If you will, let us open our
Bibles today to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and reading
verses 17 through 20. My text this morning will be
verse 20. beginning in verse 17, when I
therefore was thus minded, 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? But as God is true, 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 Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. For all the promises of God in
Him are yea, and in Him, amen, unto the glory of God. I have
time to say just a few words about the context in which our
text is found. Paul was the man that God used
to take the gospel to Corinth, a city in Greece. He stayed there
for several years. God saved and raised up a church
and he left. And after he had left, this church
sent several questions to him. And they also had something that
was going on in their church that Paul had to correct. And he said that he would visit
them again. And because he was waiting to
make sure and to find out that they had corrected the problem
in this church, he delayed his trip and returning back to them. They accused him. This allowed
the false teachers who came to Corinth, they usually followed
the gospel everywhere the gospel went. False teachers came in
following the truth, trying to discredit the gospel and discredit
God's man, the apostle Paul. They said he's fickle. He uses
likeness. He's wishy-washy. He said he
would come and he hasn't come. And Paul tells them, if you notice
in verse 23, the real reason that he had not yet come to them. Moreover, I call God for a record
upon my soul that to spare you, I came not as yet unto Carth. Paul would not come because he
did not want to come and use discipline upon that church.
He wanted them to correct the problem. And when he received
word that the problem had been corrected, that he could come
to them and rejoice with them, not come with something to straighten
out, but to come and preach the gospel and preach the word of
God to them that they might even enjoy more of the Lord's blessings. So that's the context in which
my text is found this morning. That is verse 20. For all the promises of God in
him, or yea, and in him, amen, unto the glory of God. The gospel is a positive message. It's the most positive message
that this world has ever received. It's a positive message. The
gospel tells us who we are. It tells us the truth about ourselves. It doesn't cut any corners. It doesn't try to lift us up
and tell us that we are something that we are not. The gospel tells
us exactly who and what we are. We are sinners who need a savior. The gospel is a positive message. It tells us who we are and it
tells us who Christ is. He is the eternal son of God
who was made flesh and dwelt among us. The gospel is positive
in the fact that it tells us not only who he is but what he
has accomplished. He didn't come here to try. to
give his best shot to do the work which the Father gave him
to do. He came here to accomplish God's
will. And until he accomplished God's
will, he remained here. But when he was upon the cross,
dying in the place and in the stead of his people, he said,
it is finished. I have finished the work which
the Father gave me to do. The gospel is a positive message. It tells us of where He is. Where is Christ today? His body
is not in some tomb over there in Jerusalem or around Jerusalem
where men can make pilgrimage to and go around His tomb, you
know, like every other false cult. The tombs of their founders
are somewhere, and people like to go there. Those who are ensnared
in those lies like to go there and worship a dead leader. No, Christ is living. He's a
living Lord. He's at all authority. Not most authority. All authority
is given unto me both in heaven and in earth. Where is he now? He's upon the right hand of God. He ever lives to make intercession
for us and the scepter is in his hand. He reigns and he rules
over all of God's creation. The gospel is a positive message. It tells us, for whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And it
tells us that he's coming again one day to receive those of his
own. And we will be with him forever
and ever. And those who are not his own,
that they shall go out into everlasting darkness. They shall be dispelled
or punished by being separated forever, for all eternity from
God. The gospel is a positive message. Those that are born of the Spirit
believe in this one. You say, who hath believed our
report? This is what Isaiah said. Who
hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Man by nature doesn't believe
this gospel message. But thank God, God the Holy Spirit
works in the hearts of His people. And we believe. And because we
believe, we have certain birthrights. Just as a person who is born
in this country has certain birthrights by being born in this country,
so those who are born of the Spirit of God, we have birthrights. And there are many, there are
many, but I'm going to speak to us of only one, and that is
the many promises of God. They're ours, the promises of
God. They are the birthright of every
child of God. The scripture says, for all the
promises of God, notice that, our text, verse 20. For all the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen. Now there's
five divisions in my message for those of you who take notes. First, the promises of God are
the promises of him who cannot lie. I would be surprised if
there's anyone in this building this day who has not been given
a promise by someone and they failed in completing the promise. And I'd be surprised if there's
anyone here today who hasn't promised someone something and
we failed. But that will never be true of
the God whose promises we're looking at today. When Egypt, when Israel rather
was coming out of Egypt, they were in their way to the the
land of Canaan, and there was a king by the name of Balak.
He was king of Moab, and he hired a false prophet to come and curse
God's children, God's people. His name was Balaam. Balaam at
first didn't want to come, but he couldn't resist the money,
like most false prophets. They're hirelings. They're hirelings. The sheep are not theirs, and
they can be bought off. Balaam, he was a hireling. He
was a false prophet. And he tried his best to curse
God's Israel, but God wouldn't let him. And every time he went
off and had seven altars built and seven sacrifices, hoping
that somehow he would be able to come back and curse Israel. And one of those times he came
back and God, the scripture tells us God the Holy Spirit put these
words in his mouth. This is what he said, God is
not a man that he should lie. What did I say? I said that most
of us have been promised by someone and they did not fulfill their
promise. Most of us have promised something
to someone and we did not fill our promise. God is not a man
that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent.
The word repent means to change. No. Hath he said? Hath God said? Hath God promised? And will he
not do it? Or hath he spoken? And shall
he not make it good? All of those are rhetorical questions,
aren't they? We know the answer. We know the
answer. Shall he not do it? Hath he said
and shall he not do it? Absolutely. Hath he spoken and
shall he not make it good? You can count on it because these
are the promises of God who cannot lie. He said, I am the Lord,
I change not. He's immutable. He's the same
today as he was yesterday and shall be throughout all the future. These are the promises of God
of him who cannot lie. Second, the promises of God are
in him. This is what our text tells us.
For all the promises of God are in Him. Now who is He speaking
of? Him. He's speaking of Christ. Of Christ. All the promises of
God are in Christ. They could only be in Him because
when God made these promises, He alone existed. Because you
see, He, like the promises, is everlasting. There's an everlasting
covenant which contains the promises made, and they were made with
Him, that is, with Christ and with His people in Him. Just as our bodies, our head
is connected to our bodies, we're all members of the same body,
so Christ, He has a body, a mystical body, He's the head of this body,
and all of His people are members of this body. And these promises
that were made by the God who cannot lie, they were all made
in Christ, to us in Christ, in Him. Think about this. What if these
promises had been made to our head, our representative head,
Adam? He was our head. He represented
us. What if all of these promises
had been made to us in Him? You know what would happen. They would have all been lost.
Why? Because Adam sinned. What if the promises had been
in us, separated from Christ? They would have been lost. No
question about it. No, all the promises of God are
in Him. They're all in Him, our representative
head, the second Adam, and yes, they're all yea, yes. They're all secure, amen. They can never be lost. because all the promises of God
are in him, that is, in Christ. Third, and I want you to turn
with me to 2 Peter. Look over here if you have your
Bibles, turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. The third thing I
point out to us about these promises, the promises of God are exceeding
great and precious. These promises of God, they're
all in Him, and they are all exceeding great and precious. Beginning in verse 2 of chapter
1 of 2 Peter, 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. I love the way the Apostle Peter
uses the word precious. Precious. Let me point a few
things out to us about the Apostle's use of the word precious. If
you look back to the first letter, first chapter, first epistle
of Peter, to chapter 2 and verse 6, he wrote, 1 Peter 2 and verse
6, wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I,
that is God, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. This cornerstone. This is Christ. He said, upon this rock, I will
build my church. Precious, precious cornerstone. And then if you look back to
chapter one of 1st Peter, verses 18 and 19, he speaks about the
precious blood. Verse 18, he said, for as much
as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things
as silver and gold from your vain conversation, Received by
tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ. Redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. And then back again in chapter
2 of 1 Peter, in verse 7, he said, unto you therefore which
believe, he is precious. Someone said, well, I'm not sure
if I'm a believer. Is Christ precious to you? Is
it unto you which believe he is
precious? Most valuable thing that I shouldn't
call him a thing, but the most valuable possession that you
may have is Christ. There's no way to put a monetary
value upon Christ. If you had all the world and
do not have Christ, what shall it profit a man? unto you which believe he is
precious. And then look back in 2 Peter
chapter 1 in verse 1. I love the way he uses the word
precious. That's what I'm pointing out.
In verse 1 of the second letter he said, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like
precious faith. Like precious faith. You see,
you've obtained it if you have it. Men are not born with faith. This is a lie that natural religion,
false religion teaches. That everybody has faith and
yet the scripture clearly says all men have not faith. All men have a type of faith,
I suppose. but not this faith that believes
and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ. This faith is produced
in a person having experienced a new birth, being given life,
a dead man, and that's the condition of all men apart from Christ,
dead in trespasses and sins, cannot exercise faith. Faith is a precious thing. God's given you faith. You've
obtained it. And it's just your faith. Notice
he says, like, like precious faith. You have the same kind
of faith if you have this precious faith that the Apostle Peter
had. He didn't have faith naturally
either. He was given faith. And if the
Lord's given you faith, you know This morning is precious, isn't
it? Why do you believe? You say,
I believe. I trust Christ. I know Christ
is my Lord and Savior. Why? Why would you believe and
your neighbor doesn't believe? Well, I'm smarter than him. Oh,
no. Oh, no. That has nothing to do
with it. Well, I'm more moral than him. Oh, no. Well, I've always tried to live
by the golden rule. No. If you believe today, if you
have faith, it is because you have obtained, God has given
you faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. But notice my subject, promises. Great, exceeding great, and precious
promises. Promises, precious promises. One of the promises that we have
received, let me just read this, is found in Titus chapter one
and verse two. It's a promise of eternal life. In Titus chapter 1 in verse 2
it says, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. Precious promise. Now my fourth division is the
promises of God are given unto us. That's what our text here
in 2 Peter says. Verse four, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises. You know, we see this
truth in the words that our Lord spoke to Martha. This is recorded
in John chapter 11. But Martha and Mary and Lazarus
lived in a small village by the name of Bethany. And the Lord
was received into their home on several occasions. And then
their brother Lazarus died and they sent word to the Lord Jesus,
he whom thou lovest is sick. And the Lord tarried there. He
didn't come immediately. And when he did come, Lazarus
had already died and been buried for four days. And Martha met
him as the Lord Jesus was coming into the village. And she said,
Lord, I know that my brother will rise in the resurrection.
The Lord had told her, your brother shall rise again. She said, I
know, I know he will rise in the resurrection. And the Lord
said these words unto her, Martha, I am the resurrection and the
life. You say life, eternal life is
in Christ. The resurrection is in Christ. All the promises of God are yay
and amen in him. And when a person knows Christ
has him, then he has life and he has hope of the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the
life. These promises are given unto
us. I want to emphasize that they're
given unto us. People say, well, preacher, you,
you harp on this all the time. I sure do. And if God will allow
me to continue to preach, I'm going to continue to be a fiddle
with one string. With one string, yes. I'm going
to continue by the grace of God to declare that I would preach
nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified and that salvation
is a gift. Salvation is by grace, and God
will not have it any other way. You say, why is it? Because God
will not share His glory with another. And any other way than
salvation being by grace, by being given, allows man to boast
to glory. and God will not allow it. You know that, don't you? He
just won't do it. He will not share his glory with
another. You know, I thought about Moses. He saw a lot of miraculous things,
didn't he? Can you imagine seeing that bush
in the wilderness? old dry bush, and there it's
on fire, but it's not consumed. It's burning, but it's not consumed.
It's still there. The Lord was in that bush, Jehovah. Moses saw that. He saw water
turned into blood. He saw all the land of Egypt
in thick darkness and yet in the homes of the Israelites,
there was light. What a miracle. He saw the Red
Sea open up and they went through on dry land. And yet, after all
of that, he said, Lord, I beseech you, show me thy glory. Let me see thy glory. You'd think
he'd already seen his glory, wouldn't you? All those miraculous
things. The Lord said, this is the way
I will show you my glory. I'll put you in a cliff to the
rock and I'll pass by and I'll declare the name of the Lord.
And this is what the Lord declared. I will make all my goodness pass
before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.
Now listen, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. What do we see? We see God's sovereign grace. We see salvation is of the Lord. We see that these great and exceeding
precious promises are given unto us. And I rejoice in it. Don't you? I rejoice in it. I wouldn't want it any other
way. I want God to have all the glory. Best I can preach and
live, I want God to have all the glory. I know you do too.
I know that. Now here's the fifth part. The
promises of God in him, these great and exceeding precious
promises, all the promises of God in Christ, they concern,
now listen, they concern both temporal and spiritual good. These promises of God, you say,
are you sure about that, preacher? I sure am. These precious promises
of God, they concern both temporal, that is, promises concerning
our life here in this world, and spiritual good, our relationship
with God. I want to give us hurriedly three
examples of each. Three promises concerning our
temporal good. Now, you may not want to turn
to this one. I had to look for it. I wanted
to bring something we're not that familiar with, maybe. But
in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 and verse 9, here's a promise the
prophet gave to King Asa. For the eyes of the Lord run
to and fro throughout the whole earth. to show himself strong
in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Now the
eyes of the Lord, that's just an expression telling us of the
presence of God, his omnipresence. He is everywhere present, at
all times, in all places, among all peoples. Therefore, his people
can never suffer his absence. His constant care. Here's a promise
concerning His constant care as we go through this world.
He is always everywhere present to defend and to secure His feet. This is a promise to you, to
me, a precious promise. There's nowhere on the face of
God's earth where you may ever be that He's not been there before
you. And he's there on your behalf
to show himself strong on your behalf. He that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. He is
always present to care for his own. Scripture says this about
Jacob, and it's true about all of God's elect. He kept him as
the apple of his eye. And that's the way the Lord keeps
you as you go through this world. He keeps you just like you automatically
defend your eye. It's so precious to you, you're
precious to Him. And He keeps you as the apple
of His eye. This is His promise. A second
promise, His constant provision. His constant care, His constant
provision. He'll always provide for His
own. He can feed a whole nation for 40 years in the wilderness,
or he can feed his lone prophet, Elijah, for a few days. The scripture there says, I have
commanded the ravens to feed thee, Elijah. You just stay there
by the brook. Drink the water of the brook,
and I've commanded the ravens to feed you. Did the ravens feed
him? They most certainly did. They
brought him meat every day for as long as he was there. And
then the Lord said, now I want you to go to Sarepta. I have
commanded a widow to sustain thee. And that widow was as poor
as Job's turkey. Did she sustain Elijah? She sure did. Why? Because God commanded her to
sustain him. And that barrel of oil, or that
barrel of meal and crews of oil, it never ran dry. Every day she
went in there and said, I'm going to fix us some biscuits. What
you going to fix today? Biscuits. What you going to fix
today? Biscuits. Meal and oil. I don't know how they mixed it
together. But she made cakes. And for all the time he was there,
he was sustained, and he was sustained because the Lord commanded
it to be so. His constant care, his constant
provision, and his constant presence. We know this promise, especially
in Hebrews 13, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Now you
and I, being weak and and fallible, we may imagine sometimes that
the Lord has forsaken us. Just like we sometimes imagine
the sun's not shining. Oh yeah, I beg your pardon. It
is shining. You may not be able to see it.
Clouds may be between you and, it's shining. It's shining. I thought about those two or
three children of Israel, Meshach, Ahab, and Abednego. When those
Babylonian soldiers picked them up to throw them into the furnace,
they may have felt and thought, I've never been this much alone. They weren't alone. In fact,
the Lord visited them in that furnace, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of Man. And they came out of there with
not even the smell of smoke on their clothes. No. What a precious
promise. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. Now let me give us hurriedly
three precious promises concerning spiritual good. First of all,
his constant love. You know, in that chapter, 1
Corinthians 13, the apostle tells us a number of characteristics
of love. And there's one thing that he
says which I know can only be true of God's love because he
said, love never faileth. Man's love may fail and does
often fail. God's love is not like our love
because human love may and does fail. God's never faileth. God's love never fails. Those
upon whom he set his love upon are loved from everlasting and
nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. What about that promise? Is that
precious? Is that great? God's eternal
love. Another point, His constant acceptance,
His constant love, His constant acceptance. The scripture tells
us that we are accepted in the Beloved. The Beloved is Christ. This is my Beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased and He's well pleased with all of us who are
in His Beloved Son. We're accepted in the Beloved. I hope what I have is righteous
indignation, but when I hear so-called preachers telling people
you can be saved and then you can be lost, that just goes all
over me. That's just not the God of the
Bible, my friends. If he accepts you in Christ,
he will always accept you in Christ. You're not saved today
and lost tomorrow and then re-saved or anything like that. God's
people are accepted in the beloved. And then third, his constant
appraisal. And what I mean by that, the
Lord Jesus Christ, how does he see his people? I'm not asking
how we see ourselves. No, that's a recipe for disaster
when we look at ourselves. I'm not asking what our appraisal
is of ourselves, but I'm saying what is God's appraisal of his
people? Well, in the Song of Solomon,
he tells us, Thou art fair, my love, in thee is no spot. No spot? No spot. In thee is no spot. I look into the mirror, the mirror
of God's word. I don't see anything but spots. I don't see anything but wrinkles, failures. But that's not the
way the Lord appraises and looks at his children. In thee there
is no spot. Washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness, as holy as his dear son. Oh, we've got
so many precious promises, don't we, in the word of God. And they're
all yay and amen in him, in Christ. May the Lord bless his word.
Number 99, hymn number 99. Now let's stand as we sing.