WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH
Sunday Morning, August 9, 2015
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SCHEDULED MEETINGS
Sunday Morning Bible Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10:00 AM
Sunday Morning Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11:00 AM
Sunday Evening Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6:30 PM
Friday Night Bible Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7:30 PM
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OPENING HYMN
“Hallelujah, What a Savior!” Page 175
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SCRIPTURE READING
Psalm 108
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OFFERTORY
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WORSHIP HYMN
“I Will Sing The Wondrous Story” Page 508
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SPECIAL MUSIC
To be announced.
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Message Title
“Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Surety”
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CLOSING HYMN
“It Is Well With My Soul” Page 493
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Hebrews 7:22
A Surety - A surety is one who approaches one person on the behalf of another person. He is a representative man who lays himself under obligation to another person for the one he represents. It is in this sense that Christ is our Surety. He drew near to his Father on our behalf, and laid himself under obligation to God for us (Psalm 40:7 - 8).
A Matter of Honor - Suretyship is, to a man of honor, a voluntary bondage (Proverbs 6:1 - 2). A surety is one who strikes hands with another in solemn agreement. He gives his word that he will fulfill his agreement. Thus he binds his honor to the fulfilment of that which he has agreed to do.
When the Lord Jesus Christ became our Surety, he voluntarily placed himself in bondage to his Father until his service was performed (Isaiah 50:5 - 7; John 10:16-18). The Son of God, as our Mediator, as our covenant Surety, assumed total responsibility for the everlasting salvation of God’s elect, and willingly bound himself to the work of saving us.
An Eternal Surety - This is what the Lord Jesus Christ did as our Surety in the Covenant of Grace before the world began. He drew near to God on the behalf of his elect. He promised to faithfully perform all that God required for the salvation of his people. He struck hands with the Father in solemn agreement.
A Trusted Surety - God the Father trusted Christ as our Surety from eternity. He entrusted his elect people into the hands of his Son as our Surety, and the matter of our salvation was then and there settled forever. This is exactly how the Word of God describes the eternal aspect of salvation (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:3 - 6; Eph. 1:12; 2Tim.1:9 - 10).
God the Father put his chosen into the hands of his own dear Son, who volunteered to bring in everlasting righteousness for them, and to put away their sins by the sacrifice of himself. The Father, trusting the Son as our Surety, looked upon his people in him as redeemed, justified, sanctified, called, and glorified from everlasting. As such, he has, from eternity, made his elect to be ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ He has blessed all his chosen with all the blessings of grace and salvation in Christ the Surety.
Pastor Don Fortner
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Years ago, preaching at one of our conferences, Pastor Henry Mahan stated that all true believers “are as sure of heaven as if we were already there”. HOW COULD HE BE SO SURE? Because of this blessed truth that had been revealed to him by the enlightening power of God the Holy Spirit: Jesus Christ is the Blessed Surety of His covenant people. In the eternal covenant of grace, back in old eternity, God the Father promised a people to God the Son, conditional upon what Jesus Christ would do for them. In that eternal covenant of grace, the eternal Son of God agreed to the conditions of that covenant. When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem all those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Gal. 4:4 - 5; Eph. 1:3 - 4). Our Heavenly Father sent His Son to this sin-cursed earth knowing that He would not fail. He put the salvation of His chosen people into the hands of our Blessed Redeemer, fully trusting that His Son would accomplish what He sent Him to do. Brethren, God cannot fail. Our Lord Jesus is the true and living God. He came to do His Father’s will, and He did just that - PERFECTLY! He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). The last words our Saviour uttered on the cross were: “It Is Finished”. God our Father raised His Son from the dead through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Heb. 13:20). And all of His covenant children, who come into this world dead in trespasses and sins, are raised from a state of spiritual death to a living union with Jesus Christ our risen Lord and Savior, also through the blood of the everlasting covenant (Eph. 1:5 - 7; 2:1). All of God’s preachers, there are no exceptions, preach the perfect redeeming work of Jesus Christ. We comfort God’s children by telling them that all our sins, past, present and future, were laid on our Blessed Redeemer, and He, by Himself, purged all of them from God’s sight forever (Heb. 1:3; 10:14 - 17). Jesus Christ, every believer’s Great High Priest, sits on His throne in heaven as the Surety of His blood-bought children. Before He will lose one for whom He died, He will have to be taken off His throne. That will never happen because He is also our Great Majestic God who is in sovereign control over everything in this whole universe. When God the Holy Spirit enlightens the minds of His redeemed saints with these blessed Gospel truths, we renounce all works of the flesh, and place our complete trust in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us, echoing the words of our dear brother, Henry Mahan, “We’re as sure of heaven as if we are already there.”
Pastor
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our Music & Testimony Night is scheduled for this evening’s worship service.
We will come to The Lord’s Table during our evening worship service next Sunday, Lord willing.
***** Cleaning duty this week: Gene and Judy Harmon ******
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SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK
Monday Wednesday Friday
Genesis 25 Psalm 19 Matthew 22
Genesis 26 Psalm 20 Matthew 23
Genesis 27 Psalm 21 Matthew 24
Acts 19 Acts 20 Acts 21
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
“He is able to save to the uttermost” (Heb. 7:25).
“... what is said of Christ’s ability to save; and which carries with it also his disposition to save, which is the very nature of his office, and for which he was made High Priest, is, without exception, one of the sweetest and most persuasive of all possible arguments, to come to the pardon-office of Jesus Christ: The Almightiness of his Person; the efficacy of his sacrifice; the unceasing, and everlasting nature of his office, as High Priest: and the consciousness of his ever living, to see the whole rendered effectual, in the offering he once made, for his people on the cross; what a strength of argument the whole brings with it, to lead the Lord’s people to his throne? And when it is said, that this salvation of the Lord Jesus, is to the uttermost; what is the uttermost? Take in the greatest extent the imagination can conceive, to the utmost horizon of thought, yet this ceaseth to be the uttermost, if there be aught beyond it? And what a lift up this is to all the discouragements of temptation; all heart-straitenings in prayer; all coldness, deadness, wanderings, fears, unbelief, and the like. For it is not, what the uttermost of our imagination makes it, but what that lattermost in God’s view is. Not what we conceive of divine mercy; but what that divine mercy can, and will show, in displaying the riches of grace?”
--Robert Hawker
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“Christ shedding His blood assures that every elect person will be brought to faith in His blood. There are those who believe that their faith makes the death of Christ effectual. That Christ died for all men without exception – as much for one as the other – the only difference being that one believes and the other does not. But it is not faith that makes the death of the Lord Jesus effectual but it is the death of Christ that assures us that every elect soul will be justified by faith in time. Listen to this scripture; ‘He (God) shall see of the travail of his (Christ) soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.’ Why is any man justified by faith? Because Jesus Christ bore his iniquities. Christ shedding His blood assures that every elect person will be brought to faith in His blood.”
Pastor Bruce Crabtree
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“The Blood…The Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed blood atonement. He said the blood has been shed. It was God’s blood…holy blood, precious blood…it was divinely sent blood…saving blood…redeeming blood. The blood atonement means the life laid down, it means the offering up of the Lord of glory! And He said this was the only basis on which a Holy God could deal with sinful men. Not upon your goodness, but upon the basis of His life laid down…that’s how God deals with sinners.
–Rolfe Barnard, 1904-1969
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“The atonement does not change the nature and character of God, but rather, the atonement honors and magnifies the character of God. The death of Christ is not the cause of God’s love, but the result of it. God is not merciful because Christ died. Christ died because God is merciful. In order that every attribute might be expressed, glorified, and honored, God gave His Son to be the Savior of His chosen people! Thank God there is an atonement BEFORE THE LORD!
Pastor Henry Mahan
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“By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament” (Hebrews 7:22)
“Or ‘covenant’, for the word signifies both; and what is intended may be called both a testament and a covenant; a testament, because it is founded in the good will and pleasure of God, and respects an inheritance bequeathed by God the Father to his children, which was confirmed and comes to them by the death of Christ the testator; and a covenant, it being a compact or agreement made by the Father with Christ, as the representative of all the elect; in which promises and blessings of all sorts are provided and secured for them in him; and is called in Scripture a covenant of life and peace, because these are things concerned in it; and is commonly by men called the covenant of grace, because it springs from the grace of God, the subject matter of it is grace, and the end of it is the glory of God's grace: now this is better than the covenant of works broken by man, and which exposes him to the curse and condemnation of the law; or than the covenant of the Levitical priesthood, by which was no perfection; and the form of administration of it under the Gospel dispensation is better than that under the law, for it is now revealed more clearly, and administered without types, shadows, and sacrifices; and the extent of its administration is larger, reaching to Gentiles as well as Jews; and besides, it is now actually ratified and confirmed by the blood of Christ, which is therefore called the blood of the everlasting covenant: and of this testament or covenant Christ is the ‘surety’; the word signifies one that draws nigh: Christ drew nigh to his Father in the council of peace, and undertook to be the Saviour and Redeemer of his people he substituted himself in their place and stead; he interposed between the creditor and the debtor, and became surety for the payment of the debts of the latter, and so stood engaged for them, and in their room: Christ is not the surety for the Father to his people, but for them to the Father; as to satisfy for their sins, to work out a righteousness for them, to preserve and keep them, and make them happy; which is an instance of matchless love.”
--John Gill
