Good evening. It's good to be
here. Can you hear me OK? I can't tell
from up here. It sounds big up here, but I
think it's probably not out there. So OK, Don, raise your hand if
it gets too soft. I'd like to, Lord willing, tonight
bring a message on Christ, our surety, Christ, our surety. Now, this is a large topic. There's no possibility of covering
it all tonight. I told my wife, it's like preparing
a seven-course meal and trying to eat it in 10 minutes. It just
won't work. But if you would turn with me
in your Bible, I would like to start first with the Bible's
illustration of assurity. I like it when... Let's turn
to Genesis chapter 43, if you would, please. Genesis chapter
43. I like it when preachers give illustrations to clarify
the doctrine, but I especially like it when the Lord himself
gives those illustrations. And here we have one of the most
beautiful and moving accounts and illustrations of what it
means to be a surety. Not only will we see what it
means to be a surety from these verses, but we will actually
see how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills this illustration, this
representation, this picture of how He Himself is our surety
and why we need a surety and who our surety actually is. Let's
read these verses and let me give you the background. The
story is large. It starts in Genesis 37 and goes
to the end of the book. And here we've jumped right in
the middle of it. Joseph, when he was about 17 years of age,
was sold by his brethren to the Egyptians through a traveling
band of Ishmaelites. They had thrown him into a pit.
He cried out to them. They ignored him. They ignored
his cries of anguish. And he went to Egypt and was
there for perhaps 13 years, I think, and then he shows
up here, and at this point he is the Lord, the governor of
all the land of Egypt. And his brothers had come first,
the first time, and now they've come the second time. And they're
not there yet, but they're back home. And this chapter opens
up right in the middle between the first time that they went
to Joseph and the second time. I think you're mostly familiar
with this, and so I won't go into the details. But the historical
account is this, that the brothers and Jacob faced a tremendous
dilemma. God has sent a famine. And the
famine was so bad, it even covered the entire face of the earth.
And not only that, but it was in the promised land, the land
where God's people were. And Jacob now and his family
are facing this famine. They have nowhere to get food
except they go to Joseph. And Jacob understands that, but
he has this dilemma that he faces because Joseph will not allow
them to have food for life unless they first bring down Benjamin,
their brother. And so, the struggle in Jacob's
heart is how can he provide life for his family, and the other
part is how can he preserve Benjamin's life from being turn to evil when he comes to
face Joseph, who he doesn't know is his son at this point, but
is the governor of Egypt, the judge of all the land. And so
let's pick it up here in verse 1 of chapter 43. We'll read through
the first nine verses. It says, And the famine was sore
in the land. God sent the famine. God arranged
the circumstances. And God is the one who sets up
all that is necessary to bring about the salvation of His people,
but He will not bring about that salvation except by His prescribed
way. In verse 2 it says, And it came
to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought
out of Egypt, their father said to them, Go again, buy us a little
food. And Judah spake unto him, saying,
The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, You shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. Now the problem
was that Joseph's brothers had come to him, but they had left
Benjamin behind. And Joseph knew that Benjamin
was not there, and he required Benjamin. God had showed him
in a dream one day, not just your 10, but your 11 brothers
will bow down to you. In prophecy, God revealed to
Joseph that he would not only that he would actually be the
Lord of all Egypt and that his brothers and his father would
come and bow down to him. And so he held to that promise
and he knew that God would bring his brother and his father to
him. But in his interaction with his brethren the first time,
he deals with them as a judge. And he treats them roughly and
sends them away with food, but he sets it up so they have to
come back because he keeps another brother, Simeon, with him in
prison. And so he says to them, this
is the only way you can see my face. If you come back with Benjamin,
your brother. He didn't call him Benjamin.
He said, you have to bring your brother back. Because unless
you bring your brother back, you will not be true men. And
the only way they could bring their brother back and show themselves
to be true men is if they had obtained the trust of their father
and he committed their brother into their hand to take him to
Joseph. But their father understood that Joseph although he didn't
know he was Joseph at this time, was being the governor of the
land. He could not send Benjamin down to Joseph, to this man who
was the governor, who spoke roughly to his brothers, who now held
Simeon, without putting Benjamin's life in danger. Already he had
lost one son. And he didn't want to risk losing
this youngest of his sons, Benjamin, the son of his love. And so Judah
approaches him. Judah speaks for all of his brethren.
He speaks for the family. He comes near, here in verse
4, and he says, This is what he had told him about how Joseph
required Benjamin to come. He said, Accept your brother
be with you, you shall not see my face. But then Judah says
this, If thou will send our brother with us, we will go down and
buy thee food. But if thou will not send him,
we will not go down. For the man said to us, you shall
not see my face except your brother be with you. You see the demand.
The requirement is they all must be there. Benjamin especially
is pointed out and singled out and Joseph. is the Lord of all
Egypt. A man could not lift his hand
or foot without Joseph's permission. And so now we see Joseph has
absolute rule and he stands as judge and he requires them to
show up with Benjamin. And Judah understands the only
way we can live is to go to the judge and face him. And the only
way we can face him is if our father gives Benjamin into our
hand. And Israel, that is Jacob, said,
Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether
you 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?
You see, the brothers didn't know it was Joseph. They had
no idea how he knew they had a brother. But he asked them
about this and he asked them about his father. Joseph himself
is so interested. His love is going out to his
brethren the whole time that he is interrogating them and
making himself strange to them. His heart is huge with love. He desires to have them, but
he cannot have them. until he satisfies this need
to bring them all down. And so he says, bring down your
brother. And Judah said to Israel, his father, and this is what
I want you to pay close attention to. Judah comes to his father
on behalf of his entire family. They cannot live unless Jacob
commits Benjamin into his hand and he goes to Joseph and stands
before him. Then they could receive food.
And how can he solve this seemingly unsolvable problem where Jacob's
concern over Benjamin is so great and Joseph's demand for them
to appear before him is also unavoidable for them to live?
How can it be solved? And Judah comes near. And he
said to Israel, his father, send the lad with me and we will arise
and go. Listen, that we may live and
not die, both we and thou. and also our little ones. You
see this? Judah stands not only to take
Benjamin to Joseph to stand before him, but in order to bring, in
order to save Jacob and the whole family, the chosen seed of God. This is the children of Israel,
the promised seed. In order to save the promised
seed of God, Judah has to obtain the trust of his father with
his youngest brother. And so he pleads with him. He
says, send him with me. And then look at verse 9. Something
else is said here. He says, I will be surety for
him. You see that? 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. Now, Judah says something here
that's nothing less than inspired by the Spirit of God. Because
what He is doing as He utters these words, and the Secretary
of Heaven, as it were, is recording them here for us in the Scriptures,
and He's writing them for our benefit and for our comfort and
for our assurance. He's teaching us the only way
that we can appear before the justice of God and stand before
Him and hope to obtain life at His hand, is if two things happen. The love of the Father for His
adopted sons has to be kept safe and secure. And secondly, something
has to be done so that when that brother Benjamin goes down to
Egypt and faces Joseph as the judge, that he's not only safe,
but whatever demands the judge places on Benjamin has to actually
be satisfied by Judah. And so he says this, he says
to his father, he says, I will be surety for him. And when he
says that, what Judah is saying is that Give me your son. Commit him into my hand and I
will bring him back to you. I will do whatever it takes when
I stand before the judge to give an answer for him so that when
we return, he will come back. And that is the gospel. That
is what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Now look over
in Genesis 44. As we look at this, in Genesis
44, the encounter now occurs between Joseph's brethren and
Joseph himself. This time they have Benjamin
with them, because Jacob commits Benjamin into Judah's hand. Look
at verse 14 of Genesis 44. And Judah and his brethren came
to Joseph's house. What had happened was Benjamin
and his brethren had left Joseph. Joseph had planted his cup in
the sack of Benjamin. Joseph sent out his steward and
found all the brethren. And he started at the oldest
and he searched their sacks until he came to Benjamin's sack. And
he found Joseph's cup in Benjamin's sack. And they were guilty. They were guilty of high treason. They were guilty of turning the
trust of this man against them. And so, the steward brings them
back, and they understand this. And Judah and his brethren came
to Joseph's house, and you know that they were terrified, for
he was yet there. And they fell before him. on
the ground. And Joseph said to them, What
deed is this that you have done? What ye not, don't you know that
such a man as I can certainly divine? He can see everything. He searches the hearts. He understands
the circumstances. He knows it all. And Judah said,
listen now, in all of this story, as you read through this, you
see the circumstances almost seem to be orchestrated by Joseph. It's almost like he gives them
a superficial guilt so that they have to answer to him. And I
always wondered, why did he do that? Well, there are several
reasons. But one of them is, they had to understand this fundamental
thing, that they needed to acknowledge Joseph as the absolute judge
over them. They had to face his justice.
What he said was the truth about them and they had to own that.
But the other thing is, is that there was something much deeper
under the surface. Because they had actually sold
their brother. They had actually murdered him
in their heart and sold him for profit down the river to Egypt. and they ignored his pleadings
and his anguish and now that's what's coming out is that whenever
God deals with us at first it seems like it's superficial things
but then when we face him And we understand who He is, and
we can't avoid His all-seeing eye. And it gets to this point,
when God shows us our iniquity, then the truth of what's under
the surface comes out. And that's what's here said,
here in verse 16. And Judah comes out and he says,
What shall we say unto my Lord, and what shall we speak? Or,
how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants." You see that? God has found it out. Not just
a man. God has found it out. Joseph
said, don't you know, I can certainly divine? God has found out our
iniquity. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said,
Judah says to Joseph, God forbid, I'm sorry, Joseph says to Judah,
God forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get
you up in peace to your father. You see, at this point, Judah
is speaking for all of his brethren. He's speaking to the judge as
one voice for them all. He acknowledges all of their
sin. And then we see now that Joseph is demanding that only
Benjamin stand trial and stand as his bondman, stay as his bondman
because of where the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. In verse 18 it says, then this
is where we see our surety come out in vivid contrast colors
against this insurmountable issue now. Remember, Judah had committed
himself to his father. His father had committed Benjamin
to his hand. And Judah said, if I don't bring
him back, I'll bear the blame forever. He had committed himself. to an unimaginable debt. He had committed himself to an
open-ended debt. One that he wasn't even sure
at this point how large the debt would be. And Judah came near
to Joseph as the Lord, the governor, the judge, and he says, Oh my
Lord, Let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's
ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for
thou art even as Pharaoh." Now Judah is entering a plea here,
and I want you to see how he does this. He doesn't act arrogantly. He doesn't try to deny the facts
before them. Benjamin was found guilty Judah
does not plead Benjamin's innocence. In fact, Judah goes deeper. He
says, God has found out our iniquity. And in verse 19, Judah rehearses
the matter in his plea, his advocacy for Benjamin. He says, my Lord
asked his servants saying, have you a father or a brother? And
we said unto my Lord, we have a father, an old man, and a child
of his old age, a little one. And his brother is dead, and
he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. You
see that? His father loveth him. And thou
saidst, son, to thy servants, bring him down to me, that I
may set my eyes upon him. And we said to my lord, the lad
cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father,
his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy servants,
Accept your youngest brother, come down with you, you shall
see my face no more. and it came to pass when we came
up unto thy servant my father we told him the words of my lord
and our father said go again and buy us a little food and
we said we cannot go down if our younger brother be with us
then we will go down for we may not see the man's face except
our younger brother be with us you see he's rehearsing now to
the judge What the judge had told him, you required us to
bring our youngest brother. And yet our father loves him
and could not let him go. He's pleading here as an advocate
for his brother. And the first thing he mentions
is his father's love for his youngest son, Benjamin. And the
next thing he mentions is the requirement of justice, that
he come down and face them. And he says in verse 27, And
thy servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bare
me two sons, and the one went out from me. And I said, Surely
he is torn in pieces, and I saw him not since. And if you take
this also from me, listen, and mischief befall him, you shall
bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. What a deep
love Jacob had for Benjamin. In verse 30, Now therefore, when
I come, Judah is talking now to Joseph and he says, Listen,
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, It shall
come to pass when he seeth the lad, that the lad is not with
us, that he will die. And thy servant shall bring down
the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the
grave." And now Judah has pleaded all of the love that he could,
his father had for Benjamin. And now he shifts and he pleads
before Joseph his own surety shift. His goal here is to convince
the judge to accept him just like his father was willing to
accept the surety in Benjamin's place as a security for Benjamin's
life, to bring him back again. Now the surety pleads to the
judge that he would allow him to stand as surety for Benjamin. first his father's love, now
his own suretyship. And he says, verse 32, For thy
servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If
I bring him not unto thee again, then I shall bear the blame to
my father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, Listen
now. He tells him exactly what it
meant, what he meant by saying he would be the surety. Let thy
servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord, and
let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father,
and the lad be not with me, lest peradventure I see the evil that
shall come upon my father? I took the time to read through
this and bring out these details because what you see here is
Judah is reaching out to his father. Jacob is so distraught. He doesn't know what to do. His
family is about to die. He does not want to send Benjamin
away. His life is bound up in Benjamin's
life. Now, that to us, at a human level,
we can understand something about that, even though even that seems
to us to be amazing love. And yet, if we understand the
teaching of what God is saying here, that God the Father is
represented by Jacob, Judah's father, and Joseph's father,
and Benjamin's father in particular, And Jacob holds Benjamin so dear
to him that he is not willing to release him at all to go to
a judge because he knows if he goes to the judge and stands
before the judge, evil can befall him and then he will lose him
forever. And so the only way that Jacob
will allow Benjamin to go is if he can find someone who can
guaranteed to him the security of Benjamin through the whole
transaction. But he didn't think that himself.
Jacob didn't think that himself in this account. It's amazing
to me that Judah approaches his father and he actually initiates
and proposes himself as surety. And I think that that's worth
noting, because when we think about what God did in the Godhead,
that the Lord Jesus Christ approached His Father, engaged His heart,
And He offered Himself willingly and voluntarily as the surety
for God's people, the elect, chosen, adopted sons of God. And He did this in order that
He might guarantee to the Father that He would bring them again
even though they would have to face the very judgment and justice
and all-seeing eye and consuming fire of God's justice. You see, God understood in eternity. He had a people. In fact, look
at Ephesians. I want to take you to a few verses
to try to get these things from the New Testament now. Because
we see this in the illustration, I want to see it now in the New
Testament. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and
we'll read their very familiar verses, but it's necessary to
look at them in the light of what we've just read there. And
for time's sake, I may have to quote some of these verses too,
but look at Ephesians chapter 1 and look at verse 2. Grace be to you. and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him, now look at the time reference, before
the foundation of the world. That we, this is why He chose
us, this was the end goal He had in view. That we should be
holy and without blame before Him. Do you see that? God chose
us with a destiny in view. It wasn't just a choosing of
random thoughts. God had a purpose. God had a
will. God had a predestinated end in
view for His people. And He chose them to that, and
it was this, to be holy and without blame before Him. You see, and
the choosing of his people is seen back in Genesis when God,
when Jacob had Benjamin with him. Before the surety came,
this issue was not something that occurred new and fresh in
God's mind. It wasn't that there was a problem
with sin only after the world began. We know it was a problem
then. It was obvious at that point
in time. But known unto God are all his
works even from before the foundation of the world. Acts chapter 15
says as much. And here he says that God actually
had previously in his will chosen his people Before the foundation
of the world and he saw them for this purpose He chose them
to this purpose and it was certain that they would be this way Holy
and without blame before him and then in the next verse it
says in love and I'm putting that word with the next verse
in love listen having predestinated us unto what the adoption of
children the word adoption is to to choose it simply means
add and add Opto means to choose, and God chose his people not
just to be holy and blameless, but to be his sons. Now that's
exactly what Benjamin was to Jacob, isn't it? But look at
the rest of the verse. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children. You see the next three words?
By Jesus Christ. unto Himself. So God did this
and the choice of His people was not just independent of the
Lord Jesus Christ, but it was actually by Jesus Christ. And
how did He choose us by Jesus Christ? Well, that's what we
see. in this illustration of the surety, because Jacob couldn't
allow Benjamin to stand before the judge. And the truth of the
matter is, is that God the Father understood that when he created
the world, he created the world for a purpose. He created everything
for a purpose and he orchestrated all of the events of time for
this purpose, to bring his people holy, and blameless before Him
in love as His adopted sons. But the thing of it is, is that
God knew, and God tells us this, that in fact, in creating His
people, that one day they would have to stand before Him in justice. You see, God is a consuming fire,
and even though he had not yet created the world and the people
in it, he understood that if he makes us and creates us under
a covenant of works as he did in Adam. There's no possibility. There's no possibility that he
would relinquish his adopted sons to that whole covenant of
works without first securing them. So that even though they
go into and go down into the covenant of works and come out
of it and have to face his justice that he would preserve them in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he chooses them and he
adopts them, but his adoption has in view preserving them in
the Lord Jesus Christ and in eternity." Now you say, you're
making all this up, this seems like a fantastic story. How in
the world do you read that out of a few verses here? Well, let
me get to that. Because we first have to get
the statement out here and then try to substantiate it from the
rest of Scripture. When God the Father chose his people in Christ and
predestinated them to the adoption, he determined, because the Lord
Jesus Christ stood up as their surety, that he would commit
them into the keeping of Christ's hand, and that he would then
be able to trust the Lord Jesus Christ with them. He had no doubt
that the Lord Jesus Christ would deliver them and bring them back
to him. And now I want to look at a few verses with you. Look
at this now, the eternity of our being, having a surety. Look
at Hebrews chapter 7. First, let's see that the Lord
Jesus Christ is in fact our surety. The clear statement is in Hebrews
7.22. It says that Jesus was made a
surety of a better testament. Do you see that? Undoubtedly,
you've heard the verse before. But what is this better testament?
It's the New Testament. And what is the New Testament?
Hebrews 7.22, what is the New Testament? It's the New Testament,
the everlasting covenant, the everlasting. You see, the New
Testament is not a testament that came up lately. It's an
everlasting covenant. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 and
verse 20. He says it there. He says, and
notice the words, now the God of peace, that brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep."
He puts it all together here in this one verse. Through the
blood of the everlasting covenant. You see that? The covenant that
he's been speaking about here is an everlasting covenant. Does
that mean it started in time and goes to eternity? No, it
means that it started in eternity. You see, if the Lord Jesus Christ
is the surety of the Testament, and the Testament itself is an
everlasting covenant, then what does that mean about the length
of time over which Christ was the surety of that Testament?
Well, we understand, look back at Hebrews 7, we understand that
covenants are given under the priesthood. He says here, In verse, let's see, in verse
11 and 12, he says, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical
priesthood, you see that? Chapter 7, verse 11, if the perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people receive
the law. You see, under the priesthood is how they receive the law.
Therefore, under the priesthood, the covenant had to be established.
But if Christ is the surety of the New Testament, and the surety
has to do with him being a priest, therefore, if the covenant is
everlasting, he himself had to be an everlasting high priest. And this is brought out in the
type of Melchizedek, because he says, look at verse 3 of chapter
7. Melchizedek is king of righteousness, king of Salem, which is king
of peace. Verse 3 says, without father, without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but
made like unto the Son of God, abides a priest continually. Melchizedek's priesthood was
an everlasting priesthood. And Christ's priesthood was made
after the order of Melchizedek. And not only that, but think
about this. And there's many other ways to see this. But the
Lord Jesus Christ was made a high priest. And when God gave the
law to Moses, he told Moses, make everything after the pattern
that you saw in the mount. Remember? And if the pattern
is if the if the law that God gave Moses is the shadow, then
the pattern in the heavenlies has to be there already. So he
had to be an everlasting. It's an everlasting covenant
with an everlasting high priest. with an everlasting declarations of what he would
do in that and notice what he said in Hebrews 13 20 is that
the blood of the everlasting covenant now look at first Peter
first Peter chapter 1 because I want you to see how this and
pastor Harmon what time did we start I need to know the in time That reminds me of what my wife
told me my brother said. He said, if your wife says, do
what you want to do, don't do what you want to do. So, well, I'll give an estimate. First Peter, chapter one. Look
at this in verse 18. He says, I'm looking at James. First Peter, chapter one. He
says, for as much as you know, listen carefully to these words.
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ." How are you
redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ.
"...as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Notice the
time frame, verse 20. "...who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you. You see that? When was Christ's
precious blood, the blood of the Lamb, foreordained by God,
to be the redemption, which is what he's talking about here,
of God's people. And what is the redemption? It's
the price paid to justice to satisfy God's justice in order
to set free and set at liberty those who had a debt of crimes.
And that justice has to be satisfied in order for redemption to occur.
When was that blood ordained? before the foundation of the
world. And if the blood was ordained,
then the lamb was selected, right? And if the lamb was selected,
then God himself had ordained that the lamb would be offered.
And if the lamb was offered and the high priest was the everlasting
priest, who offered the lamb? The Lord Jesus Christ offered
himself because the priest offers himself the sacrifice in the
New Testament, in the everlasting covenant. Now, this is explicitly
brought out in Revelation 13, 8, where God says that those
people whose names were not written In the Book of Life of the Lamb,
who was slain before the foundation of the world, or from the foundation
of the world, those people worship the beast. They can't help it.
But God has preserved his people. Look at that. Let's look at that
together. I know we often quote it, but it's worth looking at
this, because this is a pivotal verse in scripture that establishes
these things. Look at this, Revelation 13.8.
It's said right in the middle of this tremendous warfare and
God, as it were, lifts up a banner out of the death of what's happening
here and the banner waves and he says, listen to this, and
all they that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, the
beast whose names are not written in the book. Notice, it's a book
of what? Of life. It's a book of life,
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Why is it called
a book of life? Well, because, and notice, it's
a book of life for those whose names are written in it. Those
whose names are not written in it, they serve the beast. But
those whose names are written in it, those have life. And how do they have life? Well,
it's clear here, because the Lamb was slain. You see, life
is the reward of righteousness. And righteousness is the result
of Christ dying. His obedience unto death is the
everlasting righteousness of His people. He's the end of the
law. He fulfilled everything God required. Everything in God's will, He
did from His heart. And because He did that, Ultimate,
the ultimate obedience was laying down his own life as the high
priest, as the lamb slain, and he was slain from the foundation
of the world. This absolutely guaranteed that those whose names
were written in that book, guess what they had? Eternal life. eternal life, not just life on
earth, but eternal life. So the blood of the Lamb, slain
from the foundation of the world, establishes the fact that Christ
is the High Priest. Christ himself was offered in
God's ordained purpose, in His will, before the foundation of
the world. And this book, this book that's
written here, you could understand this book in a couple of ways,
and I'm not sure exactly how best to take it, but one way
to understand it is it's the book of the New Covenant. Another
way is to just understand it, it's in Christ. God put his people
into the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote us there on his heart.
And having written us there, Christ, and why did he do that?
It's because the Lord Jesus Christ engaged himself, approached his
Father and said, send the lad with me, and I'll be surety for
him. And at that point, God, and I
don't understand this, this is the language of men when we say
He struck hands. But the striking of hands among
men is a faint type. What happened in the Godhead,
when God the Father and God the Son established the eternal covenant
of redemption, it's so secured that Christ would be committed,
the people of God, to save them. And not just save them for a
little while, not just a little, but actually he saw the very
end of that salvation and he said, they're going to stand
before me again. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. I
see these things explicitly brought out here in Hebrews chapter 2.
He says in verse 10, and the first hymn here is speaking of
God the Father. It says, For it became him for
whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing, notice,
in bringing many sons to glory. Do you see that? The Father determined
to bring many sons to glory. And how is he going to do that?
By making the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one. For which cause he, the Lord Jesus, is not ashamed
to call them brethren. Who is Joseph to Benjamin? The
brother. He was not only the judge, but
the brother. He was not only holding justice
in his hand, but in his heart, his heart went out to Benjamin.
He wanted to save him. He wanted to reveal himself to
Benjamin, but he could not until there was a surety found. And
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. Now look over at Philemon. Just a couple of verses here,
because I don't know how much time I have, but I have a feeling
it's getting overtime. Look at Philemon. I have to take you
to this because this is probably one of the most beautiful verses
around this that we should go through the whole book here,
but obviously that can't be done. But Paul, let me give you the
summary. Paul is pleading with Philemon. Philemon was a rich, apparently,
landowner who was a brother, a beloved brother, and Paul calls
him a fellow servant. Paul is in prison. And from prison,
Paul had encountered a runaway slave that ran from Philemon
and came to prison, and there his name was Onesimus, and there
Onesimus is saved by Paul's ministry. But here, Paul is pleading to
Philemon for Onesimus, because when Onesimus left, something
had happened. A crime had been committed. Not
only that, he left Philemon and left his master, and so in doing
so, he was a runaway slave. But look at this. In Philemon,
it is the one chapter, but look at verse 10. I want to read verse 10 to you.
Because here again, notice, when God gives us these illustrations
in Genesis 43-44 and here in Philemon and other places where
he shows us what a surety is, it's not a cold kind of a doctrinal
thing. It's so moving that as you read
through this, I don't know about you, but the hair tingles and
you start sometimes to convulse because of the emotion that's
in this. When God saved his people, and
we don't know how God, you know, sometimes you don't know does
God have emotions or not, but one thing he represents here
is that if he has this kind of intensity about his people, it
doesn't matter to figure it out because he's God. Look at verse
10. Now in the Greek, the order of
the verse, I'm going to read it to you, it occurs, it puts
Onesimus at the very last, he says, I appeal to you in the
interest of my child whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus. First, the appeal is put forward,
and he says it's in the interest of my child. And then look at
verse 12. Whom I have sent again, thou
therefore, listen, receive him, that is, mine own bowels. And
now, look at verse 17. Paul turns on what I call the
plea of the surety. He's had it on all through this
book, but it comes to a fever pitch here. He says in verse
17, If thou count me therefore a partner, Now, Paul, in the
historical context, no doubt would have been considered the
greater to Philemon. But Paul lowers himself and he
says, if you count me a partner, because he wants Philemon to
act toward Onesimus, in love. Paul is not satisfied just to
have Philemon free Onesimus. He must receive him in love. And so the only way he can do
that here, he says, if you count me a partner, receive him as
myself. Do you hear those words? Receive
Him as myself. There are no more precious words
to me in all of scripture. When the Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to His Father about His people, do you know what He says? Receive
Him as me. receive him as me. In his high
priestly prayer in John 17, 23 and 24, he says that they might
know that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Everything
that God treats his son, the way he loves him, the way he
receives him, the way he sees him in righteousness, that's
the way. The surety has made it so that
God can treat his people. And notice how he does it. He
says here, verse 18, if he has wronged thee, and that's sin,
or oweth thee aught, that's a debt, then put that on mine account. And then Paul says this beautiful
thing, I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will
repay. Do you see that? I will repay. Whatever it takes, whatever it
costs, whatever debt he owes, however much crime he's committed,
I'm gonna pay it. Why? Because Paul is standing
here for Onesimus as his surety. And notice what Paul says, I've
written it with my own hand. You've got my open, it's an open
check. Write whatever amount you need
to write in there, I'll pay it. Whatever it takes. And then,
you know what Paul did? Because to me, this is part of
it. We have to understand this. We know that God chose his people
before the foundation of the world. We know he gave them to
Christ. There's no doubting that. We know that Christ is the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And for them, he secured
eternal life. I'm confident that we would all have to agree. Scripture
is plain. But the big question is, is how
do I know that Christ is my surety? Have you ever asked that question?
How do I know that when he died, he died for me? How do I know
that in that covenant, that as the thief called to him on the
cross and he says, Lord, remember me? And he maybe didn't consciously
realize it, but that in that prayer, he's referring back all
the way into eternity. Lord, remember me when you bore
me on your heart to your father, committing yourself to pay whatever
it took to keep me secure and bring me to glory. Remember me
when you stood there before justice and paid that curse with your
life. And remember me when you stand
in glory. And here we have to ask this
question. How do I know that Christ is
the surety for me? Well, remember, Paul wrote this
with his own hand. And then he gives the letter
into the hand of Onesimus. And he sends Onesimus to his
master Philemon. And he says, take this letter.
And when you get there, give him the letter. And when you
give him the letter, guess what? In the letter, I've committed
to pay everything for you. And Onesimus goes undoubtedly
with confidence in his heart that he would be received as
Paul himself. And he knew that Philemon would
receive Onesimus. But in Hebrews chapter 7 it says
it this way, and I'll just read it to you here. Because this
is beautiful beyond words. Hebrews chapter 7 in verse 24
he says this. 25, wherefore, because he is the
surety of the New Testament, he, the Lord Jesus Christ, because
he has an unchangeable priesthood, an everlasting priesthood, because
he engaged in eternity, paid in time, intercedes now and time,
and through eternity he is our surety, he says, wherefore, he
is able also to save them to the uttermost, notice, that come
unto God by Him. You see that? How do I know that
Christ is my surety? Because when I come to God, all
my plea is the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, receive me for His sake.
And not only then, but when I face judgment at the end of time,
because God knows I can't face judgment. I know it. I cannot
face the judgment seat of Christ without a surety. And you know
what my plea is then? Lord, if you're not my answer,
I don't have an answer. Christ will still be my surety.
We come to God through Him, and that's the only way we come.
But in coming to Him through our surety, we're absolutely
confident. We can be as confident and joyful
in Christ being our surety as God the Father is. He absolutely
trusted us into His hand, and there's no possibility that we
won't be brought all the way to glory in the hand of our surety. Amen.