The Security of God's Promises.
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2 Corinthians 7:1
“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
The theme for our 2021 Inscribe the Word Series is THE PROMISES OF GOD, and I cannot be more thrilled to journey the Scriptures with you discovering, inscribing, claiming, and seeing God's promises come to fulfillment.
In the Introductory Post of this series, I told you about a book in my library by Dr. Herbert Lockyer called All the Promises of God. It is a bit of a daunting read, but the treasure inside is invaluable. In this Promises Of God Blog Series, I will attempt to bring out the treasures inside Dr. Lockyer's work in an easy-to-understand way. If you would like to get a copy of his book All the Promises of God, CLICK HERE.
In Part One of the Promises Series, we spoke about the Simplicity of God’s Promises. The divine promises are simply stated for all of us to understand. God's promises are not idle words. We can be confident that what He says, He will do. We read that God's promises will be fulfilled because we serve a God who cannot lie.
In Part Two of the Promises Series, I shared with you the Conditions of God’s Promises. We learned to read the Promises of God in the context with which they were written. If we aren't careful, we can fall into the trap of seeing the divine promises apart from The Giver of the Promise and apart from His Word.
In Part Three of the Promises Series, we discussed the Surety of God's Promises. His Word and His Oath back God's promises. (Hebrews 6:16-19) They are sure because they are promises of Deity. His Holy Attributes back them and His very names back God’s Promises.
In this final part of the Promises Series, we will look that the Security of God's Promises. How can we secure God's promises and make them our own?
Part Four: THE Security of GOD's PROMISES.
In 2021, our Inscribe the Word passages will line up with the devotional Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon. In it, he tells us he believed all the promises of God, but that many of them he had personally tried and proved.
"I have seen that they are true, for they have been fulfilled in me.”
How do we secure the promises of God so that they are fulfilled not only TO us but IN us?
As we have in the past parts of this series, we look at the work of Dr. Herbert Lockyer, All the Promises of God. He gives us a great framework to begin answering this question.
CONDITIONAL and ABSOLUTE PROMISES.
"Absolute promises are those unconnected with the requirement of anything on the part of the promisee, to their fulfillment. Such a promise is a naked agreement and in law means a contract without quid pro quo." - Dr. Herbert Lockyer.
"I will never leave you or forsake you" (Hebrews 13:6) is an absolute promise. You don't need to do anything to secure that promise for yourself.
Most of the Biblical promises are not absolute, however. They are conditional. A conditional promise is dependent for their fulfillment upon the carrying out of specific requirements.
Dr. Lockyer, in All the Promises of God, uses the example of Psalm 73:1, which says, "Truly, God is good to Israel, To such as are pure in heart."
You can read, Truly God is good to Israel, and think, "Well, if He was good to Israel, as unworthy as she proved to be, I know He will be good to me." But there is the second part of this verse. The promise of "truly God is good to Israel" is conditional upon those that have a clean heart. If you know that you have a clean heart, then you can rest in the security and realization of God's goodness.
Look at another example in the promise of Matthew 11:28-29,
"Come to Me, all you 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."
You can read this and say, "Great. Jesus gives me rest. I will secure that promise!" Not so fast. There is a condition to be met, one for which we are responsible. To enjoy and enter into the rest that only Jesus can give, we have to COME to Him, TAKE His yoke upon us, and LEARN from Him. THEN, we will FIND rest for our weary souls.
Matthew 11:28-29 contains a wonderful promise of rest, but there is a condition that must be met to secure that promise. We first have to COME, TAKE, and LEARN.
"What we must remember, however, even though we are under grace, is that many promises are conditional, and that failure on our part to comply with the condition abrogates these promises. The tragedy is that so many wonderful promises of God are rendered of none effect in experience because of sin, unbelief, and disobedience . . . Promises, to be effective both materially and spiritually, must be possessed by faith, proven by obedience, and presented in prayer.- Dr. Herbert Lockyer.
POSSESSED BY FAITH.
The promises of God, conditional or absolute, temporal or spiritual, must be possessed by faith. Faith confidently expects the fulfillment of God's promises. Read through these verses, and you see the connection of faith and fulfillment.
Galatians 3:22
Romans 4:13
Romans 4:16
Hebrews 6:12
Hebrews 11:33
James 1:5
Romans 4:20
Hebrews 11
In Faith's Checkbook, Spurgeon likens the promises of God to cashing a check.
In the preface of this devotional, he says,
“A PROMISE from God may very instructively be compared to a check payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing upon him some good thing. It is not meant that he should read it over comfortably, and then have done with it. No, he is to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a check.
He is to take the promise, and endorse it with his own name by personally receiving it as true. He is by faith to accept it as his own. He sets to his seal that God is true, and true as to this particular word of promise. He goes further, and believes that he has the blessing in having the sure promise of it and therefore he puts his name to it to testify to the receipt of the blessing.
This done, he must believingly present the promise to the LORD, as a man presents a check at the counter of the Bank. He must plead it by prayer, expecting to have it fulfilled. If he has come to Heaven's bank at the right date, he will receive the promised amount at once. If the date should happen to be further on, he must patiently wait till its arrival; but meanwhile he may count the promise as money, for the Bank is sure to pay when the due time arrives.
Some fail to place the endorsement of faith upon the check, and so they get nothing; and others are slack in presenting it, and these also receive nothing. This is not the fault of the promise, but of those who do not act with it in a common-sense, business-like manner."
Are we failing to "endorse the checks" of God's promises by either our lack of faith or our unwillingness to meet the conditions of the promise? We must not only believe a promise but also work out, by grace, all that it expects of us.
PROVED BY OBEDIENCE
The security of God's promises to us are proved by faith and obedience. Romans 5 talks about sin entering the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12) "But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous." (Romans 5:19)
Looking to Jesus as our example, it was His obedience that brought life forevermore. He taught us in John 13:15,17, "I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them." 1 John 2:3 tells us, "we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments."
"Claiming a promise, then, we must honestly face any condition attached to it, and by the grace of Him, who was obedient unto the death of the cross, fulfil the expressed stipulation. If we fail to obey, we fail to obtain."
-Lockyer.
PRESENTED IN PRAYER
Promises that strengthen our faith and prompt our obedience enforce our prayers. Author W.C. Proctor said, "The promises of God should be the basis of all our prayers, for they are like our warrant for asking and our security for receiving."
As we step into The Promises of God, we see that it is imperative to not only receive them by faith, obey the conditions they require, but continually pray that nothing is displeasing or apart from His will.
"The fire of our prayers must be fed with the fuel of divine promises. Persuaded of the promises, we plead them and then possess them." - Lockyer.
As we can see from this series, The Promises of God are like a beautiful garden. The “flowers” blooming inside are too beautiful to be "named and claimed"; lest we fall into the trap of the Prosperity Gospel. The Promises of God are to be secured through Faith in the God of the Promise. Not through naming and claiming as if God were some genie-in-a-bottle waiting to move on our command.
No.
These promises are to be possessed by obedience. Through grace, we can face any stipulation of the Promises of God. Pray the Promises of God over your life and stand in amazement and patience as they are fulfilled.
I hope that this series has given you a firm foundation as we step into Inscribing The Promises of God in 2021. If you would like these posts in one place to add to your journal, CLICK HERE for a downloadable ebook that walks through the series.
