Tonight our message is found
in Proverbs chapter 11. Proverbs chapter 11. And it is true, anytime that
we're attempting to see the Lord's face in His Word, we're begging
to see His face, if we're attempting. And anytime we see His face in
His Word, it is certain that there is one thing for sure.
It's all about Him. It's all about Him. In the volume
of the book, it is written of me. He told the Pharisees, search
the Scriptures, for in them ye think that ye have eternal life,
but they are they that speak. of me. We want to see the Lord
tonight. That's why we've gathered together.
We want to see His face, and I believe He's shown me His face
here in Proverbs 11 again. We get to see Him as our righteousness
again. We get to see Him as our wisdom
and our understanding We get to see him as him that makes
his people upright, he says here. He makes us upright. He is the
deliverer of all of his seed, he says, which is his elect. And all these things that we
get to see him as, that he allows us to see him as, allow us to
believe on him as, there's one reason behind it, and that reason
is grace. It's grace alone that he would allow us or enable us
to do so. But it was all because he chose
to become the everlasting surety for his people. And that's what
I've titled the message tonight, The Everlasting Surety. So let's
read this, Proverbs 11. We're going to go 12 through
21. He that is void of wisdom despiseth
his neighbor, but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. A tale-bearer
revealeth secrets, but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth
the matter. Where no counsel is, the people
fall, but in a multitude of counselors there is safety. He that is surety
for a stranger shall smart for it. He that hateth suretyship
is sure. A gracious woman retaineth honor,
and strong men retain riches. The merciful man doeth good to
his own soul, but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.
The wicked worketh a deceitful work, but to him that soweth
righteousness shall be a sure reward. As righteousness tendeth
to life, so he that pursueth death pursueth it to his own
death. They that are of a froward heart
are an abomination to the Lord, but such as are upright in their
way are his delight. Though hand join in hand, the
wicked shall not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous
shall be delivered. The seed of the righteous shall
be delivered. Verse 15 again is where we're going to spend
most of our time. He that is surety for a stranger
shall smart for it. The everlasting surety of the
Lord's people. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, the
everlasting surety. Amazingly, everything about God
never had a beginning and never had an end, never going to have
an end. Something to mention, that's what the word everlasting
means. Never had a beginning, never had an end. So he's our
everlasting, always has been the Lord's chosen people's surety. Always has been. There's never
been a time or a space in eternity where the Lord was not surety
for his people. The good news is that means that
if he loves me now and he loves you now, he always will. And you'll never stop because
of what you do or because of what you don't do. He loves his
people with an everlasting love. He is our everlasting surety. Before time, God, in his infinite
wisdom, purposed to have a people, purposed to redeem those people,
to choose those people unto eternal life, to make vessels that he
prepared for his honor and for his glory, chosen in the covenant
of grace between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And in that moment, you can't say moment, during that, when
that happened, The Lord elected a people, the son said, I will
be surety for them. I will redeem them. I will pay
their debt. That's what surety means. I'll
put their charge on my account. I'll take care of them. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ absolutely did on the cross of Calvary. He did this so the elect creatures
of dust would be made the very righteousness of God in Christ.
But here was the problem. Here is the problem in that situation.
Our sin had to be put away. We couldn't just be made the
righteousness of God. God's justice had to be satisfied
first, or he would have been an unjust God. This is why he's
called just, this is why he's called the just God and justified
his people. So he's just and justifier of
his people. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfilled every demand that he required for his justice to be
satisfied. Price's blood. Christ was blood. See, the Lord Jesus Christ knew
what he would have to do whenever he agreed to. And we speak of
things we don't understand. Was it a conversation? They're
one. They have the same thought. You
understand what I'm saying? There are three. The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. These three are one. Jesus said
in John chapter 17, I and my Father, or John chapter 10, I
and my Father are one. And so we're not the scripture
does talk about the determinant counsel of God. So who does he
counsel with himself? You understand what I'm saying?
So in this covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ knew. that
the penalty was going to be death in order for you and I to be
saved. He knew he was going to have to drink of the cup. There
was nothing in this design, in this purposed design that the
Lord created to redeem his people. There was nothing hidden from
the Lord Jesus Christ. He knew he would had to be separated
from his father. He knew the hour of darkness would come where
his soul was going to be made an offering for sin. He knew
the agony that he was going to experience on the cross of Calvary.
He knew the weight of the sin that was going to be put upon
him. He's God. He knows everything. And yet he says, I'll be surety
for them. Creatures of dust, sinful by
nature, sinful because of what we are, not because of what we
do. He said, I will be surety for them. He's surety for my
people. Tells us that in Revelation.
Says, he that sat upon a throne had a book and seven seals that
sealed it. The question came up, who is
worthy to loose the seals and open the book thereof? And it
said, they looked in the heavens and the earth and under the earth,
and none was found worthy to open the book or loose the seals.
And I, John, begin to weep, but an elder touched me and said,
weep not, John, for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the
root of Jesse, hath prevailed and is worthy to open the book. What do those seals represent?
Well, if you read Revelation, you'll know that that's the wrath
of God. It's the perfect punishment for sin. And for you and I being
imperfect creatures, we can't endure perfect punishment and
be made perfect. It doesn't fix us as far as that. It took the sacrifice, the perfect
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ to fix us, to make us the righteousness
of God in him, to make us perfect. He alone had that ability. He
alone had that power. The Lord said, I'll be surety
for them. And he took the book knowing he was gonna have to
loose the seals. But that's the only way that
you and I, that was the Lamb's book of life. That's where our
names are written, if we're one of his. It's the only way we
could have been set free from the bonds of sin and death, free
from the law, free from the penalty of the law, free from the wages
of sin, which is death. The only way we could escape
hell, the only way we could escape this flesh and the world, and
have everlasting life as if he says, I will be surety for them. I will be surety for them. Now
notice verse 15 again. I want to point this out because
this is what, this was the message that the Lord gave me right here.
When I explain it to you, you'll be, you'll understand. Verse 15 again, he that is surety
for a stranger shall smart for it. That word smart means shall
be sore, broken. shall be sore broken. If you are surety for a stranger,
you shall be sure broken. Did he not tell his disciples,
this is my body broken for you. So nobody said, and we're going
to get to Isaiah 53 here in a little bit. Whenever the Lord laid the
iniquity of us all upon him, he was, uh, wounded for our transgressions
bruised for our iniquity was broken. on the cross of Calvary. This is the surety substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ for his people doing business with God
as their redeemer, as their high priest, as their prophet, priest,
and king, he's doing business with God to redeem his people. This is what this is all about,
him being the surety. Now I want us to look in Genesis
chapter three at the account, you hold your place here. Genesis
chapter 42, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 42, at the account, whenever
Judah says, I'll be charity for him. But I want to remind us,
because it's been a while since we visited this, of the account
that's going on at the present moment. So the children of Israel,
had been without Joseph for some time now. Joseph, you know, is
lied upon by Potiphar. He got thrown into prison. He
spent three years in prison. But during that time, he was
able to interpret some dreams of two prisoners. They both came
to pass. A few, uh, after the fullness
of time came, Pharaoh had a bad dream. And that's whenever the
cupbearer remembered, Joseph said, Oh yes. Uh, I know a man
that can interpret dreams. And Pharaoh was desperate. The
astronomers couldn't help him. The astrologers couldn't help
him. The doctors, the magicians, nobody could help him. And I
love the fact that men are powerless when it comes to the things of
God. Aren't you? It was the same thing in Nebuchadnezzar's time.
It was the same thing in Darius' time. It takes the Lord to reveal
the truth. Men can't figure it out. They
call for Joseph, bring him up. He says, tell me this dream.
Tell me the interpretation of this dream. Well, he does, and
he turns out, both dreams meant the same thing, and I'm brief
with this just because it's not really necessary in the message,
but we need to understand because he saw seven years of plenty
and seven years of famine, and because Pharaoh believed him,
he put him over all of Egypt. He was second in all of Egypt.
He answered only to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said, I want you
to take of the grain that we get, and I want you to store
it, I think that was Joseph's idea actually, but Pharaoh liked
the idea, so he put him over that. He said, okay, we'll make
silos, store the grain so that in the times of struggling, enduring
the famine, we'll have food to eat. We'll have food to eat.
So that's happened. Now this is where we're at. Fullness of
time has came. The seven years of plenty has
passed. Now we're in the seven years
of famine. I'm not sure exactly at what point yet. But the children
of Israel are hungry. They're hungry. And they go to
their father. Their father actually comes to
them at the beginning of this chapter, Jacob does. And he says, I've
heard that there's food down in Egypt. Had no idea that his
son was the one over the whole thing. Isn't that glorious? He
tells them, go down there and buy grain, buy food for us from
Egypt. And so they take all 10 of them. Benjamin stays behind. As you
know, Benjamin was born by this time and Joseph didn't know anything
about him. So they go down to Egypt. When they get there, guess
who they have to come face to face with? Joseph. And they bowed
before him in reverence. He was not kind to them. He spoke
very gruff towards them, very harsh towards them. And he asked
them, is your father well? Is your mother well? Do you have
another brother? Like he knew who they were, but
he's speaking in Egyptian at this point. He probably got makeup
on. You can't recognize who he is.
That's a picture of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If
he doesn't reveal who he is, we'll never see him. That's their
brother, and they can't tell. I mean, we're talking about the
Lord. We would never be able to see
who the Lord is unless he reveals himself. So what happened? Well, they told him, yeah, we
have another brother. Father's doing well. And he sent
him away. But he said, Simeon, stand with
me until you bring that other brother back. Simeon, stand with
me until you bring the other brother back. And so that's where
we are right here. Now they have gotten back. They've came all the way back
to Jacob at this point. And they've told Jacob everything
that I just told you. Now look in verse 29, and they
came into Jacob, their father into the land of Cain and told
him all that befell them and saying, The man who is Lord of
the land spake roughly to us and took us for spies of the
country. And we said to him, we are true
men, we are no spies. We be 12 brethren, sons of our
father. One is not, and the youngest
is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man,
the Lord of the country said unto us, hereby shall I know
that you are true men. Leave one of your brethren here
with me and take food for the famine of your house. your households
and be gone and bring your youngest brother into me. Then shall I
know whether you are true men. Then shall I know whether you
are no spies, but that you are true men. So I will. So will
I deliver your brother, you, your brother, and he shall traffic
in that land. And it came to pass that as they
emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was
in his sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles
of money, they were afraid. Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have you bereaved of my children, Joseph is not, Simeon
is not. will take Benjamin away. All
these things are against me." Don't you just love whenever
the Lord puts us in situations where we think everything is
against us. I'll just go ahead and tell you the rest of the
story in the end. Jacob ends up coming down to Egypt with
all of the children of Israel and they get to live in the land
of Goshen. They get to live off of Joseph's work. Well that is
a picture of what the Lord has done for His people. He Jacob
didn't earn anything that he got in Egypt, but it was already
provided by the son. That's you. That's you. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ providing for us, isn't it? Now here's
what I want us to notice. That's very important. Verse
37, Reuben spake unto his father saying, slay my two sons. If
I bring them, bring him not to the deliver him into my hand
and I will bring him to the, again, And he said, my son shall
not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left
alone. If mischief befall him by the way in which we go, then
shall you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now, Reuben offered his two sons, but Jacob
says no. Why is that? because he offered something
of himself, of himself. He didn't offer himself. He didn't
say, I'll be surety. He said, slay my two sons if
I lose yours, slay my two. That didn't impress Jacob at
all. A man that's gonna sacrifice his kids if he makes a mistake,
that doesn't sound, that's not, but Jacob wasn't interested in
that at all, was he? Not even a little bit. It's a
picture of when men try to please God by offering good works. You
want to approach the Father, you cannot approach the Father
on your own merits or your good works. It cannot happen. You
have to have a substitute surety in order to come into the presence
of a thrice holy God. These are men trying to make
their own covenant with God. I'm going to offer God this,
and he's going to accept this of me because it's my best. This
is his two sons, and sons were very valuable back then. They
wanted, because nobody knew who the Messiah was going to be,
but they had had the promise of the Messiah already given
to Abraham, and he would have told every one of them he's going
to be a male. The Lord didn't give them a timeframe
when that would happen. So remember Hannah? praying in 1 Samuel.
She is praying at the door of the temple. She is begging God,
give me a son. Why? Because she wanted to have
a child that would be a godly child. She was hoping the Lord
would give her the Messiah to save her people. That was the
desire. So for Reuben to say, you can kill my sons, it was
almost an insult, if you will, towards the covenant for that
reason as well. So he is making another covenant. He is saying,
I will be just fine without my sons. So, There's only one that pleases
the Lord. The Lord said, I'll disannoy your covenant. There's
only one that pleases the Lord. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the everlasting surety of his people. Well, some time has passed. As you can see the first verse
of the next chapter says, and the famine was sore in the land.
So this means time has passed. Uh, we don't know exactly how
long it's passed, but Jacob goes and says, go buy more food. And
Judah reminds him, the man said, do not come back without your
other brother. You will not see my face without
your other, you don't bring him, you won't see my face. That's
what he says. But if you bring him, you'll see my face. Now
let's read this. Look at Genesis 43, eight through 10. Of course,
Jacob says no. And here's what Judah's response
is. Verse eight, and Judas said unto Israel, his father, send
the lad with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not
die. Both we and thou and also our
little ones. I will be surety for him of my
hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned the second time. I will be surety for the
lad. I will bear the blame forever.
the blame. I will suffer the consequences. I will take, I will make certain
he is brought back safe to you. This is what our Lord said in
the covenant of grace. I will take the blame for them. I will be surety for them. I
will bear their sin on the cross of Calvary. I will take their
place. And why did Jacob agree to this
one? Because he wasn't offering something of his hands or something
that he had done or something that he brought, he was offering
himself. He was giving his word as himself. Why was the Lord pleased with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Because whenever he gave the
oath, I will be surety for them, the Father rested on the Sabbath. The Father rested on the Sabbath
from the very beginning. We see that in the scripture.
You and I, that's what we do as well. We rest on the word
of the Sabbath. I will save you. You will be
saved. I will redeem you. You are mine. This is what he
said. It is finished. We rest on the word of the Sabbath,
the oath. And that's what we read over
there in Hebrews chapter seven, the oath. that the priest was
not given in the Old Testament. They didn't have to take an oath,
but Christ was a priest after the order of Melchizedek by an
oath. Well, what was that oath? I will
be surety for them. I will be surety for them. I
will bear the blame. I will take the punishment. I
will not fail to bring them back safely. It's a picture of the
everlasting covenant. It's a picture of our everlasting
surety. Not only what he said, but what
he did, what he accomplished. This wasn't just words, it was
spoken. Judah, I'll go ahead and tell you, Judah brought Benjamin
back to Jacob. because of his word. Christ was called, and
we heard that already, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. So this
is the physical lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see
him as being a type and picture of Christ here, don't we? The
Lord Jesus Christ said before time, Before you and I had a
heartbeat before you and I before the earth was made. How can you
explain this in it not just blow your mind. But he made something
out of nothing literally spoke everything into existence out
of nothing, including us were born a bunch of nothings. That's
just how it is. But because he is something because
he is the alpha and omega, because he's holy, because he's just,
because he's God, he can make us into something because Christ
Jesus said, I will be surety for them. I'll make sure that
they become the very righteousness of God by the work that I do
on the cross of Calvary for every one of my chosen people. And
that's what he did. That's what he did. I will suffer
for the elect. I'll lay down my life for them.
I'll suffer the punishment they deserve. I'll suffer their blame
and embarrassment. You think about all the, the
Lord laid the iniquity of us upon him, all the worst thoughts
that we've had. He died for those. He died for
those. All the things that we do and
say that are ugly and wrong, but not only that, but what we
are by nature. He died in our room instead.
And I find it amazing because we were made the righteousness
of God in him, and yet here on this, our outside, we have no
righteousness. Well, when he was made sin, he
was not made a sinner. He was made to bear our sin in
his own body on the tree. Most people don't understand
that. The sacrifice was not tainted. It wasn't wrong. He was taking
our place on the tree, and yet the sacrifice was perfect before
the Lord. In order for this to happen,
in order for us to be saved, redeemed, in order for His people
to be redeemed, brought back to God, the everlasting surety
had to be broken. It had to be broken. You remember
that word? He had to be sore, broken. Now let's turn to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53. Now this is the humiliation and sufferings
of Christ is what this is during his time on earth and on the
cross of Calvary. Let's go through this. Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? I want to stop
right there and just say, to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed,
that's who believes the report. That's who believes the report.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
them. Means he's not attracted to this
flesh whatsoever. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. He was broken. He was broken
because he said, I will be surety for them. I will be surety for
them, for my sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon
him the iniquity of us all. What does it mean that we've
turned everyone to his own way? not turning to the Lord, iniquity. And yet the Lord took that iniquity
and laid it upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He was oppressed and
he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth. He
was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare
his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made
his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because
he had no done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his
mouth yet. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him
to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, that's the elect,
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
everyone that he became surety for, he bore their iniquities,
their sin on the tree. He justified every one of them
before the throne of God. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong because he hath poured out his soul into death and he
was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and
made intercession for the transgressors. He told his disciples, This is
my body that's broken for you. This is my blood of the new covenant
shed for many. Our surety was broken on the
cross of Calvary. Our surety was offered up to
the Father on the cross of Calvary. That should have been us being
offered up. We should have been the ones
on the cross. We should have been the ones enduring the wrath of God. left
to ourself. We should have been the ones
that had to face eternal wrath. And yet, because our Lord chose
in love that he would become surety for his people, he endured
everything that was due to us. He endured everything that was
due to us. He bore our guilt. He honored the words of the Father.
He bore our sin on the cross of Calvary. He bore our shame. The separation from God do us.
He was separated from his God. He was stricken of God, whereas
we should have been stricken of God. He took our place completely
as our substitute. All because he said, I'll be
surety for him. I'll be surety for them. His
very soul was made an offering for the sin of his people. The
ones that God elected, Christ Jesus redeemed by offering his
soul to the Father. And the Father was well pleased
with that sacrifice. When the Lord saw that travail,
he said, you know, the Lord still had perfect faith on the cross.
You ever thought of that? Everything about him is perfect.
But he was looking on the cross. When he said, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? That's so you and I knew that
he was forsaken. That's what that's for. That's what that's
for. But he never wavered or waned from the truth that his
father had given him, the promise of the resurrection his father
had give him. He never batted his, he set his
eye like a flint to the cross as our surety, knowing what he
would have to endure, knowing the hell that he would have to
endure and the grave that he would have to go down to, the
death that he would have to die. that you and I don't have to
die because he did it for us. His blood was shed for his people
indicating their sin is gone, he made them to be righteous.
Yet if you look at me and I look at you, you don't see righteousness,
do we? But when he looks at me and looks at you, if we're his,
he sees the blood and he sees perfect righteousness, perfect
holiness, justified, sanctified, glorified children of the everlasting
surety of the Lord. He is our righteousness. All
because our creator chose to save his people from their sin
by sacrificing the everlasting surety. He sacrificed the everlasting
surety. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest to the flesh.
That's a mystery. How are you going to explain
God becoming a man to somebody? I had somebody the other day
asking me something about can't remember if it was sanctification
or what it was. And I looked at him because I answered the
question, but it wasn't good enough for him. And I said, I
can't get over the fact that God became a man. And they were
like, well, yeah, I know that wasn't a big deal. You know,
but when you see him high lifted up as Isaiah saw him and Isaiah
41, uh, 43, then you, You see him as he is by faith
and you think he became a man. Furthermore, he became surety
for me and you. Creatures of dust, sinful by
nature, deserving of nothing, depraved. He became our surety. He became our substitute. And
he honored the father in every requirement and provided everything
we need in order to be made the very righteousness of God in
him. That's what he did. When he had honored his word
to his father, whenever he had fulfilled his obligation as surety,
he brought his people back to glory with him after he had purged
our sin, and he sat down on the right hand of God. The father
said, come sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. Your work is finished. You were successful as their
surety. And we are seated in Christ in the heavenlies right
now. Thank God he is his people's
everlasting charity. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless them for our understanding
and for your glory in Christ's name. Amen.