Turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter
1, a couple of announcements. This evening, we're going to
observe the Lord's Table together. And this Friday, there's going
to be a church pool party at Tate's Creek. Information is
back in the foyer. And next Sunday morning after
church, if you didn't get your picture for the directory, Susan
Sly is going to take pictures and anyone that wants their picture
in it tomorrow or next Sunday after the morning services. Tonight, I'm going to be speaking
from Daniel, Chapter five on the writing on the wall, Daniel,
Chapter five. I have entitled this message,
Yea or Nay, It Cannot Be Both. Yea or Nay, It Cannot Be Both. Now one of the glorious things
about the Lord is that He always brings good out of evil. He's the only one who can do
that, and he always does, in fact, do that. The ultimate example
of that is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most evil thing
that ever took place, brings the greatest glory to God. Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter
1, Paul was relating a very sad thing. He was having to defend
himself against accusations made against him. Now, that's such
a sad thing when you think of Paul the apostle having to defend
himself to these church people. And he did it. It's very sad. There were accusations being
made against him. but through those accusations
were given this wonderful passage of scripture that perhaps we
wouldn't have had unless Paul was dealing with this where he
said all the promises of God in him are yea and amen unto
the glory of God by us now let's back up into verse 15 of 2nd
Corinthians chapter 1 and in this confidence I was
minded to come unto you. That's what my intention was,
that you might have a second benefit, a second visit and a
second benefit. Wouldn't it be beneficial? I
mean, you think about this. What if the Apostle Paul was
to come in our midst? That'd be great, wouldn't it?
I mean, we would consider it a great benefit. And he said,
my purpose was to come to you this second time, verse 16, and
to pass by you into Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia
unto you and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea. Now, such were my intentions Man proposes, God disposes. These were my intentions, but
I was providentially hindered from being able to do what I
wanted to do. Now, through this, he was criticized. Verse 17. When I therefore was
thus minded, when that was my purpose, did I use likeness?
Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the
flesh? that with me there should be yea, yea and nay, nay. Now he was accused of levity,
of fickleness, of inconsistency. His detractors said he speaks
out of both sides of his mouth. And he says one thing and he
does another. His critics wanted to discredit
and call into question his character, so his preaching would also be
called into question. They said with Paul, there's
yea and nay. He says yes and no to the same
question. And that's what yes and no is,
yea and nay. It's an answer to a question.
I ask you a question, you answer with either a yes or a no, or
if I'm inconsistent, I'll say yes and no. to the same question. And that's what they were accusing
Paul of, inconsistency. He's a yea, nay man. Verse 18, But as God is true,
our word toward you was not yea and nay. As God is true, as God
is faithful, there's no yea, nay with him. Everything he says
is absolute. You can count on that. No yay
and nay with him. And our word toward you was the
same. It wasn't yay and nay, answering
yes and no to the same question. We didn't do that. Our word toward
you was yay. Now, he was accused of yay and
nay. And you know, that would characterize
most of the preaching that I hear. Yea, nay. Answering yes and no
to the precise same thing. Yes, this is what I stand for
if the wind's blowing in that direction. But no, that's not
what I believe if it's going to cost me something. Yes and
no, yea and nay. And there's always an evil motive
behind yea and nay preaching. Now, let me try to give you some
examples of what Paul is talking about. He says in verse 18, but
as God is true and faithful, our word toward you is not yea
and nay. Now, yes and no are answers to a question. I
understand that. This is very important. Yes and
no are very simple answers to a question. Now here's an example.
Do you believe that the Bible is our only rule of faith and
practice? Yes, I do believe that. And to prove I believe it, I've
got church confessions, I've got creeds, I've got a 452-page
church document with bylaws and rules that tell us that that's
what we need to believe. And so, yes, I do believe the
Bible is our only rule of faith and practice, and these confessions
I have and these creeds I have prove it. That's saying yes and
no to the same question. Is salvation all of grace. Yes! Yes, salvation is all of
grace. However, you need to do your
part to activate that grace or that grace won't do you any good.
That's saying yes and no to the precise same question. Is God sovereign Yes, He's sovereign. We stand for the sovereignty
of God, and in His sovereignty, He's decided to not be sovereign
over man's will. Man's got a free will, and God
cannot be sovereign over that, but He's sovereign everywhere
else. Yes and no to the precise same question. Does God love
everybody? Yes. Of course he loves everybody,
but no, he stops loving if that man refuses to receive his love
and he sends him to hell. I've never heard anybody maintain
that God loves people who are in hell while he's pouring his
wrath out upon them. Yes, he loves everybody, but
no, that love can stop. Did the death of Christ actually
pay for sin? Well, of course it did. The death
of Christ paid for sin. He made an atonement for everybody,
but no, you may go to hell for those sins he atoned for if you
don't do what you need to do to make that atonement work for
you. That's yes and no to the precise
same question. Did Christ die for all men savingly? Yes, his intention was to save
all men, but no, those who don't believe, even though he died
for them, They will not be saved. Is salvation by faith alone?
Of course it is. Yes, but no. If all you have
is faith in Christ, that's not enough evidence. You need something
else to really be sure that you're saved. You need some works to
go along with that. Are believers under the law?
No, not for salvation, but yes, as a rule of life. Yes, as a
means of growth. Yes and no to the same question. Is grace enough to motivate?
Well, yes, it is if it motivates you, but no, if it doesn't motivate
you, we need to use threats and put out rewards and punishments
and so on. We need both. Both. Is sovereign grace, and by sovereign
grace, I mean that Preaching that declares that God is absolutely
sovereign in the dispensation of grace, and he gives it to
whomsoever he will, and he withholds from whomsoever he will. That
men are dead in sin, but God elected a people, and Christ
died for the elect and accomplished their salvation. And God, the
Holy Spirit, irresistibly comes and gives them life. Is that
the gospel? Yes! But you can preach something
else and still preach the gospel. You see, that's yes and no to
the same question. Now, Paul says our preaching
for you was not yea and nay. It was not yes and no. Now, back to our text, 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." Is salvation all of grace? Yes. from election to glorification
and everything in between. Not yes and no. Yes. Is the Bible
our only rule of faith and practice? Yes. Period. Is God sovereign? Yes. Period. He is the cause of causes. Did the death of Christ actually
pay the sin debt for the elect? Yes. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, has been nailed to the cross and I fear it no more.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Did Christ die for all men? No. No. He didn't die for those who
do not believe. He did not die for those who
are not of the number of the elect. Is salvation by faith
alone? Yes. Are believers under the law?
No. Is grace and love enough to motivate? Yes. Can you preach the gospel and
not preach sovereign grace? No. No. Is somebody saved when they give
a sin to the truth, but Christ is not the Lord of their life?
No. Absolutely not. Now, for the
Son of God, verse 19, our word toward you was not yea and nay.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay,
but in him was yea." Now, I love the way he speaks, the Son of
God, who was preached among you. Now, understand this. We preach not a what, but a who. The Son of God, who was preached. among you. We don't preach the doctrine
of election. We preach Him who elects. Big difference. We don't preach the doctrine
of the atonement. We preach Him who atones. We don't preach the doctrine
of regeneration. We preach Him who regenerates. We preach a person. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. We preach the Son of God. We
preach Him. Now, I love thinking about this. We preach The glory of His person. Jesus Christ. Now this is the
issue. This is the only issue. Who is
Jesus Christ? That settles everything, yes.
Who is Jesus Christ? What do you think of Christ?
Well, let me tell you what the Bible says regarding Him. He's God. He's man. He's the God-man. He's the mighty creator of the
universe. He's God 100%. All that God is, He is because
He's God. He said, He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. Actually, He's man, 100% man,
just as if He were not God. Isn't that mysterious? He's the
God-Man. We preach the glory of His person. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And we preach the excellency
of His character. I love it when He said to His
disciples, Do you believe in the Father? Believe also in Me.
Do you believe God created? You believe that? You believe
God created the heavens and earth? Believe that I'm the one who
did it, is what he's saying. Do you believe that God is holy?
Believe that I'm holy. Do you believe that God is all-powerful? Believe that I'm all-powerful.
Do you believe that God is all-wise? Believe that I'm all-wise. Do
you believe that God is absolutely just? Believe that I'm absolutely
just. Do you believe that God is merciful
and gracious? Believe that I am merciful and
gracious. Whatever you believe regarding
God, that's me, is what he said. You believe in God, you believe
also in me. When we preach the Lord Jesus
Christ, we preach the excellency of his character. God's got... I hesitate to say God's got character. In fact, I'm not going to say
it. God is. God is. Not, here's some good things
if God fits that. No. God is in whatever He is. That's glorious. We preach the
excellency of His person. And we preach the love of His
heart. the love of his heart to his
father. He did what he did in obedience
to the father. And we preach the love of his
heart to his people. Having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. And we preach the efficacy
of his blood. It is Yes, in a sense, and no, we don't
preach anything like that. We preach the efficacy of His
blood. When He said it is finished,
Todd Nybert's salvation was completed. That's efficacious. We preach the power of his plea. Wherefore, he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. We preach a person. When
he said from the cross, Father, forgive them. Did the Father
forgive them? Is there any way he could ask
for something and the Father say no to him? He said, Peter,
I prayed for you. that your faith fail not. Peter's
faith didn't fail, did it? And we preach the glory of His
return. We've sang two hymns or heard
in both hymns it talked about His return. And, Lord, haste
the day when my faith shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled
back as a scroll, the trump shall resound, the Lord shall descend,
Even so, praise the Lord, O my soul. We preach the glory of
His return. And we didn't preach Him as yea
and nay, but in Him is yea. In Him is amen. Now, here's what He says in verse
24. All the promises of God in Him are
yea, and in him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now, all the promises of God
in him. Now, what is meant by the promises
of God? God looks at this sinner. I'm
going to back this up with a scripture, but let me give you this example. God says to this sinner right
here, Your sins are forgiven. I've saved you. I've had mercy
on you. And he doesn't say, your sins
will be forgiven if. He doesn't say, I'll have mercy
on you if you blank. He says, your sins are forgiven. He says, I've had mercy on you.
Let me show you this in Scripture. Galatians chapter 3. Nothing for you to do to make
this promise work. If God promised it, it is done. And that's what the promises
of God are. Look in Galatians chapter 3,
verse 18. For if the inheritance salvation,
eternal glory, heaven. If the inheritance be of the
law, if it's given to me because of some work of obedience on
my part, it is no more a promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. That's what the promise... I
want God to make promise to me, don't you? I want the promises
of the gospel. Now, notice what Paul says in
this passage of scripture. He says, all of the promises
of God. And remember, you know, when I say I promise,
if you ask me to do something, I say, I promise I will. Just
the very fact that I got to say it means that I've lied before.
I'll do it this time. Well, what makes you think you
can believe me this time? You know, I mean, when a man makes
a promise, he is we ought to we ought to be good to our word.
Don't don't in any way think that I'm saying it's OK to not
keep your word. I'm not. We ought to keep our word. But
when we make a promise, all we say about that is I'm a liar.
And so here I'm trying to buttress this up. No, God never has to
say something like that because he cannot lie. God, who cannot
lie, promised this promise. All the promises of God in Him
are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now,
this is what Peter called exceeding great and precious promises. Oh, the promises of God. I've
already mentioned one. It's finished. That's a promise. It's finished. Nothing for me
to do. Absolutely nothing for me. It's
already been done. It's finished. That's God's promise. And it's not. It's finished if. It's finished, period. Here's a promise. Sin. shall not have dominion
over you. For you're not under law, but
under grace. That is the promise of God. By grace, you're saved. Complete unmerited favor. That's the promise of God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." That's the promise of God. If you call on His name, you
shall be saved. Call on his name right now. This
is God's promise. He made a promise. Ain't ever been anybody you ever
called on his name that he didn't say. You call on his name. You'll
be saved. He said, Him that cometh to me,
I will in no wise, for no reason cast out. That's God's promise. All the promises of God in him
are yea and amen. Ask and you shall receive. That's
God's promise. I've asked and I haven't received.
You expect me to believe God or you? If you really asked,
you have received. And if you think you've asked
for something you haven't received, it's because you were not really
asking. You were trying to strike a deal.
You were trying to bargain. You were trying to make payment.
But if you ask, you shall receive. By God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory. That is a promise. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling. That's a promise. And present
you faultless before the throne of his glory with exceeding joy.
That is a promise. No ifs, no ands, no buts. Colossians 2.10 says you're complete
in Him. That's a promise. Do you hear
that? You are complete. That means you don't lack anything.
Right now, all that God requires, you possess. That is a promise
to every believer. He said, My grace is sufficient
for thee. That's a promise. Is there sufficiency
in his grace? My grace is sufficient for thee. He said, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. That's a promise. We know that when he shall appear,
we'll be like him. For we shall see him as he is.
That is a promise to every believer. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
call according to his purpose. That is a promise of God. He said to his disciples, I go
and prepare a place for you. And he's talking about going
to the cross. I go and prepare a place for you in heaven." That's
a promise by what he did. I like this promise. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself. If I'm in him, I'm himself. And He cannot deny Himself. As He is, so are we in this world. He's faithful. He cannot deny
Himself. Now, I may be floundering in
the unbelief of my old nature, but still, He cannot deny Himself. He was manifested to take away
our sins. And in Him, is no sin. That is a promise. If you're
in him, beloved, right now, present tense, you have no sin. There is therefore now, right
now, Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. That is God's promise. Ephesians 1, 6 says, He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved. Right now, in the Beloved, without
reference to anything good about me or without reference to anything
bad about me, but in the Beloved, I'm accepted, I'm received. That is God's promise. Therefore, being justified. That's God's promise. Being justified. I think of what our Lord said
regarding that publican who beat on his breast, crying, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. The Lord said, I say unto you
that that man went down to his house. What's the next word?
justified rather than the other. That is God's promise. All the promises of God, I've
just named a few of them. There's a whole lot of them,
aren't there? Truly, they're exceeding great and precious
promises. All the promises of God in him
are yea. certain. And in him, amen. So be it. Complete agreement. You know, in my heart, when I
hear the gospel, when I hear the truth, even how my heart
responds, amen. That's the truth. I know it's
the truth. So be it. Let it be so. Amen. All the promises of God in him
are yea and amen. Now this is why they're so sure
they're in him. What if the promise of God went
like this? I'll have mercy on you if you do your part. Where
would that leave you? Where would that leave you? Christ's blood will work for
you if you do your part. Where would that leave you? That's
called a conditional promise. And that kind of promise won't
do them any good. Sin shall not have dominion over you if you
strive against it and refuse to give in to it and pull yourself
up by the bootstraps. Then sin won't have dominion
over you. How would you handle a promise
like that? But here's the promise of God. Sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under law. but under grace. See, it's a promise that's in
him. In him. Turn with me to 2 Samuel,
chapter 23. 2 Samuel, chapter 23. In verse one, we read, now these
be the last words of David. David is on his dying bed. Now, I love David. I just love
him. I love to read the Psalms because
of the Psalms of David, the man after God's own heart, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, the one who is the spokesman of every believer. If you're a believer, The greatest
articulation of what you what's in your heart is found in the
Psalms. You read a psalm and you say, that's me. That's me.
And David. Now, these are his last words.
David's dying. Now, I said this before. There's
a lot of things David could have been thinking about. He could
have been thinking about that sin with Bathsheba. And that
cold-blooded, premeditated murder of Bathsheba's husband. And how
he tried to cover it all up. And because of that sin, the
sword never departed from his house in his life. He could have
been thinking about that. He could have been thinking about
that time he went running at Goliath with the sling and the
stone. You come to me with a sword and
spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. And
he kills that giant. He could have been thinking of
the mighty conquest the Lord used him for. But you know, that's
not what he was thinking about either way. Not the bad stuff
or the good stuff. There's some wisdom there, isn't there? Look in verse 5. 2 Samuel 23, verse 5. Although my house be not so with
God. He had a lot of wretchedness
going on in his home. A lot of it. And he also could have been talking
about this house. this tabernacle, this body, although
my house be not so with God. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered if I do my part. That's
ridiculous, isn't it? Ordered in all things and sure. And here's the promise of God.
He's made with me an everlasting covenant. Ordered in all things
and sure. For this is how much of my salvation? How much? A double L all. This is all my salvation. And
how much of my desire? All my desire, though he make
it not to grow. Now, all the promises of God
in him are yea, and in him, amen, unto the glory of God. You know, the promises of God
glorify him, don't they? unto the glory of God by us. Now, once again, here was a very
seemingly evil event that took place. Paul was being accused
of wrongdoing. His character was being called
into question. That's so sad. I mean, here's
the thing. There's not a finer man than
the Apostle Paul. And yet he has his church members
calling into question his integrity, trying to discredit what he says. And that's a horrible thing.
You think of the pain that caused Paul. But yet, through this horrible
event, we're given this precious scripture. All the promises of
God in him are yea. And in him, amen to the glory
of God by us. Let's pray.