24-0324a Transcript

Preacher: Mike Mathis

(1:44) Good morning, everyone. (1:47) I am privileged once again to be the one to stand before you to deliver a message from God’s Word. (1:57) This past Wednesday we looked at precious things.

(2:04) Then looking at precious and looking at certain things about precious. (2:17) This morning and tonight we will be dealing with precious promises. (2:29) I’m taking this from 2 Peter 1, verse 4, which says, (2:42) By which we have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, (2:52) that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, (2:59) having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

(3:08) Before I really get in deep into this discussion, maybe dealing with it tonight, (3:19) we’re going to look at some things in the Old Testament. (3:30) And I appreciate the Scripture readings by Kevin and Roger. (3:39) And we’re going to look in the Old Testament.

(3:46) There are some that do not like reading the Old Testament, realizing that we are under a new law. (4:01) But yet, Jesus on one occasion said to the people, (4:11) You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. (4:17) These are they that testify of me.

(4:23) So, if the Old Testament has things that speak concerning Jesus, (4:35) we want to look at some of these things. (4:40) And they would be in the form of promises made. (4:47) Now first, I want to go all the way back to the beginning, (4:55) when Adam and Eve sinned before God.

(5:06) Eve being beguiled by the serpent. (5:10) And when God questioned each one that played the blind game, (5:22) Adam blamed the woman. (5:24) He said, The woman that you gave to me, she gave to me.

(5:31) And then he questioned the woman. (5:35) She said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. (5:42) And then he turned his attention to the serpent.

(5:47) And someone mentioned that Adam and Eve, they each were judged. (6:00) They were questioned, but the serpent did not have a leg to stand on. (6:10) But God turned his attention to the serpent.

(6:14) Because you have done this, you are accursed more than all cattle, (6:21) and more than every beast of the field. (6:24) On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. (6:32) And this is the one I want to pay special attention to.

(6:37) And I will put enmity between you and the woman, (6:43) and between your seed and her seed. (6:48) He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. (6:57) And maybe someone may not think this as a promise, but it is a promise.

(7:08) And this is the first prophetic statement that is made concerning (7:17) what is going to happen. (7:20) That a woman is going to bow through her seed, (7:25) one that will bruise the serpent or the devil’s head, (7:33) take care of Satan, and Satan will bruise his heel. (7:41) That happened when Christ was put to death.

(7:45) Christ died. (7:47) That was Satan bruising his heel. (7:53) But it is through the death of Christ that Satan was overcome.

(8:01) Especially when Christ arose from the dead. (8:06) He took away the power of the devil. (8:11) And this is a prophetic statement.

(8:16) It is a promise. (8:19) And that was made to the serpent. (8:23) Now we’re going to go to Genesis 12, (8:30) the scripture reading that Kevin read in your hearing.

(8:38) This is to Abraham, or Abram as he is called at this time. (8:48) God later changes his name to Abraham. (8:55) He tells Abraham to get out of his country from this family (9:08) and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.

(9:19) In Genesis 15, we’re going to look at something that Abraham is wondering about. (9:36) Who’s going to be his heir? (9:41) And he’s childless. (9:47) And he asks for Eliezer, his servant, to be heir.

(9:56) And he tells God, look, you have given me no offspring. (10:04) Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. (10:11) And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, (10:16) This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

(10:26) Then he brought him outside and said, (10:30) Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. (10:38) And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. (10:47) Notice that God is promising this land that he’s going to show him.

(10:57) He is going to make a great nation. (11:02) Making him a great nation is thus fulfilled in what Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 26 and verse 5. (11:21) Yeah, 26 and verse 5. (11:29) And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, (11:34) My father was a Syrian about the purge. (11:39) And he went down to Egypt and grew up there, few in number.

(11:46) And there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. (11:56) And then in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 25, (12:05) remember that God told Abraham that his descendants would be numberless as the stars of heaven. (12:24) And in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 22, (12:30) Moses tells them, he says, (12:34) Your fathers went down to Egypt with seventy persons.

(12:41) And now as the Lord your God has made you as the stars of heaven in multitude, (12:51) making Abraham’s descendants, which became the nation Israel, (13:02) it is said here that it has made him a great nation. (13:10) And also that they are as the stars of heaven in multitude. (13:19) That is fulfilled then, making Israel a great nation.

(13:30) Then there is the promise of the land. (13:33) They have the land promise. (13:36) Joshua 21.

(13:42) We have Joshua talking to the people. (13:49) And he’s telling them, Joshua says to them, (13:56) So the Lord gave to Israel all the land of which he had sworn to give to their fathers. (14:06) And they took possession of it and dwelt in it.

(14:10) And the Lord gave them rest all around according to all that he had sworn to their fathers. (14:22) And not a man of all their enemies stood against them. (14:29) The Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand.

(14:35) Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. (14:45) All came to pass. (14:48) So the land, the promise that they would inherit this land, (14:58) they have it and it’s been fulfilled.

(15:01) Joshua 21 says so in verse 45. (15:10) 43 through 45. (15:13) All came to pass.

(15:15) And then in chapter 23 and verse 14, it says, (15:24) Behold, Joshua is telling them, (15:29) Behold, this day I am going to lay of all the earth. (15:35) And you know in your hearts and in all

your souls (15:39) that not one good thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you. (15:51) All have come to pass for you.

(15:53) Not one word of them has failed. (15:59) So God fulfilled the land promise, (16:03) the promise that they would bear that land that God would show to Abraham. (16:13) And then God told Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed.

(16:25) Now we have Israel becoming a great nation. (16:31) We have the land that they possess. (16:35) All of it has been fulfilled.

(16:40) And now we turn to Galatians 23. (16:45) Galatians 3 rather. (16:48) And we’re going to look at that passage that Roger read in your hearing.

(16:57) And we want to see just what it says. (17:11) 26 through 29. (17:13) He says, (17:15) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

(17:21) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (17:28) There is neither Jew nor Greek. (17:31) There is neither slave nor free.

(17:34) There is neither male nor female. (17:36) For you are all one in Christ. (17:40) Now notice, in the Old Testament, under the law of Moses, (17:51) God dealt primarily with the children of Israel.

(17:56) The children of Israel were his people. (18:01) And he dealt with them. (18:02) That doesn’t mean that he wasn’t thinking about the Gentiles, (18:08) those that were not Jews.

(18:12) Because that is his purpose, his whole purpose. (18:19) Of setting up the law and setting up this nation (18:23) that it would be through the nation that the seed (18:31) that was spoken of in Genesis 3.15, being Christ, would come. (18:42) And therefore, it didn’t make any difference about being a Jew or a Greek.

(18:53) What station they were in life, it didn’t make any difference. (18:58) Whether you’re male or female, you are all one in Christ Jesus. (19:04) Now let’s listen to the rest of it.

(19:08) And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed (19:15) and ours according to the promise. (19:20) When Christ sent the apostles, gave them the Great Commission, (19:29) they were to go into all nations and make disciples. (19:35) In Matthew 28.

(19:38) In Mark 16.15, they were to go into all the world (19:43) and preach the gospel to every creature. (19:47) He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. (19:52) This is what God had promised.

(20:01) And here it says that when that takes place, (20:06) their faith, one is baptized, then they belong to Christ. (20:14) And if so, then you are Abraham’s seed, that is spiritually. (20:20) And ours according to the promise.

(20:28) Now I’ve got another promise that was made by God through Moses. (20:39) Moses, in speaking to the people in Deuteronomy 18, (20:45) is telling the people that the Lord, your God, (20:54) will raise up for you a prophet like me. (20:59) From your midst, from your brethren, him you shall hear.

(21:06) According to all you desire of the Lord, your God, (21:11) in the day of the assembly say, (21:17) let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, (21:28) nor let me see this great fire anymore. (21:34) Well, that was approved by God. (21:40) I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren (21:47) and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

(21:59) Now, I know that there were those in Israel that when they heard this, (22:13) they were anxious to be the one, especially the women, (22:20) to bear someone that would be coming along just like Moses. (22:28) And looking for him. (22:31) And that is the reason the women, when they were married, (22:38) they felt saddened they weren’t to have children (22:43) because perhaps the son that they bore would be that one.

(22:50) They were looking for one that would be just like Moses. (22:57) Now, in Acts 3, we have Peter, he is speaking to the people. (23:08) This is after he performed a miracle.

(23:11) He was with John and he went to the temple at the hour of prayer (23:21) and while there, there was this lame man that was healed of his infirmity. (23:35) He was a beggar. (23:38) He was born that way, he could not walk.

(23:42) And he was that way from birth, but he was walking. (23:46) So that afforded Peter a chance to speak to the people and speak to them (23:57) and to tell them that this power that was displayed by him was not his own power. (24:09) He said, don’t think that that was my own power, that this man was made to walk.

(24:20) So he begins to speak to them of Jesus, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, (24:31) beginning in verse 13 of chapter 3. (24:37) The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of their fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, (24:45) whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate (24:49) when he was determined to let him go. (24:52) But you denied the Holy One and the Judge and asked for a murderer to be granted to you (25:02) and killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (25:11) And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

(25:21) Yes, the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness (25:29) in the presence of you all. (25:32) Yet now, brethren, I know you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. (25:41) But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, (25:48) that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.

(25:54) Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, (26:02) so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, (26:09) and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was priest to you before, (26:16) whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, (26:22) which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. (26:31) Now listen to this. (26:34) For Moses truly said to the fathers, (26:38) The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren.

(26:47) Then you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you. (26:53) And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet (26:58) shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. (27:04) Now listen to her.

(27:07) Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, (27:13) as many as are spoken, have also foretold these days. (27:22) You are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with their fathers, (27:29) saying to Abraham, (27:31) And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (27:39) To you first, God having raised up his servant Jesus, (27:46) sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

(27:56) Here Peter is saying what Moses said about this prophet being raised. (28:08) Jesus is that prophet. (28:11) Jesus is that one that has come already.

(28:17) You denied him. (28:20) You put him to death. (28:25) But he has come forth from the grave.

(28:30) And this is the one that God made with their fathers, (28:40) saying to Abraham, (28:41) And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. (28:49) There is the fulfillment of those promises that were made. (28:57) Yes, the prophecies, you can call them prophecies, (29:02) but God made these promises to Abraham, to Moses, (29:12) even far back as in the garden, (29:17) he sent it to the serpent that this would be.

(29:23) There is the fulfillment of these promises. (29:30) Now, think about what this would mean. (29:36) No matter who we are, (29:40) no matter what station in life we are from, (29:44) we can be accepted by God if we will trust in him, (29:52) put our faith in Jesus Christ, (29:56) hear him, and believe him, (30:03) and obey him by being baptized for the remission of sins.

(30:10) As he said, (30:12) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. (30:16) He that believeth not shall be condemned, (30:22) because he came to turn away every one of us from our iniquities. (30:32) Jesus is the fulfillment of all of these promises.

(30:36) Just as he said, (30:38) those Old Testament scriptures testify of him, (30:43) we just looked at a few of these promises that God made, (30:48) these prophecies, if you please, (30:51) but they all were fulfilled in Christ. (30:56) Therefore, Christ is the one that we should obey, (31:03) we should hear, we should respond to, (31:06) if there’s anybody that needs to respond to the gospel invitation, (31:13) may you do so now while we stand and while we sing.