As we look around us in life,
it's not difficult to find deception and falseness around us, even
in advertising. The other day, I had a can of
Campbell's soup, and it had a beautiful picture on it of nice-looking
vegetables and big, plump pieces of chicken. And I thought, this
is going to be great. And I opened that up and poured
it in the bowl, and it looked nothing like the picture. Nothing.
I mean, not even close. It's deception, isn't it? It's
deception. They made a promise. This is
what it looks like. No, it didn't. No, it didn't. You lied to me. Now when we look, we don't have
to look out of ourself truly to find deception. When we look
inside of us, look in my heart. Oh, the deception that I am capable
of if the Lord does not keep me. the wickedness that I am
if He does not save me, the sin that I am if He doesn't redeem
me. We see deception in ourself. That's what our heart is, is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. We're liars by nature and incapable
of keeping our word to God. The good news is God knew that.
God knew that before he created the world. He knew Eve would
take the fruit. He knew Adam would take the fruit.
Somebody asked me recently, how long do you think it was before
Eve was created and they took the fruit? And I said, at best,
that afternoon probably. How do I know that? Because the
wickedness of my own heart. The wickedness of your heart. Follow the word of the Lord because
we choose to. The Lord has to cause us to do
that by faith. If he doesn't give faith to believe,
we're just gonna be left to ourself. And we would choose the fruit.
Now, I will backtrack and say we don't know for sure when she
took the fruit, but the Spirit's silent on that. And so, but I,
you know exactly what I'm saying when we're talking about the
wickedness of our own heart. How quickly would we run to the
fruit? The fruit was good to look at, it was to make one wise,
it tasted good, it was pleasing to the taste, and she took it. And that's power, popularity,
and pleasure, and that's exactly what we go after in the flesh,
isn't it? Exactly what we go after in the flesh. Therefore, salvation cannot be
based upon our heart and our promise to God. It can't be. I can't keep my promise. We're
incapable of keeping our promises to God. It can't be based upon
my promise to Him, but it has to be completely, 100%, and totally
based upon God's promise to God. God's promise to God. And God's
promise to His people has to be based on God's promise. And
that's what I've titled this message is The Promise. The Promise. Let's read our text here. Hebrews
chapter 10 verse 36. For you have need of patience
that after you have done the will of God you might receive
the promise. For yet a little while and he
that shall come will come and will not tarry. That you might
receive the promise. I've titled this The Promise.
To receive the promise is not to do something. It's not to
do something. It's not to acquire something
by doing. To receive mail, I'm sure you've
ordered something. It comes in the mail. But to
receive, sometimes receive a gift in the mail. You didn't do anything
to receive that. See, receiving is passive. Receiving
is passive. When the Lord says, receive your
sight, that's passive. That's not a choice that we make.
It's just we receive it. We receive it all by him. He
has to be the one that causes us to receive it. Receiving the
promise, receiving repentance and faith, receiving the Lord's
spirit, that's completely passive. It's not something that we do. It's something God does, something
God does for his people. God doesn't give these gifts.
We won't be able to acquire them. The good news of the gospel is
that he bestows he bestows in his time those exact gifts he
promised. He promised. He gives us life
and light through the gospel. We heard the first hour why he
does this. It's according to his will. We heard what is his will and
how to do his will in this hour. I hope to answer. What is his
promise? What is the promise? What is
this promise? There are many promises in scripture.
I'll never leave you, no forsake you, I'll go with you all the
way even to the end. Fear not, I have redeemed thee, thou art
mine, that's a promise. I put away your sin, you shall
not die, that's a promise. But this hour, there's a few
that I wanna look at specifically. The first one's found in Genesis
chapter four, if you'd like to turn there. Genesis six, I said Genesis four,
I'm sorry. Genesis chapter six, verse 14.
The Lord's talking to Noah, and he's communicating to Noah about
the flood. He's telling him he's gonna destroy everything, and
he told him this in Genesis chapter six, verse 14. Make thee an ark
of gopher wood. Rooms shalt thou make in the
ark, and shalt pitch it with pitch, pitch it within and without
with pitch. This is the fashion which thou
shalt make of it. The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits,
and the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits.
A window shall thou make the ark, and a cubit shall thou finish
it above. In the door of the ark shall
thou set, and the side thereof with lower, second, and third
stories shall thou make it. And behold, I, even I, do bring
a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein
is the breath of life from under heaven. And everything that is
in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, thy sons,
and thy wives, and thy sons' wives with thee, and every living
thing of all flesh, two of every sort, shalt thou bring into the
ark, and keep them alive with thee. They shall be male and
female, fowls after their kind, cattle after their kind, creeping
things of the earth after his kind, Two of every sort shall
come unto thee and keep them alive. Take thou unto thee of
all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to eat, and it
shall be food for thee and for them. Thus did Noah according
to all that God commanded him, so did he. First promise is the
Lord's covenant, the covenant of grace. And this is the first
mention of the covenant here in Genesis chapter six. But the
covenant wasn't based upon Noah. It wasn't based upon Noah being,
if you look at the beginning of this chapter, it actually
says every imagination of man. Noah was a man. Every imagination
of man was only on evil and that continually. But the difference
is this, if you look, look at verse eight, same chapter we're
in, look at verse eight. Here's the only difference. But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Now was he looking
for grace? Is that how he found it? No,
he received it. He received it passively. That's
how he found it. God said, I'm going to establish
my covenant with you. I'm going to promise to keep
you. You have to be in the ark. You have to be in the ark. Not
that he pleased God, not that Noah pleased God, but that he
found grace. No, God was pleased on Calvary. God pleased God on
Calvary when the reins of God's wrath poured down upon his son
on the cross of Calvary. Our only hope whenever the wrath
of God falls is that we are in that ark. We are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And because he made that covenant
of grace, he saved us when we were without strength, without
hope. He came to where we were, revealing the covenant of grace,
revealing the only way we could be saved is if he does all the
work, all the work. And that's exactly what it did.
That's exactly what he did. Only one thing that mattered
when the rain started falling. Did you know that? Only one thing. You had to be in the ark. It's only one thing that matters
whenever you die and stand before the Lord. You have to be in the
ark. It's not gonna matter what kind
of life you lived, how much money you had, It doesn't matter anything,
nothing in this life whatsoever, what possessions I've owned,
where I've traveled to, what I've seen, what I've done, none
of that's gonna matter. I have to be found in the ark of the
Lord Jesus Christ because he's the only one that pleases God. He's the only one that pleases
God. God told Moses, Moses said, Lord,
show me your glory. Show me your glory. He said,
no man can look upon my face and live, but there is a place
nigh unto me. We just sung about it. It's the
cleft of the rock. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock. I didn't hide my soul there.
You didn't hide your soul there. He hides my soul in the cleft
of the rock. We don't even know where the
cleft of the rock's located. He did that. He did that. There's
a place I know of you don't know about. I'm going to put you there,
and that's what he does. That's the ark, isn't it? The cleft
of the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Ark. When the revengers
of blood pursued after those who had killed, they could come
and take the life of one that had killed a family member. They
were called revengers of blood under the law. He said, you can
rightfully go and kill that person that's killed your family member.
They had one place they had to get to or they were going to
die. It was the city of refuge. City of refuge. It didn't matter,
you can go to any other city, you're gonna die. You have to
be in the city of refuge. You gotta be in the ark because
that's where the promise is. When the floods come, I'm gonna
destroy all life, but I'm gonna save you and I'm gonna save your
family because I'm gonna put you in the ark. That's the promise. That's the promise. If you're
in the ark, you will be safe. If you're in the cleft for the
rock, you will behold the Lord's glory, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself by faith. You'll see him. You have a city
of refuge in Christ where the avenger of blood, the law, cannot
touch you because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
sake. All these are given by the promise
of God to save His people from their sins. You know what the
ark's name is? The Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what the cleft of the rock's name is? The Lord Jesus Christ.
You know what the city of refuge's name is? The Lord Jesus Christ.
It's all about Him. I've got to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ or I have no hope of eternal life. Second promise is found in Exodus
chapter 12. If you'd like to turn there. This is the Passover. It was the 10th plague upon Egypt,
according to God's judgment, for Pharaoh hardened his heart,
not being willing to let the people go. But it was also for
the Lord to show forth his glory to all of Israel, so they would
see his might, his power. And I found it ironic. They saw
all those plagues that happened and all the miraculous salvation
that the Lord did, bringing them out. But yet, when they get to
the wilderness, finally, what do they do? They just complain
the whole time. They just complain. That's us, isn't it? We just
complain all the time. We've seen the Lord's glory around
us in creation. We've seen the mercy for our
children, and yet we still complain. That's just how we are. That's
just how we are. Exodus chapter 12, he's given
the rite of Passover. He's telling them what to do,
and he says in verse 12, chapter 12 of Exodus, for I will pass
through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, And against
all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you
to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall
be unto you for a memorial. and ye shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. Ye shall keep it a feast by an
ordinance forever. The second promise is when I
see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not
come upon you. The judgment of God shall not
come upon you. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Not when I see your works, not
when I see your lifestyle, not when I see the life that you
lead, not when I see how good of a husband or wife you are,
not how good of a dad or mom you are. When I is looking for
one thing, the blood, not my blood, not your blood. The blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, when I see the blood,
this is for a memorial. This memorial represented the
Lord Jesus Christ, didn't it? You had to be in the house. The
house that the Lord, where he instructed them to put the blood
upon. You gotta be in the house. You have to be in the ark. And
it's interesting because the word pits that they pitch the
ark with is actually the word atonement, which is blood. That's
the atonement. So the covering of that ark is
blood. if you look at it from that perspective. It's the same
thing. When I see the blood, I will
pass by you. God doesn't see the blood on
our heart stores. We have no hope. It's not that
we're getting better and better, and he's going to pass by us.
Men talk about getting better and better. They get progressively
sanctified, they call it. No, Christ is our sanctification.
That's a one time. One time thing, it was on the
cross of Calvary, he's everything, he's our justification, he's
our sanctification, he's our glorification, he's our righteousness,
and the only way that he's gonna pass by us in mercy, God's not
gonna come to us in judgment is if he sees the blood of his
darling son. He does not apply, we can't apply
the blood. A lot of people believe that
you have to do something, a religious ceremony or something like that,
which is really, it's all of the law is all that it is. It's
the religious use the law in the ceremonial sense, ceremonial
law, or social, you have to live a certain way, or it's moral,
how you treat others and how you live your life. And this
is what they run to. Lord didn't say, when I see your service
to the law, I'll pass by you. He said, when I see the blood.
No, we don't do a ceremony to have the blood applied. That's
the work of the Lord by His Holy Spirit. We don't, I can't apply
the blood. You can't either. He does that
for His people. He does that. Thanks be to God, who hath gotten
the victory by Christ. He washes His people in His own
blood. He said, though your sin be as
scarlet, it shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. When he sees his people, he sees
the blood of the lamb. He passes by them in mercy. First hour, we looked at the
will of God, and it was that the Lord saves his people, calls
his people, and keeps his people. That was his will. Father said,
I'll elect a people. The Son said, I will shed my
blood and I will wash them. I will wash them and save them
by putting away their sin. And the Spirit agreed that he
would regenerate his people in time. Remember what Christ said
at the Last Supper. This is the blood, this is my
blood, the blood of a new covenant that is shed for many for their
remission of sin. Many for their remission of sin.
This is the covenant seal. This is the signet of God that
can't be broken. This is the fulfillment of the
covenant. That's what it is. That's what
the blood is, the fulfillment. So you and I, there's just grace
for the Lord's people now. There's no judgment. There's
no wrath. The sin has been put away. Those who bear the blood
bear the righteousness before God of Christ. You have a righteousness
before his holy throne, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who do
not have the blood applied have no righteousness before God.
No righteousness. But the promise to everyone that
he loves, everyone that he has redeemed, when I see the blood,
I will pass by you. No, you don't have to be in eternity
paying for your sin forever and ever and ever, never paying for
it, because Christ did on the cross. Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission of sin. And Christ Jesus shed
his blood and remitted that sin. It's gone. It's gone. The third promise is found in
Numbers chapter 21, if you'd like to turn there. Speaking of the murmuring Jews,
that's exactly what's happening right here. They went from murmuring
to actually speaking against God and Moses. Numbers 21, and
let's look at verse five through nine. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us
up out of the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there
is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth
this light bread. Now, wait a minute. There's no
bread, but we loathe this light bread. Did you get that? They
have bread. They have bread. The Lord gave
them water out of the rock and gave them manna every day. But they loathed that light bread.
No, we want better bread. We want better bread. That's
the flesh, isn't it? That's the flesh. Flesh ain't pleased with
Christ. Flesh is not, he's the, we know from John chapter six,
he's the bread that came down from heaven. That's what that
represented. We loathe, our soul loatheth this light bread. And
the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit
the people, and much people of Israel died. Now understand what
just happened. They were speaking against God's mercy, His providence,
His grace, but they were speaking against Christ, the manna. We
hate this manna. They certainly didn't mean to
say it this way, but that's what they were saying. We don't, we
loathe Christ. We don't need him. We don't want
him. We had it better in Egypt where we could have other things.
And the Lord said, okay, I'm going to send judgment upon you.
That's exactly what happened. These fiery serpents came out
and look right here at verse seven. Therefore, the people
came to Moses. Oh, and it says much people of Israel died right
there. And it says, therefore, the people came to Moses and
said, we have sinned. We have sinned. You know, when
judgment falls, just to admit that you've sinned, that's not
enough. We have to have a substitute. When judgment falls, it's too
late. When the rain started falling, whoever wasn't on the ark, God
is the one that sealed that door on the ark. Lord told Moses,
get in the ark. And he left it open for a space
of time. Nobody else came in and the Lord
shut the door. Noah, I said Moses, I meant Noah. Noah couldn't open
that door back up. God shut that door. Therefore, the people came to
Moses and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
The Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent and set
it upon a pole. It shall come to pass that everyone
that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses
made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole. It came to pass
that if a serpent had bitten any man and he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived. He lived. That's the promise.
Whosoever looketh upon the serpent shall live. Whosoever that looketh
upon the serpent shall live. That's the promise. But why a
serpent? You ever ask yourself that? Why not a lamb? The Lord's
called the lamb of God. Why not a lamb? Why not a bullock?
Why not something other than a serpent? Because the serpent
was the only cursed animal. You remember after the sin in
the Garden of Eden, the Lord cursed the serpent, said, you're
going to crawl on your belly. Took away his feet. Snakes, some of
you probably don't like snakes too good. You really wouldn't
like them if they still had legs. They could run. took their feet
away from them. That was the curse. But why make
it now a curse to put upon a pole? Because Christ was made a curse
for his people. This is a representation of us
being bitten by the stinging burn of sin and seeing our sin
and not having a remedy. And he says, you want a remedy?
Look to the serpent. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
upon the pole who has made a curse for you. He who knew no sin was
made to be sins that you might be made the righteousness of
God in him. Christ was made a curse for his
people on the cross. You know who looked? The people
that were bitten. If you didn't get bitten, you
wouldn't have had a need to look, would you? No, if I don't ever get
bitten, if the Lord doesn't ever make me a sinner, I don't have
a need for Christ to substitute. If the Lord never makes me a
sinner, I don't need the blood, I don't need the ark. If Christ
doesn't make me a sinner, I don't need to look. But I guarantee
you, everyone that was bitten, when they heard, just look to
the serpent and live, people are dying all around them. Look
to the serpent and live. What do you think they did? Somebody
said, I don't even know which direction to look. Said, he's
that way. Look that way. That's what we're doing when
we preach the gospel, isn't it? We're saying, look that way. Look to
Christ. Don't look to me. Don't look to self. Look to Christ.
Imagine some of them might have been blind. You ever thought
of that? How'd they look? It was all by faith, wasn't it?
It was all by faith. It's impossible to please God
without faith. Whosoever looked lived. Didn't
matter whether you were old, whether you were young, whether
you were skinny, whether you were fat, whether you were pretty,
whether you ugly, it didn't matter. Look and live. It doesn't matter
about me, it doesn't matter about you. It's not what we're bringing
to the table here, it's that the table's spread and everything's
finished already and the only thing that's on the table is
the body of Christ and the blood of Christ alone. Look to the
serpent and live. Whosoever looked lived. The Lord's
looking at one thing to appease his wrath for our sin, the serpent
on the pole, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not looking at me and he's
not looking at you. He's looking to his darling son
who saved his people from their sin. We must be enabled to look
by faith. It's the only way we will look.
Unless he gives repentance, we'll never see our sin, that we're
the cheap sinners. Unless he gives faith, we won't
look to Christ. But thanks be to God, he gives repentance towards
God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ to all of his people.
When we see the poison of our sin, the pollution of our pride,
the absolute horridness of our best deeds before his throne,
he says, look, look to the serpent and live. Look to the serpent
and live. If you can, you will. That's
the good news. Because he made you. He enabled you. If I can,
I will. Because he's gave us the need.
He's gave us the need. But if we cannot look, if we
choose not to look, we're to blame. We're to blame, we're
guilty. Will not have this man reign
over us. Away with him, let his blood be upon us and on our children.
I'm to blame if I don't look. But the promise remains to the
Lord's people, look and live. Now lastly, I wanna go back to
our text in closing and look at the last promise that we're
gonna look at today. Which is in our text actually. Let's read this again, Hebrews
chapter 10, verse 36 and 37. For ye have need of patience,
that after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the
promise for yet a little while and he that shall come will come
and will not tarry. You see that verse 37 is a promise.
He that shall come will come and will not tarry. That's a
promise to the Lord's people. When the Lord ascended back up
into glory, can you imagine being there with the Lord and he just
starts, he started floating, I don't know how else to say
it. He kept ascending higher and higher and they keep watching
him and he disappears. The angel of the Lord appears
and said, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing into the
heavens? This same Jesus that you see
go away will return again, receive you unto himself. That's a promise.
He's coming back, that's the promise. That's the promise,
and when he does, he's not coming back as a lamb. He's coming back
as a lion, the judge, the king. Jesus Christ is the king of the
universe. All things were created by him,
and without him, not anything made that was made. Jesus Christ
is God, and the only way we can see that is through the eyes
of faith. He made us a promise. He that shall come will come,
and he will not tarry. When the last sheep is called,
the last sheep is called, the scripture says, The Lord shall
descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of
God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and
we which are alive and remain shall be called up together to
meet him in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. John said it this way, we know
not what we shall be, but we know we shall be made like him,
for we shall see him as he is. John chapter, first John chapter
three. For the Lord's people He promised
to come back and get us. Promised to come back and get
us. His chosen, elected, saved, born again children. He promised
that if you are in the ark, the storm of God's wrath will never
touch you. Never touch you. I love the picture
of the ark and every time we talk about Noah, I bring this
up just for the simple fact that we don't have any control over
this. this world, this situation, everything around us. We don't
have any control over this, do we? I mean, honestly. Left to
ourself, we'd be the worst, but thank God for grace, keeping
grace. The Ark didn't have a rudder.
The Ark didn't have a steering wheel. The Ark didn't have sails. What does that mean? God's the
captain. God's the master. It's God's
ark. It's not mine. It's God's ark.
And I've got to be in his ark to arrive to a destination he
can only bring me to. His beautiful glory. Person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He promised if you were in the
ark, the storm of God's wrath has been satisfied by the perfect
obedience of Christ. You have to be in the ark. He
promised that when he sees the blood, he will pass by. Not your
good deeds, not the way you talk or don't talk, not the way you
live your life, not what you wear, not what you don't wear,
not what you eat or don't eat, not what laws you keep. When
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. I'll pass by you. He said that if you've been bitten,
by the fiery serpents of sin unto death. A soul that sins
shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. If
you see that you're a sinner, God has made you to be a sinner,
look to the serpent and live. Look to the serpent and live,
who tasted death. Lord Jesus Christ tasted death
for his people, for his people on the cross of Calvary, poured
out his soul into death so that we would not have to die. If
you've been bitten, if you see yourself as deserving hell, look
to the serpent and live. Look to Christ and live. He said
it and he cannot lie. We love all the Lord's attributes,
but that one by itself, I preached a message on that one time. It's
glorious. He cannot lie. Whatever he said is going to
happen. I love that about God. We might say something, try to mess it up. Maybe we can't perform
that which we have said. Not him, if he said it, he promised,
it's good as done. It's finished. Lastly, he promised he'd come
back and bring those home who are in the ark. Those who are
in the ark, he'll bring home. Those that have the blood applied,
he's coming back for them. He's coming back for us. Those
that have looked to the serpent by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's coming back for us. He promised to reveal the glory
of himself given to all his people. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come and will not tarry. Just a little
while longer. Just a little while longer, we'll
see promises have already been fulfilled, but we'll see them. We'll be able to see them. When
we see him face to face, we'll be glorified with the same glory.
Father gave him, he gave to his people. The same glory will be
revealed in us when we're changed in the moment of the twinkling
of an eye. Maybe it'll be today. Maybe it'll
be today. He promised. I'm coming back
and he cannot lie. Let's pray. Father, but for your
promises, we would be utterly lost. Thank you for honoring
your word. Thank you for not being able
to lie. Thank you for being you and saving sinners such as ourself.
Bless this to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name.
Amen.