Promises: August 2026
Table of Contents
Promises
Promises, precious promises there are for the wilderness way, and indeed the glory at the end, but properly for the way. But beyond promises we know God in redemption — rejoice in what He is, through what He has done, “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation”(Rom. 5:11).
This is perfect blessedness, not what He has given, but what He is; this was the ground of the Syro-Phoenician woman. To refuse her, He would have had to deny Himself. We do not get at promises, but at God Himself, and that by what is manifested and wrought in Christ. Promises are things given to us, but this is the Giver; this runs all through Christianity in its nature.
J. N. Darby
All That HE Promised
The title of this article is a phrase taken from 1 Kings 8:56, at the time of Solomon’s dedication of the temple. In blessing the congregation of Israel, he could say, “Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all that He promised: there hath not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised by the hand of Moses His servant.” A similar phrase was spoken by Joshua many years before — “There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass” (Josh. 21:45). This is repeated in Joshua 23:14, with a minor variation in the wording.
We all like to read about promises like this — good promises from God that have all been fulfilled, and brought us joy. Joshua, and later Solomon, rejoiced in the blessing that the Lord had brought to Israel, and in the case of the dedication of Solomon’s temple, the Lord Himself brought in a cloud of glory that was so intense that it is recorded, “The priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud” (1 Kings 8:11).
Yet we must all admit that there are times when the promises of God do not seem to be as real and full of joy for us as we would expect. There may be times when those promises seem very real to our souls, yet perhaps other times when we wonder about those promises, and whether the Lord has forgotten us. We may not doubt the veracity of God’s Word, but at the same time we may be confused as to how those promises are going to be fulfilled. I would suggest that there are two things that we need to consider — one negative and the other positive. Yet those two things are connected by a common thread.
Negative Possibilities
First of all, in all the rejoicing, feasting and blessing that surrounded the dedication of Solomon’s temple, we cannot help but notice that in his prayer, Solomon makes reference to a number of negative possibilities that might befall Israel. He mentions such things as Israel’s being “smitten down before the enemy,” when “heaven is shut up, and there is no rain,” and when there might be “famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar.” Later he mentions the possibility of their being carried “away captives unto the land of the enemy,” and asks that their enemies might show compassion to them, if the people truly repented. All this supposed a condition of things among the people of Israel that could scarcely have been imagined amid all the wealth, power and glory of Solomon’s reign. Yet Solomon himself was ultimately responsible for introducing idolatry into Israel, because of his foreign wives.
Positive Promises
The lesson for us in all this is twofold. First of all, we must remember that God’s promises are unconditional. God did not make promises to Abraham on the basis of Israel’s faithfulness. No, they were unconditional. But secondly, Israel could not enjoy those promises in a sinful state, for then Jehovah would have compromised His holy character. When Joshua mentioned all the promises of God, and how every good thing had come to pass, the people had just finished a forty-year trek through the wilderness. There they had learned what God was, and also what they were. Yet when we read about their history in Hebrews 11, where seven things are mentioned that happened by faith (verses 23-31), there is no mention of the wilderness. It was not part of God’s counsels, although part of His ways.
While we are on our wilderness journey through this world, we may not always experience the full blessing of God’s promises. Will they be fulfilled? Yes, they will, just as His promises to Israel will be fulfilled. But like Israel, we must learn God in a more intimate way through failure than if all His promises were immediately fulfilled. This brings us to the more positive reason why we do not always enjoy the full immediate blessing of God’s promises.
If we wish to get the right perspective about anything, we must bring Christ into our thoughts. Before the Lord Jesus came into this world as a man, God the Father made promises to Him. We read such things as, “The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness” (Psa. 18:20). Another is, “He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand” (Isa. 53:10). Many more could be quoted, but they all have one thing in common, namely, that none of them was fulfilled during our Lord’s time in this world. Anyone looking on as our Lord was crucified, and estimating His impact on this world from a natural point of view, would have remarked, “His life was a failure.” Yet all was fulfilled in resurrection, and in a wonderful way.
Fruit in Resurrection
Quite a few years ago now, a Christian man in Romania related to me an interesting illustration of this truth in his own family. He and his five brothers were all raised in an evangelical Christian family there, and his father was a faithful preacher of the gospel. Somehow, he avoided being taken to prison by the (then) Communist government, and eventually died a natural death. Yet when the father went to be with the Lord, none of the sons were saved (there were no girls in the family). They respected their father, but none of them had accepted Christ as their Savior.
At the end of the graveside service, it was customary for the sons of the family to screw the lid down on the coffin before it was lowered into the ground. During the funeral service, when the gospel was faithfully preached, the son who related this story to me was convicted, and felt strongly that he needed to be saved. When he knelt down beside the coffin to put those final screws into it, he accepted Christ as his Savior.
Later that day, when the six brothers gathered together to discuss some business matters relating to their father’s estate, the one who spoke to me felt that he should confess Christ. He did so to his brothers, clearly telling them of his conversion. One brother across the room opened his eyes wide, and said, “You too”? Then another and another spoke up, and it turned out that all six had come to Christ at their father’s graveside. All are now going on well for the Lord.
We who are believers can only imagine the father’s grief as he preached to others and saw much fruit, yet failed to see any fruit in his own family. Yet the Lord was working, and that father will see the blessing in resurrection. He did not see it down here.
Faith Tested
Why did the Lord allow that man to be taken home without seeing blessing in his own family? Was it because he was unfaithful? I do not think so. Rather, he had the privilege of following in the steps of the Master, who also saw His fruit in resurrection.
This aspect of God’s promises can be a real encouragement to all of us who are parents, or grandparents. Or perhaps we do not see immediate blessing in our local assembly, and we may wonder why this is so. As we have seen in the case of Solomon and ultimately the nation of Israel, it is always good to search our own hearts first. But then we must remember that God may test our faith by withholding the fulfilment of His promises. Let us always remember that God may test our faith, but He will never disappoint our faith.
The common thread running through these two scenarios that I have described is that God’s promises will be fulfilled, and that we can fully trust Him, even if what we see within our lifetime down here seems to fall short of fulfilled promises.
W. J. Prost
God's Promises and Man's Responsibility
God has given law for the prohibition of evil. He gave it to man already in sin. It came in after two things, evil and the promise. It was a thing “added because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made” (Gal. 3:19). “The law entered, that the offense might abound” (Rom. 5:20). Hence we are taught that its object was to make plain the hopelessness of man’s case before God. Man is concluded under sin (Gal. 3:22); that is the effect of the law.
“The Scripture has concluded all under sin.” That is what the gospel more fully brought out. The gospel supposes it. Man, no matter what you call him — a heathen, a Jew or a Christian, with every ordinance you please — is man, and the law deals to man the “curse.” If God gives a law to sinners, He must give the full demand of His holiness. That is what the conscience of man recognizes as fitting. There can be no intercourse between God and the sinner, on the ground of what God requires, without His either sanctioning or condemning sin. Sanction it He cannot; therefore all He has to do is to condemn. Law can never go beyond that.
And now, what does the Apostle put in the stead of law here? “Promise.” “Promise” was long before the law. All hangs upon the faithfulness of God. A mediator supposed two parties, God and man, and therefore failure, as it depended on the stability of both. Not so promise, as it depends on the stability of God only. “God is one.”
These “promises” were made after sin came in, yet before the giving of the law. Sin came in before ever “promise” was heard of. When Adam had failed in the garden, God in pronouncing sentence on the serpent, as the author of it, gave “promise.” But He did not give “promise” to Adam in sin, to man in that condition (the law was given to man in that condition), but in the SECOND Adam. Before there was the slightest dealing on the ground of responsibility, “promise” was made in Christ, as the NEW Man, the “Seed of the woman.” Not a word of it was spoken to Adam personally, yet it was that on which his soul might rest, on which faith could lay hold.
Before the New Man came, the law was given to show the consequence of man’s being under responsibility. The law “was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.”
The Promise Made Good Through the Seed
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman [the seed came], made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).
But there was another step then, which was this — the promises made to Abraham and his seed (Gal. 3:16) were confirmed of God in Christ. Isaac had been offered up (in figure), and raised (in figure), but Isaac was not the true “seed.” Christ, the true “seed,” was typified by Isaac, in whose offering the promise was confirmed. “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (vs. 16) The promises settled on Isaac, after (in figure) he had died and risen again from the dead; and that is what the grace of God has done for us, in Christ. Though Christ Himself, as Man, might have had the promises, yet He could not have had anything to do with us, except through death, in resurrection. He dies, and having accomplished the work of redemption, set aside the consequences of responsibility for man, as risen from the dead, in the power of a new and endless life — “THE Seed” to whom the promises were made — He takes up these promises.
Responsibility Assumed
As man, we were under responsibility, and therefore under the curse, for we had sinned. Perverseness of will was there, the determination to do our own will, and the pleasure of doing it, instead of the will of God.
Christ took all this upon Himself. He charged Himself with responsibility, instead of putting man under it. He bore the curse. He went down into the grave. But He was still the “Holy One,” and (though He might imputatively take sin), it was not possible that He could be holden of the cords of death. Therefore He rose again — HEAD of a new creation — HEIR according to the purposes of God, of all the promises, and Heir forever.
If we look at death — the Prince of Life has tasted death. If at the power of Satan — Christ has broken and destroyed his power. If at the wrath of God — He has borne it all, drunk the cup to the very dregs. “All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psa. 42:7). “Thou hast laid Me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon Me, and Thou hast afflicted Me with all Thy waves” (Psa. 88:6-7).
But further, He is the righteous Inheritor of all the promises; as it is said, “All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen,” and we through grace can add, “to the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:20).
By Faith We Receive
How then did we come in? As heirs together with Him in life, united to Him, one with Him. Our standing before God is in Christ, the New Man. But it is “by faith.” How blessed this is! By faith we receive all the promises in Christ. By faith we find everything done. It is only to believe. The debt has been paid, Christ has finished the work, and the believing soul enters into all the blessed results. It is simply depending upon the truth of God.
When the soul is made hopeless in itself, it turns to see what God is. The more the truth of God’s requirements is known, the more wretched that soul becomes. God in the gospel sees man wicked, miserable, rebellious, lost; but He sees him according to His infinite compassions. We find in Christ, it is true, and to perfection, what man is required to be before God; but more than that, what God is towards man. Grace came by Jesus Christ. So that the moment any person, let it be a convicted sinner, stood before Christ as what he was, he found Christ to be grace. If he came as what he was not, Christ laid him bare; but if he came as what he was, then, no matter what he was, a poor helpless sinner, a wretched adulteress, or the thief upon the cross; all was grace.
Having found Christ, we have found one who has all the promises of God. And since He took those promises as a consequence of what He had done in putting away sin, there can be no further question about sin before God. As He is before God, so are we, holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight, partakers of His life, joint-heirs with Him of all the promises.
This, beloved friends, is our position before God, this our standing in Christ. You cannot mingle the state of man under law with the condition of the new, the heavenly man in heaven. The Lord grant us to know what we are in His love.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
Promises Made Before the Law Was Given
The relation of the law to the promises of God is treated in this chapter. Law having come in, is it the true ground of blessing, to the setting aside of the promises made of old to Abraham? No one could question that the Gentiles have an interest in the promises, at least in those to which the apostle here refers. Even man holds to a confirmed covenant. When once the document is signed and sealed, the matter is closed, it cannot be set aside or added to. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God to Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect” (Gal. 3:16-17).
It is important to understand the particular promises to which the apostle here alludes. It is beyond question that some of the promises refer solely to the natural seed, but these are not before us in this place. The apostle is speaking of those which involve blessing for Gentiles. In Genesis 12 God said to Abraham, “In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” None can limit such a word as this. It shows how the heart of God went out to all even in earliest times, and that blessing for Gentiles was ever before His mind. But on what ground? Certainly not that of law, to which the foolish Galatians were vainly turning; for the law had no existence when God thus expressed Himself to the father of the faithful. The promise was unconditional, and depends on God alone for fulfillment.
The Offering Up of Isaac
Moreover He confirmed the word many years after, and who can annul a confirmed covenant? Observe carefully the occasion of its confirmation. It is found in Genesis 22. There we see Abraham offering up his only begotten son, and receiving him again from the dead (in figure), expressive type of the dead and risen Christ. This being all accomplished, the angel of Jehovah called to him out of heaven and said, “By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord ... in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:10, 18). This must not be mixed up with the word in the previous verse. There Abraham is told that his seed should be multiplied as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the seashore, and that they should possess the gate of their enemies. This clearly refers to Israel and includes no blessing for the Gentiles, but rather the reverse. This will be fully realized in a day yet to come, when Israel shall be led in triumph over all their foes, and all shall be subdued under them. But this is not what the apostle is reasoning upon in Galatians. His mind is fixed upon the precious word, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The seed here, he argues, is singular, not plural — it is Christ. What minute attention we should pay to scripture, if so much depends on a single letter! “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” The omissions of the Spirit of God are as instructive as His words, to such as have eyes to see, and ears to hear.
By Promise, Not Law
The substance of the argument is this; that the promise concerning Gentile blessing was altogether unconditional on God’s part, and that it is settled and sure in Christ dead and risen. Consequently, the law, which was given of God at Sinai four hundred and thirty years later, cannot disannul it, “For if the inheritance be of law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise” (Gal. 3:18). The two principles are opposed in nature and character. If the inheritance is on the principle of works, it becomes a matter of debt, not of promise at all; whereas it is clear that God gave it to the patriarch by promise. If blessing really is through law then the promises of God are annulled. Man can never merit them.
Thus were the Galatians carried back to the beginning of things, that they might see the unreasonableness of the position they were taking up. Why turn to something given four centuries later than the original promise? Especially as they ought to have known that law had never brought blessing to Israel: their scattered and servile condition were a standing warning to all. On the ground of law nothing is certain; such is the condition of man, but when God comes in, in the wonderful grace of His heart, the soul that rests in Him, as helpless and needy, finds everything sure and stable. The righteous ground is the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
Wherefore Then the Law?
Another question arises out of this. If law cannot bring souls into blessing, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgression, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made: and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator” (vs. 19). In Rom. 3:31, he is careful to show that the principle of faith does not nullify the law, but that rather it is established, all its righteous sentence having been endured by Christ for us. In Romans 7:7, he shows that the law is not sin, that we turned away from it, but that it is holy and just and good. Here the same care may be observed. The law was God’s perfect rule for man; but man is corrupt and bad, and therefore it can only condemn and curse him. It makes manifest man’s true state. Yet so blind are men as to their true condition, that they have taken up that which was intended to make plain their ruin, and have endeavored to attain to righteousness and life by means of it. It is long since Paul wrote his epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians, but the illusion is not dispelled to this hour. Law cannot justify, nor can it sanctify. It is God’s plumb line making manifest man’s crookedness: His mirror showing up his vileness. The promised Seed has come, Christ has died and is risen; why turn back to law? Why abandon a sure ground for one so unsafe and uncertain?
The apostle adds some interesting remarks here, as to the giving of the law. “It was ordained through angels.” Stephen says, “who have received the law by the disposition of angels” (Acts 7:53). God did not act immediately on the solemn day of Sinai. There were angels, and there was a mediator — Moses. What a contrast to Christianity!
The Principle of Promise
Through Christ’s work, believers are brought to God, cleansed from all their sins, set down in His blessed presence in cloudless favor. We are loved by the Father with the same love wherewith He loves His Son, and are pronounced clean every whit, meet for the inheritance of the saints in the light. Nothing of this could be known and enjoyed under law. God spoke out of the thick darkness, His people quaked and trembled at the foot of the fiery mount; and angels and a mediator were between them and Himself.
The principle of promise does not need a mediator in this sense, there being but one party engaged; hence we read, “Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one” (vs. 20). The unity of God was the great fundamental truth that Israel was responsible to confess before the nations around, who had all departed into idolatry (Deut. 6:4). Thus God will make good His unconditional promises. Man may fail, but God never. We do not need a Moses and a host of angels between our souls and such a God.
Author Unknown
Promise and Assurance
A practical principle of extreme importance is brought out when Abraham asks, “Whereby shall I know?” (Gen. 15:8) in reference to God’s promise: he is instantly pointed to a sacrifice. That is to say, when anyone needs “assurance,” he is pointed to Christ — not to his own feelings, spiritual experiences, good works, resolutions or anything else. The fact is, a man’s spiritual emotions are apt to be very variable and change with the barometer or the state of his health; but even if they were not so, the “feelings” form no proper ground whatever to rest on, in reference whether to assurance of salvation or to anything else. The feelings vary; but Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
This is an aspect of our Lord’s work very much overlooked; namely, that — quite distinct from the shedding of His blood in atonement — there is the sprinkling of His blood, as Victim of the covenant, to ratify and seal it. All the promises of God in Him are yea [that is, affirmed and ratified], and in Him Amen [that is, culminated and fulfilled] (2 Cor. 1:20). But this word “Amen” is a very remarkable one: it is a symbol-word of absolute and final affirmative: it is the “formula of acquiescence” amongst the Jews. It was the word which our Lord habitually used (being translated “verily” about 100 times in the Gospels. Generally speaking it is not translated but is carried into the different languages of the earth intact. Like a few other words of sacred importance, it is untranslatable and is pronounced by all tongues alike. Two foreigners of diverse languages met on a steamer in the South Pacific. One of them who was a Christian thought from the demeanor of the other that he must be one also, but he knew no word by which to accost him. At length he approached, raised his hands and eyes, and said “Hallelujah!” to which his companion responded, putting his hand on his breast, “Amen!” They compressed a great deal of excellent and orthodox theology in those two words and did one another much good.
The “Amen”
For “Hallelujah” is the pervading harmony, and “Amen” the closing full stop or expression of the vast universe. So we find in Revelation 3:14, when, at the Laodicean epoch, every purpose and promise of God seems thwarted and broken, Christ is presented as the AMEN. There is a strange presentation to Laodicea in every way. In all the former churches the Lord had been characterized by some of His possessions or attributes — even to the beloved Philadelphia where He “hath the key of David;” but in Laodicea (the present or approaching condition of the professing church) we have not the attributes or powers of Christ presented as a means of remedy, but Christ Himself. He is called the Faithful and True Witness. As other witnesses for God have proved unfaithful and untrue, now that all things approach the end, God goes back to the beginning. The Amen, in whom all the divine and eternal decrees center and coalesce — who affirms and fulfills every word which has proceeded out of the mouth of God, and collects the (apparently) broken lines of His counsels, reconciles, formulates, and fulfills them. The wailing discords of the groaning creation are “resolved” into an everlasting harmony in this closing word — AMEN.
Abraham’s Offering
“The fowls came down” (Gen. 15:11), for the evil spiritual powers and principles are ceaselessly trying to take away the sign of the covenant; that is, to rob us of Christ, or some part or attribute of Christ. Abraham shows us what we should do: he did not compromise with them nor give place to them, he “drove them away.” We need ceaseless vigilance and uncompromising firmness in this respect, to yield (doctrinally) no particle of the truth concerning either His personality or His work, His name or His word.
Then the patriarch is cast into a horror of darkness and oppressed sleep, but he wakes again. It is typical of what his posterity should go through of oppression and suffering before they should rise in the national resurrection of which Daniel speaks. And through all the horror and oppression goes the smoking furnace and the burning lamp (Gen. 15:17), passing between the bodies of the slain victims. This was how the covenant was made and what it signified. For God had ordained that His people should be purified as in a fire and yet be sustained by the lamp to guide them. This would be true of both the lines of promise; the stars, the heavenly family, and the sand, the earthly family. Of the former — the spiritual family — none would question that this is the purpose and destiny; but of the latter, the fleshly family of Abraham, we need to be reminded, now in the day of their rejection, that the decree is no less certain to be fulfilled.
J. C. Bayley
Paul's Voyage: Trusting the Promises
Acts 27 is a very long chapter that occupies itself about a matter which we might have thought to be not as important as other things in Paul’s testimony. But “Wisdom is justified.” The ways and methods of wisdom, as well as her judgments and counsels, are all “justified of her children.”
This chapter, together with a part of the following one, gives us an account of the Apostle’s voyage from Syria to Italy, and then onward from the seashore to Rome. The simple fact that great space is given to this in the Acts alone might lead us to judge that the Spirit has a purpose in it beyond the mere acquainting of us with a fact, and so we shall find it. In this way we may expect to find in this chapter more than just facts in Paul’s history, or moral instruction.
The company had been removed from the ship in which they had sailed from the coast of Syria into another that was bound for Italy (vs. 6). But shortly after, dangers began to threaten, and Paul gets an intimation that the voyage would be with damage and hazard (vs. 10).
The Authority of the Holy Spirit
This insight he had, I judge, by the Spirit. It is only the authority of the Holy Spirit that could have warranted a stranger, a landsman, a prisoner too, to speak on such a subject with authority, opposing the judgment of “the owner,” and “the master,” and “the more part.” The rest, on the contrary, were directed by providence, so called. The south wind blew softly, and they supposed that they had obtained their purpose (vs. 13). But a tempestuous wind quickly followed the soft southern breeze, unexpected by those who looked around, but confirming the witness of him who learned his lesson from the Spirit (vs. 14).
But the tempestuous wind seems only to drive the Apostle into his harbor more closely. He learns the mind of God, and comes forth laden with the glorious harvest that he had gathered (vs. 21). He rebukes them for not having heeded his former word; but, in the abounding grace of Him whom he served, and for whom he now witnessed, he pledges the safety of all who sailed with him in the ship (vss. 22-26).
The Prisoner Is the Savior
He who was on his way to appear before the power of this world, and in chains, is the person for bearing the truth, the grace, and the power of Him that is above the world. This is after the pattern of the crucified One being the life of the world. This is the mystery of God’s salvation in a world that has destroyed itself. Paul the prisoner, is the savior. The lives of all are given to him who was in chains. The most despised one is the one whom the Lord of life and light and glory owns. And such a one gets all God’s secrets. “Howbeit,” says he, “we must be cast upon a certain island.” He knew the detail as well as the mere fact of safety. He believed, in spite of all appearances, and with confidence pledged the truth of the divine promise and grace.
Here indeed was God and His saint. Paul, after this, allows much to be done in the vessel. There was a sounding, a casting of anchors out from the stern, and a lightening of the ship (vss. 28-29). And he gives great encouragement and cheer of heart (vss. 33-38). But he will have nothing to be trusted but the promise. If the boat be resorted to, confidence is at once placed in other resources, in provisions of safety independent of God, and then the promise will be rejected, and death must follow. The waters will swallow all who are not in the ark of the promise. But according to the same promise, the ship goes to pieces. It is worth nothing — never to be used again. But the lives are spared. Some swim, some float on planks, but all get their life according to the promise that they should be safe who were in the company with Rome’s prisoner, but God’s witness and treasurer. “And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land” (Acts 27:44).
In all this, further notices of the divine mystery show themselves. There is a voice in it all, which may be heard. We have already noticed the prisoner as the savior — being the only vessel of all the true glory and blessing that was there. How sensibly, how visibly, how audibly all that meets the eye and the ear and the heart of him that is taught of God! It needs no interpreter. It is full of God’s way, as I have already observed.
The Vessel Goes to Pieces
But here we have even more than that. The vessel goes to pieces, while the lives of all are preserved. But it was not the vessel, but the promise that preserved the travelers. They had been committed to the ship, but the ship breaks up, and the promise is their ark in the waters again. All stewardships fail and prove unfaithful. The church as the witness or candlestick is broken and removed in the end; but that which is of God Himself — His truth, His love, His promise — survives as fresh and perfect as ever. None who trust in Him, and in Him alone, shall ever be confounded. The voyage may end in a complete wreck. The dispensation may end in apostasy; but all who hang on the promise survive. Some swim, others float on planks, but whether they swim or rest on the planks, all, strong and weak together, reach the shore. They cannot perish, for the God of the promise has them in His hand, and no wind or wave can dash them thence.
The Promise Preserves
Is there not then, I ask, a parable or mystery in all this? This is not Paul’s voyage only, but ours. It is the safety of wrecked mariners, the safety of all believers who trust in the promise, and the God of the promise; it is the security of a poor, helpless, and tossed soul who has by faith found his way, and taken refuge in the sanctuary of peace, though all props and stays here fail him. Hymenaeus and Philetus may disappoint Paul, but God’s foundations do not. “All men forsook me,” says he on a great occasion, “notwithstanding the Lord stood with me” (2 Tim. 4:16-17). And the psalmist in triumph exclaims, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple” (Psa. 11:3). Yes; the way to magnify our security is to see it in the midst of perils and alarms. The very depth of the waters around, honored the strength and sufficiency of the ark to Noah. The ruthlessness of the sword in passing through Egypt glorified the blood that was sheltering the firstborn of Israel. The solemn terrors of the coming day of the Lord will but enhance the safety and the joy of the ransomed, whether with Jesus in the heavens, or as the remnant in their “chambers” in the land.
Christian Truth, Vol. 33
Where is the Promise of His Coming?
The verses in the Word of God from which the title of this article is taken read as follows: “There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Pet. 3:3-4). Both of the apostles, Paul and Peter, predicted a serious state of things in this world in what they called “the last days.” In 2 Timothy 3, Paul outlines in graphic terms the solemn moral condition at the end of this dispensation of grace, while Peter refers to that same time in his second epistle, chapters two and three.
We are indeed living in the last days, and see around us the exact conditions that are prophesied in God’s Word. We also see the scoffers who make light of God’s promises, and especially the promise of the Lord Jesus to come and call His saints home to be with Himself. Since God brought about, in the 19th century, a revival of the precious truth of the Lord’s coming for every true believer before judgment falls on this world, the world at large has been aware of this truth in a general way. As Peter prophesied, scoffers have made a mockery of this, and especially as time goes on, and the Lord does not come. I remember reading in our local newspaper more than sixty years ago a remark by one editor who said, “I can still find people who believe in the second coming of Christ”! This was said, not in any positive way, but as if it were an incredulous thing that someone would still believe that this would actually happen. This same attitude persists today, and men speak of time in the future, projecting their thoughts up to 100 years ahead of our present time, and predicting what may or may not happen. Usually they have no thought that the Lord may come for His own, and then come back later in judgment. Yes, man does try to predict a “doomsday,” based on calculations of climate change, population growth, food supply, and other factors that they think may signal the end of the world. But God and His Word are almost always left out of the picture.
Why the Lord Waits to Come
Even true believers, who want to enjoy the prospect of the Lord’s coming for us, sometimes get discouraged and find it hard to wait. The years go on, the world’s moral condition gets worse and worse, and yet the Lord leaves us here. Some years ago I was at a Bible conference in another country, and a meeting was arranged for questions to be submitted. One of the questions that was raised concerned the Lord’s coming for us, and asked why the Lord did not come more quickly and take us home. The question was given to me to answer, and I immediately asked for a show of hands as to how many in the company had been saved during the past ten years. There were about 150 at the meetings, and about half of the hands went up. Then I asked for another show of hands, as to how many had been saved during the past twenty years. This time three-quarters of the hands went up. Then I proceeded to tell them that I was looking for the Lord to come more than twenty years ago, but that I was thankful that He had waited for them to come to Christ. Now they were being compelled to share in the longsuffering of God, while they in turn waited for others to come.
This story shows that many times our perception of the timing of the Lord’s coming for us is based on our own wishes, and of course this is not wrong, up to a point. When the Lord Jesus says in Revelation 22:20, “Surely I come quickly,” it is quite in order for us to answer, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” However, the Lord looks at the whole picture, and from His perspective; He is not governed by our individual preferences. Many times there have been those who tried to predict the year and sometimes the exact date of the Lord’s coming for us, and have been wrong. It is quite correct to identify “the last days” of this dispensation, but to try and establish a date for our Lord to come for us is not according to God’s mind. We are to expect the Lord to come at any moment.
From the Word of God, it seems that two things have to happen before the Lord will come. We have already referred to one of them, namely, that God’s house must be filled. While He was here on earth, the Lord Jesus could say, “All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me” (John 6:37). It is not for us to know who is included in this vast company, but God will make it come to pass. Once the last one has been saved, the Lord will not hesitate to come for His own.
The Iniquity of the World
The second thing that must happen is that the iniquity of this world must reach its full height, for it is a principle with God that He does not judge evil until it is fully ripe. It was so in the time of Noah, when the Lord allowed him to preach for 120 years before the flood came. When God spoke to Abraham concerning the judgment of the Canaanites, He could say, “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:16). This same principle is hinted at in 2 Timothy 3:13 — “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” But the time will come when evil will have reached its height, and it seems from prophecy that it will reach such a height that if the Lord did not shorten the days of the tribulation, man might well destroy himself (see Matthew 24:22). Believers will not be here in this world to see iniquity reach that point, for we will be caught up before the tribulation period. However, we may see things get even worse than they are now, although for many of us, this is hard to imagine.
In the meanwhile, the present condition of this world is already causing men’s hearts to start “failing them for fear” (Luke 21:26), and God is no doubt warning this world of judgment to come. You and I as Christians have a unique opportunity to continue to preach the gospel, and to seek to point people to Christ. Let us be faithful in doing this, while we wait to be taken home.
W. J. Prost
Partakers of the Divine Nature Through Promise
“All things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:3-4).
Being made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) is not so much the result of new birth, as it is the practical result being experienced in the Christian life. That is, if the soul lays hold on these promises, living in the enjoyment of them, the result will be the manifestation of the divine nature. Of course this word is addressed to those who do have the divine nature.
I suppose none of us Christians would be satisfied just to get into heaven; we do have the desire to have an “abundant entrance.” The question is, what kind of entrance are we going to have? Verse 11 Says, “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The directions — the precepts for it — are right here. I apprehend that the abundant entrance is not the swinging open of the doors at the end, but rather that which is ministered all along the way.
We do not expect a Christian who has been living a half-hearted life at a distance from the Lord to have an ecstasy at that moment, in the same degree as the one who has lived and walked with God. The way to look forward with confidence to that change is to have these virtues, spoken of in the intervening verses of our chapter, operative in the soul.
Life and Godliness
The third verse states: “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” I wonder if we excuse our shallowness on the ground that the circumstances in which we find ourselves are not advantageous to the kind of life we would like to live. Our verse says, “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” There is not one thing lacking. God is not going to put us into a position where we cannot live for Him, and then ask us to live for Him. No; He has given us all things necessary. It is not necessary for one to have to wait until he is older, or knows his Bible better, before he can begin to live for Him.
Laying Hold on the Promises
How do these “exceeding great and precious promises” make us partakers of the divine nature? I believe in this way: It is the entering into and enjoying them (what God has done, is doing, and is yet going to do) as realities. The result is we are so attracted and under the power of them, that other things lose their attractiveness and we become “imitators of God,” being occupied with that which gives concern to Him and which occupies His heart. When we really lay hold on the promises that are ours, that hope works out in the life in a practical way, and we are truly in the enjoyment of being “partakers of the divine nature.”
How different from the world is the newborn appetite of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ. The satisfaction of such a one with divine realities gives peace and quiet to the soul. What a blessed thing to be preserved from this ungodly scene! “A wild and crazy age,” some have said, and surely the expression is not too strong.
We who have Christ have been graciously taken out of such an atmosphere. In its place we have found such a worthy Object — the Christ of God. We have the most worthy Object of the universe, and His glory brought before us again and again in a special way when we partake of the memorials He has left us. To have His worth repeated in our ears again and again produces a transforming power in our souls.
Escape From Corruption
What a blessed thing it is to escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust.” There is no more blessed place than to be gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have the association of those who love Him in sincerity and in truth. Where the Person, work, and word of Christ are (by the grace of God) jealously guarded and enjoyed by His people is indeed a wonderful place. We cannot value it too highly. If escaping the world’s lusts caused thankfulness in the days of Peter, how doubly true today.
Be Diligent
In 2 Peter 1:5-7 we are told: “And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity.” None of us wants to get a reputation of being lazy in material things. There is a lot in Scripture about being diligent in divine things, as well. When you see a Christian especially devoted, especially godly, you may be sure he didn’t get that character by going on in an indifferent way. He wasn’t indolent. There must be purpose of heart, as the Scripture says, “giving all diligence,” etc. That is true with anything in this world wherein people succeed. They do not stumble into success. It is a matter of having a purpose and of letting that purpose form and control their actions.
Perhaps you have said, I would just love to be a real devoted child of God; I don’t want to live a shallow Christian life. Well then, heed the last part of Psalm 27:4, “That will I seek after.” Be diligent and there will be rewarding fruit from earnestly seeking.
Be Fruitful
Now let us look at 2 Peter 1:8: “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” None of us wants to be unfruitful. If the things put before us in these verses abound in us, then we will know what it is to be a fruitful branch for the Lord Jesus.
But suppose we lack these things. How sad are the expressions of verse 9: “But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.” There is a government of God operative among His people. One part of this is that if a Christian becomes indifferent and worldly-minded, then, in a corresponding measure, he loses the consciousness of the blessedness there is in Christ. It is even possible for a Christian to forget that he was purged. He can get so far away that he doesn’t even know whether or not he is a child of God. He just goes on in this condition, either in utter indifference or in despair. Such is the government of God among His people.
Verse 10 reassures us: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” God knows that we are going to be with Christ in glory, but this is the way to have constantly fresh in our souls the assurance of it to make it practically good to ourselves.
Another Wonderful Promise
Finally, verse 11 gives further promise to the believer: “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It is not a question of endowment, gift or ability, but of the heart’s being occupied with the Christ of God, living in the enjoyment of what we have as God’s people, bought with the precious blood of Christ. It is put into our own hands, although we all know it is a matter of grace from first to last, and none of us is going to take any credit. May we cast ourselves unreservedly upon Him and claim that grace He so gladly gives! It is in doing so, and with diligence, that we can have the joy of an abundant entrance “into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
C. H. Brown (adapted from 1927 a Chicago conf. address).
His Promise to Supply All Your Need
“My God shall supply all your need” (Phil 4:19).
How this verse speaks to our hearts! Having proved His divine love for many years, we can only say, “It passeth telling,” for “It passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:19).
A daughter tells the following touching incident in her beloved mother’s life: During a time of financial pressure, we had come to our last sixpence, and as we were about to go to our meeting as usual on Sunday morning, my dear mother asked me if I had the sixpence to put into the box. I looked surprised as I remarked, “It is all we have,” but her gentle rebuke was, “The silver is His and the gold is His.”
“But, mother, dear, do you think the Lord would expect it from us?”
“It is His, darling, and He is a debtor to no one.”
I took it and offered it on her faith, more than mine. On my return, I met a friend whom I had not seen for years. We were mutually pleased to meet, and on parting, she asked if I could come for a few moments into her home, which was close at hand. I at once assented, and afterward I remembered she seemed especially pleased that I did so. When I was about to leave, she put into my hand an envelope, remarking, “Your dear mother will enjoy the little book enclosed.” Later, we sat down to read, and as I was in the habit of reading to my beloved mother, I thought of the little book. On opening the envelope, I found a bright sovereign coin, but my mother was not surprised. With the calm assurance of faith, she remarked, “It is just like Him; no one but Himself would give such interest on sixpence. Are you not glad you gave it to Him?” With broken words we tried to thank Him for the love of which even then we did not know the full extent. (In old British currency, a sovereign was a gold coin equal in value to one pound. There were twenty shillings in a pound, and a shilling was equal to two sixpences. A sovereign was thus worth forty sixpences.)
The next day, when my dear friend called, as I related how His love had used her to supply our need, with tears she told the following details. “Yesterday morning, while speaking to the Lord before I left the house, a voice distinctly said to me, ‘Give Miss H. a pound,’ so clearly it sounded in my ear, that I was startled. Again emphatically the voice said, ‘Give Miss H. a pound,’ and for a third time the words were repeated. I wondered if it was only my personal love for you. Knowing nothing of the trial of your faith, I hesitated at first, but the words being repeated the third time, told me the Lord was the Giver, but He was allowing me to be His messenger. To be quite sure, for my own feeble faith was slow to apprehend that He had so honored me, I asked Him if I invited you to come to my home, would you be willing to come, and it would be an additional proof to me that He had spoken to me.”
We wept at the evidence of such love; she, that He had so used her, while I felt shame and sorrow that I so questioned about giving our last sixpence. But on relating it all to my dear mother, she received it only as a fresh token of His tender, loving kindness. To her it was only confirmation of that comforting verse, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).
May each dear child of God know more of the Father’s heart, and the unchanging love of Christ, resting faithfully upon His Word, knowing, “There hath not failed one word of all His good promise” (1 Kings 8:56). “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
Young Christian, Vol. 17
God Exceeds His Promises
Moses on mount Pisgah tells us that God exceeds His promise, and gives us something in the stead of what we have forfeited, that is far better. If we had hearts to enjoy it, all this would be to us welcome and blessed. It is His prerogative thus to deal with us. He is known as the One who can make us happier than we could ever have made ourselves. This is His prerogative. This is His right as God. And faith, in the understanding of this, bows and says, “Choose our inheritance for us.”
But it is not easy to admit this. We are slow to learn that the Lord can make us happier than we can make ourselves. Moses, we may say, was made to be content with this. He longed for the land. He desired to be happy in his own way. But that was not to be. He had to pass through discipline, and to get a refusal, again and again, from the Lord. At length he finds himself brought into such a scene, a heavenly one, that he would not want to leave it. He finds himself “with the Lord;” and the inheritance he had desired is worthy only to be his footstool.
I believe all this is indeed a lesson for our souls. The Lord may disappoint our expectations, and cross our plans. To the end He may refuse us our way. But he will prove that He is able to do better for us than we could ever have done for ourselves; and our plan of happiness will be left far behind — no more to be compared with His, than a footstool is to be compared with a throne. And our hearts shall be brought to own this, and to say of the place to which His hand leads us, as Peter did, “it is good for us to be here;” or, like Moses on Pisgah, find ourselves unable to come down to earth again.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)
Man's Empty Promises
As recorded in Exodus 24:1-11, God called Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel up into the mountain to worship, but we notice that, with the exception of Moses, who was in a place of special nearness, they had to worship “afar off.” They could not come near in worship because Christ’s work of redemption had not yet been accomplished. The only true ground of approach to God is through the shed blood of Christ, as Hebrews 10:19 tells us, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” Now, we who are saved can come into the very presence of God and worship without any doubts as to our acceptance, for we are “accepted in the Beloved [in Christ]” (Eph. 1:6).
Empty Promises
The children of Israel knew nothing of this, nor of their own utter weakness, and so once again we find them promising full obedience to God. How sure they were of themselves! On one occasion before the giving of the law, and twice after it had been given, they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do and be obedient” (or words very similar). They never seemed to realize their own helplessness before God, and yet even in this present day how many are the same. How very few are willing to own their true position before God as helpless, lost sinners. It is one of the hardest things for the natural man to do. He clings and clings and clings to his own self-righteous rags (Isaiah 64:6) and will not exchange them for the “best robe” which God provides (Isaiah 61:10).
Dedicated With Blood
Now God knew beforehand that the children of Israel could never obtain the blessings of His covenant through their own obedience, and therefore an animal was slain and its blood shed. The death of a substitute was, and still is, the only ground of blessing for ruined man. Therefore God’s covenant with Israel must be dedicated with blood, and so Moses sprinkled the book and all the people with the blood of the sacrifice. The lawbreaker deserved death, but through the blood of the sacrifice, God could go on with His people. He could look ahead to the cross where His own Son, the only Perfect Sacrifice, would die for sinners.
G. H. Hayhoe
The Holy Spirit, the Promise of the Father
When Jesus arose, He could say, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20:17). But they were not yet anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power. Later, but before His ascension, He says, “Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Waiting, they found the sure promise of the Father. The Holy Ghost was given. They were anointed then and not before. Nor was this anointing a boon conferred there and then only, for the apostle in addressing the Corinthians writes, “Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1:21-22). These are assuredly not signs and wonders wrought by the hands or tongue, but the blessed presence and actions of the Spirit in the saints. Compare also 1 John 2:20-27.
In principle, then, the coming of the promised Spirit was contingent on the departure of Jesus, and in fact, it was when He took His seat as the glorified Man in heaven, that the Spirit was sent down. Assembled together with the disciples previous to His ascension, He “commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me: for John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence” (Acts 1:4-5). The next chapter records the accomplishment of the promise on the day of Pentecost. The Comforter was given. Now in them was He who was promised to abide with them forever (John 14). The third person of the Trinity was now, and permanently, present in them, as truly as the second Person had been with them before He ascended to heaven. The Holy Ghost was the abiding witness, as His presence in the disciples was the new and wondrous fruit, of the glorification of Jesus in heaven.
W. Kelly
The Promise - Ask and Be Given
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7). “Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you” (John 15:16).
Father, I hear these promises
From Thy Son’s lips of love,
Which tell me, with a child-like faith,
To seek Thy throne above;
My all-prevailing plea and claim,
The merits of my Savior’s name.
But oft, through sin and unbelief,
I stagger while I hear;
Are all these promises for me?
And may I draw so near?
These words of love and grace divine,
May I embrace and call them mine?
One look at Jesus on the tree,
And Jesus on the throne;
At Him, who bled and died for me,
And worthy is alone;
Chases my gloomy doubts away,
And turns my darkness into day.
Thine only Son—Thy soul’s delight,
Thou didst not spare for me
With Him, however vast or bright,
All other gifts are free:
Father, Thy promise I believe,
“Ask what Thou wilt, Thou shalt receive.”
J. G. Deck