So Luke chapter 22, just a very
short reading, just a couple of verses really. Verse 31, if you'll turn with
me to verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you
as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. I mentioned a couple of weeks
ago that what the Lord gives to one of his little ones, he
gives to all. What he does for one, he does
for all. And that's true, because the
blessings and the mercies and the goodness and the graciousness
of our God, his gifts are for his church. And the Lord speaks
of his church always as that unity of people, that gathering
of the congregation of his people. And the Lord gives his gifts
to his church. Yet it is true that not all of
our circumstances are the same. We taste God's providences in
different proportions, whether that is to do with sickness or
health, whether it's to do with wealth or poverty, whether it's
to do with grief or disappointment or anxiety or guilt. the highs
and the lows of this life, the trials and the blessings that
we have, each one individually, each one in our families, each
one in our associations, in our fellowships, they vary. And in fact, it might easily
be proven that no two are the same. And sometimes we think
Might not God have led me to the same destination by another
road? Was this path really necessary? Did I have to travel this way
in this life in order to get to where I am? And why is it
that the Lord wants me to be here? And why is it that the
Lord has me in this place at this time? Perhaps one individual
finds faith early. and another finds faith late
in life. And yet we have to say that the
Lord's timing is perfect and the Lord's ways are right. One finds trust easy and another
struggles with doubt all of their life. And the gifts and the graces
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, they seem so different. And yet,
what Christ gives one, he gives to all. And though their proportions
may differ, and their timing may vary greatly, these things
are so, for the goodnesses of God are for all of his people. Now, I mention this in reference
to the verse that we read together in Luke chapter 22, where the
Lord says to Peter, I have prayed for thee. He says, I have prayed
for thee, Peter. I've prayed for you that thy
faith fail not. And what the Lord does for Peter,
he does for us all. He does for all his children.
All of those to whom the Lord gives faith, he prays that that
faith will fail not. That's an extraordinary thing.
That's a wonderful thing to contemplate. He goes on to say, when thou
art converted, strengthen thy brother. Now, it's not my purpose
this morning to speak very much at all about that little phrase,
when thou art converted, except to say that I understand it to
mean that when your trial is over, And Peter was about to
experience a very serious and a very faith-stretching trial. Indeed, his faith was going to
be stretched to such a degree that he would find himself voicing
denunciations and cursing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that not to a gathered band
of soldiers and guardsmen carrying swords and staves and spears,
but that to a little servant girl who was standing beside
a fire where Peter was warming himself. And Peter's faith was
going to be tested and he was going to be shaken to his core. to the core of his own knowledge
of himself, a man who felt himself to be a faithful friend, a man
who could say, I would lay down my life for you, such is the
love that I feel for you, and then to be confronted with the
reality of his situation. So the Lord says, when that trial's
over, Peter, when your faith has been tested to the point
where you couldn't imagine the reaction that you are going to
give, I want you to know that I have prayed for you. And out
of that experience, Peter, You will be better able and you will
be more fitted to comfort and strengthen those around about
you. You will have a better perspective
on who I am and who you are. But I do want to think this morning
particularly about the first part of this verse. And it's that that with you I
would want to just pause and contemplate on. This little phrase,
I have prayed for you. I have prayed for you and I want
to think about it specifically with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ interceding for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ being the
safeguard and the security for his people. The word intercessor
It only appears once in the scriptures. But the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is our intercessor. And in Isaiah, the book of Isaiah
in chapter 59 and verse 16, we read there this verse. And he
saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought salvation
unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him. In this verse,
I believe Isaiah is seeing through the circumstances of his own
day and his own age and discerning and understanding something about
the role of the Lord Jesus Christ. who was yet many years off, who
was yet far away in the future as far as his incarnation and
his manifestation and his work of redemption and ransom on the
cross was concerned. But yet here is Isaiah discerning
that God himself wonders that there is no intercessor. There's
no intercessor to be found amongst the sons of men. There's no intercessor,
no one who can stand in the gap, no one who can take a lead, no
one who can represent his people. And in the failure to find such
an intercessor, in their failure to be one who can stand up for
his friend, stand up for his neighbour, stand up for those
that he represents, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
by his own arm, brought salvation to the needy. And his righteousness,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, it sustained him
who had need of help. And so the meaning is that the
Lord Jesus Christ, he knew that mankind never could and never
would save itself. That it was already lost, that
it was already separated, that it was already pushed out from
the presence of God. And that one was needed to go
amongst them in order to intercede. between those who had been separated,
God in his holiness and man in his rebellious sinfulness. Man needed a saviour. Man needed a helper. Man needed an intercessor to
stand in the gap for the sinner when the sinner could not stand
for himself, to step forward when the sinner fell, to lift
the sinner up when he was sinking. to save him from going down to
the pit. The Lord Jesus Christ saw the
need, and he himself, his arm brought salvation unto him, and
his righteousness, it sustained him. And so, while we find that
intercessor is mentioned but once in scripture, we find that
it is eminently applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ. And while
the Lord Jesus Christ is our great intercessor, we find that
the theme of intercession is throughout the whole scripture.
It is widespread and it is frequent in its message. And I want to
think with you this morning just about five occasions in which
we see that theme expressed. And I'm going to use some terms,
and these might seem a little bit technical, but I'm sure if
you just pause with me and think of them, you'll soon see their
applicability to our saviour and this great intercessory role
that he fulfills. The first term is representative.
The second one is surety. The third one is substitute.
The fourth one is advocate. and the fifth one is Mediator. And in these five words rests
the Lord Jesus Christ's labour of intercession for his people. In these five occasions we see
where that fulfilment of this verse in Isaiah 59 takes its
power because the Lord Jesus Christ in his representative
work, in his work as surety and substitute and advocate and mediator,
there he bears his arm, there he brings salvation, there he
demonstrates his righteousness to the sustaining of his people. So these five occasions, they
employ, as it were, the Lord's words to Peter, and to all of
us who are his beloved. For Peter's graces are our graces. And when the Lord said to Peter,
I have prayed for you, The Lord says to you, I have prayed for
you. And the Lord says to me, I have
prayed for you. We who are the Lord's people,
we who are beloved of the Lord, we who have been brought to faith,
though that faith be tested, though that faith be stretched,
though that faith seem so elusive in so many circumstances, when
you have been tried, when you've been converted, when that trial
of your faith has passed, when, as we were reading in Psalm 44,
we cannot find the Lord, we cannot see the Lord, we cannot understand
where He is, and all we can say is, Lord, I remember that there
was a time when you were faithful to me, but where are you now?
The Lord says to his church, he says to his people, he says
to his little flock, he says to you and to me as he said to
Peter, I have prayed for you. And that's a beautiful, comforting
thought for us to hold and have in our heart this morning. And
I want us to think, first of all, then, about this great representative
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to think about it
right back at the very beginning. In fact, I want to go before
the beginning. And I want to think, as we touched
upon on an earlier occasion, about that covenant of peace
that the Lord Jesus Christ was party to in the eternal councils
of our God. We're talking about a time before
the world began. How can we talk about time before
the world began? Well, it's conceptually very
difficult, but yet we understand from the scripture that there
was a time before time. There was a presence of God and
the Godhead before the Lord God said, let there be light existed. and shared a communion in eternal
peace together, and the Godhead covenanted together. for the
accomplishment of a union between God and man, and the Lord Jesus
Christ as party to that covenant, as that one who would be our
representative undertook in the covenant of peace between God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, out of a
heart of love and out of a willingness and voluntarily he undertook
to represent his people in the great work of salvation. He said, as it were, that it
would be him for them. And what is often read, I think,
as a commission of Isaiah at the beginning of Isaiah's prophecy,
that little verse where he says in chapter six, verse eight,
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, who shall I send? Who
will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send
me. I think that while Isaiah had
an insight into that personally, like so much of his fine and
great prophetic vision and view, it had a higher and more noble
objective. It had a grander significance
because these words or words like them surely first echoed
in the court of heaven when our intercessor arose for his church. Who shall I send? Who shall go
for us? Then said I. Then said the intercessor. Then said our representative. Here am I. Send me. And Paul tells us in his letter
to the Philippians that our Saviour humbled himself. He humbled himself
and he came. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but he humbled himself and he came to serve. He came to minister. He took
the yoke of obligation for his people on his shoulders. He accepted
responsibility for his church and his bride. And in that body
prepared for him by God the Father, he declared, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. And his arm brought salvation,
and his righteousness sustained his people. in eternity, in the
eternal councils, in the eternal purpose of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ interceded when he represented God's elect in the covenant of
grace and peace. And secondly, the Lord Jesus
Christ could say, I have prayed for you. when we think of his
dealings with his people in the whole time state of the Church. In the whole time state of the
Church, the Lord Jesus Christ has become our surety. He who is our representative
in the Eternal Council has become our surety. in this world. That little phrase, the time
state of the church, it was a little phrase that was used by writers
in days gone by to speak about the time of the church in this
world. Because as we've been reflecting,
the church existed in the eternal purpose of God. and it shall
exist everlastingly with Christ as his bride in heaven. But now
it lives in the world, and in this period in which it is in
the world, from the creation of the world to the end of the
world, that's called the time state of the church. When the
church is bound by time and space, not an eternity in the counsel
of God's purpose, nor yet in the eternal domain of glory with
Christ. But here in the time state, the
Lord Jesus Christ has represented us as our surety. He has interceded
and intercedes for us as our surety. The surety is someone
who stands duty-bound for the debts of another. I wonder if
you've ever had that feeling, the feeling that you get as a
parent when you walk into a shop and you read a sign on the shop
door and it says, all breakages must be paid for. and you know
that your four young children have just run ahead of you into
the shop. Well, that's what a surety is.
If something gets broken, you pay for it. And the parent has
that surety relationship with the children in such a China
shop as that. In Hebrews chapter 7 verse 22
we read this, As our representative, the Lord Jesus Christ was made
surety. Yes, he represented us when he
stood in heaven at that moment of the divine choice and election
and purpose of God being expressed in covenantal terms. But here
this covenant or testament, the word is the same, here this covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ is then given the obligations of the
representative. He has made surety. He is called to pay the debts
of those people whom he represented in the council of God. It is a stage of his role as
intercessor to be the debt bearer and the debt carrier, the surety
of his people. And so Jesus was made a surety
of this better covenant, this counsel and covenant of God,
the Testament. As our representative in that
covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ is responsible for all his people's
breakages. Every broken law, Every broken
promise, the Lord Jesus Christ is personally responsible for
it. What a thought that is. What
an amazing insight. What an amazing revelation for
God to reveal to sinful men and women like us, that that one
who stood as our representative has become our surety. And this
great intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ means that
every broken law that I have been guilty of breaking. Every broken promise has been
laid upon my surety. When the elect transgressed,
when they lied, when they stole, when they coveted their neighbor's
wife or coveted their neighbor's husband, when they committed
adultery, when they committed fornication, when they bore false
witness. That debt, that transgression
was not laid upon them, but it was laid upon their surety. It was laid upon the head. of
their surety. He had become our scapegoat. He had become that representative,
that intercessor and he stood before God on our behalf carrying
our sins in himself. The Lord Jesus Christ was our
representative in the covenant and he stands as surety. in the
time state of the church, our surety for every sin, and it
falls upon him. And here's a third example of
the Lord Jesus Christ representing and interceding and praying for
his people. His care extends beyond even
this, because the Lord Jesus Christ has become our substitute
in his death. Christ's suretyship isn't a make-believe,
let's pretend kind of thing. It's not an in-principle kind
of thing. It's real and it's actual and
it happened. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
the one who came into the world in order to satisfy the demands
of that covenant, who took upon himself the obligation of that
covenant, who took our sins upon himself, really and actually
in this body, in this flesh, in this soul of the Lord Jesus
Christ, represented us, substituted himself for us on the cross at
Calvary. And when all of the guilt and
all of the punishment that was due to my commitment of sin and
transgression of the law was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ
as substitute, he paid the price. He practically bore our sin. So we don't just have some notional
principle or idea of the Lord's representative work. No, he was
our substitute. He died in our place. There was no reason for the Lord
Jesus Christ to die. There was no sin that he had
committed. He had no sin of his own until
he became surety for his people, until he became our substitute
and laid down his life for the sheep. Great question of scripture has
always been, can God be just and yet justify the sinner? Can God be holy and righteous
and pure as a judge looking without fear or favour upon the guilty
and yet let that guilty go free? Can a holy God do that? Can a
just God do that? Can he justify and make righteous
a sinner? On what legal basis could he
do that? Only on this basis, the substitutionary
atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of his people. Christ
was made to be sin for us. He has borne our grief and carried
our sorrow. Isaiah 53, 12 says, he has poured
out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was numbered with us. He came,
he joined with us. He came and joined with our flesh.
He came and joined with our blood, our bones, our nerves, our feelings. He knew all that we are in himself
for he joined himself to us yet without sin. And then he bore
our sin. He was numbered with the transgressors
and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. So here is this great work once
again of intercession before us. He had represented us in
the eternal council. He in the time state of the church
has become our surety. And upon the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ became our substitute. But the wonderful thing about
the Gospel, the wonderful thing about the plan of salvation,
the wonderful thing about the covenant of grace, is that the
Lord Jesus Christ is not in a grave. The Lord Jesus Christ died on
the cross, but death could not hold him. The Lord Jesus Christ
was put in the ground, But the stone was moved away. The Lord
Jesus Christ rested for three days. but now he is risen and
ascended. We serve a risen Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive
and the Lord Jesus Christ has a personal relationship with
his people. And one of the most glorious
and wonderful aspects of that risen work of the Lord Jesus
Christ is that our blessed Saviour continues to intercede for his
people. And he intercedes for us in heaven
as our advocate. Hebrews 9.24 says, What a phrase,
what a sentence. for any man to be able to write
down. What a glorious truth, what a
glorious revelation for any needy sinner to be able to read and
apply to their own heart. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is entered into heaven now to appear in the presence of God
for me." Appearing for us. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that
glorious? John says, 1 John chapter 2, My little children, these
things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. This is our Saviour. This is
our Lord. This is our representative who
stood as our surety, who died as our substitute, and now appears
in heaven before his Father's face in order to speak for me. Just pause and reflect with me
for a moment. Just enjoy that blessed consideration. An advocate, that little word
there, it kind of breaks down. The ad means two or two words,
and the vocate is to speak. It's speaking about our vocals.
A vocalist. He is a vocalist to God for us. He speaks for us. The Lord Jesus Christ is advocating
for us, speaking to God on our behalf. Truly, that is the essence
of Peter's blessing. Peter, I've prayed for you. And he prays for us right now
in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ is praying
for us. That great representative, our
surety and our substitute, the intercessor of his church and
people is praying for us. Even as we pray to him, he is
praying for us. And what does he say? What does
our representative say as he speaks to God on our behalf? What is our surety saying, our
substitute saying, our advocate saying in heaven right now? Well, it's simple. It's so simple
because I don't have to imagine anything at all because the words
that he is saying are the Saviour's own words. He's told us already
what he is saying. In John chapter 17 verse 24,
this is what he is saying to his father. I will that they
also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they
may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. Do you see this? those given to Christ in the
eternal purpose of God, those whom he represents in that covenant
of peace, they are the exact same people for whom he stands
as surety, taking their sins, and theirs alone, because they
are the people he represented, the elect of God, the chosen
of God, those that had been committed in that covenant purpose into
his hands. And they are the exact same people
for whom he suffered on the cross and died as substitute. His representative
work, his suretyship work, his substitutionary work is for the
same group of people. It is a constant, identified,
definable, elect, choice people of God. And they are the same
people for whom he now speaks and intercedes as advocate in
glory. This is why we talk about the
particularity of the plan of redemption. This is why we emphasize
and must emphasize that it was a limited number. For if the
truth of the whole of scripture is to be consistent, then here
we see that the eternal God, the eternal unchangeable God,
has a people from eternity whom he will most certainly bring
to glory. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
interceded for us at every step in that great plan. These are the elect of God, the
chosen of God. They are those whose names are
known and chosen and recorded from eternity. Hebrews chapter
7 says, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. I do love the Lord's able to
save. He is able to save. He is able
to save. He is able to save. It's definite,
it's sure, it's certain, it's absolute. You know, if you're
a believer in free will, if you think man saves himself by the
choice of his decision, you have to rephrase that. You have to
say that he is able to make salvation possible. but that's not what it says.
I much prefer he is able to save. This is the God that we worship,
the God who has accomplished and secured the deliverance,
the redemption, the ransom, the liberty, the freedom of his people,
the salvation of his bride. He is able to save to the uttermost,
to the very last one, to the farthest point that those to
whom, or those who were given to him can run in this time state
of the world. And boy, can we run far. Oh,
we can run as far from God as we would like. We could take
the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea. But no matter how far we run.
The Lord Jesus Christ will retain every single one of those that
were committed into his hands. Everyone he represented, everyone
he was surety for, everyone he substituted for on the cross,
everyone that he advocates for now in heaven will be saved. Why is that? They were given
to him, they are his. Is it because he came into the
world? No. Is it because he took our sins?
No. Is it because he died? No. Is
it because he intercedes? Yes. It is because at every step
of the way the Lord Jesus Christ has stood for his people. It
couldn't be just a part of that process. This is a quote without
seams. This is our Saviour fulfilling
the eternal work that he was given. Our salvation is a work
of many parts, all fulfilled in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the final part of
Christ's intercession for his people. He has represented us
in the covenant. He has stood surety in the time
state of the church. He has become the substitute
on the cross. He is our advocate in heaven and he is a mediator
in our hearts. He is a mediator. He speaks security
to our souls. In 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, we are
told there that there is one God and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I love that. I love that. You
know, because the Lord Jesus Christ advocates for us in heaven
right now, but he's not faced in one direction. He's not constantly
looking at his Father. and saying, I will that they
be with me, those that thou hast given me, because thou hast loved
me from before the world began. I will that they be with me.
He's not constantly saying that without turning to his people
with smiles of comfort, with words of grace and goodness and
pity to show us how much he loves us. Paul says in Galatians chapter
3 verse 20, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is
one. But the Lord Jesus Christ mediates
the blessedness of our salvation to us. He represents us before
God. He advocates for us before God.
He shows us surety and substitute the marks of his hands where
the nails pierced and his side where the spear stabbed. He is
as that lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He is that bleeding
lamb in heaven as our mediator before God. but he brings the
blessings of that mediatorial office back to his church and
back to his people. Our Saviour maintains a living
personal relationship with his people. He is, says the Apostle
in Hebrews 8, 6, the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. This is new covenant grace. This
is. God's promises to his people
applied by the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ to us in this
world. In this world of darkness, in
this world of sin, in this world of doubt, in this world of stretched
out faith and belief when we are tried and we find that the
grief and the hardship and the difficulties of life so often
seem to overwhelm us. Jesus Christ comes to us in mediating
goodness. I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not. Satan has desired to have you,
that he may sift you as wheat, but I've prayed for you. that
your faith fails not. The Lord Jesus Christ intercedes
in heaven and on earth. He speaks to his Father on our
behalf and he speaks to his church on his Father's behalf. And he
tells us that the promises are sure and that the purpose will
be accomplished and salvation is of the Lord. Is that not a
wonderful thing? Is it not a wonderful thing that
Christ prays for us, that he speaks for us, that he intercedes
for us, that he stood for us in eternity, and he stood for
us in time, and he stood up for us at the cross, and in heaven
he ministers on our behalf, and on earth he ministers to us in
our hearts. In heaven he is the Lamb, the
Lamb that had been slain. On earth he applies his blood
to the cleansing of our consciences and he mediates his grace to
our souls. Well may we call him our great
intercessor. our representative and surety,
our substitute and our advocate and the mediator of God's goodness
to our souls. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us and encourage us and may he speak to our hearts today
through the mediation of our great intercessor, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.