Open your Bibles with me to Hebrews
chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Now really my text is just one
verse, but it's kind of hard to deal with it without placing
it within some explanation of the context. But look at verse
22 of Hebrews chapter 7. says by so much was Jesus made
a surety of a better testament a surety of a better testament
and of course that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ who is
the surety of a better testament or another word for that is covenant
talked about covenants earlier this morning Covenant of grace
is what he's talking about, the covenant of redemption, the covenant
of salvation. Jesus Christ is the surety of
that covenant. Now, and I'll go back and I want
to read a few verses here, but the question that I want to ask
and make the title of the message is this, the question I want
you to consider, the question that I myself consider. is this,
who is surety of your salvation? Who is surety of your salvation? Now, obviously I'm talking to
people who claim to be saved, who claim to be saved. Do you
claim to be saved? Now, you can answer that in many
different ways, but just to put it to you, Succinctly, you know,
if you claim to be a Christian, then you are making a claim to
be saved. You're claiming salvation. Now,
my question is, well, if you claim to be saved, or if you
have any assurance of salvation, then who is surety of your salvation? And then I'm going to make some
comments at the end of this message that I think will really help
us all on that issue. But here in the book of Hebrews,
you know, the theme of the book of Hebrews is basically, can
be summed up in three words, and that's this, Christ is better. Christ is better. And it goes
through the book of Hebrews, the writer goes through, is inspired
by the Holy Spirit to show the superiority of Jesus Christ in
his person, in his offices, his mediatorial offices, prophet,
priest, and king, And in his finished work, how much better,
infinitely better Christ is than anything that man can come up
with, even the best of men, the best that come from men, that
will not save us, will not keep us, will not recommend us unto
God. It's all of Christ. Here in Hebrews
chapter seven, he's comparing the priesthood of Christ to the
priesthood of men under the old covenant, the law of Moses, the
sons of Aaron and Levi, the tribe of Levi. We back up at verse
19, Hebrews 7. He says, for the law made nothing
perfect. The law didn't complete or finish
or make anything righteous. That's the law of Moses there.
But he says, but the bringing in of a better hope did. There's
a better hope. Now, a hope you have to understand
in the Bible is not a hope like we think of it in our modern
day terminology. You know, somebody says today,
well, I hope this happens. Normally, what they're talking
about is just wishful thinking. I hope it does, I wish it will.
I have no basis, maybe, upon thinking that it will happen,
but I hope it will. I hope, I hope, I hope. A hope
in the scripture, this better hope, could be defined this way. It's the certain assurance of
that which is desired based upon a solid ground. That's the better
hope. It's an assurance. This will
happen. How do you know it'll happen?
Because I have a solid ground upon which to be assured of it. And of course the solid ground
here is the word of God. God said it. I'll never forget,
I've probably told you this several times, but I was driving through
a town one time where I was going someplace to preach, and I saw
a sign outside of a church building, and it said, God said it, I believe
it, that settles it. And I said, well, you need to
take one of those phrases out. You need to take the I believe
it out. It's not that we shouldn't believe it, we should. But our
believing it doesn't settle it. God said it, that settles it. Well, you can add the, I believe
it then. If God said it, that settles it. His word is good. He is faithful. We sing at him,
great is thy faithfulness. God has never lied. And here's
another mind boggling concept. God has never changed. He said,
I'm the Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consent. But here he's talking about a
better hope. Now the law means the old covenant. That's the
law of Moses. That's the Levitical priesthood, Aaron and the high
priest of Israel. And that didn't make anything
perfect. There was no salvation there. There was no forgiveness
of sins in that earthly priesthood. Over in chapter 10, he says the
blood of bulls and goats could not put away sin. Those things
were types and pictures and foreshadowings of a better hope. And he says,
for the law made nothing perfect, verse 19, but the bringing in
of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God. In other words, our drawing near
to God, our coming into communion with God. Now, this drawing nigh
unto God is a term that means acceptance with God. It's acceptance
in salvation. It has to do with communion with
God, fellowship with God, being accepted. It has to do with worship. It has to do with prayer. All
those intimate things that brings a sinner close to God. How do you do that? You see,
sin separates from God. You know, in order for a sinner
to draw nigh unto God, the issue of sin has to be settled in some
way. Sin has to be removed. Well,
the law couldn't do that. The law made nothing perfect.
An earthly human high priest couldn't do that. Animal blood
couldn't do that. But the bringing in of a better
hope did. Now look at verse 20. He says, and in as much as notwithstanding
an oath, he was made priest. And in as much as not without
an oath, he was made a priest. Now, what was he talking about
there? Well, this better hope, obviously what he's talking about
is Jesus Christ, who is the hope of salvation. If a sinner is
going to draw nigh unto God, be accepted of God, pray unto
God, worship God, All right, if a sinner, there's only one
way that that can happen, and that is by the grace of God in
and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by animal blood, it's
by the blood of Christ that we draw nigh unto God. Animal blood
couldn't put away sin, but the blood of Christ put away all
my sin. All right? If you're going to
draw nigh unto God, you've got to be righteous in God's sight. An earthly priesthood and animal
blood could not do that. It takes the blood of the one
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes his righteousness to
give me eternal acceptance before a holy God. And what does he
mean by an oath? Well, God never promised and
swore an oath to save sinners through that earthly priesthood.
He never made an oath to them. He never told any sinner, I'll
save you if you will shed the blood of a lamb, an earthly lamb,
physical lamb. He never told any sinner, I'll
save you if you'll do this or if you'll do that by your works. There's no oath there. But God
has promised and swore an oath that he'll save any sinner who
comes to him through Christ. And that's what he means by that.
That oath, that's something else, you know. That means God engaged
his reputation in that promise. God put his reputation on the
line. Do you know, now listen to me here. You know that if
God failed to save one sinner for whom Christ died, his reputation would be destroyed. That's that oath, that's what
that means. God swore an oath. But look at
verse 21, he says, and this is in parenthesis, he says, For
those priests were made without an oath, that earthly priesthood.
There's no salvation there. God never swore or promised any
salvation there. Those were types, those were
object lessons. It's kind of like, you know,
we can use object lessons in teaching today, and those are
symbols, you see. And he says, but this with an
oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent. The Lord swore an oath, he won't
take it back. You say, well, what if I don't
do what I'm supposed to do? Now, let me fill you in on something.
You're not going to do what you're supposed to do. Now, you start
there. You say, well, I'm going to try.
Well, that's OK. But that's not salvation. That's
not righteousness, you see. You see, when it comes to the
requirements of salvation, what are we talking about? Well, the
law made nothing perfect. We're talking about perfection.
That's right, perfection. You think about it. Look at verse
11. Hold your finger there at verse 21. Look across at verse
11. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people received the law, what further need was
there that another priest should rise? That's talking about Christ
after the order of Melchizedek. I'll talk to you about that in
just a moment. In other words, what do I need to be accepted
before a holy God. I need perfection. Righteousness. Well, the Levitical priesthood
couldn't do that. I can't do it. You can't do it. Somebody
told me one time, said, well, nobody can do that. And I said,
yeah, that's why salvation is by grace. That's why it's a free
gift. That's why you don't earn it
and you don't deserve it. That's why Christ had to come.
It's his perfection. Not mine, that saves me. It's his righteousness, not mine,
that saves me. You see the difference? Well,
look at verse 21. He says, the Lord swear and will
not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Now Melchizedek, some of you may have studied this, but he
was a priest and a king back in the days of Abraham and He
met Abraham, Abraham was on his way back from the slaughter of
the kings. He'd won a great battle and he met this man Melchizedek
and Melchizedek blessed Abraham. This Melchizedek was a priest
of God before the law of Moses, before Aaron and Levi. In other words, he was not in
that order. Well, he had no right to be a priest in that order,
you had to be from the tribe of Levi to be a priest under
that old covenant. So what he's saying is here is
that Jesus Christ, who was of the tribe of Judah, not of the
tribe of Levi, Melchizedek was even a better type of the priesthood
of Christ than Levi. Now Levi was a type of Christ
priesthood, but Melchizedek was an even better one because he
was not in that order. But he says in verse 22, now
let me bring it all together for you. By so much was Jesus
made a surety of a better Testament, a better covenant. Now I talked
about that better covenant in the first message on the covenant
of grace. That's what he's talking about.
So let me line it up this way. Number one, who is Jesus? By so much was Jesus. You know who Jesus is. Well,
look back at Matthew one, I quoted that earlier but I want you to
turn to it this time. Matthew chapter 1. Now that name
Jesus is an interesting name. I think a lot of people don't
understand it. Some think it's kind of like
a derogatory name for Jesus Christ and I've heard some preachers
say well don't call him Jesus you know and I think I think
the reason they say that is because, you know, you'll see some men
who are named Jesus or Jesus or something like that. And it's
really not a name that you wanna get, you know, flippantly pass
around or something like that. And somebody said, well, don't
call him Jesus, call him Lord. Well, he is Lord. But do you
know what Jesus means? It's a derivative of the Old
Testament name, Yeshua. which we transliterate as Joshua
or Yeshua, it means salvation. The first time that the word
is used in the Old Testament, I believe was in Genesis chapter
49. I think it's when Jacob was blessing his sons and in the
middle of blessing them, he talked about the hope of his salvation
and he used that word Yeshua. It's a derivative of God saves. That's what it means. God says,
that's what Jesus means. God salvation. I think the next
time in the old Testament, you find it as Exodus 14, where When
Moses had the children of Israel, they were on the shore of the
Red Sea and they were murmuring and complaining because they
looked back and they saw Pharaoh's army coming after him. And Moses
stood up and held up his staff and he says, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And you know what happened? The
Red Sea parted. And all that was a time, that
was a grand historical picture of how God saves people through
the Red Sea of the blood of Yeshua. the blood of Jesus. It's not
a derogatory name at all. Simeon in Luke two, he held up
the Christ child and he said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. But look here in Matthew one,
this is verse 21. This is the angel coming to Joseph
to tell Joseph not to put away Mary. She's with child, but don't
put her away as if you need to in shame. He said that which
was upon her was by the Holy Ghost. And it says in verse 21
of Matthew 1, and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call
his name Jesus. Now, if you have a concordance
in your Bible, it probably has the word Savior, and that's a
good translation of it. Thou shalt call his name Savior,
Jesus. For he shall, save his people
from their sins. Do you see that? That's a good
explanation of that. His name means he shall save
his people from their sin. It doesn't mean he might save
them if they'll let him. It means he shall save his people
from their sins. Incidentally, Joseph didn't name
him. God did. You know why? Because
he's the son of God, not the son of Joseph. Now he's Mary's
son, he's the seed of woman, Genesis 3, 15. He's the God man. He shall save his people from
their sins. Well, is he going to be able
to do that? Well, look over at verse 23. It says, behold, a
virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they
shall call his name Emmanuel. That's from Isaiah 7, which being
interpreted is God with us. Jesus Emmanuel, salvation in
God with us. Now, Jesus is made the surety
of a better covenant. This is the issue of who is the
surety of salvation? Who is Jesus Christ? Well, he's
God in human flesh. That's who he is. He was made
of the seed of David according to the flesh. That's his humanity,
his sinless humanity. But he was declared to be the
son of God by power. His resurrection from the dead.
That was the declaration of it. He's God in human flesh. He's
the word made flesh dwelling among us. That's the issue here. Look back at Hebrews 7 now. It
says, By so much, that is by so much, this oath, this promise
was Jesus, God, our salvation. Salvation in Emmanuel. That's who he is. So salvation
depends upon who Jesus Christ is. Now that's why any denomination
or any group or religious group who claims to believe in Jesus
or claims to be Christian, but who denies his deity or his humanity,
it's a false gospel. You cannot deny who he is and
he be the surety of your salvation. If you make him merely God, and
I say merely God, I mean that's kind of like a Uh, opposites,
but listen, if he is only God, then he could not die. I'll show you that in just a
moment. If he's only man, then he could not save he's God, man. That's who he is. So Jesus, not,
not Aaron, not Levi, not Abraham, not Moses, not you, not me, Jesus. is made the surety of a better
covenant, better Testament. All right, now here's the second
thing. It says Jesus was made a surety of a better Testament.
What is a surety? What is a surety? In the Old
Testament, the word surety, you know what it means? It means
to mix, to mingle, to be intertwined, to be merged together. What it
means is this, it's to be mixed or mingled or intertwined or
merged to undertake or to perform something on another's behalf. In other words, if you become
surety for somebody, you're going to do something for them that
they cannot do for themselves. The first example of a surety
that we have is, I believe, located over in Genesis chapter 43. And that's the story of where
after Joseph's brethren had to go down into Egypt to seek food
and you remember they confronted Joseph and Joseph recognized
him and they didn't recognize him and Joseph sent him back
and said that every one of them came except the one son Benjamin
remember Jacob sent everyone except Benjamin And he said,
now you go back and you bring, he asked him, he said, do you
have any other brothers at home? He knew they did. And they didn't
lie to him. He said, yeah. He said, you got to bring him
too. So they went back to their father Jacob, and they said,
well, he said that if we didn't bring Benjamin with us, that
we're goners. And Jacob just He was beside
himself. He didn't want to give up Benjamin.
Remember, Reuben stepped in first and said, well, I'll be surety
for him. But Reuben was not of the greatest of character. And
Jacob knew that. And he said, no, I'm not going to send him
with you. You can't do anything for him. Somebody said Reuben
represents the law there. The law can't save you. The law
can't be surety for you. But you know who stepped up and
became surety for Benjamin? Judah. Judah. type of Christ that's the tribe
that Christ came from and he said I'll be surety for him he
said if I don't bring him back and you kill me and that was
the first example of a surety there in the New Testament a
surety is one who becomes a bondsman for another who is non-solvent
who can't pay his debts and he takes full responsibility Now,
a lot of times we think of a surety today as being a cosigner. That's
not what it is in the Bible. You know what a cosigner is,
don't you? You young people, you wanna get a car, you don't
have any credit, you come to mom and dad, dad, will you cosign
for me? You know what that means? That
means if you don't pay the payment, dad's gonna pay it for you, right? That means if by chance you can't
make the payment. That's a cosigner, but that's
not a surety in the Bible. In the Bible, a surety is one
who guarantees the payment, and that debt is put to the credit
of the one he's mixed with, to him, to the surety, because the
one he's mixed with or merged with cannot pay the debt. That's what the surety is. It's the act of a substitute.
It's making satisfaction. It's the doctrine of imputation.
Put it to my account. It's someone who's willing and
able to meet the conditions of paying the debt. And it's someone
who is accepted of the creditor. Let me show you something. Turn
over to Hebrews chapter two. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews chapter
two. Now this is a surety. Now it says, Jesus, God, salvation,
Jehovah, salvation is made the surety of a better Testament. Now Christ is the surety of this
better Testament, okay? Now that doesn't mean Christ
co-signed for his people, that he would pay it if they could.
No, they couldn't pay it. We're totally insolvent when
it comes to righteousness. We don't have any. We're sinners.
For all that's sinned and comes short of the glory, the wages
of sin. We owe a sin debt by nature in Adam that we cannot
pay. Before the foundation of the
world, Christ was set up and made to be our surety and the
debt was accounted to him. And look here in verse 14, now
listen to this. He says, for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood. Now what children is he talking
about? Talking about children of God. He also, that's Christ,
himself likewise or in the same way took part of the same, that
is flesh and blood. He who is God was made flesh
and dwelt among us. He was like us in every way except
one, he was without sin. So he took part of the same.
Now, why did he have to be made flesh and blood? Why did Emmanuel,
God with us, why did he have to become man? Well, look at
that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is the devil. Now the devil's power of death
is accusation. You know, if somebody accuses
you of a crime, if somebody would come to you and say, you murdered
oh so and so, And they arrested you and they proved the accusation
to be true. The accusation stuck and the
penalty was death. All right. But now if the accusation
doesn't stick, then you go free. And that power of the devil is
his accusations. You can read about that in Revelation
12 and in other places. The devil is the accuser of the
brethren. That's what he's called. Well,
when he accuses the brethren, the people of God in Christ,
the accusations don't stick. Why? Because of the blood of
Christ. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of
Jesus. All right? So he says in verse
15, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
That's the promised children, spiritual children of God, Jew
and Gentile. Verse 17, wherefore in all things
it behooved him. Now that word behooved, we don't
use that word much in our modern day language, but it's the Greek
word for debt. That's what it is. In other words,
wherefore in all things, he became indebted. to be made like unto
his brethren. He had to be made human flesh. Why? Because a debt was laid
to his charge, imputed to him, the debt of our sins, the sins
of his people. Why? That he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in pertaining to God. In other words, he might
be our representative before God and our substitute to bring
the offering of his blood to make reconciliation, propitiation,
satisfaction for the sins of the people that he might pay
the debt. He had to be God man, having our sins charged, imputed,
accounted to him so that he might pay that debt that was put to
his account. The surety, you see. Jesus was
made the surety. There's a great picture. Sometime
when you get a chance, sit down and read the book of Philemon.
in the New Testament. Just one chapter, I think there's
maybe 20 some verses in the whole book. You know, the book of Philemon
is a picture of this transaction that we're talking about here.
And where it is is there was a rich man named Philemon. He
was a believer. He lived in Colossae. Remember
Colossians? He lived in Colossae. Some people
say the church at Colossae met in Philemon's home. History says
that. I don't know if it's true or
not, but I think it is. But Philemon was a rich man and he had servants
and one of them was a man named Onesimus. And Onesimus took it
upon himself to steal from Philemon and run away. He was a runaway
slave. And by the providence of God,
you know where he ended up? He ended up in Rome at the bond
house of the Apostle Paul. It's where Paul was being kept
in bonds by the Roman government. And remember, Paul said that
he was kept in bonds, but people were allowed to come in and come
out and he could talk to them about the gospel. That's where
he wrote the prison epistles. Well, this Onesimus ended up
in the bond house of the apostle Paul. And Paul took him in and
preached the gospel to him. And by the grace and power of
God, he was converted to the gospel, to Christ. And so Paul
wrote a letter to Philemon. That's the book of Philemon.
And he's not making excuses for Onesimus for what he did. He
did wrong. He was a thief. He was a runaway slave. He deserved
everything he could get, but he's appealing to Philemon's
compassion as a brother in Christ. And one of the things he says
to Philemon, he says, Philemon, if Onesimus owes you anything,
that is by way of money or anything, he says, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. Paul became surety for Philemon. Or for Onesimus. Onesimus couldn't
pay it. He was a runaway slave. He was
in trouble. He deserved, you know, the penalty
of that was death back then. He deserved death. And Paul said,
well, you put it on my account. I'll repay it. Now that's a great
picture of what Christ is for his people. He came, you could
say it this way. He came before the father and
all of God's elect. He said, if they owe you anything,
and we did, We're sinners, the wages of sin, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. And that's what this is talking
about. Now that's what assurity is. Now, back here in Hebrews
7 now, here's the third thing, all right? Who is Jesus? He's God in human flesh. What is assurity? He's one who
stands under the debt of another because that other cannot pay.
Christ had our sins imputed to him from the beginning. He's
the surety of his people, all right? And he's the surety of
a better testament. Now, what is that better testament?
That word testament is a covenant. What is that better covenant?
Well, that's the covenant of grace. It's the covenant of grace. The covenant of salvation. It's
the covenant of redemption. It's a covenant that's not conditioned
on the sinner. Why? Because we can't pay the
debt. It's a covenant that's conditioned
on Christ who is the surety of the covenant. All the requirements,
all the stipulations of that covenant were placed upon Christ
before the foundation of the world as the surety and the substitute
and the guarantor of his people. Every stipulation of it. What is the requirement of the
covenant? It's righteousness, the payment
of that debt to God's law and justice. Who among us could pay
that debt? None of us. We can't even contribute
to the payment of that debt. Christ paid it all. We sing a
hymn, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Some congregations
saying, all the dead I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. Now the question that I asked
at the beginning of this message was this, who is surety of your
salvation? There are many people today who
claim to be Christian. And they say that Christ's death
on the cross, satisfied justice, brought in righteousness, put
away all sin and paid the sin debt in full, but they say, it
has no power to save any of us unless we believe, or unless
we repent, or unless we do our part. Now they may not realize
it, but what they've just said when they say that, They have
just declared themselves, not Christ, to be the surety of their
salvation. If the death of Christ did not
ensure and secure the complete salvation of all for whom he
died, then he's not the surety of salvation. If his blood does
not ensure and secure the complete forgiveness of all the sins of
all his people, then he's not the surety of that covenant. If his righteousness imputed
does not ensure and secure the justification of our persons
and him alone, then he's not the surety of that covenant.
If his death does not ensure and secure our spiritual life,
then he's not the surety of that covenant. If you think that his
death has no power to save you or to bless you or to forgive
you or to make you righteous, unless you do your part, whether
it's faith or repentance or whatever, let me tell you, he's not the
surety of your salvation. You are. You're the surety of
your salvation. And if you're the surety of your
salvation, I may not know your character. I may not know your
conduct. I may not know your heart. But
I can tell you what God's word says about all of us, and that's
this. If we are the surety of our own
salvation, then our salvation is sure to fail. Because we're sinners. We're
sinners. We know from God's testimony
that this is not the case in this New Testament here, this
Better Testament. Christ is the one and only surety
of the salvation of his people. Christ was appointed by the father
in the everlasting covenant of grace before the foundation of
the world to be the surety of his people. He was made the surety
of a better testament and as the surety of this covenant of
salvation All the promises of this salvation and all the blessings
of this salvation are established upon him and his finished work
on the cross as our surety. Look over at Hebrews chapter
eight across the page and verse six. It says that Christ, verse
six, he's obtained a more excellent ministry. By how much also he
is the mediator of a better covenant, not like that old covenant because
it failed. Why? Because the people didn't
meet the conditions. It was established upon better
promises, not the promise of an earthly land, but the promise
of eternal life and glory. Where if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. That's the better testament. For finding fault
with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. Now that's talking about believers
there. That's spiritual Israel. Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because because
they continue not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord." This is the new covenant,
the covenant of grace in Christ for all believers, Jew and Gentile. And he says, I'll put my laws
into their minds and write them in their hearts and I will be
to them a God and they shall be to me a people. they shall
not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying
know the lord for all shall know me from the least of them to
the greatest for i will be merciful to their unrighteousness and
their sins and their iniquities will i remember them no more
meaning that god will not charge us with sin blessed is the man
to whom the lord imputeth not iniquity Our salvation stands
upon the ground of Christ's obedience unto death, his blood shed, his
righteousness imputed. And as our surety, his righteousness
secures and demands the eternal salvation and final glory of
all for whom he lived and died and rose again. The death of
Christ is not made effectual by our receiving him or believing
in him. It's the power of his death that
gives us faith to receive and believe in him. The effectual
work of Christ for his people not only secures spiritual life
for all for whom he lived and died and rose, but it ensures
their spiritual life in the new birth without which they would
not accept or believe in him. It's not our belief in him that
makes his work effectual. It's God's acceptance of us based
on his effectual work that brings us to believe in him. And that's
what separates the saved from the unsaved. Christ is our surety. And if Christ is the surety of
your salvation, then you know what? It's sure. Because he cannot
fail. Can I fail? You betcha, I have. And I'll fail again. Can you
fail? Yes. But Christ cannot fail. And that's
why he's the surety. Aren't you glad?