Proverbs 17, 18, a man void of
understanding striketh hands and becometh surety in the presence
of his friend. Now, there's a reason why someone
needs another person to become surety for them. They're about
to incur debt that they themselves cannot be trusted to pay back. Now, for whatever reason, maybe
they've proven themselves to be untrustworthy in the past
by not paying their debts, or maybe they just don't have sufficient
resources to cause a lender to have confidence that they will
be able to pay it back. But for whatever reason, they
can't be trusted to repay. In either case, our
text says that it's unwise to become surety for them. And the text assumes something
else that's important. The untrustworthy person, and
I say that strictly, that's, like I say, it could be various
reasons for that. why they're not being trusted
to pay it back themselves, why they're not just taking out a
loan without surety. But they're buying something
that they can't pay for. If they could pay for it, then
why wouldn't they just pay for it? There'd be no need for a
surety. They're about to get in over
their heads a little bit or a lot, and they need help, they need
someone to guarantee that debt. So you have a person here who
for one reason or another can't be trusted to pay back a debt
and they're not living within their means. You don't have to
borrow money. It's pretty convenient. and almost necessary,
and maybe necessary in the economy that we live in today, for one
reason or another, and I realize there may be circumstances even
back then that would make it a little more complicated than
this, but it doesn't make it a good decision. It doesn't make
it a good investment. Now, there are three lessons
that I pray that We'll learn from the Lord in this proverb. First of all, there's a lesson
here about human nature. No matter how many leaves people
turn over, no matter how many excuses they make or how convincing
somebody might be about how they're gonna do better in the future,
human nature doesn't change. You can count on it. This thing of having a debt that
we can't pay and incurring more debt is an illustration of our
spiritual condition before God. We owe God literally everything. And we have literally nothing
to pay. The more sinners do to try to
pay God back with their good works, which is what they're
doing, the more debt they incur. Because
our good works are full of sin. We've proven, like the debtor
in our text, that we cannot pay. We have a history of untrustworthiness. And our assets also do not add
up. We're not capable of returning unto God for even
one of his mercies upon us. And therefore, we can't be trusted. In Luke 18, nine, when our Lord,
when he began to tell the parable of the Pharisee and the publican
praying in the temple, That parable is introduced this
way in Luke 18 and verse nine. He, the Lord, spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous
and despised others. As I said, the parable mentioned
there is the parable of the Pharisee, the publican that went into the
temple to pray. And the Pharisee considered his good works sufficient
to redeem his soul. He acknowledged that he owed
God a debt, but he was real happy with his
own ability to repay that. The man who trusts himself to
satisfy God's requirements is void of understanding, our text
says. The second thing here, that I
want us to learn, and I pray the Lord will teach us this morning,
is that there's only one thing that'll make a wise man strike
hands for his friend. As our text indicates, a fool
might do so for many reasons, not knowing the implications
of what he's doing. It's not a wise thing to do. But a wise man knows better.
A wise man is gonna realize what he's getting into. He's gonna
see that there's a reason why the lender requires a surety
here. And if the lender doesn't trust
this person, then why would you? Why would you put yourself on
the line for them? Well, there's a good answer to
that, because you love them. because he loves his friend so
much that the money doesn't matter. The wise man who loves considers
it a gift, not a financial arrangement, not a financial obligation, it's
a gift. And his friend is more precious
to him than his assets. I've become surety a few times
in my life, but it was always for someone who, if they defaulted
on their loan, I would not consider it a burden to pay it for them. How can you consider paying somebody
else's debt, not a burden? Well, you know the answer to
that. And the third thing that I pray
the Lord would teach us in this is that our Lord Jesus Christ
became surety for us, not in case we defaulted, but knowing
that we would. He doesn't pick up the slack
on our debt. He paid it all freely. Our debt was infinite. Only he
was worth enough to pay it. And he did so with joy. And there's only one answer to
why someone would do that. And we don't pay the Lord back
by obeying him and doing good works. We do not pay the Lord
back, period, ever. We just, by his grace, honor
him who made his own soul an offering for our sin and paid
our sin debt before God. There is no merit. In fact, there
is sin that he had to pay for in our very honoring of him. And yet honor him, we must. He's worthy of all honor and
glory for redeeming us with his own precious blood. That's why we're here. This is the final thought this
morning. We're not here for what we can get out of it. Every blessing
that God has to bestow, his comfort, his peace while we're in this
world, the very feeding of our soul,
It happens this way, but we are not here for what we can get
out of it. I've heard people say, you get
out of a church what you put into it. That's not a church. That's a religious club. We're here to honor our Lord
Jesus Christ. We're here out of gratitude and
worship unto him for what he's done for us. Glory to his name,
that's why we're here. Not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory, O Lord. And that supersedes everything
selfish, everything personal. everything petty and in vain May God make us thankful that
when the penalty was eternal death and Punishment this son of God
struck hands And gave himself for our sins Amen, let's pray