Rev. David Holwick X
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 6, 2006
Joshua 23:14-16
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I. Can you trust God?
A. The foundation of faith is that there is a God who loves us.
1) He wants to do good to us.
2) He gives us promises for the future.
3) He calls on us to claim these promises. Can we?
Christopher Pylant, age 4, had a malignant tumor in his brain.
Doctors gave him 18 months to live.
Christopher's parents wouldn't accept this, and they found a
doctor who agreed to help them.
They told Dr. Benjamin Carson they knew Lord was going to use
him to heal their son.
The doctor said he would give it his best.
As was his custom, that morning Carson read his Bible and
prayed.
He had grown up in Detroit's inner city in a single-parent family.
But his mom was very religious and faithfully took him to church.
She was also strict.
She made Ben study and read, and he couldn't watch TV.
Now he was a noted surgeon.
The operation on Christopher showed the tumor had destroyed
the brain stem.
The surgical team had to close it up, and Carson sadly told
the parents there was no hope of recovery.
They didn't want to hear of it - they were standing on
God's promise.
The little boy improved slightly, so Carson operated again
and found a thin brain stem left, flattened by the tumor.
This time the tumor came off in layers.
He remembered words of his mother:
"If you ask the Lord for something believing He will do it,
then He will do it."
I first gave this story over ten years ago and it actually
describes something that happened twenty years ago.
Where is Christopher Pylant now?
He is still alive, and considering becoming a minister.
To his family, God's promises are real indeed.
#519
B. What promises are.
1) Believe it or not, the Old Testament doesn't really have
a word for "promise."
a) Instead, it talks about words from God that are
projected into the future.
b) God says, I'll do this -- if you do that.
2) Many promises in Bible aren't listed as such, but state
what God can do for us if we trust Him.
II. God's promises can be problematic.
A. They are both glorious and confusing.
1) Consider God's promises to Israel.
a) They were promised a kingdom - inside enemy territory.
b) They were promised a perfect leader.
c) They were promised lasting peace.
2) They now have the land, but the enemies are still there.
a) Peace -- and a perfect leader -- are not.
B. God's promises do not always seem to come true.
1) Psalm 37:25 makes a bold claim:
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the
righteous forsaken or their children begging bread."
2) But I have seen hungry Christians.
3) Has God failed?
III. Types of Bible promises.
A. General promises, for many people and for all time.
1) Most Bible promises are general.
2) Many of them are spiritual:
a) God promises to save us if we call on Jesus.
b) He promises to never leave us or forsake us.
B. Specific promises, for certain individuals for a certain time.
1) The fact that God promised something to Joshua doesn't
mean it will come true for us, too.
2) Yet even specific promises to others can still speak to
our own heart concerning our specific circumstances.
C. Conditional promises.
1) Many Bible promises require obedience on our part.
2) All Bible promises require our faith.
IV. Claiming carefully.
A. How can we discern between God's promises and our yearning?
1) Our hearts can be deceitful. Jer 17:9
2) We often read into Scripture what we want to see.
B. God's promises must be corroborated by:
1) Clear commands and principles from the Bible.
2) Inner conviction from the Spirit when we pray.
3) Counsel from mature Christians.
4) Wise thinking on our part.
5) Providential circumstances from God.
C. Example of two men seeking to marry.
1) Author's guidance:
a) God would not lead either one to marry a non-Christian.
b) God would not lead them both to the same woman.
1> One, or both, had missed God's leading.
2> (Years ago, a young man told Celeste it was God's
will for her to marry him. Did she blow it??)
2) We must be at the center of God's will.
a) God's glory is more important than ours.
V. Reading Rightly.
A. Promises must be read carefully.
1) We tend toward subjectivity.
2) Seek the passage's original context and meaning.
a) Note any previous fulfillments, or limits.
b) The Bible was written for us, but not all of it TO us.
B. The importance of obedience.
1) Unfulfilled promises may be due to our disobedience.
a) Adam's sin cost him the promise of paradise.
2) To enjoy God's promises' fullness, we must be obedient.
a) We must live under the lordship of Christ.
C. The requirement of faith.
1) The miracles of Jesus required faith. Mark 6:5-6
a) Where there was no faith, he was unsuccessful.
2) If we want blessings from God, we must ask. James 4:2
a) Have confidence that God wants good things for you.
b) Faith sees the promises, and the Promiser.
VI. When God Says No.
A. God has his reasons for withholding promises from us.
1) Jesus himself had unanswered prayer. Mark 14:32-42
a) The Bible promised his deliverance. Psalm 50:15
2) God DID answer - it was "no."
B. We must submit to God's higher will.
1) Be bold in your requests.
2) But be surrendered to God's will.
"God's will is what you would choose if you knew
everything that He knows."
VII. Live God's promises.
A preacher named Tom Long says that while he was at Princeton,
he went to a nearby Presbyterian church that prided itself
on being an academic, intellectual church.
Early on, Tom went to a family night supper and sat down next to
a man he didn't know.
Tom introduced himself, told him he was new, and asked, "Have you
been here long?"
"Oh yes," the man said.
"In fact I was here before this became such a scholarly church.
Why, I'm probably the only non-intellectual left.
I haven't understood a sermon in over 25 years."
"Then why do you keep coming?" Tom asked.
"Because every Monday night a group of us get in the church van
and drive over to the youth correctional center.
Sometimes we play basketball, or play games.
Usually we share a Bible story.
But mostly we just get to know these kids and listen to them.
I started going because Christians are supposed to do those
kind of things.
But now I could never stop.
Sharing the love of God at that youth center has changed my life."
And then he said this profound statement: "You cannot prove
the promises of God in advance, but if you live them,
they're true, every one."
#29148
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon is adapted from the article "Standing on the Promises Without
Losing Your Footing" by Thomas R. Yeakley, in Discipleship Journal #103,
Jan/Feb 1998
# 519 "Standing On God's Promise," by Benjamin Carson, M.D., Guideposts,
June 1988, page 6.
#29148 "Proving The Promises," by Dr. Lane Alderman, from his book, "Asking
All the Right Questions"; Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations by
Email, www.sermonillustrations.com, February 20, 2005.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
"Standing on the Promises Without Losing Your Footing"
by Thomas R. Yeakley
Discipleship Journal #103, Jan/Feb 1998
I. Sometimes God's promises don't seem to come true.
A. Example of failed Indonesian visa request.
B. Can God's promises be trusted?
II. Those Problematic Promises.
A. God's promises are both glorious and confusing.
B. They do not always come true.
1) Sometimes the righteous starve.
C. Two types of Bible promises:
1) General promises.
a) For many people.
b) For all time.
2) Specific promises.
a) For certain individuals.
b) For a certain time.
D. Some carry conditions, all require faith.
1) Most promises are general.
2) Even specific ones for other people (Bible () can have
application to us.
a) They still speak to our heart concerning our current
circumstances.
3) We should not expect many specific promises for us.
III. Claiming Carefully.
A. How can we discern between God's promises and our yearning?
1) Our hearts can be deceitful. Jer 17:9
2) We often read into Scripture what we want to see.
B. God's promises must be corroborated by:
1) Clear commands and principles from the Bible.
2) Inner conviction from the Spirit when we pray.
3) Counsel from mature Christians.
4) Wise thinking on our part.
5) Providential circumstances from God.
C. Example of two men seeking to marry the same woman.
1) Author's guidance:
a) God would not lead either one to marry a non-Christian.
b) God would not lead them both to the same woman.
1> One, or both, had missed God's leading.
2) We must be at the center of God's will.
a) God's glory is more important than ours.
IV. Reading Rightly.
A. Promises must be read carefully.
1) We tend toward subjectivity.
2) Seek the passage's original context and meaning.
a) Note any previous fulfillments.
b) Special care must be taken with specific promises.
B. The Bible was written for us, but not all of it TO us.
V. Daniel's Example.
A. He discovered Jeremiah's promise of a 70-year limit to exile.
1) It inspired him to pray.
B. The content of his prayer:
1) He began with confession.
2) He reviews with God the situation.
3) He reminds God of his character.
4) He requests that God turn away his anger.
C. Daniel does not dictate to God.
1) He is humble, reverent and in awe of God.
VI. Why promises don't come true.
A. The importance of obedience.
1) Unfulfilled promises may be due to our disobedience.
a) Adam's sin cost him the promise of paradise.
2) To enjoy God's promises' fullness, we must be obedient.
a) We must live under the lordship of Christ.
B. Undermined by unbelief.
1) Our unbelief may cause us to fail to claim the promises.
a) Lack of faith limited Jesus' miracles. Mark 6:5-6
b) We will not have, if we don't ask. James 4:2
2) Promises must be mixed with faith.
a) Faith is the simple acceptance and trust in what God
has promised in the Bible.
b) Faith sees the promises, and the Promiser.
C. The Virtue of Patience.
1) Faith without patience leads to compromise.
a) We try to answer our own prayers.
2) Satan tempts us with near-fulfillment.
a) This means the real fulfillment is near.
VII. When God Says No.
A. God has his reasons for withholding promises from us.
1) Jesus himself had unanswered prayer. Mark 14:32-42.
a) The Bible promised his deliverance. Ps 50:15
2) God DID answer - it was "no."
B. We must submit to God's higher will.
1) Be bold in your requests.
2) But be surrendered to God's will.
a) "God's will is what you would choose if you knew
everything that He knows."
VIII. Standing on the Promises.
A. God's promises give us hope in hopeless circumstances.
1) The Christian life begins with belief in promise of eternal
life. 1 John 2:25
B. God's promises demonstrate his goodness to us.
1) Their fulfillment brings him glory.
C. We must have confidence his perfect will is being worked out.
1) "Your promises have been thoroughly test, and your
servant loves them." Psalm 119:140
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