Having therefore these promises (Quality: Very Good)

[0:00] my friends I feel that this evening I have to speak to you again from the same text as on Lord's Day so I ask you to turn to the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 7 I'll read the opening few words in verse 1 in verse 1 in the 7th chapter in the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians having therefore these promises dearly beloved I want to try to speak to you this evening from somewhat different point of view to that which engaged our attention last Lord's Day having therefore these promises dearly beloved again I want to start with the word having here is the possession of the church of God and of individual believers here is their inheritance their heritage this is what God has given to them and the promises are given to them to act upon now we were concentrating on last Lord's Day mainly on the promises of God which the Holy Spirit had perhaps at an earlier period in our lives sealed in our own hearts that they remain though the years pass by changes come the sweetness of the promises get lost yet they remain they're still our promises and then we were thinking of having the promises in the sense that they are in Christ Jesus that we couldn't really be trusted to look after the promises ourselves we should abuse them and misuse them if we did but the Lord has given them all to his dear son Jesus Christ and that we as children and young men and adults also our Christian lives may come unto the Lord in our time of need and ask for those promises knowing that they are day and day men that he will say yes you may have the promise amen so it shall be but tonight I want to move on to think of having these promises in the word of God and as this verse is teaching us having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us that the possession of the promises by faith is the basis for our walking in all the precepts of the word of God that we are called upon to walk in having therefore these promises now

[4:04] I want to to speak of three things in the word of God and I don't intend that you should think that that is exhaustive of the subject because it isn't but just three things which have been on my mind since since Sunday to mention to you having therefore these promises first of all I want to speak to you about the the promise given to Noah and his family after the flood and the token of the promise in the the rainbow secondly I want to speak to you of the promises contained in the law of God whilst you might think that that's strange and odd more of that and on and thirdly

[5:06] I want to speak to you about the promises of the gospel and in each case having possessing the promises it is the the faith's hold of the promises is the springboard for the life of a Christian goes forward on the strength of the promises of God in his word just very briefly then first of all having therefore these promises with regard to the promise God gave after the flood and the release from the ark of Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives and all the creatures that had been with them in the ark

[6:07] God's promise was that he would never again judge the world with the waters of a flood from that moment onwards there was safety from the earth from the universal flood which had recently enveloped it and destroyed all life on the earth and that God in confirmation of the the promise that he had made set his bow in the cloud I do set my bow in the cloud he said and he also promises to look upon the bow set in the cloud and to remember his promise and on the basis of the promise man is told to go and do something to go and act and the act that God required of man was to go into the whole of the earth the earth was to be re-inhabited repopulated and reused in a knowledge that never again would this devastating universal flood of waters sweep over it

[7:51] God has therefore given a specific instruction for activity for populating for inhabiting for cultivating for developing the world and we have these promises us who must of course say that God has said that there will be another judgment not of water but of fire and so what we might be tempted to deduce from that covenant promise of God is somewhat tempered by the knowledge but that God is going to come one day anyway and judge the world next time it won't be by water but next time it will be by fire but that will be the end of the world you see there's one thing which sometimes puzzles me and it may puzzle some of you and that is how how far we should be involved in development and I'll be quite honest with you it's thought that has been at the back of my mind ever since there has been the talk in our midst of the building of a new chapel are we warranted to do so in the light of the fact that we may be in the last days and it may be within our lifespan or the lifespan of the younger ones here when the Lord will come and the whole thing will be demolished the whole earth will be consumed with fire it has troubled me because there are signs surely that we're living in the last times that evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceiving and some of the scriptural tokens of the last times we see before us in that men have no natural affection that are disobedient to parents that there is a rejection of all forms of authority and restraint well

[10:48] I don't want to tarry long on this point but having therefore these promises the bow is still seen in the cloud God still looks upon it God has still given the confirmation of his promise as the spur for action and so I believe that activity in accordance with the command of God the world is to be populated and we may link up with that command given to Noah the command given to the apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature that these and that precept of course is coupled with God's promise that these promises of God are sufficient for us the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night of that day and that hour knoweth no man save the father only he's never going to tell us beforehand our great concern should be to be ready to be ready for that great day to be ready to die until that day to be engaged in the activity sanctioned by the

[12:09] Lord in the service of his dear son and seeking the furtherance of the gospel and the coming of his kingdom and so having therefore these promises dearly beloved we come right back to that significant period in the history of the world when it was reborn after the flood and though of course we acknowledge another greater event the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in the flesh into the world nevertheless we are in the period between the two judgments the flood and the fire and the Lord has said occupy till I come not run down when you think I'm going to come or not give everything up because well the coming of the Lord draweth nigh but occupy till I come the best way to be found when the

[13:18] Lord comes is working in his service and in his name and in his cause so having therefore these promises dearly beloved I want to move on now again just very briefly to speak about the promises promises of the law of God now I rather think that we may sometimes get the wrong idea about the law of God I found it necessary and I believe God has led me to to speak very plainly about the folly of trusting in the law of God for salvation now to publicly condemn that spirit of legalism which looks however obtusely to behaviour based upon some kind of standard or code as being a contributory factor in one's salvation salvation is either of grace or of works cannot be an admixture of the two in any percentage we know and we firmly believe and as the Lord spares us and teaches us we become even more deeply convinced

[14:59] I do that salvation is all of grace not of works lest any man should boast but just suppose you have been born two or three thousand years ago long before the coming of Jesus long before the writing of the new testament long before the clear preaching of the gospel and the declaration of the doctrines of grace what would you have believed in what promises would your soul have clung to what would have been your hope of salvation not the law not in keeping the law but you would have learned about your

[16:04] God through the law and what would you have learned about your God through the law you would have learned that your God was a gracious God right in the midst of the giving of the commandments God stops and says for I am gracious and if you we don't read the law very often do we but if you read through the law as contained in Exodus and Leviticus you will find that it is the good law of a holy

[17:04] God through which here and there his grace is clearly revealed and there are certain important lessons taught by the law and I just want to illustrate this from one point only tonight again there are many many ways in which you can discover the law of God given by the God of grace a God who was concerned for his people not just a series of harsh requirements and demands that we cannot possibly comply with but in the giving of God's law he shows how good how kind how concerned how careful he is especially with regard to the poor and the weak and the widowed there are a lot of illustrations if you like turn to the book of

[18:21] Exodus but I'm just going to remind you of the portion we read in Deuteronomy and Ruth and as Ruth chapter one was helpful to us on Sunday evening so I believe chapter two may be helpful to us tonight in reflecting upon this fact now just think of Ruth for a moment the Moabitess the young girl who was married to the Hebrew who came down to live in Moab who then died but during the time of her marriage to her husband and her connection with her husband's mother she came to to hear about their

[19:23] God and I believe that she must have been taught presumably or possibly by Naomi from the law they got nothing else to teach from it was from the the law of God the books of God that were then extant that the people learned about God and I can't expect that what in our Bibles is Deuteronomy 24 verse 19 was a verse that Naomi had taught and explained to her daughter in law when thou cutest down thine harvest in thy field and has forgot a sheaf in the field thou shall not go again to fetch it it shall be for the stranger for the fatherless for the widow the

[20:27] Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand so in the similar passage we read in Leviticus where the corners of the field were not to be reaped that there was not to be a meticulous and thorough gathering in of every grain of corn that God the lawgiver was concerned about the poor well think about that and think of the way in which the Israelites of old taught their children the law of God they were a peculiar people they were as a nation the chosen people they had been strangers they knew in their hearts what it felt like to be a stranger in a strange place now God all through his law makes special notice of the strangers and in the requirements and demands of

[21:34] God's law there is a special mention made of the strangers while we've seen however they talk again we've seen how Ruth was attracted to Naomi how she loved her mother in law her mother in law's people the mother in law's gods and there was nothing that was going to separate her from them and now they're back they're back in Bethlehem but they're very poor Naomi's resources are gone she went out full but she's come back empty and Ruth has loved Ruth is in a state of need but Ruth has these promises Ruth is aware of the provision of the promise in the law of

[22:38] God and so she says doesn't she they don't sit down at home and bewild their poor states they don't say oh what shall we do Ruth says at once let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace there is faith's hold on the promise the springboard for for holy action how the Lord blessed her now the Lord fulfilled the promises and she did go and glean in the field and she did find grace in the sight of a man and the man too was aware of the promises of the law and gave specific instructions the reapers weren't to forget a sheaf or two but they were to deliberately leave a sheaf or two for this girl to find the she gleaned in the field having therefore these promises dearly beloved can we see again how faith's hold on the promises endears our heart first of all to

[24:14] God and to all those who believe in the promises in one of the early chapters in Hebrews Abraham is described as I don't think his name is mentioned in one verse but he simply described as him who had the promises and you'll see if you read that that's Abraham he who had the promises she had the promises and so believing the promises she went forth to glean in the field and the Lord met her through Boaz and amply supplied her need and ultimately provided her with a husband her through that near kinsman and wonderful to recant put her in the line of the seed promised in the word of

[25:16] God her through which ultimately the dear Lord himself came so then she had the promises she acted upon the promises so I encourage you to look at the law and you'll find the good law the wise laws of God given by the God of grace a God who was concerned for his own dear people and that shines through may we not lose sight of it when we we speak of the fact rightly so that we are justified by grace not by the law but the the old believers in the old testament were saved by grace and they believed in a God of grace revealed as God spanked through

[26:18] Moses in the law and the prophets and the psalms having therefore these promises dearly beloved and so with Ruth having the promises of the law to go on she went to glean and it was a pathway that that strengthened her love to Naomi Naomi's people to Naomi's God dearly beloved Naomi was amazed wasn't she when she came back at night loaded down with corn there was enough for them both and the promise of more to come and that man who had taken notice of her was so concerned that he wanted her always in his field he gave commandment to the young men to leave her alone but to provide for her every day so she continued there to the end of harvest what a wonderful bond of love there was between

[27:43] Naomi and Ruth and now between Naomi and Ruth and Boaz a new love was developing the kinsman had appeared and they developed that pure and wonderful affection between these two people having therefore these promises dearly beloved promises in the word of the gospel where is the word of the promise found my dear friends not in a hymn book not in an autobiography not in the writings of men but we have these promises in the word of God that shall stand that cannot fail heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away that's an important point isn't it because all human writing will pass away all human expressions are mixed with imperfection and sin in greater or lesser degree but the word of God is pure the word of God is perfect the word of God must be fulfilled having therefore these promises dearly beloved in the word of

[30:24] God's grace think first of all of the our inheritance our possession of these promises in the gospel as given by the Lord himself don't want to wrongly emphasize one part of the word of God to the expense of another part nevertheless it is admissible I believe to emphasize the gospel promises that fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ having these promises we have them you know what they are they assure us don't they that him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out now we have these promises not written in some saintly book by some worthy father of the

[31:34] Christian church not to put in some easily remembered poetry that we have sung from childhood but written in letters of gold in the book of God having therefore these promises dearly beloved oh what a sin it is to disbelieve the promises of Jesus Christ terrible sin to reject to question to query whether he really means what he says he means everything that he says and in these gospel promises whosoever means whosoever whoever the person may be whatever their age whatever their their background whatever their difficulties whatever their problems whatever their needs however great their sins whosoever is the glorious word that introduces these promises in the gospel of God's grace and friends we have them they're given to us there's a song responsibility placed upon the church of God who has these promises just just as the oracles of God were entrusted of old to the children of

[33:12] Israel so to the church of God in the new testament times there is entrusted God's word and the gospel promises we have them we have the truth now you'll find that they're somewhat divided and separated states of the Christian churches they all claim this they all claim to have the truth and so it's not surprising if someone who comes right out of the world is very perplexed at the conflicting claims made by different church groups there may be a kind of reaction set in against this and people say well you can't trust anybody who do you believe well beware of that reaction because somewhere or other there is the truth somewhere or other the true church of

[34:20] God is accurate in its claim that it holds the truth but if we claim that we hold the truth there's a solemn responsibility upon us to publish it to propound it to proclaim it far and wide we have the truth entrusted to us it's not to be put under lock and key it's not to be put in a casket and hidden away it is to be proclaimed upon the housetop having having therefore these promises having entrusted to us as a gospel church and as a gospel pastor the promises that whosoever believeth in the lord jesus christ shall be saved there is that solemn obligation upon us to make it known having therefore these promises let it be known to all who come within our sphere of influence all who come within the walls of this chapel that a gracious God in the person of his dear son invites the worst of sinners to come and believe in him to confess their sins and to trust in his blood and righteousness having therefore these promises the promises of the gospel that fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ himself the gospel promises too as they were taken up and enlarged and expanded through the ministry of the apostles remember the true church of God it is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets

[36:29] Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone we have these promises there is no conflict between the teaching of Paul and Peter and John and Jesus I've heard people say when confronted with the teaching of the apostle Paul ah but that was only Paul let's listen to what Jesus says as if there's some kind of conflict between the two but there is none the faithful apostles were led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the promises of the gospel and to explain that those gospel promises were in Jesus Christ joy and amen oh having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us let us let us do we hold a promise what would you say of the state of those people then who claim to hold the promises and hold the truth and hold faithfully that salvation is only through Jesus Christ and yet they've done nothing about it they've never come unto him they've never trusted in this Lord and Saviour they've never really believed this gospel it's just been words sound words true words indeed oh but having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us let us lay claim to them let us act upon them let them be the springboard of our love and of our faith promises of the gospel then through the apostles you know there was a sense in which their life and ministry was a confirmation of the reality of the promises and it is equally so with every Christian you don't need to go and ask somebody whether they believe in the promises of the gospel their life will tell you whether they do or whether they don't how then was the life of the apostles confirmation of the promises why because everything that they did was based upon the promise of God they were told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and they had the the promise of God to support them and lo

[39:15] I am with you all the way even unto the end of the world and that promise my dear friends is given unto the church of God that promise is the basis of the gospel ministry today and that promise God is honoring and will honor down to the end of time lo I am with you all the way oh having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us let us believe them let us proclaim them and let our lives be a living testimony to our belief having then this great storehouse this wonderful springboard for our faith let us this verse speaks in a personal way of the of the need of believers to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God

[40:18] I said I believe on on Sunday evening that I found this to be a difficult verse to seek to explain that there is of course no contradiction between the teaching of this verse and those other scriptures which make known the fact that God's people are clean the Lord Jesus Christ declared of his disciples ye are clean through the word that I have spoken unto you there is absolutely no question here of raising any doubt as to the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse his people from their sins beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh just as we need to wash ourselves daily so there is a need for constant cleansing spiritually oh with what care and love does a mother wash her baby and cleanses the little baby from head to foot and anoints it with oil and powders it and puts fresh new clothes upon it and then within a few hours it's dirty again you like that enjoying sometimes the power of the word of God that cleanses your soul that frees your spirit that sets your affections on things above that lifts you up to spiritual realities but then then before long you've got dirty you're in the wild you've got contaminated oh says the apostle let's cleanse ourselves from all filthiness here is the the use of the promises and I want to link it up with that word

[42:39] I've already quoted ye are clean through the word that I've spoken unto you if that that that truth means as I believe it does that in God those to whom he speaks the word of power and love and grace are clean that that that same means may be used in in their lives when they know the recurring contamination of sin and feel a sense of guilt over their sinful behaviour oh what must you do my friend when you're troubled with sin go back to the promises your sin hasn't changed the promise your failure hasn't altered the eternal mind and love of God having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves and it is through do you know anything that has a greater power in your life to cleanse you and to free you from the contamination of the world anything better than the word of God

[44:00] I don't the word of God under the blessing of the Holy Spirit purges our minds and by faith in that dear saviour who is revealed there in the word of God cleanses us again from all sin oh then this is not a legalistic demand for people to cleanse themselves and to save themselves but it is a call to believers to avail themselves by faith of the virtue of the promises which are in Jesus Christ yea and amen there we behold our faithful and unchanging and unchangeable God have we well have we have we therefore these promises as they are revealed in the word of God all through the word back to the early patriarchal times through the long history of the children of Israel confirmed and sealed and ratified in the gospel days by the coming of the Lord and saviour Jesus

[45:17] Christ if we have then there will be two proofs of it we shall live the promises we shall walk out the promises or rather the precept which is joined to the promise and in walking out the precept we shall prove the promise good beware of your the folly of your human heart that would say I want the promise proved and then I'll walk in the precept that isn't God's way it's following him the Lord proves his promise good and then as I noticed on Sunday we've got here precept promise precept a call to action as is required in this chapter separation from uncleanness leaving behind all idolatry and going doing so on the basis of a promise that God will receive all such that they will be his sons and daughters but then it's not an armchair religion from then onwards that's not the end of the road it's but the beginning for having therefore these promises the dearly beloved let us leave it there tonight may God add his blessing amen let us close with him number 329 how firm a foundation he saints to the

[47:06] Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word what more can he say to you he has said you who unto Jesus for which refuge hath led 329 children whole well with a What does about extraordinary 403 Lord, His name, Lord, Your faith is excellent.

[47:59] Lord, O God, and He's safe and to give me an honor, He will move unto Jesus, Lord, eu ghee and pepper.

[48:24] The springs in Counseling Way.

[48:36] His 117 Let heaven be.

[49:13] In old time I am weary, O be not this day.

[49:23] I am thy God and will still be here.

[49:33] I will str Contest with thee, Help me, Oenforele to stand.

[49:47] I am thy God and will also be here. O be not this day.

[49:58] And turn on the Lord, that I call thee to hell.

[50:11] The neighbor shall worship thee, O my heart.

[50:23] Lord, I will be with thee, thy troubles perverse. And stand in my july life the Thou hastening'sил, When through that age I am, thy path shall fly.

[50:59] By Gees, also visions, shall we rise above.

[51:10] But flame shall I abide and believe it shall.

[51:22] I just do come still and I come to divine.

[51:36] He can do all age, all my people shall rule.

[51:47] My sovereign eternal, unchangeable love.

[51:58] And when holy heads shall let them all adore.

[52:09] Life and grace shall still live, my birth shall be born.

[52:21] The soul of Jesus has made all the gold.

[52:35] My will, my will, O Jesus, to his behold. That soul of all has to end and all to shame.

[52:57] Amen, O devil, will never stay.

[53:08] Amen. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with us now and always.

[53:28] Amen.