Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Over the past several months,
I've been spending many hours talking to lenders and doing
research and making preparations for this church to obtain a loan. And I've listened to bankers
describe to me what a guarantor is, what a surety is, and what
their responsibilities are. And all I could think about the
whole time they're describing this to me is how very different
these two things are, a guarantor and a surety. How very different
they are from how Christ became our surety. And this verse right
here kept coming to me for two months now. I've wanted to preach
on this. And I'm going to finally preach on it. Hebrews 7.22. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. Our focus this morning is going
to be Christ our surety. It says here, Jesus was made
a surety. Jesus was made a surety. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
a surety for God's elect. Not for anybody else, for God's
elect. And you're going to see how that's
so when we get through with this because He paid everything. It's
for His elect. Now, our Lord has enabled some
of you here to volunteer as guarantors. for when the church gets alone,
whether it be this particular building or one down the road,
whenever. And I'm sure there are probably some here that would
do that, but they're unable to for some reason. And that's fine. The Lord only requires us to
do what we can. And when He enables us to do
what we can, we give Him the glory. Because He's the one that
has done it all to enable us to do it. Some may not have the
faith to do it, but there might be some that would like to do
it. And I thought I'd take this time to help everybody understand
what it is to be a guarantor. But to do it by showing you how
very different it is between being a guarantor in this earth
and what Christ our surety did. Now let me define what the lenders
said to me as far as definitions of a guarantor and a surety.
A guarantor is a person who promises under legal contract, under a
covenant, to pay off a loan to a lender only after the original
borrower defaults on the loan. and he's proven that he's incapable
of paying the loan. Did you get that? He's a person
who enters a legal contract, a legal covenant. He's going
to pay off the loan only after the original borrower has defaulted
and been proven he cannot pay. All right, sure it is very similar
to that, but a little different. A lot of the bankers use it interchangeably,
but I've done some research and found out they're a little different.
A surety cosigns the actual agreement with the borrower. The guarantor
doesn't. He comes afterwards and signs
a contract. It's a separate contract, separate
covenant. The cosigner, the surety is a
cosigner with the borrower. So that from that moment, if
the borrower misses a payment, the lender can look straight
to the surety for the payment at any point. at any point. He can take from the borrower
or the surety if the payment's not made. Alright, that's not
in any way, neither of those is any way how Christ became
a guarantee, a surety for his people. Neither one of them compares
to how Christ became a surety. Now let me show you the differences.
First of all, Christ is an eternal surety. Now, it's obvious that
the need for a surety is due to a debt that's owed. That's
obvious. Now, as a church, we're going
to go and when we borrow from a lender, we're going to go and
enter a covenant with that lender saying we're going to pay this
debt. But the whole church of God,
not just his elect here, the whole church of God, everywhere,
we've already defaulted on a covenant before God. In the garden, in
Adam, We sin. All, every man sinned in Adam. Adam represented the whole human
race. The whole human race came from Adam. And we all sinned
in Adam. And we all fell under a debt
to God. And it was a debt we could never
pay. A debt we could not pay. We have
to give God perfect obedience to His law because it's God's
law. We have to do it from a perfectly
holy nature. Our nature is sinful. We have
to die eternal death because justice has got to be satisfied. None of us can do that. None
of us can do that. No sinner can pay the debt he
owes to God. We cannot do it. We cannot do
it in any regard. And yet, before the foundation of the
world, before the foundation of the world, before as yet we
entered that covenant in Adam, God chose His Son and entrusted
all God's elect to His Son to be surety for His people. Before we ever fell into debt,
Scripture says, Psalm 89, 19 says, Thou spakest in vision
to Thy Holy One. That's who Christ is. And he
said, I've laid help upon one that's mighty. I've exalted one
chosen out of the people. When he chose Christ to be the
surety, he exalted Christ. This was an honor to Christ.
He exalted Him. And he said, And with whom my
hand shall be established, and mine arm also shall strengthen
him. Now, we tend to think assurity
ship as a burden. We think of it as a risk. And
it is a risk, it is a burden if you hastily enter a guarantor
agreement or assurity ship agreement for somebody that can't pay it,
for somebody who's untrustworthy. Scripture warns us about that,
says don't do that. Don't enter assurity ship for
somebody who can't pay it, who's unworthy. Unworthy. But surety
ship's an honor. It's different because we're
not being chosen to be a guarantor, but God chose His Son to be a
guarantor. He put that honor on His Son
because God first trusted His Son. He first trusted Christ. That's what we read in Ephesians
1. He first trusted Christ. Gave this great honor to Christ.
Trusted Him with His glory. He's got to fulfill the law and
magnify God. And he trusted Him with His people. So in eternity, the Son of God
voluntarily, having heard the Father's will, He voluntarily
entered everlasting covenant with God to be surety for God's
people. He promised He'd faithfully perform
everything that God required to bring His people to God with
their debts fully paid. Christ did. In Isaiah 50 and
verse 5, He said this, The Lord hath opened mine ear. This is
Christ speaking. The Lord hath opened mine ear.
He revealed His will to me. He did it in eternity. And Christ
said, and I was not rebellious. I didn't say, no, I'm not going
to do that. Neither turned away back. He entered this agreement. He entered this covenant. Remember
how Judah became a surety for Benjamin? Let's look at this
picture. Genesis 43. This is what Christ did. Genesis 43. And look at verse 8. This is
what Christ did in eternity for all God's elect. Judah. Remember, Christ came from Judah,
the line of the tribe of Judah. This is a picture of Christ.
Judah said unto Israel, his father, he said to 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. You see,
Christ was doing this for the father and for the children.
And he said that we all might live, 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 for
ever." Now that's what Christ entered covenant with God to
do. If I don't bring every one of
these elect children to you, and set them before you, holy,
Spotless, without blame, all their debts paid. Christ said,
then you can throw me in hell and I'll bear the blame forever.
I'll bear the blame forever. Now, that's the honor of suretyship
to which Christ bound himself for his people. Now, brethren,
the good news of this is before we ever became sinners, before
we ever defaulted on God's covenant in Adam, we had a Savior in our
surety. in Christ. This is why God didn't
destroy the world when Adam sinned in the garden. Why didn't He
just destroy the whole world when Adam sinned in the garden?
There's just one man that sinned. He could have just destroyed
him in hell right then and the whole human race would have been
destroyed. Why didn't He do that? Because God had a surety for
His people. A surety for His people. He's
gracious unto him and says, deliver him from going down to the pit.
I found a ransom. God said, I have somebody that's
going to be surety for them, for all man elect. This is how
every Old Testament believer was saved before as yet Christ
ever went to the cross, because Christ was their surety. You
ever wonder how they could speak of being redeemed, and of being
made holy, and of being made accepted with God, when as yet
Christ hadn't shed his blood on Calvary? It was because Christ
was their surety from before the foundation of the world.
This is why you and I haven't been consumed now. It's because
Christ is our surety. That's why His mercies never
fail. Because we have mercies in Christ
our surety. Now, when we become a guarantor,
there's a possibility that we're going to die. And we won't be
able to be any worth to the creditor, the borrower, or to the lender. We won't be any good to either
one of them. But that's not so with Christ because our surety
is an eternal surety. Our surety is the God-man. Our
surety is from everlasting to everlasting. Look here in Hebrews
7 and verse 15. It's yet far more evident. He's
talking about how much better this new covenant is. Having
this new high priest, Christ, and having Him for our surety.
He's talking about how much better it is. It's evident, far evident,
for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arose another
priest. Every Old Testament priest was
a kind of a surety for the children of Israel. Because they're the
ones that offered the sacrifices and made atonement, brought the
blood to God in a holy place. They were a kind of a surety
to Israel. But the difference with those
priests were, they were made priests after the law of a carnal
commandment. What does that mean? It's a fancy
word, primogenitor. You know what that means? It
means, I become a priest, if I'm in the tribe of Levi, I become
a priest when my father dies. He passes to me, the firstborn
son. And when I die, he passes to
my son. That's the law of a carnal commandment.
That's not how it is with Christ. Look here, verse 23. Look at verse 16. I'm sorry,
verse 16. "...who is made not after the
law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life. For he testified, Thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." What's that
mean? Christ has neither beginning of days nor ending of days. That means He lives forever.
That means His covenant is everlasting. From everlasting to everlasting
toward His people. Look at verse 23. They truly
were many priests because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. But this man, there's just one. We just got one high priest.
It ain't Pope. It ain't the Pope. It ain't all
these little fellows running around. fooling with boys over
there in the Catholic church. No. He's in heaven. He's our
high priest. He's Christ, our high priest.
There's just one, and He continueth forever. He has an unchangeable
priesthood, wherefore He's able also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession
for them. You want to know if you're one
of these elect? It's your only way to God, Christ. I mean, from
now on forever, the only thing you look into is Christ, to come
to God. If that's so of you, and you say that from your heart,
you're one of these elect. One of these elect. Now look
here. Secondly, when we become a guarantor,
we're going to be guarantor for one party. We're going to be
the guarantor for the creditor. We're going to represent the
creditor. We're going to be paying the debtor, representing the
creditor. That's not how Christ was assured. Christ was a surety
representing both parties. You see, in a covenant, you have
two parties. You have, and in this covenant, you have God and
you have man. He's the God-man. As God, He's
representing God toward His people. And as man, He's representing
all God's elect toward God. He's fulfilling everything on
God's part and on man's part. God put it all in Christ's hand.
Isn't that something? It's all His to fulfill. Christ
said, He said, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written
of Me. I come, Lord, to do Thy will.
Thy law is in My heart. He came to do God's will. And
concerning man toward God, look here at verse 19. The law made
nothing perfect. You can't come to God in the
law and I can't come to God in the law. But the bringing in
of a better hope made us perfect. Christ made us perfect. By one
offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. He
made us perfect by the witch, by Christ we draw near unto God. You see that? He represented
God the Father, represented His people. Because He fulfilled
God's part, God's just. His law is satisfied, it's honored,
it's magnified, it's upheld and God's just to save His people. And because He fulfilled man's
part, we're justified from our sins and we have perfectly obeyed
the law of God so that God and His law looks upon us and says,
well done, well done, my good and faithful servant. How could
God say that to me and you? Only in Christ. Only in Christ. And He does. You see, God didn't
leave anything in the hands of His people. He left nothing in
the hands of His people. This is why we read in 2 Corinthians
1.20, all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and they're
in Him, amen. They're final. They're sure.
They're certain. That's what a surety means, sure. They're sure in Christ. and it's
unto the glory of God and it's done by or for us. All right,
now thirdly, when we become a surety, a guarantor I should say, when
we become a guarantor, we do so for those in good standing,
for those that we trust can pay their debt, to those we see it
being as a low risk to us. We probably won't have to pay
because they're going to be able to pay it. That's not how Christ
became surety for us. Christ became surety for His
people knowing from eternity, knowing full well, we would default. We would not be able to pay.
The scripture says, Romans 5, 6 says, Christ died for the ungodly. Did He just find that out when
He got to earth? No, He knew it in eternity. He knows the
end from the beginning. He knew what we'd be. It was
according to God's purpose to glorify His Son that we'd fall
into God. Everything's according to God's
purpose. There's nothing that's happening outside of God's purpose. But when He struck hands with
the Father, when Christ entered covenant with the Father and
became surety for the Father, the Father looked to Him and
Him only. The Father didn't look to His
people. He looked to Christ only. So
that when Christ entered covenant, He became, as Revelation 13.8
says, He became the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. What does that mean? Well, with
an earthly guarantor, the lender can only look to the guarantor
only after the creditor fails And it's proven he cannot pay.
That's the only way that the lender can look to the guarantor. But not with Christ. God never
looked to us because he knew we would default. And Christ
became our surety. When Christ became our surety
in eternity, right then, he became legally responsible for all the
debt his people owed. Then, then, You see, as a guarantor,
we won't become legally responsible until after the borrower defaults. Before as yet we had defaulted.
Christ became legally responsible for all His people. He became
our head. He became our high priest. He
became our advocate. He became our substitute. He
became our representative so that God never looked to His
people at all. He's never looked to his people.
Aren't you thankful for that? We're going to look at Jacob
next time and we're going to see us and we're going to see why
we're so thankful he don't look to us. But Christ knew this.
He knew this. He knew this from the beginning.
He did what Paul did for Philemon. Remember that to Philemon? Onesimus
was Philemon's servant. He ran away from home and he
robbed Philemon. But God was bringing him the
whole time, drawing him right to cross the path of Paul so
that Paul could preach the gospel to him. And Paul preached the
gospel to him and God saved him. And Paul wrote to Philemon and
he said this, If he's wrong thee, or oweth thee aught, put that
on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with
my own hand, I will repay it. You see, being a surety is not
unlawful before God, it's honorable before God. That's what Paul
said. Put it on my account, I'll pay everything he owes. I've
lifted my hand, I've written it with my own hand, I'll pay
it, Paul said. That's what Christ did for us
before the world began. Knowing we would default, knowing
we'd fail, he did that. But he didn't do it like Paul
said, he said, if he's wrong thee, or if he owes thee, that's
not what Christ said, when he does. No doubt about it, when
he does, when he does, I'm going to pay everything. I'm going
to pay everything. And so when he did that, we were
free from every legal obligation, we were free from the law, we
were free from all responsibility, we were free from it completely
because Christ took all the responsibility himself. and it took it off of
His people. Now that's why, brethren, when
you read in Ephesians 1, it says, when God blessed His people,
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
in Christ, according as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world. How did He bless us with all
spiritual blessings when He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world? It's because Christ became our surety. And when Christ
became our surety, right then, all His elect became accepted
in the Beloved, in the Beloved surety. Accepted. That's why
Romans 8 speaks and it says, who God foreknew, who He elected
and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. This
is all written in the past tense in Romans 8. It says, them He
called and justified and glorified. When? When he put them in Christ
and Christ became the assurance. It was done right then! Because
there was no possibility Christ would fail. There was no possibility
that he would not come and take the debt and pay the debt. There
was no possibility. It was all done right then. Do
you see how eternally secure the salvation of God's people
are? Some here don't have assurance that Christ will keep them. That
Christ will provide everything for you. When you think about
this, if He became our surety, when He knew we were going to
default and would not be able to pay and would hate and despise
and reject Him, if He knew that and He became our surety, now
that He's paid the debt, do you think there's any way He's going
to not provide for us? Especially if it's His church
seeking to spread the gospel and tell people everything He's
given? No way. No way he's going to
provide. He will provide. I don't believe
that preacher. You'll never find it out either
if you don't believe him. But if you believe him, you'll
see it so. You'll see it so. Fourth thing. As a guarantor,
even our payment is different than Christ's. As a guarantor, even our payment
is different than Christ's. You see, if we do have to pay
as a guarantor or surety, we're going to either pay something
like money. I mean, we don't like to give
up our money. We think that's our security and our salvation
in life. But if we have a choice between
that and our bodies, there's no sweat off our back to give
some money. If we had to buy our way into heaven, man won't
think he can buy his way into heaven. It's no sweat for him
to give money. He'll do that in a heartbeat. Deny himself? No. Pay money? Yes, he'll do
that. See, we might have to pay some
money. We might have to give some kind of collateral, something
we own, something we've purchased, something like that. But we won't
have to give ourselves. We won't have to give ourselves. But it wasn't so with Christ.
Christ became surety for His people, knowing full well, from
the beginning, from eternity, that Christ is Himself the payment. His body, His soul, His blood,
He's the payment. Galatians 1 verse 4 said, Who
gave Himself for us. that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. He gave Himself. Titus 2.14 says, who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, all iniquity,
past, present and future, all iniquity, and purify unto Himself
a peculiar people zealous of good works." Christ paid His
own body. He paid His own soul. He paid
His own blood, even unto the death of the cross. He agreed. He knew this. He knew He was
doing it. He agreed to be made of a woman. Eternal God. agreed to take the likeness of
sinful flesh. Do you know what a stoop that
was? What a condescending stoop that
was for God? He had to be made under the law. He's the lawgiver. The law is
His law. But He had to be, as a man, made
subservient to God and to his own law. He had to take the form
of a servant. Make himself of no reputation
and take the form of a servant. We're not going to have to become
a slave if the borrower defaults. Christ did. Lawfully, willingly,
voluntarily agreed to that. He had to be made sin. The shameful
thing he hated. He had to be made a curse. A curse. He had to die the eternal
death. And he had to do all this for
us. I wish we could enter into the
value We can't. We don't. This rolls off us. We slumber. We sit here half
asleep, half cocked, thinking about what we did last night.
Shame on us. Do you see what Christ gave?
Christ gave Himself. He sweat great, great drops of
blood facing it. That's how awful it was. His
face, he sweat drops, his capillaries ruptured just thinking about
what he was going to have to bear. And yet, he said, I gave, I gave,
I gave my back to the smiters. And I, my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair, and I hid not my face from shame and from
spitting. His visage, His appearance was
marred more than any man. I guarantee you this, when we
get to glory, we're going to find out that is exactly what
that means. I don't care what man you can
think of whose visage was marred, Christ was marred more. Marred more. There have been
some pretty wrecked up folks in this world, in car wrecks
and killings and everything else. Christ more. This was internal. This was in body. This was eternal. This was spiritual as well as
physical. Here's more. Here's more. And
it wasn't just at the hands of men. Despised and rejected of
men. Dancing around, spitting on him,
punching him, laughing at him, mocking him. Deserted by his closest friends. Deserted by his closest friends.
Those he ministered to. I've ministered to you for eight
years. Do you know how it would break my heart? It does. Every time somebody
leaves, it breaks my heart. Do you know how it would break
my heart to have some of you that I trust God saved to leave?
That would break my heart. We all left Christ. All left
Him there on the cross. Bearing in His body that shame
that He hated. Sin He hated. Despising it. Hating it. Bearing it. Forsaken by God the Father he
loved. He's alone. Remember, he's doing
this for God and for his people. There he hangs between the two,
between heaven and earth, alone. Shredding the winepress, alone. Suffering eternal death. You
know what eternal death is? It's to be forsaken of the presence
of God's glory. That's what he was forsaken of.
That's what he was bearing when he was hanging there alive on
that cross. He was forsaken of God's glory, the power of God's
glory. Brethren, listen to me now. You,
especially we that's going to be guarantors, listen to this.
He knew that's what he was going to pay when he entered in. Would we do that? I don't think
we would. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it if I thought
I was just going to have to pay money. Christ did it knowing
He would. Pay His body, His soul, His blood. But He gave Himself and that
means He paid everything. He paid all the debt His people
owe. Now, here's the last point I
want to make. God raised him. God put him on
the right hand of God, showing us that it's done. It's accomplished.
Justice is satisfied. The law is fulfilled. The whole
covenant is taken out of the way. That curse is gone. We've
been redeemed. All His people have been redeemed.
All that remains to be done now, Christ is sending forth His people
with this Gospel, and He's calling them out, and He's teaching them
what He's done for them, and He's bringing them into His house
by His grace. See, part of this work, He said,
I'm going to bring them to you and set them before you. First,
He paid the debt. He's got to go gather them now
and bring them all to God and present them to God, holy and
without blame. That's what we're here for, brethren. Just to preach
it. Just to declare it. Just to shout
from the rooftops what Christ has done for us. And He's going
to work this in the heart of His people. He's going to bring
us home. Now, here's the last thing. With
an earthly surety, now let's look at a surety for a minute.
We've been looking at a guarantor with an earthly surety. The lender
can look to both the creditor and the surety. He can look to
the creditor and he can look to the surety. He can look to
the original borrower and he can look to the surety. At any
point, that payment needs to be made. He can look to either
one of them. But the justice of God looked only to Christ. And Christ paid it. He paid it
in full. And therefore, God and His law will never again
look to His people to pay anything. Never look, never charge any
sin to you, never charge you with fault, never ever again. The payment is made. It's done. You see, One of the things that's
going to be joyful, the first day we sign that loan, it's going
to be joy. Because we're trusting God. We're trusting God. We're going
to go forth in His name, trusting Him to provide, to build up His
house, to give honor to His name, just like He's promised He'll
still do. It's going to be a great day of rejoicing. Like when David
dedicated the temple. Lord, we've just given what You've
given to us. so bountifully that you've enabled
us to do it. That's what we're going to be
saying. And I'll tell you another day that's going to be joyful.
The day it's all paid off. The last payment's paid. It's
going to be joy. It's finished. It's done. The
lender can't come to us anymore. It's paid. It's done. They can't
come to us anymore. Well, brethren, the good news
of the Gospel is it's finished. Christ paid it all. And the law
of God will never again look to His child. Never again look
to his child. If I sin in my rebellion, God's
going to chase me, yes. He's going to bring me back to
the feet of Christ, yes. But it's not in anger, it's in
love. God's showing me, it's finished. Quit going back to
your works and your filth. It's finished. Sit here at the
feet of my Son. Dwell here. That's what He's
showing us. Christ now is made higher than
the heavens. Go to Romans 6 with me, we'll
end with this. So no sin now can be laid to
us. Now look, this is the gospel,
this is what God declares to us. Verse 6, Romans 6, 6, Knowing
this, that our old man, that's what we were in Adam, our flesh,
read the bulletin today and look at the last article that I wrote
there. Our flesh, our old man. Look here now. Knowing this,
our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Maybe we ought not, so that there
won't be any possibility of it. Christ destroyed it. He destroyed
it. Now watch this. Verse 7. For
he that is dead is freed from sin. Altogether free. You see, before God, all God's
elect have died. We've all suffered hell already.
We've all suffered justice already. We're dead. We're freed from
sin now. Look here, and not only did we
suffer it, we satisfied it. You know, if you go to hell,
you won't satisfy it. You'll suffer forever. We satisfied it in Christ. So we're freed now from sin.
Altogether satisfied. Look here, now if we be dead
with Christ, that's not all. We believe we shall also live
with Him. knowing that Christ being raised
from the dead doth no more. Death has no more dominion over
him. You know, death's of sin. If there is no sin, there is
no death. Death can't have dominion over you. Christ let death have
dominion over Him one time when Christ volunteered to be made
sin for His people. He laid down His life on that
cross letting death have dominion over Him because He's made sin
for His people. No more because He put sin away. Death can't have dominion over
him anymore. Look here now. For in that he
died, he died unto sin once. But in that he liveth, he lives
unto God now. Likewise, how does that apply
to me and you? Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, and also alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. You see there it says, Christ
lives under God. All these preachers going around
talking about how you need to live under God. Now, don't get
me wrong, you should be the servant of God. And if God has saved
us, you are the servant of God. You're the servant of righteousness.
Now, live as a servant of righteousness, not as a servant of sin. But
I'm going to tell you where your perfection is in service. Christ
lives right there at the right hand of God. And however He lives
right there, That's how I live, right here. As He is right there,
that's how I am in this earth. How's He living right there?
Perfectly holy and righteous and accepted of God. That's how
I am too. Without sin, without any possibility of sin or death
reigning over Him again. Can sin have anything to say
to Christ anymore? Nope. Can law have anything to
say to Christ anymore? Nope. Nope. Can death have anything
to say to Christ anymore? No. He's there at God's right
hand. He's living under God. God's
pleased. He's well pleased with him. The
same is true of you and me who believe. The same is true of
you and me who believe. Oh, brethren, listen. This is
our constraint to rest in Christ. This is our constraint to now
take everything Christ has given to us and use it to declare what
Christ has given to us. You understand what I'm saying? Right now I'm standing here because
I'm using what God has given to me, what Christ has given
to me, and my message to you is what Christ has given to me.
And our constraint is not law. Nobody's making me do this. There's
no law saying if you don't do this now, we're going to come
get you. No. I'm doing it because I want to. Because of what Christ
did for me. And he says this in 2 Corinthians
9. He says, to make all grace abound toward
you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may
abound to ever good work. That's right. Not just do it
and get by, abounding it. Abounding it. Now Romans 12,
I said we were going to end over there. We're going to end with
Romans 12. Alright, this is it. So then, knowing this, brethren,
am I going to live for myself? Am I going to live for me and
my house? Am I going to live for me? Uh-uh. I'm going to live for
Him. I'm going to live for Him. Romans
12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
by all this good news that you've just heard concerning Christ
our surety, I beseech you by Christ our surety, that you present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,
watch this, which is only reasonable. Isn't it? Isn't it? It's only
reasonable. Father, I pray you would make
us hear this. I pray you'd make us see how
certain and sure our salvation has been from eternity. Lord,
if you've got a sheep here that don't know you, call them out
of darkness. Make this the day of your love,
the time of your love, and pass by and quicken their hearts and
call them to Christ. And if there's a believer here
who's wavering between this world and you, Lord, shut him up to Christ.
Shut him up to Christ. And Lord, if there's believers
here who are serving you but they're nervous and weary, Lord,
make them to know that You've provided us righteousness and
holiness in Christ. You're going to, with Christ,
provide us everything we need in this life for the furtherance
of Your gospel. It's a sure, certain promise
in Christ our surety. Lord, we're trusting You. We
trust Your Word. We trust Your promise. We're
putting it all based on Your Word, which You've told us, Lord.
We trust You. If we perish, we're going to
perish trusting You. And we know that can't be. Thank
you, Father. Forgive us of our unbelief, our
sin, our wavering. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.