Let me show you a passage of
scripture in the book of Acts, chapter 11, verse 26. Acts 11, 26. And when he had found him, he
brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole
year They assembled themselves with the church and taught much
people. And the disciples, the believers,
this is not the twelve now, this is those who believed on Christ
and those who identified themselves with Christ and those who by
faith embraced Him. And the disciples were called
Christians. First, in Antioch. What did they call them before
this time? How did they refer to this faith? Well, prior to this time, and
even at this particular time, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
was called the Way. The Way. W-A-Y. This way, that
way, the way. Let me show you a few scriptures
back to Acts the 9th chapter. It was called the way. In Acts
chapter 9 verse 2. I would just read verse 1 and
2 of Acts 9. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings
and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high
priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues,
that if he found any of this way," he didn't say if he found any
Christians, he said if he found any of this way, this persuasion,
this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them
bound in chains to Jerusalem. Now Acts chapter 19, I have another
reference in Acts, the 19th chapter, verse 9, to this way, or that
way, that's what they were called before they were called Christians.
In Acts 19, verse 9, and when divers were hardened, and believe
not, but they spake evil of that way before the multitude. He departed from them and separated
the disciples disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus."
And then verse 23, we find it again of that same chapter, Acts
19, and, at the same time, there arose no small stir about that
way. Let me wear you with one more
reference, Acts 22. Acts 20, we're talking about
the way of repentance. The way of repentance. God said,
let the wicked forsake his way and let him return unto the Lord.
My way is not your way. You forsake your way and you
walk in my way. This is the way of Christ who
said, I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the way. This
is the way of righteousness. It's called the way of life.
It's called in the hymn, the way of the cross. It's called
in Hebrews, the new and living way. The new and living way. And then,
that way was spoken of as heresy by the Pharisees. Paul said,
after the way you call heresy, I worship God. That way. See
what I'm getting at, alright? Acts 22, verse 4. And Paul said, I persecuted this
way, this way unto death. I persecuted this way unto the
death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women
who were of this way, this way. Now, the reason I read all that
is it's not my text. My text, if you will, turned
to Job 17. This is my text tonight. But
I wanted to identify the way I was talking about in Job chapter
17. This way that I'm talking about
is the way of repentance and faith. It's the way of Christ.
It's the way of righteousness. It's the more excellent... Paul
said, I'll show you a more excellent way. Way. Paul talked about persecuting
this way, the way, the new and living way. And here in the book
of Job, chapter 17, Job says this, the righteous, now we know
that there's none righteous, no, not one. And there's not
anybody here, if I were to ask for a show of hands, would raise
his hand and say, I'm righteous. Not in yourself. None righteous,
no, not one. But we're talking about those
who are righteous in Christ. Now I'd raise my hand on that.
If you asked me if I had before God a perfect righteousness,
I'd say yes in Christ. If you asked me tonight if I
had a perfect holiness, I would say yes in Christ. He is my righteousness
if he is my justification. He is my sanctification if he
is my redemption. He is my righteousness. And so
we're saying here, Job is saying the righteous also shall hold
on his way. The righteous shall hold on his
way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger."
Now what are we saying? We're saying this, that that
man who by the grace of God, that woman who by the grace of
God has entered this way, has entered this way, has been brought
by God's Spirit to believe on Christ, genuinely Sincerely,
lovingly, willingly from the heart. They've been brought to
rest in Christ, to trust in Christ, to believe in Christ. They have
entered that way for the grace of God. They'll never depart
from it. They'll never leave it. They'll
hold on their way. They will continue. The righteous
shall hold his way. That doesn't say the righteous
will always travel with equal speed. It doesn't say that he'll
hold his pace, it says he'll hold his way. I expect to be
in glory. I fully expect to. And I expect
everybody in this building tonight who is genuinely born again and
redeemed by the grace of God, I expect you to be there too.
I don't believe there'll be one missing. I believe there's plenty
of room in heaven but no vacancies. I don't believe that any person
who's been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, called by
the Spirit, led to faith in Christ, will ever perish. I do not believe that. It says
the righteous shall hold his way. It doesn't say that he'll
always hold his zeal. There are times when I have much
more enthusiasm than I do at other times. Because I'm human,
I'm affected by my surroundings. I'm affected by my feelings.
I'm affected by my physical health or lack of it. It doesn't say
I'll always hold my zeal and my enthusiasm. It does say, or
my excitement, but I will hold my way. The righteous in Christ
shall hold his way. He shall. Not a doubt about it. It doesn't say he'll always hold
his temper, that he'll hold his way. It doesn't say he'll always
hold his confidence, but he'll hold his way. It doesn't say
he'll always hold his assurance, but he will hold his way. The
way of Christ he will never forsake, and he will never depart from
the way of Christ. I suppose Mr. Spurgeon could
put things better than anyone, and in writing on this subject,
this is what he says. Now the Scripture, the Scripture
does not teach that a man is saved and will reach heaven even
if he leaves the road of faith and the way of the cross. It
is just not true. that one act of faith is all
and that nothing is needed of daily repentance and daily faith
and daily prayer and daily worship and daily obedience. Our doctrine
is just the opposite. I say, he declared, that the
righteous shall hold his way, that is, the true believer will
continue in Christ. The true believer will continue
in faith. The true believer shall continue
in love. Shall not only continue but grow
stronger day by day. Shall not only continue in grace
but he'll grow in grace. Shall not only continue in Christ
but grow in the knowledge of Christ. He will hold his way. I detest the doctrine that says
a man who has once made a profession of faith in Christ shall finally
be saved even if he forsakes the path of faith. This is an
invention of Satan. But what I am saying is this.
The righteous shall hold his way. He who has been chosen by
the Father regenerated by the Holy Spirit, sanctified by the
blood of Christ, and brought to saving faith in the Son of
God, will not," he said, I repeat, will not, depart from Christ. If he does, it is clear proof
he wasn't chosen of the Father. He wasn't sanctified by the blood
of Christ. He wasn't regenerated by the
Holy Spirit, and he never really knew the Savior. That's what
John says in 1 John. Would you want to turn over there
with me and look at the Scripture, 1 John 2, 19? He said, Pastor, is this just
a way out? in your defense of the doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints and the preservation of the saints? Is this just a way out for you
to say that people who leave never were in? People who leave
Christ never loved Christ? People who depart from Christ
never rested in Christ? No, it's not a way out. It's
just the truth. If you ever knew Him, you couldn't
leave Him. There's nothing better. There's nothing better. The disciples
said, to whom shall we go? You talk about leaving Christ,
for whom? For what? If I leave something here, I've
got to go to something better. I wouldn't leave life for death. I wouldn't leave water for famine. I wouldn't leave health for sickness.
Wouldn't leave holiness for corruption. I wouldn't leave heaven for hell And neither will you depart from
Christ if you know it you can't find anything better The righteous
shall hold his way first John 2 19 John said that he said they
went out from us There were some that went out from them There
were plenty who went out from them And John acknowledges this. Plenty who left them, plenty
who professed and departed, who made decisions and left. Demas was one. Paul said, he
left me, having loved this present world. Alexandria left. Homogenes left. Just keep naming
them. They left. Judas left. But he said, they were not of
us. They were not of us. Their hearts
never beat with us. Their souls were never knit to
Christ. They never knew Him, for if they
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. No doubt. John said, I don't
have any doubt about it. But he says, they went out that
they might be made clearly Clearly evident and manifest that they
were not all of us now then The book of Hebrews has many warnings
about apostasy turn to Hebrews if you will Hebrews first the
sixth chapter there are plenty of what Hebrews is a book of
comfort in the book of warning It's just got a lot of warnings
it says take heed brethren lest there be found in you an evil
heart of unbelief fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
God. But here in Hebrews 6 verse 4, now as I say, there are plenty
of warnings in the book of Hebrews, but Paul always adds, when he
gives one of these sharp warnings, sharp warning, I want you to
watch this, every time he gives one of these sharp warnings,
he immediately follows it with the fact that he didn't believe
a true believer would ever depart. Now watch Hebrews 6 verse 4,
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have
tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of
the world to come, if they should fall away It is impossible to renew them
again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame. And one thing
I notice here that I would say to people who
claim that believers can be saved and then lost or depart from
the faith, according to this scripture, if they ever did,
they could never come back. I don't know how are they getting
them re-saved. Paul clearly says it's impossible to renew them. Don't ever bring them back. In
other words, if a fellow claims to be saved, you say he lost
his salvation, then write him off according to this, if that's
what that means. Impossible. Mark him for hell. Put on a sticker to hell and
mark it Rush. He's gone. That's what he says. It's impossible to renew them.
impossible but down here in verse nine listen to what Paul said
but beloved but beloved whoever he's talking about in verses
four and six not the same folks he's talking about here he said
but beloved we're persuaded better things of you and things that
accompany salvation though we thus speak I'm persuaded In other
words, I stand here and warn about apostasy and warn about
departing from the faith, warn about leaving the gospel. But
I say, I'm persuaded of better things of you. You're not going
to leave. That's what he's saying. You're
not going to leave. His sheep will never perish. Look at Hebrews
10. Listen to this. Hebrews 10. Now, I'm given some things that
need to be given. And some things that need to
be said and some things that are real comfort for the people
of God. Because I know whom I have believed.
Bob, we've talked about this often. And every believer, every believer
entertains these thoughts. I don't want to perish. I don't
want to hear him say depart from me. I don't want in 15 or 20
years to be out yonder Departed from the gospel indifferent to
the faith and some of you said the same thing, but you're not
going to If you know Christ If you don't know Christ you will
If you're a if you're a false professor, I almost guarantee
it You're gonna get weary of the way Because you're really
not in it You're gonna get weary of pretense People always get
weary of the false. They get weary of pretense. They
get weary of hypocrisy. They get weary of a show. That's the reason so many of
these churches have such a turnover all the time. People come in
and get all excited and caught up with the bandwagon, you know,
and caught up with the program, but they get tired of it, and
they drop out, and new ones come in, and they get caught up in
it, and they work, and teach Sunday school, and go out in
the solar wind, and visit, and do all that. Then they get tired
of it and drop it, and then a new bunch comes in, and they keep
it up, you see, and there's a turnover of all of that. But you never
get weary of Christ. He's sweeter every day. You never get weary of the gospel,
it's richer every day. You never get weary of the fellowship
of believers. It's more wonderful every day.
You're not going to leave that. Now, if you've just got a pretense
and you've just got a profession and you've just got some religion
that's based on emotion and sentimentality and trying to meet mama in heaven,
you're going to get tired of that. You'll get tired of that. Preachers get tired of it. Deacons
get tired of it. Sunday school teachers get tired
of it. But people who are in Christ, they never weary of Christ. Fresh and new every day. Or Hebrews 10, 38, listen to
this. Now the just shall live by faith,
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
him. Now there's the warning. But
now wait a minute, what did I say? Paul always comes along with
this, verse 39. We're not of them that draw back.
See that, Mike? We're not of them that draw back.
We, he says, but we are of them that believe. I believe. I believe
for the saving of the soul. The Abrahams don't draw back.
The Davids don't draw back. The Moses don't draw back. The
Isaiahs don't draw back. The Pauls don't draw back. They don't leave. I found him
whom my soul loveth." That's the story of the Song
of Solomon. Talk about leaving her lover?
Oh, no. No, no. No, no, no way. And here, when
our Lord spoke to those religionists in Matthew 7 that stood before
Him and they kept talking about what they'd done and what they'd
done in His name and what they'd accomplished, we prophesied in
Your name and Cast out devils in your name and did many wonderful
works in your name. He said he said to them What
did he say to them? I never knew you He didn't say
I once knew you and know you no more. He didn't say I once
loved you He said I never never never never never knew you. I
Never knew that's what he said, right? With that scripture I
read a while ago, he said, I know my sheep. I know them. And you
know what? They know me. I know my sheep. I know my sheep. And I'm saying
boldly and positively and frankly and as candidly as I can, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And all for whom the Savior suffered,
bled, and died shall be saved. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. All whom the Holy Spirit brings
to Christ, they shall continue in the way. I guarantee it on
the authority of this book right here. I'm going to give you five
things. The righteous shall hold his
way because, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And I want you to listen to it.
Now here's the first one. And not one shall be lost. Not
one. First, the righteous shall hold
his way because, number one, of the nature of the life which
is imparted in regeneration. That's the first reason. The
righteous shall hold his way, number one, because of the nature
of the life that's imparted in regeneration. What is regeneration?
It's the new birth. What is the new birth? It's the
new creation. What is the new creation? It's
salvation. That's what it is. Now, if anyone
here tonight, and I'm sure that I'm almost certain none would,
but if anyone, a lot of people do, if anyone here tonight looks
upon salvation as an act of man, Salvation as an act of man, a
decision that man makes, an acceptance of some facts, a mental agreement
with facts. In other words, salvation is
something that I do. God's put it out there, and I
weigh it and think about it. And in my own mind, I decide
this is true, I believe this is true. I believe this is the
way. So I'm going to get in this way. I'm going to accept it. I'm going
to make my decision. I'm going to do this. And consequently, as a result
of my doing it, then I'm saved. If that's what you believe, then
you must conclude that that same man can change his mind at a
later time and get out of it. If I can get in it, I can get
out of it. That's understandable, isn't
it? If I, if I, if I come, if I, by my decision and by my act
get in, by my decision, my act, I can get out. And that's the
reason that people believe in being saved today and lost tomorrow
is because they really believe that salvation is an act of works
and an act of the flesh and an act of the will of man. But let
me tell you something, and you listen to me, but when you understand
from the Word of God that salvation is not an act of man, it's an
act of God. Salvation, the redemption of
a sinner, not only in its origination, not only in its execution in
the death of Christ, not only in its application When it pleased
God, He revealed His Son in me, not only in sustaining power,
but in His ultimate perfection, that salvation is an act of God
and a work of God, whereby according to His own purpose and according
to His own will, He comes by His own Spirit and gives that
center. a new heart, a new nature, a
new spiritual life, and makes him a new creature, there's no
way that that life can die that's in that center. No way unless
God takes it out. And you know who that life is?
That life is Christ. In other words, I'm saying this
to you. The righteous shall hold his way because his way is Christ. Let me give you some scripture.
Jonah said, salvations of the Lord. David said several times,
the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. In John chapter
1, our Lord said this, what John wrote this, said, he came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he the right to become sons of God. Sons of
God. Even to them that believe on
his name, comma, which were born, not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but they're born of God. They're God's sons, born of God,
by his own act, by his own will, by his own work. This is my son
Paul down here on the second row. He's my son. He was begotten
by me. He's my son. He'll never cease
to be my son. He can change his name, he can
change his looks, he can change his habitation, he can change
his direct... He'll always be my son. He'll
never be yours. He's mine. And I'll tell you
this, God's sons will never be anything but God's sons. They
were born of God, now that's just so... If you can lose your
salvation, you're not God's son, you're somebody else's son. If
you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your sons,
how much more shall a heavenly father give good things to his
son? If your son asked bread, would you give him a stone? If
your son asked meat, would you give him a serpent? What, are
you better than God? If you, being evil, and we are,
know how to give good things to your children, Salvation is
a permanent work of creation. He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me hath everlasting life, and shall never come into condemnation. He's already passed from death
unto life. He lives! And what I'm saying
is this, the only way, if Christ dwells in me, that's the question
I'm asking, if Christ dwells in me, if I really believe. If
I'm really begotten of God. If I'm saved. And salvation is
Christ. Now if He dwells in me, the only
way that I can ever perish is for Christ to perish. The only
way I can ever be separated from God is for Him to separate Christ
from Himself. If Christ dwells in you, is that
right? You know it's right. You know it and I know it, and
all of this argument about once saved, always saved, eternal
security, once in grace, always in grace, is a bunch of foolishness. It's a bunch of foolishness for
me to sit around. What is salvation? It's Christ.
Christ said, I'll come and take up my abode in you. Then if he
does, the only way I can perish is for Christ to perish. And
the only way I can ever be separated from God is for Christ to be
separated from God. Now, if I have not Christ, I'm
not saved. But if I have Christ, I'm saved.
And if I'm saved, I have Christ. He is salvation. Is He not? Well,
you know that He is. That's the first reason why the
righteous shall hold their way. The second reason is this. The
Lord said they would. The Lord said they would. He
said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
on Him will never perish. Who said that? Christ said that.
For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth on Him should never perish. If a believer perishes, that's
not true. That's not true. One old, I believe
it was John Jasper, somebody asked him, said, what if you
got up there to the gates of heaven and they turned you away?
Well, I tell you, he said, God would lose more than I'd lose.
They said, what do you mean by that? He said, I'd lose my soul,
but God would lose his character, because he said, he that believeth
on the Son hath life, and I believe the Son. John 6, 37, My Lord said, All
that my Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise, under any condition, for any reason,
in any case, cast him out. Never! Won't cast him out. Have you come to Christ? I sure
have preached it. And He'll never cast you out.
For He said, I didn't come down from heaven to do my own will
as the servant. I came to do the will of him
that sent me, and this is the Father's will which is sent me,
that of all which he hath given me, A-L-L." And I'll tell you
this, if 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 there, and
one soul is lost, that's a lie right there. All that he's given me I'll lose
nothing but raise it up at the last And this is the will of
Him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, I've
never seen Him in a dream or a vision, but I see Him in the
book. I see Him in the book. I see Him back yonder in eternity,
their God or their God. I see Him throughout the Old
Testament scriptures in every picture, type, and ceremony.
I see Him in the flesh. I see Him on the cross. I see
Him With hours of faith at the right hand of God, I see Him,
and I believe Him, and I have eternal life." And Christ said,
I'll raise him up. Unlike the Apostle Peter, I said,
Lord, you know I love you. You know I love you. He said in John 10, I read this
to you, the Lord said this, and if any sheep perishes, these
things are not so, and I charge I charge you before God. When
you question the Word of Christ, you're making a liar out of the
Son of God. He said, My sheep, verse 27,
hear My voice, I know them, they follow Me, and I give them eternal
life, and they'll never perish. Where's the power that can pluck
them out of My hand? Where's the power? I tell you, sometimes I take
Bob's son, Luke, daughter carry with me to the store somewhere
like that and because of the day in which we live I'm just
always conscious of these child disappearing you better be conscious
of it too and these nuts on the street and I'm telling you I
hold them with a with a firm hand I know right where they
are all the time my eyes I don't have the eye of God but I have
the eye of a granddaddy And I'm not going to let him out of my...
You reckon God would lose one of his? He said ain't nobody
going to pluck him out of my hand. I tell you, in order to
get Luke, you'd have to get me. And I'll tell you this, in order
to get me, you'll have to get God. Is that alright? If that's so. In order to get
me, you've got to get God. No man can pluck them out of
my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all,
and you're not going to get them out of my Father's hand. the
muscle used up by the handful yeah but what i hate you don't have my hand for a
much better or what i think he holds the nation as a drop in
the book what i hate you know i don't said this he said those
false cries sitcom and show signs and wonders they receive multitude
and what's what's that next word if it were a lot Possible they'd
believe see the elect, but it's not possible Not possible you
can't deceive God's elect Christ is their wisdom They'll never
be the same Another shepherd they will not follow he said
I'm not talking about a bunch of dummies that don't know their
shepherd I'm talking about folks that know their shepherd now
you can go out here and get these religionists to do anything I
They'll follow anything that makes a noise and sounds religious
and talks about Jesus, but not one of God's elect. They got
anointed souls and hearts and minds. They know whom they have
believed. Here's the third reason. The
righteous shall hold his way because of the character and
work of Christ. That angel said to Joseph, thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sin. Not he's going to make an effort.
He shall save them from their sins. And then look over here
in Romans chapter 8. One of our fellows read this
while I go in to study. Romans the 8th chapter. Listen
to this. This is the work of Christ. He's
able to save to the uttermost them that come to God. He's able
to keep you from falling. He's able to present you faultless,
without blame, unreprovable in His sight. He's able. to raise
your vile body. And here it said in Romans 8,
verse 28, And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the call according to
his purpose, for whom he did foreknow He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that His Son might
be the firstborn among many brethren, and whom He did predestinate,
them He called, and whom He called them He also justified, and whom
He justified them He also glorified." Now, what shall we say to these
things? Well, I say, if God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who's
going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God's
justified them. Who can condemn? Christ died
for them. Not only died for them, but rose
again. He's at the right hand of God.
And that brings me to my next point. The righteous shall hold
his way because Christ prays for them. He intercedes for them. said he ever liveth to make intercession. Turn to Hebrews chapter 7. That's
one of the reasons Paul gives. One of the reasons he gives.
Hebrews 7.25. For us trusting and resting in
Christ. He says Christ is not a priest
like Abram or the sons of Levi. Christ has an unchanging priesthood. He has an eternal priesthood.
He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And verse 24
says, this man, because he continueth ever, has an unchanging priesthood,
unchangeable priesthood, therefore he is able also to save them
evermore that come unto God by him, seeing that he not only
loved them from eternity past, he not only came and died for
them on the cross and worked out in his life a perfect righteousness,
but right now at the right hand of God, he's making intercession
for them. He ever lives for them. You're
His project, did you know that? He took upon Himself, and that's
the fifth reason I give you, the righteous shall hold His
way because of the nature of God's covenant. God will not
break His covenant. In the eternal covenant, He gave
Christ a people, and Christ assumed the place and position as their
surety. And he came down here and suffered
and died for them, went to the right hand of God, and there
he praised for them. I want to show you one thing,
and then I'll quit. Turn over here to the book of
Genesis. And I'll have to find it in the
book of Genesis. Chapter 43 is where it is. Chapter
43, Genesis 43. And I'm going to illustrate what
I'm talking about. Now, the righteous shall hold
his way. Because of the nature of that life within him. He'll
hold his way because Christ said he would. He'll hold his way
because of the character and nature of the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He put away our sins. If he put
away my sins, they're put away, Tom. If he paid my debt, it's
paid. God's not an Indian giver. You
know what an Indian giver is? Remember when you was a kid and
somebody gave you something and didn't take it back? It's an
Indian giver. I bet my friends in Sequoia wouldn't like that,
would they? I better not say that down there. But our Lord
Jesus Christ, the fourth thing, he intercedes for us. But then
there's the covenant, and we need to study the covenant. David
said, that's all my salvation, my desire, is in that covenant,
that everlasting covenant. God talks about the covenant
hundreds of times in the Scripture. But here there was a famine in
the land of Egypt. a famine in the land of Israel. Also, everywhere was a famine,
a general famine. Well, because of Joseph, there
was plenty of corn in Egypt. And, of course, Jacob thought
Joseph was dead. He didn't know he was alive.
And Jacob sent his sons, ten of them, so he had Joseph, thought
he was dead, and he had Benjamin, Joseph's little brother, but
he wasn't sent here, but he sent those ten boys, and they came
down and they got corn. They didn't know who Joseph was.
They went back home, and Joseph kept Simeon. Nine of them returned
home. Daddy said, where's Simeon? They
said, that man in Egypt kept him, thought we were spies. And
he said he was going to keep him until we came down here and
got my little brother Benjamin and took him up there to prove
that we were telling the truth. We told him we were twelve boys,
and one of them named Joseph was dead, and one of them named
Benjamin was home. Here's ten of us. He said, I
don't believe you're spies. So you go get your brother Benjamin
bring him up here and I'll let this guy go and all of you go
And they said let's take him Jacob said no way Joseph's dead
simeon is not no way you're gonna take Benjamin No way, you're
not going they said well, we're gonna starve. He said well, we'll
just start. We're not gonna take Benjamin
I've had enough of this Well, finally they got so hungry Judah
and Judah and This Bible is so beautiful. Judah is the tribe
from which Christ came, the kingly tribe. He was a priest from the
tribe of Judah. He's a king priest. In fact,
Christ is the only one in Scripture that ever held all three offices,
prophet, priest, and king. But Judah came to his father,
verse 8 of chapter 43. Judah said to Israel, his father,
send the lad with me, and we will rise and go, that we may
live and not die. both we and thou and all our
little ones, I'll be surety for him." Where do you run upon the
word surety? Hebrews says Christ is the surety
of a better covenant. In other words, Judah said to
his daddy, I'll be guarantor, I'll be the surety. Now listen
to him. Of my hand shall you require him, if I bring him not
unto thee, and set him before thee, I'll bear the blame forever."
I tell you, old Benjamin had quite a surety, didn't he? Judah's
brother. I got a better one. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ, in
that everlasting covenant of grace, said, I'll be surety for
every one of them. And if I don't bring them back,
just once, I'll bear the blame forever. Let me tell you something. He's not going to miss a one.
He's going to bring them all. And he's not going to bear any
blame. He's going to wear the glory forever. We're going to
praise him forever. But if you're one of his, you'll
never be lost. So let's just drop that issue.
Let's just settle the dust. Don't kick it up anymore. Anybody
ask you about it anymore, Tony Manson. Say, when you get a little
sense, I'll talk to you. But I'm not going to talk to
you about what's going to be, I'm going to talk to you about
what ought to be. You need to know Christ. You need to know Christ. If you ever meet Him, He'll answer
your questions about what's in grace, always in grace. He'll
answer your questions about eternal security. He'll answer your questions
about what's saved, always saved. Yes, saved, saved. In grace,
who is grace? Christ. In Christ, in Christ.
But you know what the problem is? Most folks ain't in Christ.
They got just enough religion to make them miserable. Just
enough to make them totally miserable. They're neither happy in the
church or out of it. They're neither happy with the
word or without it. They're just flat miserable.
They're trying to be what they're not. The only place a man's going
to really be happy is being what he is. Being what he is.