoh the dream,
the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. All this
is happening to bring him to the throne, to bring Joseph to
the throne. And then after he gets to the
throne, Pharaoh puts everything under the hand of Joseph. Joseph's word is law. Nothing
moves in that kingdom without Joseph. He's put over the storehouse. All of it's under him. And then
God sends a famine. And God sends this famine on
purpose, because there are 66 people down there in the land
of Canaan that He's going to bring to Egypt. that he's going
to save. This whole thing, this whole
thing that's going on is the purpose of God saving Israel,
his elect. And this seven years of plenty
and then the seven years of famine is all purpose to bring them
and Joseph to reveal himself to his brethren. It's an amazing
story, what an amazing story. All right, let's pick up now
here in verse one. The famine, it says, is still sore. It's
severe in the land. And Jacob tells his sons to go
back to Egypt. He says, you go back to Egypt
and you buy some more corn. You see, when the Lord starts
a work, He finishes that work. He never leaves anything halfway
done. Tom quoted this, He that hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. This thing's going to come to
a head. This thing's going to be finished. When our Lord was
on the cross, the last thing he said, it's finished. It's
finished. God finishes his work. All right,
Judah tells Jacob that they cannot go back down without taking Benjamin.
Joseph, which his name at that time was Zathnaphaniah, now in
the translation The Egyptian translation of that name was
Savior of the World. That's the Egyptian translation
of that name. Savior of the World. That's what Pharaoh called it. And our Lord, that's who He is.
He's the Savior of the World. So Judah tells Jacob, he says,
you go back down there. Or Judah tells Jacob, I can't
go back down. We can't go. Joseph said, you don't come back
here without that young man. You're not going to see my face.
And Jacob didn't want to send Benjamin with them for fear he
would lose Benjamin like he did Joseph. I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to send him with
that lot anyway. Look what happened the first
time. So he didn't want to do it. You see, Benjamin was the
last child he had by Rachel. Rachel was the wife he loved.
And that's the last one, Joseph and Benjamin. And Benjamin was
the last one. And then Judah says here, he
says in verses 8 and 9, Judah said to Israel his father, send
the land with me and we will arise and go that we may live
and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones. If
you don't send us, we are all going to die, even Benjamin. So he's kind of like, you don't
have a choice. If we do not go to Joseph, Zaphnaphimia, and
get corn, and buy this corn, we're going to perish. We're
going to die. Even so, if we do not go to Christ,
if we do not go to Christ for all that we need to stand before
God, we will perish. We've got to go to Him. We have
to go to Him. But now here in verse 9 is where
I wanted to get to. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt
thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever."
What is a surety? Well, the word surety used in
this verse. According to Strong's Hebrew
dictionary, it means this. It means to braid. It means to
braid. You know what it is when you
braid something? You intertwine it. It means to
intermix. It means to mingle oneself with. It means to, listen, it means
to become. It means to become. It means
to undertake. Now, from this, we will be able
to see how the Lord Jesus Christ became surety for His people. But let me show you first, before
I get into that, what a surety is not. I want you to look back
over here in chapter 42, in verse 37. Well, let me read verse 36 with it. And
Jacob, their father, said unto them, talking to his boys, Me
have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is
not, and ye will take Benjamin away? All these things are against
me. And Reuben, now Reuben is the
firstborn. Reuben spake unto his father,
saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not unto thee. Deliver
him into my hand, and I'll bring him to thee again. Do you hear what Reuben's saying?
Reuben's saying to Jacob, I'll be surety. I'll be surety for
him. And if I don't bring him back,
you deliver him into my hands. If I don't bring him back, kill
my two sons, your grandsons. That's not a surety. Listen, Benjamin is willing to
let Jacob slay his two grandsons if he fails. That would be like
Christ saying, if I don't bring him back, kill all the angels.
Just slay all the angels. That's not a surety. That's not
a surety at all. On the surface, that sounds good.
That may sound real good. But Jacob, do you think Jacob's
a monster? That he'd want to slay his two
grandsons? I've got two grandchildren. I wouldn't want to slay them
for nothing. But you know what Jacob said about Reuben in chapter
49? He said, Reuben, you're unstable
as water. You're unstable as water. You're not a surety. You
couldn't be a surety at all. Yeah, slay my two grandsons.
Slay my two sons. Well, that may sound good, but
Reuben is willing to let his sons bear the blame for his failures. You know, religion has a warped
sense of view of God's justice. That God's justice will be satisfied
with slaying just anybody. No, it has to be the surety.
It has to be the one who is truly the surety. That's what it has
to be. And now look at what Jacob or
Judah says. Now, remember, our Lord sprang
from the tribe of Judah. Of my hand shall thou require
him. Let me bear the blame forever,
not my sons. Let me. Let me bear the blame
forever. Judah is willing to bear the
blame for Benjamin. Now that's a true surety. Here's
a surety. It is one who engages himself
for another's debts. It is someone who draws near
and claims absolute responsibility for another. That's a surety. It is one who gives a pledge
to pay another's debt. Christ is our surety. He is our
surety. As Judah drew near to Jacob,
and he gave him a solemn pledge to bring Benjamin home, or else
he would bear the blame forever. Even so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
even so, he drew near to God the Father, solemnly pledged,
solemnly promised to bring all his Benjamins home. I will be responsible for every
one of them. Bring me. Look to me. I'll bring
them home. I'll bear the responsibility.
I'll pay the debt. I'll pay the debt. Christ fully
pledged to the Father in a covenant of grace to bear the full responsibility
of all God's elect. He's responsible. He's responsible
for me. I believe the gospel. He's responsible
for every one of whom God chose. He's responsible. And listen,
it was a voluntary surety ship. His arm wasn't twisted behind
his back. Judah, Judah voluntarily stood, stepped forward and said,
I'll bear the blame. You put him in my hands. I'll
bring him back. I'll bring him back. It was a
voluntary surety ship. He's willingly, he willingly
struck hands with the father and said, I'll do it. It was his delight. It's his
delight to save Benjamin. It's his delight to be surety
for Benjamin. He didn't do it grudgingly. He
was delighted. Our Lord delighted. He delighted in the salvation
of God's elect. He delighted in it. He did not
grudgingly go through this life, walk on this earth saying, oh,
he's delighted to do it. Delighted to do it. Christ pledged
to bring in an everlasting righteousness. He pledged to bring it in. I'll
produce it. I'll produce it. He pledged to
satisfy God's law and justice on their behalf. And he did it.
He did it. God's law is absolutely satisfied
with every one of God's Benjamins. Every one of them. Now, we must
understand this. We must understand this. When
we become surety for someone or to pledge to pay for someone,
we pledge to do it if they fail. We pledge to do it and say, well,
if they can't pay the note, I will pay it. That's really not a surety,
that's a cosigner. That's what that is. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not a cosigner. He's a surety. He's a surety. When Christ pledged to be our
surety, listen, this is good, this is good. When He pledged,
I got it somewhere else, I don't remember where, but I didn't
come up with it. When He pledged to be our surety,
He assumed our debts immediately. Immediately, they were His. Listen,
at that time, we were set free. And that was before the world
was ever created. He said, I'll be surety for them.
Pleased to be surety for them. At that time, we were set free. All God's children were set free.
And God looked to Christ for satisfaction and not me. He does
not look to me for satisfaction. He looks to my surety for it. Benjamin was not even responsible
for bringing himself back. He didn't even have to watch
after himself. And Judah said, I'll do it. And don't you believe
me, Judah didn't take his eye off of him either. Judah never
let Benjamin out of his sight. I assure you that. But this is
good news. When he assumed our debt, we
were set free. At that time, our sins were imputed to Christ
and His righteousness imputed to us. At that time, before the
world began. Let me give you an example. The
Old Testament saints. When they died, where did they
go? Now, Catholicism has them in
a holding tank somewhere. But I'll tell you where they
went. They went to glory. Before Christ died on the cross,
on the Mount of Transfiguration, He stood there and talked to
Moses and Elijah. Because their sins were imputed
to Him. charged to their surety before
the world began. And His righteousness was imputed
to them long before this world began. God took care of this
matter long before He ever created the heavens and the earth. Before
He ever created the heavens and the earth. Job said this, a thousand
years before Christ came, I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know
that my surety liveth." He'll stand upon this earth in the
last days. I've seen for myself, my own eyes and none another's.
Job said, I know he's alive. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and
those other men who believe the gospel, they believe the same
gospel we believe. They believe the same surety we believe. Saved
the same way we are saved. Saved what? When Christ pledged
to be the surety of God's elect, He became God's servant. He became
a bondsman. If you go over into Hebrews chapter
7, where it speaks of Him being the surety of a better testament,
that word means bondsman. That word used in that text means
bondsman, one who pledges. And when He pledged to be the
surety, He became God's servant. And God said in Isaiah 42, Behold
My servant. whom I uphold, mine elect, and
whom my soul delights." God ceased looking to us for
satisfaction. He said, listen, He said, set
the prisoners free. I have found a ransom. I have found a ransom. And He found that in His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And God looks to him for satisfaction,
not to me. Not to me. He looks to him. This
is illustrated over here in the book of Philemon. Look over here
in the book of Philemon. This is Paul writing to Philemon
in verse 10. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus,
whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to thee
unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me, whom I have
sent again. Thou therefore receive him, that
is, mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in
thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.
But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should
not be, as it were, of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he
therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him
forever, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother,
for love, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both
in the flesh and in the Lord. If thou count me therefore a
partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, if he's
done anything wrong to you, if he owes you anything, Paul said,
you put that on my account. I'll pay it. paid in full. You put that on
my account. That's what happened. That's
the gospel. Our Lord stood as the surety
for his people. He became absolutely obligated
to pay the complete debt and satisfy all outstanding debts. Satisfy God's law. And we were
set free. We were set free from that. He
pledged to fulfill all our obligations, listen, even unto death. Not just to keep the law perfectly,
which he did, but the law says the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. So he had to do that too. And
he knew, he knew, not only did he have to keep the law, but
he knew he had to suffer and die on that cross to fulfill
the law. To satisfy God's law, he had
to do it all the way to the point of death. He had to do it. He pledged to
bring all God's Benjamins home without spot or wrinkle. Back
here in Genesis 43, verse 9, Judas said, If I bring him not
unto thee, and set him before thee, and set him before you,
I lie. I'll just bring a dead body back.
but to set him before thee." First, if anyone for whom Christ
is sure that he perishes, then he must bear the blame forever.
He failed. He failed. But now listen. Listen. I want you to notice
something here. The word set. Set him before thee. That word
set means to establish, means to present, means to stay, And
listen, it means to place permanently before thee. That's what he did. He said, I'll bring him back
and place him permanently before thee. That's what Christ did.
That's what he did. Judah is taking full responsibility
to bring Benjamin home. Benjamin is not bearing that
responsibility. Judah is. Jude is bearing it. That's what
he's doing. Look over here in chapter 44. Let me just paint a picture here
of what's happening. Joseph purposely had a cup put in Benjamin's
sack. And he tells his servant, he
says, now, you put this cup in their sack. And he lets them
go out of town. Then he sends his servant after
them, and he searches for this cup, this silver cup. You see, our Lord was given a
cup. He says, shall I not drink the cup which my Father has given
me? And then here's another picture. You've got Joseph as the father,
the servant as the Holy Spirit, and Benjamin now as a picture
of Christ. The innocent one becomes guilty,
and the guilty ones become blameless. You see? And so here's what happens.
That cup is put in there. And then in verse nine, the servant
comes and he stops them. And he says, with whomsoever
of thy servants, this is, I believe, Judah speaking, with whomsoever
of thy servants the cup is found, both let him die. Well, Benjamin
had nothing to do with what they did to Joseph. Benjamin is innocent
in this whole thing. If you'll notice, you'll notice
one thing here. You read through the book of Genesis here on Joseph
being a picture of Christ. You notice not one time is there
ever a sin mentioned against Joseph. I never noticed that
till we've been going through Genesis, because he represents
him who knew no sin. Not one time was there ever a
sin mentioned about him. But anyway, here, he said, with
whosoever thy servant has found, if he had his cup, let him die. And we also will be thy bondsmen.
And he said, now also let it be according to thy words. The
servant that Joseph sent said, all right, let it be according
to your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant,
and you shall be blameless. You guys can go home. Then they
speedily took down every man he sacked to the ground and opened
every man he sacked and searched and began at the eldest, left
at the youngest. And the cup was in Benjamin's sack. The innocent
one now becomes guilty. And then over here in verse 17,
and Joseph said, God forbid that I should do so, but the man in
whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant and ask
for you, get you up and you go in peace. You go in peace. You're blameless. These are the
ones who were guilty. They're blameless. But Judah
now steps back in the picture. Judah steps back in the picture
here and he starts pleading. with Joseph, don't do this, it'll
just kill my father. You'll bring him down to the
grave in his gray hairs, his sorrow, you'll just bring him
down to the grave. And then he says in 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, let thy servant abide instead
of the lad. Let me, take me. That's why he said, take me and
let Benjamin go. When they came to our Lord in
the Garden of Gethsemane, when they came there, he said, who
are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And they fell backwards. Of course, he gives
them the strength to get back up off the ground and finish
their job. And he says, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. Now, listen, let these go. He
simply let these go. And that's what he says to the
law. Let these go. Take me. I'm the surety. I bear
the blame. You let these go. And I'll tell
you what, the law has to let them go. They didn't take any
of them. They took him. They took him. He's the surety.
He's the surety. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring in. This is the will of
the Father of all that which he has given me, I should lose
nothing, not one of them, not one. Now to close. How can you and I be sure that
what Christ did, he did for me, he did for you? Oh, that would
be my question. How can I be sure that he's my
surety? He's my surety. Turn over to
Hebrews chapter 7, and I'll close. Let's start in verse 22. By so
much was Jesus made a surety, a bondsman, one who pledges of
a better testament. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
Now listen to verse 25. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. How do I know How can
I know that He's my surety? Well, it says here, He's able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him. That means that I come relying
solely on His suretyship. Solely on Him. I come to the
Father by Him. In His name. That's what it means. I pledge nothing. I pledge absolutely
nothing. I rely totally on Him. Them that
come unto God by Him. Is that how you came? Is that
how you came? Totally by Him. Christ is my
all-sufficient sin payment. His righteousness is mine. His righteousness is the only
one I plead. He is the only one I plead, the Lord, our righteousness. I rely on Christ and Christ alone
for acceptance. That's how I know He's my surety. I came to God by Him, totally,
absolutely relying 1,000% on Jesus Christ Himself. He is my salvation. He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. He's all of it. He's the message. He's the message. All right.