|
God can take something that looks like nothing and put His spirit upon you and you have great power because you’re faithful. You will accomplish the word of God that is in you: the promises He has given you, along with the promise of salvation and eternal destiny with Him. We have so many promises but people that are short sighted throw them away. I’ll do it someday. No. You think you will, but you won’t. Let’s start in 1 Peter 1:2, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. What does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be set apart. When grace and peace come upon you, there is a contentment that comes. I don’t know if there are very many people who would love to work for somebody and not get a reward. That’s one of the factors God put in us. He realizes that without a reward, what’s the use of following God, the Creator? We think of all the gifts of the Spirit, we think of peace and quietness. Everything God does, that you receive, is going to work into your life as a reward; if you really believe that God will reward you. I know for a young man, if his dad would say he’s going to buy him a new car, he wouldn’t say no I don’t want a new car. So we’re going to look at the promises of reward, which is the foundation of faith in God. Hebrews 11 says you must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. If you really believe that, why would you look anywhere else? His rewards are eternal. And to go anywhere astray from that into the flesh is absolute stupidity. Where can you go and find promises that will last forever but with the Creator? Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Can you say, for me? If you can’t, you have no faith that God is going to be able to do that. Verse 5, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. I believe we are in the last time. 1 Peter 2:4, To whom coming, as unto a living stone… What’s a living stone? Someone like Jesus that destroys wickedness upon the earth. That’s a living stone. It’s a mighty warrior. Jesus was hewed out of a rock and thrown at the four different things: the head, the chest, the loins, and the feet. Those four things that God made us to be, satan wants to destroy. And there are four beasts that labor day and night to do that so that you will not inherit the promises of God. …disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious. This living stone does not come through man’s work or hands, but it’s chosen of God for you, and it’s precious. Those that do not consider the promises of God precious, stay in the world and will receive no promises because they didn’t fulfill their commitments. Verse 5, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Cain and Abel: one gave an acceptable offering and one didn’t; one by the work of their hands and one by the spirit of God growing things and all they did was care for them. Verse 6, Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Verse 9, But ye are a chosen generation... If you get rid of the wickedness of the generations you will be chosen. But if you don’t, you’re not a chosen people. …a royal priesthood… Royal has to do with kingship. …an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. That’s happened ever since Jesus died and rose. Each generation is supposed to be a chosen and royal generation, and Peter sees all of that as extremely precious. Jacob saw the blessings of God as precious. Esau did not. He didn’t want to worry about it, he just wanted to have a good time. And he did. He had four hundred soldiers running with him on horses, and Jacob was content with ugly looking sheep. They still call a particular breed of sheep that are not very pretty to look at, Jacob’s sheep. 2 Peter 1:3, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness…God has promised those that diligently seek Him, divine power that gives all things that pertain unto life and not death. All things of the flesh are death. …through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Glory is His labor over us. When we let God labor over us and do whatever it takes to break that thing that He doesn’t desire, He puts His glory on us. Verse 4, 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. There is a war going on in the members of our body. The devil wants to keep us in the flesh and God is laboring to bring His glory to remove that lust, or desire. The lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life are three areas God wants to remove. And when He removes them, He gives the divine nature. That means that your lifestyle is as the nature of God. Verse 5, And beside 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 all the attributes of heaven. 2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. What He’s saying here is if you do what I’ve asked you to do, all the promises that I have promised are yours. Yes, and Amen! Where do you get a promise like that? It comes from the One that can fulfill it. No wonder Jesus said when it’s all done He was going to hand everything back to the Father so He can be in charge. I love when God is in charge, not people. But if we have that divine nature that He’s looking for, then you’ll be in favor. 2 Corinthians 7:1, Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Just go on like you did before because the promises are there? No, it says to cleanse ourselves. Hebrews 6:1, Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. Let’s leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Why? Because it’s already worked in us and we’re doing it and not even aware. Jesus said, when you did this, you did it unto Me. Come in and receive your rewards. There comes a point in time where God moves on. Right now He is working faith in us, but we are going to begin to move out of that. If you don’t have it, what are you going to do when He moves on into whole new realms? You’re done. Verse 4, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakes of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the power of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. It says to seek Him while He may be found. Work it in you. Verse 11, And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who though faith and patience inherit the promises. Say you’re an alcoholic and the Lord is nudging you saying you need to give that up. So you say you’ll give it up and say I’m going to show You, God; I’m going back to the bar and I’m going to sit there and it’s just going to be okay. No, it won’t. You separate yourself from the generations to have a generation that is receiving the promises. Because God is raising up a generation of holiness that He may not go back to again. When God begins to pour out the vials, those people can’t be saved anymore; He’s just showing them He’s God. That’s it. They will want to die; they will want to have the stones fall down on them. It says here that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises; the rest of them, leave them go. When I was working in tool and die, there was a man that was a pillar in my life in tool and die design and making. He went through his own shop and taught me and showed me different things that he made. It was not a fancy shop; there was stuff everywhere. But if I wanted to make something from a tool and die man, I would have gone to him because what he said made sense and he showed me the proof of it. So we choose the people we want to be around by what kind of promises or what kind of faith they have. Verse 13, For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. How much faith did Abraham walk in believing God? He said he saw New Jerusalem coming out of heaven from a distance, but he never received the promise alive. But his promise was going to come through God to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, and Jacob to the twelve tribes of Israel. So Abraham got his faithful servant and sent him back to his home country and got a woman for Isaac that would have been in the same family of promise, although she didn’t have the promise until she said she was willing to go and she then walked in the promise as Isaac did. He was extremely careful and held the promises of God very precious. And Isaac thought he was doing the right thing but his physical eyes loved Esau because he was a hunk. And had he had the desire that Jacob did, he would have made a wonderful promise carrier. But sometimes God has to give to those that are poor and down and out, without much hope in anything, to start bringing that person into something they never dreamed they could be. God can take something that looks like nothing and put His spirit upon you and you have great power because you’re faithful. You will accomplish the word of God that is in you: the promises He has given you, along with the promise of salvation and eternal destiny with Him. We have so many promises but people that are short sighted throw it away. I’ll do it someday. No. You think you will, but you won’t. Verse 18, That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; That hope is the promises of God. Verse 19, Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul… The soul is what God is going to save if we follow Him and are obedient. God was very gentle with Abraham. He made mistakes but was a forerunner of what is to come; one that is to establish. And that makes all the difference. Jacob did not do all the right things. So seek the Lord while He may be found. Hebrews 10:22, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) Hold fast to the profession; don’t let someone take it away. God told Abraham, leave your place of birth, leave your family, leave your country, and get out of there because if you don’t you may lose your promise. Verse 35, Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. When I was in tool design there was a little squeaky man that was there. He was a full atheist but he knew the Bible. He said I read in the Bible where you throw your bread on the water. He said, I tried that and all I got was soggy dough. And he went on and on and on to try to destroy my faith in God. There was a point after about six months of him being there that I could tell my salvation was hanging by a thin thread; I’ll never forget it. I was almost to lose my salvation through that man and I knew it was through him and I said, you will not destroy that. And that was one of the deciding factors for me to choose to leave the profession. Verse 38, Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. If you draw back after God has given you salvation, His soul will have no pleasure in you. Verse 39, But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Galatians 3:16, 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. There is only one seed. The way to eternity does not come from many seeds. It’s one seed given by Abraham and then through him and his offspring are seeds. Romans 9:4, Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. Abraham had eight boys. He had Ishmael, Isaac, and six others after that. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Verse 8, That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. That’s why to be born again is to be born into the promises of Abraham. He opened it up so you can be adopted and have eternal salvation whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile. So when you are born again, you receive the promises of God but they have to grow in you to retain them. Verse 27, Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrah. The Lord left us a seed from Abraham. If we do not get that seed, we will be like Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s sort of distasteful, to say the least. All of this is pertaining to faith but we are going beyond faith into a place of salvation and promises that are eternal, that will finish and clean up that which is in us that still wants the flesh. Romans 10:2, For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. When you fly on an Israeli plane, at a certain time of the day, the men will gather together and stand up in a corner somewhere, and begin to pray and rock back and forth and point towards Jerusalem. They have a zeal, but they don’t have the knowledge of God. Verse 3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. So when you become born again, you become a new creation into the love of God. Hebrews 11:11, Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Verse 17, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. I’ve had that happen several times in my life; that’s not an easy thing. I’ve had a lot of life changing experiences. Had Abraham not been faithful, we would have had to have someone else bring Christ in and that would have cancelled the promises of Abraham. Verse 18, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Isaac was called the only begotten, just as Jesus was God’s only begotten. So because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, God said, Okay, I will send My Son down to save your soul. So God can say, My Son went through just as much if not more than what you do and He was obedient and I pulled Him through. But He had to pull Himself out of the world and sanctify Himself so that He was a perfect sacrifice. Verse 23, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. In other words, Moses should have died because the Jews were getting to be too many and Egypt was afraid that one day they would rise up and take over the land of Egypt. Verse 27, By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. And it goes on to describe all the things Moses went through. In that process, Moses developed faith in God. That’s the same thing we can have if we follow Him and let Him bring vexations. What is a vexation? It’s a tool that God gives you to manifest your issues. If He wouldn’t give you those manifestations, you would never know your issues because they have to manifest. Don’t throw away your faith to the devil. Don’t say I can’t be saved because I just can’t. No, anyone can. He said, If you diligently seek Me, I will be found and I will come to you. Amen. 
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLarry Troyer |
||