The promises of God is in its
conclusion tonight, part 7. We're going to look at, basically
it's come full circle in our passage tonight is 2 Corinthians
1 and verse 20. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yea and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us. By us. Jesus Christ is obviously connected
to every jot and tittle of this book, and especially the glorious
promises of God as our text states. For in Him, in Him, all the promises,
everything in this book is yes and amen. So let us note, and
again, the main thought in this whole thing has been in that
book, Spurgeon's book, According to Promise, by Charles Haddon
Spurgeon. And this is some of the things
that he's outlined and said, but I think it's very good. Let
us consider Christ, first of all, is the gate. He's the gate
of all the promises. God could in no wise communicate
His grace towards men and women, or sinners, except by and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. As one man has said years ago,
everything that God has for sinners is found in His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is for all the promises
of God in Him. They're all in Christ. And He
is the first of all the gate. He is the gate of all the promises. If we were to ever begin to understand
this book or its promises, we must be born again redeemed,
called, saved by and only by the doing and dying of God's
own anointed. We looked at that one of the
first things we looked at. This book of promises is for the believer
only. And if you don't know whether
you're a believer, call upon Him in mercy. Ask Him to reveal
Himself to you, to reveal yourself to yourself. You're lost and
undone in trespasses and sins. He never rejects a cry for mercy,
a true heart cry for mercy, because He puts that heart in His people.
So Christ is the gate. He's the gate. If we're to get
to God, and to get to and enjoy these exceeding great and precious
promises, as Peter says, we are to go through Christ. not by
feeling, not by visions or any of these different things, but
by the Word of God as it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit and
the Spirit reveals Christ unto us and His Word. Secondly, Christ
is the sum of all the promises. If we were to tally up every
promise that God has made to all His dear elect, we would
see that Christ is the sum. Because of Christ's dying and
resurrection work for us, these are all fulfilled in Christ.
Therefore, He's the sum and substance. That's why when we go to the
Old Testament, we look to Him. We look to see Him. And Christ,
as I've said many times from this pulpit, He said to those
who were searching the Scriptures, and He said, you search the Scriptures,
for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they.
And they didn't even have the New Testament. It was not even
written yet. Canonization was not complete of the Scriptures.
They are they. The Old Testament, which speak
of Me. Speak of Me. So, indeed, turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, and we
know this phrase. this portion of Scripture, Ephesians
1, and verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, in Christ. Those last two words are found
throughout Ephesians 1. It's in Christ this, in Christ
that. So, Christ is the sum of all the promises. All the blessing
flows through Emmanuel's veins. All the songs of free redemption
by the blood of Christ flow because of our near kinsman Redeemer.
As Spurgeon would say, on this thread, all pearls are strung. On this thread, the thread of
Christ and Him crucified, the thread of Christ fulfilling all
promises for everyone of His elect, on this thread are all
the pearls strung. So we hail our lovely High Priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, in Christ are all said
promises guaranteed. In Christ, every promise that
God has for His people is guaranteed. Never will God retract any sure
word to us, His dear children. He will not retract. If He has
spoken it, it's coming out of His mouth, it's for His people,
He will not draw back. He will not draw back. So says
the sacred writing. It says they're sure to all the
seed. All the promises are sure to all the seed. And he also
says in another place, in Samuel, that David said that he was resting
on the promises of God, on the covenant that was based on promise. He said this is ordered and all
things are sure. Though I don't see it grow, though
I may not see the fulfillment of the promise, I know that this
is so. It's ordered. and all things
ensure." So Christ is the guarantor of all promises to His people.
Fourthly, in Christ are all promises confirmed. Our text says, in
Him, for all the promises of God in Him are yes, And amen. So all the promises in Christ
are confirmed. Yes and amen. All the Old Testament
Scriptures find their fulfillment in Him. All the law is satisfied
because of Him. All the prophecies of old see
their completion by Him. And all the themes of this book,
Old or New Testament, see their satisfaction in Christ. No wonder then, when God speaks
a good word, or as we also saw this word promise, a pledge to
His people, we look to Christ to confirm it to our hearts and
soul. And the Holy Spirit, which is
called the Holy Spirit of promise, confirms it to us. Galatians
3, verse 14. So, in Christ, fourthly, all
promises are confirmed. Christ is our pleader for the
promises. He pleads on our behalf. This
is the intercessory work of Christ. He, as it were, ever reminds
the Father for us or ever intercedes for us, pleading the promises
on our behalf. You have elected a people. I,
the Son, have shed my blood for these people. And the Spirit
quickens those people whom I've died for, whom you called and
chose. But the Son pleads, He pleads
for us. We may forget, but God through
Christ never will forget His Word to each one of His chosen.
We say something today and we may not be able to fulfill it
tomorrow. Or we may forget. Linda and I can tell you that
very readily. Forgetting things very quickly. never forgets. He never changes. We saw that
as related to the promises. So Christ is the, He pleads. He is the pleader for the promises.
Nextly, Christ is the fulfiller of the promises. It is finished,
was the cry at Calvary. And that was pointedly declaring
Christ has done every single solitary thing to secure our
eternal life, but also, it is finished, He has fulfilled every
good and gracious word God has for sinners by free and sovereign
grace. And because Christ is accepted,
we have acceptance. Because Christ lives, we live
in Him. Because Christ rose, we shall
raise newness of life as well. And Mr. Spurgeon says, in Christ
we have found life as sinners, and in Him we shall find glory
as saints. That's exactly right. Christ
is the fulfiller of the promise. In closing, on this particular,
what Christ is, all the promises are in Him, yea and amen, are we found in Christ Jesus.
Called upon Him this day, as I said, He's never turned down
a genuine Spirit-led cry for mercy. When you cry for mercy,
and God hears you, then This is what I want you to do. This,
by God's grace and His enabling, His Spirit enabling us, this
is what I want us to do. First of all, and this is kind
of a summation of all that we've talked about, gather His promises
uniquely fit for our very specific situation. Okay? There's promises
in this book, there are general promises, and there's very specific
promises, and there's very unique promises. I'm not going through
what you're going through. Years ago when I was going through
this, I told you a couple of examples I had. I had a specific
need. I was being threatened. And the
Word of God dealt with that exactly. It fit like cogs in a wheel.
It fit together. There's passages of Scriptures
that I was looking at that the Lord gave me a promise several
months ago, and it didn't quite fit. But after this situation
we've got going on in this country right now, it seemed like it
fit that a little bit better. Okay, here's my point. When I
was working for the city, we had one, the parks department,
we had one type of key. Now, it wasn't a master lock,
or a master, we had one kind of lock. It was an American lock. I don't know why they thought
American was better, they got a deal, but we would buy 40 or
50, we'd buy 40 or 50 a man at a time. Okay? But there was three different
keys. We may lock all the baseball
diamonds, all the sporting equipment, we may have used one, but it
was an American lock. They all looked the same. The
keys all looked the same. And then the one of them, it
had a big M on it. That was the master key. That
unlocked everything. And then the other one we may
have had for different places. But we all, we had in our, you
know, and I hated carrying stuff in my pocket. I had to have a
lot of keys because this would open, this one, never used master
locks. always American. My point is this, you take that,
and they all look the same, you take that key and you put it
in that lock and it fits, but it doesn't open it. Fits, doesn't
open it. Fits, it opens it. That's what
I'm saying. Gather, if you are His, if He
is yours, whatever your situation is, there's nothing too small.
We need to be impertune. We need to keep knocking and
bugging God and going boldly to the throne of grace. Whatever
it may be, financial, physical, spiritual, economic, fear, boldness,
whatever it may be, He has a specific Promise for every situation. For every situation. And you'll
know it. I don't know how to explain it.
You'll know. You'll know. Secondly, find these
promises and use them right now. Take possession, as Spurgeon
would say, take possession of them for yourselves right now. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4.
1 Timothy 4 and verse 8. For bodily exercise
profits little, but godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to
come." Okay? We have promise of eternal life.
It's one of the first things He gives us. We see ourselves,
we see our sins, we see our corruptions, our leprous nature, our black
heart. He comes in through the truth,
preaching the truth of His gospel or through the truth of His word.
And He reveals Himself unto us. And He says, I've come to seek
and to save the lost. I'm the Great Physician. You
have a need, and we have eternal life. That's to come. We have
it now. But He says, having promise of
the life that now is. Woe is you, woe is me, and all
this book of all these keys is sitting here, and you're not
even going to try to unlock anything. It's not working. It's not working.
Okay, well, keep reading in the Word. Keep digging. Keep perusing
the Word. Keep redeeming the times. Keep
studying to show yourself approved. We really have no excuse. Any
believer has no excuse. Because God is our God. He's
our God and He's our Savior and the Holy Spirit is for us. Everything is for His people.
So I say that first gather them. And if you have a unique situation,
they're uniquely fit for every specific circumstance. Secondly,
find them and use them right now. Take possession of them.
Thirdly, seek and wait upon God to grace you with His Word of
promise. Because it may not come. You
may be praying and praying and praying and the Lord... It's
His time. He'll answer in His time. In His time. Perhaps the delay
in the promise is best like pulling the gold before it's fully refined. You don't want to do that. And
there's many examples why He doesn't answer us right away.
Chastisement, it's better for us, it's good for me that I was
afflicted because I said I wouldn't go astray. We can rise off Christ,
we can rise on the world, or things of this world. watching
too much of this world or being inundated with too many things.
All these things can take our eyes off of Christ. But look,
seek Him and continue to seek Him night and day. God is good. God is true. He is gracious to
His people. Wait upon Him. And lastly, know
that once you lay hold of His promise, it will have a remarkable
effect upon his saints." 2 Peter chapter 1. It's like a son not taking full
advantage of his dad's pool, Wisdom is Dad's, and that's what
it is. You know, we lose, however I want to phrase it, a lot of
the joy by not believing, by walking in unbelief, and not
trusting Him and His promise. It's just simply, you know, you
want to have the peace that passes all understanding? I know He
gives it to His people. Thomas, you know, and I know
people disagree or how this is interpreted, but Thomas wasn't
there when the Lord first appeared. Was Thomas lost? Absolutely not.
was Thomas, you know, Thomas was a believer. He just wasn't
there at that time. He missed the blessing of that
time when Christ was there. He missed the blessing. However,
the Lord came back specifically for Thomas the second time. Because
he never leaves, he will not leave or forsake his people.
My point is that once you lay hold of the promise, remarkable
things, remarkable, it had a remarkable effect upon his saints. Second
Peter, let me read it, 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises. Why? For what reason? That by
these you might be partakers of the divine nature and secondly
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust. Five things. The remarkable effect
of trusting and believing and laying hold of the promises for
our specific situation. It makes us partakers with Christ.
That is, you want to grow in grace? If you have a promise,
you're growing in grace. Basically, it's making us more
like Christ, and what believer does not want to be made more
like Christ? Secondly, it allows you the peace and the comfort
and the contentment to escape the corruption that is in this
world, and all that is in this world, we know, is the lust of
the eyes, the pride of life, and the lust of flesh. It's said so many different ways.
Paul says it so many different ways. Get your mind on things
above, not on things below. We are passing through. And these
promises help that. Gathering the promises for your
specific situation need gives a believer peace the peace that
passes all understanding fear flees away intimidation flees
away Unbelief flees away fourthly faith is strengthened faith is
strengthened It's it's it's always a good thing when faith is strengthened
Because you're looking at that brazen serpent and everything
is fine and you're just staring at him and nothing can bother
you. I keep on referring to that song,
mortals are immortal here until our work is done. Do we not believe
that? That's scriptural. It's scriptural. So faith, if you lay hold on
a promise, it will strengthen your faith. And lastly, Whether
we see the promise fulfilled or not, like in Hebrews, that great chapter of faith,
we are content with whatever He brings our way. We see things
as He sees them. Well, I really wanted that vehicle.
I really wanted that promotion and job. I really wanted this,
but I didn't get it. The Lord makes you content. And you don't have to have a
promise to be content. Once you lay hold of the promise, it'll
have these remarkable effects. It's like, I don't need that
stuff. This and Christ too, my wife
and children and Christ too, we see it that way. The things
that this world clamors over, the glitter and the sparkle,
all the things that... No, it doesn't matter. We're
content. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. So I close and I say this to
myself and I say this to us, let us live according to promise
and so glorify God. Nathan, would you close this
please? Heavenly Father, thank you for
what we are doing now, the promise that where two or three are gathered,
there you are in the midst. We've heard your voice today.
I can't say how many.