In his sermon titled 'To Be or Not To Be Surety,' Peter Allison explores the biblical teachings on the concept of surety as found in Proverbs 6, where one is cautioned against becoming surety for a friend or stranger. Surety, different from collateral, is a pledge or promise to fulfill an obligation or repay a debt on behalf of another. The sermon illustrates this with examples from Scripture, such as Judah's pledge for Benjamin and the biblical laws about surety in Exodus and Deuteronomy. The sermon warns against becoming surety for someone else’s debt, emphasizing that it places one in a precarious situation and relieves the principal debtor of responsibility. Conversely, it encourages direct financial assistance to those in need without the intermediary surety. Allison also discusses the spiritual aspect of surety, highlighting Jesus Christ as the surety of a better covenant, underscoring God's commitment to fulfilling His promises through Christ. The Holy Spirit is mentioned as a guarantee of our redemption, and believers are encouraged to trust in God's promises without doubt.

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6. I'd like to read our text this morning. Proverbs chapter 6. Here are the words of the Lord, My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, You are snared by the words of your mouth. You are taken by the words of your mouth.

So do this, my son, and deliver yourself, For you have come into the hand of your friend. Go and humble yourself. Plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler." Thus far the reading of God's Word, may He write its truth upon our hearts.

Almighty Heavenly Father, we acknowledge the many issues, troubles that press upon us, that would distract us from Your worship, That would take our heart and our mind and our focus away from your word, from your praise, from your worship, from hearing your voice. We ask Father that this morning You might defend us from all of these things, from the forces of evil that would conspire against us. Grant to us to rest in you this morning, to hear with hearing ears, to give attention with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength to your Word. And we ask most of all that you may speak now to us in Jesus' name. Amen.

Proverbs is known for jumping around from one topic to the next, between from one verse to the next. So much so that sometimes it isn't studied consecutively but rather topically. And we have an example of that this morning as we jump from a chapter that has been devoted to marriage, to the proper and right understanding of the marriage bed, to warnings against fornication, to finances this morning in chapter 6. My son, and we know that Solomon begins each of his discourses with these words. That's how he began chapter 5 and each of the discourses prior and after.

Begin with this word, my son. My son, Listen. My son, pay attention. My son, hear my voice." And so this marks, then this marker is before us in chapter 6, my son. But now he's talking about surety.

Surety. That's not a word we probably use much today. It's probably not a concept that we are well versed in. Unlike marriage and the family which relate to everybody. This is something that relates most often to people in the financial world.

So I'm going to start this morning by simply explaining and clarifying what this is. What is a surety and what it isn't, so that we know what we're talking about this morning. So surety is a pledge that is given to show one's intention to pay a debt, to repay a debt, or to perform an obligation. Assurity is a pledge, a token. Something that is given as an act of sincerity to show your intention, your good intention to perform an obligation or repay a debt.

It's not necessarily collateral. Collateral is something that is of equal value to the debt that is being incurred. You may borrow money to buy a house. And if you don't have enough money to buy the house, you may give as a pledge that very house that you are buying. And that is called a mortgage.

You give a mortgage on the house that you have. And that is collateral. If you don't pay the debt, you sacrifice the house because it's been offered up as collateral. It's of equal value to the loan that you have received. And while in a sense that house is functioning, in a sense, as a surety, the house in that it's collateral is more than just a surety.

Maybe an example of surety in this sense would be when you go to check out a boat at a park to take out on the lake. Or you check out something else of value. Maybe you want to take a car for a test drive. And the agent asks for your license. You leave your license here, and then I'll let you sign out this boat, and you can go out for a couple hours in the lake with your family, and I'll take your license as a pledge that you plan to return the boat.

You see, the license has no value. The boat owner can't take that license and sell it to repay or to recover the cost of the boat if you never come back with his boat. If you go to the other side of the lake and put it on your trailer and drive away. That license isn't going to replace his boat. It's of real no commercial value to him.

But that license is of value. It is something that we would treat as an important paper. And so our willingness to give it up as a pledge or a surety communicates our intention of bringing that boat back. That's a pledge. That's a surety.

It's not securing a loan. The mortgage of your house secures a loan because it's of equal value. Rather, this is a promise, a token of one's promise to pay. Now, that's an object, but a person can become a surety when that person promises to pay or perform an obligation that is owed by the principal debtor. Now that's a lot of complex words.

It's just talking about cosigning alone, for example. A person is becoming surety when they promise to meet an obligation for someone else if that principal person doesn't meet the obligation. But strictly speaking, when you become surety for somebody else's debt, When you co-sign a loan that somebody else is taking, you become primarily liable for the debt. The creditor can demand payment from the surety when the debt is due. The creditor is the person to whom the principal debtor, and as we've seen the surety, owe this obligation.

A property owner, for example, may require a contractor building a house on his property to have a bond in the event that he fails to finish the house. I wish I had done that when we built our house. It would have saved us a lot of grief and in that case the insurance company the one that issues the bond is the surety they pay if the contractor fails to perform on his obligation and walks away with the house half done and not built, not finished. A bank may take out a bond on its tellers in the event that the tellers steal money from people. The bond says that we will pay.

A judge may require a criminal to post a bond, to have a surety that he will show up in court when his hearing, his trial is scheduled. And in place of that bond, he allows the criminal, or the one who has been accused, I should say. He lost the accused freedom until that time. And if the accused cannot find somebody who is willing to be a surety for him, then he stays in the prison until the day of the trial. You see, surety, unlike insurance, does not expect to suffer a loss.

When you co-sign a note, you're not expecting to pay the debt back. You're expecting that the other person, the principal debtor, will pay that debt back. When the bail bondsman gives bail to somebody, they are not expecting that person to not show up. If they were not expecting that person to show up, they wouldn't give the bond. Whereas insurance, they expect that when something happens, they will incur a loss.

So there's a difference. The surety doesn't expect to suffer a loss. In fact, if surety does have to pay, if the bail bondsman does have to pay, he's going to come hunting for the person that skipped bail. If the insurance company has to pay a bond on a contractor, they're going to be suing that contractor to try and get their money back. That's what surety is.

And the Bible has a number of rules, gives a number of laws regarding the use of surety. For example, in Exodus 22, We are taught that if we loan money to somebody, and the person borrowing the money gives to us surety in the form of garments, then we are to return those garments every night. Exodus 22 verse 26. Actually I want to read verse 25. It says, If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a money lender to him.

You shall not charge him interest, Forbidding all interest on loans to brothers, to those who are poor in need. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, so it's not interest, you're not allowed to take interest on that. And it is not collateral, it is not something of equal value with the loan. It is a promise, it is a token of a promise to pay a debt. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

For that is his only covering. It is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious." So to take the garment and keep it overnight would work a hardship on the person to whom you're loaning money. And so you're not to do it.

No man shall take the lower or upper millstone in pledge, for he takes one's living in pledge. If the millstone is like our dishwasher or our appliance, this is how you ground your food, your grains into food. It could even be your business. You're not to take those stones. Because if you take one of those stones as a pledge for this debt, then you've left their mill inoperable.

They can't grind flour. They can't feed their family. They can't conduct their business. You've deprived them of their livelihood. So we're not to take as a pledge something that would deprive somebody of their means of providing for themselves, their means of feeding themselves.

We're to be understanding that way. We're to be gracious in that way, even in financial matters. But also Interestingly in verse 10, when you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge out to you. What's going on there?

Well, we're not to be arrogant. And look down upon a man to whom we have loaned, a brother to whom we have loaned. We're to respect his home. We're to respect his person. We're to respect His privacy and not to demean Him by just walking into His house as if we owned it.

And if it was at our house and take the pledge, rather we are to respect the boundary, the door of His house, and stand outside the door and let Him go in and bring the pledge out to us. We are to preserve His honor as a man and not to demean Him. And we do that by recognizing His privacy, His home. It's not ours if we're the lender. And you see, it's very easy.

When you're lending money to somebody, they have to humble themselves to come and ask for that money. They become your servant, the Bible says. The borrower is a servant of the lender. And what these passages are saying we're not to be that lender that presses the point, that melts it for every ounce of recognition that we can get. Deuteronomy 24 goes on to say, we're not even to take a pledge from a widow.

You shall not pervert justice through the stranger or fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge. But you should remember that at one time you were a slave. You were a slave. And How would you have liked to have been treated when you were a slave? Now that might raise the question, why take a pledge at all?

If I'm supposed to return it in the evening to a man who's poor, why should I even take it? Wouldn't it be even better if I don't take it? Well this is where the Bible shows such great wisdom. The Bible is wisdom. And the Bible also knows the heart of the debtor.

It's just as sinful as the heart of the creditor. And If there was no pledge taken, then an unscrupulous debtor could go to his first brother and say, I need some money. Can you loan me some money? And the brother says, sure. And then he goes to the next brother and says, I need some money.

Can you loan me some money? Well, but I don't want to give you a pledge. Well, sure, I won't need a pledge. And you see, if he doesn't need to give a pledge, then he can go to any number of creditors and ask for a loan. But if he has to give a pledge, he's going to quickly run out of things to pledge.

He can't simply go to ten different people and all pray on their goodwill and their desire to help Him, meanwhile having no intention of paying that money back. And so there is a guard here against sin on the part of the debtor. There is a proper place for a pledge, except in the case of a widow. Somebody who truly has nothing, nobody to provide for her. There are examples in Scripture of people becoming a pledge for another person.

You remember Judah. Judah. He gave a pledge actually. He is known twice in Genesis for giving a pledge. He had a couple sons that were wicked.

God killed them. And by the Levitical law, He ought to have given his younger son to the widow, his daughter-in-law who was a widow, to raise up seed for the brother that was killed. But he didn't because he had two sons killed for their wickedness and he said, I don't want another son killed. And so he unrighteously withheld that youngest son from Tamar, his widowed daughter-in-law. And in the course of time, she saw that he wasn't fulfilling his duty as her father-in-law.

And she set herself up, she disguised herself as a prostitute, and Judah came into her, and she negotiated a price for the prostitution. But he didn't have the kid of the flock to pay her. So she said as a smart businesswoman, what will you take? What will you give me in pledge that you will pay this kid of the flock? And Judas said, well, I have my signet and I have my staff.

I'll give you these. And she said, okay, I'll take them. I'll take your driver's license, in other words. And he gave them. She became pregnant.

She was going to be stoned for playing the harlot. When she said, well, I'm pregnant by the man to whom this signet ring and staff belong. At that point, Judah had to acknowledge that she was more righteous than he was. And drop the talk of execution. Those children that she bore are in the line of Christ.

But a little later in Genesis, Joseph has been sold into bondage in Egypt. There comes a famine. He has become the governor of all of Pharaoh because of the famine that was coming. God raised him up so that during the seven years of plenty he could store up grain for the famine that was coming. Well, Jacob's family needs to go down to Egypt to get grain to live.

And they go down, and the first time they go down, Joseph demands that they ask of their younger son. He recognizes his brothers. They don't recognize him. And he asks about their younger brother Benjamin, who hadn't come on this trip to buy grain. And they wonder how he knows about this brother.

Their guilty conscience bothers them. But Joseph gives them an order that they would not see his face again unless they had their youngest brother Benjamin. Well, the brothers leave and go home. They tell everything to their father Jacob, And Jacob says, I'm never going to let my youngest son go. Joseph, my other son, has been eaten by wild beasts.

If my youngest son, remember these are the two sons out of the wife that he loved, Rachel. So He had a favoritism toward them, unwisely, but he did. He said, you would bring my gray hair down to the grave if something would happen to Benjamin. I'm not going to let you go. And he wouldn't let them take Benjamin back.

And they said, we need to go back. We need more grain. Well, you can't take Benjamin. Well, we can't go if we can't take Benjamin Well, you can't take Benjamin, but we need the grain we have to go, but you can't take Benjamin Well, then we can't go so finally Judah who's grown a little bit from the man who sold his brother, because he was the one of the key people who sold Joseph into slavery, he tells his father in Genesis 43, I will be surety for Benjamin. I will be surety that Benjamin will return in safety.

Send the lad with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and you and our little ones. It was necessary to preserve the life of Jacob's family that they go back to Egypt to get grain. And so Judah offers himself. He says, I myself will be sure to you, and from my hand You shall require Him. And if I do not bring Him back to you and set Him before you, let me bear the blame forever." And so under those conditions, Jacob allows Benjamin to go down to Egypt.

Well Joseph set up a trap. He had his cup put in the sack of Benjamin. And then after they left, he sent a soldier after them to stop them and search their sacks of grain. And he was going to take back to Egypt, the one in whose cup, the persons in whose sack the cup was found. Well, it was found in Benjamin's because that's where he put it.

And so they all go back to Joseph. And they plead with Joseph. They want to be his Lord's slaves. But Joseph said, no, far be it from me to make you all slaves, I just want the one who stole the cup. I just want Benjamin.

And that's when Judah came near and said, O my Lord, please let Your servants speak a word in my lads' hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant, for you are even like Pharaoh." He goes on to recount this story of Joseph's requiring Benjamin to come back, of Jacob's reluctance to let him go. And he says, and so it was, when we went up to your servants, my Father, we told them your words. And he recounts how Jacob was extremely unwilling, absolutely unwilling to let Benjamin come. And he says, now therefore when I came to your servant, my father, when I come and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad's life, it will happen that when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave for your servant." Judas says, for I became surety for the lad that my father saying, if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my Father forever." It was that plea.

It was Judah, the one who had sold Joseph into slavery callously without regard for Joseph's life. This one who now has offered himself as surety for his younger brother Benjamin, who is now pleading before the second Tefero in the land of Egypt for mercy. It's that that broke Joseph. He broke down and wept and acknowledged who he was to his brothers. There is a place for surety.

This passage here is not condemning all surety. In fact, David asked God for surety in Psalm 119. Hezekiah asked God for a surety in their prayers. But this passage is saying, my son, if you become surety for your friend, you have shaken hands and pledged for a stranger. There's a fair bit of debate about how this is to be taken.

Should that second if be there? My son, if you have become surety for my friend, if you have shaken hands and pledged for a stranger." In other words, do those two clauses go with the conditional clause? Or is the first line the conditional clause and the second line the result? Well, I recognize there's a lot of debate about this among the commentators, exactly what this is saying. I'll follow the Septuagint, which translates it as the first line is the conditional clause, and the second line is the result.

And that's a little different probably than the way the King James translates it. It says, if you have become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger. It adds that if, you notice it's probably in italics. The Septuagint has it, My son, if you have become surety for your friend, you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger. Now, why is it saying that?

Because if you offer yourself as a pledge for your friend who has secured a loan from somebody else, then you have struck in hands, we would say shaken hands, but literally it's to strike the hand. You have entered into an agreement with a stranger. Stranger. The other way of looking at that would say that if you become surety for your friend, then that friend becomes a stranger. And there is certainly some practical wisdom in that understanding.

Because how often when you loan somebody money and they don't repay you, then they start to avoid you, don't they? They cross the other side of the street so they don't have to see you or meet you. Because they know they owe you money. But you see, the thing here isn't loaning so much to that person. It is becoming a surety.

They've borrowed from somebody else. Then if you do that, you have shaken hands. You've entered into an agreement with a stranger, somebody you don't know. Somebody you're not really in direct contact with. Well, you are in direct contact with them, but they're not somebody that you know.

They're a stranger. They're a third party between you and your friend. If you have become surety for a friend, you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger. You are snared by the words of your mouth. You are taken by the words of your mouth.

You are taken by the words of your mouth. So, surety, being surety for a stranger is not condoned anywhere in Proverbs, in the Bible. Proverbs 11.15, He that is surety, He that pledges surety, pledges for a stranger shall smart for it. It's a sting. It's going to hurt.

And he that hates suretieship is sure. Proverbs 22 and 26, Be not thou one of them that strikes hands, or of them that are sureties for debts. Proverbs 20, 16, Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger. Take it!

We should not be striking hands, entering into agreements like that with strangers. Now what does Proverbs exhort us to do? So do this, my son, and deliver yourself, for you have come into the hand of your friend. You have come in a sense under his control. You've come into his hand in the sense of verse 5.

Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter. When the hunter gets its hands on the gazelle, it means that the hunter has captured that gazelle, whether it's with a trap or a bullet. And like a bird from the hand of the fowler, the fowler captures a bird, he has it in his hand. So you have come into the hand of your friend when you become surety for him. Go, this is what it says to do, go and humble yourself.

Plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, a bird from the hand of the fowler. The Proverbs is instructing us here that if we have done something unwise, then Go to that friend and plead with that friend. Humble yourself, acknowledge that what you did wasn't wise.

And plead with that friend to pay off that debt, or to find another way to release you from your surety ship. See, this is not saying that we shouldn't loan money. The Bible speaks many, many, many, many times about not being hard to our brother in need. About not having a closed hand toward Him. About not being callous to His plight, to His suffering, but rather out of the generosity of our heart, helping those people of our number who have fallen into some type of tragedy, financial tragedy.

What this is talking about is providing a loan, guaranteeing a loan or some other obligation that you don't have the money for. See, if you're a friend, and here's where I think we need to understand the Bible's view of debt. Why is this friend needing to borrow money? He's needing to borrow money because he's in trouble. He's had a tragedy that's happened.

That's the only reason that you would need to borrow money for other than a business venture. If this friend has a need and you can supply it, supply it. If he needs that money, loan him the money. Just loan it to him. Or give it to him.

There's no prohibition about giving a friend money. Give it to Him with no strings attached. Say, this is yours. The Lord has blessed me. This is yours.

May God so bless you. That's fine. That's wonderful. That is good. That's what we read in Acts 5, where you had all these people from all around the world in Jerusalem in a very unique time in the history of the church.

Remember, people were selling their property and giving it to those who had a need. They weren't even loaning it. They were giving it. No, they could have loaned it. It wouldn't have been wrong to loan it at no interest.

But they were even giving it. And there's nothing wrong with that. But this is talking here about somebody who is not giving the money and they're not even loaning the money. They are rather being surety for them to get a loan from somebody else. That is what it's saying is not wise.

You are obligating yourself to a stranger. Now let's think about this. In fact, I want to look in Proverbs 17 because it puts these two concepts back to back. And some people have even said, well, Scripture contradicts itself. It's kind of like where it says in Proverbs, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own estimation.

Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own estimation. Don't answer a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him. Well, we have a similar couplet here. Proverbs 17. A friend loves at all times.

And a brother is born for adversity. A friend loves at all times, when times are good and when times are bad, when in times of financial plenty and in times of poverty, a friend loves at all times. You know who your friends really are when the chips are down. When you're in need, then who shows up? Those are your friends.

And a brother is born for adversity. A brother is somebody who's there when we need help, when we're in extremis. That's what a brother is born for. But then it says the next verse, a man of understanding shakes hands in a pledge and becomes surety for his friend. A man devoid of understanding.

What? Isn't that what a brother is born for? Becoming a surety for his friend in a time of trouble? Well, no. It's only one devoid of understanding That becomes a surety for a friend.

That's not the love of a brother. Now why? What is going on here? Well, you see, If we can supply the need, then we should do that. We should help them out.

We should give them the money or loan them the money. But you see, if we cannot loan them the money, then we're simply not able to help them in that way. That is not something we are able to do. If they need money and we don't have it to give or even loan, then we simply can't help them in that way. We have to look for another way in which we can help them.

We have to recognize the providence of God and the sovereignty of God in this set of circumstances. And we can, In that case, we can commiserate with them. We can share with them what we do have. We can share our food with them. We can do what's necessary to preserve their life.

But see, sometimes that's not what people want. Maybe they want more. Maybe they want gifts to buy Christmas gifts for their family. And they come to you and say, can I borrow some money to buy my children Christmas gifts? And you say, well, I'll be happy to give you the money.

They say, no, we don't take charity. We just want to borrow the money. They don't feel like the need is that great. They recognize that this is for something that's extra, that's added, that's not really necessary for life. So they want to borrow the money.

They don't want to take it as a gift because that would say that I'm poor. I'm in need of this. They don't want to say that. You have enough honesty left to say, I'm not dying. I have enough food to live.

I just want a little more. And I want it for my children. You can get anything when you want it for your children. That's how the Government schools get all our money. They want it for the children.

We have to turn that around on them. Tell them they're hurting our children by taking that money. See, that's the mindset here. And we are not helping such a person by becoming surety for that debt. Maybe that person needs to live without what it is they wanted to borrow.

They have the food that they need. They have a shelter. They wanted something else. But they wanted good enough risk to get that loan on their own. And whoever they were borrowing from wanted extra surety.

Wanted a surety. The banker, we'll call him the banker, looked at that person and said, you're too great a risk. I'm not going to make this loan to you. Don't you have somebody who is a little more secure that you know. That's the situation that this passage is addressing.

If you have shaken hands to become surety for your friend, then you are taken by the words of your own mouth. Go and humble yourself. Go and acknowledge that you have made a mistake. Because maybe you've become surety not expecting to pay. Remember, surety is, somebody who is a surety is not typically expecting to pay.

They're expecting the principal debtor to pay. And so if you cannot pay that debt that you've obligated yourself to, or you've been a surety for, I should say, then you've put yourself in a very dangerous situation. And I'm sure Many of you have stories of people who have been surety for somebody else's debt, and it has ended up costing them greatly, a price that they could not afford to pay. You see, when you become a surety for somebody else's debt, that person is relieved of their responsibility to pay a debt. When you become a surety, when we become a surety for someone else's debt, You give that person an out.

You have relieved them of the responsibility of that debt. And instead of that debt hanging over them like an albatross, as it ought to because it is bondage, they now think, well, it's not on me. I can escape it. And it will be borne by this other person over here. And when we do that, you see, we're not loving our neighbor.

We're not helping. We're not really helping our friend. Maybe in this situation they need to learn to live without that money. If nobody's going to loan it to them because they're too great a risk, and they're not willing to take it as a gift because they recognize they're not in that great of need, then maybe they need to learn to do without whatever it is that they want it. So do this, my son, and deliver yourself.

Humble yourself. Plead with your friend. So you're pleading with your friend, not the creditor, but you're pleading with the principal debtor to release you, to go to pay off that debt, to extricate themselves from that debt, pay it back, and then deliver you as well from an unwise situation. I remember when I was in college, I went to a school that had a number of practices, a number of traditions. Some were good and some weren't so.

But one of the traditions, that long-standing traditions, was that they would arrange for what they called a car loan. What I found out later, they called it a career starter loan. Can you imagine that? Starting your career in debt. At the time, I thought I was going to be wiser than other people.

And I wasn't going to use that. And most people use that loan to buy a car. 90% of people, or 99, use it to buy a car. Usually a much bigger car than they could afford. I thought, well, I'll be wiser than that.

I'll use this loan. I'll buy a car on my own savings, and I'll use this money. I'll invest it. But the bank, and it was actually an insurance company. The way they set up this life insurance, which I'm very glad they did.

That was something that turned out to be a very wise thing. But they set up this life insurance and then borrowed from it. And then they also had another loan from a bank. So you had these two loans, they would arrange for $10, 000. And the loan from the bank required a cosigner.

The bank wouldn't just loan it to me. I was nobody. I had no credit history. I had been in school all my life, and never really built any credit reputation. And so they required a cosigner.

And most everybody got their father to cosign. And I remember, so I was doing the same, but I remember feeling very awkward about that. It just didn't seem right. It just didn't seem right. This text is why.

It wasn't right. I shouldn't have asked my father to co-sign. Now he did. And I did invest that money. Half of it in one place, half in another place.

One place made a fabulous return, like 25%. And the other place, we lost it all. You put those two together, it's still a big loss. It wasn't a wise decision. And if I had not asked my father to co-sign that note, it would have been spared that unwise loss.

Because I wouldn't have been able to get the money. And so I wouldn't have been able to invest that money in something that would be a total loss. But there is in Scripture a very beautiful example of a pledge of a guarantee. And that is, Jesus Christ has become the surety of a better covenant. In Hebrews 7, God has obligated Himself to save all those for whom Christ has died.

That's not us obligating. That is God has obligated Himself. Hebrews 7.20 And inasmuch as He was not made priest without an oath, for they became... That's Christ was not made a priest without an oath. For they became priests without an oath, but he with an oath, by him who said to him, The Lord has sworn, the Lord has sworn.

God has obligated himself and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." By so much more, Jesus has become surety of a better covenant. In this covenant of grace that we spoke about in our confession this morning, Jesus Christ undertakes to perform in our behalf what Adam and what we cannot do and have failed to do. Where Adam sinned and in him we have all sinned, so in Christ we are made righteous. And where Adam failed to obey the law, Christ has obeyed the law.

And He in the covenant of grace, He undertakes to do for us what we could not do and what Adam failed to do. But you see, our redemption is not complete yet. We groan, the creation groans, awaiting the redemption of our bodies. We were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. What are we hoping for?

We're hoping the redemption of our body. And so we look forward to the fulfillment, the completion of that redemption. And the Holy Spirit has been given to us as the pledge of that redemption. 2 Corinthians 1. For the Son of God Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Sylvainus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him was yes.

For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes you in Christ and has anointed us is God who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. The Holy Spirit has been given to us as that pledge that what God has promised to do in Christ will surely come to pass. That's repeated in chapter 5. For we who are in this tent groan being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed.

That mortality, because our bodies are mortal right now, may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. The Spirit is given as a pledge that God will one day raise up this body, a spiritual and glorious body. And one more place in Ephesians chapter 1. In Him you trusted after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, as whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession through the praise of His glory.

The Holy Spirit's been given to us as a surety, given to us in our hearts, so that we can remember that God will perform what He has obligated Himself to perform. And Jesus Christ has undertaken as the surety of this covenant to perform it. And we know that in Christ His promises are yea and amen. And He is able, He is able to do that which He has promised, unlike us, who maybe unwisely guarantee loans to friends that we really can't afford to pay. Jesus Christ can pay the debt that He has obligated Himself to pay, and He will.

Praise God. Almighty Father in Heaven, we thank You for the wisdom of Your Word. We thank You for its instruction. That through it, David said, he became wiser than his teachers. How often we have smarted when we have ignored the ways and the precepts of your word.

We ask Lord that you would give us hearts that are wholly set upon you, enable us to count the cost and to follow you, knowing That you have reserved for us a glorious inheritance in heaven. And that you are able to accomplish what you have promised. May we not doubt, forgive our unbelief, help our unbelief, that the promises of your Word, which are yea and amen in Christ, may be secure to us. That we may believe them without doubting, that we may lay hold of them without any reservation, without any concern about your ability to accomplish what you have promised. Oh Father, please forgive the many times that we stand in disbelief that you will do what you have surely promised to do.

You have promised to forgive our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Promise that those who believe on You will be saved.