with me for our scripture reading
to Matthew chapter 15. Let's begin reading in verse
21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil, but he answered her not a word. And
his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then
came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he
answered and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord. Yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table.
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. Let's pray. Genesis 43. I'm going
to bring a, hopefully, I don't know if this is my last message
from Genesis or not. I think I may do one on Judah. I'm going to read these first
15 verses and talk about Benjamin's salvation. Benjamin's salvation,
which is typical of our salvation. And the famine was soaring the
land. They'd all ripped down there and already brought back
some food and they had to go back again. 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, saying, The man did solemnly
protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your
brother be with you." Now he's talking about Benjamin. youngest son. 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 yet had a
brother? And they said, The man asked us straightly of our state,
and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have you
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 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. 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. And the father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now,
do this, take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels,
carry down the man a present, a little balm, a little honey,
spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, and take double money in your
hand. And the money that was brought again in the mouth of
your sacks, carry it again in your hand. Peradventure it was
an oversight. Take also your brother and arise
and go unto the man. and God Almighty. give you mercy
before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin.
If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." Now, this is,
Joseph said, I won't, I'm not, don't come back down here unless
you bring your baby brother with you, Benjamin. Don't come back
down here. And this, I'm gonna talk about Benjamin's salvation
as being typical of our salvation. But here's the way things are,
God's ways are not our ways. Not even, oh, we're creatures
of time. He's eternal. We're creatures
that have senses and we live by our senses. He's not influenced
by anything. We're creatures of flesh. He's
spirit, pure eternal spirit. He is absolute spirit. God is
pure spirit. And He has no arms, He has no
eyes, He has no ears, He's Spirit, but yet He sees all, knows all,
and hears all, and does all. And that's the whole purpose
of the Lord Jesus Christ, God being made manifest in the flesh.
And our Lord Jesus Christ says, though I'm here on this earth,
yet I'm with my Father in heaven. God dwelt in heaven, and God
dwelt on earth in the person of His blessed Son. And God stayed
just like He was in both places. Oh, listen, that's the God we
worship. God that's there, God that's here. Both of them God. And then God the Holy Spirit
comes and takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us
and teaches us instruction. Oh, to be blessed of God, and
that's why He's eternal. We're creatures of flesh. He's
spirit, pure spirit. God said, I'm a spirit, and He
that worshiped me must worship me in spirit and in truth. He
seeketh such to worship Him in spirit and truth. And we're limited
in every way. We're limited. We gotta be in
one place at one time. But God's not bound by anything. He is not bound by time, space,
nothing. and because of the great great
infinite distance between us and we understand a little of
these things that's why salvation is so profound and so glorious
because of who God is and all his glory oh it's so profound
that this God this pure eternal infinite God not bound by time
space could be everywhere at all times Yet came here, took
His own flesh, became a man and identified with us. That's why
salvation, because look who it is that He saved. That's why
it makes salvation so profound. Sometimes it's more profound
at times than it is others, but there's never a time that you
just don't stand in utter astonishment and amazement. How can it be? How can it be? How can it be
that we You, me, could know God and God know us. Well, and looking
at Benjamin, the baby boy of Jacob and Rachel. Rachel died
giving birth to this child. Rachel died giving birth to him.
He's the baby boy. And Joseph was gone. Joseph was
gone. They thought he was dead. We
found out he wasn't. And Benjamin, we have a picture
of salvation. Joseph required that Benjamin
be brought down to see him. But here's the thing, the first
thing I want us to look at, he was the object. Benjamin was
the object of his father's special love. Oh, that's what Benjamin
means, the son of his right hand. Benjamin was so loved of his father's special
love. He said, don't sit here. Joseph's
not anymore. Simeon's up there and said, oh,
don't take Benjamin. Are you wanting me to die? You
want to take my last child from me? Oh, listen, he was an object
of his father's special love. And here's the thing, God does,
that girl sang it this morning. He loved me ere I knew him. Long before I knew him, he loved
me. And God does. always has and
always will bear an eternal and infinite love for His people.
There never was a time that God didn't love us. Never was a time
that God did not have His affection set on us. Never was a time I
know that this is a mysterious thing because we were so rebellious
and yet when we were in our sin and we were in our mother's wombs
before we ever done anything, God said, I loved you with an
everlasting love. Our Lord Jesus Christ loved his
people He came into this world. One fellow says all the time,
said, God so loved the Jews, John 3 16, God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, and that the Father loves
you and we do too. But I'm telling you, the Father
gave Christ to people. And he loved those people. Christ came and died for those
people. And when he said he so loved
the world, he's talking about not every person in the world,
but about her kindred, tongue, tribe, character, and the position
of everybody in this world. That's why that woman, you read
it tonight, Brad, that woman, she said, oh Lord, she just kept
coming, troubling the master. She's a Gentile woman, that's
a dog. And the master said, I can't,
I've got to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I've
gone to the Jews. She just kept on and on and on. And he said, it's not fit that
I take these children's bread and give it to dogs. She said,
Lord, that's right. You're right. I agree with you.
Oh, I agree with you. And that's what we do. We agree
with him. You're a dog? Yes, sir, I'm a
dog. You poor? Yes, sir, I'm poor. You weak? Yes, sir, I'm weak. You got anything
to give? No, sir, I don't have a thing.
But yet, master, the dogs eat the crumbs of the master's table.
And you know what he said about her? I've never seen such great
faith. Do you think he was surprised
in her coming? He set that up so we would learn.
We would learn. And oh, listen. Hosea 11, 4 says
this, I will love them freely. Freely. Nothing constrains him
to do it but himself. I've run across a message the
other day Scott gave me. 12 reasons. of Christ's special
love for His own, 12 reasons. But oh, we love Him. You know
why? Because He first loved us. And here's another thing. Now
over here in chapter 44, they had got their sacks all filled
up and they're ready to go back down into Canaan. And it said
in verse 1 of chapter 44, He commanded the steward of his
house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they
can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. And
listen to this, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's
mouth of the youngest, Benjamin, and his corn money. And he did
according to the word that Joseph had spoken. So they left the
city, and got out going their way out there, and they come
and overtook them. And all he began to look for that, said,
somebody's took my Lord's silver cup. And so he started looking
at every sack and look what he says there. Then in verse 11,
then they speedily took down every man's sack to the ground
and opened every man's sack. And he searched and began at
the eldest and left at the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. Now, this tells us this, that
Benjamin bore the evidence of his guilt, though he was unconscious
of it. He never took that silver cup.
He never took it. But yet, that's where they found
it. And I'll tell you what, so he bore the evidence of the guilt,
though he was unconscious of it. He was unconscious that that
was in there. He was unconscious that he was
going to have to go back and answer for this. And we all,
every single one of us, we bore the evidence of our guilt all
of our lives. And we did not know we were guilty
until we were found out. Ain't that right? I was guilty
for years and years and I didn't know I was till I was found out. They found a silver cup in my
cup in my bag. Oh my you know, that's what I
did You know the Holy Spirit when he comes the first thing
he does is convince of righteousness You ain't got one and there's
only one second thing he convinced you of is sin and that's all
you are and then he convinced you judgment and And I tell you,
when those three things are brought to bear on you, and they said
He'll convince you of that. That word convince means conviction. And I tell you what, you know
the only person that ever gets convicted when we're talking
about the work of the Holy Spirit is people that's actually guilty.
God doesn't convict people that's not guilty. And that's what he
does with us. He convinces us and makes us
to feel our guilt. And that's what happened to him.
He did not know that that was in his sack, but he bore the
evidence of his guilt. We bore the evidence of our guilt
long before we ever find out. And men, this is the thing about
it. That's why we keep preaching
about man bending state he is. Men are guilty whether they admit
it, whether they even feel it. Men are guilty. My children are
guilty, your children are guilty. Everyone's guilty and everybody
don't know they're guilty. And I'll tell you, he didn't
know it. And then here's the third thing about this salvation. The evidence of his guilt was
not placed there by himself. The evidence of his guilt was
not placed there by himself. Now what that tells us, that
cup, he didn't put it there himself. So how did he get the guilt?
He inherited the guilt. He was caused to be guilty by
somebody else. And beloved, we became guilty
by what somebody else did. We had nothing to do with being
guilty, except being born. That's all we had to do to be
guilty. Before God, just be born. Ain't that right? You know, the
scriptures tell us very, very clearly. David said, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And we've
looked at this so many times, but let's look at it. Romans
chapter 5. We quote this all the time, but
look at it. Let's look at it together. Romans chapter 5. We
quote this all the time. Now see, the evidence of his
guilt was not placed there by himself. And here's the thing
about it. We were guilty and we had inherited
a bad nature and had nothing to do with being guilty. So that's
the same. We had nothing to do with our condemnation other than
our relationship to Adam and then our own inherent sins that
we did ourselves. But that's the same thing it
is with Christ. We didn't become sinners by what somebody else
did. And we only become righteous
by what somebody else did. But here in Romans 5, look what
he says in verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by that one sin, so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. For until the law, sin
was in the other, in the world, but sin is not imputed where
there is no law. Now listen to this. Nevertheless,
death reigned from Adam to Moses. There was no law given until
Moses caught and put it on stones for us. Nevertheless, death reigned
from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after
the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of his God. Now, beloved, we's guilty. because
of what somebody else did. I was born that way. I was born
guilty. And people say, well, they're
going to be lost. I was born lost. Men are born that way. That's why if you're going to
have children, and I know some of you have done this, and other
people do it, the only people that pray for their children
before they're born is people that know and understand their
children's guilt before they were brought into this world.
Then you know you're bringing an eternal soul into this world.
And that soul is going to have to grow up and face God. So we
pray for him, Lord, please don't bring a child into this world
unless you intend to make him one of your elect. If you're
not going to save him, don't let me have a child. If you're
not going to do something for him, don't do it. Please, don't
let me have a child. I wish I'd have had sense enough
to know that back in them days. All right. The fourth thing is
this, he was separated temporarily from his father, but in danger
of separation becoming permanent. Look here at verse 17 of chapter
44. And he said, God forbid that
I should do so. Judah's talking about now. But
the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant.
And as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. In other
words, everybody else go home, but I'm going to keep, I'm going
to keep Benjamin right here. That man who found my, they found
my cup and he's going to stay here. The rest of you can go
on home. So he was separated temporarily from his father,
but in danger of separation becoming permanent. And I tell you, beloved,
he didn't know he'd ever see his father again. Joseph never
thought he'd ever see his father or his brothers again, but he
did. You know why he did? Because God caused him to do
that. But the scriptures, the scriptures
are full of promises and warnings. And over here, you've got promises
on one side. They're just as sure as God himself. But over on this other side,
you've got these warnings. Unless you presume on the promises,
you have these warnings to keep you from being presumptuous.
You want me to show you some of them? Look in Hebrews with
me. Let's look together in Hebrews 10. This is a perfect illustration
of what I'm saying. And that's what happens to believers. We have promises and we have
warnings. And he was temporarily separated
from his father. His father said, oh, don't take
him. But they took him. And Joseph kept him. And you
know why he kept him? Because he wanted his father
to come up there. He wanted the whole family up there. And God
has his providence that he's going to bring all his people
to himself, no matter how he has to bring them. He's going
to bring them to himself. And salvation is eternal, I know
salvation's eternal. But I also know this, if I leave
Christ, if I leave the gospel, there'll be no hope for me. I
know that as well as I know my own name. Are you afraid? Do
you understand that? That we know, we know that salvation
is eternal. God saved us, Christ gave us
eternal life. And yet at the same time, we're
still in this flesh, and we still, I fear myself. I fear God! And oh, look what he said here.
Now here's the promises in Hebrews 10, 14. Here's, whoa, what blessed
promises here. What comfort, what assurance.
For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also witnesses
to us. After that he said before, this
is what he said before. This is the covenant that I will
make with them. Now to Jeremiah. After those
days, saith the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts. And
in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where payment of these is,
there's no more offering for sin." Oh, what a blessed comfort
that is. How encouraging that is. But
now look over in verse 25. Look in verse 25, same chapter. not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting
one another so much more as you see the day approaching. What
day? The day of the coming of Christ, the day, the evil days,
the days of Noah. And listen to this, for if we
sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the
truth, if we walk away from Christ, we walk away from the gospel,
And that's what he says, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. You walk away from Christ, you
walk away from the gospel, you walk away from the truth after
you've heard the knowledge of the truth. Our Lord Jesus over
in 2 Peter, it says this, said, the man that knows the truth,
he said, and he goes back, he's like a hog going back to the
slop, a dog to his vomit. And that's what he says here.
We just heard there, perfected forever. But if we, and he goes
on to say, after we have a knowledge of the truth, you walk away from
that, there is no more sacrifice. Christ will never be offered
again. Christ will never suffer again. Sins will never be dealt
with again except this one place. But here's what you got to look
forward to. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fire
indignation which shall devour the adversaries. warning. Look down here in verse 35. Look
down in verse 35. Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. You got
confidence in Christ? You got confidence in His Word?
You got confidence in God? You got confidence in Christ's
blood? You got confidence in the righteousness of Christ?
Got confidence in the Spirit of Christ? You got For you have
need of patience. After you have done the will
of God, you might receive the promise. Again, you know that
means just keepin' on, keepin' on. For yet a little while, and
he that shall come will come, and he ain't gonna wait no longer.
Now listen to this. Now the just shall live by what? Faith. If any man draw back,
my soul won't have any pleasure in it. But listen to this now.
See all these warnings, but he comes right back to this where
he started at. But we are not, we are not of
them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. Got all these promises and all
these warnings. And beloved, I know you, I know
you're just like me. I know what I'm capable of if
God does not keep me. I know that. I'm afraid of what
God will do. If I do certain things, I'm afraid
of what God will do. I'm afraid of God. I fear God. The fear of God keeps me from
doing certain things. Does it do you that way? Does
the fear of God keep you feeling certain ways, and you know, and
I mean, I don't fear that he's gonna kill me or do something
like that, but I fear him, because he's got the power of life and
death in his hands. He owns my soul. He owns everything
about me is his, and I know what it would be. After you've tasted
Christ, and tasted the grace of God, and tasted the goodness
of God, and tasted this blessed, wonderful gospel of grace, to
walk away from that. Oh, the consequences. It's just
inconceivable of the consequences. And that's why we often say,
Lord, please don't leave me to myself. Please don't let me be
deceived. I don't want to be deceived.
Oh, I don't want to deceive myself. Oh, I don't want to be deceived.
Lord, save me, save me, save me. You know why we say that?
Because we fear ourselves and we fear God. All right. Separated temporarily from his
father, but in danger of being separated permanently. Here's
another thing. Assurity was provided for him
before one was ever needed. Look at 43 and verse 9. Before
Benjamin was ever took down there. had a surety for him. Genesis
43 verse 8, Judah said unto Israel his father, send the lad with
me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die, both
we and you and also our little ones. And listen to this, 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. That's it. Well, guess who our
surety is? Hebrew 7.26 says that Christ
is our surety. Christ is our surety provided
for us before we ever got here. And you know what a surety does?
He stands good for people who are incapable of standing good
for themselves. That's incompetent and cannot
stand good for themselves. Could we stand good for ourselves
before God? No. Oh, listen in this surety
that was provided for Benjamin and Christ our surety provided
for us Then he was provided for us before we ever got here before
Adam ever got here Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world the surety for us and that surety Was bone of his
bone. Judah and Benjamin were brothers is our brother and he said that
him he that is sanctified and they are sanctified for all of
one and he said his bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh that's
what it says about us in Ephesians 5 30 and I Lord Jesus took upon
him flesh and And our Lord has such a union with us, and we
have such a union with Him. And that's what it says. And
that's what this whole marriage thing is about. It's about being
two people becoming one. Christ was one, and then we're
joined to Him. And He says there in Ephesians
5.30. of our bones, flesh of our flesh. Oh my, he's so identified
with us and a surety, a surety guarantees. Ain't that what Benjamin
said, or Joseph said? Said, if I bring him not to you,
let me bear the blame forever. Christ says, if I do not bring
all the sheep on to you, if I don't bring every soul that you give
me to you, then let me bear the blame. And that's what a surety
does. You reckon he'll get us there? If somebody else is your surety,
that means you're relieved of all responsibility. That he's
gonna stand good for you. And Christ went before the Father. And we sung that in that song
tonight. We sung that out of that book, out of the, that one. And we, But anyway,
he said, you know that he was wounded for us and that he became
for us what we was before we got here? And how wounded he
was and how he promised for us and all that he did for us? And
I'll tell you what, when somebody else takes all responsibility
for you, now here's what I'm saying. I know what I said a
minute ago, but here's what's the truth. The shepherd's responsible
for the sheep, and the shepherd is responsible for those he stood
good for. And ain't that what our Lord
said in John 17? He said, all that the Father
giveth me, I should not lose one of them, but the son of perdition.
And Father, here's what he said, I will that they whom thou hast
given me be with me where I am for one reason, that they may
behold my glory. All right, here's my last little
point. He was delivered through the
intercession of His surety. Here in chapter 44, here in chapter
44. Oh, listen. He was delivered
through the intercession of His surety, through His intercession
of Judah. And verse 16, look what he said. Judah said, what shall we say
unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy service. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said,
God forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. As for you, get up,
go unto your father. Then look what Judah said in
verse 18. Then Judah came near unto him. Christ comes near to
God for us. He said, oh my Lord, let thy
servant, I pray thee, Speak a word in my Lord's ear, and let not
thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as
Pharaoh. And he goes on and says about
how they had a father and had a child. And now look what he
says. Now down here at verse 30, he
gets down to it. He said, if I should leave the
lad, he cannot leave the father, the father would die. He said
in verse 30 now, now therefore, when I come to thy servant, my
father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound
up in the lad's life, Oh, God is bound up in the life of his
blessed son. It shall come to pass when he
seeth us that the lad is not with us, that he'll die. And
thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant,
our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became
surety for the lad unto my father's sake. 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 land. Let
me take the boy's place. Christ said, let me take their
place. And let the land go up with his
brethren. Let him go, for how shall I go
up to the Father and the land be not with me? And so I tell
you what, he said, I'll let me take his place. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, that's what he did. He said, I'll take their
place. I'll become surety for them. And let them go. Let them
go. Let them go home to the Father.
And I know the one that was saved by the surety always, always
clings to the surety. The one who saves him, he always
clings to the Savior. And I'll say this, the tribe
of Benjamin, that's the smallest tribe in Israel, the tribe of
Benjamin's always clinging to the tribe of Judah. was those
two tribes always together after that. In fact, Paul said he was
of the tribe of Benjamin. That's what he said. And then
last of all, I want you to see this in verse chapter 43 and
verse 3. I love this right here. And Judas spake unto him, saying,
The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, You shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. And this is what
I want to say. You shall not see my face, except,
and we cannot see the Lord's face, except our Lord Jesus Christ
between us and the Father. Except my brother come to, you
know, go see my face. And beloved, we can't see the
face of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can't see the face of God
without our Lord Jesus Christ, our big brother, our elder brother,
the brother who sticketh closer than a brother born for adversity. And we ain't gonna see the face
of God unless our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, goes for us. Amen.