The Surety of God's Promises

If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the second book of Corinthians chapter 1, we will be looking at verses 17 through 22. Here God's word to us first first or second Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17 through 22 was I vacillating when I wanted to do this. Do I make my plans according to the flash ready to say yes yes and no.

No. At the same time as surely as God is faithful our word to you has not been yes and no.

For the son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, so Vanness and Timothy and I was not yes and no. But in him. It is always yes for all the promises of God, find their yes in him that it is. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory and it is to God. It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who is also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts is a guarantee let's pray heavenly father we come to you tonight and we ask that your Holy Spirit, teach your word Lord as I walk through this text, I ask that you keep me from error and Lord what we glean from this small portion of Scripture, let it build us in Christ in our faith in our walk in love, that we may better serve you responding with a heart of gratitude and joy to the grace and mercy that you show we just thank you for all things through Christ Jesus, who we pray. Amen. You may be seated in the book of Hebrews in the third chapter in the 10th chapter the writer tells us that we are calls us to exhort one another in the third chapter he saying word exhort one another so that were not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Doug touched on that this morning in his message. In the 10th chapter the writer tells us that we are to stir one another up to love and good works, and so tonight as we take a look at this passage in second Corinthians. That's what I'm praying will look her is that we stir one another up to love and good works for what God has accomplished through Christ Jesus. I believe and I think Grace Church has done it so well all the years that we've been here. We need to be continually pointed to him who that we can rest the one who has accomplished everything for us and the one who sustains us and keeps us in his faith. The text were looking at this evening's from the second book of Corinthians. And Paul is writing this text as a defense. He has made plans to travel to Corinth.

Those plans had to be changed and there were false teachers in Corinth who was using his change in plan and excuse me in order to attack his reliability. His truthfulness is veracity. When we look at that the section here Paul in his response turns right to the doctor and that he proclaimed to the church at Corinth is a way that they can know that he is not a vacillating person that he is not one to change your sway side to side, but he reminds them of the doctrine, doctrine that he presented to them in the faithfulness in which God had worked amongst them. Paul is using the doctrine that he brought to the church at Corinth originally as his grounding saying as sure as God is. You can rely on me. He does this in Galatians. Also, if you think about Paul's writing to the Galatians, he tells them that even if an angel would come and preach a different gospel that they should shun it or send it away because Paul knows that the revelation that he is providing is the revelation that Christ himself has given Paul concerning the status of man and what God must do for them. So in second Corinthians. That's the background of the text that were looking at what I would like us to focus on our verses 19 and 20.

Because in that defense, and that movement of us to understand that we can trust the doctrine.

Paul says these words for the son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, so Vanness and Timothy, and I was not yes and no.

But in him is always yes for all the promises of God, find their yes in him. That is why through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. Paul is driving his point home of why he can be trustworthy because of God's trustworthiness, but in these verses. He shares with us truths that we must rest in. There's two of them.

I would like us to look at first, there are promises to God of God to you and I to the church. We it just so happens and I come from a liturgical background and I didn't even realize that it was Pentecost. But tonight we are celebrating her. Today we are celebrating the fulfillment of a promise. Jesus said if I go, I will send from the father, the Holy Spirit, and we see on that day of Pentecost the fulfillment of that promise.

If we look through Scripture we will find several promises, multiple promises, even to the form of covenant which is going to be important to what we are looking at the ball. Paul uses this truth that there are promises of God to the people and that it is through Jesus that these promises are sure that they can rely in the truth that he is proclaimed. I want to ask a personal question. I'll give you my answer.

Do many of us struggle accepting that a promise is going to be fulfill. I do just in our culture and in in and what our sinfulness of man has cause I have many times looked at somebody and said oh I promise I'll do that I'll be at work. Somebody will say can you do this for me I'll get it done. Are you sure I promise it will be done and it 515 when I'm going I didn't do that and I promised him I would so hopefully most the time I go back and try to accomplish what I promise.

But I'm sure there's times I walked out the door and it hasn't been done in a in a sense because of the way we amongst ourselves abuse promises. It can lead us to a cynical illness of those promises. What I want to do tonight is drive us to what the main promise is that we can rest in why we know that promises fulfilled and will be fulfilled at the consummation and exhort us and stir us up to good works in love so that we can take this word out to the community around us, to our families to our neighbors to even our enemies that Jesus Christ is our only hope. Two points I'd like does look at the first one being that there are a plethora of a multitude of promises of God.

I went to the dictionary, Merriam-Webster to look up what does a promise mean and of course it has that first but I would call our man centered promise it says it's a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified. I think in our day in day out life. That is what we think of when we think of a promise.

The second definition in the dictionary. Is this a legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to come to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act that is in a tie-in when we look at the promises of God to us, because God doesn't make a simple statement, God makes a covenant which gives us our right to expect what God has covenanted to do, but as we walk through.

We still deal with that cynical in this there and I'll speak for me not for you. There are times when wildlife seems overwhelming. Whether it's relationships in my family, whether it's work issues where there is monetary issues where there are times where in my interbeing. I just think to myself, why, why, and if I find myself not resting on the word of God not resting on the promises that are made, and I ask myself how can you be like this because your different. The word of God is true. It is effective and it has made a change. Why can't you trusted but again over and over in the world.

We see promises broken. I just flipped through us on an Internet search promises broken and I would like to share four of them with you.

Woodrow Wilson 1916 running for president of the United States uttered this promise I will keep us out of war 29 days after his election, Pres. Wilson stood before a joint session of Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Herbert Hoover 1928 ran for election on the promise of a chicken in every pot in less than eight months of taking office. The Great Depression began FDR and LBJ both promise to stay out of foreign wars in both the Floyd troops war and foreign soils during their term and the one that I remember most famously in 1988 the first George Bush in his campaigning looked at the camera and said read my lips no new taxes, and in 1990 he signed into law the tax increase proposed by the Congress. We see in our leaders within our family members within our coworkers within our friends.

Promises made in promises not kept.

So the question would rise.

Why can we trust God and his promise.

If we go to Scripture. Scripture gives us the perfect answer in the book of Numbers chapter 23 Morgan a look at a profit who is of ill repute bail him says these words in verses 18 and 19 and Baylon took up his discourse and said rise bail.

I can hear give ear to me. Oh son of zipper God is not man that he should lie, or Son of Man, that he should change his mind. He has said and he will and will he not do it or he has spoken and will he not fulfill it. Baylon makes it very simple. God is not us. God is not one who changes we can go to Malachi verse chapter 3 verse six for I the Lord do not change we can go to Genesis 11 in the beginning God created God is sovereign God is powerful, he is unchanging and we can rest upon those true God has proven over and over tonight we stand in the church because the Holy Spirit has been sent and moved on the hearts of men and women and called them him them to himself. God is not us. We have a tendency of thinking of God in humanistic terms, and God is so holy or set apart from us that is sinful when we do that, you know, in the 70s and into the 80s when I was a kid I don't know a better way to say it. The hippie movement the freelove movement. They love to make the reference to the man upstairs. It's not the man upstairs. It is the holy right, creating God. It is the one powerful enough to snuff us out in an instant. It is the one who has looked upon his creature with love and redeemed him for his own sake and his own glory. So as we look at Nate. We ask that question.

Why can we trust God and his promises. Baylon tells us clearly. It is because he is not man or the Son of Man. He does not change his mind. He has said and he will not do it. Yes, he will or he is spoken he will not fulfill it.

The answer of course is yes, he will even Samuels shows us and in chapter 15 of first Samuel, God will not lie and he is not a man.

We serve a supreme God we serve a God so far above our comprehension, but he allows us through the Holy Spirit to have communion and comprehension of him left to ourselves, we would have no ability to even understand what God is. So then the question popped up in my mind how many promises of God are there in the Bible. Thankfully for Google, it's a lot easier to do's research anymore but when I did a quick Google search. It was amazing. It placed the number of promises and I guess it's on how you look at them and what a promises to what it's not. But from anywhere to 50 promises in the Bible, to 9000 at the big range, so I thought. Is there a better way to do this and I said I'll go to the concordance and see how many times the word promises used in Scripture. Now depending on translation 50 is the bottom number again, but up to 214 times we see that word promise use so it is definitely clear that the Scripture is filled with promises from God and by God to us what is really amazing is these promises are both the believer and unbeliever. There is a promise by God that there will be judgment of sin. It is not debatable. It is not on a whim.

God will judge sin. And that promises made in Romans 26 through 11. There is a promise to creation itself that God's redeeming and reconciling all things to himself in Romans eight and if we want to walk down through and some of these rehash the same thought. But Isaiah 4110.

Fear not for I am with be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

That is a promise of God to the people that if they rest in him.

That is what he does for them.

In Deuteronomy 31. Eight. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed the Lord will not leave us or forsake us these promises. They are so sweet to us because in a world where everything seems to leverage forsake her leave us down or break the promises God does not. John 1418 I will not leave you as an orphan. I will come to you. Matthew 1128 and 29 come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. We can go on and on promises. Romans 828 the big win. God works for good for those who believe. For those who love him. We have promise after promise, but where I would like to focus us tonight is on the promise that we find in Jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34. God writes this to the people through the prophet Jeremiah and he says these words, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke so I was there. Husband declares the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Remember I said on the in the dictionary. We had two definitions in that second definition was that a promise gave a right of expectation for what was being promised.

That is a covenant God revealing to the children of Israel to us that a new covenant is coming, that the Mosaic covenant, though a proper covenant, though one that points them to a need they require sacrificial system because in that covenant they cannot keep the law. The law of God the way God is commanded them, and God is going to bring a new covenant, and that new covenant is going to be what we just read and ending with for I will forgive their wood iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This is the covenant of redemption. I would argue all the fear not, and I will lead, and I will take my people. All those are found in this single covenant of redemption. This covenant promise goes back to Genesis 315 where we see the first proclamation of the gospel when God is giving the curses and he looks and he says that the woman will have her seed and that that he will's crush the head of the serpent seed and it will bruise his heel. This redemptive covenant carries through all of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. When we moved Revelation, which we studied. I think for three years and dug repeatedly from this pulpit said Jesus when Jesus when it's the fulfillment of that redemptive covenant.

Tonight we stand here and we can declare Jesus one. We are waiting for a consummation that is accomplished, and it is God's timing for the fulfillment the consummation to come.

This promise gives us complete rest. We look at that. The Mosaic covenant, we realize that God says for life to be had. We must be able to obey this law and if each one of us looks in the mirror, we realized just as the Israelites showed us that no one can do and so Paul when he is writing to the church at Corinth and he is going to that doctrine. He is basing his trustworthiness on God's trustworthiness, which is his proclamation of Jesus as the one who fulfills all our needs. In that covenant when we stop to think about how God provides every single thing we need. He has put away for us to be right and that way is the surety that we have in the promises.

Paul writes it like this and it will be .2 that Jesus Christ is the surety of all these promises.

If we look again at verses 19 and 20.

It says for the son of God, Jesus Christ, who we proclaimed among you, so Vanness and Timothy and I was not yes and no.

But in him. It was always yes for all the promises of God, find their yes in him for all the promises of God, find their yes in him. What does that mean Calvin in his commentary on these these verses said he is the foundation and security.

I would say that he is the surety he is the payment that makes us right in the new covenant. What has Jesus Christ done for you and I will first. He is fulfilled. Matthew 517 we read this. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law, are or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Jesus's words spoken to let us know that when he came incarnate through the virgin birth.

He did not come just to live an average life and somehow appease God, but he came to actually fulfill the covenant that was put before him, Jesus came and allowed himself to be put under the law.

But not only did he allow that he perfectly kept that law.

The Scripture tells us that Jesus just didn't sin. Jesus knew no sin. He perfectly fulfills the covenant given to Moses and the people at that time. If we look at Luke 24 and he said to them own foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them in all scriptures the same things concerning them will. He is the entirety of the whole Old Testament. The Old Testament points to the only way that we can be right with God and that is Jesus Christ to those who were under the Mosaic covenant. They had a sacrificial system in that whole system was designed to show them that they utterly fail. There is blood and that blood is on their Redeemer and only through that blood can they be forgiven this evening as we stand and look back at the cross. There is nothing in J that merits God's favor or God's goodness, or God's grace are God's promise, but I look upon a cross where Jesus Christ the one who in my place fulfilled the covenant then took me under his blood and into himself and presents be before God the father is right, and holy and just what is that the new covenant.

What Jesus is done in the fulfillment of it. We hear these words over and over in our our our Sunday schools and in our sermons and yet there are times that we wonder is it true can this really be true and the writer of Scripture God himself doesn't leave us linger in that question. Romans chapter 1 verse four and was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. First Corinthians 15 verse 20 but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. First Peter 13 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, how do we know the work of Christ is sure. How is he are surety and Paul tells us in Peter tells us that it is by the empty tomb that he was hung on a cross, that sin was imputed to them that he took the punishment that you and I deserve that he was buried, but on the third day he came back to life completely and he stepped out of that tomb and he appeared to many.

Proclaiming the good news that he is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament to that point in any ascends to the father and sits at his right hand.

So we have. He is of the fulfillment he is are surety and then on top of that, that surety gives us his promise that we find in Luke 2219 through 20. A lot of people ask me why find such great comfort and I desire to to celebrate the Lord's table as often as I do. There is nothing that we do in my opinion, that drives home the point of what Christ has accomplished and what grace is the Lord's table 1. In Luke 2219 it says and he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me and likewise the cup after they had eaten eating eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus left no question of what he was about to go and do to his disciples, though they couldn't fully comprehend it.

We now on this side of the cross and in the tomb know definitely what this text is stating Jesus says that it by this blood. I am sealing the new covenant of the father and what is that new covenant back to Jeremiah. We read this for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declare the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people, and no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no what a covenant. If you notice there is nothing in there that you and I are called that we are going to do this promise of God.

This promise of redemption. This covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ is fully a work of God, I will.

God says I will I will make them my people, I will forgive their iniquity, I will remember their sin no more. It is God's doing over and over and we are the recipients of his grace and his mercy as he applies it through the Holy Spirit. Paul finishes in Corinthians, by telling us that that is why. Through him we utter our Amen to God for his glory and it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who is also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts is a guarantee. It is fully a work of God. If that cannot stir us up to worship.

If that cannot stir us up to love one another. If that cannot stir us up when we step back and see I said in Sunday school this morning when we realize Christ coming to this earth incarnate everyone he encountered was it M that he with God.

They were all sinners, Christ died for his enemies. God calls out us from that world of rebellion against him by his Holy Spirit by changing our heart and giving us the desire to go after him, but it is all God's work and not ours.

Paul is telling the Corinthians. There are promises of God, you heard them for myself. The gospel was the promise of God, of overcoming our sin problem. Remember, Corinthians, you can trust God because he is sure he is not changing. He is not man. He does not lie Grace Church you can trust God. This past year is seen a lot of things go on and and people shaken in the world around us. Shaken to its core, but I am here to tell you that tonight Jesus Christ Christ reign, Jesus Christ is in charge and his promises are sure to us.

We are waiting for the fulfillment of that last promise, we are in those last days. They began at the cross and we look forward to Christ's imminent return. John yeah John when he wrote Revelation.

That is what he uttered, at the very end, Lord Jesus, we should be looking forward to. Yes, the world beats us up.

Yes, promises are broken, but God's promises have not been broken. Jesus is God incarnate. The tomb is empty and he will return to take his to himself. Jesus is the surety of our promise in Jesus is our only hope in the promises of God, let us rejoice and praise him. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your word and Lord God as we see how you've revealed yourself to us you revealed it in promises that are sealed with the blood of Christ, with the working of the Holy Spirit and Lord, we just praise your name for that Lord forgive us as as we may vacillate and worry and lean on our own understandings too many times drive that away from us and fill us with your spirit so that we may rest firmly on the promises of God, day in day out, moment by moment knowing that you love us and you have accomplished. All we need is in Christ, we pray. Amen