Hebrews chapter seven, sorry. It was a bit of delay, but Lord
purposes all things. Let's start by reading our text
in Hebrews chapter seven, verse 20 through 22. And in as much
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
saith unto 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. I've titled this message
the surety of his people, the surety of his people. That's
a great comfort to know that we have a surety. If the Lord
ever reveals to us that in everything pertaining to the gospel is completely
dependent upon us having a surety, if we know that we have one,
that's a comfort. Now, a surety is a person who
takes responsibility for another's payment of a debt or obligation. If you owed a mortgage, and most
of us do, And I say, well, I'm going to be your surety. We go
down to the bank. This isn't the same thing as
co-signing. It's the same thing as co-signing where you get in
trouble and I get in trouble. A surety is literally taking
your debt unto themselves completely, owning it as their own. And you
are free to go, completely free, completely released of the obligation
of paying that mortgage. Oh, the mountain. of debt we
owed in birth, just for being born, being born in sin, shaping
into iniquity. We come into this world owing
sufficient payment for the mountain of sin, and we can do nothing,
nothing to take away a bit of that sin, any more than we can
cause the sun to rise and fall. We can't take away any part of
our sin, any more than we can call the ocean to rise and fall.
Can't, we can't. We can't do anything about our
sin problem. Actually, every attempt to do so is called iniquity.
That's what the Lord said. He said, I hate the workers of
iniquity. Whenever he tells those who are
gonna be standing before him to depart, he calls them workers
of iniquity, the ones that's tried to fix the mountain of
their sin by doing something. So what hope do we have? the
surety of the Lord's people. That's our hope, that he is our
surety. Romans 5.8 says, but God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. While we yet had that mountain
of sin ahead of us and on top of us and within us that we could
do nothing about, Christ died for us. When there was a ocean
of sin that we were responsible for, Christ died and put it all
away because he is the surety of his people. Now we saw here
that our Lord being the surety of the new covenant, he declared
that he alone, he alone assumed the full responsibility He assumed
the full responsibility and the execution to fulfill everything
required for our salvation in the covenant made as our surety.
It's called a better covenant. Why is it a better covenant?
Because it's not a covenant of works. It's not a covenant where
you have to do something and God does something. He's not
your surety then. Now that's as clear as I can
be this morning. If it's you doing something and
God doing something, he's not your surety. No, to be the surety,
he takes full responsibility for the debt owed, full responsibility
for the guilt, full responsibility for the sin. And he alone puts
that sin away. You don't have anything to do
with it. You don't have anything to do with it. You're released
of your obligation. Be a surety is to take full responsibility
for someone else's responsibilities. Well, there's not a lot of people
willing to do that, are there? Would you take the full responsibility
of all of my responsibilities? To be a surety doesn't just mean,
when we're talking about the Lord, to be a surety doesn't
just mean that He took my mortgage payment. No, it means He takes
the responsibility of my children, the responsibility of my household,
the responsibility of my shelter, my food, my safety, my protection,
my sin, everything. He took it all when He became
our surety. He said, I'm going to restore
Him Restore my people perfectly. Restore them perfectly. They'll have everything in me.
That's what the surety did. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. The surety takes the debt. The debtor is freed of any and
all debt unless, unless the surety fails to pay. If the surety fails
to pay it, Then let's say you take my debt as my surety and
something happens to you before you pay my debt, then they come
after me. But aren't you glad when it comes
to the one we're talking about? His name is God, the eternal
sovereign creator of this universe, the one that inhabits eternity.
He's seated upon his throne. He's not able to lie. It's impossible
for him to lie. He's unable to fail. It's impossible
for him to fail. And he said, I will be surety
for them. I will make them perfectly righteous
by the sacrifice of myself. He entered into the covenant
with his father. Now a surety, and we're going to turn here.
The surety is described as striking hands or shaking hands in agreement,
whereby a guarantee is made. Used to, people didn't have,
they didn't buy houses by, when we moved up here, I had to sign
200 documents probably. I mean, that was more than what
I had to sign in Florida and more than what I had to sign
in Tennessee. That's not how people used to agree upon things.
They just shook hands. The money was exchanged, and
they shook hands. But whenever people became dishonest, now
you have to have legal documents. And now there's loopholes in
that document, so you need another document. And now there's loopholes
in that document, you need another document, and all this documentation.
No, the striking of hands between the father and the son, that
was it. That was it. There was no signed documents. There was no need for extra lawyers
and nothing like that. No, it's by his determinant counsel. He is the lawyer. He is the judge.
He is the jury. He is the executioner. And the
Lord Jesus Christ said, I will go. I will go. Turn with me to
Job chapter 17. you Job 17 verse one, Job says this,
my breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready
for me. So he's nigh unto death, isn't
he? Feels like he's nigh unto death. He sees himself as corrupt,
he sees that his days are extinct, they're expiring, the graves
are ready for me. Are there not mockers with me
and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? Lay down
now, put me in assurity with thee. Who is he that will strike
hands with me? Job's having seen his end, seen
being made a sinner. He's even saying my breath, my
breath is corrupt. The corruptness of his, if you
ever see that, you're gonna need a surety. If we ever see that
our very breath is corrupt, and I'm not just talking about the
air that we're breathing, when we exhale, that's corrupt, but
I'm talking the words that we say are corrupt. We ever see
that we need a surety, and Job seeing that he says, who's gonna
be my surety? Who's gonna strike hands with
me? But it's not that Christ struck
hands with you and I. The Lord didn't strike hands
with you, did he? He didn't say if you'll just
stick out your hand, I'll make a deal with you, no. No. No, Christ struck hands with
the Father in a covenant, a holy covenant, an oath, a promise,
said, I will be surety for the Father's elect, guaranteeing
every single person that he was going to die for, guaranteeing
every person that he became surety for was going to be restored
perfectly. They're going to be returned
to perfect righteousness. He said, I'll take their sin.
I'll take their guilt. I'll take their shame. I'll take
their sorrow. Somebody said, well, I feel useless.
He took that, too. He took that, too. Somebody said,
I feel broken. He took that, too. He took that,
too, for his people. Everything about you, the Lord's
people, he took it. He took it. All the misery that
you feel, all the agony that you feel, the pain that you feel,
he took every bit of it. And I'll take their cross, their
punishment. I'll be surety, Father, for the
ones you love. I'll redeem them back to you.
I'll be their surety. And did you know that the father
did not wait? The father did not wait to see
what would happen. before you and I were viewed
as glorified. No, we were in Christ from the
foundation of the world. We were restored before Christ
ever came. The Father trusted the Son. He
believed the Son. The Son cannot lie. Solomon, you know Solomon, one
of the wisest men who ever lived, he talks about spoke warnings actually about
becoming a surety, spoke warnings about it. He was one of the wisest
men ever live and he speaks warnings about it. First thing he does
is he declares that surety, that a surety agrees. And when a surety
is an agreement, it's a binding All the agreements are binding.
They can't be undone. If you say I'll become a surety,
that's binding. There is no recanting that. There
is no cancellation of that. You know, they have things now
where you can cancel your debt. You know what I'm talking about.
Maybe you filed bankruptcy. Maybe there's these loopholes.
You can get out of your debt this way or that way. When it comes
to salvation, when it comes to sin, there is no canceling debt.
We have to have a surety. And if you chose to become a
surety, obviously it can't be spiritual, but if you chose to
become a surety for someone taking their debt, there is no cancellation
of that, of you being their surety. It can't be undone. So that's
the reason, second thing Solomon says, he says it's called a trap.
He said you're trapped then, you're trapped. Third, he states
that if a person becomes a surety, it will prove to be a painful
experience. You take somebody else's debt,
it'll prove to be a painful experience. It's not gonna be easy to be
the responsible party for someone else. Lastly, he says this. He says, take the surety's coat
before he becomes surety because that may be all he has left.
Take the surety's coat before he becomes surety because that
may be all he has left after he pays the debt of the other.
Now, if we didn't know that all the scriptures speak of Christ,
we would assume that these warnings are just good advice. Don't become
a surety, right? But in the volume of the book,
it's written of me. This is all about Christ's suffering
for his people. This is all about Christ being
our substitute and what he did when he undertook the responsible
role of surety for his people. This is a description of those
sufferings when all the execution of the responsibility of the
surety of a better covenant came to pass. We see the Lord assumed
the debt before time ever began, he assumed the debt. He swore
to be our surety and he cannot lie. Necessity was laid upon
him, the scripture says. Necessity was laid upon him.
Why was it necessary? Because there was none other
found worthy. If he doesn't become surety in the covenant of grace,
we have no hope. But if he becomes surety for
his people, we have all the hope because none can stay his hand
or say unto him, what doest thou? None can prevent him from his
purpose. None can even hinder him, can't slow him down. He successfully cleansed every
stain. He satisfied God's justice. It
came to pass because of who he is. came to pass because he and
stared himself with an oath. You remember what Solomon said,
it's, it's an oath. Can't get out of it. He ensnared
himself. Second thing was, is it's a trap?
Is it not true? He trapped himself, but by choice,
he, he said, I will. And he cannot lie, confirmed
it with an oath. He trapped himself, so to speak. What did he say? All that the
father gives me, I'll lose none of them. That was the promise
made. That was the promise of our surety
to his people and none to the father. He bore the blame. You know,
in being a surety, you can't offer anything else up but yourself
and what you have. I can't become your surety and
then go over and offer somebody else's things as payment. I have
to offer myself, I have to offer my, what I have. Christ didn't offer anything
but himself unto the Father. And he didn't offer himself unto
anybody else but the Father, as our surety. Christ offered
himself unto the Father. He alone, he alone had to redeem,
he alone must redeem, and he alone did redeem. Remember the
account in the Old Testament, in Genesis, whenever Jacob's
sons went down to see Joseph after the famine had happened.
Joseph was in power, he was the second in all of the land of
Egypt. And Joseph sends his ten sons. He had twelve, I would
remind us, the two oldest coming from Rachel, whom he loved. The
two oldest were Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph was sold into slavery
and Jacob thought he had died, but he was lied upon, obviously,
and now he's in power. Benjamin stays behind. Whenever
the brothers come down, the 10 brothers, they come down and
they see Joseph, they don't recognize him. They don't know who he is.
I'm sure he had makeup on, maybe it got older, his hair was different,
who knows? He just didn't know who he was. Maybe the Lord just
didn't let him know. Anyways, Joseph recognized them immediately. And as they're speaking, they're
having conversation, it comes about that he asked, how's your
father doing? And they say, he's well. And
Joseph thought he would trap him a little bit and say, well,
how's your other brother? Talking about himself. They said, well,
he's well, too. He's with our father, Jacob. And he thought, you know he thought,
and you bunch of liars. That's what he thought. You ain't
changed a bit. After all these years, you're
exactly the same. And he was angry about it. You can just,
obviously, because what'd they do? Well, they put, when they
gave them the grain to go away, they hid something and it came
past, Simeon was the one caught with it, and they put him in
jail. And they said, don't come back here to get any more grain
until, until you bring that younger brother of yours. Well, they
went back down to their father and said, they have Simeon, he's
in prison. And they're not gonna let us get any more grain. They're
the only place in the land that has grain. We're gonna starve
to death. And Jacob said these words, all these things are against
me. You ever feel that way? All these
things are against me. What Jacob had no idea that God
was already had done was for the salvation of the nation Israel. The entire salvation was coming
to pass. And Jacob says these words, all
these things are against me. I've felt like that. You felt
like that. We feel like that when we're not looking to our
surety. But when we look to our surety by faith, we never say
all these things are against me, we say truth, Lord. Truth,
Lord, I am a dog. So what happens? Well, time goes
on and they come back to Jacob and say, we're running low on
grain, we're out, we gotta go. And we got to take Benjamin.
And Jacob says, no, no, you've already, you've already taken,
uh, J, uh, Joseph's gone from me. And now they have semen.
You're going to take Benjamin too? He says, no, you're not
taking him. And Reuben steps up. Reuben is the, uh, Reuben's
the oldest. He's, he's the more than likely
the strongest. I don't know. But he tells his
father, he says, I will be surety. I'll be surety for Benjamin. I'll give you, if something happens,
I will give you my two sons and you can kill them or you can
do what you want to with them. But see, that's not a surety.
That's not a surety, that's just bargaining with what you have.
And Jacob says, no, absolutely not. But then Judah steps forward
and Judah says unto his father, and you can see the Lord Jesus
Christ standing before the father saying these words unto him,
I will be surety for Benjamin. And he says, 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. Let me bear the blame if I fail. And Jacob says, you're his surety.
And they go down. And what a glorious outcome came
to pass because of that. We have an allegory that we see
the Lord Jesus Christ being our surety to bring us out of the
desert land of no food into the land flowing with milk and honey.
That's where they ended up at the end of everything. You understand
that? They went down to Egypt and were well taken care of by
Joseph. But before time ever began, Before time ever began, the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit entered into
a covenant. And Christ Jesus said, I will
be surety for them. I will be surety for them. And
the Father elected a people, the Son redeemed those people,
and the Spirit in time regenerates those people. How did that happen?
Well, Christ offered himself, he took his garment of flesh.
Do you remember being assured, he said, keep his garment. He
might not have anything left. Christ took the garment of, the
scripture says he was robed in the likeness of sinful flesh.
That's his garment. He took that garment and nailed
it to the cross to put away our sin as our surety. He was crucified
by the hand of wicked men. God said, when I see the travail
of his soul, I'll be satisfied. And for three hours, Three hours
in the darkness, he endured the wrath of God. Three hours of
indescribable agony, our surety paid our debt. He said, he who knew no sin became
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
What does it mean to become sin? He certainly became it so that
we could become, what does it mean to become righteous? That's
what we are in Christ Jesus. He left nothing undone. He said,
I've completed the work that's given to me of my father. When
he bowed his head, when he cried, it is finished. Every person
that he became surety for were made the very righteousness of
God, perfectly holy. Perfect. You can't improve on
perfect. Can't improve on perfect. Can't
improve on holiness. Can't improve on righteousness.
We're justified, sanctified. Glorify, that's what our surety
did. He presented his bride to his
father after he was resurrected. You know what the father said?
Sit thou here on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. Well done, son, well done. He's pleased with his son. Now when he sees me and he sees
you, he sees the blood of the lamb. He sees you as worthy and
not as you are. They're gone, all the sin, all
the sin's gone. Scripture tells us he sees us
in garments whiter than the snow, whiter than the snow. How can
it be that the mountain of sin that we just heard about to begin
with is gone? The mountain of sin that we were due justice
for, the mountain of sin that we owe, how can it be that it's
gone? The surety of God's people. Our surety took that mountain
of sin, and it was laid upon Him, the iniquity of us all on
the cross. How can it be that the law says
I'm innocent? How can it be that I'm justified? Because our surety
said, Father, I will go. I will be their surety. He put our sin away. By His own
blood, He washed us. By His death, He saved us. By
His resurrection, we are eternally one with Him. I love this verse, not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. Why did he become surety for
his people? Grace. Mercy. Why does he love you? Why does he love me? Grace. Mercy. It's not because of anything
you see when you look in the mirror. It's not because of anything
you see whenever you look on the inside. He loves you because
of grace and mercy. And did you know you can't mess
up grace and mercy? You can't mess it up. You can't
mess it up. Our surety says, I have loved
you with an everlasting love, never had a beginning and I'll
never have an end and you can't mess it up. Then he says, because I've loved
you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness,
have I drawn you? And he's going to keep drawing
us. Because of our surety, we have
a blessed hope. A blessed hope. We have forgiveness
of sins and eternal lives. We have eternal life. Forgiveness
of sin and eternal life. This is what it means to be enabled
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what it means
to have a surety. And this is what the Lord has
done for his people. Let's pray. Father, we cannot. Thank you enough. For becoming
the surety of your people. And letting us rest in you just
for a moment and seeing you high lifted up. Bless your word according
to your will. In Christ name, Amen, let's take
a break.