I will put it on Facebook when
it gets a little closer and boost that and maybe we'll get some
folks to come and maybe show some interest. We're going to just continue
on. with the promises of God, and as you remember, last week
we did an introduction on the promises of God, and the first
part that we looked at was out of Corinthians, and the question
I asked to set the stage was who the promises are for. And
we noticed that in the Scripture, they're for His children. They're for the covenant children. They're for His sheep. Therefore,
the elect. Therefore, the remnant. So that's
what we looked at last week. We looked at a little bit of
introductory thoughts and comments about the promises of God in
general. Tonight, part one, we're going to look at how are the
promises to be received. When you read a promise, how
are they to be received? Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter
1. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1, in the first four verses,
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them
that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness
of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. according as His divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these promises you might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust." Now we're just going to look at the first
part of this verse. Though the second part will be down the
road, the effect, the effect of believing the promises of
God. But for tonight we're going to look at how are the promises
to be received. And there's a key word in here
and it's found in 2 Peter chapter 1 and the first part of verse
4. The promises are to be received
as they are intended, whereby are Given. Given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises. So it's these great and precious,
as we looked at last week, these great and precious pledges from
God to do us good, or promises, are to be received as a gift. A gift. Whereby are given. whereby are given." Now this,
if you're a believer, you understand this. It's all of grace. So we
understand that it's God's, it's a gift of God. It's a gift of
God's grace, through faith, like everything else that comes to
the believer, through the blood, to the believer. It's a gift. It's given. Given. Now that word, that word given,
It means to bestow gratuitously, or to bestow chargeless, or to
bestow costless. That's to us. It cost God. It cost Him the Son of God to
secure these promises to His covenant people. So it cost Him
something. And God charged His Son. everything that the law had,
he emptied, as it were, his gun in the chest of the Lord Jesus
Christ, he fulfilled all righteousness. But the word given, we can't, it's costless to us,
because it's already been paid for. So as we look at this second
part, or this first part, part one of the promises, and how
are these promises to be received by each and every believer, by
the singular work of our glorious Savior. He did it all for us
and therefore the promises are already ours. They're already
ours. We need not pay anything. And
doesn't that just sound like grace? Doesn't that just sound
like faith? Doesn't that just sound like belief? It's all grace.
It's all given to us. This is how we receive each and
every promise. as a gift. So that's the beauty
of it, is when you go to bed tonight and you're asking the
Lord to give you a promise regarding whatever it may be, because all
of the promises in God's book are in Christ, and if we're in
Christ, they're all ours. So you basically, you can't pray
through to God to get them, you can't earn them, you can't work
for them, they're a gift. which it just makes perfectly
sense, makes perfect sense to the believer because everything
that we have from A to Z is by grace. Let's look at a couple
passages. Matthew 11, 28. And we could
go on and on with these, but I've just got three examples or three passages I
want us to look at. Matthew 11, Starting in verse 28, 29, and
30, mainly verse 28, Matthew 11, Christ says, Come unto Me,
that's a promise, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
guess what? Freely, without cost to you, I will not
charge you anything, I will give you rest. The promise to all
who come to Christ is simply He gives rest. Oh, the gospel's
that simple? The gospel's that easy? Woe if
I complicate it. Now, I'm not talking about easy
believism. I'm not talking about walking
an aisle. I'm not talking about making
a decision for Jesus like all these other churches say. That's
all works related. That's you doing something and
God's got to reward you. to come unto Christ is to call
all you that labor and are heavy laden, if you meet the qualifications,
is your sin a labor? Are you heavy laden with your
sin, your iniquity, your corruption, your vileness? He'll give you
rest. John chapter 3. John chapter
3. And verse 18, John chapter 3
verse 18, he or she that believes on Christ is not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Well, how do you believe? I'm
not even going to go there. I'm not going to give you anything
that you think you need to work at. I'm not going to do it. This is the Scriptures. This
is the Word of God, potent in and of itself. He or she that
believes on Christ, not himself, not as my mother
and father was done, not believing in his baptism, not believing
in his so-called faith or repentance, though these are all outcomes
of a grace already worked in the heart, simply he that believes
on Christ is not condemned. So the promise is that he or
she that believes upon the Son has life, and that's everlasting
life. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 12, Now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. The promise is that we do, by
His Holy Spirit, know the things of God. They're freely given
to us. The things of God are freely
given to everyone who receives, and we could go to John chapter
1. Let's do that. Let's go to John chapter 1. Christ, in verse 10 of John 1,
was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not. And that's how we were born not
knowing God. We're not born with dormant faith, or faith that's
inactive and it's just got to be prodded along. No, we don't
know Him from birth, by nature, by practice. He came into His
own, and His own received Him not. He came into the Jews, but
more specifically, He came into His own. All people are said
to be gods by creation, I guess. came into his own, and they rejected
him. But as many as received him,
Christ, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, sons
or daughters of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born, not of blood, that means your family lineage,
doesn't matter whether you're saved or not, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, your supposed free will. I choose God, I don't choose
God. No, that's not how it works. But we're born of God. So, if we're born of God, we've
received the Spirit of God. And receiving the Spirit of God,
that's the promise, we will know the things which are freely given
us a gift by a gift of God. So how is those promises to be
received? Whether it's strength to go on
in the day, if you just, I don't know if I could make it, you
go to the Word or the Lord brings something in your mind and you
get a promise, you lay hold of that and you make it through
the rest of the day. or situations about the church,
or situations about your neighbors, or situation about, you name
it, we can petition it. We know that things are freely
given. I like how that's freely given.
No cost and no charge, because Christ has already taken all
that. So if we, by divine intervention, or by Holy Spirit enabling, have
come to Christ, we've seen that in Matthew, we are promised our
given rest. Secondly, as in John chapter
3, if we come by the divine intervention, by Holy Spirit enabling, we have
life. We believe on Him, we have life.
And thirdly, out of this passage in Corinthians, we are not ignorant
of these things that are ours in Jesus Christ, Because last
week we looked at all the promises in Christ, or yes, all the promises
in Him. That was our first introductory
thought was, who are these for? They're for the sheep. For those
other sheep I have, they're not of this fold, but they'll come.
They'll come through the preaching and the speaking of the truth.
Are you telling folks what you know about grace of God, about
God Himself, about man, and about this Redeemer? This gift cannot
be, as I said, it cannot be a debt. We cannot work for it. We cannot
merit it. It's a free gift. It's freely given to us of God. So, if we are born from above,
born again, meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, We are also freely given all Bible promises regarding
life, protection, salvation, safety, growth and grace, sanctification,
righteousness, and basically everything necessary to walk
in God's light throughout this life. That's why Spurgeon talks
about living on the promises. And if you have life, That's
what you do. That's just simply what you do. You don't live on Christ by the
law, because the law didn't make us righteous. Christ made us
righteous. You know, there's just so much
to this. As he says in another place, we're joint heirs. Heirs
according to promise. So what was Abraham's, if we're
Abraham's seed, and we looked at that last week, they're ours.
Old Testament, New Testament. And we'll look at, as we go down
the road, we'll look at more of these. Let me get some, I
have some quotes from Spurgeon. The poor the wretch, or the poor
the, you know, we know what wretch is. I don't know if the children
know what wretch is. The poor the sinner. The more welcome
he or she is at the door of divine charity. On God's part, it is all giving. On our part, It is all receiving. There is no commission payable
upon receipt of His grace, the promises. There's no, you're
not, okay, I gotta pay for it. No, you're not gonna get a receipt,
because it's already been taken care of. Receiving God's promise
as a gift, He will not degrade Himself by listening to any other
terms. So, again, if you're opening
up your Bible and you say, well, if I've got to do A, B, C, and
then I can receive the promise, no. You go as you go to the throne
of grace. Boldly, because access is there. This is a Spurgeon likened it
to a check. He says, this is the checkbook,
okay? And he does have a little thing
called faith checkbook. But he said it's like if somebody,
and he was giving an example, somebody gave him a check and
said, make sure this gets cashed and gets to the children's orphanage.
He said he didn't walk around with it in his pocket or go back
to the study and take it out and look at it. It didn't do
him any good. He immediately went and cashed
it. And then it was useful. These are checks and they're
already written. So how do we receive it? We're sons and daughters,
we're heirs. We can boldly go to the Scriptures
and cash these checks. Obviously then, these promises
are as is salvation or any other grace it's given. We cannot earn
them, as I said, or buy them with good works or abstinence
from evil works. No, He freely gives and we freely
receive. And brethren, I like this. Our
God loves to give. He knows it is more blessed to
give than to receive. He is the supreme giver. He's the supreme giver. freely,
He gives these promises freely according to the riches of His
grace. We as His dear children should
be overjoyed with the prospect of searching the Scriptures to
find promises, gather them up, and rehearse them back in Jehovah's
ear. There's nothing too small. There's
nothing too insignificant, though we are insignificant of ourselves.
But He has taken notice of us worms, worms of the dust. And
He says He's taken us out of the dunghill and set us among
princes. And it's our princely right to spend and ask for more grace
to receive these exceeding great and precious promises. Next week
we'll look at something else, and they may be short, these
messages may be short, they may be longer, depending on what
we're looking at. But I just kind of wanted to
go slow, and go through it, and then just, again, these promises,
they're gifts. They're grace. But if we're His
people, we can boldly Snag them for every single need. Every
single need. Bruce, would you close us? All things that are said in this
word. Hard to imagine all these promises
and plans are in there, but they are for us. We know they are. When we said so, we give them
to us. We so many times don't use it
or take advantage of it to support our faith and our healer strength
as we go through our days. I also just want to look to you
and look to your word that will make life easier for all we serve.
Lord, we thank you for this message. We pray, Lord, that you would
pray people here, fill this building with people, Lord. We want to
hear your message.