August 29^th, 2021

9:30 am ----------------------------Truth vs. Man’s Reasoning / God vs. Man – Luke 20:19-47

10:00 am -----------------------------------------Salvation: A Confrontation With Christ – Acts 22

Wednesday: 7:00 pm

Great Promises -- “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises…” – 2 Peter 1:4

God, Who cannot lie, has promised eternal life to all who believe on His Son. Scripture says, “All the promises of God in (Christ) are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor.1:20). Yea means yes . . . its true. Amen means ‘that’s the truth, that’s the way it is . . . it is certain . . . so be it.’ Great and precious promises are given to all who trust God’s Son. Promise after promise, exceeding great and many promises. God has promised His kingdom to all who are poor in spirit, who have nothing, are nothing, can do nothing but look to Him. He has promised comfort to those who mourn over their sin and look to the Lamb. He has promised righteousness to all who hunger and thirst for it (Christ); salvation, forgiveness of sin (all sin), full pardon, acceptance, peace, joy unspeakable, full of glory . . . a place in Glory with all of God’s people. He has promised all provisions for this life, all we need and more than we can ask or think. He has promised to be with us, never leaves us, always love us, take care of us and all about us. He has promised to really and truly save all who just look to Him, call upon Him, trust Him, worship Him and believe and rejoice in His Son. He has promised all these things and more . . . exceeding great promises. You may take all of them for your own.

The other day I was sitting in the church court-yard, eating a piece of bread, enjoying the sunshine, when I looked down and saw a little ant carrying a bread crumb that I had dropped. It was 10 times his size yet he laid hold of that huge loaf of bread and was carrying it home. So I dropped some even bigger pieces and told him (yes, I talked to an ant), “come back and get it all, all you need, all you can carry . . . and tell others, tell your friends and family there is bread falling out of the sky, bread coming down from above.”

Brothers and sisters, God has given us exceeding big, great big promises and you may lay hold of them all and take them for your own. The Lord doesn’t give mere crumbs of grace to His people but the whole loaf; He gave His blessed Son, the bread of life to us. “He that spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom.8:32). Why not believe God. Why not trust Him and be filled with peace and joy. It’s yours. He is yours. “Take, eat; this is my body . . . this is my blood . . . drink ye all of it.” Take all you want, all you need; take all the promises to heart, for He has promised and He is faithful that promised.

Doctrine

Every doctrine of the Bible is good in and of itself; but these doctrines become good for us only in the measure that they point us to Christ, Himself, and cause us to trust Him more perfectly. So corrupt is the natural mind that it can make an idol out of the very doctrines of God. The Pharisees made an idol out of Scripture, so it should not surprise us to find that we can make an idol out of the doctrines of Scripture. This idolatry is not easily recognizable, and we should not be quick to accuse anyone of it. We may recognize this idolatry in ourselves when we see:

1. A contempt for those who do not agree with us. If we have the truth, it is because God gave it to us by grace, and that forbids us from glorying in our knowledge and heaping contempt upon those who have not yet been taught of God.

2. Preaching on one doctrine to the exclusion of others. A face is made of many parts, and we have not drawn it properly until all its parts are drawn in proper proportion to one another. All the Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, so we must assume that all the doctrines are suitable for preaching. We gain a proper view of Christ and His gospel when and only when we preach the whole counsel of God.