The Promises of God
2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
Our God makes promises and He keeps them
Our methods, means, approaches may change, not the mission nor the message.
The gospel is a resounding Yes! It is a sure word.
2 Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes.
2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
2 Corinthians 1:22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Three quick deductions we can make from V.20
1. God makes promises
2. God keeps His promises
3. God fulfilled His promises through the Lord Jesus Christ.
1. God fulfilled His promises through our Lord Jesus Christ
Our God is a covenant God, a God of promises.
The Bible is God’s promise book to mankind
In the OT, we see God unfolding His greatest promise, the plan of redemption
It unfolds to us through individuals, prophetic words, through special days like the Passover, through daily sacrifices.
The very moment man turned away from God and sinned, God uttered a promise
Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
This is a clear promise of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Isaiah makes it clearer
Isaiah 53:4–6 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
2. God is able to take you to the place He promised.
Joshua was the successor of Moses
He went with Moses up the mountain. He was his protege. He must have heard from Moses all that God promised.
Moses didn’t know what the future held. He was simply leading Israel in faith - out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, the wilderness, looking for the Promised Land.
After Moses died, he successfully led Israel into Canaan and they conquered the land as God had promised and divided it among the tribes.
He is now old and well advanced in years [23.2]
So now he is giving almost a farewell speech and a charge to Israel’s leaders.
In Josh 23, he tells them:
• God has fought for you
• you have an inheritance in this land
• be strong and keep God’s Law
• Do not intermarry with the nations or make mention of their gods
• Love the Lord
As he ends, he says this powerful words
Joshua 23:14 “And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.
Joshua saw God keeping His promise to get them to Canaan and conquering Canaan.
3. God is able to keep the impossible promise
Abraham - Scripture’s quintessential example of promise
He was about 75 years old when God spoke to him:
Genesis 12:1–3
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
But there was a problem, Abraham had no children. Sarah was barren
Abraham’s Plan B
Genesis 15:2 But Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
Genesis 15:4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”
Genesis 15:6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Sarah had a Plan C - Hagar.
That was not God’s plan either.
When Abraham was 99 yr old -
Gen. 17.15-17 “15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife...I will give you a son by her. ...
17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?””
gEN. 18.14 Is anything too hard for the LORD?
God fulfilled His promise to make Abraham a father of many nations. It all began with Isaac
Paul ties it all together
Here we see our God of Promise at work and Abraham’s response to Him, setting us an example.
Romans 4:17–21 (ESV)
17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.
18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”
19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.
20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Conclusion
Are you struggling with a desire today? A calling? An unanswered prayer?
God is able to do what He has promised.