2 Corinthians 1, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother,
into the church of God, which is at Corinth, with all the saints
which are in all Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies,
and the God of all comfort. who comforteth us in all our
tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in
any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of
God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And
whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer, or whether we be comforted is for your consolation
and salvation. God does everything he does.
His gospel goes forth. He rules this world for the comfort
and salvation of his sheep. These are written that you might
believe. Our brother read, faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. That's why we're here this morning.
The Lord calls together from the very beginning, he's called
a holy convocation, a gathering of the people to hear his word
go forth and he comforts his sheep and he saves his sheep
by the preaching of that gospel. So Paul said, whatever happens
to us, that's what God's doing. He's comforting you and saving
you. That's what he does. And verse seven, and our hope
of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of
the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. For
we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble,
which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. The Lord has a way of bringing
us to the end of ourselves. When the Lord's gonna do something
for you, he's gonna get all the glory out of it. And part of
that is to make you realize where you are and what you are, your
condition before him, helpless, hopeless, a mercy beggar at his
feet. Beyond our strength, beyond our
ability, despairing even of life, we're not even gonna be able
to draw breath without God's grace. And then he gives his
grace. But we have the sentence, verse
nine, of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves. We're given that. I didn't make
that up. We're given that as the reason so that we would despair
of ourselves, quit trusting in ourselves, quit trying to work
out our own salvation, going about to establish our own righteousness
before God and submit to God's righteousness in Christ. But
we don't trust in ourselves by God's grace, but we trust in
God which raiseth the dead. We despair of life. We need somebody
that can raise the dead. We don't need somebody to give
us a chance. We need a savior that saves. We need a redeemer
that redeemed. We don't need another chance.
God, I guess you could call it a chance in the garden, not really,
because God was in control of it all then. But the only time
you might say we had the freest will we ever had, we chose ourselves,
what do you know? And then the Lord came down here
and he was rejected by everybody and everybody despised him. And
we spit on him, tortured him and nailed him to a cross. You
really think what you need is another chance? No, no, no, we
have a savior that comes where we are and saves us in every
way that a person can be saved. He raises the spiritually dead. There's nothing more clear in
scripture. And as long as you don't consider
yourself spiritually dead, then God just hadn't brought you to
that place yet. You're not gonna make a decision
and be saved. You're gonna flat out cry for
mercy. And me too. Verse 10, who delivered
us from so great a death and doth deliver and in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver us. Not only is his eternal salvation,
his salvation from sin, spiritual salvation and eternal work, past,
present and future, but he's still saving us now in this life. every hour, every moment. And
we pray for that, don't we? And then we come to verse 11
today. Ye also helping together by prayer for us that for the
gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks
may be given by many on our behalf. Now, Paul refers here to their
prayers for him during that great affliction that he references
in verse eight. And the gift that he speaks of
here in verse 11, bestowed upon him was Paul's deliverance from
that trial. And he's saying that as the prayers
of many were for him in that, so thanksgiving is given now
by many for God sparing his life for the time, his physical life
for the time being, and God delivering him from that
trial, that tribulation. It wasn't just a blessing to
Paul himself that he was delivered, but also to all those to whom
he ministered, all those who benefited from the gospel that
he preached, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ that God
had given unto him and fitted him for, and that used him so
greatly in. So God's blessing was upon Paul,
but also them when he spared Paul. Listen to Philippians 121,
for to me, this is the same Paul, the apostle Paul, for me to live
is Christ and to die is more Christ. The only definition of
that word gain, if you got Christ here, you got something better
than Christ over here, then this can only be more Christ. To die
is gain. Christ without sin, Christ face-to-face,
Christ in his very presence and bosom of eternal love. So he said this, now, if I live
in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall
choose I want not. For I'm in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. You see our text here? He's saying
the Lord is still using me to preach the gospel to the churches
and to confirm the churches and to be that rock, that authority
that they needed, that God blessed them through. And then he said,
and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue
with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing
may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to
you again. The Lord let me live and we'll
rejoice together. And the benefit of the ministry
will continue for you by God's grace. And so that's what he's
saying in verse 11. Verse 12 of our text, for our rejoicing
is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace
of God, we have had our conduct, our conversation in the world,
and more abundantly, Now Paul could rejoice in the fact that
whatever was said about him by others, and he was always, like
all God's preachers, he was maligned, he was lied about. Everybody was trashing him and
saying this and that about him, accusing him of this and that.
Satan is the great accuser, and as the Lord uses him, that's
just gonna happen. And he said, no matter what he
knew within himself, God had given him a good conscience in
this, that by God's grace, don't miss those words, but by the
grace of God, we have had our conduct in this world with simplicity
and godly, sincerity. And he said, in my words to you
and dealings with you, that's been the case. And we'll get
a, I think it'll become clear why he's confirming that to them. that his dealings with them were
sincere in godly sincerity and simplicity, not subtleness, not
deception, not yay and nay, as he calls it in a minute. We'll
talk about that, Lord willing. By the grace of God, it hadn't
been that way. It's been sincerity, honesty, true, unfeigned love
for you in the gospel and in the Lord Jesus Christ. So he
was able to rejoice in that in spite of what was being said
about him. He was simple in his words and
dealings with him. That word simplicity just means
that he had no ulterior motives. It wasn't complicated. He didn't
say one thing and mean another thing. It's simple. Now God's
preachers don't do what they do for selfish reasons. That's
just the truth. If somebody doing that, and it's
hard to hide that, then God didn't send them. He just don't send. He sends preachers after his
own heart was his promise in this. Now that doesn't mean I'm
any less sinful than anybody else, or less a wretched, vile
sinner, or better in any way whatsoever. But in the ministry,
God doesn't send people that are in it for ulterior motives.
that have their own selfish fleshly promotion at heart in this matter. And they genuinely care for those
for whom they preach. After God's own heart means we
love the sheep. God loves his sheep. We know
a few things about the heart of God and that's one of them.
He loves his sheep. And he'll send pastors that way
now. And there's, again, we'll see why Paul is, stressing this
now. And this is in stark contrast
to those who preach the false gospel of man's will, man's way,
man's works. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter two. There's a reason why Paul stressed
this over and over. in many of his letters to the
churches, 1 Corinthians 2.1. I think I said something else. It's 2.1, 1 Corinthians 2.1.
And of course, this is his first letter to this same church. And
our brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency
of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
We're not trying to impress anybody in the flesh. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. There was nothing impressive
about Paul's manner or his skills. My speech and my preaching, verse
four, was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, Why do you think
he's saying that? Because that's how most so-called
preachers come. They come trying to get you to
do something for God, enticing you. When what needs to happen
is God needs to do something for you. You can trust, he said, you can
trust my motive. I came here in a the rest of verse four, but
in demonstration of the spirit and of power. And here's why,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. Now think about that, that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power
of God. Don't trust what I say unless
it's what God said. But if it's what God said, then
that man that says what God said comes to you with sincerity and
you can trust that because it's from the word of God, not because
it made sense. That's so important because what's
being preached all around this city this morning makes a lot
of sense to a lot of people, but it's a lie. I'm a sinful man, but by the
grace of God, remember those words in our text, I'm here in
sincerity, in godly sincerity and honestly to tell forth the
truth of Christ, and that's it. That's it. It's that simple.
That's all this is. Verse 13, for we write none other
things unto you than what ye read or acknowledge "'And I trust
ye shall acknowledge even to the end.'" Now, Paul is saying
that what he has written to them is exactly what it says. He's
not writing something that you have to read between the lines. I don't ever want to have to
do that with anybody. Have you ever known somebody
that everything they said, you had to kind of read between the
lines because you knew from experience there's something between the
lines. How can you really have any use
for somebody like that? Honestly, just say what you mean. That's what Paul's saying here.
What I've written is what you've read and acknowledged. That's
it. There's nothing between the lines. There's no hidden meanings.
There's no dishonesty. There's no deceit, no insincerity. What you read is exactly what
I meant and felt and knew to be true. He said, our hands have
handled the word of life. We know what we're talking about.
We were there. The Lord met me and spoke to
me and chose me and sent me out. And he taught me the gospel.
Paul's desire here in this last phrase of verse 13 is that they
would always trust what he wrote to be exactly that. Just what
it says. Verse 14 of our text, as also
you have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoicing, even
as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
himself was acknowledged by them. He's talking about what his words,
his letters to them, what he had written to them in verse
13. Now he's talking about himself. You've acknowledged us in part
and It says in part only because there were apparently some in
that church who had stirred up mistrust in Paul. And part of
it was by Paul's inability to come to them as he had promised
to do so, which we'll see in a minute in what a lot of this,
on the surface at least, has to do with. But the application
of it goes far beyond that. That's what I hope the Lord will
show us. But there was some mistrust of Paul stirred up by some, and
that's why he said, you've acknowledged this in part, that we are your
rejoicing, even as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For the most part, and prior
to this happening, Paul and this church rejoiced in each other.
They rejoiced in the word of God that he preached and that
he wrote. In that relationship of sincerity
and trust, they were in great fellowship with one another.
That's what he says there. You're our rejoicing and we're
your rejoicing. And I think we need to acknowledge
here that for us to rejoice in Christ together, for us to have
fellowship and worship together, that trust is vital. I have very rarely in my life
ever broken fellowship with a believer or someone who I felt was a believer
or seemed to indicate that. Our Lord did say, by their fruits
you shall know them. It's not infallible. Our judgment
on that and neither is our judgment binding or necessary other than
just as to who to fellowship with and who to worship with.
But ever, you know, Maybe two or three times in my life have
I ever actually broken fellowship with somebody. But it's almost
always, it comes to the place where you can't trust them. You
just can't trust them. At least it's a perceived inability
to trust. And their relationship with God
is not my business. They will stand and fall to their
own master and that's not me. But this explains why Paul is
so adamant to address this in this chapter. There's some things
being said about me now, but you know, if you think about
it, you know that I came to you in godly sincerity and in honesty,
in all honesty, and he's careful to mend the, mend that flaw in their relationship. Because there has to be that
trust. It's a precious thing. Paul is thoroughly dispelling
here any idea that he can't be trusted by them. And we'll see
the main reason for that coming up. But look at verse 15. And
we'll read verses 15, 16, and 17 together. And in this confidence,
I was minded to come unto you before, that you might have a
second benefit, and to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia
unto you. On his way to Macedonia, he was
gonna stop by there, and then on his way back, and of you to
be brought on my way toward Judea. When I therefore was thus minded,
did I use likeness when I purposed to do that? And when I told you
I was gonna do that, and he did tell him that in the first letter
that he sent to the Corinthians, did I use likeness? Or the things that I purposed,
do I purpose according to the flesh that with me there should
be yea, yea, and nay, nay? Should there be any question
about whether I'm saying saying this or that. And I've been using
the word trust a lot from verse 13 and 14. And there's a reason
for that because the word confidence in verse 15 there means trust.
In this trust, in this relationship of trust where I was your rejoicing,
you were my rejoicing. I was minded to come unto you.
Because of the relationship God gave us one for another and the
fact that the churches are benefited by the ministry that the Lord
had given Paul and he was benefited, he said, you're my rejoicing
too. It was his greatest blessing to fellowship with and worship
with the people of God and to teach and preach to them. So
that word confidence there is trust. So in verse 15, indeed,
or in verses 13 to 14, the issue was trust, like we said it was
because of verse 15. But Paul's saying that when he
expressed his intention to come to them, when he said that he
would, he was sincere and truthful in that intention. He didn't
use likeness. That word is levity or fickleness
of mind. He doesn't just throw things
around and say, and just lightly make promises, especially in
the ministry. That's what he's talking about.
Especially to you, what he said earlier. The best way to illustrate
this may be by your own experience. I suspect that like me, you've
all known someone in your life that having known them for a
while, you come to expect that what they say they will do may
or may not happen. It may or may not get done. And
listen, there's nobody that's 100% trustworthy. There's a lot of reasons why
we often can't do what we intend to do. Paul is no exception to
that. We're gonna intend to do things,
we're gonna say we intend to do things, and then we're not
gonna be able to follow through. And I would ask for your patience
with me as often, I forget I even said I was gonna do it. So that's
not an excuse, that's just a sad reality. But there are some who
you just expect it. At some point, you just expect
it. so that when they say they'll do something, they just don't
have any credibility. This is what Paul is denying.
I don't say things lightly. I don't promise things lightly.
And we're to understand that it's especially necessary to
be that way with regard to the business of the ministry. If
you go back and read this whole passage again after we're through,
you'll see that's the tenor of this whole thing. With regard
to the ministry, No matter what people say, people are always
gonna find fault with the preacher. It's a reality of the fact of
what it is. And that's all fine and good.
But Paul is very careful here to say that when it comes to
the ministry of the Lord, God doesn't send wishy-washy people.
They're flawed in every way. And outside the ministry, they
may be wishy-washy. But when it comes to the gospel,
the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God and the things
of God, it's just not that way. And Paul insisted that it wasn't
that way for a good reason. We're gonna get into it a little
bit further here. He said in the previous verses
here, He said, you know, my conduct
among you is with godly sincerity by the grace of God. Again, I
want to emphasize that phrase. It's not quality of God doesn't
look around for people with quality of character so that they can
be preachers. That's not it. That's not it. It's the grace
of God. He doesn't find good preachers,
he makes good preachers. And a good preacher is not a
skilled person, as Paul so eloquently put in 1 Corinthians there. It's
somebody that says what God said. It's somebody that refuses to
acknowledge anything but Christ in the preaching of the gospel. So he's saying here, godly sincerity,
simplicity, he doesn't promise things lightly without sincere
intention. And this is where he promised
it in 1 Corinthians 16, five, in his first letter to them,
he said, now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through
Macedonia, for I do pass through Macedonia, and it may be that
I will abide, yea, in winter with you, that you may bring
me on my journey whithersoever I go. That's what he just addressed
in our text, in the second letter that he wrote to them. So he
did promise them. He didn't say if the Lord is
willing. He said, I'm coming, I'm going to come. And I'm going
to stop. I may stay with you a good while.
And so that you can bring me on my way to where I'm going
next. And I want to read a passage of scripture about that. And
I want to say before we do, I want you to read it with me. I'm not
saying that Paul, was boasting the way that this
passage in James chapter four, if you want to start to turn
over there. I'm not saying that Paul was boasting this way and
that it was evil for him to do so. We don't know Paul's heart at
the time or if there was more to it than what we know. But
we're looking at this passage with regard to ourselves upon
this subject. of intention and purpose. And I'm telling you, this will
affect you every day of your life. If you ever get ahold of
this, if we get ahold of this, if God burns this in our heart, it will make us, it will keep
us on our knees before him. It will keep us looking to him.
It will keep us trusting him. It'll give us great comfort to
know that we're in his hand and he turns the heart of everybody
around us and us ourselves. But look at James 4.13. Again,
we're not judging Paul here. This is not the purpose. But
listen to James, go to now. And that's kind of a way of saying,
what are you talking about? What are you saying? Ye that
say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue
there a year. And I'm counting these off of
my finger. Look at the things he's presuming
here. or theoretically presuming, we're going to go into such a
city, we're going to continue there a year, we're going to
buy and sell, and we're going to prosper in our business. We're
going to get game. What are you talking about? You
don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Isn't that simple? And that is an acknowledgement
that we need to live in the conscious awareness of every day we live. And it's not just about knowing
what's actually happening, which is kind of nice. It's kind of
nice to know what's going on in this world, isn't it? But
more than that, it's a submission. It's worship. It's acknowledging
who is in control and not flaunting yourself as having some kind
of power over your little kingdom in this world. You don't. We
don't. We look to Him who is on the
throne. You know not what shall be on
the morrow, verse 14, for what is your life? It is even a vapor
that appears for a little time and then vanisheth away. For
that you ought to say, if the Lord will. Instead of saying,
I will. I will go into such a city and
I will continue there a year and I will buy and sell and I
will prosper. Well, the way that we ought to
think and speak and act is if the Lord will. We will live. If you're even alive tomorrow,
that's not by your will, that's by God's will. Much less do anything
while you're alive. If the Lord will, we shall live
and do this or that. But now you rejoice in your boastings
and all such rejoicing is evil." Again, Paul's promise to this
church was, we can't assume it was an evil boasting. But we
should always say in our hearts, if not with our mouths, and often
with our mouths, if the Lord will. That's living constantly
in submission to him. You know, he bought the right,
he had the right as God, the Lord Jesus Christ as God, he
has the right to do what he wants with us, but he purchased. on Calvary with his precious
blood, also the right to do with you as he will. And bless God,
if you're his, if you've believed on him, all of it's gonna be
good. It's gonna be good. His thoughts
toward you are of peace and not evil in all of it. And so we gladly as believers
submit to him. People say, well, I don't wanna
be a puppet. I kinda do. Don't you? Don't we say, Lord,
direct our steps? You want to be on your own? You
want the strings to be cut? Then you don't know what you
are. You don't understand the monster
that you are. The evil ones in Psalm two that
hated God and rejected the authority of God. They said, let us cut
their bands asunder, cut his bands asunder from us. In other words, we don't want
him having any, we don't want him in our business. I got news
for you, it ain't your business. It's his business. All of it's
his business. We'll look at verse 18 in our
text. We'll read 18 through 20 and
close with a few thoughts on this. But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea
and nay. It wasn't wishy-washy. It wasn't,
well, yes, but kind of no and not, you know. No, no. As God is true, when you preach
in the word of God, You're not preaching your opinions. You're
not preaching your deductions. You're not preaching this is
what God meant by what he said. You're preaching this is what
God said concerning his son and what he accomplished on Calvary
for his sheep. Look at verse 19, for the son
of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even
by me and Silvanus and Timotheus was not yea and nay, but in him
was yea. For all the promises of God in
him are yea. And in him, amen, or so be it. When you say amen, you're saying
you agree with God, which is, you know, I think there's a bump,
there used to be a bumper sticker that said, you know, God said
it, I believe it, and that settles it. On the very surface, that's
stupid. It's settled whether you believe
it or not. But when you say amen, you're saying, I believe it.
And I'm glad for it. I agree with that. I want that. Thank you for that, Lord. Thank
you. For all the promises of God,
we say, so be it. Amen. Just like that. Just the
way God said. That's how it should be. And
we rejoice in that. yay, and in him, amen, unto the
glory of God by us. You see that? This is a yes message
in Christ by us. And so what we say, don't you
let people say, well, Paul's a liar. He said he was gonna
come and he didn't, and he don't care about us and all this and
that. He said, don't you think for a second that you can't trust
what I say, that this ministry is some kind of wishy-washy thing.
that's subject to the whims and the failures of men. Paul was most concerned that
any perceived inconsistency in behavior on his part would not
reflect upon the gospel that he preached. You see that here? We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, but we have a treasure. God's preachers should be above
reproach. That's in the scriptures. Because
we would never ever want to reflect poorly upon the gospel that we
preach. And Paul didn't even want this
unwarranted distrust to cast any shadow whatsoever on the
ministry. Now, are God's preachers above
reproach? No, the simple answer is no. But in the sense of behavior in the ministry, in
the sense of if you can't trust me, you can't trust what I say. Then yes, God makes that happen. God makes that happen. God's preacher, is eventually
gonna show some inconsistency in life, being a sinner. And I hope that doesn't happen.
I pray not, but even if so, never doubt the veracity of the gospel
of Christ. When we preach it, it is not
yay, nay. It is not wishy-washy. There
are no inconsistencies in the gospel that we preach. That's
what Paul was so careful to convince them of God is not slack concerning
his promises. Paul said, I made a promise and
I haven't followed through on it, but God's not slack concerning
his promises. And the gospel we preach to you
was not yea and nay, it was yea in Christ. He's not slack concerning His
promises and it's God. Didn't He say that your trust
wouldn't be in me or the flesh, but in God? What will bring that
to pass? What's gonna cause people that
hear the gospel not to trust in the preacher, but in God Almighty
and His precious only begotten Son? Paul said, to that end,
I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ in
Him crucified. As revealed in this book, God does give pastors that can
be trusted in what they preach. That's what Paul's saying. But
that's because they don't preach themselves or their opinions
or their deductions. They preach a person and what
he did for sinners. We preach Christ crucified. And notice that it is in Christ
that all of God's promises are yes and so be it, only in Christ. Remember from 1 Corinthians 2,
why this church's confidence could be in the power of God
and not in the wisdom of men. Because Paul would preach nothing
else but Jesus Christ. He was determined not to. That's
why we preach what we do, whom we do, and the way we do, so
that sinners in seeing Christ crucified revealed in the gospel
will trust God and not us. Those who believe, and you consider
the flip side of that now, if you believe, in the religious
Jesus that's impotent, that wants to save people, but he can't.
They're really in charge. They decide whether they're gonna
be saved or not. People that hear that and believe
that, they're trusting the preacher. Because I guarantee you, it's
not coming from here. It's not Christ and Him crucified. They're trusting the preacher.
You see that? That's why Paul said that specifically,
so that your trust would not be in the wisdom of the flesh.
That's the wisdom of the flesh. It just makes sense to sinners
that, you know, you've done bad, that's your problem, to solve
that, you just need to do some good. You just need to make some
good decisions. That makes a lot of sense. No,
that's the wisdom of the flesh. That is a soul damning mistake
to trust the preacher. If your preacher preaches anything
but Christ, the sovereign, Christ, the sin offering, Christ, our
righteousness, Christ, the only sin offering God, Christ, the
lamb of God, Christ, the successful savior, Christ, the redeemer who actually
redeemed a people on Calvary. If he preaches anything or anybody,
you cannot trust him. And I'll tell you this, when
your preacher preaches that Christ, you're not gonna trust him, you're
gonna trust that Christ. So many try to divorce God's
promises from the person of Christ. Promises of God are yay and amen
in Christ. God loves everybody. No, no,
God's love is in Christ. No, oh, that's the wisdom of
the flesh, God loves everybody. The promises of God's love to
sinners are yay and amen in Christ. I've seen people lately quoting
this verse a lot for some reason. You know, it was that, what was
the name of the fellow that prayed that prayer that everybody thought
if you pray, Jabal or something like that.
I can't remember his name in the scriptures, but the prayer
of Jabez, remember that? That was like a big thing for
a while. If you pray that prayer, you're gonna have good luck. Come on. But lately it's this one. I hear
it quoted a lot. For I know the thoughts that
I think towards you, Jeremiah 29, 11. This is God speaking
to his sheep, not to this world. He said, I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil to give you an expected end. Everybody's like, oh, that's
so beautiful. I see it posted on Facebook for
all the world to say, look, God's thinking good things about me. That's a misquote of scripture
to put that on Facebook by itself for the whole world to say, oh,
you know, everything's gonna be fine. thinking thoughts of
peace toward me. That verse is not for that. The whole world can't claim that
promise. That promise is yes and so be it in Christ Jesus. Our expected end is to be conformed
to the image of God's son. We're gonna be just like God's
son and we're gonna be with God's son face to face forever. That's
our expected end. And we can expect that because
the sovereign God who purposed it accomplished it on Calvary
for his elect. That's what that promise is about.
It's only yes and amen in Christ. All of God's promises to Israel
of old were not to the earthly nation of Israel, Paul makes
that clear in the New Testament. The promises were made unto the
seed, and he said deliberately it's seed and not seeds because
that's Christ. And he said this, if you are
Christ's, apostrophe S, if you belong to him, and you're among
the remnant according to the election of grace, then you are
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. All the promises
to Israel. or yea and amen in Christ. Galatians
3.29, if you want to look that up. Paul renounced all of his
Jewish heritage, all of his law keeping, all of his religious
affiliations, himself and all that he ever was, and accounted
it all but done that he might win Christ. Don't take comfort in the bare
promises themselves. Take comfort in Christ, in whom
all of those promises are yes. So be it. We believe, we affirm,
we take refuge and rejoice in Christ. And thank God for all of his
glorious promises. The scripture says precious promises
that are true and ours in his son. Amen, let's pray.