The Promises of God

The Preciousness of the Promises

The promises of God are to the believer an inexhaustible mine of wealth. Happy is it for him if he knows how to search out their secret veins, and enrich himself with their hid treasures. They are an armory, containing all manner of offensive and defensive weapons. Blessed is he who has learned to enter into the sacred arsenal, to put on the breastplate and the helmet, and to lay his hand to the spear and to the sword. They are a surgery, in which the believer will find all manner of restoratives and blessed elixirs; nor lacks there an ointment for every wound, a cordial for every faintness, a remedy for every disease. Blessed is he who is well skilled in heavenly pharmacy, and knoweth how to lay hold on the healing virtues of the promises of God. The promises are to the Christian a storehouse of food. They are as the granaries which Joseph built in Egypt, or as the golden pot wherein the manna was preserved. Blessed is he who can take the five barley loaves and fishes of promise, and break them till his five thousand necessities shall all be supplied, and he is able to gather up baskets full of fragments. The promises are the Christian's Magna Charta of liberty; they are the title deeds of his heavenly estate. Happy is he who knoweth how to read them well, and call them all his own. Yea, they are the jewel room in which the Christian's crown treasures are preserved. The regalia are his, secretly to admire to-day, which he shall openly wear in Paradise hereafter. He is already privileged as a king with the silver key that unlocks the strong room; he may even now grasp the sceptre, wear the crown, and put upon his shoulders the imperial mantle. O, how unutterably rich are the promises of our faithful, covenant-keeping God! If we had the tongue of the mightiest of orators, and if that tongue could be touched with a live coal from off the altar, yet still it could not utter a tenth of the praises of the exceeding great and precious promises of God. Nay, they who have entered into rest, whose tongues are attuned to the lofty and rapturous eloquence of cherubim and seraphim, even they can never tell the height and depth, the length and breadth of the unsearchable riches of Christ, which are stored up in the treasure-house of God—the promises of the covenant of His grace.

He hath Said

The apostles, like their Master, were always very ready at quotations. As inspired men they could have always used fresh words, yet they preferred (and herein they are an example to us) to quote old words upon which the seal of divine authority has been set aforetime—"He hath said." Let us do the same, for, though the words of ministers may be sweet, the words of God are sweeter; and though original thoughts may have the charm of novelty, yet the ancient words of God have the ring, and the weight, and the value of old and precious coins, and they will never be found wanting in the day when we require to use them. "He hath said," not only chases away doubts and fears, but it also yields nourishment to all our graces. When the apostle would make us contented, he says, "Be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said;" and when he would make us bold and courageous, he puts it thus forcibly, "He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." So that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." When the apostle Paul would nourish faith, he does it by feeding us from Scripture with the examples of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, of Gideon, of Barak, and of Jephthah. When another apostle would calm us with a lesson of patience, he says, "Ye have heard of the patience of Job;" or if it be our prayerfulness that he wants to stir up, he says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed and prevailed." "He hath said," is refreshing food for every grace, and a decisive death-blow for every sin. Here you have nourishment for that which is good, and poison for that which is evil. Search, then, the Scriptures, for so shall you grow healthy, strong, and vigorous in the divine life.

But besides searching them by reading, and treasuring them by memory, we should test them by experience, and so often as a promise is proven to be true, we should make a mark against it, and note that we also can say, as did one of old, "This is my comfort in my affliction; for Thy word hath quickened me." "Wait on the Lord," said Isaiah, and then he added, "Wait, I say, on the Lord," as if his own experience led him to echo the voice of God to his hearers. Test the promise; take God's bank-note to the counter, and mark if it be cashed. Grasp the lever which he ordains to lift your trials, and try if it possesses real power. Cast this divine tree into the bitter waters of your Marah, and learn how it will sweeten them. Take this salt, and throw it into the turbid waters, and witness if they be not made sweet, as were the waters of old by the prophet Elisha. "Taste and see that the Lord is good ... for there is no want to them that fear Him."

Inexhaustible Promises

God's promises are not exhausted when they are fulfilled, for when once performed, they stand just as good as they did before, and we may wait a second accomplishment of them. Man's promises, even at the best, are like a cistern which holds but a temporary supply; but God's promises are as a fountain, never emptied, ever overflowing, so you may draw from them the whole measure of that which they apparently contain, and they shall be still as full as ever.

Obtaining Promises

God sometimes gives His people fresh promises "by faith," just before a trial is about to come upon them. It was so with Elijah. God said to him, "Go to the brook Cherith; behold, I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." This was at the beginning of the famine. There he abode, and God fulfilled the promise, for by faith Elijah had obtained it. Acting upon faith, still dependent upon God, he abides at Cherith, and as the result of this faith, God gives him a fresh promise, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath—I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." The faith which received the first promise, obtained the honor of a second. So with us. If we have had a little promise, and up till now have realized it; if we have lived upon it and made it the stay and support of our souls, surely God will give us another and a greater one. And so, from promise to promise speeding our way, we shall find the promises to be rounds of the ladder which Jacob saw, the top whereof shall reach to heaven. Doubt and be distrustful about the promise which you have, and you cannot expect God to increase His revelation to your soul. Be afraid and unbelieving about that promise which was laid to your heart yesterday, and you shall not have a new one to-morrow. But act in simple faith upon what God has already given you, and you shall go from strength to strength, receiving grace upon grace, and promise upon promise. The Spirit of God shall whisper into your soul some promise which shall come home with as much power as though an angel from heaven had spoken it to you, and you shall "through faith" obtain promises which before were beyond your reach.

Promises and Precepts

If thou wouldst have the promises fulfilled to thee, look to it that thou dost comply with the precept annexed to the promise. Follow the example of Moses. Moses knew that there was a promise given to the people of Israel, that they should be the world's blessing; but in order to obtain it, it was necessary that he should practise self-denial, therefore he "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." If the promise commands thee to deny thyself, thou canst not obtain it without. Do it, and thou shalt have its fulfilment. Or suppose that the promise requires courage—use courage. Or does the promise require obedience—be obedient. Remember how Rahab hung out from her window the scarlet line, because that was the test of her faith. So do thou. Whatsoever Christ hath said unto thee, do it. Neglect no command, however trivial it may seem. Do what thy Master tells thee, asking no questions, for he is an ill servant who questions his Lord's command. Doubtless thou too, like the Ethiopian eunuch, shalt go on thy way rejoicing when thou hast been obedient. Or is the promise made to those who bear "a good report" of the land? Remember, Caleb and Joshua were the only two who obtained the promise, because they alone honored God. So do thou honor God. Let a scoffing world hear thine unvarying testimony that thy God is good and true. Let not thy groanings and thy murmurings make men suspect that thou hast a hard master, and that His servants have no joys, no comforts, no delights. Let it be known that He whom thou servest is no Egyptian task-master; His yoke is easy; His service pleasure, His reward unspeakable. "Them that honor Me, I will honor." Be thou careful to obey the precepts, and God will fulfil to thee the promises.