Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

When you and I finish our 70 years on this earth and we are suddenly standing in the presence of the Lord, it I believe that we are going to look over our shoulder and come to a startling realization, and that is going to be that the 70 years that we lived on this earth were dependent totally on the promises of God. That may startle you to think of your life as the result of the promises of God. But I believe that is exactly what the scripture is teaching us. And the greatest illusion before the eyes of men and women is that God is totally removed from this, his creation, and that we think that we can live our life with or without him.

And yet, if for but one moment, God were to remove his sustaining hand from this creation, all of our life would come undone. As a matter of fact, even physically, that which binds you together would come undone if it were not for the promises of God. And so our life on earth and in heaven is directly related to the promises of God. All of our life as we know it is simply a fulfilling of what God has promised. But you may be thinking to yourself, well, but I know many people who have no interest in christian things. They have no interest in God. Surely their life is not living the consequence of God’s promises. And I would say from scripture, their life most assuredly is dependent upon the promises of God. But not as you and I would expect.

Do you remember in the Old Testament, God promised Adam and Eve, if they ate of the fruit of the tree, that they would die. And so in their disobedience, death was brought into the world. And so they received the rotted fruit of the promise of God in the form of a curse. Do you remember in the Old Testament when Pharaoh was told that if he would let the people go, that the plagues would stop, but if he did not, that even ultimately his son, his firstborn child, that life would be taken? And God promised that. And Pharaoh lived with a hardened heart. He thought that God certainly would not fulfill that promise until that evening, as the death cloud passed through Egypt, and even the son of Pharaoh, his life is taken. Do you remember Korah in the Old Testament?

Korah, who stood up in pride and arrogance against Moses, and the Lord promised that tomorrow morning you will see who is blessed by the Lord. And upon that mourn, the earth opened up and consumed Korah and all those who had followed him. That was the direct result of the promise of God. Today we live with a long list of lifestyles, people who are disobedient to parents, who are sexually impure, who are liars, who are backbiters. And we say, certainly that has nothing to do with the promises of God, does it? Well, God said that those who would want that style of life, according to romans one, God would give them over to that life. And so their lives are lived unwittingly as a result of the promises of God.

And because they have chosen to live a life in disobedience to God’s blessing and God’s promises, they live perhaps with a wonderful job, with a lot of money, but not happy. Or perhaps they never quite get all the pieces lined up and certainly never sense the blessing of the Lord upon them. Could it be for even the unbeliever that his life is an eloquent statement of God fulfilling his promises? For the Christian, the promises of scripture ought to fill us with thanksgiving, with joy, with hope. For in fact, the scriptures teach not but one or a dozen, not hundreds, but rather thousands of promises that God has promised to give to his people. Are you living your life by the promises of the Lord? Have you claimed those promises? They’re like a blank check book that God gives you.

And he says, open this book and see what is promised. All you must do is sign your name at the bottom and cash it in. Charles Spurgeon wrote an interesting book called Faith’s checkbook, and in it he has listed some 365 promises that are merely illustrative from scripture of the promises of the Lord. He begins that book by saying, a promise of God may very instructively be compared to a check payable to order. It is given to the believer with the view of bestowing upon him some good thing. We are to treat the promise as a reality, as a man treats a check. We are to take the promise and endorse it with our own name. We, by faith are to accept it as our own.

This done, we must believingly present the promise to the Lord as a man presents a check at the counter of the bank. If we come to heaven’s bank at the right day, we will receive the promised amount at once. If the date should happen to be further on, we must patiently wait till its arrival. Suppose you were given a check for a million dollars, and I came over and visited you, and it was a particularly difficult time for you. You’re out of work, and all around you seems to be falling apart, and you’re not able to pay your bills, and you’re wondering how you’re going to feed your family. And as you are telling me about all of these problems there on the coffee table, I notice turned over a check, you say? Oh, yes, that’s a check that has been given to me.

Really? Have you cashed it? No. Are you going to use it? Well, I hope to someday. By not cashing the check, you would be saying that you don’t believe that the check maker is able to make good on what he has said he will give you. And that would be ridiculous in life. But how many christians are there who are living each day as paupers, spiritually speaking, who have never gone to God’s checkbook to find those blessed promises that he says are for you, that we might claim them, that we might use them, that we might cash them in to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ? God wants to give. The God that we follow is a generous God and he desires to fill our needs. But we have not, he says, because we ask not.

And so I might ask you, when was the last time that you prayed over a difficult situation, wondering where the money would come from, where the job will come from, wondering how the Children will be taken care of. Let me ask, have you gone to God who has given you this promise that he will answer your prayer? God, in fact, is a great giver. The story is told of Alexander the Great, who was honouring one of his favorite generals, and he gave him a magnificent gift. The general receiving the gift said, this is too much for me to receive. But the reply of Alexander was, it is not too much for me to give. And sometimes we have the attitude I could not go to God with that request. It’s too big. Why? He’s already saved me.

He has already forgiven me of my sins. He has already prepared for me a place in heaven. And who am I to come into his presence and to ask for more? You have not because you ask not. How much time do you spend privately with the Lord in your prayer closet, asking him to supply the needs? We know about that truth, but how many of us are doing that? I think even the subject of God’s promises makes us suspicious, because we are by nature suspicious of anyone who makes promises. Just turn on the television and there are all manner of promises that man makes to man. If you will simply use oil of Ole, you will beautiful.

And if you will simply join Jack Lalane at his spa while your body will be transformed, or if you would just simply drink this bottle of Geritol, you’ll feel like a young person. It was said of Earl long he was the former governor of Louisiana. He was referred to as a politician who promised the world to anyone who would vote for him. And that by nature, is the type of promise that most of us are used to receiving the promises of man that sometimes are good and sometimes are delinquent. But God is not like man. And the scripture tells us in numbers 20 319, God is not a man that he should lie. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good? The same truth is recorded in one king 8:56.

According to all he promised, there has not failed one word. And so it is God who makes promises to his people, and he promises that he will answer. Now, there are some guidelines to the promises of God, because there have been some who have taken the promises and run wild with them. And there are some words of caution. The first is that we must see that the Bible is an entire unit, and we are not to pluck out a petal from that lovely flower, but we are to understand each petal in relation to the entire plant. And so it is that every verse that we would claim as a promise of the Lord must always be within context. You have heard it said that every text taken out of context is merely a pretext.

And so there are some who just simply pull a verse from here and half a verse from there and construct for themselves some wild promises, but they are out of context. There is great danger in that type of use of God’s word. We must understand the full teaching, the full counsel of God, before we would pull out some promise. You have heard about the woman who received guidance from the Lord by opening the Bible and dropping her finger and pointing at a verse. And this worked for a few weeks, until one day she pointed in her Bible, and there the verse, Judas hanged himself. And she did not like that verse. So she said, I must look for another. And she opened the scripture and her finger fell again to another text, hoping that this would be more to her liking.

And that text said, go and do likewise. Being terribly shocked by this guidance, she then asked God to give special verse. And for the third time, she dropped her finger into the scripture and pointed to the words, what thou doest do quickly. Well, that is not the use of God’s word, nor of his promises, but that they must be seen, first of all, within context. Secondly, we must understand that all of the promises that are in the scripture, all of them have a practical usage, that all of the promises of God’s word have a practical use. They are not simply there for us to pull a truth out and to simply meditate upon it. But the promises of God are related to our everyday living or to the reality of where we will spend eternity. But they are all related to practical use.

Paul, whenever he presents a promise of the Lord, always presents it in relation to a christian responsibility or a duty. For example, in two Corinthians chapter six, he tells us, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit. And this is to prevent the christian life from simply becoming a group of people sitting around daydreaming about promises that are beyond where we live and work. Now there are promises that certainly are related to heaven. Those promises are good for us to remember and to put our hope in. But there are also promises that are related to this life. And all of those promises of the Lord are to have some practical usage in our day to day living.

Also, we need to see that there is a purpose for God’s writing the scripture with so many promises that all of the promises of scripture are there to show us God’s faithfulness. And so God has said to us, I have promises. Do you believe that? Are you following those promises? For I am faithful to answer them. So the christian life is actually two legs. One leg is a leg of faith, the other is a leg of obedience. And so in faith, he says, here is a promise, and then we in obedience are to receive that promise and act upon it. Never is it simply there for faith alone, but always that faith that will then produce obedience. And so the christian lives with faith and obedience. And the purpose of the promises of God are to lead us towards greater obedience.

And so whatever promise you would pull from God’s word, it should be used in obedience. Now, the scope of the promises of God are so broad, why, even nature itself is an eloquent testimony to the promise of God. Did you realize that even the heat of the summer, the snow of the winter, all of the seasons, are simply a result of the promise of God? For it was God who promised Noah in Genesis 822, while the earth remains seed, time and harvest, and cold and heat and winter and summer, day and night shall not cease. And so it is that each year the spring comes bearing nature, that infant in her arms. And as that spring would pass, summer would adorn with a flower that nature.

And then as the cool winds of autumn would blow, the vines would begin to ensnarl around the legs of that infant, until that cold breeze of winter would blow. And God has promised that the seasons will follow one another. Every day you set your alarm to wake up in the morning expecting that the sun will rise. And what is that dependent on? It’s dependent upon the promise of God that he shall never again destroy the world by water. And until the return of his son, day shall follow night, until that day when Christ shall return. And God promises that. And because God promises that, you can be assured that there will be an evening tonight and that you shall wake to the sun unless Jesus should return. For God promises that.

We also see that there are many wonderful promises that God has given to us. One is that your sins may be forgiven. We read in one John 212. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake, that God promises that he will give salvation to anyone who would receive it. He says that these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. God says that for all those who would receive Christ, he has a promise that you can know where you will spend eternity, that your sins are forgiven. And God promises that assurance. But also there is more.

God says that not only will he convert a soul and bring it to his son, but he also says that he will take that person and bring him to completion. And you might think to yourself, well, I’ve become a Christian, but I don’t have it within me to end the course. And that’s true. But God has a promise. That promise is in Philippians one six, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completeness the day of the coming of Jesus Christ. When Carol, my wife, was a little girl, she had the opportunity of meeting Billy Graham and asked if he would put his name in the Bible. And he wrote his name, billy Graham, and a verse, Philippians one six, a promise from the Lord that he will bring to completeness the work that he had begun in her.

Do you know that promise? Do you cling to that promise? Do you love that promise? But perhaps you have said, well, I’ve received Christ, and he began a good work, but I have sinned. And now I can hardly look in the face of Christ, for I seem embarrassed, and I would rather bow my head than to look at him and know that he is faithful and just to forgive your sin and whatever sin that you may have committed, that Christ wants to forgive that sin to begin anew. Have you removed that from the checkbook? Have you signed your name? Have you cashed that promise in to the Lord, perhaps you’re tired. You’re weary. It seems that the affairs of this world have become such a burden. You wonder, how will I survive another day?

Then from the psalms we read, cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee. A wonderful promise. Perhaps you are facing a great trial, an affliction for which you do not understand why it has happened, but you love the Lord Jesus and you’ve trusted him. Then cling to this promise from Romans 828 that all things work together for good. To those who love the Lord and are called according to his purposes. How many Christians who have faced some great tragedy in their life have reached out in the dark and grabbed that promise and held it firm, as it were, by their fingertips? And all that they knew was that God is working his good pleasure? How many christians have clung to that promise, all things for good to those who love the Lord.

Perhaps you are frightened about school, your work, your business, and you feel that you do not have the strength to accomplish all the tasks that are before you. And remember this wonderful promise. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. A wonderful promise, a promise of hope, a promise to claim, a promise for which you and your family should be seeking that strength of the Lord. There are some who face death and are frightened. They say, is there a promise from the Lord? Well, if you go into the cemetery at Princeton, we have there placed a stone. On that stone is the name of Matthew Lawrence Smith. And we thought about it and decided that we would also have upon that stone our name.

And so there it’s a very sobering moment to look at the place where you will lie to see. Kenneth A. Smith, 1947, and nothing filled in for the day of death. Carol S. Smith. A birth date, but no death date, you say, how can that be? Well, at the base of that stone are the words, the dead in Christ shall rise. A blessed promise from the Lord. If you love Jesus Christ, then Paul says, do not fear death. Don’t fear its sting. It has no victory, for you will live eternally with Christ and God himself, with the very seal of his holy spirit stamps upon the heart of every man, woman and child who love him. A wonderful promise that the dead in Christ shall rise.

It was John Bunyan who said, the promises of God are a wonderful rack upon which you can hang a soul. For we ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org. Or send your donation to Princeton ministries, post office box 2171 Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries post office box 2171 Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rone’s web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.