Proverbs chapter six, of all
the comforts of God's people, the grace and mercy that we see
in our Lord, the benefits of being in Christ, there is none
any more precious than our Lord being our surety, being our surety. None's greater. You can't really
lay them out and say, okay, well, this one's a little better than
this one. We need grace. We need mercy. You can't, uh, you need
peace. So you can't say, okay, well,
one's no, they're all glorious and wonderful, but one that's
also just as great as him being our surety and what that means.
And that's what I hope to look at tonight. The surety of God's
elect. That's what I've titled this message. Let's read Proverbs
six, one through five. He says, My son, if thou be surety
for thy friend, if thou have stricken thy hand with a stranger,
thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken
with the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver
thyself when thou art coming to the hand of thy friend. Go,
humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to
thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a
roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of
the fowler. The surety of God's elect. You notice he says, if you've
made surety, you're snared. If you've stricken hands with
a stranger or your friend, thou art snared with the words of
thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth. Now I'll
say this briefly. becoming surety in this day and
time probably wouldn't, people used to really value your word.
I remember a time whenever somebody said, I gave you my word and
that was as good as done. And unless something unimaginable
happened, but to be a surety, you're taking somebody's debt. You're taking somebody's account
to yourself, you're taking, you're becoming responsible for that
individual completely. And certain circumstances may
call for this. And what he's saying is, if you
do that, make sure that you assure your friend, make it serious.
That's the only thing I'll say about that, because that's the
warning on the physical side of it. He's saying, if you do
that, make sure that you take care of what you've promised
you're going to do. And Lord's people want to do that, don't
we? But on the spiritual side of this, That's what our Lord
did for us. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did for his people. He became our surety. He became
the elect's surety. Before time ever began, that's
why we read Ephesians chapter one, before time ever began,
before the universe was ever created, before the galaxies
came to be according to his word, before the sun was created, before
the moon was created, before the earth and all that therein
is, he was the surety. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He was the surety. for God's
chosen people. God purposed in himself before
time, before time, to elect a people, people that he loved, to save
those people that he elected. I love the thought that he did
that before we were even born. I mean, there was nothing, time
didn't exist. Can you enter into that? I can't
fathom that, but that's what scripture says, we believe it.
Before the first man, Adam was created in eternity. And we use
terms like in eternity past, but how do you describe eternity? I mean, my pea brain can't comprehend
that. Lord, we believe it. It's other
than time though. Everything that we are in this
life is Literally, we are, time affects us on every level. Time
doesn't affect God. That's amazing, isn't it? Time
does not affect God. He purposed time to be exactly
what it is and what it's doing. He made time. I find that awesome. But before we were born, before
Adam, the first man Adam was even born, before the world was
formed, before the Lord spoke things into existence, He, the
Father, He, the Son, and He, the Holy Spirit, entered into
the everlasting covenant of grace by their own will and purpose,
their own desire, their own, well, purpose is the right word.
That's their purpose. They're all according to their
good pleasure, according to God's good pleasure, that's why. Well,
why would He choose me according to His good pleasure? For His
glory, for His honor. There's nothing in us that made
Him do that. He chose to implement the everlasting
covenant of grace. The father elected a people,
the son agreed to redeem those people, and in time the spirit
regenerates those that the father elected and the son redeemed.
Now in the son doing that, he obligates himself. He obligated
himself to become our surety. That's what he did, he became
our surety. When he said, I will go, I will die, I will become
surety for them. Definition of surety is a person
who takes full responsibility for another to guarantee their
safety, to pay their debt, or perform their responsibilities.
Tell me that's not the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. It is,
isn't it? He took, he guaranteed our safety, he paid our debt,
And he performed all of our responsibilities towards the law and satisfying
justice, enduring the wrath of God. He did all of that. We could
do none of it. None of it. He became surety
for his people. He didn't say, I will do my part. if you will do your part. That's
not what he said. This was between the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And what was said was, I will
and you shall. That's what he said. I will save
you and you will be saved. That's what he told Jacob over
in Isaiah. I will and you shall. He said,
you're Jacob. You said, you're my beloved.
I bought you, I redeemed you, I paid for you, you're mine.
When did that happen? Before time ever began in the
covenant of grace, God saw his people in the Lord Jesus Christ
then. There's never been a time where
the Lord's people has not been in Christ. That's something else
that's too wonderful for me to understand, but I love it. I
love it. He said, I guarantee that the
elect, their salvation will be accomplished. I guarantee it.
He had to give his word, didn't he? And that's the word that
I mentioned earlier. People might not value you and
I like they used to. We ought to keep our word. But
with God, he cannot lie. That's the beauty of it. He said,
I will save them. And you're going to be saved
because of it. He said, I will go to the cross. He knew what
he had to do in order to accomplish this. He's God. He knew the fullness
of what was going to happen, even in so much whenever he was
in the garden praying, he said, Father, let this cup pass from
me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Why did he
do that? Because he knew what he would have to endure. He knew
what he would have to face. He knew the separation from God
and the agony of his soul that was going to take place. He had
to feel, you know he had to feel the weight of our sin, and he'd
never sinned before. He didn't sin on the cross either,
that's not what I'm saying, but he felt, he became guilty, because
if he hadn't have become guilty, God killed him injustly. He became
guilty of my sin, your sin. Why? He's our surety. He took our debt, the debt that
we owed. He didn't owe it, we owed it.
We could not pay it. And he paid the debt he didn't
owe. Why? Well, that's why we named our
church this, Grace. Grace, that's why. Grace. He took our debt. He became sin
for us. He said, I will redeem them.
I will not lose one. I will complete every requirement
in the salvation of your people, the Lord's people. And that's
exactly what he did. every requirement. He knew he'd
be forsaken by the Father, but he knew he had to satisfy justice
if we're going to be redeemed because you and I can't do anything
righteous. Not love ourself. Only thing we can do is iniquity.
Only thing we can do is sin. Only thing we can do is transgress.
Not him. He never sinned. Never committed one trespass.
Not a bit of iniquity. But the Lord laid upon him the
iniquity of us all. And when he saw the travail of
his soul, he was satisfied with him. Why did he do all that?
He was our surety. He is our surety. The surety
of God's elect. He knew he would be on display.
He knew he would be on display naked before the entire world.
The whole world saw it, saw what the Lord was gonna do. And the
sun, the glory that was, The glory that was shown then, the
sun was embarrassed to shine, wasn't it? Sun couldn't even
come out. Why? Because the glory that was happening
that day, God was doing business with God. And yet it was hanging. He was hanging right there for
the whole world to see. And yet nobody could see what
was happening. Nobody knew what was going on
as our surety kept his word to the father. As our surety kept
his promise to you and I to redeem us, save us from ourself, save
us from our sin, save us from this world, save us from Satan,
save us. We need to be saved a lot, don't
we? We do. We need to be saved a lot. Not
just one. I wrote an article. I don't know
if it's this Sunday or not, but it literally says a believer
is not somebody that got saved one time, repented one time. It's a believer, somebody that
continually needs to be saved, that's continually repenting,
continually having their mind changed about more and more about
themselves and more and more about who God is. We don't know
how bad we are unless the Lord reveals it over time. But he
does, doesn't he? Lord, save me today. Save me
today. Now, on the other side of that,
that's how we look at it. The way that God looks at it
is how it really is. We've always been saved. Always. There's never been a time or
there's never been a space in eternity that we were not considered
redeemed. The Lord became sure that he
had to say, he knew he would have to conquer death, hell,
and the grave, and he'd have to bring the keys back. He knew that he
would have to go to Hell on the cross. There's people that talk
about the Lord Jesus Christ three days and three nights being in
the heart of the earth actually going to Hell. That's not in Scripture. He went to the heart of the earth,
yes. What was He doing? Leading captivity captive. But understand something, the
hell that he endured was on the cross of Calvary. The hell that
he endured was on the cross of Calvary. He didn't suffer any
more after he died. When he said it's finished, he
would have been a liar if he would have suffered more. We
know he cannot lie. He cannot lie. So he didn't go
to hell. If you ever heard that, put that out of your mind. That's
not what happened. Not to suffer anyways. There's
details that I'm not sure on, so we leave it there. If the
Spirit's quiet, I'm quiet. Oh, he got the keys. You know what that means? He
owns. He's the owner of it. He owns
death. He owns hell. He owns the grave.
It's his. It's his. You needn't fear death.
You needn't fear the grave. Your heavenly father knows what
you have need of, and he owns both of them. Death, hell, and
the grave, all three of them. He won't lose one sheep. And
he said, I'll never leave you, and I'll never forsake you. You
don't have to fear death. Why? Because he chose to be our surety. That's why. He was saying, I'll take full
responsibility for their actions, full responsibility for their
sin, full responsibility for their iniquity. Lay it on me.
Put it on my charge. That's what he was saying when
he told the father he'll be surety. That's what he was saying. Think
about that. A ransom has been found. A remedy
was prepared before time ever began. No one else could have
done it. No one else could have redeemed.
You remember whenever John was called up to heaven and he saw
the throne of God, he saw the elders, the four and 20 elders,
he saw the beast, he saw all the miraculous things that he
tried to describe and the Lord gave us a little bit of insight
on a little bit of that. He said that there was a book And it's
the Lamb's book, the Lamb's book of life is what we call it, but
it was sealed with seven seals. And there was a search done of
who was found worthy to open the book and loose the seals
thereof. See, it's the book of everlasting life. It's the book
of salvation. Your name has to be in there
in order for you to be one of the Lords. He's the one that
made the book. He's the one that wrote the names.
None was found worthy. None was found worthy. And John,
that's what it said at that moment, none was found worthy. And John
said, I began to weep. And the elder, one of the elders
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 and loose the seals thereof. He's the only
one worthy. He's the only one worthy. He
drank. the cup of damnation dry, and
he absorbed the wrath of God. All the fire has been extinguished
by his sacrifice. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. As the spotless lamb of God,
because he was perfect, he had to be made sin in order for God
to implement justice. And that's exactly what he did.
And he put that sin away. Put that sin away. We, I'll try
to say this. I want to hope I, there's a lot
in this too. I want to get through all this
tonight if I can. We'll roll it over to next week
if we have to. But whenever we say, when we talk about sin,
that's all we are. And so you and I can't really
comprehend the magnitude of him never having sinned, never having,
think about how grievous it would have been for him. on the earth
around all the sinners that he was around. Think about how grievous,
knowing their sin, knowing their, he knows our sin because he owned
it. You understand what I'm saying?
We don't understand the magnitude of that, how glorious that he
would do that for a worm like you and I, that he would become
surety for a chosen people like you and I. And call us the apple
of his eye, my treasure. My beloved. That's what he said. That's what he calls us. He calls
you friend. My friend. His soul was made an offering
for sin. Not for everybody's sin. It was everybody's sin.
Everybody saved. This was business between God
and God. It's those who the Father gave him in that covenant. When
the Father saw the travail of his soul, he was satisfied. His
justice was satisfied. The law's demands were met. Everything
required for the salvation of God's people has been accomplished,
everything. He's not looking to you to do
anything. He's not looking to me to do
anything. He's looking to his son, who successfully redeemed
God's chosen people. After he finished, after the
third day, he was resurrected by the Father, wasn't he? Scripture
says, for our justification, that's the same word as because.
He was raised again because we've been justified. We've been justified. And those who are in Christ,
when he died, are in Christ right now, seated at the right hand. We just haven't experienced it
yet. Glorified, but haven't experienced it yet. We'll get to it one day.
We'll get to it one day. When the father sees us, is he
pleased with us? Yes, because he sees his son.
He sees his son. He's pleased with his people.
We bear the image of Christ. We have the holiness of Christ.
Do you know why? Because he became surety for
God's elect. That's why. We have a good picture
of this in the scripture, and I've preached on it before, but
it's about, we'll turn to Genesis chapter 42. It's about Joseph
and Benjamin. to get us caught up to date on
what's going on in Genesis chapter 42. Joseph is now the second,
only one over him is Pharaoh in all of Egypt. And the Lord
gives, because of the dreams that Pharaoh had, and the dreams
was a famine's gonna come. And because of this famine that
took place, God gave Joseph the wisdom in order to put back grain
during the seven years of plenty so that they would have food
in the seven years of famine. Well, the famine wretched everywhere,
not just Egypt. And so it got all the way to
where Jacob was, whose name was changed to Israel now. His sons
were there and they're all grown for the most part. And they get
word that there is grain down in Egypt for the buying. Just
come buy it. And so the 10 of them, not including
Benjamin, they go down to Egypt to buy. Now Joseph recognizes
them immediately. He allows them to purchase the
grain, but he calls them thieves. You're spies. You're just trying
to steal from us. He was testing them, wasn't he?
That's what he was doing. And then he starts asking them, he
says, so do you have a father, family? You have another brother?
He's trying to see if they'll lie or what they're going to
do. They said, yeah, our father's well. And we do have one younger
brother. We do have one younger brother.
And he's like, okay, you're lying to me. You know, that's what
he thought because he was the younger brother. You're lying. I know
you're lying. And he said, okay, I'm going to keep one of your
brothers here, kept Simeon. I'm going to keep one of your
brothers here until you come back. You will come back for
more grain. You'll have to. You'll starve
to death. So Simeon stayed behind and they
all went back. When they got back, The father
noticed Simeon's not there, and they're having a conversation,
and I'm paraphrasing this a little bit for the sake of time, but
he says to him, where is Simeon? And they told him the whole story.
He said, well, they told us this, and if we don't bring Benjamin
back with us when we go, then we can't have Simeon, we can't
get any grain, we're not gonna be able to get any more. And the brothers tell the father
what Joseph all had said, and look at what, The response is
Genesis 42 verse 36 through 38. And Jacob, their father said
unto them, me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not,
and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these
things are against me. I want to make a statement on
that statement. He just said all these things
are against me. We don't understand the magnitude. We believe God's
wisdom. We trust God's wisdom. If the
Lord gives us faith to believe it, but we don't. understand
his ways are so much higher than ours. If Joseph had never been
sold into slavery, they would have died. Do you see what I'm
saying there? The famine had to come in order for Joseph,
he had to be right in the prison house because he was falsely
accused in order for him to go from the prison to the palace.
I mean, all the providence of God, and it's happening in your
life as well. The Lord's doing, if you're His, He's working in
your life. He's chasing you too. So even though you may feel like
all these things are against me, no. No, the devil, it might
even mean it for evil, but God means it for good. He promised
it'll be for our good and His glory. Let's read on, verse 37.
And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons. Now notice what he says here.
This is important. Reuben is the oldest. He's the firstborn.
He says, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee. Deliver
him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee 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 you go, then shall you bring down my gray hairs
with sorrow to the grave. Why wasn't Rubens, he's the oldest,
you know, he's the strongest. Why wasn't his offer accepted
of his dad? Because he didn't take ownership
of Benjamin in regards of assurity. in regards of put his account
on my charge. He just said, well, you can kill
one of my children if something happens to him. That did not
interest Jacob at all because we have a picture. See, unless
you have a surety, you can't have redemption. So in that regard,
Reuben is a type of the law that could not redeem, it could just
simply point out the fact that here's the consequence. That's
the consequence, well here's the consequence. But that's not
what a surety does. A surety satisfied, our surety satisfied
the law. It satisfied God's demands. He
honored his words in redeeming his people. He fulfilled everything
necessary for our salvation. All the law can do is accuse,
but never take The law doesn't take ownership of your sin, it's
your sin. You see what I'm saying there? Well, that's exactly what
Reuben is a picture of here. When the process of time, and
I'm trying not to go too fast, but I'm trying to get through
all this, so bear with me. Their grain runs out. The grain runs
out. I don't know how long that was.
Scripture don't tell us. Their grain run out. And they're
getting hungry again. But it's not Reuben that goes
to Jacob this time to offer his son, it's Judah, but he doesn't
offer his son. Look at verse eight, chapter
43, verse eight with me. Judah said unto Israel, his father,
now he has just gave him the whole, all the information he's
recapped. He said, you got to understand
this man is second to Pharaoh and the only way that we can
get food and get our brother back is if Benjamin goes with
us. He's recapping everything with his father in the first
part of this chapter. But then he says, Judah 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, and if I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned the second time. And their father Israel
said unto them, If it must be so now, do this. Take of the
best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down the man
a present, a little balm and a little honey, spices, myrrh,
nuts, and almonds, and take double money in your hand. And the money
that was brought again in the month in the mouth of your sacks,
carry it again in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight.
Take also your brother and rise, go again unto the man. And God
Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away
your other brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children,
I am bereaved." Something important that I forgot to mention is they
put back the money from the grain into their bag. whenever they
left Egypt. So now they're like, oh no, we
need to, we gotta get right. They thought they were in trouble
to begin with. Now they're having to take Benjamin back down there.
Think about the pressure Judah had on him. Now he's surety and
they're thieves. And he was already being accused
of being a spy, but who's purpose this whole, who's designed and
orchestrated this entire passage? It was God before time ever began. That's who's doing it. And it's
to show us what our Lord did. He stood up and said, I will
be surety. You put his account on my account. You put his charge on me. I'll
bear the burden. And if I fail to redeem him,
I will bear the blame forever. But when God says that, he cannot
lie. He cannot lie. It was not possible
for God to fail. It's impossible for our Lord
to fail. The only way God's elect could
be redeemed is if Christ bore the blame, if he becomes surety
for us. Benjamin, I bring him not unto
thee and set him before thee. You know, that's exactly what
the Lord Jesus Christ has already done. He's already presented
his people to the Lord. He's already, we just, we gotta
go through time. And then we'll get there, realize
we've always been there. I love it. I don't know how to explain
it any better than that, because I have a hard time comprehending
it. He's already presented his people
to the father and the father is well pleased, well pleased.
Jacob said, go. Our heavenly father told the
son to go. Go. The fullness of time came. The Lord Jesus Christ received
the command to go. He came. He came to this earth. Lives 33 and a third year, born
to a woman, born under the law that he might redeem us that
are under the law. He bore the blame to us. He bore
the shame to us. No one else could do that and
it do any good. No one else could redeem, not
the law, not good works, nothing but the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, they end up finding, they
get down to Egypt, and they end up, they're fixing to leave. They have a good feast, and Joseph's
just kind of obsessed with Benjamin. It's like he's my real brother. These other ones are my stepbrothers,
so to speak. He's my real brother, and that's the mother, same mother,
same father. And there's a lot more details
I'm leaving out for the sake of time. But he gives him five
times the food he gives everybody else. He's the youngest one.
I showed him favoritism, didn't I? I love the thought, though,
that that was the one who had a surety that received five times
more. You see, the Lord says that it
rains on the just as well as the unjust. That may be true.
But all the Lord drops handfuls on purpose for his people. You
know, that's true also, don't you? He does. He does. And that's
what that's a picture of five times. It's the number of grace,
isn't it? Well, they depart and they find
Joseph's cup in guess whose bag, Benjamin. They're in trouble. They're in trouble. Joseph's
cup in Benjamin's bag. Joseph says he can't leave. He's staying with me. He's got
to pay the penalty for his crime. He's guilty. Boy, we're guilty,
aren't we? Born in sin, shaping in iniquity.
We try to rob God of his glory by nature. Oh, we're guilty.
We're guilty. The law says he cannot go. He's
got to pay the debt. But look what the surety's words
are in Genesis 44 verse 30. 44 verse 30. Now thy servant, when I come
to thy servant, my father, now, therefore, 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 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. For thy servant became
surety for the lad, unto my father saying, if I bring him not unto
thee, 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 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? on my father. Did you know a bondman is not
the same thing as a slave? A bondman is willing A bondman
is willing and our surety was willing to take our place. And
that's exactly what happened. He said, no, take me instead. Take me instead. I will be, I
am surety for him. Put his charge on my account. Put his guilt upon me. Put his
trespass upon me. And the Lord took our sin and
he took our iniquity. He took all of it unto himself.
He said, give it to me. Give it to me. Joseph can't contain himself
and reveal who he is. But notice the picture of take
me instead. Who is that? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Take me instead. You can't have
him. That's what he said. You can't
have him. He's mine. He's mine. I'm surety
for him. That's what the Lord did for
his people. That's what the Lord did. It would kill my father. Well, what's that a picture of?
Because the character and attributes of the Lord cannot be compromised.
And if the Lord said, I will save my people from their sin
and failed to do so, his attributes have compromised. So it would
destroy the truth, wouldn't it? That's what it would do, destroy
the truth. But oh no, truth will remain. Truth will remain and
it's, he can't lose one sheep and make him a liar and that's
impossible. The truth will remain. Jesus Christ stood before the
law, stood before the Father and said, take me instead. I'm
surety for this one. I'm surety for this one. He accomplished
everything required for the full salvation of his elect forever.
Everything required. Now go back with me to Proverbs
chapter six. I'm gonna read our text again. My son, if thou be surety for
thy friend, thou have stricken thy hand with a stranger. Thou
art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with
the words of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver
thyself when thou art coming to the hand of thy friend. Go,
humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to
thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a
roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of
the fowler. My closing question is this. Do you need a surety? Do you need a surety? Christ
was snared by our sin. You notice it says right there,
you're snared with the words of your mouth, thou art taken with the
words of thy mouth. He was snared. with our sin,
that he took to himself. He endured the hell due us. This is what our surety did.
He didn't slumber, he didn't sleep, he didn't wait. He set
his eyes like a flint, the scripture said, to the cross. He came here
on business. What was that business? To save his people from their
sin. That was the business. He didn't
doodle, he didn't, there's a term called dilly dally, there's all
kinds of ways to put it. No, he went straight on. He kept
his eyes right on the Father and obeyed in perfect obedience. He was on business with God to
save his people because he was our surety. He endured the full wrath until
it was finished, until he redeemed all of God's chosen people. And
because the father would not let his holy ones see corruption,
he resurrected him. All those he died for are now
one with him in glory. All this is all because, he said,
I'll be surety for them. Every bit of this, I'll be surety
for them. They shall be willing in the day of my power. I've
bought you, I've redeemed you, you're mine. All because he became
surety for us. because he is the surety of God's
elect. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we
ask that you would take this blessed understanding. For your
glory in Christ's name, amen.