A Better Promise

Review

The promises of God are Grand

Last week we learned about the nature of God’s promises. Something important that we learned is that the promises of God are not little - they are quite grand! But although they are not little, the little things are also covered by His promises.

The promises of God are expensive.

God’s promises aren’t cheap though, they require that a price be paid - they require a sacrifice of sorts. Sometimes these promises were made in the form of a covenant that required a blood sacrifice, and other times they require some other form of sacrifice. The one thing they have in common, however, is that they all require obedience, they require patience and they require faith.

The promises of God can be inherited.

One of the more exciting things we learned is that God’s promises can be inherited. They can be passed from one generation to the next, and in fact I gave you homework that asked you to think of some promises or blessings that you have as a result of a promise made to your parents or grandparents. In fact, promises can even be expanded upon from one generation to the next. But they ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS require obedience!

Homework

So now I want to give you the opportunity to share something you may have learned in your homework.

Recount a promise which God made you that required sacrifice, or that required obedience, or that was made in the middle of the desert.

Your other option was to recount a promise that you are sure you received because of a parent or grandparent.

Introduction

While last week, we spoke of promises made under the framework of the Old Covenant, this week I want to look at the promises of the New Covenant, made by Jesus and by the Holy Spirit through the disciples. So today we are going to talk about a few different things.

Superior promises through Jesus.

Jesus’ right to make promises on God’s behalf.

New Covenant promises unite Jew and Gentile in Christ.

Warning against rejecting the promise.

Superior promises through Jesus.

First up, is that we have superior promises through Jesus.

Hebrews 8:6–8 NKJV

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

Just look at the the things He is promising in that passage! A more excellent ministry, a better covenant and better Promises! Saints, are you excited yet? God’s promises are grand, and the ones made through Jesus are even more grand, exceedingly, abundantly above all we can even imagine! Let’s keep reading about them.

Ephesians 1:13–14 NKJV

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

The promises of God through Jesus are sealed with the Holy Spirit, and they represent a guaranteed inheritance because Jesus Himself is collateral! If the last passage didn’t get you worked up, this one should certainly do it, right? No? You want more? How about:

2 Peter 1:1–4 NKJV

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 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.

His promises bring peace and knowledge, glory and virtue, and if that weren’t enough they also bring about a divine nature that enables us to escape corruption. But that’s not all, His promises come to us in such a way as to describe the very work of grace!

Jesus’ right to make promises on God’s behalf.

Though it seems strange to say it, Jesus has every right to make these promises to us on God’s behalf. It was a point that was important enough for John to expressly mention.

All Things Are Given to the Son

John 3:34–35 NKJV

For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand.

He Came to Declare the Things that God Said

John 8:25–29 NKJV

Then they said to Him, “Who are You?” And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.” They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father. Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”

He IS God!

John 1:1–2 NKJV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

The next component of the promises of God through Jesus is that

New Covenant Promises Unite Jew and Gentile in Christ

Ephesians 3:6 says:

Ephesians 3:6 NKJV

that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,

We are part of the same body, and that means that we are eligible for the same promises as those made to Abraham Isaac, Jacob we read about last week. Still don’t believe me? Read what it says here:

Galatians 3:29 NKJV

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

and here:

Galatians 4:28 NKJV

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

Are you excited yet saints? Not only do you get all of the new promises through Christ, implicit in that is that we become heirs of all of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!!!

The greatest of these promises is salvation from our sins. Before the only way to obtain absolution for sin was through keeping Torah and the blood sacrifices made to atone for sin. But read what it says in Acts.

Acts 2:38–39 NKJV

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Salvation came for Gentile as well as Jew and came for as many generations as God would call. This promise is further expanded upon in Ephesians

Ephesians 2:11–18 NKJV

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

What amazing promises we have through the blood of Christ! I love this one, He is our peace, our shalom who removed the separation between Jew and Gentile. Notice that the Jew was not replaced by the Christians, the Christians were merely added to the Jew. They have the same access to the same God. In fact, they were first, we are partaking in the promises given to them!

With all these promises it seems inconceivable that anyone would want to reject the promises of God, but as inconceivable as it sounds there will be those who do, and the Bible spells out very clear warnings to these people.

Warning against rejecting the promise.

The first of these warnings isn’t to the unbeliever, rather it’s to the believer who would fall away and it is simply this:

Don’t go back to your old ways.

Joshua 23:12–16 NKJV

Or else, if indeed you do go back, and cling to the remnant of these nations—these that remain among you—and make marriages with them, and go in to them and they to you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they shall be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. “Behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth. And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all harmful things, until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land which He has given you.”

Look at what it says the consequences of turning back are:

You will not be protected from that which you were rescued

(v. 14—15) rejecting His promises means you embrace the negative consequences they bring

Rejecting Christ has catastrophic consequences

You see saints, rejecting Christ has catastrophic consequences! And scripture even gives us a reason that people do this. Read with me:

John 3:18–20 NKJV

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

But the choice is really very simple… Notice I didn’t says easy, because it’s not an easy choice for some people. I said simple. It boils down to a choice to receive either grace or wrath

John 3:36 NKJV

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Live and reign with Him or deny Him – that’s the choice.

2 Timothy 2:11–13 NKJV

This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

The scary thing is that it is mpossible to be restored, once we consciously and deliberately turn away from Christ

Hebrews 6:4–12 NKJV

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Now, this doesn’t mean someone who falls into sing as a natural course of life, this speaks of someone who consciously and deliberately walks away from Jesus. The thing is saints that faith often requires patience.

2 Peter 3:3–10 NKJV

knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Putting it All Together

We receive a superior promise through Christ

In Him, we are:

Sealed by the Holy Spirit

Jesus Himself is the collateral

Guaranteed Inheritance

Jesus has the right to make these promises on God’s behalf

That’s why He was sent

All things are given to the son

He IS God.

We are united with the Jews in the promises given to them.

Same Body

Same Promise

And now partake in even greater promises together!

Rejecting the promises has dire consequences.

Returning to our old ways removes the protecting hand of God from our lives.

Can incur the wrath of God.

Can in extreme cases lead to loss of salvation.

Faith often requires endurance, but in the end, the reward is well worth the wait.

And that brings us to

Homework:

Talk about a time when you rejected a promise

What were the consequences?

How did you get restored?

What did you learn?

Talk about a time when receiving a promise required endurance.

How long did it take?

Did you ever lose hope?

What did the answer to prayer look like?

Tell how it was worth the wait.