Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and
verse 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse
1. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse
1. Wherever the Lord gives grace,
There will be a change in that person's heart and that will
be also reflected in their lives. Dr. Hawker, he says, a regenerated
child of God is regenerated only in spirit. And what he means is that the
flesh, our sinful, corrupt flesh, remains just the same. It ever
will oppose the Spirit. The Apostle Paul was very clear
about this conflict in Romans 7, how that he says that When
he would do good, evil is present with him. He says that, in me,
I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
there is the spirit that is regenerated. But how to perform that which
is good I find not. He asks the question, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And he gives the answer, I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. But does that mean then that
the flesh is what governs a child of God. No, it does not. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. And so with that conflict, the
spirit will resist the flesh, will groan under it. There will
be that conflict. But where we have the precious
promises of God, we have a great spirit-led incentive to live
holy, godly, upright lives adorning those promises and those blessings
that God has given to us. I would say right at the outset
with the word that we have before us that we're not being here
exhorted with the aim of being perfect in the flesh here below. We do not believe in progressive
sanctification that by deeds and works or by whatever efforts
we may use, that we can gradually become more and more holy in
the flesh. Our flesh will always be dreadful
enmity against God, always there will be that opposition within,
and the growth is a growth in grace, and truly we are sanctified
and there will be an increase in sanctification and there will
be that effect seen outwardly that whatever is done it is not
perfect here below and whatever is done is not our title to heaven
that is in Christ's precious blood, we trust in that and his
righteousness alone. But wherever that true trust
is and the true promise is, then there will be that desire to
live godly and upright lives. And it is in this way that we
have the word that is set before us here, And I want to title,
if we could put it that, the word this evening of promises
abused or adorned. Our text says, having therefore
these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God. And it's very evident that having
promises, we can either abuse them, walk wrongly, or we can
adorn them and glorify God in how we want. And so I want to
look, with the Lord's help, firstly at having promises. Having promises. Secondly, promises
abused. And thirdly, promises adorned
by holiness and the fear of God. that firstly, having promises. Our text says, having therefore
these promises. This is why, of course, we read
the previous chapter. Really, this first verse in chapter
seven belongs to chapter six. Chapters, of course, are not
part of the inspired word of God. The divisions are put there
for our help. to be able to refer to specific
passages. But the verse of our text is
referring to the promises that go before. So what are those
promises? That the Corinthian church and
really all of God's children are given and they're described
in Well, first verse 16. Ye are the temple of the living
God, as God has said. Now he's there referring back
to the Old Testament, back through to Leviticus. And so those promises,
that which is promised a full time, it belongs to all the Church
of God, all the people of God. What is the promise? I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. What a beautiful promise that
is to a believer. Now, Lord Jesus Christ said the
same, that he, his Father, will come and dwell with his people
and walk with them. Then we have another promise,
the promise that is joined with separation, separation from an
ungodly world, separation from the temples with idols and all
that is contrary unto God. The whole passage here is to
not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, with those
who have enmity and hatred to God, or those who are ignorant
of God, and we're not to walk with them as if they were dear
brethren, and worship with them, and walk in their paths and in
their ways, and certainly not with those that are openly ungodly. Wherefore come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing. The true work of God makes a
real separation. But then he adds this promise,
I will receive you. They shall not be orphans, they
shall not just separate and then not have any. those that separate,
who may lose many ungodly friends, many that will say, well, we
are not going to the chapel with you. We're not going to worship
with you. You can go if you like, but we're
not. And if you go and if you end
up being a godly person, then we don't want you to be a thorn
in our sides. And there's that threat of losing
friends or loved ones or dividing. And our Lord said that there
will be that division even amongst families, but where the true
love of God is, then we are to love God more than we love a
husband or a wife or children. They are not to come before us
and our God and our soul and in our eternal comfort either,
but it is a very hard thing. And the beautiful promise is
here to venture such, she shall not be left alone, the Lord will
receive. And he says, and I and will be
a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters. You
might lose your father and lose your mother, lose your parents,
they might disown you, but ye shall be my sons and daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. You shall be given another family,
a spiritual family, the church of God, the people of God, a
living family of God, and their beautiful promises, called out
of the world and called to be part of the temple of God. You
know, there's a beautiful time in the building of Solomon's
temple, that that temple, so magnificent as it was, when it
was in building there was no sound of hammer or nails or noise
at all. Each stone was fashioned in the
quarry, everything was made away from it and then brought and
put exactly in place. Every stone, and now with my
training as a design engineer, as a craftsman and the machines
that I made, some machines, you'd have two or three hundred drawings
and every little part was detailed and drawn so that they could
be made and sometimes in many different factories subcontracted
out and then all brought together and all fitted together and power
put on and the machine worked. And we have this picture of the
temple being built and really it's a beautiful picture of the
stones of the believers being fashioned and shaped here below
and then brought and put amongst the people of God and joined
with those in heaven above. The prepared people for a prepared
place. And so there's beautiful promises
here for that real separation that God makes when he calls
by his grace a sinner from this world and calls them to be part
of his living family, part of those that he has put away their
sin at Calvary, washed away their sin, borne their sin, and in
whose heart he is teaching and giving them His grace and blessing
them with eternal life. And He assures them that that
which He has promised them He will perform, and that that which
they have is better than riches and honour and glory here below.
It is a hope of heaven, a hope of a sweet fellowship and communion
with Him and His people here and afterwards in heaven where
there is no sin. Here, even amongst the people
of God, there's sadly divisions and troubles. It should not be
so, but sadly it is because we are in the flesh. But it makes
us long for that time when there will be no divisions. They shall all see eye to eye,
everyone, no more sin there. Well, having these promises,
they are really the context here, special promises, especially
in the gracious separation that God would have when he calls
a people out of nature's darkness into his marvellous light. And
when he separates them from the ungodly and unbelievers, when he makes that real vital
change. So having these promises, but
then there are other promises. There's gospel promises, the
promises that begin right down in Genesis, the promise of the
Lord Jesus Christ coming, those promises that were given to Abraham
those promises that were fulfilled in the Lord coming. And then
there is this promise of the Lord's coming again and receiving
his people unto himself. Those promises of inheritance,
incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us. Those promises
that the Lord has said, I give unto them eternal life, They
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. When he ascended up into heaven,
he promised the Holy Spirit to be sent. And the preaching of
the Word is to be in spirit, in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power. The Lord has promised that his
people shall be taught, that they shall be kept, that they
shall be guided and directed through life. Those promises
are right the way through the Word of God, and we're told all
the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. They are brought because Christ
has died, put away the sin of his people, and unlocks for them
every promise. We read in Hebrews, one of the
great effects of faith, in Hebrews 11, are those they saw the promises
afar off and they embraced them. Those were especially the promises
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But may we prize the
promises of God. That's why we sung in our first
hymn, in the way of a prayer in Hymn 736, that all thy precious
promises may be to me and for my good. And those promises in
Christ are for all his dear children. But then there are some times
the Lord is pleased to give his children a particular promise. With Abraham, he promised that
he should have a son. Well, there was a long while
before that came to pass, and Abraham was an old man, and Sarah,
his wife, was past bearing, but God did bring that about, and
Isaac was born. He gave Abraham a promise too,
that He would give him his seed, the land whereon he was a stranger,
that is the land of Canaan. And we read after the fourth
generation then, when they were in Egypt, that it came the time
when the promise drew nigh to be brought about. And it's very
evident that that part of the promise was that the descendants
of Abraham, that they should leave Egypt and go to Canaan
and that they should have their own land. And they have now been
brought back to their own land and are in their own land. And
of course, with Abraham, the promise was to him and to his
seed. And the Apostle Paul is very
clear that that means not just Cedars of many, but one, which
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So Abraham was given promises
in that way. We have promises like that which
was given to dear Jacob when he left his home to go toward
Haran. And when he dreamed and the ladder
sat down on earth and extending into heaven. And God said to
him, in thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, thou shalt
spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north and to
the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall
all the families of the earth be blessed. That promise rehearsed
from Abraham passed down to Jacob. And then he promises him, Behold,
I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou
goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not
leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee
of. And God brought that about to
Jacob twenty years later, bringing him back again to that land. And we may be given the like
same promises and be brought from the Word of God to believe
that the Lord will perform and will do things in our lives. And we are to look upon those
promises and to adorn them rightly and live rightly according to
what we believe the Lord has promised us. And those promises
must be in accordance with the Word of God and not against the
Word of God. They must not be those which
lead to sin. And so I want to then look at
not only the promises, having these promises. And if we have
a promise, may we recognise it, look upon it, and then ask ourselves
how are we acting How are we acting according to this promise? Especially if we're telling others
that we have these promises, and we're telling others about
them, how are we actually acting? So I want to look then secondly
at promises abused. That is, walking in a wrong way. Our second point, promises abused. The first way I'd speak is that,
again, which the Apostle Paul warns of, and this is in Romans
6. The Apostle has proved that we
are saved by grace and we are justified by faith. It is not
of works, lest any man should boast and he's made this very
clear in chapters 4 and 5 in Romans and so then he asks the
question in the opening verse of chapter 6, what shall we say
then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? In other words he's saying that
if we are not saved because of our works, but we are saved because
Christ has put away our sin, then does it matter how we live? Because we're going to be saved
anyway. Why have a daily conflict with
our flesh? Why worry about it? Why not just
go along with it? Why not just live life? and just
enjoy life and enjoy all these sinful pleasures because they'll
all be put away. Christ has put them away anyway
at the cross and we should be saved at last. We should just
trust in God's promise and we're just living that way. And you
might think, well, how terrible a thing, but the apostle actually
asked this question. He answers it too. He says, God
forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? But you know our hearts are very
deceitful. to be deceived by them, and to
be really subtly walking in that way that he warns against in
Romans. And where there is not a real
daily conflict and fight with sin, where there is giving way
to it, allowance of it, without resistance, then very often lying
at the very root of this is the thought of it that, well, the
Lord will pardon it, he'll pass by it and I'll be forgiven. And so it's one thing that we,
if we have promises of God, if we have a hope in his mercy and
hope that he died and put away our sin, that we be very, very
careful that we do not abuse that promise by sinning that
grace might abound. The second is just resting very
carelessly on the promises. Now really, if we were given a a wonderful treasure or perhaps
a promise of receiving something and it was in a piece of paper
written down, you take very good care of that. You wouldn't just
be careless about it. And if we really value what the
Lord has promised, then we won't just walk carelessly The church
is warned in the Revelation, see that no man take thy crown. And so often we hear of those
who may have had profession of having promises or certainly
profession in a religious way, and they turn away. They give
it all up. They say that it was all a delusion,
all wrong, most solemn. And may our response be to cleave
to those promises and to beg of the Lord that he'd make them
very clear to us that they are real and that he will keep us
and he will deliver us from falling and that there be nothing careless
about our profession. that we might value and guard
what the Lord has given us. Another abuse is, and this is
especially where it is a promise of something coming to pass,
especially in this time state. Maybe it's a promise of a house,
or a wife, or a pastorate, or of something happening, or a
job, or of a place at university, or whatever it may be, and we
think that God has given us a promise in that. It is abuse of that
if we then start to force and twist providences to try and
bring it to pass. You might say in a way, this
is what Abraham did. He was given the promise of a
son, but because it didn't seem to be possible and to come to
pass, so then he gave, or rather Sarah gave her handmaid to him,
and he had a son by her, but that was not the son of promise. And many might be well aware
of that account, and yet still go about in their lives trying
to shape their lives to bring about a promise that they feel is of
the Lord. And very often the things that
are done are sinful things, they're wrong things, they're unscriptural
things. And really one of the best ways,
if the Lord has given us any promise in that way, is to keep
it very close. and lay it before the Lord, and
to make it a matter of private prayer and watch, watch the Lord's
hand. And when it comes to pass, then
we may see, you know, it's a way that a promise can easily be
abused. when we, as it were, make the
promise to rise above the Word of God. So when challenged on
the Word of God, we say, well, God has given me a promise. No one can challenge me and no
one can test my actions with the Word of God. And my way, though the world
would say it was sinful, is not sinful because I have a promise.
Well it is sinful, more sinful because you have a promise and
yet are not walking according to the Word of God. The Lord
has given us a promise. Be very careful not to abuse
it, shaping providences to fit that promise. And so we may join
with that, really what we've said is putting the blessing
or putting the promise above the Word of God and not subject
to it. But another abuse of it is not
trusting in God's provision in Christ or his promise in Christ,
but rather thinking that we need to add something in the scale
ourselves. Paul said to those of his countrymen
that he longed that they might be saved, that they were ignorant
of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own
and not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, one way that we could look
at this verse, and we're looking at it in a wrong way, we say,
well, we have a promise of eternal life, but if it's a real promise
and if it is good, then I must be completely holy and godly
and no sin in me and no sin for working at all. But every child
of God that knows the grace of God will know, as the apostle
said, that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And it is a growth in grace. And grace is the free unmerited
favour of God, is the kindness of God in the face of active
demerit. And the hymn writer says, we
cannot promise future good to bring, no. And so we can abuse
those promises when in actual fact, and we take from ourselves
the assurance and comfort of the promise, because in effect
we are saying, well, we still are relying on our own
works. This is why many, many believers
their frames and feelings, they tend to rest on them. They might
be saved one day because sin is subdued and they feel to have
the mastery over it. But the next day, when the devil
leads them astray and plunges them in the ditch, and they feel
the desperate wickedness and evil of the heart, and they say,
how can ever God dwell here? The promise cannot be right.
I cannot be a child of God. And then they fall so low. And
their assurance and their comfort is directly proportional to how
they feel to be overcoming of sin or whether over the mastery
of it or not. But we are saved completely. Our sins are fully blotted out
by Christ. We are justified by his righteousness,
his death, his rising again. And it is not of works, lest
any man should boast. When Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he's very clear of this. By grace you're saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And so
we abuse those promises when we start to feel, well, the promise
is not enough. It's not sufficient. It is sufficient
for a sinner. God has seen it is sufficient
for those that live in a body of death, that live in a fallen
world, that live with an attacking devil. The provisions that he
has are the same as what he gave to Peter. I prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not. It's the same that he had for
Paul when he had the thorn in the flesh. My grace is sufficient
for thee to let us not abuse the promises by, as it were,
turning back like the Galatians to the law and thinking that
we're going to add something to them. Now if you had someone
in a natural way promise to do something for you and say that
I've done it for you, but then they came round to your house
and you were doing what they had done, And I said, but what
are you doing? I promised I would do that for
you or I've done that for you. Why are you doing it? And they'd
immediately think, well, you don't trust what I've done. You
don't think it's sufficient. You think that you've got to
add to it. And so let us not rob our Lord
of that glory and abuse the promises in that way. And Paul was very
clear when he wrote to the Galatians, those turning again to, well,
they wanted to be circumcised. He says, if ye are subject to
that, then you're under the whole law. Christ has delivered us
from the law. So let us grow, yes, in grace,
Growing grace, feel more and more as we live on that it is
the grace of God that saves us, not of works and righteousness
that we have done, but feeling more and more that in me that
is in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. Well, what is it the other
way then? What is our last point? Promises
adorned by holiness and the fear of God. Our text says, having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. Now we read Paul's epistle to
the Galatians, the end of chapter five. And he says this, we began
the reading in verse 16, this I say then, walk in the spirit
and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And he speaks
to a people that were biting and devouring one another, that
were in conflict one with another. And he says here so clearly,
the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. These are contrary, the one to
the other, so that he cannot do the things that he would.
You know, one of the Puritans, he said that a young believer
needs to have it impressed upon them that they are called to
do a daily battle with the corruptions of their own. evil heart. That is the calling and privilege
of a child of God who has the promises of God. Now we're told
clearly in Galatians here what the works of the flesh are. And
we're told of those in all, mainly works of uncleanness, but also
endings, murders, drunkenness, all of those things. And then
we have from verse 22, the fruit of the spirit. That is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. These things
are set forth of the fruits of the Spirit. And so really what
the Apostle is setting forth before the Corinthians is that
the outside world and really in the spirit of the person as
well, that that is where we are to seek to walk in a way that
is not in filthiness, but is in holiness and is in the fear
of God. If we looked at it to the extremes,
and we said, well, here's a person that says that they have the
promise of Christ and a promise of eternal life, and you looked
at them, and they were a swearer, they were a curser, they were
adulterer, womaniser, that they were a Sabbath-breaker. You'd look at it and you'd say,
what a blot upon the precious promises of God. Sometimes it helps to put an
extreme one way. What if we had a person with
their spirit? No, all the time, jealous, a
bitter spirit, lived in malice and envy. Or if they're a very
proud person, would that adorn the promises
that they profess to have? And so you see the extremes that
would then highlight what is being pointed to here. The Word of God shows us what
shall rightly adorn and glorify the promise that we profess to
have and that shall answer to the fact the promises, these
promises, have a promise of God walking in us and with us. And if that is the case, may
we be seeking that our temple, our bodies, which are the temple
of the Holy Ghost, be of such that show to all around, the Lord
is there. Again, I must emphasize, the
child of God feels, he feels the sin and the evil within. I think one of our hymns, it
speaks of it. 6, 7, 8, there's not a man that's born
of God but readily will say, If ever my poor soul be saved,
his Christ must be the way. There's not a man that's born
of God but feels the plague of sin. And though his outside be
kept clean, he feels the filth within. And though his eye hear
according to this word before us, that the outside be kept
clean, the old man struggles hard to gain the conquest over
grace. And oft he seems to gain the
field when Jesus hides his face. God knows we can do nothing well. He knows we are but dust. He
came to seek poor sinners out, and you and me the worst. Really the apostle again in Romans
7, he says, when I would do good, evil is present with me. Can
we say that before the Lord? I would do good. And the other
way around, he said, the evil that I would not, that I do. Can we say that truly before
the Lord? The evil that I would not. I
don't desire, I don't want to walk in this way. And there is
that resistance. We know in natural ways. We could very easy tell if we
had a person that was to go or not go with another person, looking
on, we would easily tell, are they going willingly or are they going unwillingly? You know, if we were to be just
driving down the street and we saw someone trying to drag another
person into a car and that person was kicking and resisting, You
know, we wouldn't need to be told anything. We just look at
it and say, that person does not want to go with that other
person. But if there was no resistance
and no just walking to the car and getting in the car, we say
they're quite at peace with that. They're quite happy with it.
They're going along with it. And so how is it with us, with
our old nature? Our text, it says, cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God. And how is that done? The Apostle,
very clear, walk in the spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lusts
of the flesh. This is not an exhortation to
set up all manner of rules and to seek to have perfection in
the flesh. The way is to walk in the Spirit,
that is the scriptural way. All the while we've got our mind
on the flesh or the things on the flesh will go that way, be
harder and harder to resist it. But while we're seeking the things
of God, it is the word again in Romans is, if ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, The flesh says, I
want to go this way. I want to think of this or that.
And the spirit says, no, and picks up the Bible, falls upon
the knees and cries to the Lord. And it leaves the flesh just
fretting and mortified that it's not even getting a hearing time
at all. It's just been brushed aside.
You know, with Nehemiah, he was, building the walls of Jerusalem,
and Sanballat, Tobiah, they were seeking to hinder it. They had
many devices to get him to stop the building and to pay attention
to them. He just brushed them aside. He
said, I'm doing a good work. No time for you. And that's the
way, if we walk in the Spirit. This is, there is a way that
the Lord has appointed for his dear people here below that have
a body of death, that are in the world, there's Satan all
around them, there is a way that the Lord has appointed his people
to walk in a right way. And this really is what is set
forth here. walking in the way the Lord would
have us to walk, in the fear of God. Our last hymn speaks
of this, how necessary it is to have a sense of the Lord's
presence, His eye upon us, that reverent, filial fear of God. You know what is said before
us in the previous chapter, I will be a father unto you, Well, it's
a father, a filial fear, like a child who loves the father. He doesn't want to grieve him,
but he knows that father loves him, but if he walks contrary,
then he'll chasten him, he'll correct him, and the Lord will
correct those whom he loves. And there's a father's hand. He prepares the calf. And sometimes
it is, the lash is steeped, he only lays, yet softened in his
blood. And how vital it is that we do
walk in the fear of the Lord. So having, therefore, these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness. in the fear of God. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.