ALL THE PROMISES OF GOD

FIND THEIR YES IN HIM

 

It’s surprising how many people who say they believe

in Jesus believe in a Jesus who always seems to

have them hanging on a cliff. They never know whether

he’s going to come through or not. They’re never sure

whether he’s going to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

 

Sometimes it’s a Jesus who’s way up on top of a high

pedestal. You have to worship him from afar. Every

once-in-a-while, for no particular reason, he lifts

his hand and sends down a blessing. All the rest of

the time.....nothing.

 

Sometimes it’s a Jesus who’s on the other side of a

thick wall of frosted glass. You can dimly make out

the outlines of his face. There’s a telephone hanging

there and you keep dialing numbers; and every

once-in-a-while you get through. You say what’s on

your heart. You hear a few words of his answer, and

then the connection is broken.

 

Sometimes it’s a Jesus dressed in judges robes sitting

at a high bench. When you cry out to him in your need

he begins leafing through a big book and starts shak-

ing his head. Maybe one time out of a hundred he nods

‘Yes’ and things start happening in your favor.

 

Now listen to Paul describe Jesus in 2nd Corinthians

1:19—20:

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom

we preached among you, Silvanus, Timothy

and I, was not Yes and No; but in Him

it is always Yes, For all the promises

of God find their Yes in Him.

 

Notice the difference between this Jesus and the vague

ambivalent Jesus so many people believe in.

 

Not ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.

Always ‘Yes’.

 

When the sick came to Jesus for help did he ever say

‘No’? When His disciples asked him a question, did he

ever turn his back and walk away? Did Mary have to dance

a jig to get him to turn the water into wine?

 

The Jesus who died outside Jerusalem on that Cross and

rose on the third day and is now King of Kings and Lord

of Lords,

 

- never keeps you dangling.

 

- never turns away indifferently from the

cry of your heart.

 

- never makes you hang on the edge of the

cliff wondering whether it’s going to

be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

 

Until the day of Grace comes to an end the answer of Jesus

to the cries of our hearts for help, is always ‘Yes’.

And when Jesus says, ‘Yes’ it’s not just a word --- it’s

life! Something happens. Light appears where their was

darkness!

 

When Jesus says, ‘Yes’ the Holy Spirit of God visits the

person to whom he says ‘Yes’. The Holy Spirit is Jesus’

‘Yes’ to us,

 

All through the Book of Acts wherever you see the Spirit

coming to believers,

 

- moving them with power,

- opening their eyes to truth,

- guiding them,

- correcting them,

 

This is Jesus who is Lord over this earth saying, ‘Yes’

to the people who are turning their hearts toward God.

Jesus says ‘Yes’ to their heart cries and the Spirit comes.

 

On Pentecost from the right hand of the Father, Jesus says

‘Yes’ to the God-thirst of his disciples and suddenly

strange things start happening in the house where they are

sitting. They are filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

Three days after Saul of Tarsus is struck down by the

glory of Jesus outside Damascus and has been groping

in blindness and is weak from the lack of food and

drink, Ananias comes in, lays his hands on Saul’s

head and says,

 

"Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared

to you on the road by which you came has

sent me that you may regain your sight and

be filled with the Holy Spirit."

 

This was Jesus’ ‘Yes’ to a penitent broken man’s

crying heart.

 

In Chapter 10 of Acts, a Roman centurian named

Cornelius who fears God, gives alms liberally, and

prays to God constantly is visited by an angel in a

vision who tells him to send to Joppa for one Simon

called Peter. Peter comes and tells that house full

of people about Jesus. While Peter is still talking

the Holy Spirit falls on all who are listening. This

is Jesus’ ‘Yes’ to Cornelius and his house.

 

- Jesus is not up on a giant pedestal.

 Jesus is not walled away behind frosted glass.

- Jesus is not on that judge’s bench.

 

He is closer to us right now than our own beating

hearts. He is in this room. He is here to confirm

with a mighty ’Yes’ the message

 

- that he died on the Cross for our sins,

- that our sins are washed away in His blood,

- that He has redeemed us from death and the

power of the devil.

 

He is here to answer ‘Yes’ to every heart that cries

out to him for forgiveness and for power to walk in

the way of God by filling the emptiness within you

with the Holy Spirit.

 

And when He fills this emptiness within you with the

Spirit of God, you know it --- you don’t just feel it,

you know it. You know that ---

 

- God has come to dwell in the temple of your body.

- God has come to teach you from within

to walk that new road.

- God has come to give you victory where

you were defeated before.

 

Your eyes open as Paul’s eyes opened and you begin to see.

Especially do you begin to see when you open scripture.

It’s no longer boring and hard to understand. It shines

with glory. Mysteries become plain before your eyes.

Your heart opens. The Spirit of God teaches you to pray.

You begin to pray as you never prayed in your life to a

God who listens to every word. Your mouth opens and you

begin to speak as the Spirit gives you utterance. Your

tongue is loosed, You speak the word of Jesus and the

name of Jesus without shame or fear.

 

 

But the ‘Yes’ of Jesus to the cries of our hearts has to

be answered by a ‘Yes’ on our part. Jesus doesn’t give

you the Holy Spirit to make you feel good. The Holy

Spirit is not a feeling. The Holy Spirit is a Person.

 

- He speaks.

- He guides.

- He corrects.

- He teaches.

- He shows us everything Jesus wants

Him to show us.

- He lifts us up and comforts us and

gives us power, utterance, wisdom.

 

But we have to respond with our wills to the things the

Spirit shows us,

- He won’t make you go in a direction

you don’t want to go,

- He won’t make you do something you

don’t want to do.

The Spirit will speak to you or give you a nudge. Then

it’s up to you to say ‘Yes’.

 

- You have to go along with Him.

- You have to start obeying what He’s

showing you. Then the power comes.

 

The Spirit clearly tells me to love this particular

person that I haven’t been loving. Then I have to say

‘Yes'. I have to start loving that person and as I

do I get the power. The love of God is shed abroad

in my heart by the Holy Ghost.

 

Here’s a man who’s been a skin-flint all his life.

At an hour of desperation he repents and cries to

Jesus for forgiveness. Jesus says "Yes", forgives

him, pours out His Spirit upon this man, and the

man is filled with joy and praise.

 

But after the honeymoon is over the Spirit begins

to deal with the man’s habits --- his way of living.

 

"You must stop being a skin-flint."

 

Now it’s the man’s turn to say ‘Yes, I will obey you,

I will open my heart." But instead of this the man

says, with his living if not with his mouth, "No, I

don’t want to change. I will continue to be a skinflint."

 

The man goes to Bible Studies and believers’ meetings

and conventions and retreats boasting of all the gifts

of the Spirit he has --- but he’s still a skin-flint.

And people who have to deal with him can’t help but

see that he’s still a skin—flint. He can talk about

miracles and signs and wonders all he likes; all they

see is a stingy man.

 

This is what Paul is getting at when he says,

 

"If we live by the Spirit, let us

also walk by the Spirit."

 

If the Spirit has come as Jesus’ ‘Yes’ to us to make

us alive then we’d better say ‘Yes’ to him and do what

he says. If we don’t say ‘Yes’ to the Spirit in our

living,

- the way we treat our wives and husbands

and children,

- the way we handle our money,

- the way we deal with people,

- what we do about prejudice and bigotry

and hatred in our own heart,

if we don’t obey the

Spirit in these areas no matter how many gifts of the

Spirit we were given we are sowing to the flesh and we

will reap corruption.

 

Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for

whatever a man sows, that he will also

reap. For he who sows to the flesh shall

from the flesh reap corruption; but he

who sows to the Spirit will from the

Spirit reap eternal life.

 

And to sow to the Spirit is to say ‘Yes’ to the Spirit

as he guides us to do God’s holy, loving will in our

actual day-by-day living.

 

When the Spirit tells us to love,

to speak the truth,

to keep our eye single and

pure, we do it!

 

We hear so much these days about the gifts of the Spirit.

And it’s true, the gifts of the Spirit for power and

utterance and wisdom are necessary, if we are going to

do the job. But these gifts are useless to the man or

woman who isn’t walking in the Spirit in daily life.

 

Walk in the Spirit and you won’t fulfill

the lust of the flesh.

 

Yield to the Spirit of God as he guides

you to practice the love of God right

down there where you are. Then the Spirit

can use you.

 

The power to live a godly life, the power to literally

follow in the steps of Jesus, is with us at this moment.

To every soul who cries out for this power, the answer

of the Son of God is ‘Yes’ and the Spirit enters us with

life from Heaven.

 

One question:

 

Are you as ready to say ‘Yes’ to the

Spirit who goes with you as you leave

this place today as Jesus was ready to

say ‘Yes’ to you when you cried for

help?

 

Will it be Yes,

 

- when the Spirit says ‘"Forgive that man",

- when the Spirit says "Listen to that

woman’s complaint",

- when the Spirit says "Give to that person

in need",

- when the Spirit says "No self conceit, no

provoking of your brother, no envy."

 

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we

preached among you, Silvanus, and Timothy,

and I, was not Yes and No; but in Him it

is always Yes. For all the promises of God

find their Yes in Him.

 

God help us to answer Him with as consistent a ‘Yes’

in our day-to-day living as the ‘Yes’ He now gives

us, as we open our hearts........

 

 

 

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