The most vital, important thing
you and I can do is to trust Christ alone. Now, let me repeat that. The
most vital, the most important thing you and I can do is to
trust Christ alone. And if we don't trust Christ
alone, we don't trust Him at all. I want us to understand
that. Now, I've entitled this message,
Who First Trusted in Christ? Because if we can see this first
trust in Christ, that actually was the father's trust in him,
I think we can learn what it means to trust Christ alone. Now look back with me in our
text in Ephesians chapter one, verse 12. It says that we should
be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. Do you know who the first person
to trust in Christ was? The Father. The Father. Now, when he says that we should
be to the praise of his glory, who's the we speaking of? Well,
in the context, verse three, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, we are those
that God hath blessed. with all spiritual blessings.
Look in verse four. According as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him. We are those who he chose
before time began, in love having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. That's who the
we is. in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ. both which are in heaven and
which are in earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted
in Christ." Now, the father was the first one to trust Christ. He trusted his son, as we see,
with the salvation of his elect. He entrusted them to him. Turn with me for a moment to
John chapter six. I'm gonna look at several passages of scripture
in the book of John. Now this is the way the Lord
spake. In John chapter six, verse 37, all that the father giveth
me, Now do you note that word, the Father gave him a people.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out for I came down from
heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent
me and this is the Father's will which has sent me that of all
which he hath given me. I should lose nothing but raise
it up again at the last day. Look on chapter 10. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd
and I know my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth
me, even so know I the father and I lay down my life for the
sheep. Now he came representing a specific
people, the sheep. Is everybody a sheep? Well, look
what it says in John chapter 10, verse 24. Then came the Jews
round about him and said unto him, how long does thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered
them, I told you and you believe not. The works that I do in my
Father's name, they bear witness of me, but you believe not because
you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep.
hear my voice. No, not everybody's a sheep,
and he didn't say you're not a sheep because you don't believe.
He said you believe not because you're not of my sheep. Look
in verse 16 of the same chapter, and other sheep Verse 16 of John
10, other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring. These sheep that are not of this
fold right here, geographically, them also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice
and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Turn to John chapter
17. This is the Lord's great high
priestly prayer for his people. Verse one, these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hours come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to who? To as many as thou has given
him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. You
see, the father gave him a specific work. Before time began, he stood
as a surety for those the father gave him. He's called in Hebrews
7, verse 22, the surety of a better testament. And I love that name,
a better testament or a better covenant. Grace is better than
works. You see, works are doomed for
failure because we're in them. But grace is guaranteed because
it's what he does. He's the surety of a better testament. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 we
read of the blood of the everlasting covenant. I love thinking about
that. There's an everlasting covenant was made before time
began and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is why all those
included in the covenant shall most surely be saved because
of his precious blood that he shed in putting away their sins. It's the same covenant David
spake of in 2nd Samuel 23 verse 5 when he said although my house
be not so with God Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things. And sure, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. And when Christ came in flesh
as the representative of those the Father gave him, he said,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book it's written of me to do
thy will. Oh God, and we've already read
what that will is. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which he
had given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. I love thinking about him as a 12 year old boy in the
temple. Must be about my father's business. What's your father's business?
The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And when he said, it is finished,
when he said, I finished the work thou gavest me to do in
John 17, the father had entrusted to his son a people who could
not save themselves, who were sinful people, who were unable
people, who were helpless people. He entrusted to his son this
people and said, you're to save them. That's what your purpose
is. And he trusted his son to save
them. Look back in John chapter 17 verse 6. I've manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me. There he is again.
To the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Look in
verse 9. He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me. Verse 11, the last
part of the Verse, those whom thou hast given me that they
may be one. Verse 12, while I was with them in the world, I kept
them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me have
I kept. Look down in verse 24. Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am. Now, when our Lord said in John
chapter 19, verse 30, it is finished. He's saying, I did what my father
sent me to do. This is what the Father trusted
before, and I am a worthy object of his complete trust. Are you a worthy object of his
complete trust? You know better than that, don't
you? But he is. He could say, I am a worthy object
of his complete trust. Now, child of God, When Jesus
stood as your surety before time began, the father looked to him
for everything and he looked to you for no thing. The father entrusted your salvation to his son. He didn't depend on you for a
thing. He looks wholly to His Son for your salvation. Now, all that God requires of
me, He looks with my surety for. God was the first one to trust
Christ, wasn't He? He entrusted Him with the salvation
of all of His people. Now, we have a beautiful picture
of that in the Scriptures. Would you turn with me to Genesis
chapter 37? I love the way the Old Testament
is given to illustrate New Testament doctrine. And this is one of
my favorite stories in the scripture. Verse one. And Jacob dwelt in the land where
his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. These are
the generations of Jacob, Joseph, Now, if you read in the previous
chapters of the Generations of Esau, there are scores of people
mentioned, but here there's only one mentioned, Joseph. Being
17 years old, a teenager, was feeding the flock
with his brother, and the lad was with the sons of Billah and
the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto
his father their evil report." Now, this is the only, I guess
if there's a blight on his character, it's this, but I'm not sure that
it's a blight on his character, but he ratted on his brothers.
I mean he brought his father the evil report concerning his
brothers. He was a tattletale. And people
generally do not like tattletales, do they? And so we can see why
his brothers, we get an inkling as to why they disliked him so
much. But let's go on reading. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children because he was the son of his old age
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him." I think
there's a reason this family was dysfunctional. And it was. This was a dysfunctional family.
You read the history of these fellas, well, it begins right
here. This favoritism that Jacob shows Joseph. And he makes him
this coat of many colors. And we can see right off the
bat how he was wrong in that. But don't you love to think of
the favoritism of the father toward his son? I love to think
of Christ being the father's favorite. And I like it that
way. I want it to be that way. Let's
go on reading. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and
he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.
And he said unto them, here I pray you this dream which I've dreamed.
For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf
arose, and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. They bowed down
and worshipped me. And his brethren said unto him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have
dominion over us? And they hated him yet more for
his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it to his brethren and said, Behold, I've dreamed a
dream more. Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars
made obeisance to me. Wow. The sun and the stars bowing
down and worshiping me. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren. His father rebuked him and said unto him,
what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I, my mother,
my brethren, indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the
earth? And his brethren envied him. But his father observed all these sayings. Well, you know what happens next,
and his brethren went to feed the father's flock and shechem,
and Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the
flock and shechem? Come, and I'll send thee unto them. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, Go, I pray thee, see whether
it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and
bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale
of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him,
and behold, he's wandering in the field. And the man asked
him, saying, what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed the flocks. And the man
said, they're departed from hence. For I heard them say, let's go
to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near, they conspired against him to slay
him. They said, one to another, behold,
this dreamer cometh. That's very significant. This
dreamer cometh. They wanted to put him out of
business. And you know the story. They were going to slay him.
They put him in a pit. A bunch of Midianites came by.
They said, why should we not profit from his death? Let's
go ahead and sell him and make some money off of him. They sold
him for 50 pieces of silver. And he's brought into Egypt.
And they sold him to a man by the name of Potiphar. And then
they told Jacob, this is so cruel. They told Jacob, they took a
kid, slaughtered it, put the blood on the coat. Is this your
son's coat? Can you imagine how Jacob felt
at this time when they did that? But that's what they did. Like
I said, this was a cruel bunch of guys, but he sold into the
house of one by the name of Potiphar. Now in chapter 39, It came, verse five, it came
to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his
house and over all that he had that the Lord blessed the Egyptians'
house for Jonathan's sake. And the blessing of the Lord
was upon all that he had in the house and the field. Everything
worked great. As long as Joseph was in charge, he made all kinds
of money, there was health, everything was going great. And he recognized
this. He saw, I'm being blessed because
of this man by the name of Joseph. Look what he says in verse six.
And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and he knew not
all that he had save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph
was a goodly person and well-favored. Now everything's going fine.
And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, Lie with me. But he
refused. He said unto his master's wife,
Behold, my master what is not what is with me in the house,
and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is
none greater in this house than I, neither hath he get back anything
from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I
do this great wickedness and sin against God? Don't you admire
him? And it came to pass, verse 10,
as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he ought not unto her
to lie with her, to be with her. And it came to pass about this
time, Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there
was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by
his garment saying, lie with me. And he left her garment in
her hand and fled and got him out. And it came to pass when
she saw that he'd left his garment in her hand and was fled forth
that she called into the men of the house and spake unto them
saying, see, he hath brought in a Hebrew and dressed a Marcus.
And he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud
voice. And that's when he took off. She told this horrible lie,
and you know what happened? He's thrown into prison. He is
ripped off from his brothers, put in a pit, sold to be a slave. He's a faithful slave. The Lord
blesses everything he does, and he's accused of this horrible
crime and thrown into prison. But look what happens in prison.
Even when he's in prison, verse 22, and the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison, and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
The keeper of the prison looked not to anything, that was under
his hand because the Lord was with him and that what he did,
the Lord made it to prosper. So here he is in the prison,
prospering nonstop. Everything he does, the Lord
blesses. Now, while he was in prison one
day, he saw a couple of men that seemed very sad. They were very
down. And he said, what's wrong with
you? And he said, And they said, well, we've dreamed some dreams
that we can't interpret. We don't know what they mean.
They scare us. And Joseph said, the Lord interprets dreams. He'll
tell me what these dreams mean. What did you dream? Well, they
told him, and he interpreted them, and they came to pass exactly
the way he said they would. In three days, the butler was
restored to his office, and the baker was hanged, put to death,
just as he said would happen through these dreams. He gave
the proper interpretation of it. Remember, his brothers called
him the dreamer, the dreamer. Well, he could interpret dreams.
And so he says to these men in verse 22 of Verse 21, and he restored the,
of chapter 40, and he restored the chief butler into the butlership
again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged
the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to him, yet did not
the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. He said, remember
me when you get out of prison. Well, he didn't remember him,
didn't remember him, just forgot about him, went on life as usual. Two years later, He's been sitting
there in prison. The scripture says his feet were
hurt with fetters. In Psalm 108, he'd been in prison
another two years. And this is when Pharaoh has
his dream. And you remember Pharaoh's dream.
Pharaoh dreamed that seven skinny cows ate seven fat cows, and
they remained skinny. And then he had another dream
that seven skinny ears of corn ate seven fat ears of corn, and
they remained skinny. And Pharaoh was so troubled by
that, he got all the magicians and the wise men of Egypt to
find out what this means, and none of them could tell. And
then the butler remembers. He says, I remember this day,
my fault. There's a man in prison that can interpret dreams. He
can tell you exactly what they mean. So they come and get Joseph
and clean him up. And he's brought in before the
king and the king tells him what the dreams mean. Or tells him
what the dreams were and he gives the king the interpretation.
He said the seven cows and seven ears of corn represent seven
years. The fat ears of corn, the fat cows represent seven
years of plenty. The seven skinny cows and the
seven skinny ears of corn represent seven great years of famine. There's not going to be anything
like it. It was done twice to tell us it's for sure. And here's
what you need to do. You need to, for the next seven
years, you need to go save all the food you can to help you
in this famine. And that's what they did. But
save everything you can. You're going to have to have
a man over this, overseeing this. And that way, when the famine
strikes, you'll be OK. And Pharaoh said, who could do
this but you? You're the one to do this. As
a matter of fact, look in chapter 41, verse 41. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
see I set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off
his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed
him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his
neck. And he made him ride in the second chariot which he had.
And they cried before him, bow the knee. And he made him ruler
over all Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
I am Pharaoh, without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot
in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zaphnath-Paniah, and he gave to him the wife Asmioth, the
daughter of Potiphar, priest on. And Joseph went over all
the land of Egypt. And he was 30 years old, 30 years
old. That's when our Lord began his
public ministry, when he was 30 years old. But he was now
the most powerful man in the land, And if you're going to
have anything to eat, you're going to have to come to him
for it. And through Joseph's management, that seven years
of plenty were managed in such a way that there were vast storehouses
of food. Now, chapter 42, the famine has
hit Canaan. Now when Jacob saw that there
was no corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, why do you look
upon another? And he said, behold, I've heard that there's corn
in Egypt. Get ye down there and buy for us from then, so that
we may live and not die. Now remember, they all thought
Joseph was dead. And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy
corn in Egypt, but Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent
not with his brethren, for he said, let's put mischief befall
him. It's okay if mischief befalls these other guys, but not Benjamin.
I mean, he showed such rank favoritism to these guys. Verse five, and
the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came for
the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor
over the land, and it was he that sold to all the people of
the land. And Joseph's brethren came, and bowed themselves before
him with all their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them and spake roughly
unto them. And he said unto them, whence
come ye? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food.
Now, I love to think about that. Joseph sees his 10 brethren hitting
the dirt before him. And he remembers those dreams,
doesn't he? He remembers every single one of them. He remembers
the dreams of the stars bound to him. He's seen where the Lord
has made him the most powerful man on the earth. But he's not
going to make himself known to them. Let's go on reading. Verse
8, Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto
them, Your spies, to see the nakedness of the land, you come.
And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to thy food are
thy servants come. We are one man's sons. We're
true men. Thy servants are no spies. And
he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land,
you come. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren,
the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Behold, the youngest
is this day with our father, and the other one's not. He's
dead. And Joseph said unto them, That is that I spake unto you,
saying, Your spies, hereby you shall be proved by the life of
Pharaoh. You shall not go forth hence, except your younger brother
come hither. Send one of you, and let him
fetch your brother, and you shall be kept in prison, that your
words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you, or
else by the life of Pharaoh, surely your spies. Now he wanted
to see Benjamin. And he wanted to see Jacob. And
he wanted to find out about how well Jacob was. So he said, here's
what we're going to do. Now he changed his mind on down
into this chapter. And he said, you all go back
with food. And he gave them all the prices
back of what they spent. They didn't know it. He said,
you all go back with food. And when you come back, don't come
back without Benjamin. Because if you come back without
Benjamin, you won't have a thing. Okay, it's about time to go back.
Look at the end of chapter 24. They need to go back. Verse 36 of chapter 42. And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have you bereaved of my children? Joseph is not, and
Simeon is not. He's the one that they left behind.
And you'll take Benjamin away? All these things are against
me. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons,
if I bring him not to thee, and deliver him into my hand. And
I'll bring him again. I'll take full responsibility for him.
And you can kill both my boys if I fail. Now, here's something
about trust. To trust someone, you're going
to have to be trustworthy. Reuben was not trustworthy. As a matter of fact, here's what
his father said about him. Unstable as water, thou shalt
not excel. And look what a view he had of
Jacob. As if Jacob, okay, it'll satisfy me if I get your two
boys killed if you mess up. I mean, you see what a problem
there was with this. And I love what Jacob says. And
he said, verse 38, my son should not go down with you. Ain't no
way I'm gonna send him down with you. I can't trust you for something
like that. His brother's dead, he's left alone. If mischief
have fallen by the way by which you go, venture you bring my
gray hairs down with sorrow to the grave. So Benjamin's on going
and they started getting hungry. Verse one. And the famine was
sore in the land and it came to pass when they'd eaten up
the corn which they brought out of Egypt, their father said unto
them, go again and buy us a little food. And Judas spake unto him,
saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, You shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send
our brother with us, we'll go down and buy the food. But if
thou wilt not send him, we'll not go down. For the man said
unto us, You shall not see my face, except your brother be
with you. And Israel said, wherefore delt ye so ill with me as to
tell the man whether ye 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 yet 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? Now here's
the scripture I wanted us to look at. And Judah, and Judah. Christ is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. It's only appropriate that Judah
would say this. And Judah said unto his father,
send the lad with me and we will arise. I think there's
a lot of typical significance to that. We will arise. And when Christ was raised from
the dead, all of his people were. And we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. Now listen to this. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever." I will be the guarantee for Benjamin. I will take full responsibility
for his salvation. I will be his surety. Now, I've told you this before.
Some of you haven't heard it. It's an illustration at any rate. When I was 17 years old, I went
into the bank to get a loan to buy a 1967 Mustang. And the banker looked at me and
said, we're not going to give you a dime. And I didn't have
a sufficient way to pay it and so on. And he said, well, I'll
tell you what you can do. If you need somebody to sign
a surety for you, and be responsible for that bill, you can do it. So I got my old granddad, and
he signed a surety line, and he became responsible for that.
If I couldn't pay it, he became responsible for it. And what's
funny, I remember it was a $600 loan, and that seemed like such
a large amount back then. At any rate, he became surety
so that he stood responsible for that loan. If I couldn't
pay it, he stood responsible. But the Lord Jesus Christ is
not a surety like that. He didn't become my surety if
I couldn't get the job done. He took full and complete responsibility
for my salvation. Full and complete. He said, of my hand shalt thou
require of him everything you require of him, look to me for. Of my hand shalt thou require
of him. I take full responsibility. If
I fail in my mission of bringing him back to you, let me bear
the blame. forever. And here's something
real interesting. That word blame, it's found 238
times in the Old Testament and 188 times it's translated sin. If I bring him not back to you,
let me bear his sin forever. It's the same word Joseph used
to pardon for his wife. How can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God? It's the exact same Hebrew word.
Now, if I don't bring him, let me bear the blame forever. I take full and complete responsibility
for him. And you know what Jacob did?
Jacob trusted him. He trusted him to do that. He didn't trust Reuben, but he
trusted Judah. Now, in this story, Jacob is
the father. Judah is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. And Benjamin is the believer.
And Judah takes complete, 100% responsibility for him. Nothing
was expected out of Benjamin. Judah was to do it all. And that is precisely what our
Lord's suretyship is. He stood as a surety for all
of God's elect. Matter of fact, let's, I wanna
go ahead and read this, because you can see how the story ends.
Verse 24 of chapter 44. And it came to pass when we came
up unto thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord,
and our Lord said, go again and buy us a little food. This is
when they're speaking to Joseph at the end. This is when a silver
chalice had been planted in Benjamin's pack, and they bring him back.
And our father said, go again and buy us a little food. And
when he said, we can't go down. If our youngest brother be with
us, then we will go down. For we may not see the man's
face, except our youngest brother be with us. And thy servant,
my father, said unto us, you know that my wife bear me two
sons. And the one went out from me. And I said, surely he's torn
in pieces. And I saw him not since. And if you take this also
from me, and mischief befall him, he shall bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore. When I come to
thy servant, my father, remember he's speaking to Joseph. He still
doesn't know who Joseph is. And the light be not with us,
seeing that his life is bound up in the light's life. You know,
God's life is bound up in the life of his people. I don't know
what else to say about that. It shall come to pass, when he
seeth that the lad is not with us, that he'll die, and thy servant
shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with
sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became a surety
for the lad unto my father, saying, if I bring him not unto thee,
then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now, therefore,
I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman
to my lord, and let the lad go up with us, his brethren. There's
the gospel, isn't it? For how shall I go to my father
and the lad be not with me? Lest peradventure I see the evil
that shall come upon my father. Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by. And he cried, cause
every man doubt for me. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. These men
who had treated him so cruelly, he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said to his brethren,
I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. Oh, they were thinking, it's
coming to us now. What goes around comes around. We're getting it.
No doubt about it. And Joseph, verse four, said
unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came
near, and he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into
Egypt. Now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves
that you sold me hither. For God did send me before you
to preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. And he made me a father to Pharaoh,
and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land
of Egypt. Now those men were wickedly plotting his death.
They sold him. They had wicked intentions. But
God had other intentions, didn't he? He was in control of everything. Now, in closing, let's go back
to our text in Ephesians chapter 1. Now that is a beautiful picture
of the suretyship of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called in
Hebrew 722 the surety of a better testament. But Ephesians chapter
1 verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory who
first trusted in Christ. And the father was the first
one to trust him. so beautifully illustrated by
Judah standing as a surety for Benjamin and Jacob trusting him
to get the job done. He wouldn't trust Reuben, but
he trusted Jacob. And here's my question. How much,
what percent of your salvation did the Father trust Christ for? What percent? You say, all of
it? Well, if you said that, you're
right. The Father didn't look for a thing out of you. He looked
to your surety to do it all. Verse 13, in whom you also trusted,
you trust him the same way, the Father. You don't look for a
thing out of yourself. Do you hear me? You don't look
for a thing out of yourself. Just as the Father completely
trusted the Son to save you. He didn't look for you to do
anything. He looked for what the Son did for you. You trust
the Savior the same way the Father did. You look to Him for everything. You trust Him for 100% of your
salvation. Just as the Father looked to
Christ alone for everything. Me and you are to look to Christ
alone for everything. Now it's true that the hardest
thing in the world to do is to trust Christ alone. Not anything about you, but really,
beloved, Are there any other options? Is there anything at
all about you that is trustworthy? If you know yourself at all,
you know that the only place you have to look is to Christ
only. May God give everybody in this
room the grace to trust Him alone. Nothing more, nothing less, and
nothing else. Let's pray.