Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morse's For Zion's Tour. When we were kids, we often
made solemn promises, usually sealed with the famous cross
my heart and hope to die pledge. We all knew that if the circumstances
warranted, we could always abandon the promise without too much
fear of the consequences actually occurring. Some seem to consider
the promises of God in about the same light. The giving of
conditional promises to Israel was for the same purpose that
he gave the law to them. They were given so that men might
be made aware of their inability to meet the conditions necessary
to enjoy the blessings, just as the law was given for the
purpose of revealing their sin. Paul made it quite clear that
the law was weak through the flesh. The law and the conditional
promises of it are good. They are both established to
manifest the weakness of sin and the inability of men to keep
either of them. Paul said, Wherefore the law
is holy, the commandment holy, just and good. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that
it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. He said that the law is good
if a man keep it, but it ministers nothing but condemnation if a
man does not keep every jot and tittle of it. Because to break
one part of it in any wise is to break the whole. This promise
of judgment and condemnation to lawbreakers is that which
drives them to the feet of Christ to beg for mercy, when the law
in its awful power is revealed to them by the Holy Ghost. They
are stripped of any hope of ever keeping the law or being able
to gain favor with God by keeping those conditional promises. Some
believe that you can turn the blessings of God on or off like
a man would flip a light switch. Paul said, For I know that in
me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would
not, that I do. I have no doubt that men can
and will choose to do evil, but I find nothing in the scripture
that would indicate that they have been given the power to
choose to do good, except that the Lord should work such in
them. The writer of the Hebrews says that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the mediator of a better covenant built upon better promises. In
fact, the only true promises that were given under the old
covenant were promises of condemnation, because it was certain that those
to whom these conditional promises were given could not and would
not keep them. But God, willing to demonstrate
the glory of His grace and the mighty power of the same, established
the new covenant, which was in no wise conditional at all, but
a clear declaration of what He guaranteed He would do for and
in His elect people. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and write them
in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall
be to me a people. There are no conditions that
must be met that he has not performed for his elect people, in whose
hearts he has written his laws. For they are those to whom he
reveals himself, and causes them to believe in him of whom they
have heard. He is their God, and they are His people. For
all the promises of God are in Him, yea, and amen, and in Him,
amen, unto the glory of God by us. He has determined to bless
them and give them His kingdom. They are made heirs and joint
heirs with Christ and seated in heavenly places. They are
filled with His Spirit and given faith according to the measure
which He determines. They are heirs of the promise
and not subjects of some premise, which neither they nor their
fathers could keep. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. Whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Do you rest in the promise of
God? If you would like a free transcript of this broadcast,
email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.