The Foundation of God's Promises
The Promises of God • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
This morning we sang an old hymn that is very well-known and beloved in the church. Blessed assurance. It is one of those hymns that is very deep and its impact transcends generations. It speaks of a future promise of God. It talks about all the blessing and goodness we experience today is but a foretaste of what is to come. There is a great deal of comfort in the lyrics, and perhaps that’s why it has endured the test of time.
Today I want to start a series looking at the promises of God more closely. And there are a few specific points that we will be looking at in relation to His promises and they are:
Eternal Promises
Eternal Promises
You see, God’s promises are eternal and particular, and they are irrevocable. They are as enduring as the stars in the sky. They are passed on from generation to generation. And the fact that we are able to meet and hear the Word of God today is proof of their endurance and of God’s faithfulness.
Dependable Promises
Dependable Promises
But let’s be real saints, a promise is only good if the one making the promises is dependable. The good news is that God is committed and therefore we can depend on Him.
They are Conditional
They are Conditional
There is a catch though, and it’s a pretty big catch. God’s promises are conditional. They all require something that is sometimes very hard for us as human beings to give, and that is - obedience. God’s promises are for those who are obedient to His commandments. In fact, the very act of obedience comes with its own blessing, but the promises of God are all dependent upon obedience to His word.
So let’s look at each of these points one at a time.
The Irrevocable promises of God
The Irrevocable promises of God
God’s faithfulness
God’s faithfulness
When we consider the reliability of someone to make good on a promise, we consider their honesty.
We don’t just trust everyone who makes a promise.
And when it comes to faithfulness, simply put, God does not lie.
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
or this:
Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
So, how does truth accord godliness? Maybe a better way of saying this is that godlessness conceals the truth. And Godliness reveals it. But why and how? Well what is the truth? And who is God? Well if you consider that no truth exists apart from God, then all truth exists in God, then you can say that the truth is the very nature of God, and we’ve established that God can’t lie.
So with that in mind, how do you feel about this verse?
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
God does not change and so if that’s the case then if He was faithful concerning His promises to Abraham, He will be faithful to His promises to us. In fact, you could say that He’ll be relentless.
The Lord has sworn
And will not relent,
“You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
It’s that same unchanging nature that pours out His mercy upon us.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
And it is that unchanging nature that showers us with His grace.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
So now that we’e established God’s steadfast nature the next question is can He deliver on His promises, or moreover, does He even want to deliver on them? And saints the good news is that God has the ability and will to fulfil His promises. Because His word doesn’t return void.
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
God performs that which He has promised – Describing the reason for Abraham’s faith in God, Paul says in Romans:
and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.
That’s good and well pastor, but I know that people make promises and they may have every intention and the ability to deliver, but in the end they just aren’t committed enough to the promise.
God is committed and therefore dependable
God is committed and therefore dependable
The bottom like is this, just as the truth is in the very nature of God, so is faithfulness. God is faithful to keep His promises. Not a single one of God’s words will fail.
Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
This should give us the confidence not to waiver in our hope.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
A hope for what exactly? What is the nature of His blessings?
as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Still not convinced? Well How about this:
God confirms His blessings with an oath
God confirms His blessings with an oath
Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
He confirms them through the prophets
He confirms them through the prophets
I have sworn by Myself;
The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
And shall not return,
That to Me every knee shall bow,
Every tongue shall take an oath.
The Lord God has sworn by Himself,
The Lord God of hosts says:
“I abhor the pride of Jacob,
And hate his palaces;
Therefore I will deliver up the city
And all that is in it.”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their works.
And His Promises are Fulfilled in Christ
And His Promises are Fulfilled in Christ
God’s faithfulness not Yes and No, but Yes.
But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God.
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Jesus proclaimed the fulfilment of God’s promise in Isaiah.
So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And Peter likewise preached the fulfillment of God’s promises in Jesus.
“Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
Then pastor, why does it seem like so many of God’s promises go unfulfilled? Glad you asked, because that brings us to our next key point and that is:
God’s Promises are Conditional
God’s Promises are Conditional
You see, God doesn’t change, but we are the variable. God’s promises must be received – BY Believers! Why? Because his promises are received by faith.
But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
And let’s read that last line. “given to those WHO BELIEVE”!
But why would it be so specific, and only for believers? Well it’s because that is our birthright as believers.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Because the promise given to Abraham was never intended to just be one of flesh and blood, but of Abraham’s descendents who obtained their righteousness through faith.
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
These promises are received by perseverance and obedience. How do we go about getting that? Well the first step is to endure and do the will of God.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
And that brings us to the next step, and that is to strive for holiness and the fear of God.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
For the inheritance of these promises comes throug faith and patience.
that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Putting it all together
Putting it all together
This week was an overview of God’s promises and was meant more than anything to set the expectation of what is to come. It is important to look at these “promises about promises” or the promises that describe the nature of God. before we look at individual promises. Because we must prepare our hearts to understand the promises of God, to put ourselves in the place of absolute obedience. To prepare yourself for the rest of the series I have prepared a bit of homework for you.
Homework.
Homework.
Find scriptures that speak to the promises of God, focusing on:
God’s Promises are eternal and particular-irrevocable.
God is committed and therefore we can depend on Him.
They are conditional – obedience.
OR think of an example of these concepts from YOUR life
What was the promise of God?
How did you know you could depend on Him?
What act/s of obedience was/were necessary?