Listen carefully to the opening
statements of this message. They're very important. The whole
of our acceptance with God is in Christ. It is the person and
work of Christ alone that makes us acceptable and has made us
from eternity accepted with the Father. the whole of our assurance
before God is in Christ. Now be sure you understand this.
While our relationship to God does in great measure, most certainly,
it does in great measure affect how we behave. It does in great
measure determine what we do. What we do, be it good or bad,
does not to any degree at any time affect our relationship
with God. Our standing before God is in
Christ. Let us never look to ourselves
for peace and acceptance and assurance. Our acceptance and
assurance is in Him. And understand this as well.
The whole of our security in the grace of God is in Christ. We are in Him. Oh, how blessed. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Because we are in Christ, we're
accepted because He's accepted. We are without sin because He's
without sin. We are secure because He's secure. When He died, we died. When He
arose, we arose. When He put away our sin, He
put away our sins forever. God will not, therefore, charge
his people with sin, ever, to any degree, for any reason. This
is what David said. He said, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now do you remember the
occasion of that? In 2 Samuel, when David had committed
that horrible crime with Bathsheba, when he had plotted and schemed
and arranged for the murder of Uriah, Nathan the prophet came
to him and gave him that parable of a man who came to a certain
rich man who had flocks and herds abundantly. And he refused to
take one of his sheep and give it to the hungry man and sent
and took one man's only sheep, had it slaughtered, and gave
it to another. And David, in his vengeance, in his anger,
in his self-righteousness, which we all possess. He said, let
that man die. You find him and I'll put him
to death. And Nathan said, thou art the man. David said, I've
said. Do you remember the next words
out of the prophet's mouth? He said, the Lord hath, not he
shall, he hath put away thy sin. And David went in and penned
those blessed words in Psalm 32 and in Psalm 51, and Paul
gives it to us in Romans 4 and says, blessed then is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Near, so very near to God,
nearer I cannot be, for in the person of his Son, I am as near
as he. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of God's own Son, I am as dear
as he. Christ is described in the scriptures
as our good shepherd. As such, he gave his life for
the sheep. He seeks His sheep. He seeks
each one of His sheep. And He seeks it until He finds
it. And when He finds it, He doesn't just beg the sheep to
follow Him. He picks it up, lays it on His shoulders, and on the
broad shoulders of His omnipotence, He carries His sheep home. The
Lord Jesus knows His sheep. He calls them by name. He leads
them out. And they follow Him. He gives
them eternal life and declares, they shall never perish. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our substitute. Now this
is what it means. He lived as our representative
and died in shame, ignominy, under the wrath of God, being
made to be sin for us to put away sin in the room instead
of His people. Substitution is the basis of
our hope before God. Christ Jesus died in our room
and place. Substitution is the foundation
and essence of the gospel. Substitution is the message God
has sent all of His servants to preach at all times. It's
the good news of the gospel for guilty sinners. In due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. He, his own self, bare our sins
in his own body on the tree. For my own part, there is nothing
so deep and mysterious So profound and awesome, so wonderful and
inspiring, so full of joy and so comforting and assuring as
the glorious God-honoring doctrine of substitution. Substitution
is the very fabric from which all biblical doctrine is made.
Understand that. Until substitution is established,
until substitution is understood, nothing in this book is understood. Substitution is the fabric from
which all biblical doctrine is made. The Lord Jesus Christ we
have seen in the seventh chapter of Hebrews is our great high
priest. He sits upon the throne of glory
and makes intercession for us according to the will of God
with an everlasting priesthood. This one who is himself God assumed
humanity. And He came here to live and
die in our room instead and rose again to sit as a priest after
the order of Melchizedek upon the throne of God. And because
He ever lives, He's able to save to the uttermost all them that
come to God by Him. And our Savior, He's our advocate
with the Father. Our advocate. He is a gracious,
loving advocate. But the basis of our confidence,
Lindsay, is more important than his grace and his love. He's
a righteous advocate. Someone says, well, I have a
friend in the court. That implies the court's been
rigged. Someone says, I have a friend on the bench. That implies
somehow God's going to lower his standard. And it's never
going to happen. We have an advocate with the Father. He's the propitiation
for our sins. Jesus Christ, the righteous. You understand that? He is a
righteous, holy, just advocate so that He pleads with the Father
for the non-reputation of sin to us on the basis of absolute
justice and law, so that the law and justice of God is in
full agreement with the mercy and grace of God in Christ the
Advocate, our representative. He's a full-time advocate, and
He's an effectual advocate. Now, I've given you these last
statements because I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit,
it seems as the scriptures are written, to be anxious for us
to have an assurance of our soul's well-being before God. He uses
metaphor after metaphor after metaphor to show us a picture
and another and another and another of the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Redeemer and our Savior. He uses one picture after another
to declare to us the person and work of Jesus Christ in the accomplishment
of redemption. Now among all those many metaphors
used in Scripture to describe our glorious Redeemer and His
redemptive work, none is more important, none is more instructive,
and none is more unfamiliar to this religious age than what's
found in Hebrews 7.22. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is
described as our surety. Our surety. Let's begin reading
in verse 19. For the law. Now you can, when
you read that, understand it's talking about the whole law.
The ceremonies, the commandments, the ordinances, the rituals,
the sacrifices, the civil law, the dietary law, all the law
of Israel. The law made nothing perfect. All the sacrifices offered on
Jewish altars could not wash away one sin. But the bringing
in of a better hope did. By the witch, that is, by this
better hope, we draw nigh unto God. Look at verse 20. And inasmuch as not without an
oath, he was made priest. For those priests were made without
an oath, but this with an oath, by him that said to him, The
Lord swear, and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, a better covenant. And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continued with ever hath an unchangeable,
irrevocable, everlasting, immutable priesthood. Wherefore, because
he is a surety and a priest, irrevocably and immutably so,
everlastingly so, because he is such by the oath of God Almighty,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make an intercession
for them. Now then, hold your hands here
and turn back to Genesis chapter 43. Genesis 43. It means you told me he referred
you to this Sunday morning. Verse 8. You remember that Joseph
has been established in Egypt as the prime minister of Egypt.
And being established there in God's good providence, he brought
famine to the land and brought all of Israel down to Egypt.
And one way he did so was through that famine and by Joseph's scheme. Joseph's brothers have been down
there, to make a long story short, Simeon is in prison. And Joseph
had not made himself known to his brethren yet. And he said
to them, you go back and you get your brother, Benjamin, that
youngest brother in your father's house. And you bring him down
here to me and prove yourselves to be true men. Then I'll let
your brother Simeon go home with you. And when they came and told
this story to their father, Jacob was just devastated. He was just
devastated. And Reuben volunteered to go
down and be a surety for him. Back in chapter 42, Reuben said,
Father, you give me the boy. I'll go down there and I'll bring
him back and everything will be alright. But in God's providence, his
father said, not a chance. He's not going down there with
you. How come? Because our surety didn't come
from the tribe of Reuben. He came from the tribe of Judah.
Bob pointed that out to me a few months ago. Look in verse 8 of
chapter 43. Now Judah comes. And he said
to Israel, his father, send Benjamin with me, and we will arise in
gold, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also
our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now get the picture. Judah says
to Israel, he says, you give me the object of your love. You give me Benjamin. And I'll
take him down into Egypt with me. And I'll bring him back and
sit him before you. And if I fail to do it, let me
bear the reproach and the blame forever. Even so, the Lord Jesus
Christ, before the world was, drew near to God the Father as
our covenant surety and representative. And he says, give them to me,
put them in my hands, and I will bring your people back to you,
or let me bear the blame forever. And so the Father did as Israel
did with his son Benjamin. He said, go. and bring it back
again. That's exactly what happened
in the covenant of grace. Now in our message this evening,
I want to show you three things. I'll answer three questions.
First, what is a surety? Second, how did Christ become
our surety? And third, what did he agree
to as our surety? Number one, what's a surety?
A surety is one who approaches one in authority on the behalf
of a people whom he represents, perhaps one or perhaps many people
whom he represents. He draws near to one and assumes
responsibility for another. That's what our Lord Jesus did
as our surety. He drew near to the Father as
our representative, our covenant surety, our substitute, and assumed
total responsibility for us before the world began. Let me show
you a few texts of scripture. Turn to Psalm 40. We'll look
at just a few verses. Now this psalm is certainly talking
about our Lord Jesus. The one speaking is our Savior
himself. We know that plainly, not only
because there's no other way to interpret the psalm, but because
the Holy Spirit gives us this interpretation in Hebrews chapter
10. Here in Psalm 40 verse 7. Then
said I, lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written to
me. What book? The same book that's described
in Revelation chapter 5. That book written within and
without, on the front side and on the back, sealed with seven
seals, the book of God's everlasting purpose. The book of divine predestination,
the book of God's decrees. In the volume of the book it
is written to me. I delight to do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. Now surety is one who strikes
hands with another in solemn agreement. And as a surety, a
man of honor puts himself in bondage. Now look in Proverbs
chapter 6. Proverbs 6. When a man of honor gives his
word, he's in bondage. If I owe Skip Gladfelter $100,
I'm his servant till the $100 is paid, if I'm an honorable
man. That's the language of Scripture,
isn't it? Man makes an agreement. If he's a man of honor, he puts
himself in bondage and considers himself such. Look here in Proverbs
6, verse 1. My son, if thou be surety for
thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, Thou
art snared with the words of thy mouth. Thou art taken with
the words of thy mouth. Shake hands on it. You put yourself
in a snare. You say, this is what I'll do.
You're honor-bound to do it. You're honor-bound to do it.
In Isaiah chapter 50, turn there if you will, when our Lord Jesus
became our surety, He voluntarily placed Himself in bondage to
His Father until His service, until His suretyship was accomplished. Now you remember the law of the
servant, how that our Lord Jesus is described as the Father's
servant to come and redeem and save His people. Here in Isaiah
50 verse 5, the Lord is here giving us a description of Himself.
The Lord God has opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spinning, for the Lord God will help me. Therefore
shall I not be confounded, therefore have I set my face like a flint,
and I know I'll not be ashamed. And there's one more text in
this regard, John chapter 10. John the 10th chapter. There are certain portions of
scripture that simply... bum-fuzzle folks, because they
fail to understand the basic principle of substitution and
suretorship. When our Lord Jesus submitted
himself to the Father's will, it's not that he is somehow less
than the Father. It's not that somehow there is
an inequality with him and the Father, not at all. But rather,
our Lord Jesus voluntarily placed himself under the honor He had
a bondage of his own word to accomplish some things as the
Father's servant and our Redeemer. Here in John chapter 10 and verse
16. Other sheep I have. Now notice
his language. He doesn't say other sheep I'm
going to have. They're already mine. Other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold. Them also I must bring. What a word. Must! He must do anything. How can
it be said by me that the Son of God must do anything? Only
because he swore he'd do it. I must break. And they shall,
without a doubt, because I swore I'd cause them to, they shall
hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love
me. Now wait a minute. We're talking
about the Son of God. No. No, we're talking about the
God-Man. We're talking about Him in His
mediatorial capacity. He was always everlastingly loved
of the Father as a man. And here He's talking about Him
being loved of the Father as the Son of God. Here He's talking
about Himself being loved of the Father as the Good Shepherd.
As the One who has come to do His Father's will. Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. that I might
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down in myself. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Now this is what our Lord Jesus
Christ did as our surety in the covenant of grace before the
world began. He drew near to God the Father
on behalf of his elect. He promised to faithfully perform
all that God required for the salvation of his people. And
he struck hands with the Father in solemn agreement. Now, God
the Father entrusted his elect to the hands of his darling son.
And when he entrusted his elect to the hands of his son, our
salvation was in the mind and purpose of God, in the covenant
of grace, already, fully, perfectly accomplished. Now let me show
it to you. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy
chapter 1. Now remember the context. Paul
is in prison. He's writing his last epistle.
And he's writing his last epistle with the full awareness that
he's about to be put to death for the testimony of the gospel.
And he says, Timothy, don't you be ashamed of me or the gospel
I preach for which I'm about to suffer death. And then he
describes it. In other words, looks to me like
there's no preaching the gospel to what Paul says in these next
verses is preached. Does it look that way to you?
Look at verse 9. What is it? This is the gospel
of God who hath saved us and called us. He saved us in His
purpose of grace. And then He called us in the
time of His appointment, who has saved us and called us not
according to our works. Our works have nothing to do
with it. Not the works of our hands, much less the works of
our wills. Not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, get it now, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. How can that be? Only as a surety. Some way it can be. Only as a
covenant head and representative. But now, is made manifest by
the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
By the preaching of the gospel, he brings to light what was done
in eternity. Alright, now here's the second
question. How did Christ become a surety? With men, I said this
to you just recently, with men, suretorship is nothing more than
a guarantor, a cosigner, one who is jointly responsible with
the principal debtor for the payment of a debt. Not so with
Christ. With me in a surety ship means
that if Sammy and Ruth go to the bank and they want to borrow
some money to put an addition on the house and they call me
up and they say, Don, would you sign the note with us? That means
the bank has already looked over your record and figured you don't
have a real good, stable background, so you pay for it. And so they
say, get somebody who can come along with you and make them
obligated as well. Now, that means that both Sammy
and Ruth and this fellow here are equally responsible for the
debt. If he goes bust, they come looking
to me. They look to me because we are
co-signers on the note. Not so with Christ. Our Lord
Jesus Christ assumed total responsibility for all His people before God
Almighty. So that He became surety not
for His friend, but for His enemies, as the friend to our souls. He
struck hands with the Father, and He does so not saying, now
if something should happen to someone along the white line,
they fail to meet the obligations they had before God, then I'll
step in for them. Oh no, oh no. He says he will
assume total responsibility for us. With man, assurity sometimes
is legally forced. Legally forced. A father, you
know in this crazy mixed up, I mean mixed up society, a father
is not supposed to have any authority over his sons. If he gets caught
Make him a man, they'll take the boy away from him. But, he
has a legal responsibility for it. So the boy tears something
up, maybe you don't go look for the father, look for the boy
to pay for it. He hasn't got any money. He hasn't got any
job. He doesn't have any property.
You go to his father, and the law requires the father to assume
responsibility for his minor children. Not so with Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was not forced into suretyship, but rather
he voluntarily became surety. And from the instant he became
surety for his people, the father looked upon his son as his servant,
Jehovah's righteous servant. And the Lord Jesus assumed absolute
responsibility for us voluntarily. When our Savior became our surety,
He took the whole of our debt upon Himself. He assumed total
responsibility for us in all things. So that as Judah said
to his father, let me take Benjamin and go down to Egypt, and if
I don't bring him back, I'll bear the blame. So my Lord Jesus,
if anything happens that even so much as one of God's elect
does not enter into glory with Him, He bears the blame, not
them. If the sheep are lost, it's not
the fault of the sheep, it's the shepherd's fault. If God's elect are not saved
by Christ, it's Christ's fault, not their fault. Listen to the
Scriptures. He assumes responsibility. He's
our surety. Our Lord Jesus became responsible
for our obligations, just like a man, if he takes a note and
it's transferred from this man to this man, the fellow who originally
had the note has no more obligation. And our Lord Jesus took our obligations
upon himself from eternity as our covenant surety. As soon
as the father accepted the son as our surety, he set us free. Then he is gracious unto him
and said, deliver him from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. That's what Paul did for Onesimus.
He wrote to Philemon. And he said, if he's wronged
you in anything, lay it to my account. Put it on my charge. And the Lord Jesus, before the
war began, says, lay their responsibilities on me as our surety. When the
Lord Jesus became our surety, Our sins were imputed to him.
I know he was not made to be sin, in the experience of it,
until he bare our sins in his body on the tree. But Bobby,
before the world began, our sins were laid on him. Yes sir. Isaiah 53, 6 is not just a prophecy,
it reads to me like something already done. All we like sheep
have grown astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. In Psalm
22, in Psalm 40, in Psalm 69, in all those places our Lord
speaks of our sins being His already. When the Lord Jesus
became our surety, we were then and there redeemed, justified,
pardoned, and forgiven of all sin, and made righteous before
God. I said, well, pastor, how can
you say that? Because God does. Romans chapter 8 verse 29 says,
whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate. Whom he
did predestinate, then he also called. Whom he called, then
he also justified. Already done. Already done. In
the covenant of grace, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He is our surety from eternity. You see, God's forbearance. Stop
and think about things. When you read the scriptures,
God said to Adam, In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. Adam ate the fruit, didn't he
Rex? Whatever it was. He violated God's law. But he
didn't die. He walked around for hundreds
of years after that. How come? Well, he died spiritually. Yeah, but he didn't die. He didn't
go to hell. He didn't perish under the wrath
of God. How come? Because the Lord God had already
made a covenant with him who is the last Adam. He had already
made a new covenant with him in which he had pledged himself
to redeem a people and those people must be saved on the basis
of that covenant accomplished in eternity and therefore God
preserved Adam even in his wrath. And God preserves the race of
men today, even while they live under the wrath of God, while
they are living in this world children of wrath. Yet God preserves
and keeps folks on this earth because He has a people whom
He must save. A people who must stand before
Him according to His own purpose in the robes of perfect righteousness
in His darling Son. In the Old Testament, God's saints
were pardoned and justified and forgiven upon the basis of Christ's
obedience as their surety, just exactly as we are. Though he
had not yet come and had not yet accomplished his obedience
on this earth, it was done in pledge and in covenant. And what
he said he'd do, the Father looked on as being done. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is that one whom the Old Testament saints looked at with
knowledge and with confidence as the surety. Job said, I know
that my Redeemer liveth. And Job lived at least, at least
as early as Abraham. He said, I know that my Redeemer
lives. I know He's coming again. I know He's going to stand on
this earth. I know when He does, I'm going to see Him with these
eyes, and I'm going to handle Him with these hands. I know
He lives. David spoke of our Lord Jesus
Christ like this, in the blessed pardon of sin in Him. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
He said in Psalm 119, Be surety for thy servant for good. Stand
as my surety and do me good. In Isaiah 38, like a crane or
a swallow, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove. My eyes
failed with looking upward. Oh, Lord, I'm oppressed. Undertake,
the word is, be surety for me. The Lord Jesus became our surety
by his own voluntary will. He was accepted as our surety
in the covenant of grace from eternity. God, as it were, trusted
him to be our surety. He put all his will, all his
people, and all his glory in the hands of his Son. Everything.
Everything. You're familiar with the passage
in John chapter 6. Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians
1. Three times the apostle tells
us in this first chapter of Ephesians that God's whole purpose of grace
is that we should be to the praise of his glory. Now look at verse
12. He's wrapping this thing up and
he's bringing it down. He's coming now from God's eternal
purpose of grace through down to our experience of grace. And he says God's purpose is
that we should be to the praise of His glory, look at it now,
who first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted. After that you heard the word
of truth, quite literally the word of the truth. Well what
is that? The gospel of your salvation.
Now wait a minute, you mean God comes and when a man saved, a
woman saved, God says, I have saved you. That's exactly what
he means. The gospel is preached and when
God gives you faith in Christ, that's God's declaration, this
is your salvation. That's it. He brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. So that we preach
the gospel, we don't know who God's elect are, we don't know
who Christ has redeemed, we don't know who the Spirit's calling,
so we send the word out everywhere! And when God calls His word to
come to a man's heart in the power of His Spirit, great giving
life and faith, he hears God declare, your iniquities are
pardoned. And his conscience has peace as he looks to Christ.
All right, what did the Lord Jesus Christ agree to then as
our covenant surety? When he became our surety, he
made certain promises in the name of his covenant people,
promises which he's honor-bound to keep. These promises were
voluntarily made, understand that, made without any constraint
except the constraint of his love and the constraint of his
grace toward his people. But having been made, he is honor-bound
to perform them. And they're just two promises,
just two promises. Number one, he agreed to meet
and perfectly fulfill every responsibility of my soul to God Almighty. What does God require of Don
Fortner, Bob Ponson, David Burge? What does God require of us?
Righteousness and satisfaction. And we can't give either. We
cannot do a righteous thing. Oh, I would to God, I could get
folks to hear this and understand it. You and I cannot do good. It's impossible. There is none
that doeth good. Somebody says, well, that's before
you say it. Where does it say that? Find me that, in any translation
you can find. No sir, it says, but none doeth
good. Our righteousnesses, the righteousnesses
of men and women who believe God and are accepted in Christ,
our righteousnesses are just filthy rags in God's sight. You
see, God sees what we are. He sees what we are. Now you
can do good and impress me, and I might do good and impress you,
but you're not going to impress God with anything you do. No
sir. God demands perfect righteousness. Christ came and fulfilled the
law as our covenant head. Someone wrote to me, seemed to
be sincere, so I answered the question. He said, why is it
so important that we recognize the deity of Christ? Because
either He's God in human flesh or He's a liar. And even if he
were a good man walking on this earth, a perfectly good man walking
on this earth, his righteousness, his obedience, and his death
would have no merit and efficacy for me. But this one, who obeyed
God's holy law in perfect righteousness, his name is Jehovah Sikinu, the
Lord our righteousness. And he is that one who has brought
in everlasting righteousness, magnified the law and made it
honorable. And then, When He was made to be seen upon Calvary's
tree, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered the vengeance and wrath of God
Almighty to the full satisfaction of justice, to the utmost nth
degree of God's holy justice. He paid it all. He paid it all. Folks everywhere have seen Jesus
paid it all. All to Him I owe. And don't understand, He paid
it all. He paid it all. What do you mean? That means
I've got nothing else to pay. Nothing else to pay. I have a
debt. I owe that hundred dollars we
mentioned earlier. And Lindsay comes along and pays
it. That means that Skip Bradfelter has no legal right to look to
me for one red cent. Understand that? The Lord Jesus
paid somebody's debt! And justice says, that's enough. And the believer looks on his
sacrifice and says, bless God, that's enough. He's my surety.
And our Lord Jesus agreed to bring all his elect safe home
to glory. Turn to John chapter 6. John
chapter 6. Remember what we read in chapter
10? Other sheep I have, them also I must bring. Here he's
talking about the same people. John chapter 6 verse 39. This
is the Father's will. Remember he said, Lo, I come
to do what? Thy will. Oh my God. This is
the Father's will, which hath sent me. Forget it now. That of all which he hath given
me. I should lose nothing, but raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that if everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the
last day. The Lord Jesus then became responsible for God's
Benjamins to bring them safely home. He said, if I bring them
not unto thee, and set them before thee, let me bear the blame forever.
It's because of his charityship engagements for his elect. that
our Lord says them also I must bring. He says, I will put my
trust in him and behold I and thy children, the children which
God hath given me. Here they are, every last one
of them. He reconciled us to the Father by his sin atoning
death. He entered into heaven as our forerunner in covenant
charity and took possession of it for us. And one of these days
he's going to present us holy and without blame. before him. Somebody asked old John Jasper
one time, that black preacher over in Virginia, back in the
1800s, said, John, how can you speak so confidently of your
salvation? He said, what if you come to
the end and you're not saved after all? He said, oh, that's
not going to happen. Well, how can you be so sure?
He said, because the Lord's got more stake than I do. He said,
if I go to hell, I just lose my soul. But he'd lose his glory. And he's not going to lose his
glory. He's not going to lose his glory. No, sir. Roland Hill
described what I'm trying to preach to you like this. He said,
I dreamed that the last day had come. The trumpet sounded. And all people were gathered
before God in judgment, and I heard one name called after another.
And at last, as I trembled, I heard the name, Roland Hill. And he
said, every hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I trembled.
And again I heard, Roland Hill! It sounded like a peal of thunder
echoing through the universe! But one stood and said, Here
I am. And he stretched forth his hands.
And that's exactly it. Jesus Christ is my surety. My only hope, all my hope, my
blessed, better hope, is Christ, the surety of the better covenant. Amen. All right.