Why don't you take your Bibles
and open them to the book of Psalms. I'm going to be speaking
from Psalm 91. Psalm 91. The title of the message
today is the promises of God. The promises of God. In our scripture
Psalm 91. You know Peter, the Apostle Peter,
called the promises of God exceeding great and precious promises. Exceeding great and precious
promises. And then the Apostle Paul writing
about the promises of God said all the promises of God in Christ
are yes. All the promises of God in Christ
are yes and in him amen to the glory of God. And then Abraham,
it says in Romans 4, Abraham believed the promises of God.
That's what it says indirectly. It says Abraham believed that
what God had promised, that God was able to perform. So he believed
the promises of God. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness. And this was not written for
his sake alone that it was imputed to him. but for our sake also
to whom this righteousness will be imputed if we believe the
promises of God. The Bible is full of exceeding
great and precious promises, but in the 91st Psalm, Psalm
91, there are seven promises of God that I believe sort of
sum up all that we need and all that we desire. and all that
we must have in Christ Jesus. There's seven promises in this
91st Psalm that sort of sum up all that I need. All that I need. And these are exceeding great
and precious promises. Let me read them. Psalm 91, look
at verse 14, 15, and 16. Because he has set his love on
me, therefore, number one, I will deliver him. I will deliver him. Secondly, I will set him on high. That's God's promise. And it
says he shall call upon me and I'll answer him. And then fourthly,
I will be with him in trouble. And then I will deliver him and
honor him. He said before I will deliver
him, but now he says and I will honor him. And then in the sixth
place, he said, with long life will I satisfy him. And then
he says, I'll show him my salvation. There's a sevenfold promise or
seven promises of God. And I'm going to speak for a
little while on the promises themselves, the promises of God.
And then I'm going to close by addressing the people to whom
these promises are made or given. Now first, the promises of God
from Psalm 91, 14 through 16. And then the people. These promises
aren't to everyone. They're to a certain people.
And I'm going to talk about those people to whom these promises
are made. Now, here's the first one, number one. You follow along,
seven promises. Number one, God says, I'll deliver
him. I will deliver him. The word
deliver, you know what it means? Well, it means to save. It means
to set free. In Christ, God has delivered
us, set us free, now think about this, from the curse of the law.
You say, I'm not under the curse of the law. Oh yes, every fallen
son of Adam is under the curse of the law. What the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Listen
to Galatians 3.10. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not, that continueth not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
That's the curse of the law. It's upon everyone. But the verse
13 says, Christ hath redeemed us, hath delivered us, hath saved
us, hath set us free. That's God's promise in Christ.
From the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. God didn't just erase the law.
He didn't just improve our standing. Almighty God fulfilled the law
for us in his son. That's how he redeemed us from
the curse of the law. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. I will deliver him, God said.
I will set him free. I will save him from the curse
of the law. But now, not only the curse of
the law, but in Christ we're delivered from the curse of justice. Now, it is written, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. That's written. Have you ever
sinned? Of course I have. Everybody's
sinned. All that's sinned comes short of the glory of God. Then
the soul that sinneth shall die. That's what the word of God says.
Sin, when it's finished, brings forth death. It's apparted unto
me and wants to die. And after that, the judgment.
But there's a promise. He that believeth on the Son
shall never die. He that believeth on the Son
shall never come into condemnation. He that believeth on the Son
is passed from death unto life. And Paul boldly challenged heaven,
earth, and hell. In Romans 8, 33, he said, who
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather is risen again who
is at the right hand of God, whoever liveth to make intercession
for us. So Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, from the curse of judgment, and set us
free from all condemnation. That's a promise. God said, I
will set him free. I will deliver him. I will save
him. All right, here's the second
promise. You say there's more? Oh yes, there's more. Listen,
I will set him on high. I will set him on high. Now God's
not talking here about the high seats of government or the high
seats of religion or the high seats of business. These will
all pass away, all pass away with the rest of the world. Men
have occupied these high seats to their own unhappiness and
misfortune and destruction. Now listen to me, when God says
I'll deliver him and I'll set him on high, He's talking about
heavenly places. Seated with Christ in the heavenlies. That's the high place. That's
where we need to be and want to be seated and must be seated.
We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies. He hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. And our great
forerunner has entered, already entered in for us within the
veil and occupied our place. We're crucified with Christ,
risen with Christ, and seated with Christ on the right hand
of God. That's what he's talking about. I'll seat him on high. I'll give him a seat in the highest
places, in the heavenlies. Where Christ is, we are. And
what Christ has, we have. You see that? And what Christ
is, we are. Where he is, we are. What he
has, we have. What he is, we are. Accepted
in the Beloved. That's what the songwriter said.
In the Beloved, accepted am I. Risen, ascended, and seated on
high. Saved from all harm by his infinite
grace, with my Redeemer, afforded a place. Seated on high. Already glorified. Then he said
in the third place in Psalm 91 14, he said, he will call upon
me. Now watch this. I'll answer him.
I will answer him. Do you and I really comprehend
the greatness of that promise? God says, I will answer him. I'll answer him. I'll answer
his call for mercy. I'll answer his call for mercy.
Lord be merciful to me, the sinner. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." I'll answer his call for mercy.
I'll answer his call for daily bread. Give us this day our daily
bread. David said, I'm young, I've been
old, but I've never seen God's seed begging bread. I'll answer
his call for strength. Lord, remove this thorn. I won't
remove it, but I'll give you strength and grace that's sufficient.
I'll answer his call for dying grace. Stephen cried, Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit. The Lord answers his people when
he will and as he will, but he does answer his people. We're
not going to put God in a box or make God follow our blueprints
or our plans or our wills. We're going to pray, thy will
be done, not my will be done, but thy will be done. But God
says, I'll answer him. You call on me and I will answer
him. Now notice the fourth promise.
God says I'll be with him in trouble. In trouble. The Apostle Paul said we're troubled
on every side. Every believer has trouble. He
either has had trouble or is having trouble or will have trouble.
For our Lord said in this world you shall have trouble, you shall
have tribulation. And 1 Corinthians 7, 27, 28 talks
about trouble in the flesh. But we're not alone. God says,
I will be with you in trouble. I'll be with you in trouble,
in trial, in tribulation, in affliction. When the believer
goes through the valley of trouble and trial, he's conscious of
several things. First of all, he's conscious
of this. Now listen carefully. When a believer goes through
trouble, And you either have, or you are, or you will, because
our Lord promises, they that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer. It is given unto us not only
to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake. Now that's true. But there are three things of
which we're conscious in time of trouble and trial, great trial,
great trouble. Number one, we're conscious of
his purpose in this trial and in this trouble. It's according
to the will of our Father. For all things work together
for good to them who love God, who are called according to his
purpose. And our Lord in James and also
in 1 Peter tells us that we're going to have trials, fiery trials,
that will try our faith. And this tribulation worketh
patience. It accomplishes the will of God
on our behalf and for his glory. So whatever the trouble, whatever
the trial, we're certain of this, God our Father has a purpose
in it. Now we have fathers in the flesh,
when we were growing up, who punished us for reasons known
to them, who deprived us of certain things that we thought we wanted
and needed, and they withheld them from us or gave us certain
things and gave us medicine that was bitter. or gave us a shot
of antibiotics that we needed, or put us in the hospital and
removed our appendix or our tonsils as a pain we had to endure. It
was trial and trouble, but our fathers and mothers and doctors
felt it best for us. And when a child of God goes
through trial and burden and trouble, he knows his father
is the first cause of all this, has a purpose in it for our good
and his glory. We know that. Secondly, we're
not only conscious of his purpose in the trial, but we're conscious
of his presence in the trial. We're not alone. He said, I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. I'll
be with you. I'll be with you in joy and sorrow. I'll be with you in trouble.
I'll be with you in success. I'll be with you. I'll never
forsake you. We're not only conscious of his purpose in a trial and
his presence, But we're conscious of his power, his power in that
trial, his is the greater power, either to deliver us or to enable
us to endure. Now, will you remember that?
We're conscious of our God's power. He's able to deliver us. He's able to lift the load, lift
the burden, heal the sickness, remove the distress, end the
sorrow. He's able to remove it. Or he's
able to give you the grace to endure it for his glory and your
good. So he said, I'll be with him
in trouble. And then the next promise, he
said, I'll deliver him and honor him, honor him. Now, the best
way I know to explain this is to read a scripture in first
Samuel chapter two, verse eight, Hannah's prayer. It says here,
now watch this. I will deliver him and honor
him, honor him. And we talked about delivering
a while ago, delivering us from the curse of the law and from
the curse of justice and judgment. But he said, I'll deliver him
now and I'll honor him. The Lord, listen to 1 Samuel
2 verse 8. The Lord raiseth up the poor
out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill.
But that's not the end of that. He raiseth the poor out of the
dust. Where does he find us? In the
dust. He remembereth our frame. He knoweth it with dust. Where
does he find us? On the dunghill. Beggars on the
dunghill. But what does he do for us? He
said, I'll set them among princes, among kings. I'll make them inherit
the throne of glory. Now think about that. God says,
I'll not only deliver him, but I'll honor him. If a man serves
time in the penitentiary here in America, we may pardon him,
parole him, or set him free when he serves his time. But I guarantee
you, I guarantee you he'll have a hard time living down that
experience. People won't let him. They won't
let him. They don't honor him. They don't
ever let him forget that he's a former criminal or a former
convict. This is not right, but nevertheless,
they will not let him forget it. They'll never let him have
a place of honor. They'll never elect him to some representative
seat in their government. They'll never honor him. They'll
never make him the president. No sir, no way, but God does.
He said, I found the poor in the dust and the beggar on the
dunghill, and I'll exalt him and honor him. and make him a
king, even to inherit him the throne of glory. That's what
he said, I'm going to honor you. You that were so low are going
to be raised so high, sons of God. Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be,
but we know when he shall appear we're going to be like him. You
talk about a promise, I'll honor him. Honor him. Now what's the
sixth promise? I will satisfy him with long
life. Long life. Now I know that most
everyone thinks when I mention, when I read that scripture, I'll
satisfy him with a long life. They think about long life on
this earth. God's gonna satisfy us with 80,
90 or 100 years on this earth. That's not what he's talking
about. Not at all. Not at all. The longest life
on this earth is but a moment. If you lived a hundred years,
it'd just be a vapor, a shadow, just a fleeting moment like a
weaver's shuttle. That's not what he's talking
about. God's talking about a long life. God's talking about satisfying
us with a long life, eternal life, never-ending life. He said this is the record. God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. And
he that hath the Son of God hath life, when we've been there ten
million years, bright shining as the sun. Talk about ninety
years or a hundred years, I'm talking about eons. Time after time, when there is
no time. Eternity, when we've been there
ten million years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Now you're talking
about long life. They'll never die. Never die. Never die. Never get sick. No parting there. And then he
said, not only will I satisfy him with long life, but I'll
show him my salvation. I'm going to show him my salvation.
What a promise. Who is God's salvation? I'm going
to show him my salvation. What's the Lord God talking about?
He's talking about a person. He's talking about Jesus Christ.
That's God. He's God's salvation. God's salvation
is Christ Jesus. I've been saying that so many
years on this broadcast, on this telecast. Salvation is not a
profession. Salvation is not a reformation. Salvation is not responding to
an invitation. Salvation is in a person. When
our Lord Jesus Christ was brought by Mary and Joseph to the temple
to fulfill for him after the law, there was an old man in
that temple named Simeon. And God had promised Simeon that
he would never die until he had seen the Messiah, the Christ.
And that old man waited and served about the temple for a long time
until he had a long white beard and long white gray hair. And
he was old. And they brought that young child
into the temple, and they took him up in his arms. The Spirit
of God spoke to him. And he said, Lord, now let thy
servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Salvation is in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that seeth the Son and believeth
on him hath everlasting life. You see, salvation is by representation. In Adam we die, in Christ we're
made alive. By man came death, by man came the resurrection.
The first Adam was of the earth, earthy, the second Adam is the
Lord from heaven. And Jesus Christ the Lord is
God's salvation. Without him there is no salvation.
He performed it, he perfected it, he provided it, he worked
it out. He himself is the Lamb. He is
the Lord God to whom the Lamb is provided and for whom the
Lord's The lamb is provided. And he's the altar on which the
lamb is slain and his is the blood that's shed. He's everything
in redemption. He's God's salvation. Jesus Christ. You take my yoke upon you, he
said, learn of me. When you learn of Christ, you're
learning of God's salvation. The more you learn of Christ,
the more you know of God's salvation. It's all in him. Now, here's
the promises. I will deliver him, set him free. I will set him on high in heavenly
places. I'll answer him when he calls.
I'll be with him in all trouble. I'll honor him, son of God. I'll satisfy him with eternal
life, long life, and I'll show him my salvation. Now then, consider
the people to whom these promises of God are given. They're given
to a certain people. I'll show you that. Look here
at Psalm 91. And they're described by three
statements in Psalm 91. Three statements. Number 1, verse
9. Because thou hast made the Lord
thy refuge and thy habitation, I will deliver him. Secondly,
verse 14. Because thou hast set thy love
upon him, I'll deliver him. Verse 14. Because thou hast known
my name, I will deliver him. These promises are made to those
who have made the Lord their refuge and habitation. These
promises are made to those who have set their love, their affection
on Jesus Christ. And these promises are made to
those who know his name, who know the power of it, who know
the glory of it, of his name. deal with those one at a time
in the brief time we have left. First of all, is the Lord God
your refuge, your habitation, your hiding place? It's called
in verse 1, dwelling in the secret place. He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the Most High. That's dwelling in that covenant
of grace. That's dwelling in the shepherd's
foe. One sheep, one shepherd, one
foe. That's dwelling within the veil.
I'm not talking about dwelling in religion. Being a member,
well I'm a member of the church I'm a member of the, I'm talking
about dwelling in the secret place. The Lord God is your refuge. I'm not talking about dwelling
in the church or religion or experience, but dwelling in him,
in him. Now note this, secondly, is he
your refuge, your hiding place? Secondly, have you set your love
upon him? He sat Peter down one day and
talked to him and he said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said,
Lord, you know I love you. He said, feed my lambs. Again,
he said, Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, thou knowest I
love thee. Feed my lambs. He asked him the third time.
He said, Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, you know everything.
You know I love you. This is the issue, my friend.
It's love for Christ. If any man love not our Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. It's not just accepting Jesus
as your personal savior, or a fire escape from hell, or an insurance
policy in case you need it. It's loving Christ. It's approval
of his person and his work. Agreement with his person and
work. Let me show you something. Love
to Christ is the mark of the new birth. Everyone that loveth
is born of God. That's what the Bible says. Love
to Christ is the mark of knowing God. He that loveth not knoweth
not God. Love to Christ is the root of
love to others. He that loveth God loveth those
that are begotten of God. Love to Christ is the means of
peace. Perfect love casteth out fear. Love to Christ is motivation
for holiness. the love of Christ constraineth
me. You see what I'm talking about?
These promises, I'll deliver him, I'll honor him, I'll set
him on high, I'll answer him, I'll be with him in trouble,
I'll show him my salvation, are made to people who have made
the Lord their refuge. Their habitation. They dwell
in the secret place. They live in fellowship with
the King. They dwell in the Lord. And secondly,
they flat love Him. There's no conflict. They love
Him more than mother, father, brother, sister, husband, wife,
yea, more than their own life also. They love Him more than
their ambitions. They love Him more than anything
on this earth. They love Christ. And I tell
you, It's the mark of the new birth. It's the mark of knowing
God, to love Christ Jesus. And then last of all, he says
these promises are made to those who know my name. Who know my
name. Now one of these days I'm going
to bring a message on the name of the Lord. And his name is,
it's more than just knowing that his name is Jesus. It's knowing
what Jesus means. Jesus is his name of humiliation. Jesus is Joshua, God my Savior. God incarnate. God became a man. Jesus Christ. The Christ is the
Messiah. The Christ is that prophet, priest,
and king. The Christ is an office, which
is given to Christ by decree, design, and death. He purchased
that right. He's the Christ. He's Jesus Christ
the Lord. He's God in human flesh. His
name contains all of his glory. His attributes, His character. And that's what we mean by whoso
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He knows
my name. I know whom I have to believe.
These promises aren't just to anybody. They're to those who've
made the Lord their refuge. To those who love Him and those
who know His name.